LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After enduring a roller-coaster season described by Hall of Famer Earvin 'Magic' Johnson as "one of the worst" in franchise history, Los Angeles Lakers fans are scratching their heads over what may happen next.

Widely tipped as National Basketball Association (NBA) championship contenders after assembling a star-studded lineup for their 2012-13 campaign, the injury-hit Lakers were swept out of the playoffs in the opening round by the San Antonio Spurs.

It was the first time in 46 years they had been knocked out of the post-season in four games, a humiliating exit for a team many had predicted would challenge the record 72 games won by the Chicago Bulls during their landmark 1995-96 regular season.

Despite boasting a potent starting five including All-Stars Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, Los Angeles limped to an underwhelming 45-37 record as their ageing lineup succumbed to a spate of injuries.

Though they ended the regular season on a 28-12 run to book their place in the playoffs as the seventh-seeded team, that achievement came at a price with the inspirational Bryant ruled out of the post-season due to an Achilles tendon injury.

The Lakers were totally outplayed by the second-seeded Spurs in their first-round series, routed 103-82 in Game Four after center Howard was ejected following a second technical foul early in the third quarter.

"Dwight Howard that was a big No, No. Your teammates and the fans were counting on you," Johnson tweeted, before adding: "Dwight, I've been swept before but I never let my team down by getting kicked out of the game."

Johnson, who with fellow Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spearheaded the Lakers in the fabled "Showtime" era from 1979-1989, was not finished.

"I'm sooooooooooo happy the season is over. With the talent on this team this could go down as one of the worst seasons in Lakers' history!"

Johnson, along with many others, had expected much of the men in purple-and-gold after the off-season acquisitions of Howard and Nash beefed up a roster already bristling with quality and experience in Bryant and Gasol.

However Nash ended up missing 24 games because of a fracture in his left leg while Howard never appeared to recover fully from back surgery in mid 2012 while battling a shoulder injury and perceived tension between himself and team leader Bryant.

Forwards Gasol and Metta World Peace, along with backup guards Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks, were sidelined because of assorted ailments during a tumultuous season as the team failed to gel until the pressure was on to make the playoffs.

SHIFTED ROLES

Head coach Mike D'Antoni was widely criticized for an apparent inability to adjust his offense-minded style to fit a mainly old and slow roster, gifted Spaniard Gasol suffering the most as he was repeatedly shifted between multiple roles.

"It was a bit of a roller-coaster, obviously," D'Antoni said of his first season in charge of the Lakers.

"A lot of disappointment at the end. Due to a lot of circumstances, we started off slow and got us in a hole.

"The last 40 games, we played well. Disappointed we couldn't do anything in the playoffs - a lot of it due to injuries. We had ourselves set up to make a run, but we didn't do it."

The biggest question mark facing the Lakers ahead of next season is whether they can retain both big men, Howard and Gasol, as the team's luxury taxes will soar from $30 million to $85 million if they again have a $100-million payroll.

Howard, 27, will test free agency and is noncommittal about his plans. He can either re-sign with Los Angeles for five years and $118 million or opt for a four-year, $88-million deal with another team.

Gasol, 32, has been a frequent subject of trade rumors and, with a guarantee on his contract of $19.3 million for next season, said earlier this week that he understood the "business side" of the Lakers.

"There's a possibility I could be gone," he told reporters. There's a possibility I could stay. I'm prepared either way.

"I understand the challenges the franchise is facing and the decision they have to make in order to keep the team in the direction they want looking at the present and the future."

Bryant, a five-time NBA champion, fervently hopes the Lakers can go into next season with both Howard and Gasol.

"I want him here," Bryant said of Gasol. "He gives us the best chance to win titles. You bring Dwight back, then we're off and running. You saw how well they played together (at the end of the season). That puzzle finally got solved."

Bryant, who averaged 27.3 points and 6.0 assists during the regular season before he tore his Achilles tendon on April 12, felt the Lakers never had the chance to gel because of their alarming injury rate.

"It was crazy," he said.

"It was a constant process for us, but we finally figured it out. It will be great to bring the group back because we know what to do, and we know how lethal we can be."

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

NEW YORK (AP) -- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is reportedly nearing a deal to buy Life Technologies Corp., a maker of genetic testing equipment, for almost $12 billion.

Thermo Fisher's bid for Life Technologies topped $70 a share, beating out bids from other suitors, including the Blackstone Group, the Carlyle Group and other private equity firms, according to published reports. Life Technologies' stock closed Friday at $68.

Life Technologies, based in Carlsbad, Calif., said in January that it had hired Deutsche Bank and the boutique bank Moelis & Co. to help with its strategic review. That's usually a sign a company is considering putting itself up for sale. Since that announcement, the company's stock has climbed 24 percent.

Calls to Life Technologies and Thermo Fisher, based in Waltham, Mass., were not immediately returned.

A project designed to promote an art exhibit has turned 5,000 Manhattan pay phones into time machines that take callers back to 1993, a pivotal year in the city's art, culture and politics.

Pick up a receiver on the rarely used phones that still dot the New York streetscape, punch 1-855-FOR-1993 and you will hear a notable resident recounting what life was like on that block 20 years ago.

"We liked, creatively, the idea of using a sort of slightly broken, disused system as the canvas of this project," said Scott Chinn of Droga5, the ad agency behind the campaign for an exhibit titled "NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star."

An eclectic mix of artists, writers, food and fashion stars, and others has been recruited to reminisce, including chef Mario Batali, actor Chazz Palminteri, porn performer Robin Byrd and former Yankees pitcher Jim Abbott, who threw a no-hitter in 1993.

The narrators describe a New York that was dirtier, bloodier, raunchier and less gentrified than today but also an easier place for a talented young person to gain a foothold.

Batali says in his sound bite that opening a restaurant was easier in 1993 when he debuted his first restaurant, Po.

"You didn't have to have a rich daddy or an investor or put together a team or anything like that," he says. "It's sad to watch the cost of business push the real individualist entrepreneurs out of the game."

Bike shop owner Dave Ortiz remembers when the city's Meatpacking District, now home to trendy restaurants, nightclubs and pricey boutiques, was the wild, wild West.

"The rats were huge," he says. "They were as big as cats, so you had to walk in the middle of the street. It's amazing what they turned it into. It's cool but it's lost its, like, authenticity."

Rudy Giuliani was elected New York City mayor in 1993 and promised to crack down on crime and make the city more livable. The number of homicides in the city 1,960 in 1993 had already dropped from a high of 2,245 in 1990 but has plunged steeply since then. (There were 414 in all of last year.)

The city's AIDS crisis peaked in 1993 at 12,744 diagnoses. Terrorists staged the first attack on the World Trade Center. The look of the city has changed dramatically as national retailers have replaced independent merchants. New York City's first Starbucks opened in 1994.

"There was a presence of a kind of downtown underground scene which you really don't experience in New York anymore," recalled Gary Carrion-Murayari, curator of the exhibit at the New Museum featuring 161 works, many intended to shock with sexual imagery.

Lutz Bacher's "My Penis," for example, repeats a video snippet from the 1991 Florida rape trial of William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, in which Smith testifies about the organ in question.

In Pepn Osorio's "The Scene of the Crime (Whose Crime?)," a blood-soaked sheet covers what appears to be a corpse. Four nude mannequins join hands and stare into space in Charles Ray's "Family Romance." Political issues are tackled head-on in works like Sue Williams' "Are you Pro-Porn or Anti-Porn?"

The exhibit and accompanying pay phone campaign run through May 26.

Pay phones in the Times Square area feature X-rated talk-show host Byrd describing the neighborhood before Disney musicals and theme-park stores made it safe for tourists.

"The area wasn't really as dangerous as people thought it was in those days," Byrd says. "Because most of the bums that you thought were bums on the street were really undercover cops."

She adds: "It was a great time. It's too bad it's changed because now it's very pasteurized, homogenized, and it looks like Vegas."

Mohammed Sohel Rana, who was arrested Sunday as he tried to flee to India, will be held for questioning on charges of negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work. His father, Abdul Khaleque, was also arrested on suspicion of aiding Rana to force people to work in a dangerous building.

The illegally constructed, 8-story Rana Plaza collapsed in a heap Wednesday morning as thousands of people worked inside in five garment factories. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.

Rana was brought to the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in a bullet-proof vest, and led away to an unknown detention place after the magistrate granted a police request to hold him longer before filing formal charges. The crimes he is accused of carry a maximum punishment of seven years. More charges could be added later.

The collapse was the deadliest disaster to hit Bangladesh's garment industry, which is worth $20 billion annually and supplies global retailers.

In renewed anger against conditions in garment factories a mainstay of Bangladesh's economy hundreds of workers poured into the streets in the Dhaka suburb of Ashulia and set fire to an ambulance Monday, the Independent TV network reported. They also tried to set fire to a factory, it said. Authorities shut down all garment factories in the Ashulia and Gazipur industrial suburbs, including one that had reportedly developed cracks and was evacuated earlier.

Volunteers, army personnel and firefighters have worked around the clock since Wednesday, mostly using their hands and light equipment to pull out survivors. Around midnight Sunday, authorities deployed hydraulic cranes and heavy cutting machines to break up the massive slabs of concrete into manageable pieces that could be lifted away.

"We are proceeding cautiously. If there is still a soul alive, we will try to rescue that person," said army spokesman Shahinul Islam.

However, Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, chief of the fire brigade at the scene, said there was little hope of finding anyone alive. "Our men went inside and saw some dead bodies in the ground floor. But no one was seen alive," he said.

The civilian volunteers who had swarmed the site since the disaster are now gone, and only workers and army soldiers in green camouflage and hard hats are visible, watching the heavy machinery dig into the thick concrete. Gone also are the waiting ambulances that had rushed the rescued to hospitals over the past five days.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the site and a nearby hospital to meet with survivors on Monday, the first time since the disaster.

Hasina earlier ordered the arrest of building owner Rana, a small-time political operative from her Awami League party's youth wing. He was brought back by helicopter from a border town to Dhaka.

He had permission to build a 5-story building but added three more floors illegally. He last appeared in public on Tuesday in front of the Rana Plaza after huge cracks appeared in the building.

Witnesses said Rana assured tenants then that the building was safe. Police, however, ordered an evacuation. A bank and some first-floor shops closed, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floors told workers to continue their shifts.

Hours later, the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, crushing most victims under massive blocks of concrete.

Police have also arrested four owners of three factories. Also in detention for questioning are two municipal engineers who were involved in approving the building's design. Local TV stations reported that the Bangladesh High Court has frozen the bank accounts of the owners of all five garment factories.

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

The death toll surpassed a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh.

The collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.

"I think it is a wakeup call for the nation, a wakeup call for the industry and for the trade unions," said Shirin Akter, founding president of Karmojibi Nari, a Dhaka-based Bangladeshi group that lobbies for the rights of women in the workplace.

Akter said the priority should now shift to helping those who survived the building collapse but were left severely injured. "How can we protect those who lost parts of their bodies, their legs, their hands?" she said. "How will they be able to work again, come back to their workplace?"

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade.

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.

___

Associated Press writers Gillian Wong and Julhas Alam in Dhaka contributed to this report.

The newspaper reports that Warwickshire Police managed to track down and catch the criminals after the vehicle registered on an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system as it entered the town.

The Droitwich Advertiser reports that the four men, aged between nineteen and twenty-seven were taken into custody at Leamington Spa for questioning and released on conditional police bail pending further enquiries.

As security specialists, AlertSystems understand the importance of ANPR and its ability to aid in the capture of criminals by providing valuable vehicle information.

A spokesperson from AlertSystems:

“The capture of these criminals with the use of ANPR shows the importance of its technology to track and capture vehicles. In industries where vehicles are consistently present such as petrol stations, delivery drop off points and car parks,provides the ability to monitor vehicles easily.

“Businesses are able to match new details with an entire database of vehicles, allowing staff to search for entries from a particular time, date, name or vehicle model.”

AlertSystems manage and maintain over 5000 security installations throughout the UK and are specialists in providing business security solutions. Offering professional service and a complete range of security services such as monitored alarm systems,and Avigilon CCTV security systems. Alert Systems offers effective and reliable solutions to security problems.

Sales TeamAlertSystems0800 9882434

"We didn't want it to end. Nobody in this locker room wants it to end. Nobody is ready to go home," backup center Andray Blatche said. "We still feel like we have the opportunity and chance to make it to the second round."

Brook Lopez had 28 points and 10 rebounds, Deron Williams added 23 points and 10 assists, and the Nets beat Chicago 110-91 on Monday night, cutting the Bulls' lead to 3-2 in their first-round playoff series.

Recovering from a collapse that sent them home on the brink of elimination instead of tied, the Nets battered the Bulls on the boards and forced Chicago into being the team that wilted down the stretch.

"We came out very aggressive, as we have the past few games. I think the difference was just we sustained it for essentially a full 48 minutes tonight," Lopez said.

Blatche scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and Gerald Wallace had consecutive baskets in the finishing surge as the Nets finally pulled away in a game they led most of the way, but never by too much.

Two days after rallying for a 142-134 triple-overtime victory, the Bulls were outscored 15-1 at the finish and failed to set up a second-round series with Miami. Instead they will host Game 6 on Thursday.

"It was just a lot of mental mistakes. A lot of mental mistakes," Bulls center Joakim Noah said. "I feel like we had our chances. We beat ourselves. They played well. You've got to give credit when credit is due and now it's on us to come back and be ready for Game 6."

If the Nets win that one, they would host Game 7 on Saturday.

Nate Robinson had 20 points and eight assists starting in place of point guard Kirk Hinrich, who bruised his left calf in Saturday's game.

"For us, I knew it was going to be tough; it was going to be a challenge," Robinson said. "At the same time, we've been here before playing with a guy short. It's something we've got to do. We've just got to muster something and bring that energy and continue to play like we've been playing."

Only eight NBA teams have overcome a 3-1 deficit, but the Nets remained confident after Saturday's collapse, feeling they had outplayed the Bulls for long stretches during the series. They have led by double digits in four of the five games.

"I believed that we would respond," Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said. "We've bounced back all year too well, and as disheartening a loss as that was on Saturday, there's still been enough good minutes in this series. Neither of us are getting away from each other."

But they need two more wins against a Bulls franchise that is 12-0 all-time when holding a 3-1 lead.

"We feel like we're the better team," Wallace said. "We've just got to play a 48-minute game completely and stay in attack mode."

Robinson scored 29 of his 34 points after the third quarter Saturday in a game the Nets led by 14 late in regulation. Coming off his big game and agitating to opposing fans even when he's struggling, Robinson was loudly booed during introductions, and each time he touched the ball early on.

He made a jumper with 4:17 remaining to cut Brooklyn's lead to 95-90, but there would be no charge this time. Lopez converted a three-point play, and after a free throw by Jimmy Butler, Wallace nailed a 3-pointer then came up with a steal and dunk to give the Nets a 103-91 advantage with 2 minutes to go.

The Nets finished it off with ease, prolonging their first season since moving from New Jersey.

Butler scored 18 points for the Bulls, who were outrebounded 44-33 and gave up 24 second-chance points.

"That's the difference in the game, the rebounding," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "If you defend fairly well and then you give a team a second and a third crack at it, it's hard to win like that."

The Nets ran off seven straight points late in the first quarter, five from Lopez, to turn a 17-17 tie into a 24-17 lead.

Brooklyn got eight second-quarter points from Kris Humphries then opened its biggest lead when Johnson and Wallace made consecutive 3-pointers before Lopez hit two free throws to make it 50-40. The Nets led 52-44 at the break.

The Nets had the lead into double digits a few times in the third quarter but never built on it. The Bulls were back within four by the end of the period after making 11 of 16 shots (69 percent).

Butler made a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter and make it a one-point game, but Chicago never could grab the lead in the final period.

Wallace scored 12 points and Reggie Evans grabbed 12 rebounds as the Nets improved to 6-0 all-time in Game 5s at home. They have never lost a series when holding home-court advantage.

Joe Johnson and C.J. Watson each scored 11 points.

Notes: Carlesimo said it wasn't hard to ignore thoughts about his own future because the games come too quickly to worry about anything else. Though the Nets gave general manager Billy King a contract extension last week, it is unknown if Carlesimo will be back after leading the Nets to a 35-19 mark after replacing the fired Avery Johnson in late December. ... A number of New York Islanders were in the crowd at the franchise's future home. The NHL team plans to move from Long Island to Barclays Center in 2015.

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Roche Holding AG and a buyout group comprising KKR & Co LP and Hellman & Friedman LLC have joined the bidding for Life Technologies Corp, a genetic testing company coveted for its advanced diagnostics and steady cash flow, according to people familiar with the matter.

Roche's interest in Life Tech, a biomedical laboratory equipment maker with an $11 billion market value, signals the Swiss drugmaker's continued interest in gene sequencing a year after its $6.8 billion hostile offer for Illumina Inc failed over price.

The potential bidders are joining what is turning out to be a competitive auction, as cheap financing and growing confidence in the U.S. economy prompt more companies and private equity firms to contemplate deals costing more than $10 billion.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Danaher Corp and a buyout consortium of Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP, TPG Capital LP and Singapore's state investor, Temasek Holdings, are among the parties weighing bids, Reuters previously reported.

Healthcare companies have been attracted to Life Tech by the scale and synergies that a tie-up could bring while private equity firms have found the Carlsbad, California-based company's reliable cash flow appealing, people familiar with the matter said.

Bids are due in early April, said the people, who asked not to be named because details of the auction are not public.

Life Tech shares, which were down 1 percent before the news, ended up 1 percent at $63.58 on Tuesday. They are up more than 30 percent since the start of the year on hopes that the company's exploration of strategic alternatives will lead to a sale.

Representatives for KKR, Hellman & Friedman and Life Tech declined to comment. Roche said it does not comment on market speculation.

Analysts see a good fit between the laboratory equipment and scientific instrument businesses of Thermo Fisher and Life Technologies, with the exception of Life Tech's genetic sequencing, which Thermo Fisher could choose to divest after a deal.

Industrial and healthcare conglomerate Danaher, which has a life sciences and diagnostics division, agreed to buy Life Tech's stake in a mass spectrometry joint venture with MDS Analytical Technologies for $450 million in cash in 2009.

Private equity firms have tried to compete in the auction by teaming up, a move that helps them reduce the size of their individual equity commitment but does not improve their returns.

The so-called club deals have become less popular in recent years over concerns about corporate governance in acquired companies and a backlash from some fund investors who see little point in having exposure to a company through more than one buyout fund.

People close to the Life Tech sale process said buyout firms could struggle to achieve internal rates of return of 15 percent or more on the deal based on the leverage Life Technologies could take on to capture a sufficient portion of the financing market in a transaction.

(Reporting by Soyoung Kim and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Matthew Lewis and Steve Orlofsky)

(Logo: )

Recall Summary

Name of product: Bell Full Throttle Bike HelmetsHazard: The buckle on the helmet's safety strap can release in an accident and allow the helmet to fall off the rider, posing a risk of head injury.Remedy: RefundConsumer Contact: Bell Sports Inc. toll-free at (866) 892-6059 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm's website atand click on "Recall Notice" for more information.

Recall Details

Units: About 2,500Description: This recall involves Bell Full Throttle, full coverage bicycle motocross (BMX) helmets with a chin bar. The all-black helmets have UPC code 035011 937052 and part number 1009159 printed on a label on the side of the helmet shell. The Bell logo is affixed to the front and lower side of the helmet.Incidents/Injuries: None reported. Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled helmets and contact Bell Sports for instructions on receiving a full refund. Sold exclusively by: Toys R Us stores nationwide and online at ToysRUs.com between July 2012 and January 2013 for about $60. Importer: Bell Sports Inc., of Scotts Valley, Calif.Manufacturer: MHR Manufactured in: China

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about your experience with the product on .

CPSC is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of the thousands of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $900 billion annually. CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer productssuch as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicalscontributed to a decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

Under federal law, it is illegal to attempt to sell or resell this or any other recalled product.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, go online to: , call CPSC's Hotline at (800) 638-2772 or teletypewriter at (301) 595-7054 for the hearing and speech impaired. Consumers can obtain this news release and product safety information at . To join a free e-mail subscription list, please go to .

CPSC Consumer Information HotlineContact us at this toll-free number if you have questions about a recall:800-638-2772 (TTY 301-595-7054)Times: 8 a.m. 5:30 p.m. ET; Messages can be left anytimeCall to get product safety and other agency information and to .

Media ContactPlease use the phone numbers below for all media requests.Phone: (301) 504-7908Spanish: (301) 504-7800

SOURCE U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

"The big thing to remember is that it’s the White House Correspondents' Dinner, so you've got to spend your time talking about these correspondents and what they do and the media. That's obviously a rich vein and people can forget and think they’re there to make fun of the president. Well, no. This is the big party for all the correspondents, so I think it's really knowing their world, knowing about them, and talking about them. And the rest of it I'm just going to sing. Any show tune from 'Oklahoma.'"

O'Brien posted a picture to Twitter yesterday, proving himself in the mood to get silly at the event, which hasfrom the likes of Tom Brokaw, who criticized it for being too celebrity driven. 

In D.C. to perform at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Practicing my opening "Goofy Sunglasses" bit:

RELATED:

The picture, perhaps, might reflect his routine: off-kilter but inoffensive. O'Brien told Politico's Patrick Gavin that he's not planning on overtly antagonizing anyone (unlike we know): 

There’s no way to do that room and not have an ‘Ooooooo …’ every now and then, but my goal is to be able to go up to my [hotel] room and be able to sleep. I don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. I want to be funny, and I’m not up there to make anyone incredibly uncomfortable and certainly not the guy who controls drones. That’s going to be in my mind the entire time: This man has a joystick in his lap and he controls drones — and my income tax.

Unlike, say, Bill Clinton, whom O'Brien performed before at the 1995 dinner, President Obama isn't all that easy to make fun of. O'Brien's last hope, he said, is that Obama "throws up on a world leader between now and then." He added a joke that, in the wake of the recent ricin scares in Washington, might have already gone a little too far: "I'm sending the White House a lot of chili that's gone bad in the hopes that it gets past security."

RELATED:

Plus, O'Brien told Gavin, the thing is supposed to be about the correspondents anyway, and not just about mocking the president. So, journalists, watch out. And you're getting off easy by bailing, Brokaw. We'll bewith live coverage of the all the inanity on Saturday night.

Partial lunar eclipses like Thursday's event occasionally receive a bad wrap because they aren't nearly as dramatic as the red glow of the moon during a total , and some times they aren't even noticeable. That, however, wasn't the case today.

A live webcast from a telescope in Dubai and hosted by the online Slooh Space Camera streamed amazing views of the lunar eclipse at its peak around 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT). The lunar eclipse's entirety was primarily visible from Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Western Europe, so stargazers in other parts of the world had to rely on webcasts like those provided by Slooh and the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy to catch the event. []

"I am still stunned," Slooh President Paul Cox said during his group's webcast. "I thought we were going to have trouble discerning any shadow at all from this lunar eclipse."

Instead Cox and his fellow co-hosts were met with gorgeous shots of the Earth's shadow passing over the face of the moon. During the eclipse, a small upper left-hand section of thewas totally obscured, a beautiful and unexpected sight.

"It's only more recently that I've become a fan of lunar eclipses because they're beautiful in their own right," solar scientist Lucie Green of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the United Kingdom said during the Slooh webcast.

This particular lunar eclipse defied expectation partially because the satellite only passed through a small portion of the umbra of the Earth the innermost shadow of the planet that prevents any direct sunlight from reaching the moon.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when passes directly within this inner shadow, but those are rare. The moon is slightly tilted in its orbit around the Earth, preventing it from orbiting on the same plane as the planet. If it did, we would have a total lunar and a total solar eclipse every month.

"Amazing view, the moon, even with such small eclipses, it always breathtaking," astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, who hosted the Virtual Telescope Project webcast today, told SPACE.com in an email.

Typically, partial lunar eclipses can be difficult to see at all, but Thursday's event not only impressed lunar observers, but also photographers hoping to catch a glimpse of the moon and another celestial body.

"Like every year we capture this events," photographer Stojan Stojanovski said of the eclipse. "I may say this year is special because we have Saturn near moon at the same time with eclipse. This night will be long first because we take photos from eclipse, second level will be watching and taking some photos of Saturn."

tonight. If you hold your closed fist at an arm's length toward the night's sky, the ringed wonder should be less than "half a fist" way from the moon.

If weather permits, the planet will look like a bright star to the upper-left of the moon and should appear all night long. The planet is close to a point in the night sky called "opposition," when it will be directly opposite the sun.

Saturn's opposition will be the next broadcast from Slooh carried on SPACE.com this Sunday (April 28) during its peak.

Editor's note: If you snap a great photo of the April 25 lunar eclipse or any other celestial event that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at .

Follow Miriam Kramer and . Follow us , and . Original article on .