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An asteroid roughly the size of a 10-story building gave Earth a particularly close pass Monday morning. Asteroid 2017 AG13 came within half the distance from Earth to the moon as it buzzed by early Monday morning at 4:47 a.m. PT. The fly-by happened shortly after scientists at the Catalina Sky Survey first discovered the space rock on Saturday. ... In the cosmic sense, it really was a close shave. In real terms, Earth had well over a 100,000-mile (161,000 kilometer) buffer of distance. ... The asteroid is about 36 to 111 feet (11 to 34 meters) across, according to...

Eiji Ohtani from Tohoku University told BBC News: "We believe that silicon is a major element - about 5% [of the Earth's inner core] by weight could be silicon dissolved into the iron-nickel alloys." The innermost part of Earth is thought to be a solid ball with a radius of about 1,200km (745 miles). It is far too deep to investigate directly, so instead scientists study how seismic waves pass through this region to tell them something of its make-up. It is mainly composed of iron, which makes up an estimated 85% of its weight, and nickel, which accounts for...

More than 20 people are now known to have died as icy temperatures continue to grip much of Europe. Ten people died of cold in Poland on Sunday. The bodies of three migrants, two Iraqi and one Somali, were found near the Turkish-Bulgarian border. Deaths have been reported in Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia and Ukraine. Dozens of flights have been halted. In Turkey, the Bosphorus is closed to shipping after a snowstorm. Even Greece's islands are covered in snow. In Serbia, all river transport is suspended on the Danube. ... In Russia, temperatures in some regions have plunged below...

With flowing black hair and dressed in a traditional Chinese dress, Jia Jia looks strikingly real. Yet her charm has its limits and simple questions frequently stump her. Still, Chen said his team has made great progress over the past two years in developing her AI. She was able accurately to answer a query about the day's weather, hold basic conversations and recognise the gender of her questioners. "You are a handsome man," she complimented one, but when asked later if she has a boyfriend, replied, "I prefer to stay single." Rapid advancements are being made in artificial intelligence and...

The deal calls for Mars to pay $93 for each of VCA’s shares and to assume VCA’s $1.4 billion in debt. VCA’s stock — whose ticker symbol is WOOF — soared $20.02, or 28%, to close at $90.79 a share in trading Monday. “VCA is a leader across pet healthcare and the opportunity we see together — for pets, pet owners, veterinarians and other pet care providers — is tremendous,” Mars Chief Executive Grant Reid said in a statement. The deal was approved by both companies’ directors, but remains subject to approval by VCA’s stockholders. It is expected to be...

Pakistan on Monday successfully test-fired its first Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead up to 450km from an undisclosed location in the Indian Ocean, giving the country a "credible" second-strike capability, the military said. The missile, Babur-3, was fired from an underwater, mobile platform and hit its target with precise accuracy, the Inter Services Public Relations, the media wing of the Pakistani military said in a statement. Babur-3, which has a range of 450km, is a sea-based variant of Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) Babur-2+ , which was successfully tested earlier in December, last year. The Babur-3...

At CES, both Ford and Volkswagen announced that their cars would integrate Alexa for weather updates, navigation and more. According to CJ Frost, principal architect solutions and automotive lead at Amazon, the car industry is moving into a mobility space. The idea isn't restricted to the ride anymore; it encompasses a journey that starts before you even get in the car. With the right skills built into the voice service, you can start a conversation with Alexa about the state of your car (is there enough fuel, is it locked, etc.) before you leave the house. It can also pull...

One night this past fall, a U.S. radar plane flying a routine pattern over Syria picked up a signal from an incoming Russian fighter jet. The American crew radioed repeated warnings on a frequency universally used for distress signals. The Russian pilot didn’t respond. Instead, as the U.S. plane began a wide sweep to the south, the...[PAYWALL]

In the face of unrelenting days of very poor weather and a range conflict with another very critical rocket launch, SpaceX is pushing back the return debut of their private Falcon 9 rocket carrying a revolutionary fleet of voice and data commercial communications relay satellites for Iridium to no earlier than next weekend, Jan 14. Earlier indications of a nearly weeks long launch delay from Monday, Jan. 9 to next Saturday morning, Jan. 14, were officially confirmed today, Jan. 8, by SpaceX and their Iridium Communications customer. “Launch moving due to high winds and rains at Vandenberg,” SpaceX announced today,...

CHINESE state conglomerate CITIC Group and its investment subsidiary and US private equity firm Carlyle Group have announced they will acquire a majority stake in a new company that runs McDonald's outlets in China's mainland and Hong Kong in a deal involving a total payment of up to US$2.08 billion by the consortium. The new company will act as a master franchisee to operate about 1,750 stores in China's mainland and Hong Kong for the next 20 years. CITIC Group and CITIC Capital will hold a combined 52 percent stake in the new company with Carlyle Group holding 28 percent...

A drone smashed into a Boeing plane with 80 passengers and 6 crew on board, causing substantial damage to the aircraft as it prepared to land at an airport in Mozambique. The Boeing 737-700 belonging to airline Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (LAM) was operating a domestic flight when it was struck as it approached Tete airport, according to the Aviation Herald. The crew heard a loud bang but continued their approach, suspecting a bird had struck the plane. However, later examination revealed the damage was more substantial than initially thought and caused by an apparent drone collision. Photos shared online...

Eric Trump helped raise over $16million for a children’s hospital in Tennessee through a charity that will no longer bear his name due to perceived conflicts of interest. An official representing the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Tennessee confirmed that the Eric Trump Foundation had solicited $16.3million in donations over the course of the last decade, The New York Times reported. The hospital offers free care to needy children. Eric Trump told the Times this week that his sister-in-law and another executive from the Trump Organization will step down from the foundation’s executive committee. The Trump Organization will continue...

One of NHS England's specialist directors said he thought the service was not "at that point" of crisis, but admitted demand was higher than ever. The Red Cross helps some hospitals with patient transport and provides care for patients who have returned home. Labour's Jeremy Corbyn urged Theresa May to tell MPs how she would fix the "national scandal" of the NHS. Mr Corbyn said: "The fact is, this government have repeatedly failed to put the necessary resources into our health service, while they have cut social care and wasted billions on a top-down reorganisation to accelerate privatisation." The Labour...

Photos and videos captured that night show young women trying to push through crowds of up to 300 men pressing in on them. Some of the women were crying, some yelling, others were being defended by their friends. Many of the women said they used their shoes to beat off gropers. A short distance away, an emcee walked out of his event and stumbled upon 25 men threatening a group of women. According to some women on the scene, not only was the harassment frightening, the apathy of cops who looked away and didn't intervene was worse. In the days...

A team of astronomers is making a bold forecast: A binary star found in the summer constellation Cygnus the swan will burst into a red nova sometime in 2022. When the two stars in the binary system crash into one another, they will create a brick-red beacon so bright that sky gazers will see it with the naked eye, Larry Molnar of Calvin College said Friday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Grapevine, Tex. As the constellation Cygnus glides gracefully along the Milky Way every late spring and summer, the cosmic bird’s left wing houses a faint binary star...

Monday's flight will carry 10 satellites for Iridium Communications' Iridium Next satellite constellation. It was originally scheduled for Sunday, but a public affairs officer at Vandenburg Air Force Base told CNBC Friday that the launch is now tentatively scheduled for Monday at around 10:22 a.m. local time. "The FAA accepted the investigation report on the AMOS-6 mishap and has closed the investigation," the FAA said in a statement. The AMOS-6 was the satellite, reportedly valued at more than $200 million, which burned up along with the SpaceX rocket on Sept. 1 of last year. In a statement on SpaceX's website...

Interstate 15 near the Clifornia-Nevada border was reopened in both directions Friday afternoon after being closed for several hours during a standoff with a motorist who allegedly fired at officers and then disappeared. The major travel route between Southern California and Las Vegas was closed for nearly 11 hours as authorities searched for the suspected gunman, who had led California Highway Patrol officers on a brief chase being getting stuck. The pursuit began at 2:18 a.m. when a CHP officer tried to stop a motorist driving at excessive speeds north of Baker, said Officer Adam Carmichall, CHP spokesman in Barstow....

North Korea got 2017 off to a menacing start. In his New Year's address, supreme leader Kim Jong Un warned that the nation was in the "final stage" of preparations to test an intercontinental ballistic missile. A day later, President-elect Donald Trump said the North would never develop a nuclear weapon capable of striking the U.S. "It won't happen!" Trump tweeted. Bombast aside, independent arms control experts agree that North Korea is moving rapidly to develop an ICBM. And many suspect it will test a missile capable of reaching the continental U.S. later this year. "They are very far along...

ussia says it is beginning to draw down its forces fighting in Syria's war. It decisively entered the war in September 2015, and has been a major factor keeping Syrian President Bashar Assad in power. This isn't the first time Russia has made this kind of announcement. "Last March, Putin also announced a withdrawal from Syria," NPR's Lucian Kim reports from Moscow. "Instead, Russia ended up intensifying its war effort." This latest announcement comes on the heels of a major military victory for the Syrian regime — retaking control of rebel-held portions of the northern city of Aleppo. A cease-fire...

The cyber breach was first discovered by Anthem on Jan. 27, 2015. In early Feb. 2015, Anthem and its affiliates announced the company had suffered a major breach, which compromised 78.8 million consumer records, including records of at least 12 million minors. In response to the breach, Anthem agreed to pay more than $260 million to upgrade its information security systems and provide credit protection to all consumers whose information was compromised. Investigators determined the data breach began in Feb. 2014 when they say a user within one of Anthem’s subsidiaries opened a phishing email containing malicious content, which permitted...