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(CNN) -- Ferrari's Felipe Massa remains in a stable condition in hospital on Sunday after fracturing his skull in two places during a freak accident in Saturday's qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

A Ferrari statement read: "After undergoing an operation yesterday afternoon, Felipe Massa's condition remains stable and there were no further complications through the night.

"He will be given another CT scan today which will provide more precise information."

The 28-year-old was struck by a spring -- which can weigh anything up to a kilogram -- that had worked loose from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP during the middle 15-minute period of the qualifying session.

The spring was seen bouncing along the Hungaroring track before flying over the front of Massa's Ferrari that was travelling at 170mph, striking the Brazilian on the helmet just over his left eye.

Massa appeared to be knocked unconscious, with his right foot jamming down on the throttle as he drove straight into a tire barrier.

Stricken in the car, photographs emerged showing a fist-sized dent in his helmet, and with the visor up, there was a large cut over a blackened left eye.

Massa was initially treated at the circuit's medical center before being taken by helicopter to Budapest's AEK military hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.

A Ferrari official later described the operation as a "success". It is now hoped the brain scan will confirm Massa is en route to recovery.

(CNN) -- On July 23, 1969, as Apollo 11 hurtled back towards Earth, there was a problem -- a problem only a kid could solve.

It sounds like something out of a movie, but that's what it came down to as Apollo 11 sped back towards Earth after landing on the moon in 1969.

It was around 10:00 at night on July 23, and 10-year-old Greg Force was at home with his mom and three brothers. His father, Charles Force, was at work. Charles Force was the director of the NASA tracking station in Guam, where the family was living.

The Guam tracking station was to play a critical role in the return of Apollo 11 to Earth. A powerful antenna there connected NASA communications with Apollo 11, and the antenna was the only way for NASA to make its last communications with the astronauts before splashdown. But at the last minute on that night, a bearing in the antenna failed, rendering it nearly useless.

To properly replace the bearing would have required dismantling the entire antenna, and there was simply no time. So Charles Force thought of a creative solution: If he could get more grease around the failed bearing, it would probably be fine. The only problem was, nobody at the station had an arm small enough to actually reach in through the two-and-a-half inch opening and pack grease around the bearing.

And that's when Greg was called in to save the day. Charles Force sent someone out to his home to pick up Greg. Once at the tracking station, Greg reached into the tiny hole and packed grease around the failed bearing. It worked, and the station was able to successfully complete its communications role in the mission. Apollo 11 splashed down safely the next day.

At the time, Greg didn't think what he was doing was a big deal, and 40 years later, he's still modest about his role in the mission.

"That's all I did, was put my hand in and put grease on it," he says. If he hadn't been there, NASA would not have been able to make its last communications with the mission before splashdown, but Greg says "it wasn't life or death, [from] my understanding."

"My dad explained to me why it was important," he says, "but it kind of caught me by surprise afterwards, all the attention." iReport.com: Read Greg's firsthand account

That attention came from the media and even the astronauts themselves. Greg's small but important part in Apollo 11 was a story told by news outlets around the world. He even got a nice thank-you note from Neil Armstrong, whom he met when Armstrong went on a tour of NASA stations with the other astronauts to thank the staff after the mission. "To Greg," reads the note, which Armstrong wrote on a newspaper clipping of Greg's story, "with thanks for your help on Apollo 11. Neil Armstrong."

Perhaps not surprisingly, like many other kids who grew up during the Apollo era, Greg dreamed of becoming an astronaut. He says he remembers visiting his dad's office to listen to astronauts communicating with NASA officials on the ground.

"We could sit and listen to the actual communication with the astronauts as it was happening, and it was hard to understand, but I loved to do that," he says. "On Guam we didn't have good television coverage, so I think I listened to the [moon] landing on the radio. To me it was a huge thing."

Greg pursued his dreams of space exploration all the way through college, where he majored in physics. Unfortunately, he was unable to pass the vision test for the space program because of his colorblindness, but even that couldn't squelch his interest. Greg went on to get his pilot's license, and even though his career now as a gymnastics school owner isn't exactly space-related, he says that "ever since then, I've followed the space program."

And as a lover of space exploration, Greg hopes to see more missions to the moon.

"I think it would be an important step as far as going further, like to Mars," he says. "I would love to see us go back to the moon."

But for now, on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, he can remember the small but crucial role he played in bringing Apollo 11 home safely.

"It kind of caught me by surprise," he says, "but I'm real proud to have been even a little tiny part of it." iReport.com: See more photos of Greg with his father and Armstrong

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Authorities will investigate an Illinois cemetery after a bone found on the ground there was determined to be human, a sheriff's spokesman said Saturday.

On Friday, a worker dropping off vaults at Mt. Glenwood Cemetery, in Glenwood, Illinois, noticed a bone lying on the ground, Cook County sheriff's office spokesman Steve Patterson said in an e-mail.

The bone was located in an area where vaults, old headstones and other cemetery materials are stored, Patterson said.

The worker contacted authorities and the bone was taken to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, which determined that it was human, Patterson said.

"Based on that information, the sheriff's police will now start an investigation, which will include interviewing those working at the cemetery, among others," he wrote.

"I don't know whether this is a sign of a greater problem or if there is a valid reason why this bone was found where it was."

The discovery comes days after three people filed a lawsuit against the cemetery alleging "unauthorized tampering with grave sites, including the apparent removal of a headstone," according to a court document posted on the Chicago Tribune's Web site.

Attempts to reach the cemetery for comment were not successful.

Patterson acknowledged the lawsuit, which was filed in the Cook County Circuit Court on Monday, but said he did not "know if there is a correlation between the civil suit and this bone."

He said there was no reason for authorities to close the cemetery.

Additional details on the bone were not immediately available.

Earlier this month, authorities said workers at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, dug up hundreds of graves and resold them.

Four people face felony charges for their alleged involvement.

(CNN) -- Days after the U.S. government announced upcoming trials for an H1N1 flu vaccine, Saint Louis University has been inundated with phone calls and e-mails from people volunteering for the study.

The university's Center for Vaccine Development has received more than 500 responses from potential volunteers since Wednesday, when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced human trials for a swine flu vaccine would begin in early August.

"This response has been exceptionally strong," Nancy Solomon, a spokeswoman for the university's medical center, told CNN Radio. "We haven't had that strong of a response to our call for volunteers since we conducted our small pox vaccine research after September 11."

Thousands of Americans are currently being recruited for swine flu vaccine testing at several research centers across the country, including Saint Louis University's Center for Vaccine Development.

"The federal government comes to us when they need a quick response to test the safety and efficacy of vaccines," Solomon said.

Other trial sites include the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore; Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, Washington; The University of Iowa in Iowa City; and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

They will be joined by Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri; Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina; and IPS Research in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Most of the human trials are being funded by the National Institutes of Health.

In an effort to deliver the vaccine to those who will need it most by October, the clinical trials will enroll as many as 1,000 adults and children, according to officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the NIH, which will lead the effort.

The trials will measure the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

The research is a first step toward U.S. health officials' goal of developing a safe and effective vaccine against H1N1, also known as swine flu, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.

After careful screening, volunteers will be inoculated and asked to keep a diary on how they feel. After eight days their blood will be checked. After 21 days they will receive another dose, followed again by diary logs and blood tests.

Patients will be monitored two months for safety issues, followed by a four-month and six-month checkup.

"The purpose of these trials is always to make sure they are safe," said Dr. Karen Kotloff, professor of pediatrics and lead investigator and researcher at Maryland's Center for Vaccine Development. "But even after six weeks, if things look good, we're pretty sure the vaccine will work."

At last count, the CDC said there are 43,771 H1N1 reported cases in the U.S., along with 302 deaths that have been linked to the illness.

In a normal flu season, about 36,000 Americans die from influenza and related complications.

Models predict the 2009 H1N1 flu will peak in October, with many cases being diagnosed in September, according to Dr. Robert Belshe, director of Saint Louis University's Center for Vaccine Development.

"We'll be in the midst of it before we know it," Belshe said.

Swine flu could sicken one in five people this fall, and Belshe said he worries that the number of serious health complications and deaths as a result of the H1N1 virus could soar.

"It's looking more and more like we're going to have a big flu outbreak this fall as soon as the kids get back to school," Belshe told CNN Radio.

"Influenza is unpredictable, but I believe this pandemic will hit pre-teens, teens and their parents hard, and as many as 60 million Americans could be sick with the flu. It's critical that we find a way to protect people from this disease."

(CNN) -- Search teams combing the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona found a body on Saturday believed to be that of a missing 20-year-old hiker, the National Park Service said.

Bryce Gillies, a student at Northern Arizona University, left last Saturday for his backpacking trip through the Deer Creek-Thunder River area of the park, and said he would return on Monday. A search effort was launched on Tuesday after he was reported missing.

Some 50 National Park Service volunteers and staffers from Grand Canyon and nearby parks joined in the search. One search team found a body in the Bonita Creek area on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. (7:30 a.m. ET) that "has been presumptively identified" as Gillies, according to NPS.

"The body will be recovered by helicopter via long-line operation and transferred to the Coconino County Medical Examiner," NPS said.

It is the second death this month at Grand Canyon National Park, a world-famous landmark that receives about 5 million visitors yearly.

A California man drove his car over the edge of canyon's South Rim, plunging some 600 feet into the ravine. His July 13 death was ruled a suicide.

More than 100 hikers have died at the park between 1925 and 2006, half of them fatal falls, according to Michael Ghiglieri and Thomas Myers, authors of "Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon."

(CNN) -- John Reid, a retired businessman, came home from a Caribbean cruise a few years ago with an infected toe as a souvenir. As a diabetic, he knew it was serious, so he went to the emergency room near his home in New York City. There, he says, the first doctor he saw ordered an immediate amputation, scheduling him for surgery right then and there.

Horrified, he argued with the doctor, insisting there had to be a way to avoid lopping off his toe. "You'd better bring the head doctor in here," he said.

Reid says the more senior doctor prescribed a long-term regimen of intravenous antibiotics and physical therapy -- a treatment much more expensive and time-consuming than an amputation -- and saved his toe.

Reid, who is African-American, firmly believes that if he'd been a white man, the junior doctor wouldn't have been so quick to order the cheaper and more drastic solution over his objections.

"I think it was very disrespectful. As a matter of fact, I think she was looking down on me," he said. "She just decided that, this guy was a minority [and] we're going to do whatever we feel like doing without consulting you."

Reid says he thinks the young doctor assumed he wasn't smart enough to think through a medical decision. "She just felt like minorities are all the same -- they don't know anything, they're not intelligent, they're not educated," says Reid, a retired real estate agent who once ran his own business with nearly two dozen employees. "If she had known my background, I don't think she would have treated me that way." Watch more on doctors' possible biases »

CNN contacted the hospital but Montefiore Medical Center refused to discuss his case.

Studies show blacks and whites are treated differently

While it's extremely difficult to tell in any given situation how much race -- consciously or subconsciously -- plays a role in a doctor's decision making, multiple studies over several decades have found doctors make different decisions for black patients and white patients even when they have the same medical problems and the same insurance.

"It's absolutely proven through studies that a black man and a white man going to the hospital with the same complaint will be treated differently," Dr. Neil Calman, a family physician and president of the Institute for Family Health in New York, said. Calman is also Reid's regular physician.

For example, a 2005 study found African-American cardiac patients were less likely than whites to receive a lifesaving procedure called revascularization, where doctors restore the flow of oxygen to the heart. The study authors at RTI International, a research institute, noted that all of the patients had Medicare, which covers the cost of revascularization.

In a study conducted in 2007, Harvard researchers showed doctors a vignette about a 50-year-old man with chest pain who arrived at the emergency room, where an EKG showed he'd had a heart attack. Sometimes the researchers paired the medical history with a photo of black man and other times with a photo of a white man.

The doctors were significantly more likely to recommend lifesaving drugs when they thought the patient was white than when they thought the patient was black.

Is it racism or something else?

"Racism in health care is a common experience of people of color," Calman recently wrote on his blog.

But he said disparities in medical care are about much more than race. "[Race] is one very important factor in why people get bad medical care," he wrote. "So is poor education, poverty and lack of insurance."

Dr. Cornelius Flowers, a cardiologist at the Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, Georgia, agrees there are several reasons for racial disparities in medicine.

"It's about respect. If a patient is of a low socioeconomic status, a doctor might think, why do I need to go out of my way for this guy? I'll just do the minimum I have to do and send him on his way," Flowers says.

He adds that sometimes African-American patients don't insist on quality care.

"Back in the 1950s and 60s, hospitals in places like Atlanta had a black side and a white side, and the care for blacks was second rate," he says. "People who remember those days still consider themselves second-class citizens, and a lot of times they allow people to treat them that way."

Flowers said times are changing; younger minority patients are more likely to insist on good care, he says.

"Younger people demand better. Younger people demand more," he says.

Studies also show that doctors can be biased against patients because of their body size.

A study out this week from researchers at the New York University School of Medicine found more than 40 percent of the doctors surveyed had a negative reaction to obese people.

"The lesson learned is, I tell people all the time to seek a doctor who will care about you," Flowers says. "If you feel like you have a doctor who isn't genuinely concerned about you, just get another doctor next time."

MANILA - A total of 32,617 out of 77,901 passed the nurse licensure exams held in various cities of the country last June 2009. (Click here for complete list of passers)

Golda Manto Yap of Felipe Verallo Memorial Foundation got the highest score at 86.8%.

She was followed by Ronie Rose Capati Arevalo of Adamson University at 86.4%.

Michelle Alejandro Barberan of Arellano University Manila was third at 86.2%.

Tied at fourth were Caroline May Rellosa Chamen of Philippine College of Health and Sciences, and Clarissa Leonor Tible Escober of Naga College Foundation at 86%.

Three students of UST--Marco Magtulis Dometita, Margaret Cheung Encarnacion, and Marc Bago-Od Marzan--were tied at fifth with Lalaine Lim Perlas of Our Lady of Fatima University Valenzuela. They all got 85.8%.

The Professional Regulation Commission on Saturday released the results of the exams that were held in Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, Sulu, Pagadian, and Zamboanga.

The top schools with 100 and more examinees were:

1) St. Paul University;
2) Chinese General Hospital College of Nursing and Liberal Arts; St. Louis University; Trinity University of Asia (Trinity -QC); University of Santo Tomas;West Visayas State University-La Paz;
3) University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center.

MANILA -- Education officials on Saturday announced the cancellation of classes in all levels in Metro Manila on Monday, July 27 in anticipation of President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address and Iglesia Ni Cristo’s grand anniversary.

Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Emmanuel Angeles told radio dzMM they had decided to cancel classes on Monday due to the traffic that will be caused by the 95th celebration of the Iglesia ni Cristo.

“Inaasahan natin ang mga taga Iglesia ni Cristo from provinces na pumunta sa Manila for their anniversary, so malamang na magkaroon ng problema sa trapiko,” Angeles said in an interview over dzMM.

Angeles said the cancellation is only for schools in Metro Manila.

Meanwhile, Teresita Domalanta, National Capital Region chief of the Department of Education also announced the suspension of classes in the elementary and secondary levels.

“Dahil po sa dalawang malaking okasyon sa darating na Lunes, nagpasya kaming isuspindi muna ang klase,” she said.

President Arroyo is scheduled to deliver her 9th and last State of the Nation Address at 4 p.m.

Activists have also organized various anti-SONA protests which will culminate on Monday.

Earlier, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) and San Sebastian College-Recoletos Manila announced the suspension of their classes.

According to a media advisory sent by the PUP Public Affairs Office, the suspension of classes applies to all its campuses and branches all over the country.

“PUP President Dante Guevarra wants the politically-oriented and socially aware PUP students to have the once in a lifetime opportunity to listen to the great speech of the President of the Philippines,” the advisory stated.

For its part, San Sebastian said demonstrators are expected to converge near their front gate at Legarda corner C.M. Recto.

"This convergence may possibly bring an unfavorable scenario that may endanger the students, teachers and employees of SSC-R Manila," the school said.

as of 07/25/2009 8:05 PM

The plucky kid with the pod racer from "Star Wars: Episode I" is not a kid anymore. And Jake Lloyd wants you to know that having a major role in a George Lucas film really put a damper on things when he was growing up.

OK, fine: The guy doesn't really deserve our pity, but think of it from his point of view. Ten years old, getting blamed for ruining the Star Wars series. (Well, that was mainly the fault of George Lucas, but the kid was there, wasn't he?) And people just won't let it go. The Sci-Fi Australia blog caught up with the glum "Star Wars" alum Down Under, who sounds more Eeyore than "Episode One."

While every word drips with sarcasm (he is 20, after all) the Anakin actor also can still speak geek. On college: "You'll never find more intelligent, charming people than the drunk students of the college world." 'Nuff said.

Hey, Jake, don't worry: We know how you feel. Jar Jar Binks pretty much ruined the whole Star Wars thing for us, too.

Here's the video of the interview.

(CNN) -- Human rights supporters in dozens of cities around the world plan to rally Saturday to show solidarity with Iranians seeking democracy and civil rights, one of the organizing groups said.

United4Iran said it expects protests at Iranian embassies and other sites to condemn the Iranian government's violent response to citizens who claim the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was fraudulent.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets after the election, and many were met with brutality from security forces that resulted in death or serious injuries.

Some protesters were arrested and put in jail, where they remain despite pleas by families and friends.

"These acts are a direct assault on the Iranian people's human and civil rights -- and those of everyone who supports these ideals around the world," United4Iran said on its Web site.

The organization describes itself as a nonpartisan collaborative of individuals and human rights organizations with no political agenda. Send your iReports from Saturday's rallies

"Our only aim is to condemn the widespread and systematic violations of the Iranian people's human rights and to call for full restoration of their human and civil rights," the group says.

United4Iran says other sponsors of the Saturday rallies include the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and native Iranian Shirin Ebadi, Amnesty International, and Reporters without Borders.

The U.S. State Department's latest report on human rights practices in Iran, published in 2006, said, "the government's poor human rights record" had "worsened."

Among the problems listed in that report are "severe restriction of the right of citizens to change their government peacefully; unjust executions after reportedly unfair trials; disappearances; torture and severe officially sanctioned punishments such as death by stoning; flogging; excessive use of force against demonstrators," and violence and legal discrimination against women, minorities, and homosexuals.

The State Department report also cited "incitement to anti-Semitism."

Many Arab organizations, including the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, and Committees for the Defense of Democracy Freedom and Human Rights in Syria, have banded together to support Iranians, according to United4Iran.

"We, the undersigned human rights organizations and advocates from the Arab region, express our utter condemnation of all forms of brutal repression undertaken by the Iranian authorities against large masses of the Iranian people involved in peaceful demonstrations and protests against the course and outcome of the Iranian presidential elections," the groups say on the United4Iran Web site.

United4Iran said it wants U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon to send a delegation to Iran to investigate the fate of political prisoners; the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, including journalists; an end to state-sponsored violence; freedom of the press and Iran's adherence to international agreements it has signed.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- There were 100,000 new cases of swine flu in England last week, nearly double the number from the previous seven days, authorities announced Friday.

Children 14 or younger were those predominantly affected, with those older than 65 showing much lower rates, the Department of Health said in its weekly swine flu update.

Most cases continue to be mild, the department said, but a small minority are severe.

The last weekly update showed 55,000 new cases. There is no figure for the week before that, but for the week ended July 3, there were 2,798 new cases. There were 1,442 new cases the week before that, according to department figures.

The Department of Health obtained the data from doctor's offices that report their consultations for flu-like or other acute respiratory illnesses. It said consultation rates at doctor's offices had risen sharply in the past week.

There are 840 patients hospitalized with swine flu in England, the department said.

The number of deaths related to swine flu is 26. That figure is the same as the week before, because some unrelated deaths were removed from the tally and others were added, the department said.

The death toll accounts for the number of people with swine flu who died, rather than the number of deaths solely attributable to swine flu, the department said.

Britain launched a service Thursday to give people advice about swine flu over the Internet and over the phone, and allow them to get antiviral medication if they show symptoms.

In its first day of operation, the Web site experienced unprecedented demand, the department said, with 2,600 hits per second, or 9.3 million hits per hour. Watch how Web site was overwhelmed »

The site did not crash, the department said, but it had to ask Internet service provider BT to quadruple capacity.

Workers at the call centers are not medical professionals, but are trained to ask callers a series of questions about their symptoms.

If a caller has symptoms, he gets a unique access number and is told where the nearest antiviral collection point is. He is then advised to ask a friend or relative -- a "flu friend" -- to pick up the medication for him.

The government advises people who suspect they have swine flu not to go to their doctor or an emergency room unless their condition worsens or lasts a long time, or if they are pregnant, have a child younger than 1, or have a serious underlying illness.

"The National Pandemic Flu Service will give patients access to information and antivirals as quickly as possible," Health Secretary Andy Burnham said. "It will free up (doctors) so they can focus their efforts on helping those in at risk groups and patients with other illnesses."

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- An Indian judge Friday allowed prosecutors to summon five foreigners, including FBI agents, to testify in connection with the Mumbai terror trial.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told CNN that the identities of the witnesses would not be disclosed.

Prosecutors have argued that they need time to examine more witnesses despite confession of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the alleged gunman captured alive from last year's Mumbai's terror assaults.

The judge has accepted Kasab's dramatic guilty plea, but has declined to pronounce the verdict, allowing the trial to go on at least until all evidence is complete.

Prosecutors insist that examination of more witnesses would help them shed light on why foreigners -- among others -- were targeted in the November siege.

Kasab is one of 10 Pakistani nationals who police said unleashed terror on India's financial capital for four days and three nights, beginning November 26. The other suspects were killed during the attacks.

Police said the gunmen killed more than 160 people, including many foreigners, as they laid siege on buildings such as the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, Mumbai's historic Victoria Terminus train station and the Jewish cultural center, Chabad House.

Authorities said Kasab, 21, was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a militant group which was banned in Pakistan in 2002 after an attack on India's parliament. The group denied responsibility.

(CNN) -- In an unusual step, NASA scientists interrupted testing of the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope to aim the orbiter's camera at Jupiter and capture an image of the planet's mysterious new scar.

The resulting picture, taken Thursday, is the sharpest visible-light photo of the dark spot and Hubble's first science observation since astronauts repaired and upgraded it in May, NASA said.

Earth-based telescopes have been trained on Jupiter since an amateur astronomer in Australia noticed the new mark, probably created when a small comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrated, early Monday.

But in its rarified orbit 347 miles above the Earth, the Hubble has a better view of the gaseous planet.

This week's event marks only the second time scientists have recorded debris colliding with Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun and the largest in our solar system. The appearance of the impact spot is changing day to day in the planet's cloud tops, making it a priority for scientists to document it quickly.

Although the Hubble is not expected to resume full operations until late summer and its new camera is still being calibrated, NASA scientists decided the Jupiter event was too significant not to put the orbiting observatory back into action for a day.

"Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble," said Amy Simon-Miller of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Details seen in the Hubble view shows a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere."

Jupiter's colorful atmosphere is 86 percent hydrogen and 14 percent helium, with tiny amounts of methane, ammonia, phosphine, water, acetylene, ethane, germanium and carbon monoxide. The chemicals are responsible for producing the different colors of Jupiter's clouds.

The object created a mark on Jupiter that has the about same diameter as Earth, though the object itself was probably only 50 to 100 miles across, said Anthony Wesley, the astronomer who first noticed the scar.

The mystery object was probably moving at speeds of about 50 to 100 kilometers (31 to 62 miles) per second when it struck near Jupiter's south pole, Wesley said.

The new image of Jupiter was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed by the astronauts aboard space shuttle Atlantis in May. Because it is still being calibrated, the camera's full power has yet to be seen, NASA said.

The Hubble has been in orbit since 1990 and can capture images that telescopes on Earth can't, partly because it doesn't have to gaze through the planet's murky atmosphere.

The unplanned Jupiter photo shoot will add delays to the recommissioning of Hubble, NASA said. But scientists are at a point in the telescope's reboot where they have enough flexibility to employ Hubble to look at the unexpected astronomical event, they said

Ever since Samuel Heinrich Schwabe, a German astronomer, first noted in 1843 that sunspots burgeon and wane over a roughly 11-year cycle, scientists have carefully watched the Sun’s activity. In the latest lull, the Sun should have reached its calmest, least pockmarked state last fall.

Indeed, last year marked the blankest year of the Sun in the last half-century — 266 days with not a single sunspot visible from Earth. Then, in the first four months of 2009, the Sun became even more blank, the pace of sunspots slowing more.

“It’s been as dead as a doornail,” David Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said a couple of months ago.

The Sun perked up in June and July, with a sizeable clump of 20 sunspots earlier this month.

Now it is blank again, consistent with expectations that this solar cycle will be smaller and calmer, and the maximum of activity, expected to arrive in May 2013 will not be all that maximum.

For operators of satellites and power grids, that is good news. The same roiling magnetic fields that generate sunspot blotches also accelerate a devastating rain of particles that can overload and wreck electronic equipment in orbit or on Earth.

A panel of 12 scientists assembled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now predicts that the May 2013 peak will average 90 sunspots during that month. That would make it the weakest solar maximum since 1928, which peaked at 78 sunspots. During an average solar maximum, the Sun is covered with an average of 120 sunspots.

But the panel’s consensus “was not a unanimous decision,” said Douglas A. Biesecker, chairman of the panel. One member still believed the cycle would roar to life while others thought the maximum would peter out at only 70.

Among some global warming skeptics, there is speculation that the Sun may be on the verge of falling into an extended slumber similar to the so-called Maunder Minimum, several sunspot-scarce decades during the 17th and 18th centuries that coincided with an extended chilly period.

Most solar physicists do not think anything that odd is going on with the Sun. With the recent burst of sunspots, “I don’t see we’re going into that,” Dr. Hathaway said last week.

Still, something like the Dalton Minimum — two solar cycles in the early 1800s that peaked at about an average of 50 sunspots — lies in the realm of the possible, Dr. Hathaway said. (The minimums are named after scientists who helped identify them: Edward W. Maunder and John Dalton.)

With better telescopes on the ground and a fleet of Sun-watching spacecraft, solar scientists know a lot more about the Sun than ever before. But they do not understand everything. Solar dynamo models, which seek to capture the dynamics of the magnetic field, cannot yet explain many basic questions, not even why the solar cycles average 11 years in length.

Predicting the solar cycle is, in many ways, much like predicting the stock market. A full understanding of the forces driving solar dynamics is far out of reach, so scientists look to key indicators that correlate with future events and create models based on those.

For example, in 2006, Dr. Hathaway looked at disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field that are caused by the Sun, and they were strong. During past cycles, strong disturbances at minimum indicated strong fields all over the Sun at maximum and a bounty of sunspots. Because the previous cycles had been shorter than average, Dr. Hathaway thought the next one would be shorter and thus solar minimum was imminent. He predicted the new solar cycle would be a ferocious one, consistent with a short cycle.

Instead, the new cycle did not arrive as quickly as Dr. Hathaway anticipated, and the disturbances weakened. His revised prediction is for a smaller-than-average maximum. Last November, it looked like the new cycle was finally getting started, with the new cycle sunspots in the middle latitudes outnumbering the old sunspots of the dying cycle that are closer to the equator.

After a minimum, solar activity usually takes off quickly, but instead the Sun returned to slumber. “There was a long lull of several months of virtually no activity, which had me worried,” Dr. Hathaway said.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 22, 2009
An article on Tuesday about the recent decline in the frequency of sunspots incorrectly described the research of David Hathaway, a scientist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. His forecasts for the strength of the solar cycle are based on the magnitude of sunspot-caused disturbances in the Earth’s magnetic field, not in the Sun’s polar magnetic fields.

(CNN) -- The longest solar eclipse of the century cast a wide shadow for several minutes over Asia and the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, luring throngs of people outside to watch the spectacle.

The total eclipse started in India on Wednesday morning and moved eastward across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, China and parts of the Pacific. Millions cast their eyes towards the heavens to catch a rare view of the sun's corona.

Cloud cover in some areas prevented people from fully savoring the phenomenon. Still, many were awed.

Tim O'Rourke, a 45-year-old freelance photographer from Detroit, Michigan, lives in Hong Kong but traveled up to Shanghai -- touted as one of the best spots to watch the eclipse. See China's experience in the dark »

"It was pitch black like midnight," said O'Rourke, standing in People's Square with what appeared to be a crowd of thousands.

"Definitely not disappointed we came. Of course it would have been much better with nice weather, blue skies. But still it was a great experience, it was a lot of fun." he said. Viewing the eclipse in pictures »

Total eclipses occur about twice a year as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun on the same plane as Earth's orbit. Wednesday's event lasted up to more than six minutes in some places. Watch what a total solar eclipse entails »

In India, where an eclipse pits science against superstition, thousands took a dip in the Ganges River in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi to cleanse their souls, said Ajay Kumar Upadhyay, the district's most senior official. Send us your photos of the eclipse

The ritual turned into tragedy when an 80-year-old woman died and eight others were injured in what was called a stampede in some media reports. Upadhyay called the incident a "commotion" during sacred rituals in Varanasi. Watch India's reaction to the eclipse »

"Apparently, the woman died because of suffocation and after that there was some commotion, in which some eight other elderly women were injured. But it was not a stampede-like situation," Upadhyay told CNN.

It was sunny skies in Hong Kong for the eclipse, where students, parents and the elderly flooded a primary school to watch in the southern Chinese enclave.

The local astronomy society gave a presentation on how an eclipse happens and children climbed up ladders to look through two large telescopes on the school roof -- packed with skygazers -- to catch a glimpse of the moon moving across the sun. Read blog on Mother Nature conducting grand eclipse show

Others looked through binoculars covered with solar filter paper or through a large rectangular block labeled "Large Solar Filter," where they could take pictures of the moon moving over the sun.

Astronomy enthusiast Louis Chung, 13, brought his teacher to the school to witness the eclipse.

"City folks wouldn't usually be able to see this. Nature is wonderful. It is awesome to know that nature can provide such spectacular sights," said Chung, a member of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society.

"Nature is incredible, and there is too much we don't know about," said another Hong Kong local, Yee Ping, a journalist for a financial newspaper. "We try to know more and see by our own eyes so we can feel the power of nature."

Richard Binzel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the total eclipse will first be visible at sunrise in India and about four hours later just east of Hawaii. A partial eclipse will be visible as far south as northern Australia and as far north as Siberia, he said.

In some cultures, legends and folklore surrounds eclipses. Watch as eclipse-watchers head to China »

In India, an eclipse is considered inauspicious. Women forbid pregnant daughters-in-law from going outside out of the belief that their children could be born with marks. Some temples won't offer any prayers on the day of an eclipse -- such as the one next to the planetarium in Mumbai, which said it won't even light a stick of incense.

In Chinese tradition, there is a story about a heavenly dog eating the sun. As the story goes, people would make noise to scare off the dog and rescue the sun, said Bill Yeung, president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society.

"In ancient China, we shared the same impression with our Indian friends that a solar eclipse was not a good thing," he told CNN. Read blog on how eclipse-chasers are gambling on weather

Some of the more unusual ways to see Wednesday's eclipse include a cruise ship that will travel along the centerline off Japan and from aboard a 737-700 chartered plane in India.

More conventional viewing parties in Shanghai had been planned along the beach, in a park and in skyscrapers. A music festival has been organized in Japan's Amami island, with more than 6,000 people expected, and Japanese television has shown rows of tents set up on Akusekijima island.

The witnesses of the eclipse will range "from the farmer who only knows legends of eclipses and may not know this is happening at all to the world's experts who have come specifically to the Shanghai region to make the most detailed scientific analysis possible," added Binzel, the MIT astronomer. iReport.com: Solar eclipse as seen from a Buddhist temple

Bob Johnson, of Sasketchewan, Canada, applied for his first passport to come and see the eclipse in Shanghai.

"During totality, we didn't see anything. We saw up to 60 percent partial eclipse but then the clouds came in and it downpoured," said Johnson. "I am not really disappointed. I'm a lot happier than yesterday because I didn't think I'd see anything. The partial was beautiful."

VARANASI, India/WUHAN, China – A total solar eclipse began its flight on Wednesday across a narrow swathe of Asia, where hundreds of millions of people watched the skies darken despite thick summer clouds.

The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century was visible along a roughly 250 km-wide (155 miles) corridor, according to the US space agency NASA, as it traveled half the globe and passed through the world's two most populous nations, India and China.

Thousands of people snaked through the narrow lanes of the ancient Hindu holy city of Varanasi and gathered for a dip in the Ganges, an act considered as leading to salvation from the cycle of life and death.

Amid chanting of Hindu hymns, men, women and children waded into the river with folded hands and prayed to the sun as it emerged in an overcast sky.

"We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our after-life," said Bhailal Sharma, a villager from central India who came to Varanasi with a group of about 100 people.

The eclipse then swept through Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and over the crowded cities along China's Yangtze River, before heading to the Pacific.

Crowds gathered along the high dykes of Wuhan, an industrial city in central China, roared and waved goodbye as the last sliver of sun disappeared, plunging the city into darkness.

"As soon as the totality happened, the clouds closed in so we couldn't see the corona. That's a pity," said Zhen Jun, a man whose work unit had given the day off for the spectacle.

But eclipse viewers in central China was luckier than those in the coastal cities near Shanghai, where overcast skies and rain in some places blocked the view of the sun entirely.

Longest this century

Eclipses allow earth-bound scientists a rare glimpse at the sun's corona, the gases surrounding the sun.

"In the 21st century this is the longest," said Harish Bhatt, dean at the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

"This is indeed quite an important event for scientific experiments. Its long duration provides you an opportunity to make very complicated, complex experiments."

Scientists in China planned to snap two-dimensional images of the sun's corona -- up to 2 million degrees Celsius (3.6 million F) hot -- at roughly one image per second, Bhatt said.

The eclipse lasted up to a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.

The eclipse is seen as a mixed blessing for millions of Indians. Those who considered it auspicious bathed in holy rivers and ponds for good fortune during the solar blackout.

But astrologers predicted the eclipse spelled bad luck for others. Expectant mothers asked doctors to advance or postpone births to avoid complications or a miserable future for their children.

Parents in several schools in India's capital, New Delhi, kept their children home from classes since the eclipse coincided with breakfast. According to Hindu custom, it is inauspicious to prepare food during an eclipse.

In ancient Chinese culture, an eclipse was an omen linked to natural disasters or deaths in the imperial family. Chinese officials and state media were at pains to reassure the public that city services would run normally.

"We heard about it on television last night," said Qian Qiangguo, speaking in a thick Wuhan accent.

In modern China, people who wished to see the astronomical rarity clearly tried to escape thick pollution caused by the rapid industrial growth, avoiding cities where smog smudges the horizon, even on clear days.

"The majority of people decided to go to Tongning, in Anhui, because they're worried about the serious air pollution from industrial areas in Shanghai," said Bill Yeung, the president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society, who organized 120 eclipse chasers from Hong Kong.

Those who chose Shanghai ended up fleeing to inland cities to escape the clouds, he added.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- On a July morning in 2005, Noel Miller came home from working the night shift at an Iowa nursing home. She told police she arrived around 6:20 a.m. and discovered that her 5-year-old daughter, Evelyn, was missing.

Everyone else was fast asleep.

Some 1,500 volunteers joined the six-day search for Evelyn Miller, but it ended tragically. The little girl was found floating in the Cedar River near rural Floyd, Iowa.

That was four years ago, and police still have not charged anyone in Evelyn's death.

At the time she disappeared, Evelyn was living in an apartment complex with her mother, two half-brothers and the man her mother planned to marry, Casey Frederiksen. Two friends were visiting him. They had spent the night, which was not unusual.

Noel Miller looked for her daughter, then called 911. The call launched a massive search for Evelyn, beginning at her apartment and extending outward for seven miles.

"That area was completely covered," Floyd County Sheriff Rick Lynch said. Police and volunteers hiked through cornfields and wooded areas. Authorities deployed infrared airplanes and sent dive teams into local rivers and quarries.

On the sixth evening of the search, two kayakers found Evelyn's body floating in a river just one mile from her home.

"It takes anywhere from three to five days if it's a drowning, then the body will come to the surface," Lynch said.

The Floyd County Sheriff's Office has not released what caused Evelyn's death. But Lynch said, "We believe she was a victim of foul play."

"This is definitely a homicide," said Floyd County Attorney Jesse Marzen. "We want to make sure that law enforcement investigates as completely and as thoroughly as possible."

Investigators have narrowed their suspect list to three people, Lynch said, but police are not ready to publicly name them.

"I'm sure the general public is not going to be surprised," Lynch said, adding, "I feel confident that we will make an arrest soon."

Since the little girl's death, the three men who were staying at the apartment have been in trouble with the law.

Miller's fiancé, Frederiksen, is serving a 14-year sentence for a child pornography conviction. He recently was named in an indictment accusing him of producing methamphetamine in the apartment where he lived with Evelyn before her murder.

Frederiksen's former attorney, Jane Kelly, said he has a new lawyer, who practices in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. That attorney, Dan O'Brien, did not return a call from CNN requesting comment.

Lynch said the investigation included all registered sex offenders in the area. "All of their alibis checked out and we've ruled them out," he said.

Frederiksen and Miller have since lost custody of their two sons, who are in foster care.

Investigators said they need additional corroborating evidence to make an arrest and are waiting for the final piece of the puzzle.

They plan to use a new piece of investigative equipment that is expected to move the inquiry forward, Lynch said. "It's something that came up in the last few months."

For now, he's not discussing details. "We just can't explain what the equipment is," Lynch added, "because if we explained when we were going to do it and what the equipment was, it could expose information to a perpetrator."

Evelyn's grandmother, Linda Christie, is hopeful police soon will provide the answers she has been waiting four years to hear. She doesn't consider Evelyn's death to be a cold case.

"They work on this case at least every two weeks," she said. But, she admits, "It is a waiting game."

To protect the investigation, police aren't discussing any potential DNA evidence.

"The story never goes to black and white for us," Lynch said. "We are on it every day. It always goes to full color."

Marzen also wants the public to know that progress is being made and the investigation remains "very active."

MANILA – A military spokesman said Sunday that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) plans to defeat the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group by the end of this year despite numerous setbacks in the past.

"We are confident we can handle this problem of the Abu Sayyaf. We have set up a target that we should defeat them by the end of this year," said AFP spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner.

He told a local radio station that the group, which has been blamed for the worst terrorist attacks in Philippine history, was down to just above 300 members from more than 700 some years back.

"Their ranks have gone down and while they have some new recruits, it is mostly young boys lured by the promise of monetary rewards and the bearing of arms," Brawner said.

He also said there were internal squabbles among the leaders of the group which is based largely on the southernmost islands of Basilan and Sulu.

No amnesty

Brawner also echoed the latest statement from Malacañang which rejected the proposed offer of amnesty to members of the bandit group who would surrender to the government.

“… yun nga ang pinaka final word na natanggap natin na wala talagang magiging amnesty for the Abu Sayyaf Group at ito na rin yung kukunin nating cue from our national leadership na talagang maglunsad na kami ng all-out effort, said Brawner.

But he said the government would be carrying out "developmental efforts" to address the poverty in the southern islands that helped foster the Muslim extremists.

Brawner reiterated a statement form newly-installed Armed Forces’ Western Mindanao Command chief Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino.

“Ayom na rin po kay Gen Dolorfino, what we need to do now is to address really the rootcauses of the problem kaya’t ang makikita po natin in the next few months is not purely combat operations… this will be coupled with developmental efforts,” said Brawner.

The military spokesman said that multi-sectoral stakeholders with security forces would coordinate and assist each other’s efforts to resolve the problem.

Jungle terrain

He also said troops have had difficulty chasing the Abu Sayyaf because of the rough jungle terrain and the difficulty of finding the small bands.

Intelligence agencies have said that the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden helped in the formation of the Abu Sayyaf group more than a decade ago.

The group has carried out bombings and mass kidnappings in the south, mostly targeting Christians and foreigners. It has raised money by ransoming hostages but has also killed some when they were not paid promptly.

While the Philippine military has killed and captured many Abu Sayyaf leaders -- partly through US assistance -- the extremists remained active and in January they held three international Red Cross workers hostage for months.

Two hostages were freed in April while the last hostage, Italian Eugenio Vagni was released on July 12 after nearly six months in captivity.

The government has already opened peace talks with the country's main Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) but the Abu Sayyaf is not covered by the talks and the MILF leadership deny that they have links to the Abu Sayyaf. With abs-cbnNEWS.com