KATMANDU, Nepal
Communist rebels in Nepal kill 129 in their deadliest attack ever
Communist rebels killed at least 129 police, soldiers and civilians in unprecedented attacks in northwestern Nepal yesterday, undermining prospects for peace in this poor Himalayan kingdom still recovering from the shock of a massacre at the royal palace last year.
The attacks on government offices and an airport were the deadliest since the rebels began fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy in 1996 from remote mountain areas in this land of exquisite beauty but violent politics.
The rebels, who draw their inspiration from Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung, had abandoned peace talks and ended a cease-fire in November, saying negotiations had produced no results. The government declared a state of emergency three days later.
Early yesterday, the rebels set fire to buildings and fired at police in the town of Mangalsen, the administrative center of the Achham district, killing 49 police officers, the Interior Security Ministry said in a statement. Mangalsen is about 375 miles northwest of the capital, Katmandu.
The guerrillas then attacked a small airport in the nearby town of Sanphebaga, killing another 27 policemen standing guard, a Home Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Forty-eight Royal Nepalese Army soldiers stationed in Mangalsen were also killed, Defense Ministry spokesman Bhola Silwal said in a separate news release.
Others killed in the attacks included the district's chief administrator, Mohan Singh Khadka, a central intelligence bureau official and his wife, a postal worker and a civilian.
The rebels - a 3,000- to 4,000-strong force accustomed to using knives and aging muskets -yesterday used modern weapons looted from the military during a previous attack.
Bad weather and the mountainous terrain delayed the arrival of police reinforcements, an official news release said.
It said there could be major casualties on the rebel side as well. Fighters were seen taking away bodies of other guerrillas, officials said. State-run Radio Nepal said the army had sealed off the entire area and security forces had fanned out in a massive search for the rebels.
The area is far away from the Mount Everest region popular with tourists.
PASADENA, Calif.
NASA space probe starts work this week looking for water hidden in Mars soil
A NASA spacecraft will start examining the contents of the dry, dusty surface of Mars this week, searching for what scientists expect are vast, hidden stores of water.
Scientists already know there is water on Mars - in ice that caps the north pole, frost seen at high latitudes and wispy clouds crowding the planet's highest peaks.
Evidence of far more extensive amounts of water, even buried glaciers, could be found during the 2001 Mars Odyssey's 917-day science mission that begins this week.
"You have a vast region that is perhaps just loaded with water," said William Feldman of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a scientist on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's $300 million Odyssey project.
The possibility excites scientists because it would support theories that the planet was once - and may still be - wet enough to be hospitable to life. On Earth, life is found wherever there is water, nutrients and a source of energy.
Mars abounds with evidence that torrents of water once flowed across its surface, carving channels, flooding plains and weeping from steep crater walls.
Whether that water remains locked within the planet or evaporated into space remains a mystery. Scientists believe Odyssey, and its ability to sniff out the hydrogen bound to oxygen that forms water, can provide an answer.
"That would make it very exciting, that there are still gobs and gobs of water there," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, another Odyssey scientist.
Locating water is a key goal of NASA's Mars program, which includes plans for advanced robotic rovers that will land and dig into the surface. Maps produced by Odyssey will guide those rovers to spots that appear rich in water today - or that were soaked in the past. Odyssey will also hunt for concentrations of chlorine, which would indicate locations where sodium chloride - salt - was deposited by standing water.
Odyssey entered orbit around Mars on Oct. 23. Since then, scientists have guided the craft through a series of maneuvers to shape its orbit into a circle with an average altitude of about 250 miles above the planet's surface.
MESA
City's crime lab has growing backlog for DNA evidence
A mounting pile of genetic material from crime scenes has resulted in a massive backlog at Mesa's crime lab.
As of last week, the number of cases involving potential DNA evidence had climbed 65 percent to 691, up from 418 cases 11 months ago.
"It's going to be really hard to get that under control," said Joyce Lee, supervisory criminalist in the Mesa police crime lab.
The backlog is so large that nobody will speculate on when four criminalists who work on DNA can analyze the material.
The crime lab can process 240 to 300 DNA cases a year. At that rate, the lab could catch up only if crime took a vacation for two to three years.
Investigators love the technology that allows them to break the code of DNA, the genetic blueprint for all life.
The unique genetic makeup of every person makes for compelling evidence to prove a criminal's involvement.
The technology also has set more than 100 wrongly convicted prisoners free nationwide and cleared an unknown number of suspects before they might have been arrested or put on trial.
But as the ability to solve crimes with DNA improves, so does the demand for its use.
The DNA from a crime scene can be matched against suspects, or against state and national databases with samples from millions of convicted criminals.
Mesa police say justice isn't on hold because of the backlog.
