Earth's oldest known object on display

Earth's oldest known object on display

MADISON, Wis. -- Call it much ado about almost nothing. To create buzz about an otherwise arcane subject, the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed off a tiny speck of zircon crystal believed to be the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old. Though scientists acknowledged there wasn't much to see, spectators used a microscope to check out the tiny grain, which measures less than two human hairs in diameter. Analysis of the object in 2001 by John Valley, a UW-Madison professor of geology and geophysics, startled researchers around the world by concluding that the early Earth, instead of being a roiling ocean of magma, was cool enough to have oceans and continents -- key conditions for life.

OMAHA, Neb. -- The world's first test tube gorilla is not bonding with her new daughter, zoo officials said Saturday. Timu, a 9-year-old Western lowland gorilla, took care of her newborn for a few hours after Friday's birth, but then lost interest, said Dr. Lee Simmons, director of the Henry Doorly Zoo. Timu was hand-raised, which makes it hard for her to bond with her offspring, Simmons said. The baby will be hand-raised and given to a surrogate gorilla mother in hopes that Timu will learn from watching that relationship and will be a better mother when she has another baby, Simmons said.

Deaths in U.S. helicopter crash in Afghanistan rise

Protesters in Beijing stone Japan's Embassy

Cardinals begin to prepare for conclave

VATICAN CITY -- Cardinals began "an intense period of silence and prayer" before their conclave to choose the next pope, saying Saturday they would stop speaking publicly to protect the strict secrecy surrounding the centuries-old tradition. The throngs of pilgrims who attended John Paul II's funeral Friday flowed out of Rome, leaving mainly tourists in a quiet, rainy St. Peter's Square. The unanimous vote Saturday by 130 cardinals to maintain public silence about John Paul's successor was unprecedented. Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls called the media ban an "act of responsibility."

Haitian police kill rebel leader in a shootout

Scholar: N. Korea stalls nuclear discussions

BEIJING -- North Korea says it won't even discuss dismantling its nuclear weapons until Washington has normalized relations, a U.S. scholar who visited the North said Saturday. The new demand for formal relations is a victory for North Korean hard-liners and adds another complication to stalled talks on North Korea's nuclear program, according to Selig Harrison, a Washington-based researcher. He said it reflects frustration at a lack of results from contacts with Washington and fears of a U.S. attack. North Korean officials also said they will not return to the six-nation talks organized by China until Washington apologizes for listing the North among the world's "outposts of tyranny," he said.