But she said she found there was no commercial motive on the part of any hospital or its staff in supplying the glands to Kabi Vitrum (now Pharmacia Ireland) and Nordisk Gentofte (now Nova Nordisk).

Dr Madden was appointed by the Department of Health and Children to examine the findings of the unfinished Dunne Inquiry, which was wound up by the Government after costs spiralled to €20m.

Her report found the post-mortems were carried out to the best professional and international standards and no intentional disrespect was shown to deceased children or their families.

But she said communication between hospital staff and families was poor, often due to a paternalistic desire by doctors not to upset next of kin.

The report said that in Ireland, as in many countries, there was no legislative framework and no consistent national policy relating to the practices of hospital post mortems and organ retention and disposal.

Niemann concludes the methane "must be replenished by geologic processes on Titan, perhaps venting from a supply in the interior that could have been trapped there as the moon formed."

The studies announced by NASA yesterday will be reported in the Dec. 8 issue of the scientific journal Nature.

"This finding confirms one of the key arguments in 'Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil,'" claims co-author Jerome R. Corsi. "We argue that oil and natural gas are abiotic products, not 'fossil fuels' that are biologically created by the debris of dead dinosaurs and ancient forests."

Methane has been synthetically created in the laboratory, Corsi points out, "and now NASA confirms that abiotic methane is abundantly found on Titan."

The realization that hydrocarbons are produced inorganically throughout our solar system was a key insight that led Cornell University astronomer Thomas Gold to write his 1998 book, "The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels." Gold wrote:

It would be surprising indeed if the earth had obtained its hydrocarbons only from a source that biology had taken from another carbon-bearing gas – carbon dioxide – which would have been collected from the atmosphere by photo-synthesizing organisms for manufacture into carbohydrates and then somehow reworked by geology into hydrocarbons. All this, while the planetary bodies bereft of surface life would have received their hydrocarbon gifts by purely abiogenic causes.

Gold wryly noted that he was sure there had not been any "big stagnant swamps on Titan" to produce the biological debris that conventionally trained geologists think was required on Earth to produce oil and natural gas as a "fossil fuel."

"If petroleum and natural gas are abiotic as we maintain in 'Black Gold Stranglehold,'" Corsi commented, "then the 'peak oil' fear that we are going to run out of oil may have been based on a giant misconception."

Paradigms in science change slowly and with great resistance, he noted, "But NASA has given us today incontrovertible evidence that Titan has abundant inorganic methane."

"If the scientists have ruled out that biological processes created methane on Titan, why do petro-geologists still argue that natural gas on Earth is of biological origin?" Corsi asked.

In Russia’s Volga region six people drowned when the ice broke under a minibus that was crossing a frozen river near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, state-run Rossia TV reported.

“There were 15 people in the vehicle, nine managed to escape and six drowned,” an official with the emergency ministry told the Interfax news agency. Interfax also reported two people had died of hypothermia in Moscow while another 14 were hospitalized with exposure.

Forecasters said the cold snap in the Moscow region could reach as low as minus 37 C towards the end of the week, as local authorities implemented measures to ensure the smooth functioning of public infrastructure amid the sudden plunge in temperatures.

State schools said students did not have to attend as long as the temperature remained under minus 20 C in the morning, while buses in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities were filled with special “Arctic” diesel fuel to minimize disruption.

The Moscow city government set up a special “headquarters to counter the Siberian freeze”, while in St. Petersburg emergency services were instructed to draw up plans for dealing with cold-related emergencies, the RIA-Novosti news agency said. Moscow energy officials issued warnings to about 200 companies and other organizations whose energy supplies might be reduced in order to conserve supplies.

The MFB stock exchange suspended trading mid-afternoon after being among those warned of a possible power shortfall. “The capital for the first time has come up against a situation where, due to the cold, its demand for energy may well exceed supplies,” said Nestor Serebryannikov, the former head of the Moscow municipal power utility.

However a spokesman for the Moscow energy department, Vasily Zaharov, told RIA-Novosti that the city’s power stations were “ready to work reliably during the cold temperatures”.

An honor guard will continue to stand to attention at the eternal flame commemorating World War II beneath the Kremlin walls, a spokesman for the Federal Security Guard said. “We of course take care of our soldiers,” the spokesman, Sergei Levyatov, told ITAR-TASS. “But there won’t be any felt boots. They’re wearing woolly socks under their boots.”

ITAR-TASS said 189 people had died in Moscow from the cold since October, of whom nearly 70 percent were in an inebriated state.

Because winds are moving in different directions at different elevations, an ash fall advisory was issued for communities along the southwest portion of the Kenai Peninsula and east of the volcano, in the Kamishak and Iliamna bays.

"Light ash can be expected, nothing that would accumulate in any thickness," said Michelle Coombs, a geologist at the observatory.

The eruption lasted for five minutes, and started just before 8 a.m.

Tuesday's eruption was likely similar in style to the six significant eruptions last week, "but a little more energetic," Coombs said.

Most of last week's eruptions reached 30,000 feet, or about 5 1/2 miles. However, a pilot reported one plume at the 10-mile level.

Tuesday's eruption was preceded by increased seismic activity at the volcano, located on an uninhabited island about 180 miles southwest of Anchorage. That prompted observatory officials to raise the volcano's threat level to red, meaning an eruption was imminent.

Last week's blasts sent plumes of ash drifting northeast across Cook Inlet into several Kenai Peninsula communities, where a fine layer of ash fell.

The most recent explosion occurred just after midnight on Saturday. It was followed by a lull lasting into Sunday afternoon, when officials had lowered the earlier red warning level to orange.

The 1976 and 1986 eruptions began with an initial series of vent-clearing explosions and high vertical plumes of volcanic ash followed by pyroclastic flows, surges, and lahars on the volcano flanks. Unlike some prehistoric eruptions, a summit edifice collapse and debris avalanche did not occur in 1812, 1935, 1964–65, 1976, or 1986. However, early in the 1883 eruption, a portion of the volcano summit broke loose forming a debris avalanche that flowed to the sea. The avalanche initiated a small tsunami reported on the Kenai Peninsula at English Bay, 90 kilometers east of the volcano. Plumes of volcanic ash are a major hazard to jet aircraft using Anchorage International and other local airports. Ashfall from future eruptions could disrupt oil and gas operations and shipping activities in Cook Inlet. Eruptions similar to the historical and prehistoric eruptions are likely in Augustine's future."

Waythomas, C. F., and Waitt, R. B., 1998, Preliminary volcano-hazard assessment for Augustine Volcano, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report OF 98-0106, 39 p.

1) Failed Eruption: No eruption occurs as magma does not reach the surface. Earthquake activity, ground deformation, gas output, and steaming slowly decrease over several weeks or months.

2) Eruption similar to those of 1976 and 1986: Unrest continues to escalate culminating in an eruption that is similar to those that occurred in 1976 and 1986. An eruption such as this would likely spread volcanic ash throughout and perhaps beyond Cook Inlet depending upon the prevailing winds. Much of Augustine Island would be inundated by pyroclastic flows, mud flows, ash fall, and ballistic showers.

3) Larger Explosive Eruption: A significantly larger eruption could occur, perhaps similar to eruptions that are thought to have taken place prehistorically. Such an eruption might involve the production of larger ash plumes, significant modification of the island's summit, and large pyroclastic flows and mud flows on the island.

4) Flank Collapse: The intruding magma or other processes could destabilize a portion of the Augustine cone that could result in a large landslide. If this landslide entered Cook Inlet, a localized tsunami could be generated. Such a landslide and tsunami were associated with the 1883 eruption of Augustine Volcano. It is also likely that a landslide of this type would be accompanied by an eruption.

Based on all available monitoring data AVO, regards scenario number two, an eruption similar to those in 1976 and 1986, as the most probable outcome at this time. At this time scenarios one, three and four are considered less likely.

The first dig only unearthed a piece of scrap metal. After the second dig Arnold found what he was after-- A large palisite. A meteorite with precious gemstones inside. A collector's dream. "There are some that are more beautiful than others. this one has character that's a bonus, a plus," Arnold said.

Landowner Ron Ross flew back from vacation in Florida to watch Tuesday's dig.

This isn't Arnold's first find on the property. Last fall he found a 1500 pound rock worth more than a million dollars.

The latest find weighs in at 81 pounds. Arnold plans to sell it.

Mungall and other experts studying impact craters, such as this one in Sudbury, Ontario, hope to understand how a period of continual bombardment about four billion years ago shaped the planet.

Until now researchers had found scant evidence that a meteorite could pierce through Earth's upper crust and alter its compositional makeup.

"Over a few hundred million years when this was going on, there must have been a lot of mixing going on in the upper crust," said Mungall, who studies the Sudbury impact site.

David Kring is a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson and an authority on impact craters. He said the findings from Sudbury are similar to those he and his colleagues have reached from studying a crater in Chicxulub, Mexico.

"I don't think it is yet widely appreciated, but impact cratering has the capacity to redistribute the chemical elements in the Earth's crust," Kring said.

As well, Kring adds, an emerging theory in the field of impact crater research is that the largest of these impact events early in Earth's history may have created the conditions needed for the evolution of life.

The impacts, he explains, would have heated water in the Earth's crust and created vast hydrothermal vent systems. Many scientists believe these unusual underwater ecosystems helped give rise to early life.

Researchers assumed volcanic activity mostly created hydrothermal vent systems. "But four billion years ago a dominant source was impact-generated hydrothermal systems," Kling said.

Impact Evidence

The field of impact crater research is just coming into prominence in the scientific community. Mungall says that 15 years ago scientists couldn't even agree that the Sudbury crater resulted from a meteorite impact.

The signs of the impact are vague, because most of the crater has eroded. Geological processes, such as plate tectonics and volcanism, have almost completely eroded Earth's oldest impact craters.

But the Sudbury and Chicxulub craters, along with a third in Vredefort, South Africa, are still visible enough to provide clues to the planet's formative years.

Today the Sudbury impact basin is about 37 miles (60 kilometers) long and 19 miles (30 kilometers) wide. Mungall and his colleagues believe the crater was originally about 155 miles (250 kilometers) in diameter.

Scientists looking for signs of the impact must cover a large area of ground, and much of the evidence they look for is small.

According to Mungall, the most convincing pieces of evidence are shatter cones—coned-shaped fractures in the rock ranging in size from inches to tens of feet across.

"The only way you can get shatter cones is when extremely strong shock waves are passing through material. They don't form any other way," he said. "The only other places you see them on Earth are around nuclear test sites."

Other bits of evidence include microscopic, flaky diamonds formed by the passage of shock waves through carbon-rich rocks. The shock waves also transform tiny mineral crystals into glass.

Explosive Impact

To make the Sudbury impact crater, the meteorite would have to have been about 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter traveling at 89,000 miles per hour (143,232 kilometers per hour), Mungall says.

Shock waves from the meteorite as it plunged into Earth likely caused up to 6,500 cubic miles (27,000 cubic kilometers) of crust to melt, he says.

A plume of superheated rock from the deepest part of the 19- to 25-mile-thick (30- to 40-kilometer-thick) crust then flew upward and landed on top of the impact site, essentially turning the crust there inside out, Mungall explains.

Mungall also suggests that the meteorite vaporized on impact. Its components then condensed and rained back down.

This, he says, would account for the increased concentrations of iridium—a rare metal found mainly in the Earth's mantle and in meteorites—he and his colleagues found in the upper layers of the crater's crust.

The Sudbury site also has relatively low concentrations of magnesium and nickel, two elements that are common in Earth's mantle. The researchers therefore concluded that the iridium originated from the meteorite.

According to Kring, of the University of Arizona, events like those at Sudbury 1.8 billion years ago and Chicxulub 65 million years ago were tiny compared to those during the period of heavy bombardment in Earth's formative years.

His calculations suggest there were perhaps as many 40 impact events that produced craters at least 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter during that time.

"That would have redistributed the chemical elements in Earth's crust to a great extent," he said.

His work has been published on the pre-print website arxiv.org and is reported in New Scientist magazine.

When the gold nuclei smash into each other they are broken down into particles called quarks and gluons.

These form a ball of plasma about 300 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. This fireball, which lasts just 10 million, billion, billionths of a second, can be detected because it absorbs jets of particles produced by the beam collisions.

But Nastase, of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, says there is something unusual about it.

Ten times as many jets were being absorbed by the fireball as were predicted by calculations.

The Brown researcher thinks the particles are disappearing into the fireball's core and reappearing as thermal radiation, just as matter is thought to fall into a black hole and come out as "Hawking" radiation.

However, even if the ball of plasma is a black hole, it is not thought to pose a threat. At these energies and distances, gravity is not the dominant force in a black hole.

The RHIC is sited at the Brookhaven National Laboratory.

His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16 million descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.

"It's another link between profligacy and power," Bradley told Reuters. "We're the first generation on the planet where if you're successful you don't (always) have more children."

The research was carried out by PhD student Laoise Moore, at the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity. Moore, testing the Y chromosome which is passed on from fathers to sons, examined DNA samples from 800 males across Ireland.

The results -- which have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics -- showed the highest concentration of related males in northwest Ireland, where one in five males had the same Y chromosome.

Bradley said the results reminded the team of a similar study in central Asia, where scientists found 8 percent of men with the same Y chromosome. Subsequent studies found they shared the same chromosome as the dynasty linked to Genghis Khan.

GENGHIS KHAN EFFECT

"It made us wonder if there could be some sort of Genghis Khan effect in Ireland and the best candidate for it was Niall," Bradley said.

His team then consulted with genealogical experts who provided them with a contemporary list of people with surnames that are genealogically linked to the last known relative of the "Ui Neill" dynasty, which literally means descendants of Niall.

The results showed the new group had the same chromosome as those in the original sample, proving a link between them and the Niall descendants.

"The frequency (of the Y chromosome) was significantly higher in that genealogical group than any other group we tested," said Bradley, whose surname is also linked to the mediaeval warlord. Other modern surnames tracing their ancestry to Niall include Gallagher, Boyle, O'Donnell and O'Doherty.

For added proof, the scientists used special techniques to age the Y chromosome, according to how many mutations had occurred in the genetic material over time. The number of mutations was found to be in accordance with chromosomes that would date back to the last known living relative of Niall.

Niall reportedly had 12 sons, many of whom became powerful Irish kings themselves. But because he lived in the 5th century, there have been doubts the king -- who is said to have brought the country's patron saint, Patrick, to Ireland -- even existed.

"Before I would have said that characters like Niall were almost mythological, like King Arthur, but this actually puts flesh on the bones," Bradley said.

When international databases were checked, the chromosome also turned up in roughly 2 percent of all male New Yorkers.

The details of this evolution success story proved elusive for biologists, however, in part because of incomplete fossil records and the few distinguishing dental and skeletal characteristics among ancient cats.

But after nearly ten years of genetic research, a team led by Stephen O'Brien and Warren Johnson of the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, has constructed a feline family tree that better charts the journey of cat evolution.

Analyzing genetic material from all living cat species, scientists read traces of the Felidae family history, such as divergences and booms and busts in populations, by the patterns of gene organization and diversity within and between species.

The scientists found that when sea levels fell, exposing land bridges between continents ten to three million years ago, ancient felines moved around the globe to areas where they had less competition.

Cats ended up in their current homes through at least ten of these intercontinental migrations.

During this time, felines did more than just roam. They also developed into new species when sea levels rose to cover land bridges and cut off cat species from their original groups.

"When you have two groups of populations that become isolated, they begin to drift apart," Johnson said. "They adapt to different things to the point where—when they have the chance of coming back together—they no longer can breed and, at that point, are distinct species."

This process happened rapidly and occurred numerous times over the past 11 million years, he said.

The radiation of modern felines began with the divergence of the Panthera lineage. From this common ancestor all the big cats emerged 6.4 million years ago—lions, jaguars, leopards, tigers, and snow and clouded leopards.

They were quickly followed by three Asian species (bay cat, marbled cat, and Asian golden cat) and three African species (caracal, serval, and African golden cat).

The final feline to appear was the household cat, which emerged between 6.2 and 6.7 million years ago.

The house cat either came from European ancestors that remained in Asia or from North American cats that migrated from across the Bering land bridge, which spanned present-day Siberia and Alaska.

"It's really just the last blink of an eye in evolutionary time when domestication created … house cats like Garfield," O'Brien said.

Experts believe domestication occurred several thousand years ago in the Middle East, probably in Egypt, where some of the first archeological evidence of domestic cats was discovered. Hieroglyphics from the region depict cats, and their bones have been found buried with humans.

Johnson says the genetic evidence his team discovered does not contradict that common belief. However, he said, domestication may have occurred more than once and in more than one place.

Skin Samples

In their study, described in the current issue of the journal Science, the team took skin samples from all 37 living cat species.

This was a difficult task, Johnson says, because many are rare and live in remote locations.

The team then looked at data from the species' X and Y chromosomes (the genetic determinants of gender) and mitochondrial DNA.

"Genomics is giving us a tool that goes beyond just simply understanding the basis of genetic diseases," O'Brien said.

"It's also giving us a compass, or a map, where we may actually begin to try to reconstruct the history of some of the species that live on Earth, including ourselves."

The researcher says he next plans to investigate where and when the household cat was domesticated.