Indiana Gazette from Indiana, Pennsylvania • 7

'nitiana (gazette Elsewhere News from the nation, world Tuesday, October 3. 2006 Page 7 Americans win physics Nobel because people have said we should be awarded, but this is just such a rare and special honor," Mather said in a telephone interview with the Nobel committee. He said he and Smoot did not realize how important their work was at the time. The COBE project gave strong support for the big-bang theory because it is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave radiation measured by the satellite. The academy called Mather (he driving force behind the COBE project while Smoot was responsible for measuring small variations in the temperature of the radiation.

With their findings, the scientists transformed the study of the carry universe from a largely theoretical pursuit into a new era of observation and measurement ty KARL ROTH and MATT HOME Associated Press Writers STOCKHOLM. Sweden Americans lohu C. Mather and George F. Smoot won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics today for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe and deepen understanding of the origin of galaxies and stars. Mather.

60. works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight (Center in Greenbelt, and Smoot. 61, works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. The scientists discovered the nature of "blackbody radiation," cosmic background radiation believed to stem from the "big bang." when the universe was born. "They have not proven the big-bang theory- but they give it very strong sup my of Sciences in Stockholm said in its citation.

The big-bang theory states that the universe was bom billions of years ago from a rapidly expanding dense and incredibly hot state. Reached at his home in Berkeley. Smoot told The Associated Press he was surprised when he got the call from the Nobel committee in the middle of the night. "I was surprised that they even knew my number. After the discovery I got so many calls 1 unlisted it," he said.

"The discovery was son of fabulous. It was an incredible milestone. Now this is a great honor and recognition. It's amazing," he said-Mather said he was "thrilled and amazed" at receiving the prize. "I can't say I was completely surprised, port." said Per Carlson, chairman of the Nobel committee for physics.

"It is one of the greatest discoveries of the century. I would call it the greatest. It increases our knowledge of our place in the universe." Their work was based on measurements done with the help of NASA's COBfc satellite Launched in 1989. They were able to observe the universe in its early stages about 380.000 years after it was bom. Ripples in the Light they detected also helped demonstrate how galaxies came together over time.

"The COBE results provided increased support for the big-bang scenario for the origin of the Universe, as this is the only scenario that predicts the kind of cosmic microwave background radiation measured by COBE." the Royal Swedish Acade "YOU NEED TO BRING them into a more transparent type of government. And if that accomplished, we 7 be successful till Frist, Senate majority leader Papers verify CIA report Documents show Tenet did tell Rice of looming threat iyPMUTSOM and NAM MAZZETTI Nm York Times Nsws Servos BRIEFS Frssi fiazatta win sanrtea North Koreans tell of nuclear test plans ShOlJL South Korea (AP) North Korea said today it will conduct a nuclear test lo bolster its self -detcnse capability amid what it calls increasing U.S. hostility toward the communist regime. "The DPRK will in the future conduct a nuclear test under the condition where safety is firml) guaranteed," the Norths Foreign Ministry-said in the official llngltsh translation of its statement, using the acronym tor country official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Letter says al-Qaida warned al-Zarqawi CAIRO, Egypt API A top al-Qaida official warned Abu Musab al -Zarqawi six months before he was killed by a U.S.

airstrike that he would be removed as the terror group's head in Iraq if he did not consult with the groups leadership on major issues. An al-Qaida leader named "Attyah" cautioned al-Zar-qawi in an II -page letter against the war he had declared on Shine Muslims. The letter also criticized attacks the Iraqi branch had carried out in neighboring countries an apparent reference to last year's triple suicide attacks on hotels in the Jordanian capital of Amman that killed dozens. "Anyone who com mits tyranny and aggression upon the people and causes corruption within the land and drives people away from us and our faith and our jihad and from the religion and the message that we cany, then he must be taken to task." Ativan wrote, saying he was in the northwest Pakistani tribal region of VVaziristan. "We must direct him to what is right, just, and for the best.

Otherwise, we would have to push him aside and keep him away from the sphere of influence and replace him and so forth." he wrote. Atiyah tells al-Zarqawi that on major issues he should consult with "your leadership. Sheik Osama (bin Laden) and the doctor 1 Ay man al-Zawahri) and their brothers as well as your Muahedecn brothers in Flight recorders found at crash site RIO Dfc JANL1RO. Brazil Rescue workers on Monday found cockpit voice and data recorders in the wreckage of an airliner that crashed in the Amazon rainforest last week, killing all 155 people on board. Invest igators continued questioning the American pilots of a business jet that Brazilian authorities say (hey believe collided with the larger aircraft in midair.

A senior executive of HxcelAire Service a New York-based aircraft charter and management company that had purchased the smaller jet in Brazil and was bringing it back to the United States, was also being questioned. JVew York Times News Service Nigerian military loses 2 boats PORT HARCOURT. Nigeria (AP) Dozens of militants sank Iwo military patrol boats in Nigeria's oil-rich, southern delta Monday in an attack that killed five soldiers and left nine others missing, an army spokesman said. Maj. Sagir Musa said 1 5 soldiers were on a routine boat patrol in a delta outlet when 70 militants attacked, sinking two military boats.

One of the soldiers managed to escape and raise the alarm, he said, giving the casualty toll. Btsi Ojediran. a spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell PIjC in iagos. said a convoy belonging to the company was attacked Monday while accompanied by a military escort in the area Musa described. It was not immediately clear if the two reports re-ijg ferred to the incident, or if 1 anyone was taken captive.

RHUMB 1 SAMayAstoaaUd Press U.S. SEN. BU. HttST, center, walked with other U.S. officials during his Monday visit to the Provincial Reconstruction Team of Qalat, the provincial caprtal of Zabul province in Afghanistan.

Frist: Bring Taliban into government J1DDAH, Saudi Arabia A review of White House records has determined that George I. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10; 2001, about the looming threat from al-Qaida, a State Department spokesman said Monday. The account by the spokesman, Sean McCorma-ck, came hours after Rice, the secretary of state, told reporters aboard her airplane that she did not recall the specific meeting on fuly 10, noting that she had met repeatedly with Tenet that summer about terrorist threats. COMMUllOal WAS TQLI Rice, the national security adviser al the lime, said it was "incomprehensible" to suggest she had ignored due terrorist threats two months before the SepL 1 1 attacks. McCormack also said records showed that the Sept 1 1 commission had been informed about the meeting, a fact that former intelligence officials and members of the commission confirmed Monday.

Members of the commission had earlier said they could not recall being told about it. When details of the meeting emerged last week in "State of Denial, a new book by Bob Woodward of The Washington Post, Bush administration officials questioned Woodward's reporting. Now. after several days, both current and former Bush administration officials have confirmed parts of Woodward's account. crease.

There appears to be an "unlimited flow" of Afghans and foreigners "willing to pick up arms and integrate themselves with the Taliban." he said. He said the only way to win in places like the volatile southern pari of the country is to "assimilate people who call themselves Taliban into a larger, more representative government." "Approaching counterinsur-gency by winning hearts and minds will ultimately be the answer," Frist said. FMST AMI MAKTMEZ flew to this dust-blown mountain city 220 miles south of Kabul during a one-day stop in Afghanistan on a regional tour that includes stops in Pakistan and Iraq. The pair had intended to visit a new S6.5 million hospital built by the United Arab Emirates, but a group of wounded Taliban fighters was recuperating there, including a midievel commander, and U.S. commander Lt.

Col. Kevin McGlaughJin canceled the visit because of security but predicted eventual victory. FMST SAB ASKMG the Taliban to join the government was a decision to be made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Karzais spokesmen were not immediately able to be reached for comment. Sen.

Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida accompanying Frist on his trip, said negotiating with the Taliban was not "out of the question" but that fighters who refused to join the political process would have to be defeated. "A political solution is how it's al) going to be solved," he said. Frist said he had hoped the U.S. would be able to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan soon. But he said the 20.000 U.S.

troops in the country are still needed to support the NATO alliance, which will assume direct control over most military operations here. "We're going to need to stay here a long time." Frist said. The senator said he was warned to expect attacks to in that's accomplished, we'll be successful" Afghanistan is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since a U.S.-led military force toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. According to an Associated Press count, based on reports from U.S.. NATO and Afghan officials, at least 2.800 people have been killed nationwide so far this year.

THE TOP U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl ELkenberry. told Pentagon reporters last month that while the Taliban enemy in Afghanistan is not extremely strong, their numbers and influence have grown in some southern sections of the country.

President Bush has been criticized for his handling of the war and is trying to contain the damage ahead of midterm elections this fall. On Friday, Bush acknowledged setbacks in the training of Afghan police to fight against the Taliban resurgence Senator says appeasement is necessary tyJMKRANE Associated Press Writer QALAT. Afghanistan U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" and their allies into the government. The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield.

"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if Scientists test drugs for neuroAIDS Officials now agree that on luly 10. 2001. Tenet and his counterterrorism deputy, J.

Gofer Black, were so alarmed about an impending attack by al-Qaida that they demanded an emergency meeting at the White House with Rice and her National Security Council staff But both current and former officials took issue with Woodward's account that Tenet and his aides had left the meeting in frustration and feeling that Rice had ignored them. VAOTHmO Tenet told members of the Sept. II commission about the Jury 10 meeting when they interviewed him in early 2004, but committee members said he never indicated he had left the White House with die Impression thai he had been Ignored. "Tenet never told us that he was brushed said Richard Ben-Venkste. a Democndc member of the commission.

chairman of neurology at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, who treats neuroAJDS. "There's no question it's a major public health issue While today's most powerful ami-HIV drugs do help by suppressing levels of the virus in blood so that there's less to continually bathe the brain they can't cure neuroAJDS. Why? HTV seeps into the brain very soon after someone is infected, and few anti-HIV drugs can penetrate the brain to chase it down. "Despite the best efforts of (anti-HfV) therapy, brain is failing," says Dr. Harris Gel bard, a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

He is part of a major new effort funded by the National Institutes of Health to find the first brain-protecting treatments. What's now called neuroAJDS is much dif ferent from the AIDS dementia of the epidemic's carry years, when patients often had horrific brain symptoms similar to end-stage Alzheimer's, unable to move or talk. Today, anti-KTV medication has resulted in a more subtle dementia that strikes four years or more before death: At first, patients forget phone numbers and their movements slow. Some worsen until they cant hold a job or perform other activities, but not everyone worsens and doctors can't predict who will. In a vicious cycle, the memory loss makes many forget their anti-HTV pills, so the virus rebounds.

Gelbart estimates that neuroAIDS reduces patients' mental function by 25 percent If HTV patients Live long enough, many specialists worry, nearly all of them may surfer at least some brain symptoms. By LAURA! KAA AP Medical Wrier WASHINGTON It's an Achilles- heel of MfV therapy: The AIDS virus can sneak into the brain to cause dementia, despite today's best medicines. Now scientists are beginning to test drugs that may protect against the memory loss and other symptoms of so-called neuroAJDS. which afflicts at least one in five people with HIV and is becoming more common as patients live Longer. With almost I million Americans, and almost 40 million people worldwide.

Living with HIV, that's a large and undenecognized toll. "That means HIV is the commonest cause of cognitive dysfunction in young people worldwide," says Dr. Justin McAnnur, vice.