Sloan data yields biggest colour night-sky image ever

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Seattle

Successive zooming in on the image of the Southern Galactic Cap (lower left) shows the Messier 33 galaxy (upper left; a further magnification at centre), and even the NGC 604 "stellar nursery"

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Related stories

• Sky survey yields new cosmic haul
• Science sizes up 'ghost particle'
• Dark matter 'beach ball' unveiled

Astronomers have released the largest ever colour image of the whole sky, stitched from seven million images, each made of 125 million pixels.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey's latest effort tops its own record, published publicly for professional astronomers and "citizen scientists" alike.

Data from Sloan has helped to identify hundreds of millions of cosmic objects.

The release was announced at the 217th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, US.

Researchers have released an animation on YouTube demonstrating how the incredibly high-resolution image is represented on the celestial sphere.

Michael Blanton, a New York University physicist who presented the work on behalf of the Sloan team, told the conference that it was difficult to overstate the breadth of data Sloan provided.

"There's something like 3,500 papers that have been written on the basis of this data set," he said.

"A few dozen of them are being presented right now, this week at this meeting. They cover topics from the very smallest stars to the most massive black holes in the universe."

Marek Kukula, Royal Greenwich Observatory: "You can see individual stars, galaxies - the detail is incredible"

Nearly half a billion stars and galaxies have already been discovered and described thanks to Sloan images, and the new release is sure to significantly increase that number.

Sloan data is also behind the Google Sky service, which allows users to scan the heavens in the same way as scanning their local streets, and the Galaxy Zoo project, which has allowed astronomy enthusiasts to characterise galaxies from their own computers.

Digital record

The workhorse behind the data set, a camera comprising 125 million pixels that long held the record for highest-resolution camera in the world, has been retired.

Studies will now focus on spectrometry - unpicking new data on the basis of the colours of light that the upgraded equipment.

They include:

• the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, which will study the periodic ripples that were left behind in the early days of the Universe
• the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration that measures the evidence of small galaxies on the edge of our Milky Way being swallowed up

• the APO Galactic Evolution Experiment, which will study red giant stars within our Galaxy to better understand the Milky Way's overall chemical recipe

• the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey, which will spot giant planets outside our Solar System in a bid to better model how planets form

But even the data that is already available, thanks to Tuesday's release, will keep astronomers of both the professional and the amateur variety busy.

"You can compare it to the National Geographic Palomar Survey of the late 1950s," Dr Blanton said.

"This is something that 50 years later is still a really important reference to astronomers; we use it ourselves to better understand our own images. SDSS is the digital version of that."

Source

A very odd choice of words "dog destroyed"

"A force spokesman said the child's injuries are "serious but not life-threatening".

The dog, which was a family pet, will be destroyed. No details about the dog's breed have been revealed."

Source

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Commentary

A very odd choice of words....

Usually it's objects, not living things, which are "destroyed".

I wish the best for the toddler and hope that they recover swiftly.

China's Hu says 'a lot to be done' on human rights

Mr Hu spoke at a joint news conference on the first full day of his state visit to the US

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Hu Jintao in Washington

• Two presidents' conjuring trick
• Frei: US status anxiety over China
• China 'mistaken over US decline'
• What each side wants from talks

Chinese President Hu Jintao has acknowledged that "a lot still needs to be done" in China over human rights.

Mr Hu was speaking at a rare joint news conference with US President Barack Obama on the first full day of his state visit to the US.

Asked to justify China's human rights record, Mr Hu said China had "made enormous progress recognized in the world".

Mr Obama said he saw China's "peaceful rise" as good for the United States.

"The US has an interest in seeing hundreds of millions of people lifted out of poverty," Mr Obama said.

Mr Hu has arrived at the White House for a star-studded state dinner, and was ushered into the building by Mr Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

The opulent affair came following a long day of meetings and a press conference, at which the US president hailed relations with China and said the two countries had a huge stake in each other's success.

At a White House ceremony in the morning to greet Mr Hu, Mr Obama said the US and China would be more prosperous and secure when they worked together.

Mr Hu said co-operation should be based on mutual respect, and they should respect each other's development paths.

The two leaders' talks at the White House tackled issues from currency and trade to defence and security.

US officials revealed that a $45bn (£28bn) export deal had been signed with China, including Beijing's $19bn purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft.

Mr Obama said the deals would help create more than 200,000 jobs in the US.

'Source of tension'

President Barack Obama: ''I have been very candid with President Hu''

Mr Obama admitted that differences on human rights issues were "occasionally a source of tension" between the US and China.

"I believe part of justice and part of human rights is people being able to make a living and having enough to eat and having shelter and having electricity," he said.

"We welcome China's rights.

"We just want to make sure that [its] rise occurs in a way that reinforces international norms, international rules, and enhances security and peace as opposed to it being a source of conflict either in the region or around the world."

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“Start Quote

We have an enormous stake in each other's success - we will be more prosperous and more secure when we work together”

End Quote Barack Obama US president

• Two presidents' conjuring trick
• In pictures: Hu Jintao visits the US
• See Also blog: US media react

Mr Obama said that although the two nations may demonstrate differences when it comes to these issues, it does not prevent them from co-operating in other "crucial areas".

Mr Hu said China was willing to continue a conversation about human rights on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in China's internal affairs.

"China is a developing country with a huge population and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform," the Chinese president and Communist Party leader said.

Mr Hu added that China "faces many challenges in social and economic development. A lot still needs to be done in China on human rights."

Mr Hu at one point did not respond to an American reporter's question about human rights issues, saying later that difficulties in translation and technical equipment caused the error.

Mr Obama said earlier on Wednesday that Mr Hu's trip to the US was the basis for the next 30 years of ties between the two nations.

The two presidents promised to co-operate in their dispute over China's currency, the yuan, which the US says is kept artificially low to help Chinese exporters.

Mr Obama said the yuan's value must be driven by the market, and that there needed to be a level playing field in trade.

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The US buys far more than it sells to China - the US claims this is because China has kept its currency artificially weak. In fact trade with China accounts for 14.3% of all US trade - the States only does more trade with Canada.

Until the 1990s, the US economy grew strongly while China remained relatively stagnant. Since 2000 China's growth rate has surged, driven by economic reforms, a huge workforce and massive investment.

The US defence budget is the biggest in the world at around $700bn. China has the second largest - but its official military budget has soared since 1999 as the country's economy has grown.

China is the most populous country in the world ahead of India and the US. Its huge population has helped drive economic growth but it has also put huge stress on resources and air and water pollution are big problems.

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Mr Obama said China was a top market for American exports, supporting nearly a half a million US jobs, adding that it was important for the two nations to co-operate while remaining competitive.

During the ceremony on Wednesday morning, Mr Obama cited President Jimmy Carter's meeting with Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping in 1979 which normalised relations between the two countries, frozen for the previous 30 years.

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Hu Jintao's itinerary

• 18 Jan: Arrives in Washington, has private dinner with US President Barack Obama
• 19 Jan: Series of bilateral meetings followed by joint press conference; lunch with Vice-President Joe Biden; formal state dinner
• 20 Jan: Visits Capitol Hill to meet congressional leaders; departs for Chicago
• 21 Jan: Leaves Chicago for Beijing

• China's media positive over Hu's US visit
• What China and the US want from visit

The White House is laying out a full formal reception with lunch at the state department, a state dinner at the White House, and meetings with some of America's most powerful business leaders from firms like General Electric, Coca-cola and Boeing.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was a guest at the lunch and state dinner, told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "America has to live with the China that exists.

"Whether we have to be afraid of it or not, will depend on the politics that we both pursue."

The Chinese president's visit is likely to be Mr Hu's last state trip to the US before a handover of power is completed in China in 2013.

Later in the week, Mr Hu is expected to travel to Chicago, where some predict he will sign a series of trade and investment agreements.

The US is encouraging China to buy tens of billions of dollars of aircraft, car parts, agricultural goods and beef.

Trade between the US and China is worth $400bn, up from $100m 30 years ago, when the US last formalised relations with the communist state.

China also holds the world's largest foreign currency reserves at $2.85tn and a major share of US government debt.

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JFK's inaugural speech: Six secrets of his success

By Max Atkinson Rhetoric expert

The poetic "ask not" quotation is among the speech's most memorable lines

President John F Kennedy would have been delighted to know that his inaugural address is still remembered and admired 50 years later.

Like other great communicators - including Winston Churchill before him and Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama since then - he was someone who took word-craft very seriously indeed.

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Recipe for Success

• 1. Contrasts
• 2. Three-part lists
• 3. Contrasts combined with lists
• 4. Alliteration
• 5. Bold imagery
• 6. Audience analysis

He had delegated his aide Ted Sorensen to read all the previous presidential inaugurals, with the additional brief of trying to crack the code that had made Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address such a hit.

Fifty years on, the debate about whether he or Sorensen played the greater part in composing the speech matters less than the fact that it was a model example of how to make the most of the main rhetorical techniques and figures of speech that have been at the heart of all great speaking for more than 2,000 years. Most important among these are:

• Contrasts: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"
• Three-part lists: "Where the strong are just, and the weak secure and the peace preserved"
• Combinations of contrasts and lists (by contrasting a third item with the first two): "Not because the communists are doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right"

If the rhetorical structure of sentences is one set of building blocks in the language of public speaking, another involves simple "poetic" devices such as:

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Watch JFK's speech

• Choose highlights and read Max Atkinson's commentary

• Alliteration: "Let us go forth to lead the land we love"
• Imagery: "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans"

In general, the more use of these a speaker makes, the more applause they will get and the more likely it is that they will be recognised as a brilliant orator.

But great communicators differ as to which of these techniques they use most.

Presidents Reagan and Obama, for example, stand out as masters of anecdote and story-telling, which didn't feature at all in JFK's inaugural. Mr Obama also favours three-part lists, of which there were 29 in his 10-minute election victory speech in Chicago.

Stark warning

Kennedy, however, used very few in his inaugural address. For him, contrasts were the preferred weapon, coming as they did at a rate of about one every 39 seconds in this particular speech. Some were applauded and some have survived among the best-remembered lines.

He began with three consecutive contrasts:

• "We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom"
• "Symbolizing an end as well as a beginning"
• "Signifying renewal as well as change"

From the 20 or so he used, other widely quoted contrasts, all of which were applauded, include:

• "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich"
• "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate"
• "My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man"

The speech also bristled with imagery, starting with a stark warning about the way the world has changed because "man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life."

People of the developing world were "struggling to break the bonds of mass misery."

Ronald Reagan was a master of anecdote

JFK vowed to "assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty" and that "this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house."

He sought to "begin anew the quest for peace before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity", hoped that "a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion" and issued a "call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle."

First inaugural designed for the media?

Impressive though the rhetoric and imagery may have been, what really made the speech memorable was that it was the first inaugural address by a US president to follow the first rule of speech-preparation: analyse your audience - or, to be more precise at a time when mass access to television was in its infancy, analyse your audiences.

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The Gettysburg great

Lincoln's short Gettysburg address had caught JFK's eye. Here is a sample of the speech:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."

In the most famous fictional speech of all time, Mark Antony had shown sensitivity to his different audiences in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar by asking his "Friends, Romans, countrymen" to lend him their ears. But Kennedy had many more audiences in mind than those who happened to be in Washington that day.

His countrymen certainly weren't left out, appearing as they did in the opening and towards the end with his most famous contrast of all: "Ask not..." But he knew, perhaps better than any previous US president, that local Americans were no longer the only audience that mattered. The age of a truly global mass media had dawned, which meant that what he said would be seen, heard or reported everywhere in the world.

At the height of the Cold War, Kennedy also had a foreign policy agenda that he wanted to be heard everywhere in the world. So the different segments of the speech were specifically targeted at a series of different audiences:

• "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill"
• "To those new nations whom we welcome to the ranks of the free"
• "To those in the huts and villages of half the globe"
• "To our sister republics south of the border"
• "To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations"
• "Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary"

The following day, there was nothing on the front pages of two leading US newspapers, The New York Times and the Washington Post to suggest that the countrymen in his audience had been particularly impressed by the speech - neither of them referred to any of the lines above that have become so famous.

The fact that so much of the speech is still remembered around the world 50 years later is a measure of Kennedy's success in knowing exactly what he wanted to say, how best to say it and, perhaps most important of all, to whom he should say it.

Dr Max Atkinson is the author of Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Public Speaking and Presentation and Speech-making and Presentation Made Easy

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Smoking 'causes damage in minutes', US experts claim

There may be genetic damage just moments after smoking

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Smoking damages the body in minutes rather than years, according to research in the US.

The report, published in Chemical Research in Toxicology, shows that chemicals which cause cancer form rapidly after smoking.

Scientists involved in the small-scale study described the results as a stark warning to people considering smoking.

Anti-smoking charity Ash described the research as "chilling" and as a warning that it's never too early to quit.

The long term impact of smoking, from heart disease to a range of cancers, are well known. This study suggests the damage begins just moments after the first cigarette is smoked.

Faster than you might think

The researchers looked at the level of chemicals linked with cancer, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), in 12 patients after smoking.

A PAH was added to the subject's cigarettes, which was then modified by the body and turned into another chemical which damages DNA and has been linked with cancer.

The research shows this process only took between 15 and 30 minutes to take place.

Professor Stephen Hecht, from the University of Minnesota, said: "This study is unique, it is the first to investigate human metabolism of a PAH specifically delivered by inhalation in cigarette smoke, without interference by other sources of exposure such as air pollution or the diet.

The results reported here should serve as a stark warning to those who are considering starting to smoke cigarettes."

Martin Dockrell, director of policy and research at Ash (Action on Smoking and Health), said: "Almost everybody knows that smoking can cause lung cancer.

"The chilling thing about this research is that it shows just how early the very first stages of that process begin - not in 30 years but within 30 minutes of a single cigarette for every subject in the study.

"The process starts early but it is never too late to quit and the sooner you quit the sooner you start to reduce the harm."

The research was funded by the US National Cancer Institute.

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Governor Jerry Brown unveils California spending plan

Mr Brown's plan calls for cuts in programmes at universities and medical care for the poor

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Related stories

• California swears in new governor
• 'Hasta la vista' for Governor Schwarzenegger
• California budget deal 'agreed'

California Governor Jerry Brown has unveiled the first spending plan of his administration, hoping to resolve the state's $25bn (£16bn) budget deficit.

The Democratic governor's $86bn plan for the coming fiscal year calls for cuts in programmes at universities and medical care for the poor.

The scheme would also eliminate new corporate tax breaks and two state-wide incentives for business development.

Mr Brown said he hoped to get "the state on a balanced footing".

"Here's the problem - we're very divided," Mr Brown said of the California electorate.

"My job is to find some common core here that we can agree on."

His budget projects the deficit at $25.4bn over the next 18 months.

'Shifting responsibilities'

To reduce the state's deficit, the governor's plan calls for $12.5bn in spending cuts, including reductions in the provision of welfare, social services and higher education, as well as $12bn in funding shifts and new revenue if voters approve tax extensions.

Under the new plan, Mr Brown hopes that shifting numerous responsibilities - from incarcerating offenders convicted of minor crimes to providing foster care - to local governments will reduce the weight of California's economic woes.

The governor said the new proposal for the coming fiscal year, which begins on 1 July, seeks to end the state's deficit and balance the state's budget for the next few years without borrowing money.

"It's better to take our medicine now and get the state on a balanced footing," he said.

Under the new plan, fees at community colleges in the state would increase, while colleges in California would also lose roughly $400m in funding.

Visits to doctors' offices for recipients of the state's Medi-Cal health insurance programme would be limited to 10 per year under the new proposal. Some annual benefits would also be capped and new co-payments expected from those in the programme.

Mr Brown said he wants the legislature in California to call a special election in June to ask for tax extensions, which are due to expire this year.

But the election would require support from Republican lawmakers in the state, who have not viewed the idea favourably.

Voters previously rejected the extension of those taxes in 2009, as part of a measure placed on the ballot by the state's legislature and former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Seychelles tortoises: Giants ruling the Aldabra lagoon

By Tim Ecott

Aldabra is one of the most important habitats for evolutionary study

The inaccessible Aldabra lagoon in the Indian Ocean is a Unesco World Heritage Site and home to a unique collection of plants and animals, including more than 100,000 giant tortoises.

For three hours, the island supply plane cruises above the seemingly empty blue plain of the Indian Ocean.

At Assumption Island, there is an airstrip where we transfer to a motorboat for the crossing to Aldabra.

Visitors are infrequent... Somali pirate activity has reduced that market to almost zero

Lindsay Chong Seng, science director for the Seychelles Islands Foundation, is my guide and, after an hour on the sparkling sea, he points out a long, low strip of rugged shoreline.

It is South Island, the largest of the four main islands surrounding the great central lagoon.

The lagoon is shallow, a place of ripping currents and vast sand flats, and is so big that the whole of Manhattan could fit inside it - twice.

'Shark-infested waters'

Stepping from the back of the speedboat into gin-clear water up to my knees, I see I am not alone.

Dozens of black-tip sharks cluster in the shallows, and among them are larger lemon sharks - each over seven feet (two metres) long.

Its isolation means the lagoon is free from overfishing and pollution

The splashing of our feet sounds, I am told, like the noise an injured fish might make and the sharks come to investigate.

Once close enough to see that I am human, they dart away skittish and alarmed, their pale dorsal fins sticking out of the water like the very cartoon image of "shark-infested water".

There is no hotel here, although the expense of running the island and staffing it means that the idea is sometimes proposed.

Visitors are infrequent - just a few yachtsmen. Until last year, there was the occasional small cruise ship, but Somali pirate activity has reduced that market to almost zero.

In fact, a few months ago, some pirates landed on the beach having run out of food and water.

With the help of the rifles the rangers use to shoot feral goats, the pirates were arrested, locked in a store room and sent back to the capital, Victoria.

Dominant reptiles

Outside the small research block, island manager Doctor Nancy Bunbury introduces me to the first of the Aldabra giant tortoises.

"Please don't feed him," she warns, "or he'll follow you into our dining room. And if he doesn't want to leave, it becomes a bit of a problem."

Aldabra's giant tortoise population is the largest in the world

Once harvested for meat and exported to the inhabited islands, the tortoises can weigh over 600lb (300kg). Standing fully upright on all four leathery legs, their heads reach easily to my waist.

Lindsay Chong Seng explains that they will eat anything including other dead tortoises, any vegetation they can reach and, intriguingly, a kind of algae which they seem to cultivate by leaving their droppings in tidal pools.

As well as hungry tortoises, Aldabra's scrubby vegetation also has to cope with salt spray, thin soil and cyclones.

One endemic grass has even evolved so that its flower-spikes turn downwards from the stem so that the reptiles do not eat it while they are grazing.

With at least 100,000 giant tortoises - 10 times as many as in the Galapagos - Aldabra is valued by biologists as an ecosystem dominated by reptiles, something that has not been seen elsewhere since the time of the dinosaurs.

Isolation makes Aldabra's wildlife bold.

Fluffy Aldabra nightjars nest on the ground, fearlessly allowing me to lie right beside them with my camera.

A small elegant bird with big feet and a russet plumage stalks the undergrowth. Lindsay names it as the white-throated Aldabran rail, the last flightless bird in the Indian Ocean.

One day I watch as a rail discovers a baby giant tortoise - smaller than my palm - and attempts to peck at it. The tortoise does what tortoises do and retreats inside its shell until the rail loses interest.

It will need to avoid not just the rails, but also the two species of land crabs that live on Aldabra, including the coconut crab with a leg span of more than three feet (1m) and weighing up to 10lb (4.5kg).

At night, they stalk the accommodation block and I learn to carry a torch.

Another world

On excursions into the lagoon and along the mangrove-forested shore, I see frigate birds, crab plovers, dimorphic egrets, green herons and plenty more sharks.

At slack tide, it is hard to tell which way lies the open sea and which way the lagoon.

I feel as though I am in another world, a place where nature has been left to take its course. The water sparkles, the sand is as white as the clouds above and the undergrowth crackles as the crabs and tortoises patrol.

Seychelles protects Aldabra by subsidising the ranger's station and science facilities here with income from the Vallee de Mai - another Unesco World Heritage Site on the island of Praslin that is easily accessed by tourists.

It is home to Seychelles' unique double coconut - the coco-de-mer, the tree with the largest seed in the plant kingdom.

They may not know it but those day-trippers are paying to keep Aldabra free of visitors and a safe haven for a unique collection of plants and animals which few people will ever see.

How to listen to: From Our Own Correspondent

Radio 4: Saturdays, 1130. Second weekly edition on Thursdays, 1100 (some weeks only)

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Israel destroys East Jerusalem hotel for settlements

Palestinians accused Israel of trying to "erase" them from the city

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Israel and the Palestinians

• Palestinians pursue 'Plan B' after failed talks
• Going nowhere fast?
• 'Off the record' views from officials
• Q&A: Resuming direct talks

Israeli bulldozers have demolished part a hotel in East Jerusalem to make way for 20 new homes for Jewish settlers.

The destruction of the Shepherd Hotel has angered Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said Israel was destroying any chance of returning to peace talks by carrying out the demolition.

Israel says it has a right to build homes in any part of the city.

The Shepherd Hotel was built in the 1930s and was once home to Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who became an ally of Adolf Hitler in WWII.

Its current ownership is disputed - Israel says it belongs to a Jewish-American property developer but Palestinians say it was seized illegally after Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967.

"By doing this, Israel has destroyed all the US efforts and ended any possibility of a return to negotiations," said Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Mr Abbas.

'Erase identity'

Attempts by the US to revive peace negotiations stalled last year, after Israel refused to end settlement building on occupied Palestinian land.

"Israel has no right to build in any part of east Jerusalem, or any part of the Palestinian land occupied in 1967," said Mr Abu Rudeina.

The Palestinian governor of Jerusalem, Adnan al-Husseini, said it was the latest in a line of demolitions of historic buildings and accused Israel of "trying to erase any Palestinian identity from the city of Jerusalem".

Continue reading the main story

• Obstacles to peace: Jerusalem

The US had criticised the project as far back as 2009, when building approval was granted.

But Israeli officials said the demolition had been carried out legally and defended its decision.

"This is something that every country does in its own domain without the necessity to give any report to any other government," said the minister for national infrastructure, Uzi Landau.

Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Source

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Commentary

How do you create a country when every week more and more of it's capital and it's land are being taken?

The Hague has already deemed such actions illegal, but apparently they're not illegal enough to garner any help from the E.U, A.U, or U.S.

What a sad state of affairs it seems.

Iran passenger plane crash 'kills 70'

Continue reading the main story

Related stories

• Iran jet catches fire on landing

An Iranian passenger plane with more than 100 people on board has crashed, killing at least 70 people, according to the state news agency Irna.

Thirty-two people were injured, the agency said, quoting deputy head of the Iranian Red Crescent Heidar Heidari.

The IranAir plane was flying from the capital Tehran when it came down near the north-western city of Orumiyeh - which was its final destination.

Reports said it crashed in bad weather, and snow was hampering rescue efforts.

"At least 70 people have been killed and 32 others were injured in the crash," Mr Heidari said, according to Irna.

"The death toll is expected to increase."

Earlier reports had said that 50 people survived the crash.

The plane came down near Orumiyeh, 700km (430 miles) north-west of Tehran, at around 1945 local time (1615 GMT), an official in West Azerbaijan province said earlier, quoted on Iranian state television's website.

The official said the plane had taken off an hour later than scheduled, and came down because of bad weather conditions.

The head of Iran's emergency services, Gholam Reza Masoumi, said rescue work was being made more difficult by heavy snow, which was around 70cm (27 inches) deep around the crash site.

His remarks were quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Old planes

There have been a number of accidents involving Iranian planes over the last few years.

The last major crash was in July 2009, when a plane caught fire mid-air and crashed in northern Iran, killing 168 people.

In 2003 an Iranian troop carrier crashed in the southeast, killing all 276 soldiers and crew on board.

Iran's civil fleet is made up of planes in poor condition due to their old age and lack of maintenance.

Source

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Commentary

This is completely unacceptable. At most a country should have one crash every couple decades, which is the norm for most countries. For Iran, they feel it necessary to have many crashes in a few years...

There needs to be serious regulations in place to curtail these disasters.

70 families are now shocked with deaths that were unnecessary and as a result of MONEY.

With enough extra money and regulation, all those deaths could have been spared. This is completely wrong, irresponsible, immoral, and unjust.

All in charge of this industry must immediately be fired, replaced, and sent to jail.

US wants Twitter details of Wikileaks activists

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is currently fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden

Continue reading the main story

Wikileaks Revelations

• Q&A: Arrest of Wikileaks' founder
• Cables at a glance
• Wikileaks activists go analogue
• A world after Wikileaks

The US government has subpoenaed the social networking site Twitter for personal details of people connected to Wikileaks, court documents show.

The US District Court in Virginia said it wanted information including user names, addresses, connection records, telephone numbers and payment details.

Those named include Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and an Icelandic MP.

The US is examining possible charges against Mr Assange over the leaking of 250,000 classified diplomatic cables.

Reports indicate the Department of Justice may seek to indict him on charges of conspiring to steal documents with Private First Class Bradley Manning, a US Army intelligence analyst.

Mr Manning is facing a court martial and up to 52 years in prison for allegedly sending Wikileaks the diplomatic cables, as well military logs about incidents in Afghanistan and Iraq and a classified military video.

'Given a message'

According to the court order issued on 14 December by the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the US Attorney's Office has provided evidence to show that the information held by Twitter is "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation".

Continue reading the main story

Analysis

Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News

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As the Wikileaks saga has unfolded, Twitter has been one of the main forums where supporters and opponents of the whistle-blowing site have debated the issues. Now the social network has been dragged into the affair, as the US authorities pursue a case against Wikileaks.

This leaves Twitter executives in a very difficult position. Like all social networks, they have been keen to stress that they comply with local laws, especially when it comes to tracking down criminals. But they have also been eager to promote Twitter's role as a forum for free expression in countries like Iran.

If confidential details of overseas Twitter users are disclosed to the US authorities, how keen will an international audience be to trust this or other American social networks in future?

The San Francisco-based website was given three days to respond was also told not to disclose that it had been served the subpoena, or the existence of the investigation.

However, the same court removed those restrictions on Wednesday and authorised Twitter to disclose the order to its customers.

The subpoena requested the details of Mr Assange, Pfc Manning and Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, as well as Dutch hacker Rop Gonggrijp and US programmer Jacob Appelbaum, both of whom have previously worked with Wikileaks.

The information sought includes mailing addresses and billing information, connection records and session times, IP addresses used to access Twitter, email accounts, as well as the "means and source of payment".

Mr Assange condemned the court order on Saturday, saying it amounted to harassment.

"If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out," he said in a statement.

The order was unsealed "thanks to legal action by Twitter", he added.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

Twitter may have to disclose information which its originators and its members probably thought was strictly confidential? Doesn't this go to prove how gullible people can be when using social networks?”

End Quote Alfred Penderel Bright

• Your Say: Should data be given up?

And Mr Assange's lawyer, Mark Stephens, said the US government was attempting to intimidate people.

"It's a great disappointment that the department of justice has stopped playing lawyers and started playing politics," he told BBC News.

Twitter has declined to comment on the claim, saying only: "To help users protect their rights, it's our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so."

Ms Jonsdottir, who until recently was a vocal supporter of Wikileaks, revealed on Friday that the department of justice had asked Twitter for her personal details and all of her tweets since November 2009.

She said she had 10 days to appeal against the subpoena.

Ms Jonsdottir wrote on her Twitter feed: "USA government wants to know about all my tweets and more since 1 November 2009. Do they realise I am a member of parliament in Iceland?"

She said that she would call Iceland's justice minister to discuss the request.

"I think I am being given a message, almost like someone breathing in a phone," she said.

Ms Jonsdottir was the chief sponsor of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) law, which made Iceland an international haven for investigative journalism and free speech.

She has said she helped to produce a video for Wikileaks showing a US Apache helicopter shooting civilians in Iraq in 2007.

Birgitta Jonsdottir says she helped produce a controversial Wikileaks video

The classified video, released by Wikileaks last April, brought the whistle-blowing website to the world's attention.

The website's founder, Julian Assange, is currently fighting extradition from the UK to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning as part of an inquiry into alleged sex offences.

Ms Jonsdottir reportedly left Wikileaks late last year after she argued unsuccessfully that Mr Assange should take a low-profile role until his legal troubles were resolved.

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