Archeologists dig for secrets in Mexico tunnel (AFP)

TEOTIHUACAN, Mexico (AFP) – Archeologists are unearthing a 2,000-year-old tunnel outside bustling modern day Mexico City searching for clues to one of the region's most influential former civilizations.

Heavy rains at the site of Teotihuacan, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the capital, accidentally provided the first sign of the tunnel's existence in 2003, when the water made a tiny hole in the ground.

Six years later, a team financed by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) started digging at the site, which is one of the most visited in Mexico.

Teotihuacan arose as a new religious center around the time of Christ and became possibly the most influential city in pre-Hispanic North America at the time, with a population of 200,000 at its peak.

It is thought to have been abandoned in the seventh century due to economic, social and political problems.

Only around five percent of Teotihuacan has been excavated so far despite more than 100 years of exploration of the former city, which stretches over some 9.7 square miles (25 square kilometers).

Archeologists believe the tunnel will lead to three chambers, which may contain the remains of the leaders of the civilization and help explain their beliefs.

No monarch's tomb has ever been found at the site, which was already deserted when the Aztecs arrived in the area in the 1300s.

But the search for the tombs is not the only focus of investigations.

"It's not something we're obsessed with. We keep working and we're going to try to understand the tunnel on its own and the implications it has for Mesoamerican thought and religion," said archeologist Sergio Gomez.

Last August, digging down some 12 meters (yards), archeologists discovered the tunnel's opening in front of the Temple of Quetzacoatl, or the Plumed Serpent.

"It was very gratifying to be able to find the tunnel's entrance because that shows that the hypotheses were correct," Gomez said.

"We know that Teotihuacan was built as a replica of how they saw the cosmos, the universe. We imagine the tunnel to be a recreation of the underworld."

Some 30 archeologists, biologists and architects work daily under a small tent protecting the tunnel's opening, to the south of the imposing Pyramids of the Sun and Moon.

As some sieve through piles of stones and earth over wheelbarrows to pick out artifacts retrieved underground, archeologists descend three ladders down a hole several meters wide and 12 meters deep.

They believe that a deliberate effort was made to pile up stones and even pieces of a destroyed temple to block the tunnel, sometime between 200 and 300 AD.

Precious pieces are believed to have been thrown on to the pile as an offering by the elite.

The team has already removed some 300 metric tons of material, including 60,000 tiny fragments of materials such as jade, bone and ceramics.

Most were ornaments used by the elite, as well as beads and shells from both coasts of Mexico, Gomez said.

A small, remote-controlled robot -- the first to be used to explore Mexico's ruins -- took a camera inside a small opening before researchers finally entered the tunnel last November.

But they have advanced only seven meters through the tunnel which they believe, thanks to the help of radar technology, to be 120 meters long.

In the hot, damp underground chamber, small labels hang from the curved, rocky roof to show each meter excavated so far.

Archeologists say they can see tool marks in the ceiling which date from the time the tunnel was excavated in the rock.

Wearing mask and helmets as they chip away with small tools, they expect to reach the end of the tunnel in several years' time.

"It's very, very delicate and meticulous work. We have to record every type of change," said researcher Jorge Zavala.

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'Gay Caveman' Story Overblown, Archaeologists Say (LiveScience.com)

Archaeologists in Prague say they've uncovered a Stone-Age man buried in a position usually reserved for women — but media claims of a "gay caveman" may be exaggerated, according to some researchers. 

The skeleton, which dates back to about 2,500 to 2,800 B.C., was found in the outskirts of Prague. The culture the man belonged to (known as the Corded Ware culture for their pottery decorated with the impressions of twisted cord) was very finicky about grave rituals, reported Iranian news network Press TV, which visited the excavation site. According to the Czech news website Ceskapozice.cz, Corded Ware males were usually buried on their right sides with their heads facing east. This man, however, was buried on his left with his head facing west — a traditionally female position.

"We found one very specific grave of a man lying in the position of a woman, without gender specific grave goods, neither jewelry or weapons," lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova of the Czech Archaeological Society told Press TV.

Not gay, not a caveman

Vesinova and her colleagues told reporters that the man may have belonged to a "third gender." This designation is for people who may be viewed as neither male nor female or some combination of both. In some cases, third-gender individuals are thought to be able to switch between male and female depending on circumstance. Modern examples include the Hijras of India and the Fa'afafine of Polynesia. [5 Myths About Gay People Debunked]

The skeleton has been trumpeted in the media as belonging to a "homosexual caveman," but some archaeologists are skeptical. For one thing, the complexity of the third-gender concept makes calling the skeleton "gay" an oversimplification, Kristina Killgrove, an anthropologist in at the University of North Carolina, wrote in her blog, Bone Girl.

"If this burial represents a transgendered individual (as well it could), that doesn't necessarily mean the person had a 'different sexual orientation' and certainly doesn't mean that he would have considered himself (or that his culture would have considered him) 'homosexual,'" Killgrove wrote.

(Transgender is defined as when gender identity doesn't match physical or genetic sex. Third gender is a broader term that covers a wide range of gender identities in a number of cultures, some of whom reject the male-female binary altogether.)

Archaeologist Monty Dobson of Drury University in Missouri agreed.

"The reality of this is going to be far more complicated than, 'This individual was gay,'" Dobson told LiveScience.

Not only is "gay" an oversimplification, "caveman" is flat-out inaccurate, said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

"Corded-Ware burials are not 'caveman' in age," Hawks told LiveScience. "We're talking about pre-Bronze Age farmers."

Male or female?

Hawks said the third-gender claims are difficult to evaluate without a formal archaeological description.

"I haven't seen any evidence that really convinces me that the skeleton is male," he said. "It could be, but the photo is not convincing on that point, and I have not seen any claim of DNA testing."

It's tough to assign a sex to a skeleton with certainty, Dobson said. Archaeologists and anthropologists usually rely on bone measurements, particularly the size and shape of the pelvis. But these estimates aren't exact, Dobson said.

"There have been cases in the past where a gender was assigned and we have gone back to look and assigned the opposite gender," he said.

After confirming the gender, the second step would be to determine how many examples of gendered Corded Ware burials there are.

"Is this burial unique out of 20 burials or unique out of 20,000 burials?" Killgrove told LiveScience. "That makes a big difference in interpretation."

Both Killgrove and Dobson said that the grave's inhabitant could indeed be a third-gender individual. But there are other possibilities as well, they said. Many cultures buried shamans, or people thought to communicate with the spirit world, in unusual or gender-bending ways, Dobson said. But that burial pattern was related to the shaman's social status, not his or her sexuality.

Even if the skeleton is male, the case for a third gender requires more than a reversal of position and burial goods, Hawk said, pointing to work done by Rosemary Joyce, a University of California, Berkeley anthropologist who specializes in sex and gender in archaeology. In a blog post about the find, Joyce wrote that third-gender burials should follow their own pattern, not just a reversal of typical male-female patterns.

The find is intriguing, Dobson said, but there are many possible interpretations still on the table.

"This might be much ado about nothing, or it might be something that tells us something very interesting," Dobson said. "There simply isn't enough data right now to make that statement definitively."

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas.

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Health Buzz: Fat Stigma Spreading Across World (U.S. News & World Report)

Study: Fat Stigma Spreading Across Globe

The 'fat stigma' is going global: Parts of the world that once viewed plumpness favorably now hold negative attitudes toward extra pounds, new research suggests. Anthropologists at Arizona State University asked 700 people in 10 countries or regions to answer true or false to statements like "Fat people are lazy" and "A big woman is a beautiful woman." The findings, they say, suggest that negative perceptions about overweight people are becoming a cultural norm. Fat stigma now exists everywhere, but is greatest in places that have traditionally considered larger bodies attractive, like Paraguay, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico, according to the study, published in the April issue of the journal Current Anthropology. "The change has come very, very fast in all these places," study author Alexandra Brewis, executive director of the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, told The New York Times. "The next big question is whether it's going to create a lot of new suffering where suffering didn't exist before. It's important that we think about designing health messages around obesity that don't exacerbate the problem."

--Should Kids Be Warned About the Dangers of Obesity?

--Too Fat? No More Excuses

Can Blaming People for Being Fat Help Curb Obesity?

Stigma can be a powerful force in changing behavior, and the obese are the new scapegoats for a lot of our ills. In 2008, a letter published in the Lancet noted that the obese contribute more than their thinner compatriots to food scarcity and global warming, given that they eat more and require more transportation energy to move themselves around. While the authors' intent was probably not to make the obese feel worse, the media translations of the study turned up headlines such as "Fat People Cause Global Warming, Higher Food Prices" and "Scientists Blame Fat People for Global Warming."

You might think that the obese could use some blame. As obesity increasingly becomes the norm, maybe society has grown too accepting, U.S. News reports. Perhaps what is lacking is the same thing that helped smokers lose their butts: a healthy dose of social stigma. If only there were more shame in being fat, maybe more people would be motivated to lose weight. But in fact, researchers say, stigma does very little to motivate overweight or obese people to change.

Why, first, are we increasingly intolerant of the obese even as more of us are joining their ranks? "At the same time that weight has gone up, we've had an increased emphasis on the thin ideal in society," says Janet Latner, a psychologist who studies stigma at the University of Hawaii--Manoa in Honolulu. People also see family and friends lose weight and believe that body weight is completely under our control. [Read more: Can Blaming People for Being Fat Help Curb Obesity?]

--Today's Kids Are Fat. Why? They Eat More

--Top 10 Fat States: Where Obesity Rates Are Highest

The Obesity Epidemic Isn't Just About Willpower

Obesity, not so long ago an issue of personal struggle with fatty foods and bulging waistline, has of late become Public Health Enemy No. 1, blamed for almost a third of the rise in healthcare spending. Overeaters now find themselves in the same category as smokers or drug addicts, tainted with the aura of moral weakness and lack of willpower. This perspective has begun to spawn tough-love policies geared to prod people into thinness, writes U.S. News's Bernadine Healy. Discriminating against the chubby in social and even employment settings seems to be gaining on the politically correct scale. And levying a "sin tax" on sweet treats, starting with sugary sodas and fruit juices, has a growing following on Capitol Hill.

The sharpened focus on fatness isn't surprising: Overweight is far more pervasive than either smoking or addiction, affecting over 65 percent of the population, and true obesity has more than doubled since 1980, at a cost estimated at more than a hundred billion dollars a year. The obese have shorter lives and face more diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer than the thin, not to speak of the psychological burden and often lowered self-esteem. But using blame and punishment to inspire willpower and discipline in citizens to curb their appetite, eat more fruits and vegetables, and exercise more is not likely to work. Why? Because it does not begin to take into account the biological complexity of obesity and the enormous biological differences among individuals that make weight loss a snap for some and a near impossibility for others. [Read more: The Obesity Epidemic Isn't Just About Willpower.]

--The Huge Health Toll Obesity Takes on Kids

--5 Lessons From the Nation's Obesity Report Card

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Sands, not lights, cover Gaza archaeology sites (Reuters)

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (Reuters) – Five thousand years of fascinating history lie beneath the sands of the Gaza Strip, from blinded biblical hero Samson to British general Allenby.

The flat, sandy lands on the Mediterranean's southeastern shore have been ruled by Ancient Egyptians, Philistines, Romans, Byzantines and Crusaders.

Alexander the Great besieged the city. Emperor Hadrian visited. Mongols raided Gaza, and 1,400 years ago Islamic armies invaded. Gaza has been part of the Ottoman Empire, a camp for Napoleon and a First World War battleground.

But archaeology here does not flourish.

"The only way to preserve what we discover is to bury it until the proper tools are available," says Hassan Abu Halabyea of the Gaza ministry of Tourism and Archaeology.

"We lack the capability, the support and the proper materials needed to maintain this historical site or that. We bury it to preserve it from destruction," he says.

ONE-MAN MUSEUM

Waleed Al-Aqqad is an amateur archaeologist who has turned his house into a museum of ancient artifacts, cramming his rooms with old weapons and a collection of clay jars centuries old.

"This is a clay-made oil-fueled lighting tool that goes back to the Greek era of 93 A.D. This is another that was made during the Roman time in 293 A.D," he says.

"This is a spear from the Ottoman times," he beams.

Marble plaques, swords and coins decorate the walls and the courtyard of his home in Khan Younis, adorned with the sign: "Welcome to Aqqad's Cultural Museum."

The 54-year-old Palestinian has spent 30 years searching and digging, sometimes in risky areas near the fortified Israeli border. Israel ended its 38-year occupation of Gaza and pulled out in 2005, but still blockades the hostile enclave.

His antiquities display symbols of the Christian and Muslim civilizations that have marked the territory over 2,000 years, recovered from the sites of ancient churches and cemeteries.

"I undertook this work in order to preserve Palestinian history. I wanted to salvage it from being wasted or falsified. I tried to save whatever can be saved," explains Aqqad, displaying a rusty cannon he says he hid from Israeli troops.

SAINT HILARION

But one man's enthusiasm cannot do justice to what still lies buried in densely populated Gaza, where 1.5 million Palestinians have more on their minds than ancient history.

In Zawayda village, 15 kms (10 miles) from Gaza City, Abu Halabyea's ministry struggles to preserve the site of the Saint Hilarion monastery, battling lack of know-how and tools.

Located near the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, it dates back to 329 AD when Hilarion returned from Egypt to Gaza after studying under Saint Anthony. It consists of several structures surrounded by an outer wall, including two churches, a burial site, a baptism hall and dining rooms.

First discovered in 1992, excavation work has gone slowly. At several points when digging stopped, the site had to be buried in sand for protection.

Work has been overseen by French experts who make seasonal trips to explore and supervise excavation, but they take their tools with them when they go home, says Abu Halabeya.

Fadel Al-A'utul, in charge of the French work, said two French archaeologists began visiting Gaza in the 1990s but had now shifted their attention to other Arab countries.

The United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, and the Jerusalem-based Ecole Biblique et Archaeologique are helping to prepare for a proper museum in Gaza that would be funded by Switzerland, though no date has been finalized for a start up, Al-A'utul said.

In the meantime, Gaza students do what they can to keep archaeological work going. But life's realities get in the way.

Since its seizure by the armed Islamist movement Hamas in 2007, Gaza has paid a heavy price for the hostility its latest rulers display toward Israel, which Hamas refuses to recognize.

Ironically, Gaza today may seem closer to some form of independence than at any time in its history of invasion and occupation. But for the United Nations, Israel's tight control of land, air and sea access means it is still effectively an occupied territory -- a definition Israel strongly denies.

Islamist rocket and mortar strikes at Israeli land and towns are met with Israeli airstrikes and tank fire, in a never ending war of nerves that spilled over into all-out conflict in the winter of 2008-2009 and flared up again just last weekend.

It is hardly an inviting climate for the world's archaeological experts other than, perhaps, the mythical Indiana Jones. And it would not be Gaza if there were no heated disputes concerning the role of the Israelis.

Abu Halabeya accuses them of appropriating antiquities they discovered during the occupation of Gaza which he says are now housed in two museums in Israel, including the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum in Jerusalem which boasts a treasury of finds ranging from the Stone Age to the 18th Century.

"Ministry officials have met representatives of various international institutions and urged them to help in returning antiquities and archaeological items that were taken out of Gaza Strip," he says.

(Editing by Douglas Hamilton)

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About '1,000 relics' stolen during Egypt uprising (AFP)

MADRID (AFP) – Thieves stole around 1,000 relics from museums and archeological sites across Egypt since protests against the government broke out in January, Egypt's minister for antiquities Zahi Hawass said Sunday in a newspaper interview.

"We are investigating all the incidents to find the items. Up until now we have identified many culprits, criminals who were looking for gold or mummies and who lacked knowledge of the value of the items they stole," he told Spanish daily El Mundo.

"They were not organised, they lived near the archeological sites where the objects were kept. They would take advantage of the night to enter the archeological sites and pillage," he added.

"About 1,000 objects were stolen, none of them major items. There is an inventory of everything and it will be difficult for the items to leave the country."

The inventory of all the items that were stolen during the uprising and the weeks of unrest that followed will be given to UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, Hawass said.

The tomb of Hetep-ka at Saqqara and the tomb of Em-pi at Giza as well as the Egyptian museum in Cairo, which houses most of the King Tutankhamen collection, were among the places targeted by thieves, he added.

Hawass was named minister of antiquities last month. He had served as head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and later became minister of state under ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

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Film claims discovery of nails from Jesus's cross (Reuters)

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Could two of the nails used to crucify Jesus have been discovered in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Jerusalem?

And could they have mysteriously disappeared for 20 years, only to turn up by chance in a Tel Aviv laboratory?

That is the premise of the new documentary film "The Nails of the Cross" by veteran investigator Simcha Jacobovici, which even before its release has prompted debate in the Holy Land.

The film follows three years of research during which Jacobovici presents his assertions -- some based on empirical data, others requiring much imagination and a leap of faith.

He hails the find as historic, but most experts and scholars contacted by Reuters dismissed his case as far-fetched, some calling it a publicity stunt.

Many ancient relics, including other nails supposedly traced back to the crucifixion, have been presented over the centuries as having a connection to Jesus. Many were deemed phony, while others were embraced as holy.

Jacobovici, who sparked debate with a previous film that claimed to reveal the lost tomb of Jesus, says this find differs from others because of its historical and archaeological context.

"What we are bringing to the world is the best archaeological argument ever made that two of the nails from the crucifixion of Jesus have been found," he said in an interview, wearing his trademark traditional knitted cap.

"Do I know 100 percent yes, these are them? I don't."

CONSPIRACY, SLIP-UP OR BASELESS?

The film begins by revisiting an ancient Jerusalem grave discovered in 1990 which was hailed by many at the time as the burial place of the Jewish high priest Caiaphas, who in the New Testament presides over the trial of Jesus.

The grave, along with a number of ossuaries, or bone boxes, was uncovered during construction work on a hillside a few kilometers south of the Old City. It has since been resealed.

Caiaphas is a major figure in the Gospels, having sent Jesus to the Romans and on to his death, and one of Jacobovici's assertions is that the high priest was not such a bad guy.

Two iron nails were found in the tomb, one on the ground and one actually inside an ossuary, and, according to the film, mysteriously disappeared shortly after. Jacobovici says he tracked them down to a laboratory in Tel Aviv of an anthropologist who is an expert on ancient bones.

And if they are indeed the same nails -- eaten away by rust and bent at the end, almost purposefully -- was their disappearance a conspiracy or a logistical slip-up?

No definite answer is offered.

Either way, Jacobovici shows why those nails could have been used in a crucifixion, which was a common practice two thousand years ago. He then offers his theory about why they may have been used in the most famous crucifixion in history.

"If you look at the whole story, historical, textual, archaeological, they all seem to point at these two nails being involved in a crucifixion," he said. "And since Caiaphas is only associated with Jesus's crucifixion, you put two and two together and they seem to imply that these are the nails."

The Israel Antiquities Authority, which oversaw the Jerusalem excavation, said in reaction to the film's release that it had never been proven beyond doubt that the tomb was the burial place of Caiaphas. It also said that nails are commonly found in tombs.

"There is no doubt that the talented director Simcha Jacobovici created an interesting film with a real archaeological find at its center, but the interpretation presented in it has no basis in archaeological findings or research," it said.

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)

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Guards, guns secure Egypt's ancient treasures again (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters Life!) – Security has been tightened around Egypt's antiquities trove, the target of looters during mass protests, the country's top archaeologist said on Monday, adding he would now resume a quest to repatriate prized items.

Several Pharaonic-era treasures went missing when looters broke into the Egyptian Museum on January 28 at the height of clashes between police and protesters who eventually deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

Thieves also broke into a warehouse near the pyramids of Dahshour, 35 km (22 miles) south of Cairo, striking twice within the span of a few days and taking hundreds of items.

Some items have since been returned, and security has been reinstated around several tourist sites after the protests died down and a military council took over from Mubarak.

"We are now protecting the Egyptian monuments, we're putting security everywhere ... we are putting guards with guns everywhere," Zahi Hawass, the Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, told Reuters. "People feel the stability now."

Last week, four Pharaonic items taken from the museum were returned to the palatial building in Tahrir Square, the center of the mass protests.

These included a gilded wooden statue of Tutankhamun, a gilded bronze and wood trumpet and a fan that belonged to the boy king and a small funerary figurine, or ushabti.

CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE

To date, 37 objects remain missing from the museum, Hawass said, adding the extent of the looting was minute considering the chaos that swept the city during the protests.

"If the police left New York city or any city in Germany or any other part of the world for a few hours, the locals could damage everything," he said. "Egypt's youth protected the museum from major looting and damage."

Hawass, a celebrity who styles himself on Indiana Jones, the fictional explorer played by Hollywood star Harrison Ford, is a controversial figure within Egypt and the international archaeological community.

He came under fire earlier this year over the looting of the museum after he played down the significance of the pieces stolen. He later admitted that eight valuable pieces from the era of Pharaohs Tutankhamun and Akhenaten were stolen, raising questions about why he had said otherwise.

Experts have suggested the thieves knew exactly what they were looking for.

Hawass, who was promoted to the level of minister of state during Mubarak's reshuffle after the uprising gathered pace, resigned early March after colleagues accused him of smuggling antiquities. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf reappointed him to his post a month later.

This week, he was named in a court case involving the Supreme Antiquities Council he heads. Local media said he had been sacked, and jailed, but Hawass said his lawyers had stopped all proceedings on Monday.

Hawass, who has spearheaded a long-running campaign to return Egyptian antiquities on display abroad, said that with the security now restored, he would resume efforts to return the bust of Queen Nefertiti, one of ancient Egypt's most replicated works, from Berlin.

The 3,400-year-old limestone sculpture, famed for its almond-shaped eyes and swan-like neck, has long stirred debate between Germany and Egypt over requests to return it.

"I am defending my country, I am defending antiquities and I will continue to do that," he said.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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Rome's bloody, art-loving emperor Nero in new show (AFP)

ROME (AFP) – It's safe to say that the Emperor Nero -- the subject of a major new exhibition and archaeology trail that opened in the Roman Forum this week -- has always had something of an image problem.

He has gone down in the history books as the man who had his domineering mother Agrippina killed, kicked his pregnant wife Poppaea to death and -- as legend would have it -- played his lyre on a hill while Rome burnt below him.

The new exhibit "Nero", which runs until September 18, sets out to show that the murderous emperor was not all bad and was also a lavish patron of the arts and an innovative urban planner who re-fashioned large parts of ancient Rome.

"It's not an attempt at rehabilitating Nero. It helps to explain his merits, his qualities but also his failings, to give a fuller image," Italy's junior culture minister Francesco Maria Giro told reporters on a tour of the show.

"He was a man full of lights and shadows," Giro said, adding: "The exhibition is set out across the area where Nero conducted his public and private life," including the Roman Forum, the Palatine Hill and his Domus Aurea palace.

Nero became emperor at just 17 in 54 AD thanks to his mother and met his end in 68 AD after his legions and the Roman Senate rebelled against him. He fled Rome and stabbed himself in the throat before he could be arrested.

The victims of his rule included not only his mother and two wives, but also his rival Britannicus and his philosophical mentor Seneca who was accused of plotting to assassinate Nero and was ordered by the emperor to kill himself.

The characters of a life that reads like a cross between a horror film and a soap opera come to life in the exhibition, which begins with busts and portraits of Nero, Agrippina and Poppaea in the Roman Curia in the Forum.

The flavour of emperor's decadent rule is re-created with showings of the cult 1951 film "Quo Vadis?" starring Peter Ustinov as Nero projected inside the Temple of Romulus -- now the church of Saints Cosma and Damiano.

But the centrepiece of the trail is Nero's vast palace complex, the Domus Aurea, which was never completed and was destroyed by a fire after his death.

The palace "was an extremely complex structure" which occupied a vast chunk of ancient Rome, Rossella Rea, director of the Colosseum museum, told AFP.

"It was a complex of various palaces set in a very green landscape and rich in aquatic imagery. We have to remember that the place where the Flavian emperors had the Colosseum built was a large artificial lake," Rea said.

Even the name Colosseum comes from a "colossal" 35-metre high statue of the Sun God with Nero's features that stood on the site.

Visitors can also see for the first time the famous "Cenatio Rotunda" -- a revolving dining room in the palace complex that was discovered in 2009.

But access to the interior of the Domus Aurea itself is barred as the structure has been severely weakened by water leakage and is being restored.

Rea's tip for visitors is to leave plenty of time for the exhibition, spread across eight locations. The average time to complete the tour? Three hours.

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Egypt's antiquities chief to appeal jail term (AFP)

CAIRO (AFP) – A court in Egypt on Sunday sentenced minister for antiquities Zahi Hawass to a year in jail and removal from his post after he refused to implement a court decision, a judicial source told AFP.

Hawass, who was named minister of antiquities last month and was head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and later minister of state under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, immediately said he would appeal.

The sentence will be suspended until the appeal ruling.

Sunday's sentence against Hawass -- known internationally as a leading Egyptologist -- came after a suit was filed against him in a land dispute while he was still the country's antiquities supremo.

In the ruling, Hawass was ordered to return the land to the plaintiff, but he allegedly refused to do so.

Hawass was sentenced to a year in prison, a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (more than $1,600) in damages plus interest, and to be removed from his post.

He confirmed to reporters that he intended to appeal, and added that the court ruling had not targeted him "personally."

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Animal rights group gives royal couple "cruelty-free silk" gift (Reuters)

NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) – Animal rights group PETA hopes its wedding gift to Kate Middleton and Prince William, a set of traditional wedding garments made of artificial silk, will help raise awareness of how cruel traditional versions of the fabric can be.

The future King of England and his bride-to-be have been sent a faux-silk sari and sherwani patterned jacket, worn by couples in traditional Indian weddings, by the Indian branch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the group said on Monday.

"We hope Kate and William enjoy our cruelty-free gift as a symbol of compassion and love for each other and all creatures on their special day," said Poorva Joshipura, Chief Functionary of PETA India.

Around 1,500 silkworms are killed to produce 100 grams of silk, used in many traditional garments in India, the world's biggest consumer and second-largest producer of the fabric after China, a PETA release said.

Artifical silk is made from a blend of polyester, rayon and other man-made fibers. The traditional use of silkworms to make silk garments was criticised by Mahatma Gandhi.

Prince William, second in line to the throne, will marry University sweetheart Middleton in a ceremony on Friday that experts say could be watched by 2 billion people worldwide.

(Reporting by Henry Foy, editing by Elaine Lies)

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Congress measure against wolves seen as precedent (AP)

BILLINGS, Mont. – The White House is poised to accept a budget bill that includes an unprecedented end-run around Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in five Western states — the first time Congress has targeted a species protected under the 37-year-old law.

Lawmakers describe the provision in the spending bill as a necessary intervention in a wildlife dilemma that some say has spun out of control. Sixty-six wolves were reintroduced to the Northern Rockies from Canada in the mid-1990s; there are now at least 1,650.

But legal experts warn the administration's support of lifting protections for the animals opens the door to future meddling by lawmakers catering to anti-wildlife interests.

The endangered act has long been reviled by conservatives who see it as a hindrance to economic development. Now, the administration's support for the wolf provision signals that protections for even the most imperiled animals, fish and plants are negotiable given enough political pressure, experts said.

Officials in Montana and Idaho already are planning public hunts for the predators this fall, hoping to curb increasingly frequent wolf attacks on livestock and big game herds.

"The president could have used some political capital to influence this and he didn't," said Patrick Parenteau, a professor of environmental law from the Vermont Law School. "The message to the environmental community is, don't count on the administration to be there" for the protection of endangered species.

Environmentalists still count Obama as an ally on other issues, ranging from climate change and wilderness preservation to oil and gas exploration. Yet experts in wildlife law say that in the scramble to pass the budget, the administration is circumventing one of the country's bedrock environmental laws.

That's a bitter pill for conservationists, who hoped a Democratic White House would more aggressively protect a law many say was ignored under the Bush administration.

The next potential blow to the law already is looming. A 2012 budget request from the Department of Interior would impose a sharp spending cap on a program that allows citizens to petition for species to be listed as endangered.

Those petitions were used for the majority of the species added to the list over the last four decades.

"We are having the worst attack on the Endangered Species Act in 30 years while we have a Democratic Senate and a Democratic White House," said Kieran Suckling with the Center for Biological Diversity. "They are trying to shut citizens and scientists out of the endangered species process."

To date, the Obama administration has listed 59 species as endangered — a rate of about 30 a year, according to Suckling's group, which closely tracks endangered species issues.

That's up significantly from the Bush years, when the average was eight per year, but far behind the 65 species per year under the Clinton administration.

Western lawmakers who backed the budget bill rider said the wolf issue was unique and merited special intervention. Federal judges over the last decade had repeatedly blocked attempts to downgrade the legal status of an animal population most biologists agreed was thriving.

Meanwhile, wolf attacks have generated resentment among ranchers and sportsmen. Those groups are increasingly frustrated they have been unable to strike back against the predators.

J.B. Ruhl, an expert in the Endangered Species Act at Florida State University, warned against reading too much into the wolf provision, which was latched onto a must-pass bill needed to avert a government shutdown.

"It seems to me the planets had to be aligned just right to make this happen," Ruhl said. "There might be a wing of the Republican party that would love to see the Endangered Species Act reformed, but I don't think they are going to be able to ram that through anytime soon."

Support within the Obama administration for lifting wolf protections predates the budget negotiations. That stance mirrors the government's actions under the Bush administration, when officials first proposed lifting protections.

The White House referred questions to the office of Interior Sec. Ken Salazar.

Interior spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff refused to directly address the legislation. She said the agency views the Endangered Species Act as a "critical safety net" that has prevented the extinction of hundreds of imperiled species.

"It is our responsibility to continue implementing the law," she said.

Some critics of congressional intervention characterized the budget bill rider as Republican meddling on an issue best settled through open hearings. Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, accused the GOP of wanting to "kill wolves instead of cutting pork."

Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Barbara Boxer of California also have spoken against the measure.

Yet it had a degree of bipartisan support heading into the budget negotiations. Montana's two Democratic senators, Jon Tester and Max Baucus, both took credit for getting the language into the budget bill.

"It was a little hard persuading Sen. Boxer and Sen. Cardin that we're not gutting the Endangered Species Act," Baucus said in an interview. "They don't have the same understanding of the wolf problem that we have."

Congress has stepped into divisive wildlife issues before, such as in the 1980s when it exempted from the endangered act a hydroelectric dam proposed by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The dam was constructed in an area inhabited by an endangered fish, the snail darter.

During the West Coast timber wars of the 1990s, Congress used a legislative rider to allow logging despite potential threats to the endangered spotted owl.

The case of wolves is different because lawmakers are directly targeting an endangered animal, not merely promoting economic development a species was thought to be impeding.

The Supreme Court made clear with a ruling in the snail darter case that legislative riders do not violate the U.S. Constitution, said Fred Cheever with the University of Denver's Sturm School of Law.

Still, Cheever said the intervention with wolves still represents a dangerous precedent because it is being used to negate rulings made by federal courts. That effectively eliminates the judicial branch's role in deciding what legal protections are needed to prevent a species from going extinct.

"It's a scary road to go down," Cheever said. "Everything is a bargaining chip, from bombers to baby care. Riders aren't limited to the Endangered Species Act."

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AP Interview: Branson says island may save lemurs (AP)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Billionaire Richard Branson says he wants to use one of his private Caribbean islands to help save an endangered species of African primate.

The British entrepreneur plans to introduce lemurs to the undeveloped Moskito Island in the British Virgin Islands. Branson tells The Associated Press that he hopes to create a thriving population to help make up for the loss of their native habitat on the island of Madagascar.

Branson said Monday that he hopes to bring the first group of about 30 from zoos in the coming weeks. He calls it a radical idea and says he will try to address concerns of critics who fear the plan will hurt native lizard and bird populations.

Moskito is about 85 miles (135 kilometers) east of Puerto Rico.

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Hunter becomes guardian of Taiwan's bears (AFP)

YULI, Taiwan (AFP) – When he was young, Taiwanese aboriginal hunter Lin Yuan-yuan became a legend after he killed two ferocious Formosan black bears. Now he has devoted his life to saving the endangered species.

The 55-year-old is still revered by his tribe, the Bunun mountain people, as a guardian of the island's biggest land animal as it struggles to survive poaching and continued degradation of its traditional habitat.

"When I see an animal, I no longer want to shoot it. I want to film it," Lin said.

"I feel happy every time I'm in the mountains," he added, caressing the camera he uses to capture images of animals he encounters in Yushan National Park, one of the bears' two major natural habitats in Taiwan.

Now a ranger, Lin is in a four-member team that patrols the park regularly, covering 40 percent of its 105,000 hectares (260,000 acres) on foot every month.

The transformation into a government employee has not been easy for a person who was born into an aboriginal family and taught hunting skills from early childhood.

Lin, better known to his Bunun people by the name of Ison, killed his first bear on a winter day when he was just 19 years old.

"I saw two animals in the woods," he said, remembering the incident in the eastern Taiwan mountains that made him a local hero 36 years ago.

"At first, I thought they were wild boars. So I fired at one of them and only then did I realise they were actually bears."

The bear, a male of about 70 kilograms (154 pounds), was only 15 metres away from him, roaring with pain for about a minute before collapsing on the ground, he said.

Lin and his cousin had to stay in a shelter on the mountain for two days to prepare the animal for transportation down to the village -- skinning the bear, cutting up the meat and roasting it.

When he arrived in the village, Lin was greeted in accordance with age-old tradition, welcomed as a true son of the Bunun tribe with ceremonies and celebrations.

His status as a brave hunter against the island's most dreaded animal was further consolidated after he killed a second bear two years later.

Not long after its establishment in 1985, he joined the Yushan National Park. The job allowed him a stable income and 13 years later it paved the way for a dramatic change in his life.

As a ranger familiar with the bears' habitat, he was approached in 1998 by Hwang Mei-hsiu, a scholar who had dedicated herself to research into the endangered species.

She needed help for a field study which required capturing bears in the wild, fitting them with radio transmitters and releasing them to monitor their movements.

For the first time the study was able to lay bare the dangers confronting Taiwan's indigenous bears, using concrete scientific evidence

Despite a ban on hunting, Hwang's study proved that poaching had been rampant as eight out of the 15 bears they captured in the two years to 1999 in one specific area had lost a paw or several claws when recaptured.

"The bears had fallen victims to hunters' traps, and they were hurt, even though the traps might not necessarily target the bears," said Hwang, who is nicknamed "Bear Mother" by the aborigines.

Killing a bear may bring hunters an illegal profit of Tw$150,000 ($5,200) through the sale of the bear's paws, a delicacy, and bile, an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicines, she said.

To protect the island's endangered species, the authorities in 1989 enacted a law under which poachers of bears and other rare animals may face a jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to Tw$1 million.

Some biologists estimate there may be hundreds of Formosan black bears, largely at elevations of 1,000 metres to 2,000 metres (3,300 feet to 6,600 feet) in the Yushan park and the neighbouring Shei-Pa National Park.

They are elusive, but if anyone is capable of finding them it is Lin, using his hunting skills for new, less lethal purposes.

"Lin has always taken us to places where he thought bears might show up," Hwang's assistant Lin Kuan-fu said.

"He is so familiar with the eastern part of the national park that he doesn't even need a map," he said.

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Great Lakes wolves could come off endangered list (AP)

By JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer John Flesher, Ap Environmental Writer – Fri Apr 15, 6:33 pm ET

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – Federal officials said Friday they would try again to remove Endangered Species Act protections from gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region, where they are thriving after being threatened with extinction decades ago.

Courts have overruled several attempts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to drop wolves from the endangered list, siding with environmentalists whose lawsuits contended the predator's status remains shaky even though about 4,200 wander forests and fields of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Agency officials said their new proposal addresses concerns raised by federal judges and should survive legal challenges. They will take public comment for 60 days before making a final decision.

"Wolves in the western Great Lakes have achieved recovery," said Rowan Gould, acting director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Its action came one day after Congress voted to strip wolves of federal protection in five Northern Rockies states: Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Utah — the first time lawmakers have exempted a particular species from coverage under the 1974 law. In both regions, officials report a rising tide of frustration as packs attack livestock, hunting dogs and big game while their endangered status prohibits even wildlife managers from killing them.

If removed from the federal list, wolves would be overseen by state natural resources agencies. Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have plans meant to keep the populations at healthy levels while allowing government agents to kill animals that can't be driven away. None would allow hunting or trapping for at least five years as now written, although the states could revise them.

"We've gone too long without that ability to manage some of these problem wolves and curtail the populations in certain areas," said Brian Roell, a Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife specialist. "It erodes the public support that wolves do have. In some areas it's gone close to zero."

In Michigan's far north, where the latest count totaled 557, people are taking matters into their own hands, Roell said. Ten illegally killed wolves have been found in the Upper Peninsula this year.

The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the organizations whose lawsuits have preserved the wolves' legal shield, said removing it could unravel progress toward restoring them. Thanks in part to government bounties, they had mostly disappeared from Michigan and Wisconsin and plummeted in Minnesota before protection took effect.

Despite their rapid growth, Great Lakes wolves remain vulnerable to diseases such as parvovirus and mange as well as human attacks, said Collette Adkins Giese, an attorney and biologist with the center. She noted that Wisconsin's management plan calls for a population of 350 wolves, only half the current total.

"We still might get back to a situation where they are really struggling to survive," Adkins Giese said, adding that her group would study the Fish and Wildlife Service's plan before deciding whether to fight it in court.

Rebecca Schroeder, conservation chief in Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources, said the goal of 350 was set in 1999, when biologists thought the population would level off as suitable habitat became saturated.

"Wolves have proven to be more adaptable than we thought and are using areas we didn't expect them to use," Schroeder said. Even so, the plan doesn't require pushing the number down to 350, she said.

The federal agency's new proposal is the fourth in eight years to change the wolf's legal status in the region. A federal judge overturned the most recent attempt in 2009, questioning whether it was legal to designate Great Lakes wolves as a distinct segment of the species while also dropping them from the protected list.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's new proposal includes a defense of the procedure that the agency believes courts will accept, spokeswoman Georgia Parham said.

For the first time, the proposal recognizes the existence of two species of wolves in the region: the gray wolf, the type listed under the Endangered Species Act, and the eastern wolf, which historically ranged in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. The proposal to remove federal protections applies to both.

Scientists have long debated whether the Great Lakes population included one or two species. Genetic analysis has led the Fish and Wildlife Service to conclude there are two, said wildlife biologist Laura Ragan of the Minneapolis office. Some individuals are hybrids.

The agency plans to study the status of the eastern wolf throughout its historical range, including the northeastern U.S. — where none are known to live at present — and Canada, where they do exist, Ragan said.

Adkins Giese said the discovery of separate species underscores the importance of retaining legal protection. Any effort to significantly reduce numbers could endanger one or the other, especially as some are interbreeding, she said.

"Wolf conservation in the Great Lakes region is far more complex than previously understood," she said.

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Primitive Sea Creature Sports Eyes Made of Rock (LiveScience.com)

A tiny sea mollusk uses eyes made of a calcium carbonate crystal to spot predators lurking above, researchers say of the first such rocky lenses found in the animal kingdom.

While scientists had discovered the hundreds of eye-like structures on the surface of this armored mollusk, called a chiton, decades ago, they didn't know what they were made of or whether they could actually see objects or just sensed light. [Image of chiton eyes]

"Turns out they can see objects, though probably not well," said study researcher Daniel Speiser, who recently became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

For comparison, the study found that chiton vision would be the equivalent of humans looking in the sky and seeing a disk the diameter of 20 moons, making human vision about a thousand times sharper than chiton vision, the researchers said. [Jellyfish Have Human-Like Eyes]

Chitons first appeared on Earth more than 500 million years ago. But according to the fossil record, the oldest chitons with eyes didn't emerge until the last 25 million years, making their eyes among the most recent to evolve in animals.

The eyes likely evolved so chitons could see and defend against predators, Speiser said.

To figure out how the stony eyes held up against predators, Speiser and Duke biologist Sönke Johnsen studied West Indian fuzzy chitons (Acanthopleura granulata), which are 3 inches (nearly 8 cm) long, in the lab. Like other chitons, these creatures have flat shells made of eight separate plates with hundreds of tiny lenses on the surface covering clusters of light-sensitive cells beneath.

The team realized in a lab experiment that the animal's lenses were made of aragonite (calcium carbonate), rather than proteins like other biological lenses. Then, the duo placed the chitons on a slate slab and as soon as the animal lifted part of its body to breathe, the researchers showed them either a black disk of varying sizes or a corresponding gray slide that blocked the same amount of light. The objects were held just above the chitons.

The blocked light got no response, but when the hovering disk at least an inch (3 cm) or larger came into view the chitons clamped down.

Because the chitons responded to the larger disks and not the gray slides, they seem to be seeing the disk and not simply responding to a change in light, said University of Sussex biologist Michael Land, an expert on animal vision who was not involved in the research. But it's not yet clear if they respond only to the removal of light by the disk as opposed to added light.

The experiments also suggested the eyes had similar abilities in both water and air, suggesting the chiton could see above and below the water.

The results of the chiton study will appear in the April 26 Current Biology.

You can follow LiveScience managing editor Jeanna Bryner on Twitter @jeannabryner.

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California tosses out solar power plant lawsuit (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California's supreme court refused to consider a lawsuit filed by an influential environmental group seeking to delay construction of a solar plant because it might harm rare plant and animal species.

The state supreme court said it would not review the Sierra Club's complaint against the Calico Solar Project -- one of a string of lawsuits accusing solar power plant projects across the largest U.S. state of harming the environment.

The court offered no explanation. In its complaint, America's oldest environmental organization argued to the courts that the California Energy Commission had approved the Calico project improperly, failing to take into account potential harm to native flora and fauna.

The commission cheered the ruling, while the Sierra Club said it would wait and see before taking further action. Complicating things, the project had recently changed hands -- from original developer NTR's Tessera Solar to K Road Sun, an arm of a New York-based investment firm.

David Graham-Caso, a spokesman for the environmental group, said the new developers may use different technology that might alter projections of how the giant project could impact the natural habitats of species like the desert tortoise and big-horned sheep. He said the group would keep a close eye on the project's evolution under new management.

"We support well-planned projects. This was not one of them," Graham said. "Different technology affects the land in different ways."

Conflicts between solar proponents and foes are taking on growing importance as the industry experiences a boom, particularly for California.

Other companies with plants under development that are raising environmental concerns include First Solar Inc and SunPower Corp.

The Sierra Club's lawsuit charged regulators failed to fully mitigate the project's impact on rare plant and animal species, and asked the court to void approval and permits.

It was one of a string of suits targeting planned solar plants, potentially setting back the development of solar energy and derailing state and federal commitments to lessening dependence on fossil fuels.

In December, a group called La Cuna de Aztlan, which represents Native American groups such as the Chemehuevi and the Apache, filed a challenge in federal court to the federal government's approval of six big solar plants. That same month, the Quechan Indian tribe won an injunction blocking construction of the Imperial Valley solar project, under development near California's border with Mexico.

The Calico plant was under development by Tessera until the company sold the plant last month to K Road Sun, a subsidiary of New York investment firm K Road Power.

Last year, just three new utility-scale solar plants serving California came online, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. Now, there are more than 40 plants with contracts or pending contracts with the state's utilities under development.

While fostering renewable energy has become an important federal and state goal, proposed plants are meeting increasing resistance from groups that believe the plants will do irreparable harm to threatened or endangered plants and animals or historic areas.

The ruling "is a boon for California's economy and could pave the way for hundreds of construction and operator jobs over the next several years," California Energy Commission chair Robert Weisenmiller said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom and Edwin Chan; Editing by Bernard Orr and Richard Chang)

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Tsunami-hit Japanese whalers set sail for hunt (AFP)

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese whalers launched their annual coastal hunt with five crew from the tsunami-devastated whaling town of Ayukawa joining their first voyage since the March 11 disaster.

Two whaling vessels left Kushiro on Tuesday, on the east coast of the northern island of Hokkaido after their departure was delayed by one day due to bad weather, said Hiroko Furukawa, a fisheries agency official.

The crew from Ayukawa Whaling, the only whaling company in Ayukawa, were on board to catch up to 60 minke whales off Kushiro until June, the official said.

"Local whaling officials are preparing to accept people from Ayukawa, who were victimised by the disaster," Furukawa said, adding that another 23 people from Ayukawa had come to Kushiro to work in processing whale meat.

The massive tsunami that last month slammed into Japan's northeast coast destroyed Ayukawa Whaling's storage facility and carried its fleet of three whaling ships hundreds of metres inland, where they remain.

Ayukawa Whaling chairman Minoru Ito has said he would lay off all 28 employees and suspend whaling operations in the town until further notice.

The tsunami came shortly after Japan recalled its Antarctic whaling fleet a month early, citing the threat posed by the militant environmentalist outfit Sea Shepherd.

The group, which says its tactics are non-violent but aggressive, has hurled paint and stink bombs at whaling ships, snared their propellers with rope and moved its own boats between the harpoon ships and their prey.

Japan has continued to hunt whales under a loophole that allows killing of the sea mammals for what it calls "scientific research", although the meat is later sold openly in shops and restaurants.

Japan also argues that whaling is an integral part of the island nation's culture.

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Former Cambodian poacher turns gamekeeper (AFP)

MONDULKIRI, Cambodia (AFP) – As a hunter roaming the remote forests of eastern Cambodia, Lean Kha shot animals from dozens of endangered species, including tigers, bears and elephants.

But the repentant former poacher is now putting his tracking skills to good use as a wildlife ranger in Mondulkiri Protected Forest, which Cambodia hopes will become an eco-tourism hotspot.

Over nearly three decades, the 50-year-old shot hundreds of creatures as he tried to eke out a living in poverty-stricken Mondulkiri province, a sparsely populated and mountainous area nestled against the border with Vietnam.

Most of the carcasses were sold, though some wild cattle, deer and pigs were used to feed his family.

"I shot them because we had nothing to eat," Kha said as he prepared for a patrol at a ranger outpost in Mereuch, deep inside the protected forest. "Now I never eat wildlife. I will not destroy what I am protecting."

The Cambodian government hopes to attract more visitors to the forest, which covers some 300,000 hectares and is rich in natural beauty, to help provide a steady income for local communities.

It has joined forces with conservation groups who have recruited experienced hunters like Kha to help protect endangered animals and keep illegal loggers at bay.

Keo Sopheak, who manages Mondulkiri Protected Forest for the government's Forestry Administration, envisages a future where locals "go into the forests to guide the tourists, not to hunt wildlife".

Much of Mondulkiri's wildlife was wiped out by poachers during the country's three decades of conflict, which ended in 1998.

Kha himself started hunting at the age of 13, when he was recruited by Khmer Rouge soldiers.

Armed with an AK-47 rifle, he recalls disappearing into the jungle for days before returning with an ox-cart full of wild meat, horns and tiger bones -- kills he now says he regrets.

"At that time I was totally ignorant," he said. "I didn't know the value of the animals. I had never heard about wildlife conservation."

Nor did poaching make him rich. The income was irregular and he earned just enough for his family to get by. Often, he was paid with bags of rice.

After being approached by wildlife conservationists who offered him a steady salary as a forest ranger, Kha decided he had more to gain from safeguarding animals.

That was more than a decade ago, and he is now a keen protector of wildlife as he tries to make up for what he calls "his past sins".

Kha is not alone -- 10 other ex-poachers also work as rangers in the dense forest.

With financial backing from international conservation group WWF, they spend at least 16 days a month patrolling the vast area on elephant back, on foot or by boat, always in the company of armed policemen.

Last year, the patrol teams arrested eight poachers caught with rare or endangered species.

"Nowadays, I feel very happy. All of us want to... preserve rare wildlife so that they will survive for the next generation," Kha said as he steered a small boat along the murky Sre Pok river, on the lookout for illegal poaching or logging activities.

Their efforts appear to be paying off, with increased sightings reported of Asian elephants, black bears, Eld's deer, leopards, rare vulture species and banteng, a type of wild cattle.

"Protection efforts by both government agencies and community rangers like Lean Kha have helped to deter people from hunting wildlife which has seen a rise in animal observations," said WWF programme manager Michelle Owen.

But the organisation warns more work needs to be done to stamp out poaching, with at least 11 rare and endangered animals known to have been killed in the forest in 2010, including a pygmy loris, a leopard and an Asian elephant.

"Although there are positive signs that wildlife is rebounding, many of the species are globally at risk. These efforts therefore need to be continued and supported by local communities and champions such as Lean Kha," Owen said.

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Endangered wolves fall prey to US politics (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The political tussle over US spending has ensnared an unlikely victim, the gray wolf, whose long-time status as an endangered species will likely be axed due to a late addition to the budget deal.

The annex, or rider, attached by two senators to the federal budget bill after weeks of tumultuous debate, marks the first time that Congress has removed an animal from the endangered species list and is expected to pass in a vote on Thursday.

Added Tuesday, a few days after a deal to prevent the government from shutting down was agreed on, the move has left environmentalists both seething and admitting defeat after years of legal wrangling over the fate of the wolves.

"There is nothing we can do to sue because the rider actually bans the citizens from suing the government over this issue," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

"We are going to have to regroup at this point and come at wolf recovery from a fresh angle because we have been shut down," he told AFP.

At issue is whether wolves, which were heavily hunted in the US west for many decades, have recovered in numbers enough to allow hunters to target them again.

The wolves had all but disappeared from the region until they were reintroduced in the 1990s, and their protected status has allowed them to reach a population of 1,651 in the Rocky Mountain region, according to the Sierra Club.

But ranchers say wolves are a nuisance to livestock and could even threaten humans if their population grows too large.

The number of 300 wolves was decided upon as a regional threshold in the late 1980s, even before efforts began to re-establish a wolf population, said Sierra Club spokesman Matt Kirby.

"It was an arbitrary number. It was not based on any science. It was picked out of the air," he told AFP.

Since then, "the science has gone a lot farther and shown that 300 is not enough to have a genetically connected population and to really have a sustainable population, which is the intent of the Endangered Species Act," Kirby said.

The rider caps a legal battle that dates back to the end of the George W. Bush administration, and allows the removal of the gray wolves from the list maintained by the Fish and Wildlife Service under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

The Bush Administration set the delisting in motion during its final weeks in power. The controversial move was upheld by the Barack Obama administration, but 14 environmental groups sued and won their case to prevent it from happening in 2010.

Tuesday's rider reverses that and effectively puts an end to the matter by preventing further legal action.

Two senators, Republican Mike Simpson of Idaho and Democrat Jon Tester of Montana, both from states with growing wolf populations, added the rider to the compromise bill -- agreed shortly before midnight on Friday (0400 GMT Saturday) -- that funds the US government to October 1.

Tester, who chairs the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, said in a statement that the "bipartisan provision" would return wolf management to the states and remove protected status because the once-vulnerable population has recovered.

"Right now, Montana's wolf population is out of balance and this provision will get us back on the responsible path with state management. Wolves have recovered in the Northern Rockies," he said.

"By untying the hands of the Montana biologists who know how to keep the proper balance, we will restore healthy wildlife populations and we will protect livestock."

Environmentalists allege that Tester is facing a perilous re-election bid in a remote, right-leaning state where hunting is popular, and is seeking to gain favor from voters.

"While normally the Democratic party and the White House would oppose this and not let a bill go through, they have decided it is more important to boost Jon Tester's poll numbers for the upcoming election than to protect wolves," said Suckling.

"It doesn't save any money at all. It is a terrible harm to the economy," he added. "The reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park and the Rocky Mountains have been a huge tourist draw."

Kirby accused Congress of meddling with a federal act that should not be decided on a state-by-state basis.

"The concern is once this has happened, you have really opened the door to politicians cherry-picking the individual species that are inconvenient and just introducing legislation to do away with them," Kirby said.

"We really have to work to make sure Congress does not do this again."

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Animal Rights: Saving Chinese Dogs From the Cooking Pot (The Daily Beast)

NEW YORK – In China, where stewed dog appears on restaurant menus regularly, being an animal-rights activist can be a risky proposition.

Last Friday an animal-rights activist spotted a truck full of dogs on a highway outside of Beijing. He swerved his car in front of the truck, stopping the truck driver and highway traffic; at the same time, he alerted his thousands of followers on Weibo, a Chinese Twitter clone, of the hundreds of dogs languishing in the back, bound for restaurant tables in Northeast China. Within an hour, more than 300 supporters had arrived at the scene. "When I saw this on Weibo I was very angry," says A Gui, a 22-year-old snowboard seller, who rushed over after hearing the news. After determining the truck driver's papers were in order, the original activist sent out more posts, and 15 hours later, had raised almost $20,000 to purchase the dogs and deliver them to locations all around Beijing; many ending up at Dongxing Veterinary Hospital in a narrow alley in the center of the city. It was Beijing's first reported citizen's arrest for legal dog trafficking.

This burgeoning animal-rights activism, aided by the ease of Weibo communication, coexists not only with the braised dog stew found on menus across China but also with China's "take many prisoners" attitude toward human-rights activists. Over the past few months, dozens of outspoken lawyers, artists, and underground church pastors have been harassed, detained, or arrested; some activists say it's the most stifling environment since the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. These arrests rarely make it into China's muzzled media. The dog saving, however, has been a very big story. "Weibo is really quick," says Tang Yitong, one of the volunteers. "We wouldn't have been able to do this a few years ago, where you can send a message and suddenly everyone knows." At the same time, on many levels Chinese civil society is flourishing. Some in the domestic NGO world believe 2010 and 2011 have been two of the best years for domestic philanthropy, social innovation, and grassroots NGO growth, especially for those organizations without foreign involvement or politically sensitive agendas. There are almost a million registered dogs in Beijing, and their owners and advocates have a voice.

“I think those who eat dog meat are sons of bitches.”

The scene today at the Dongxing Veterinary Hospital revealed a flourishing civil society tinged with the possibility of repression. At any one time about 30 volunteers, mostly young, white-collar, sleep-deprived women, hustled about the two-story building, carrying dogs, mopping the floors, and arranging the donations of dog food, blankets, and bottled water. A student studying animal law introduced me to some of the more than 50 convalescing dogs. "Although some volunteers write long notes about the dogs because they love them, we're very standardized: The doctors take care of their feeding and medical needs." Representatives from various government bureaus flitted in and out. The volunteers showed around the curmudgeonly, 85-year-old director of China's Small Animal Protection Bureau and made a big scene to show how important she was. "There always has to be an official side in China," grumbled one activist.

For those who pay attention, the specter of the arrest of artist and provocateur Ai Weiwei hangs in the air. Carted away more than two weeks ago without charge, he's the highest profile person to disappear in this recent crackdown. "The dog problem is something we can fix," says one woman, who wanted to be quoted as her Weibo handle, The Thousand Year Small Rabbit, where her posts on beauty tips and animal rights have earned her 30,000 followers. "We can't use our car to bar the road" if they capture an activist, she added. Mao Mao owns a small clothing store and has been volunteering at the hospital every other day. "A lot of human-rights problems we common people can't solve," she said.

In a China that too often looks conformist from the outside, the hospital is a refreshingly quirky place, where people are united by their love of dogs. Tattoos cover almost half of A Gui's body, and a ring earring hangs deep from his ear. "I'm one of those… I like pain," he admits. He leans over conspiratorially and whispers to me "I think those who eat dog meat are sons of bitches." Tang tells me, "I've been to America many times, and when they talk about Chinese and say 'Chinese people eat dogs,' it really hurts." She used to work in hotel public relations, and when she went on domestic business trips, she'd take the train and fly her two dogs to meet her.

One of the neighbors yells, and a heavyset volunteer runs out to mediate, carrying a cigarette and wearing an English language shirt which claims that she's jailbait. Mao Mao wears a dress with white clouds and blue patches of sky; she has "Come as You Are" tattooed on her arm in German, from the Nirvana song. "Even though they said taking these dogs affected social order, we actually saved a lot of dogs. What we're doing shows results."

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U.S. poised to lift federal protections for wolves (Reuters)

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) – The gray wolf would become the first creature ever removed from the U.S. endangered species list by an act of Congress under a provision in the budget deal set to be passed by lawmakers this week.

The measure would lift federal safeguards for some 1,200 wolves in the western states of Montana and Idaho, placing them back under state control and allowing licensed hunting of the animals. It also would bar judicial review of the decision to rescind federal protections.

The provision is included in massive, must-pass legislation to keep the federal government operating through the end of the fiscal year on September 30. It is expected to be passed in Washington by the Congress by the end of the week.

The move is being hailed by ranchers who see the growing wolf population in the Northern Rockies as a threat to their herds. Cattle producers, hunters and state game wardens say wolf packs in some places are preying unchecked on livestock and other animals such as elk.

"Congress has never before made a species-specific decision," said Matt Kirby, a wildlife expert for the Sierra Club conservation group. "It opens up a Pandora's box where you could have politicians cherry-picking inconvenient species."

But U.S. Senator Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat who sponsored the provision, said, "Right now, Montana's wolf population is out of balance, and this provision will get us back on the responsible path with statement management."

A similar plan implemented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2009 was struck down last August by federal judge Donald Molloy in Montana, who ruled it violated the Endangered Species Act.

The Obama administration has sought to quell the dispute by persuading wildlife advocates to embrace the management plans of Montana and Idaho as adequate to keep wolf populations at healthy levels now that they exceed recovery targets.

On Saturday, Molloy rejected the plan again after it was presented as a negotiated settlement between the federal government and 10 conservation groups. Several environmental organizations continue to oppose it.

Once abundant across most of North America, gray wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in much of the continental United States by the 1930s under a government-sponsored eradication program.

Decades later, biologists recognized that wolves had an essential role to play in mountain ecosystems as a predator. Listed as endangered in 1974, the animals have made a comeback in the region around Yellowstone National Park since the government reintroduced them there in the mid-1990s.

The language now before Congress would override Molloy and put the 2009 plan back into place.

A number of animals have been removed from the U.S. endangered species list over the years through a process of scientific review established under federal law. But this legislation would mark the first time an animal has been removed by Congress from the endangered list.

(Additional reporting by Wendell Marsh; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton and Will Dunham)

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Vietnam reserve brings hope for rare animal, says WWF (AFP)

HANOI (AFP) – The establishment of a nature reserve in Vietnam has brought new hope for the survival of a mysterious twin-horned creature "on the brink of extinction", conservation group WWF said.

Authorities in the central Quang Nam province agreed last week to set up the reserve dedicated to the secretive saola, a relative of antelopes and cattle and one of the world's rarest animals, which was only discovered in 1992.

"This decision has brought new hope for the survival of the saola, an animal that is on the brink of extinction in the world," said Vu Ngoc Tram of the WWF Greater Mekong Programme.

The saola is hunted illegally for its horns using snares and dogs and the population could be as low as a few dozen, according to the WWF, which said none had survived in captivity.

The elusive creature was seen for the first time in a decade in August but died a few days after it was captured by villagers in Laos, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The animal was photographed before its death, the first confirmed record since 1999 when pictures of wild saola were taken by automatic cameras in Laos, the Swiss-based network of scientists and environmental organisations said.

WWF Vietnam said the new reserve, in the Annamite mountains along the border with Laos, would create an ideal habitat for the saola and the conservation group hopes for a reverse in the species' decline.

The group has been working with Vietnamese authorities to promote the establishment of the reserve and other protected areas "in response to the alarming status of the species in the wild", their statement said.

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U.S. spending bill would lift federal wolf protections (Reuters)

SALMON, Idaho/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tucked into a sprawling budget deal nearing passage on Capitol Hill is a proposal that would make the gray wolf the first creature ever removed from the Endangered Species List by an act of Congress.

The "rider" in must-pass legislation to keep the government funded through September would lift federal safeguards for some 1,200 wolves in Montana and Idaho, placing them back under state control and allowing licensed hunting of the animals.

The measure, which also bars judicial review of the de-listing, has divided environmental groups but was hailed by ranchers who see the growing wolf population in the Northern Rockies as a threat to their herds.

"Right now, Montana's wolf population is out of balance, and this provision will get us back on the responsible path with statement management," said Senator Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and a chief sponsor of the rider.

A similar plan was put into effect by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2009 but struck down last August by a federal judge in Montana who ruled it violated the Endangered Species Act.

The decision sparked a furor among cattle producers, sportsmen and state game wardens who say wolf packs in some areas are preying unchecked on livestock and other animals, such as elk.

The Obama administration has sought to quell the dispute by persuading wildlife advocates to embrace the management plans of Montana and Idaho as adequate to keep wolf populations at healthy levels now that they exceed recovery targets.

On Saturday, the same judge, Donald Molloy, rejected the plan again after it was presented as a negotiated settlement between the federal government and 10 conservation groups. Several environmental organizations continue to oppose it.

COMEBACK IN THE ROCKIES

Once abundant across most of North America, gray wolves were hunted, trapped and poisoned to near extinction in much of the Lower 48 states by the 1930s under a government-sponsored eradication program.

Decades later, biologists recognized that wolves had an essential role to play in mountain ecosystems as an apex predator. Listed as endangered in 1974, the animals have made a comeback in the region around Yellowstone National Park since the government reintroduced them there in the mid-1990s.

The rider, headed for passage as part of the stop-gap spending bill by week's end, would override Judge Molloy to put the 2009 de-listing plan back into place.

A number of creatures have been de-listed over the years through a process of scientific review established under the 1973 act. But the wolf rider would mark the first time that an animal has been removed from the endangered list by Congress.

"Congress has never before made a species-specific decision," said Matt Kirby, a wildlife expert for the Sierra Club. "It opens up a Pandora's box where you could have politicians cherry-picking inconvenient species."

Besides wolves in Montana and Idaho, which account for the bulk of the species in the Rockies, the rider would de-list much smaller wolf populations in Washington state, Oregon and Utah, numbering roughly three dozen in all.

An estimated 300-plus additional wolves in Wyoming would remain federally protected for the time being. But the bill requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to consider a revised plan Wyoming is expected to present soon for assuming control of wolves there, too.

Wyoming's wolves were left out of the government's 2009 de-listing because that state originally would have allowed its wolves to be shot on sight.

House passage of the spending bill, which also would cut Environmental Protection Agency funding by 16 percent, is expected Thursday, with Senate action likely to follow Thursday night or Friday.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Nepal's rhino numbers 'recovering' after war (AFP)

KATHMANDU (AFP) – The number of rhinos living wild in Nepal has risen above 500 for the first time since a civil war that led to rampant poaching of the endangered animals, the government said Sunday.

It said wildlife experts who have spent the past month conducting an exhaustive survey had counted 534 rhinos in Nepal's southern jungles -- 99 more than when the last such study was carried out in 2008.

The new figures show the one-horned rhino population is recovering after a dramatic plunge in numbers during the 1996-2006 civil war, when soldiers deployed to prevent poaching left to fight a guerrilla insurgency.

Maheshwor Dhakal, ecologist with the government's national parks department, told AFP the rhino population's recovery was down to improvements in law enforcement and in local awareness of the importance of conservation.

"The government is encouraged by this positive result, although challenges remain in curbing poaching and protecting rhino habitat," he added.

Thousands of one-horned rhinos once roamed the plains of Nepal and northern India, but their numbers plunged over the past century due to poaching and human encroachment of their habitat.

The animals are poached for their horns, which are prized for their reputed medicinal qualities in China and southeast Asia.

A single horn can sell for tens of thousands of dollars on the international black market, and impoverished Nepal's porous borders, weak law enforcement and proximity to China have made the country a hub for the illegal trade.

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Wolves Removed from the Endangered Species List in Budget Bill (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Wolves have been persecuted from the moment colonists set foot in America and it continues to this day. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., attached a rider to the fiscal year 2011 budget bill that puts wolves back in the cross hairs of ranchers and hunters by removing them from the endangered species list within the next 60 days. This is the first time an animal has been removed from the endangered species list by Congress and Idaho and Montana are eagerly planning wolf hunts for the fall.

Nationwide, there are around 4,400 wolves living in the wild. An estimated 1,600 to 1,700 roam lands in the Northern Rocky Mountains, mainly in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Ranchers and hunters believe removing wolves from the endangered species list will make it possible for them to "manage" the wolf population. With "regulated" hunts, they can control the balance of nature with a rifle. But, when ranchers take over land for their use, wolves are left with a loss of habitat and diminished prey when buffalo, deer and elk are forced out by humans. Anti-wolf advocates want to manage their wolf problem by eliminating wolves once and for all. The claim by ranchers that wolves kill for sport is not true. Man kills for sport; wolves kill to survive.

Wolves are social animals who live in packs of four or more family members. They patrol their territory which is anywhere from 10 square miles up to 1,000 square miles. How far they roam depends on how plentiful their natural prey is. When ranchers take over land in a pack's territory, the end result is devastating for the wolf.

Ranchers loathe wolves, but they refuse to acknowledge their role in the problem. Hunters despise wolves because they lose an opportunity for a trophy. Wolves will forever be in the cross hairs of a hunter's gun; teetering on the brink of extinction because of money, political influence and intolerance for an animal that has a right to life. The wolf is persecuted and slaughtered out of fear, greed and arrogance.

Wolves keep ecosystems healthy. They prey on grazing animals which keeps them on the move so meadows and wetlands aren't overgrazed, which in turn supports healthy habitats for other species to thrive in. All ecosystems play a role in our survival and predators, like the wolf, maintain the balance of nature; not man.

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U.S. proposes lifting wolf protections in Midwest (Reuters)

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – U.S. wildlife officials proposed on Friday to strip federal protections from a growing western Great Lakes gray wolf population just as a some Rocky Mountain wolves would be removed from the endangered species list by an act of Congress.

About 4,000 gray wolves in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula would lose their status as endangered or threatened species under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal submitted for public comment.

The announcement comes as the gray wolf is close to becoming the first creature ever taken off the U.S. endangered species list through legislation, rather than by scientific review, under a measure attached to the U.S. budget deal.

More than 1,200 wolves classified as endangered in Montana and Idaho would be de-listed by a "rider" to the budget bill, placing them under state control and allowing licensed hunting of the animals.

The measure, given final congressional passage by the Senate on Thursday, also applies to about three dozen wolves in Oregon, Washington state and Utah, and bars judicial review of the de-listings.

Essentially restoring a 2009 Fish and Wildlife decision struck down in court last August, the legislative de-listing takes effect within 60 days of being signed into law. President Barack Obama was expected to sign the bill on Friday.

In the Western Great Lakes region, the gray wolf population has exceeded recovery goals and continues to do well enough to be removed from federal protection, the wildlife service said. Each state also has developed a management plan to maintain healthy numbers of wolves.

The service estimates that there are 2,922 gray wolves in Minnesota, 690 in Wisconsin and 557 in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The proposal also covers areas of adjacent states where the wolves have spread from the three states.

"We are taking this step because wolf populations have met recovery goals and no longer need the protection of the Endangered Species Act," Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Director Rowan Gould said in a statement.

The service recognizes two species of wolves in the Western Great Lakes -- the gray wolf and the eastern wolf that ranges from parts of eastern Canada and the Eastern United States.

The eastern wolf was once regarded as a subspecies, but recent genetic studies found it to be a distinct species, and the wildlife service said it has now launched a review throughout the animal's Canadian and U.S. range.

The gray wolves will remain classified as endangered in the Western Great Lakes during the comment period, except in Minnesota where they remain listed as threatened.

(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Steve Gorman and Greg McCune)

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Complaints end goldfish racing at Wash. state bar (AP)

TACOMA, Wash. – The weekly gold fish races at a Tacoma bar are canceled after it received complaints from animal rights activists.

Every Tuesday night the Harmon Tap Room would feature races in which cheap feeder fish from a pet store were "raced" down two 8-foot troughs. Racers guided the fish with squirt bottles.

Bartender Joel Cummings told KIRO-FM the fish were cared for when they weren't racing but occasionally they would pass away.

After complaints by phone and email, the Harmon Tap Room replaced goldfish racing with beer pong.

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Wolves to come off endangered list within 60 days (AP)

BILLINGS, Mont. – Federal wildlife officials say they will take more than 1,300 gray wolves in the Northern Rockies off the endangered species list within 60 days.

An attachment to the budget bill signed into law Friday by President Barack Obama strips protections from wolves in five Western states.

It marks the first time Congress has taken a species off the endangered list.

Idaho and Montana plan public wolf hunts this fall. Hunts last year were canceled after a judge ruled the predators remained at risk.

Protections remain in place for wolves in Wyoming because of its shoot-on-sight law for the predators.

There are no immediate plans to hunt the small wolf populations in Oregon and Washington. No packs have been established in Utah.

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Russia bans endangered polar bear hunt this year (AP)

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA, Associated Press Nataliya Vasilyeva, Associated Press – Thu Apr 14, 9:42 am ET

MOSCOW – Russia has banned the hunting of polar bears this year, thanks to a group with close ties to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a longtime defender of large endangered animals.

A Russian-U.S. commission last year agreed to restrict polar bear hunting to 29 animals per year for each country. But The Polar Bear program, established under Putin's patronage, said this week that Russia had waived its quota for bear hunting.

Although the polar bear is an endangered animal, officials in Russia and the U.S. have said hunting is vital for the indigenous people in Alaska and in far-eastern Russia across the Bering Strait.

The Polar Bear program, which said U.S. officials had long been reluctant to introduce the cap on hunting, said around 100 polar bears a year have been killed in Alaska in recent years.

"Measures taken by Russia will ensure that the United States will be killing at least 70 polar bears fewer than before, which, according to Russian specialists, will help to sustain and boost the population of this beautiful Arctic animal," the group said in a statement posted on Putin's official website.

Putin last year helped scientists put a tracking collar on a sedated male polar bear. Before leaving the bear, he patted the animal affectionately, shook his paw and said "take care."

He also joined scientists last year in studying the gray whale off Russia's Pacific Coast, firing darts from a crossbow to collect skin samples from a whale swimming near their small boat.

Putin also has championed the cause of endangered big cats. In 2008, he was given a 2-month-old female Siberian tiger cub for his birthday, which he later gave to a zoo in southern Russia.

In 2009, he supervised the release of two Persian leopards into a wildlife sanctuary near the southern resort of Sochi, fulfilling his pledge to reintroduce the big cats to the Caucasus region if Russia won the right to hold the 2014 Winter Games.

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Big Test Looms for British Space Plane Concept (SPACE.com)

SAN FRANCISCO — A huge, unmanned British space plane is on pace to start launching payloads into Earth orbit in less than a decade — provided it can pass a crucial engine test in June, its designers say.

The Skylon space plane — which would take off and land horizontally, like a commercial jet — is still a concept vehicle for now, but it recently passed several rigorous independent design reviews, the British company Reaction Engines Ltd, which is developing the spacecraft, announced Tuesday (April 12).

Private funding is lined up to see it through all stages of development, culminating with the start of commercial operations in 2020. That funding, however, is contingent on Skylon hitting some key milestones along the way, and a big one looms just a few months off.

In June, the Abingdon, Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines plans to test a component of its revolutionary hybrid jet/rocket engine. On the line is $350 million in investor funding — and perhaps the future of the project.

"It depends on this engine test working," explained Reaction Engines researcher Roger Longstaff.  "Everything depends on that." [Video: Skylon Space Station Delivery]

Longstaff spoke during a presentation here at the 17th International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies conference, which was organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Meet Skylon

Skylon is based on the Hotol (horizontal take-off and landing) concept vehicle, first mapped out by British researchers back in the 1980s. The autonomous, reusable Skylon would fly to orbit and back like an airplane, taking off from and landing on a runway. [Infographic: Spaceships of the World]

In its current design incarnation, the Skylon space plane is a spaceship behemoth. It is about 276 feet (84 meters) long and weighs about 303 tons (275,000 kilograms) at liftoff. For comparison, the main truss of the International Space Station – which is the largest spacecraft ever built – is about 357 1/2 feet (109 meters) long and weighs about 408 tons (370,290 kg)

The space plane is expected to have a payload capacity of about 11.3 tons (10,275 kg), though Longstaff said future designs aim to boost that to 16.5 tons (15,000 kg).

Skylon could enable relatively cheap, frequent access to space, researchers said, with each plane able to take off again within two days of landing and capable of making about 200 flights over its lifetime.

The space plane would initially fly only cargo, but over time Skylon could carry about 30 passengers with minimal modifications, company officials have said. A pressurized passenger module could be slotted into Skylon's payload bay in place of a cargo container.

"Eventually, there's no reason at all it shouldn't be crewed," Longstaff told SPACE.com.

Dual engines to reach orbit

Unlike NASA's space shuttle and most other space plane designs, Skylon would not require booster rockets to help it along the way. Instead, it is desiged to get to space all on its own as a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle, using a unique hybrid jet/rocket engine called SABRE, which Reaction Engines is developing.

The SABRE engine will burn hydrogen and oxygen to produce thrust. It would act like a jet for the first part of Skylon's flight, breathing oxygen from atmospheric air until the plane reaches an altitude of 16 miles (26 kilometers) and a speed of Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound), Longstaff said.

SABRE would then switch over to more conventional rocket operations — combusting onboard hydrogen and oxygen — to make the rest of the journey into orbit.

The air-breathing phase of the SABRE engine saves greatly on the amount of liquid oxygen Skylon must carry, lowering costs substantially and giving the plane a higher payload capacity, Reaction Engines officials said. But it also imposes technical challenges, which the Skylon team must prove it can handle before the project progresses much further, they added.

Big test ahead

The atmospheric air whooshing into the SABRE engines at high speeds would be extremely hot. But for the engines to work efficiently during the air-breathing stage, that air needs to be cooled substantially — down to about minus 238 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 150 degrees Celsius) — before being compressed and reacted with the onboard hydrogen.

That's what the big test in June is for. Skylon engineers have developed a new "precooler" system to do the job. The system will get its first big test in the June trials.

If the precooler works, investors will chip in another $350 million, helping take the Skylon project to another level of development. That next phase would likely see vehicle design completion and a full engine demonstration by 2014, Longstaff said.

Longstaff expressed confidence that the precooler would work. If it does, Skylon would leap a huge hurdle, since most of the plane relies on technology that has already been proven out.

"That's the only brand-new piece of technology," Longstaff said of the precooler.

A path to space

If all goes well with the June test and beyond, Skylon hopes to start making suborbital test flights by 2016 and orbital test flights by 2018, said Sam Hutchison, the CEO of Skylon Enterprises Limited, which is securing funding for the Skylon project. Commercial operations could start in earnest by 2020.

Hutchison — who also spoke at the conference —  has mapped out funding for the various phases of Skylon's development, which he said will likely end up costing a total of about $15 billion.

"We're trying to normalize the development of a space plane," Hutchison told SPACE.com.

Investors are onboard and excited about Skylon's progress so far, he added. Independent design reviews by NASA and the European Space Agency, completed a few months back, were both quite positive about Skylon and its prospects, Hutchison said.

He's confident Skylon will pass the technical tests ahead of it, demonstrating that the space plane is a viable vehicle.

But those aren't the only hurdles in Skylon's path.

The lack of a coherent regulatory framework that allows and encourages commercial activities in space could keep Skylon — and the much-anticipated private spaceflight revolution — from really taking off, Hutchison said.

"What needs to be done is a redrafting of outer space law, in order to take into account commercial activities," Hutchison said.

This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily, a sister site of SPACE.com. You can follow senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall.

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