WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Aviation Administration will keep open for now the 149 control towers at small airports that were slated to close as the result of governmentwide automatic spending cuts imposed by Congress, the Transportation Department said Friday.

The towers, which are operated by contractors for the FAA at low-traffic airports, were scheduled to close June 15. They will remain open at least through Sept. 30, the end of the federal budget year, the department said in a statement.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has determined there is enough extra money available through a bill hastily passed by Congress last month to keep the towers open. The bill gave the FAA authority to shift up to $253 million from accounts with unspent funds to prevent further furloughs of air traffic controllers. The furloughs at all airport towers and air traffic control facilities caused widespread flight delays across the country for nearly a week before Congress stepped in.

FAA officials had previously said they needed $220 million to eliminate the need for furloughs. Congress didn't require the FAA to spend the remaining funds on keeping towers at small airports open, but lawmakers said they anticipated that the agency would use the money.

The FAA will also put $10 million towards reducing cuts and delays in its program to switch from a radar-based air traffic control system to one based on satellite navigation, the statement said.

Another $11 million will go to "partially restore the support of infrastructure in the national airspace system," the statement said.

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Her son Peter H. David was quoted as telling The Deanna Durbin Society newsletter that the actress died "a few days ago", thanking her admirers for respecting her privacy. No other details were given.

The actress was born Edna Mae Durbin in Winnipeg, Canada, but moved to California with her British-born parents when she was young. She broke into the movies in 1936, aged 14, when she appeared in "Every Sunday" with Judy Garland, according to her biography on the IMDb film website.

She made her name playing the ideal teenage daughter in "Three Smart Girls" in 1936 and in its profitable follow-up the next year, "One Hundred Men and a Girl", which was credited with saving Universal studios from bankruptcy.

Capitalizing on her fame, Universal cast Durbin in a series of musical movies including "That Certain Age" and "Mad About Music" which made the actress with the sweet soprano voice into one of Hollywood's most popular stars.

Durbin shared a special Juvenile Award with Mickey Rooney at the 1938 Oscars for their "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth".

At 25, Durbin was the second highest-paid woman in America behind her fellow actress Bette Davis, according to the New York Times, and her fan club ranked as the world's largest during her active years.

But Durbin found fame hard to handle and, despite trying to move on from her image as the perfect daughter with films such as "Christmas Holiday" (1944) and "Lady on a Train" (1945), she walked away from stardom aged about 28.

"I couldn't go on forever being Little Miss Fixit who burst into song," she once said.

From 1949 she stayed out of the limelight, moving to France with her third husband, the French director Charles David. She gave only one interview in the following decades and rejected all offers of a comeback. Her husband died in 1999.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) - In one of the biggest ever bank heists, a global cyber crime ring stole $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks by hacking into their credit card processing firms and withdrawing money from ATMs in 27 countries, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.

New York federal prosecutors accused eight men of allegedly forming the New York-based cell of the organization, and said seven of them have been arrested. The eighth defendant was reported to have been murdered in the Dominican Republic on April 27, according to U.S. prosecutors.

He was allegedly a leader of the cell and reported to ringleaders believed to be outside the United States.

"In the place of guns and masks, this cyber crime organization used laptops and the Internet," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch said at a news conference. "Moving as swiftly as data over the Internet, the organization worked its way from the computer systems of international corporations to the streets of New York City."

The case demonstrates the major threat that cyber crime poses to banks around the world. Prosecutors said the international crime ring used an attack known as "Unlimited Operations" in the cyber underworld.

According to the complaint, they used sophisticated hacking techniques to break into the computers of two credit card processors, one in India in December 2012 and the other in the United States this February. The complaint did not identify the companies.

In both cases, the hackers increased the available balance and eliminated the withdrawal limits on prepaid MasterCard debit cards issued by Bank of Muscat of Oman, and National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah PSC (RAKBANK) of the United Arab Emirates.

They then allegedly distributed counterfeit debit cards to the New York cell and other teams around the world - known as "cashers" - enabling them to siphon millions of dollars from ATMs in a matter of hours, according to the complaint.

Cashers pulled some $40 million during the Bank of Muscat operation and stole another $5 million during the RAKBANK operation, prosecutors said. In total, cashers made some 40,500 withdrawals in 27 countries during the two coordinated incidents.

Representatives for the two banks could not be reached for comment outside of regular business hours.

In late February, Bank Muscat disclosed that it would take an impairment charge of up to 15 million rials ($39 million) because it had been defrauded overseas by 12 prepaid debit cards used for travel. That charge was equal to more than half of the 25 million rials profit it posted in its first quarter ended March 31.

HIGHLY SKILLED HACKERS

Cyber experts said they believe the operation likely required the work of several hundred people, at least several of whom were highly skilled hackers capable of devising ways to penetrate well-protected financial systems.

"Hackers only need to find one vulnerability to cause millions of dollars of damage," said Mark Rasch, a former federal cyber crimes prosecutor, based in Bethesda, Maryland.

A single account number, for instance, yielded nearly $9 million in profits, including an alleged $2.4 million from the cell in New York City, prosecutors said.

The eight defendants - all U.S. citizens and residents of Yonkers, New York - were charged with withdrawing cash from the ATMs and transporting money, not hacking into the credit card processing firms or managing the operation.

The seven arrested are: Jael Mejia Collado, Joan Luis Minier Lara, Evan Jose Pea, Jose Familia Reyes, Elvis Rafael Rodriguez, Emir Yasser Yeje and Chung Yu-Holguin (known as "Chino El Abusador"). All except for Rodriguez were arraigned on Thursday and pleaded not guilty. Rodriguez's attorney was unavailable. Only Pena has been released on bail.

The defendant, who reportedly had been killed was Alberto Yusi Lajud-Pea, also known as "Prime" and "Albertico." Lynch said it was unclear whether the murder was related to this case.

Prosecutors said cashers often laundered their proceeds by purchasing luxury goods, and sending a portion of the money back to the organization's leaders. They said they seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and bank accounts, as well as two Rolex watches and a Mercedes SUV, from the New York defendants.

Investigators said that they found an email exchange with an account associated with a criminal money laundering operation in St. Petersburg, Russia, describing wire transfers.

An investigation is ongoing to see if other cells are operating in the country, Lynch said, adding that U.S. law enforcement had worked with counterparts in Japan, Canada, Germany, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Latvia, Estonia, Thailand, and Malaysia to uncover the ring.

No individual bank accounts were compromised by the scheme, Lynch said.

(Editing by Noeleen Walder, Tiffany Wu and Leslie Gevirtz)

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If you have not yet completed your FAFSA, here are a few tips to save you time and hassle and ensure you put yourself in the best position to get financial aid for college:

1.Do your FAFSA today. Most students don't realize that much of federal student aid is given away on a first-come, first-served basis. Unlike studying for your college exams, procrastinating on filing your FASFA can put a , so don't delay.

2.Apply online. Using the web-based version of the FAFSA is the fastest and easiest way to apply. Applying electronically allows colleges to receive your processed information faster than taking the traditional mail-in route. The online FAFSA also guides you through the application and allows you to save time by skipping some questions that are not applicable to you.

3.Get organized. Create a checklist of the documents you need early on; these may include forms your parents must fill out. For instance, if you are a dependent student, you will need to ask your parents for their tax returns, theirand other financial documents. Getting organized before you start allows you to complete the FAFSA seamlessly--without having to stop and retrieve missing items.

4.Use the IRS data retrieval. You can save time by transferring financial information from your filed tax returns using the IRS data retrieval tool. If you filed the FAFSA based on estimated income data, you can also use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool to update your FAFSA form after filing this year'sreturns.

5.Sign your FAFSA using a Federal Student Aid PIN. You and your parents can sign your online application using a Federal Student Aid PIN. You can apply for a PIN in just a few minutes at www.pin.ed.gov. Once you receive one, you will need it to access your Student Aid Report online, make corrections, file a renewal and access your information on other Federal Student Aid websites.Your PIN can also be used to sign loan contracts later on.

If you choose not to use a PIN, you can print, sign and mail in a signature page. However, this can take longer to process and can delay how quickly your college applications are processed and reviewed.

6.Submit requested materials to your school. After submitting your FAFSA, check to see if your school requests any additional materials. A number of schools request you send signed copies of yourand W-2 forms. In some cases, your school won't start processing your financial aid application until they receive all the requested documents.

The bottom line. Prospective college students who delay or fail to complete their FAFSA may be missing out on a significant amount of financial aid.

Winnie Yeung is a Product Manager for NerdScholar, a website that provides financial literacy tips, a student loan calculator and .

Scientists are working to loft science gear by balloon to observe the fast-approaching Comet ISON, which could be one of the brightest comets ever seen when it blazes through the inner solar system this fall.

The project, called Balloon Rapid Response for ISON (BRRISON), aims to get high-quality views of , which experts say could shine as brightly as the full moon when it makes its closest pass by the sun in late November.

The sky-high BRRISON project also hopes to demonstrate that important planetary science questions can be addressed with a balloon platform, researchers say. It will be the first planetary-science balloon mission since 1963, when a Stratoscope II balloon lifted off to observe planets, stars and galaxies. []

A large helium-filled balloon will tote a gondola packed with aand other equipment to near space, soaring up to 120,000 feet (36,576 meters) altitude almost 23 miles (37 kilometers) above the Earth. The BRRISON balloon's gondola will carry infrared and near ultraviolet/visible imaging gear, along with fine steering mirror technology to obtain high pointing stability.

BRRISON is to be launched from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Flight Facility at Fort Sumner, N.M., in the September-October timeframe on a one-day observing trek.

Super pressure

The BRRISON project, which is being sponsored by NASA, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute, is moving fast, because time is of the essence.

Comet ISON officially designated C/2012 S1 (ISON) was just discovered in September 2012, by Russian amateur astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok.

"We will be going from discovery of Comet ISON to start of the launch window for the balloon within one year," said Andrew Cheng, BRRISON principal investigator and chief scientist in the Space Department at APL in Laurel, Md.

Work on BRRISON has been underway since early February, Cheng told SPACE.com. "It's the fastest I've ever run in my life, he said. "From confirmation to start of the launch window, we will have six months. That's mighty fast, even for us, but the comet won't wait."[]

Thin atmosphere

Instrument-carrying high-altitude balloons can deliver cost-effective science, a high priority in this era of tighter budgets, said BRRISON team member Eliot Young, a principal scientist at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Earth's atmosphere is thin up at BRRISON's observing atmosphere, Young said.

"You can compete with thefor getting sharp images, but at a tiny fraction of the cost," Young told SPACE.com.Young told SPACE.com.he Hubble Space Telescope for getting sharp images, but at a tiny fraction of the cost,"to 140,000 feet al The science equipment is divided up into two benches, "stacked like a wedding cake," he added.

Along with Comet ISON observations depending on expected duration of the balloon flight other celestial targets may come into focus, such as Asteroid Elektra, Comet Encke and two bright double stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, Young said.

Challenges

With the clock ticking, and Comet ISON clicking off mileage, the BRRISON team faces some challenges, Young said, such as matters of thermal control and the pointing accuracy of science-gathering instruments in the gondola.

"It's very similar to hanging an SUV from a 300-yard cable," Young said. "The good news is that wind disturbances in the stratosphere are, by and large, pretty benign."

With launch day only a few months away, the anticipation is building. "Balloon liftoffs are magical moments," Young said. The race to get BRRISON off the ground and get Comet ISON in view "is stressful ... but fun," he said.

"BRRISON is absolutely unique in terms of what we're going to measure at the comet. There's nothing else that can do it right now," Cheng said. "There are , but none of them happen to be in the right place at the right time ... and there isn't enough time to build something new. With a balloon, it's doable."

Sungrazing comet

An Oort Cloud comet believed to be making its first trip to the inner solar system, Comet ISON's perihelion or closest approach to occurs Nov. 28, when it's projected to skim about 730,000 miles (1.2 million km) above the solar surface. There's no guarantee ISON will survive this perilous passage intact, but BRRISON will observe the comet before perihelion.

BRRISON is geared to measure carbon dioxide and water, primary cometary volatiles. Found as ices in a comets nucleus, they drive cometary activity. Scientists want to know whether the abundances of these volatiles are related to whereformed, what they formed from and how they evolved.

Cheng said that most of the data gleaned by BRRISON will be recorded onboard and analyzed after landing.

"We'll also have immediate downlink data so we'll know on the spot how things are working," he said.

Target of opportunity

Comet ISON is an important target of opportunity, Cheng said, to study volatile-rich material from the epoch of planet formation; to learn how comets work; and to find clues to the origins of the solar system.

Furthermore, BRRISON will develop and demonstrate gondola and payload systems for a balloon-borne platform designed to achieve a range of planetary science objectives, Cheng added. BRRISON's gondola is designed to protect the payload during nominal recovery back on the ground, he said, enabling re-use.

"We're making new observations of an object that has never been observed before in the wavelengths well have. We've got to learn something new and exciting," Cheng said.

Editor's note:If you capture an amazing photo of Comet ISON or any other night sky sight that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at.

This story was corrected to reflect the fact that the BRRISON mission will fly on a Zero Pressure balloon, not a Super Pressure balloon.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrins new book "Mission to Mars My Vision for Space Exploration" out in May from National Geographic. Follow us,or. Originally published on.

KABUL (Reuters) - More than 400 Afghan women and girls jumped from their seats, screaming and even headbanging to rock and rap music at an all-female music festival in the capital of Kabul, which organizers say was the largest such event in the country's history.

It may also be one of the last. In ultra-conservative Afghanistan, women's rights remain precarious.

Afghan women have won back hard-fought rights such as education and work since the Islamist Taliban was toppled 12 years ago, but there are fears these freedoms could shrink once NATO-led forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of next year, ending their fight against a Taliban-led insurgency that began in late 2001.

"I'm worried that when the troops leave, we'll be stuck in our homes like we were in the past," said 16-year-old student Shabona Nabizada, shouting above the din of electric guitar.

"As women we're ridiculed and harassed. I feel free being able to come here and leave all that behind," she added with a timid smile.

The rare women's day, part of a multi-day Sound Central concert, was held in a city concert hall on Tuesday and drew a boisterous crowd - mostly teenagers in the high school uniform of grey tunic and white hijab, but also abuse victims from shelters and even a few grandmothers.

Increasing insecurity is deterring some women from pursuing work outside the home, and rights workers accuse the government of not doing enough to safeguard women - claims that President Hamid Karzai's administration denies.

The women-only festival kicked off the 4-day Sound Central rock fest, now in its third year, featuring acts by Afghan-American singer Ariana Delawari and Kabul-based expat rockers White City, whose British lead singer Ruth Owen sent the crowd into a frenzy.

The number of women attending the women's day more than doubled from last year's debut event, said its founder, Australian multimedia producer Travis Beard. He publicized the concert by sending out fliers and teams of women to schools to convince teachers and parents that the festival would cause young women no harm.

"Women's day is the most significant part of the festival. Just having this kind of attendance for the first time in the country, at a rock concert, is groundbreaking," Beard said.

As local rap artist Ramika took to the stage, dressed in turquoise leggings and an oversized t-shirt, several wide-eyed Afghan soldiers guarding the event crept in to steal a look at the show, which only female press members were allowed to cover.

To one side of the audience sat a small, solemn group of young women from shelters that give refuge to abuse victims, many of whom have escaped violent homes and unhappy arranged marriages. The unmarked and often hidden shelters around the country face an uncertain future, with recent government attempts to bring them under their control.

Last year, Justice Minister Habibullah Ghaleb called the shelters houses of "prostitution and immorality", provoking a barrage of condemnation from Afghan women.

One shelter director, who only gave her first name, Horshid, said coming to the music festival was a way to "temporarily bring the girls back to life".

Horshid, who runs a shelter attached to the Afghan Women's Skills Development Center, a non-governmental organization, said women are increasingly concerned by the government's attempts to establish peace talks with the Taliban.

"If the Taliban regain any power, our rights will be the first sacrifice," she said.

(Reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Elaine Lies)

Jewish leaders hope the three-day pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, Africa's oldest, on the island of Djerba is regaining momentum after attendance plummeted in the wake of a 2002 al-Qaida bombing and lingering safety concerns following Tunisia's revolution two years ago.

The pilgrimage evokes a larger issue for Tunisia: How to convince Jews and other foreigners that stability has returned enough to merit a visit and help revive a weakened economy. The tourism trade accounts for about 400,000 jobs and 7 percent of economic output in Tunisia, an overwhelmingly Muslim country of nearly 11 million.

Despite the setbacks in recent years, Tunisia's Jews were sounding optimistic.

"This year will be better. The atmosphere is good, and the preparations have been made carefully," said Perez Trabelsi, the president of Ghriba's operating committee, and a Djerba native. "Attendance will go up from one year to the next, to return to its top level like before."

At its peak in 2000, about 8,000 Jews came many from Israel, Italy and France, where they or their forebears had moved over the years. Such crowds haven't returned since an al-Qaida-linked militant detonated a truck bomb at the synagogue in 2002, killing 21 people, mostly German tourists and badly jolting the now-tiny Jewish community.

The pilgrimage was called off in 2011 in the wake of Tunisia's revolution, when major street protests ousted longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia, and some ultraconservative Muslims called Salafis chanted anti-Semitic slogans at their rallies. Last year, the pilgrimage resumed on a tiny scale: Only 100 or so foreigners came. This year, community leaders hope 300 to 500 will have come.

Rene Trabelsi, a Paris-based tour operator, said the Tunisian government led by the moderate Islamic party Ennahda has "gone beyond our hopes" in providing security measures, police and troops for the pilgrimage.

After Saturday's Sabbath, the three-day pilgrimage was expected to culminate Sunday with the sale of necklaces, scarves and other craftwork to raise money for the synagogue. On Friday, as it got underway, families lit candles and the faithful marched through a white-washed archway lined with bunting and Tunisia's red crescent-and-star flag into the ornate, blue-and-white synagogue.

Jews have been living in Djerba since 500 B.C. The Jewish population has shrunk to 1,500, down from 100,000 in the 1960s. Most left following the 1967 war between Israel and Arab countries, and Socialist economic policies adopted by the government in the late 1960s also drove away many Jewish business owners.

Djerba, a dusty island of palm trees and olive groves, lures hundreds of thousands of tourists every year mainly Germans and French for its sandy beaches and rich history. The Ghriba synagogue, said to date to 586 B.C., itself once drew up to 2,000 visitors per day, Jewish leaders have said.

The site is rich with legend. The first Jews who arrived were said to have brought a stone from the ancient temple of Jerusalem that was destroyed by the Babylonians. The stone is kept in a grotto at the synagogue. Women and children descend into the grotto to place eggs scrawled with wishful messages on them.

The pilgrims, mostly Sephardic Jews with roots in Tunisia, come for the festivities starting 33 days after the Jewish holiday of Passover that include singing, dancing and drinking the traditional "boukha" brandy made from dates or figs.

At poolside at a posh Djerba hotel, some pilgrims reveled in the festivities and brushed off any concerns.

Emile Arki, a 63-year-old businessman who splits his time between Paris and California, said all too often "what's happening in Tunisia is exaggerated with an alarmist tone ... We were well greeted at the airport. The people are smiling. I don't see why anybody should be afraid."

The religious affairs minister sent an adviser to "congratulate our Jewish brothers during their festival," and the tourism minister was expected on Sunday.