In the statement, IAUofficials said that planet-naming schemes have "no bearing on the official naming process," and stressed the importance of having a unified procedure, even though its members welcome the public's interest. The IAU did not mention the space science funding company Uwingu (whose name means "sky" in Swahili)by name, referring only to a "recent name-selling campaign." But the young Uwingu did launch an initiative last month calling on the public to name the nearest Alpha Centauri Bb an4.3 light-years from Earth as part of a fundraising campaign.

Projects like Uwingu'sseek to at least informally replace official planet names like HD 85512b or Gliese 667Cc with more playful nicknames. The initiative by Uwingu a company that aims to raise money for space research, exploration and education lets you add a nomination to the planet name registry for 99 cents. []

And for another 99 cents, you can vote for your favorite name on the list. In March, Uwingu started an offshoot contest, which runs through April 15, to, the newfound Earth-sized planet in the star system closest to our own.The company will use the money raised by the project to support research efforts like SETI's (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Allen Telescope Array in California, as well as space launches and science outreach.

Uwingu CEO Alan Stern, a planetary scientist who also leads NASA's New Horizons spacecraft's mission to Pluto, said the IAU's claim to naming rights in space is a self-proclaimed one, and likened Uwingu's effort to a People's Choice endeavour.

"The IAU can't prohibit what it does not control. People's Choice naming contests and the colloquial naming of objects in space are unrelated to the IAU's purview of specifying nomenclature for astronomers," Stern told SPACE.com in an email. "The IAU no more owns the right to control the naming of objects in space for popular purposes than does a county that controls street naming have the right to deny people in the county who the right to adopt a mile of highway in someone's honor."

In thecampaign, the names Ron Paul, Heinlein, Sagan, Asimov and Pele are currently among some of the more popular monikers that have been proposed so far. Official exoplanet names, often made up of a string of letters and numbers, may look dull and unmemorable in comparison, but IAU officials defended their process.

"Whileexoplanetnames such as 16 Cygni Bb or HD 41004 Ab may seem boring when considering the names of , the vast number of objects in our universe galaxies, stars, and planets to name just a few means that a clear and systematic system for naming these objects is vital," IAU officials explained. "Any naming system is a scientific issue that must also work across different languages and cultures in order to support collaborative worldwide research and avoid confusion."

To be clear, Uwingu has said the nominations in its Baby Planet Name Book won't be official. But the organization had hoped astronomers might come around and consider using the names on the list to refer to new planets informally.

"At Uwingu, we're for opening up the naming of celestial bodies to as wide a spectrum of the public as possible, the IAU seems to want to go the opposite way," Stern said. "We think open-source naming it the future, and we're excited that so many in the public agree."

The International Astronomical Union was founded in 1919 to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy through international cooperation. The organization is the same one that officially demoted Pluto from a full-fledged planet to its current dwarf planet status in 2006.

For more information on the planet-naming contest,.

This story was updated on April 13 to include new comments from Uwingu CEO Alan Stern.

Follow Megan Gannon onand. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter. We're also onand.

Osmo Vanska (VAN'-skah) says he will resign as music director if the orchestra loses a prestigious concert at Carnegie Hall in November because of the ongoing lockout.

In a letter to the orchestra's board president and CEO, Vanska says he believes the orchestra needs to be playing by early September to be ready for the Carnegie appearance and a recording project scheduled this fall.

The Star Tribune (http://bit.ly/16uVP40) reports this is Vanska's second plea to end the labor dispute. Last November, he said he was "desperately anxious" about the orchestra's future and he urged both sides to resolve their issues.

The musicians have been locked out for more than seven months.

___

Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada got a taste of international panda diplomacy on Monday with the arrival of two "Very Important Pandas" at the start of a 10-year loan to two Canadian zoos.

Speaking as the two giant pandas arrived in Toronto from China, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Junsai - who gave the animals the VIP designation - noted that when he started his posting in Canada two years ago, he was greeted only by the Canadian director of protocol.

But the panda pair, Er Shun, 5, and Da Mao, 4, merited a personal welcome from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who reached an agreement on the panda loan during a visit to China last year.

"I am very delighted to officially welcome to Canada ... a pair of China's national treasures," Harper said at the airport.

Officials hope that Er Shun, who is female, and Da Mao, who is male, will mate during their five years in Toronto and five subsequent years in Calgary, Alberta, to produce the first Canadian-born panda cubs.

"China wants to be known for other than economic prowess," Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, told CTV television. "This helps serve that purpose."

China has frequently loaned pandas to foreign zoos, in deals that can be lucrative to both sides. Fees paid by the host countries help fund panda research in China, but the zoos hope to recoup that in extra visitors.

Other costs include the vast quantities of bamboo that the two pandas will eat - they spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating 14 to 20 kg (31 to 44 lbs) of bamboo.

FedEx Corp, which flew the pandas to Canada from China, will fly in 600 to 900 kg (1,320 to 1,980 pounds) of bamboo each week from the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee because "pandas are picky eaters," it said.

(Writing by Randall Palmer; Editing by Sandra Maler)

It's the second-known trip to a healthcare facility for the British actress since 2011, when news first broke that she suffers from bipolar II disorder - a milder form of the illness that is marked by sharp mood swings and erratic behavior.

"Catherine has pro-actively checked into a healthcare facility," publicist Cece Yorke said on Monday. "Previously Catherine has said that she is committed to periodic care in order to manage her health in an optimum manner."

Zeta-Jones, 43, who won an Oscar for her role in the 2002 musical "Chicago," underwent treatment in 2011 for what aides said was the stress of coping with the advanced throat cancer diagnosis and treatment of her husband, actor Michael Douglas.

No specific reason was given this time for her decision to seek help.

Bipolar II is a milder form of the disorder and is marked by less manic "up" moods but more depressive episodes, according to medical experts. It can be treated with medication or therapy.

Zeta-Jones was last seen on screen in February in the crime thriller "Side Effects," which received warm critical acclaim.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Philip Barbara)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed about 1 percent higher on Thursday, led by tech shares, after weekly jobless claims figures pointed to improving labor market conditions a day before the closely watched monthly payroll report.

The European Central Bank also lifted sentiment, putting the S&P 500 at another all-time closing high, as the ECB cut interest rates for the first time in 10 months and held out the possibility of further action if necessary to boost the euro zone economy.

The move follows Wednesday's Federal Reserve statement in which the Fed said it will continue its bond buying scheme to keep interest rates low and spur growth, and would step up purchases if needed.

"This shows that central banks are very determined to ensure that the system is stable and that the global economy continues to be propped up if needed," said Weyman Gong, chief investment strategist at Signature in Norfolk, Virginia. "This makes us very comfortable with U.S. markets for the rest of the year."

Jobless claims fell sharply in the latest week, dropping to their lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession.

The data follows a string of underwhelming reports, including a slow rate of growth in factory activity in the U.S. and China, which added to concerns about the pace of growth going into the April jobs report. Analysts are looking for 145,000 jobs to have been added in the month, up from the 88,000 added in March.

"U.S. markets are very focused on jobs, and the claims report suggests the positive trend of hiring could be continuing," said Gong, who helps oversee $2.5 billion.

The Nasdaq advanced on strength large-cap tech shares like Apple Inc , which rose 1.4 percent to $445.52, and Amazon.com Inc , up 1.7 percent to $252.55. The PHLX semiconductor index rose 1.4 percent after earlier hitting its highest level in two years.

Facebook Incjumped 5.6 percent to $28.97 after posting strong mobile advertising revenue growth in the first quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 130.63 points, or 0.89 percent, at 14,831.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 14.87 points, or 0.94 percent, at 1,597.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 41.49 points, or 1.26 percent, at 3,340.62.

The S&P ended at a record level and hit a record high intraday level of 1,598.58 earlier in the session. About 74 percent of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange closed higher while 73 percent of Nasdaq-listed shares closed up.

Visa rose 5.6 percent to $175.40 a day after reporting strong quarterly results and growth in the key U.S. market. The stock earlier advanced to an all-time high.

General Motorsrose 3.2 percent to $31.16 after reporting a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit as its North American business improved and its loss in Europe was smaller than Wall Street estimated.

With 76 percent of the S&P 500 having reported, 68.5 percent have topped profit expectations, more than the 67 percent average over the past four quarters. However, only 45.6 percent have topped revenue expectations, below the 52 percent beat rate over the past year.

After the market closed, American International Group Incrose 2.6 percent to $43.22 after reporting its first-quarter results, while LinkedIn Corpslumped 11 percent after its results.

Gilead Sciencesshares jumped 4.1 percent to $52.18 after its combination hepatitis C pill proved effective in a small trial.

Volume was light, with about 6.02 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.36 billion shares.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

[More from BGR: ]

In an interview withXconomy, Cheyer said that the Institutes study was misguided because the researchers conducting it asked drivers to use Siri in an improper manner. Of course your driving performance is going to be degraded if youre reading screens and pushing buttons, he told Xconomy.

[More from BGR: ]

This is why Cheyer and Siris other creators developed a car mode, which almost entirely eliminates the users need to look at the screen while a phone is connected to a wired hands-free headset or to a Bluetooth headset.

While in car mode, Cheyer says Siri is even stricter and will not execute certain commands that would require looking at a screen. Where messaging is concerned, car mode lets Siri read dictated text back to the user so he or she can check its accuracy without having to look at the phones display or edit the text manually.

When contacted by Xconomy, TTI representative Christine Yageracknowledged that her teams study did not make use of Siris car mode.

This article was

The wife of the building owner, who is on the run, was also detained in an attempt to force him to surrender.

Rescue workers continued to bring badly decomposed bodies out of the tangled mess of concrete, bricks and steel amid frenzied efforts to pull out remaining survivors, more than three days after the building came down in the worst tragedy to hit Bangladesh's massive, but poorly regulated, garment industry that supplies clothes to top Western brand names.

Teams were going in from seven entry points gouged into the rubble. Every once in a while a body would be brought out, covered in cloth and plastic, to a spot where ambulances were parked. Workers furiously sprayed air-fresheners on the bodies to cover the stench, leaving the air thick with the smell of death and cheap perfume.

The bodies were kept at the nearby Adharchandra High School grounds before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.

Military spokesman Shahinul Islam said 324 bodies have been recovered and 2,419 survivors accounted for, including 19 who were pulled out Saturday.

"We will continue our operation for more survivors as long as it is required. We are not thinking of wrapping up of our effort any time soon," he said.

Subrata Sarker, a fire service official, said he saw 12 survivors in one place, of whom three were pulled out.

"There are many (survivors) still there," Sarker told The Associated Press, during a break. Around him, soldiers, police and medical workers in lab coats swirled around in frenzied activity.

Police in riot gear formed a cordon around the site to keep away hundreds of protesters who have been venting their anger at the situation since Wednesday. The protests have spread outside Savar, a Dhaka suburb where the collapse happened.

Police fired rubber bullets, tear gas and used sticks to disperse several hundred stone-throwing garment workers Saturday in Savar, a police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Clashes also erupted in other parts of Dhaka and in the southeastern city of Chittagong where hundreds of garment workers took to the streets and vandalized vehicles.

They also put up roadblocks, disrupting traffic.

Authorities shut down garment factories in Dhaka for fear of violence, which has persisted over demands that police arrest the owners of the factories and the building.

Junior Home Minister Shamsul Haque Tuku said police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman.

He told reporters that police had also detained the wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, for questioning. The top three floors of the eight-story building were illegally constructed.

Authorities are still searching for Rana, a local politician, who hasn't been seen publicly since the building collapsed. Negligence cases have been filed against him. Police in Bangladesh often detain relatives of missing suspects as a way to pressure them to surrender.

Dhaka police superintendent Habibur Rahman said Rana was a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.

Fire service inspector Shafiqul Islam, who searched the building, said more than 40 survivors were found late Friday. Through holes in the structure, he gave them water and juice packs to combat dehydration in the stifling heat and humidity.

Search crews were cautiously using hammers, shovels and their bare hands. Many of the trapped workers were so badly hurt and weakened that they needed to be removed within a few hours, rescuers said.

There were fears that even if unhurt, the survivors could be badly dehydrated, with daytime temperatures soaring to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and about 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight.

A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed.

Clashes broke out between the relatives and police, who used batons to disperse them. Police said 50 people were injured in the skirmishes.

"We want to go inside the building and find our people now. They will die if we don't find them soon," said Shahinur Rahman, whose mother was missing.

Police say they ordered an evacuation of the building on Tuesday after cracks in Rana Plaza were found, but the factories ignored the order and were operating when it collapsed the next day. Video before the collapse shows cracks in walls, with apparent attempts at repair. It also shows columns missing chunks of concrete and police talking to building operators.

Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.

The disaster is the worst ever for the country's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. Since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country's minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.

Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.

___

AP writers Muneeza Naqvi and Tim Sullivan in New Delhi, Stephen Wright in Bangkok, Kay Johnson in Mumbai, Matthew Pennington in Washington and AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

As the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on gay marriage, Yahoo asked readers and contributors to share what one cultural issue absorbs their interest. Here's one perspective.

COMMENTARY | Our homeless animal population is out of control unnecessarily. Instead of being a burden on society, these animals could be contributing in so many ways.

Dogs are very valuable as service dogs to law enforcement agencies, the blind, deaf and other persons with disabilities. Cats can be emotional support animals to many classes of people including the elderly and autistic children. How can it be that resources like shelters and caring volunteers continue to be a burden instead of a treasure?

As much as I find pets in cages tragic, I find people in cages even more demoralizing. Dog have been shown to benefit inmates in jails and prisons and in turn benefit society. The inmates learn many marketable skills as do the animals.

Solving problems is the way to take on more challenges. We could have the resources to really take on bigger and longer term problems and stop all of this charitable waste. From recycling a burden into a resource, we could assist some of society's other problems and possibly make them fall into the solvable or at least be more manageable category. I would rejoice if we could to call a shelter or a prison a training home instead.

That may be a less winning tactic in the future. The U.S. Navy on Friday began testing two new aerial tools, borrowed from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, that officials say will make it easier to detect, track and videotape drug smugglers in action.

One of the devices on display aboard the High Speed Vessel Swift is a large, white balloon-like craft known as an aerostat, which is tethered up to 2,000 feet(600 meters) above the ship's stern. The other tool on board for tests in the Florida Straits is a type of drone that can be launched by hand from the deck.

Together, they expand the ability of Navy and Coast Guard personnel to see what's beyond their horizon, according to officials from both military branches and the contractors hoping to sell the devices to the U.S. government.

The devices should allow authorities to detect and monitor suspected drug shipments from afar for longer sustained periods, giving them a better chance of stopping the smugglers. They also should allow them to make continuous videotapes that can be used in prosecutions.

"Being able to see them and watch what they are doing even before we get there is going to give us an edge," said Chief Chris Sinclair, assistant officer in charge of a law enforcement detachment on board the Swift, a private vessel leased to the Navy that is about to begin a monthlong deployment to the southwestern Caribbean, tracking the busy smuggling routes off Colombia and Honduras.

Crews practiced launching and operating both systems before a small contingent of news media on board the Swift, managing to bring back video of vessels participating in a mock surveillance mission as well as radar and video images of the fishing charters and sailboats that dot the choppy seas separating Cuba from the U.S. mainland.

The drone, officially a Puma All Environment unmanned aircraft system from Aerovironment Inc. of Simi Valley, California, splashed into the water on one landing and had to be retrieved. On the second round, it clacked noisily but intact on the shifting deck of the 321-foot ship. Rear Adm. Sinclair Harris, commander of the Navy's 4th Fleet, said the devices are necessary at a time when the service is making a transition to smaller, faster ships amid budget cuts.

The aerostat, formally the Aerostar TIF-25K and made by a division of Raven Industries Inc. of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is filled with helium. It's an old technology, models of which have been used for decades, but it's packed with cameras and sensors that expand the ship's radar capability from about 5 miles (8 kilometers) to about 50 miles. That can help teams in an on-board control center to identify larger ships, which now would appear as just dots on the horizon, from as far as 15 miles (25 kilometers) away.

The Puma, meanwhile, can be sent out to inspect a vessel flagged by the larger aerostat and give a "God's eye view," of what's happening on board,a job usually handled by a plane or helicopter, said Craig Benson, director of business development for the company.

Both the aerostat and the drone have been used widely by the U.S. government for overseas actions, but Harris and others aboard the Swift said neither has been used before by the Navy to conduct counter-drug operations.

Unmanned aerial devices, however, are not new to the drug fight. U.S. Customs and Border Protection operates 10 Predator drones, including two based in Cape Canaveral, Florida, that patrol a wide swathe of the Caribbean through the Bahamas and down to south of Puerto Rico. It deployed one to the Dominican Republic last year for six weeks and has considered using one in Honduras. The others are used along the northern and southern borders of the United States.

The U.S. military has long been deeply involved in counter-drug operations in the Southern Hemisphere, coordinated by a multi-agency task force based in Key West, Florida.Navy ships and Air Force jets use their radar to track and run down smugglers, though for legal reasons the actual arrests are carried out by the Coast Guard, civilian agencies or officials from other countries.

In March, the military said it would reduce patrols and sorties in Latin America and the Caribbean because of the automatic spending cuts imposed by Congress, another argument for increased use of aerial surveillance devices like the aerostat and drone, officials said.

Representatives on the Swift from both contractors declined to say what their systems cost. But they said each can be run at a fraction of the cost of the fixed-wing planes or helicopters usually dispatched to check out suspected smugglers.