"We had a very productive day of discussions," said BPC President Jason Grumet. "The Alliance was particularly gratified to be joined by Bangladesh Ambassador to the U.S. Akramul Qader, who informed the group of current progress on the ground and the serious challenges that remain. BPC welcomes continued involvement in this important effort to improve worker safety in Bangladesh."

In addition to retailers and brands, the Alliance includes representatives from industry associations: American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), National Retail Federation (NRF), Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA), Retail Council of Canada (RCC) and the Canadian Apparel Federation (CAF).

At the request of the Alliance, BPC will continue to hold discussions designed to achieve effective and long-lasting change for the industry and its workers. These meetings will focus on five key areas: 1) worker training and empowerment; 2) standards for fire and building safety assessments; 3) sharing of factory inspection and training information; 4) governance; and 5) funding.

About the Bipartisan Policy CenterFounded in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell, the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is a non-profit organization that drives principled solutions through rigorous analysis, reasoned negotiation and respectful dialogue. With projects in multiple issue areas, BPC combines politically balanced policymaking with strong, proactive advocacy and outreach. For more information, please visit

SOURCE Bipartisan Policy Center

In a first-of-a-kind study, Canadian researchers tested children born to obese women, plus their brothers and sisters who were conceived after the mother had obesity surgery. Youngsters born after mom lost lots of weight were slimmer than their siblings. They also had fewer risk factors for diabetes or heart disease later in life.

More intriguing, the researchers discovered that numerous genes linked to obesity-related health problems worked differently in the younger siblings than in their older brothers and sisters.

Clearly diet and exercise play a huge role in how fit the younger siblings will continue to be, and it's a small study. But the findings suggest the children born after mom's surgery might have an advantage.

"The impact on the genes, you will see the impact for the rest of your life," predicted Dr. Marie-Claude Vohl of Laval University in Quebec City. She helped lead the work reported Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Why would there be a difference? It's not that mom passed on different genes, but how those genes operate in her child's body. The idea: Factors inside the womb seem to affect the dimmer switches that develop on a fetus' genes chemical changes that make genes speed up or slow down or switch on and off. That in turn can greatly influence health.

The sibling study is "a very clever way of looking at this," said Dr. Susan Murphy of Duke University. She wasn't involved in the Canadian research but studies uterine effects on later health. She says it makes biological sense that the earliest nutritional environment could affect a developing metabolism, although she cautions that healthier family habits after mom's surgery may play a role, too.

It's the latest evidence that the environment in this case the womb can alter how our genes work.

And the research has implications far beyond the relatively few women who take the drastic step of gastric bypass surgery before having a baby. Increasingly, scientists are hunting other ways to tackle obesity before or during pregnancy in hopes of a lasting benefit for both mother and baby.

What's clear is that obesity is "not just impacting your life, it's impacting your child," Duke's Murphy said.

More than half of pregnant women are overweight or obese, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. But it's not just a matter of how much moms weigh when they conceive doctors also are trying to stamp out the idea of eating for two. Gaining too much weight during pregnancy increases the child's risk of eventually developing obesity and diabetes, too.

What's too much? Women who are normal weight at the start of pregnancy are supposed to gain 25 to 35 pounds. Those who already are obese should gain no more than 11 to 20 pounds. Overweight mothers-to-be fall in the middle.

Sticking to those guidelines can be tough. The National Institutes of Health just began a five-year, $30 million project to help overweight or obese pregnant women do so, and track how their babies fare in the first year of life.

Called the LIFE-Moms Consortium, researchers are recruiting about 2,000 expectant mothers for seven studies around the country that are testing different approaches to a healthy weight gain and better nutritional quality. They range from putting pregnant women on meal plans and exercise programs, to weekly monitoring, to peer pressure from fellow parents trained to bring nutrition advice into the homes of low-income mothers-to-be.

It's best to get to a healthy weight before conceiving, noted Dr. Mary Evans of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, who oversees the project.

Just how much mom has to lose for a healthier baby is "obviously a research gap," she said.

Monday's research findings from Canada may shed some new light. Consider: Overweight mothers have higher levels of sugar and fat in the bloodstream, which in turn makes it to the womb.

Fetuses are "marinated, and they're differently marinated" depending on mom's weight and health, said Dr. John Kral of New York's SUNY Downstate Medical Center, who co-authored the Canadian study.

That may do more than overstimulate fetal growth. Scientists know that certain molecules regulate gene activity, attaching like chemical tags. That's what Laval University lead researcher Dr. Frederic Guenard was looking for in blood tests. He took samples from children born to 20 women before and after complex surgery that shrank their stomachs and rerouted digestion so they absorb less fat and calories. On average, they lost about 100 pounds.

Guenard compared differences in those chemical tags in more than 5,600 genes between the younger and older siblings. He found significant differences in the activity of certain genes clustered in pathways known to affect blood sugar metabolism and heart disease risk.

Only time will tell if these youngsters born after mom's surgery really get lasting benefits, whatever the reason. Meanwhile, specialists urge women planning a pregnancy to talk with their doctors about their weight ahead of time. Besides having potential long-term consequences, extra pounds can lead to a variety of immediate complications such as an increased risk of premature birth and cesarean sections.

By Martyn Herman

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) - If ever there was a year when Spanish dynamo David Ferrer might allow himself to dream a little it is this one.

Racing into the quarter-finals of the French Open without dropping a set, Ferrer has lived up to his top-four seeding and, with king of clay Rafa Nadal in the other half of the draw, the door to a first grand-slam final looks slightly ajar.

Ferrer cut towering South African Kevin Anderson down to size with a ruthless 6-3 6-1 6-1 victory on Sunday, playing his brand of steely claycourt tennis to perfection to reach a sixth consecutive grand-slam quarter-final.

The 31-year-old Spaniard prefers to deal in reality though.

"I don't want to dream too much," Ferrer told reporters, throwing cold water all over suggestions he could finally smash through the semi-final barrier at a slam.

"I am so very happy to have reached the quarter-finals. Of course, reaching the finals here would be okay but I wouldn't say that I would not sleep at night thinking about it, or I would sleep better."

A quarter-final against Tommy Robredo will not keep him awake at night either after his fellow 31-year-old clawed back a two-set deficit for the third round in a row to beat 11th seed Nicolas Almagro 6-7 (5) 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.

Ferrer has surpassed former world number five Robredo in the pecking order of Spanish tennis, leading 6-2 in their previous meetings but has huge respect for his compatriot.

"It's gonna be a physical match, sure, and a long match," he said.

In his five grand-slam semi-finals, Ferrer has lost three times to Novak Djokovic, once to Andy Murray and once to Nadal at Roland Garros last year.

He could be excused for cursing his luck at playing in an era containing three of the greatest players ever to swing a tennis racket but Ferrer is not courting sympathy.

"Tennis doesn't owe me anything; tennis is one of the fairest sports. It's given me so many extraordinary feelings," he said.

Ferrer was at his miserly best against Anderson, offering up only 11 unforced errors in a relentless onslaught that made his opponent look like a fish out of water.

Twenty-third seed Anderson, the first South African to reach the last 16 since Wayne Ferreira in 1996, possesses one of the biggest serves in the game but it resembled a pea-shooter against Ferrer who broke it at will. (Editing by Clare Fallon and Sonia Oxley)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New revelations that China used cyberattacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies have increased pressure on U.S. leaders to take more strident action against Beijing to stem the persistent breaches.

The disclosure, which was included in a Defense Science Board report released earlier this year, but is only now being discussed publicly, comes as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel heads to Southeast Asia, where he will discuss the escalating cyberthreat with counterparts from a number of area nations.

While officials have been warning for years about China's cyber espionage efforts aimed at U.S. military and high-tech programs, the breadth of the list underscored how routine the attacks have become. And, as the U.S. looks to grow its military presence in the Asia Pacific, it heightens worries that China can use the information to blunt America's military superiority and keep pace with emerging technologies.

"It introduces uncertainty on how well the weapons may work, and it means we may have to redo weapons systems," said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "If they know how it works precisely, they will be able to evade it and figure out how to better beat our systems."

A chart included in the science board's report laid out what it called a partial list of 37 breached programs, which included the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon a land-based missile defense system that was recently deployed to Guam to help counter the North Korean threat. Other programs include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, and the hybrid MV-22 Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane.

The report also listed another 29 broader defense technologies that have been compromised, including drone video systems and high-tech avionics. The information was gathered more than two years ago, so some of the data is dated and a few of the breaches such as the F-35 had actually already become public.

The details of the breaches were first reported by The Washington Post.

According to a defense official, the report is based on more than 50 briefings that members of the board's task force received from senior leaders in the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence community, national laboratories and business. The official was not authorized to discuss the report publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials have been far more open about discussing the China cyberattacks over the past year or two, beginning with a November 2011 report by U.S. intelligence agencies that accused China of systematically stealing American high-tech data for its own national economic gain. The Pentagon, meanwhile, in its latest report on China's military power, asserted publicly for the first time that Beijing's military was likely behind computer-based attacks targeting federal agencies.

"In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military," said the report, which was released earlier this month.

In Beijing on Wednesday, Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang did not directly address the allegations, but said that China opposes all hacking and referred to an agreement with the U.S. to form a cybercrime working group.

Cybersecurity experts have for some time been urging the U.S. government to use sanctions or other punishments against China for the breaches.

The benefits to the cyber espionage are high and the costs are low, said Shawn Henry, former cyber director at the FBI and now president of CrowdStrike Services, a security technology company.

"There is no cost, there are no sanctions, no diplomatic actions, no financial disincentives," said Henry, adding that the U.S. intellectual property losses are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He said that the U.S. needs to have a discussion with Chinese leaders about "what the red lines are and what the repercussions will be for crossing those red lines."

U.S. leaders, including President Barack Obama, however, have instead been using the bully pulpit to increase pressure on the Chinese to confront the problem. Obama is expected to raise the issue with China's new leader Xi Jinping during a summit next month in Southern California.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Tuesday that the Pentagon maintains "full confidence in our weapons platforms," adding that the department has taken a number of steps to strengthen its network defenses and monitor for threats.

Defense contractors, meanwhile, declined to say whether their systems had been breached. But recent filings to shareholders indicate these companies see intrusions as a serious risk to their business, particularly when they must rely on third-party suppliers.

In its most recent annual report, Lockheed Martin a primary contractor on missile defense programs told shareholders that prior cyberattacks "have not had a material impact on our financial results," and that it believed its security efforts were adequate.

However, suppliers and subcontractors have "varying levels of cybersecurity expertise and safeguards and their relationships with government contractors, such as Lockheed Martin may increase the likelihood that they are targeted by the same cyber threats we face," according to the 2012 report.

In a statement emailed to reporters on Tuesday, Lockheed Martin said it has made "significant investments" in cybersecurity and that the company was trying to secure its supply chain given that "program information resides in a large cyber ecosystem."

Similar risk disclosures to shareholders have been made recently by Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Raytheon. For example, Northrop Grumman wrote in its 2012 annual report that cyber intrusions "could damage our reputation and lead to financial losses from remedial actions, loss of business or potential liability."

Company spokesman Randy Belote on Tuesday declined to say whether Northrop Grumman's systems had been breached, citing company policy.But, he added, "the number of attempts to breach our networks (is) increasing at an alarming rate."

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Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

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Follow Lolita C. Baldor at https://twitter.com/lbaldor

The fear that rules this terrain, where residents are mostly Xinca Indians, recalls the bad old days of the country's three-decade-long civil war, which killed as many as 200,000 people. But what's brought in the troops this time are protests over plans by Vancouver-based Tahoe Resources Inc. to tap what the company says is one of the five largest silver deposits in the world.

Protesters say the project, called El Escobal, will drain or pollute the local water supply, and hundreds of people have blocked roads and burned buildings to stop it from going forward. That's tested President Otto Perez Molina, who sent in hundreds of troops and suspended the right to hold public gatherings in four townships near the mine in early May. It was the second time during his 16 months in office that he has declared a state of siege in response to protests against a foreign-run mining project.

With violence rising, the mine protests have now emerged not only as a threat to Perez Molina's young administration but also a warning to other foreign companies seeking to invest in the region. The residents of San Rafael, however, say they're been left with no choice but to fight. They also accuse the government of favoring foreign investors over communities.

"This is affecting us, we feel intimidated," said 18-year-old Miriam Munoz, whose nervous parents didn't want her to go to school because of all the soldiers and police outside. "The situation isn't going to change until the president comes to deal with it."

The company and its supporters deny the town's accusations, saying the mine will instead bring jobs and tens of millions of dollars to local governments and communities.

Andres Davila, the mine's coordinator of corporate communications, said the metal will be extracted through a flotation process in which the ore is passed through water. The process involves the chemical reagent zinc cyanide, which Davila said "is not discharged into rivers because it is reused at the same site."

"Half of the (mine's) employees are from San Rafael and 95 percent are Guatemalans," Davila said. "For every dollar, 35 cents will stay in Guatemala for taxes, royalties and voluntary contributions."

Claudia Samayoa, director of Guatemala's Human Rights Defense Unit, said the political damage has already been done.

"One interesting thing we have been finding in San Rafael Las Flores and the communities affected by the state of siege is that people who supported the president are telling us they no longer back him," Samayoa said.

A new poll by CID Gallup shows approval of Perez Molina's presidency nationwide falling 20 percentage points over the past year, from 68 percent in May 2012 to 48 percent this May. The poll, which was conducted between May 2-9 and had a margin for error of 3 percentage points, cites street violence and a lack of jobs for the fall.

Such conflicts are breaking out all over Latin America, where local resistance to foreign-driven mining projects have paralyzed whole regions and claimed dozens of casualties. At the same time, such projects have become ever more popular as world prices for copper, iron ore and other metals have boomed, driven in large part by growing demand from China.

In Peru, such protests have presented a major challenge to President Ollanta Humala, while similar outrage over foreign exploitation of local resources helped defeat presidents in Bolivia.

Activists say problems at the Guatemala mine began in 2007, when the owner at the time, Canada's Goldcorp Inc., came to San Rafael with an exploration license. In 2010, the mine was sold to Tahoe Resources.

"Since then the problems have aggravated," said Oscar Morales, president of the Community Development Council, which serves as a link between locals and political authorities. He spoke with the AP from a secret location where he has been in hiding since authorities raided his and family members' homes searching for arms. He said nothing turned up in the searches.

Morales said eight community consultations of 4,222 adults found that nearly all of them opposed the mine. He said he wants to hold another legally binding community consultation about the mine, but municipal governments have refused.

Yet the violence only grows more destructive the longer the dispute remains unresolved.

On Sept. 17, 2012, mine workers transporting tubes for electrical cables on the main highway in the region were stopped and held by townspeople opposed to the mine. The following day, unknown attackers set fire to mine warehouses and a patrol car. About two months later, enraged townspeople burned a hotel and stole dynamite belonging to the mine when authorities blocked a community meeting about the project in the nearby town of Mataquescuintla.

The deadliest clash occurred on Jan. 11, when a shootout between protesters and mine security guards left one farmer and two guards dead. Then, on March 17, unidentified gunmen abducted four members of the Xinca parliament in confusing circumstances. One ended up dead.

Faced with the growing violence, the national government announced the creation of a mediation commission, and on April 3, the government granted a 25-year exploitation license to the San Rafael mine "after it fulfilled all the requisites set by law," according to Davila. The mine has the necessary permits but is not yet operating.

After another protest left a policeman dead and six locals wounded, Perez Molina declared a 30-day state of siege that banned public gatherings and other civil liberties in four townships around the mine in Jalapa and Santa Rosa states. Some 500 police officers and 2,000 soldiers were sent to the area. The president later lowered the alert to a state of prevention, saying troops could no longer detain or arrest people without justification.

"It is not only because of problems at the mine, but also because of organized crime" that the emergency was decreed, said Perez Molina, but human rights organizations called the move a "criminalization of the legitimate demands of the population opposed to the mine."

Tahoe Resources vigorously defends the San Rafael project, which it expects to start operating before the end of the year. It says it has reached out to 2,000 locals to explain the benefits the mine brings.

Some people in the region laud the jobs it offers.

"My father and my brother work in the mine. I have received a scholarship from the mine. I think it is bringing development to San Rafael," said 17-year-old student Paola.

Many, however, are skeptical. They say the mine has already transformed the region, if only with all the troops and checkpoints that remain.

"What matters least is the money," said Vicente Morales, who lives 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) from the mine. "What we don't want is that in a few years our lands no longer produce, that the environment is damaged, that the river is polluted."

The election of Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin comes after the church's controversial rule change in 2009 that allowed gays and lesbians to be ordained in the nation's largest Lutheran denomination. More than 600 congregations have left the denomination since the change.

"The ELCA is a church that belongs to Christ, and in it there is a place for all," said church spokeswoman Melissa Ramirez Cooper. "The election of Pastor Erwin illustrates what many in the 4 million-member church believe: that God calls each of us by name."

Erwin, a resident of the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles, currently serves as a pastor at Faith Lutheran Church and a professor of Lutheran Confessional Theology at California Lutheran University. He has also served on a variety of boards and committees of church-related institutions and agencies.

Ordained in May 2011, Erwin said he waited years for the recognition and he brings a "deep faith in Christ's presence in his church lived out in 20 years of parish experience blended with university and seminary-level teaching."

Officials say the "partnered gay man" is also the first Native American to be elected. Erwin is part Osage Indian.

Erwin earned a doctorate degree, two master degrees and Bachelor of Arts degree at Yale University. He engaged in seminary studies at the University of Tubingen and University of Leipzig, both in Germany.

The ELCA has more than 4 million members in 9,638 congregations across the United States, Caribbean and U.S. Virgin Islands. There are 18,010 leaders on the ELCA roster and, of that, 16,773 ordained clergy.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - It might not have the lyricism of "Mud," the eccentricity of "Moonrise Kingdom" or the angst of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," but "The Kings of Summer" brings its own strengths to the table, from the oddball wit of Chris Galletta's screenplay to a charming ensemble cast that includes vets like Nick Offerman and Mary-Lynn Rajskub as well as a slew of young TV talent.

This big-screen debut from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is a delightful spree, a goofy lark and the perfect hot-weather diversion for audiences who want summer movie escapism without summer blockbuster gigantism.

Joe (Nick Robinson) and Patrick (Gabriel Basso) have just finished their freshman year in high school and are facing a dreary summer of parental supervision; not that their parents are awful or abusive, just irritating. Joe's dad Frank (Offerman) hasn't been doing the whole widower thing all that well, alienating his son in the process, while Patrick's folks (played by Megan Mullally and Marc Evan Jackson) are equal parts meddling and clueless.

Fed up with their home lives and itching to get out on their own, Joe and Patrick, along with odd duck Biaggio (Moises Arias), who has attached himself to them, find a beautiful and secluded stretch of land in the woods not far from their suburban Ohio homes. And even though the movie begins with Joe building a spectacularly terrible birdhouse for his shop final (which was due the previous week), the three chums manage to build a passable shack out of filched two-by-fours, a swimming-pool slide, the door of a porta-potty and various other pieces of construction detritus.

While the parents go on the hunt for their missing kids - with very little help from local cops Rajskub and Thomas Middleditch - the boys have a swell time swimming in lakes, climbing trees, letting their pubescent beards grow and generally avoiding adult supervision.

The plotting here is as breezy as our heroes' summer vacation: Will Biaggio ever succeed at hunting down dinner that isn't from Boston Market? Can Joe and Patrick's friendship survive their mutual interest in pretty classmate Kelly (Erin Moriarty)? Will Frank and Joe ever learn to play a friendly family game of Monopoly without one of them calling the cops?

Robinson ("Melissa & Joey") and Basso ("The Big C") have a relaxed, comfortable rapport, and almost everything uttered by Arias ("Hannah Montana") feels like a wonderfully weird non sequitur. So the young cast more than holds up its end of the comedy, even balanced against an impressive collection of veterans (that also includes Alison Brie as Joe's older sister and Tony Hale as an alarmist parent).

And while the laughs come like clockwork, we come to care about Joe as well - we want Frank to learn how to be a better parent, and we also want Joe (whose scruffy mustache becomes almost a character unto itself by the end) not to let his feelings for Kelly get in the way of his lifelong bond with Patrick.

"The Kings of Summer" is a glossy teenage fantasia, but it sails through without leaving behind any victims. On the contrary, it's so amiable that you can sense empathy for almost everyone on screen. And what could be better, when it's too hot outside to argue?

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year loan increased to 3.71 percent. That's up from 3.67 percent last week, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, rose to 2.98 percent. That's up from 2.94 percent last week, also a record low.

The rate on the 30-year loan has been below 4 percent since early December. Low rates are a key reason the housing industry is showing modest signs of a recovery this year.

In April, sales of both previously occupied homes and new homes rose near two-year highs. Builders are gaining more confidence in the market, breaking ground on more homes and requesting more permits to build single-family homes later this year.

Low rates could also provide some help to the economy if more people refinance. When people refinance at lower rates, they pay less interest on their loans and have more money to spend.

Still, the pace of home sales remains well below healthy levels. Economists say it could be years before the market is fully healed.

Many people are still having difficulty qualifying for home loans or can't afford larger down payments required by banks. Some would-be home buyers are holding off because they fear that home prices could keep falling.

The economy is growing only modestly and job creation slowed sharply in April and May. U.S. employers created only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year.

Mortgage rates have been dropping because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. Uncertainty about how Europe will resolve its debt crisis has led investors to buy more Treasury securities, which are considered safe investments. As demand for Treasurys increase, the yield falls.

To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.

The average does not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.7 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also was unchanged at 0.7 point.

The average rate on one-year adjustable rate mortgages slipped to 2.78 percent from 2.79 percent last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans was 0.5, up from 0.4.

The first of the funerals, for a 9-year-old girl killed at a Moore elementary school that took a direct hit in Monday's storm, took place Thursday morning. A family photo showed the girl, Antonia Candelaria, beaming with a big smile and wearing a white sun hat.

Early estimates indicate the tornado caused more than $2 billion of damage in Moore. Whole subdivisions in the fast-growing community of 56,000 people were destroyed.

Antonia's relatives and friends huddled under umbrellas in a downpour as they hurried into a chapel for her funeral. Mournful country music played in the chapel that was adorned with photos of the smiling girl.

Two elementary schools were hit one was leveled by Monday's tornado. Antonia was one of seven children who perished at the Plaza Towers Elementary School, a one story building with barely a wall left standing. Altogether, 10 children were killed in the storm, including two infants.

The medical examiner reported that six of the children who died at Plaza Towers suffocated after being buried under a mass of bricks, steel and other materials as the building collapsed. A seventh child who died there, 8-year-old Kyle Davis, was killed instantly by an object perhaps a large piece of stone or a beam that fell on the back of his neck.

Thursday's thunderstorms produced hail, heavy rain and high winds in the morning. A flash flood warning was also in effect. The National Weather Service said more severe storms were forecast for late afternoon and at night, and that more tornados were a possibility.

The weather was hampering cleanup and recovery efforts that had just begun to accelerate now that all of the missing have been accounted for. Residents were only formally allowed back into the damage zone on Wednesday afternoon, where they picked through enormous piles of debris.

Shayne Patteson was among them, moving around the ruins of his three-bedroom home. All that was left was the tiny area where his wife hunkered down under a mattress to protect their three children when a tornado packing winds of at least 200 mph slammed through his neighborhood.

Patteson vowed to rebuild, likely in the same place, but said next time he will have an underground storm shelter.

"That is the first thing that will be going into the design of the house, is the storm shelter and the garage," he said as he looked around piles of bricks and plywood where their home once stood.

Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said Wednesday he would propose an ordinance in the next couple of days to require all new homes to have storm shelters.

The city already has some. After a massive tornado tore a near-identical path in 1999, city authorities provided incentives such as federal grant dollars to help residents cover the costs of safe rooms. This time, though, Lewis thinks it is necessary to compel people to include them in all new construction.

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Associated Press writer Tim Talley contributed to this report.

When it was first sighted last September by two Russian amateur astronomers,was located some 620 million miles (1 billion kilometers) from the sun. At the time, it was hovering at around 18th magnitude on the brightness scale about 100,000 times fainter than the faintest star visible to the unaided eye.

While that is extremely faint, ISON was still glowing rather brightly for a comet so far from the sun. When it was determined that the comet would eventually "graze" the sun, coming within 730,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) of the solar surface on Nov. 28, 2013, the implication was that ISON would become superbright possibly matching the brilliance of a full moon. []

Remember Kohoutek?

If you're of a certain age, this story might have a familiar ring. Indeed, exactly 40 years ago, a comet by the name of Kohoutek was also discovered at a tremendously large distance from the sun, en route to a close solar encounter in late December 1973.

Like ISON, Kohoutek was expected to dazzle perhaps more than 100 times brighter than Venus. It, too, was dubbed "," but in the end, Kohoutek turned out to be much dimmer and put on a rather disappointing show.

Members of the media referred to Comet Kohoutek as Ko-hoax-tek, and the recriminations were rather nasty for astronomers, who had promised a holiday light show in the sky.

When Johnny Carson, who liked to think of himself as an amateur astronomer, welcomed astronomeras a guest on the "Tonight Show," the comedian balked at Kohouteks poor showing. "Comet of the century?" quipped Carson, "This thing wouldn't have made comet of the week!"

Going nowhere

Although Comet ISON won't begin its rendezvous with the sun for another six months, astronomers say the comet will put on a stupendous display. But as was the case with Kohoutek, theres a possibility that Comet ISON may not live up to its heralded expectations.

Comet ISON has apparently stopped brightening since the beginning of this year. After increasing more than sixfold in apparent brightness since its discovery, the comet has remained at 16th magnitude since Jan. 2; its brightening trend has, for all intents and purposes, flatlined.

Using CCD camera imagery, astronomer Faustino Garcia has developed thefor a photometric aperture of 10 inches.

The solid red line depicts the original brightening forecast for the comet; the dates at the bottom of the graph give the day, followed by the month and then the year so the final date"19/05/13 corresponds to May 19, 2013.

Celestial deception

Comet ISON is apparently a "new" comet a comet making its first trip around the sun that has originated from the , a realm of icy objects that extends perhaps one to two light-years from the sun, where billions of comets may reside.

Such a comet has never been exposed to the light and heat of the sun, and may possess a thin "frosting" of volatile material that vaporizes at a great distance from the sun and initially gives a false impression that it is dynamically large and active. After the frosting evaporates, the comet stops brightening. This is what may have happened with ISON.

Astronomers probably wont know what will happen to ISON until thegets close enough to the sun for any frozen water locked within its 3-mile-wide (4.8 km) nucleus to begin to sublimate (go from a solid to a gaseous state).

This process could get ISON back on a brightening trend. ISON will need to come within 280 million to 230 million miles (450 million to 370 million km) of the sun for this to happen, but it wont arrive within this distance range until sometime between July 8 and Aug. 12.

Until then, consider Comet ISON to be in a "holding pattern." It still has a chance of becoming a celestial showpiece by later this year, but it could just as easily end up following the ill-fated Kohoutek as a celestial flop.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for "Natural History" magazine, the "Farmer's Almanac" and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow us on ,and . Original article on .