Curiosity's handlers sent no commands to the rover for most of April, because Mars was on the opposite side of the sun from Earth at the time. But this planetary alignment, known as a , is now over, and the mission team is planning to drill into a Red Planet rock soon and then send Curiosity off on an epic, miles-long trek to the base of a huge and mysterious mountain.

"A couple of weeks to move to the site and drill, and then the experiments themselves can take also a couple of weeks that's about the time scale we're looking at," said Curiosity deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And then we'd hopefully get going." []

He stressed, however, that this timeframe could shift depending on how the drilling operation goes, and what Curiosity discovers.

Curiosity healthy after 'spring break'

Thewasn't idle during conjunction. It continued monitoring Martian weather and radiation and perfomed some relatively simple science work using commands sent up in advance, Vasavada said.

"That all went fine it kind of executed flawlessly a long set of preplanned activities," he told SPACE.com. "We had never planned 30 days at once [before], so that was a relief."

But things have picked up since mission controllers got back in touch with Curiosity late last week. They've already uploaded a minor software update to the rover, which emerged from conjunction in fine health, Vasavada said.

Curiosity continues to operate on its backup, or B-side, computer, which it switched to after a (or A-side) in late February.

The rover team has still not fully figured out what happened to the A-side, but engineers have made significant troubleshooting progress. For example, Curiosity would have been OK if an issue during conjunction had forced the rover to swap back over to the A-side computer, Vasavada said.

Drilling another hole

Curiosity touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater last August, kicking off a two-year surface mission to determine if the Red Planet could ever have .

The rover team has already checked off this primary goal, announcing in March that a spot dubbed Yellowknife Bay was indeed habitable billions of years ago. Scientists reached this conclusion after studying Curiosity's analyses of material pulled from a 2.5-inch-deep (6.4 centimeters) hole the rover drilled into a Red Planet outcrop. []

Now that conjunction's over, the mission team wants to drill another hole in a nearby rock, to confirm and perhaps extend the exciting results gleaned from the .

"Probably in the next week or two, we will slightly move the rover to a new location, which the science team is actively choosing right now," Vasavada said. "Primarily, it will be to duplicate the results from the first hole, because they were so exciting and, in some cases, unexpected that the people who run the experiments just want to make sure it's really correct before writing all the papers up."

"Slightly move" likely means a few meters or so, he said, adding that the second drilling activity might target intriguing mineral veins or concretions that the team avoided the first time around, not wanting to complicate the drill's maiden operation.

Off to Mount Sharp

Once the drilling and subsequent analyses are complete, the team plans to start the long trek to , the mysterious 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) mountain that rises from Gale Crater's center.

Mount Sharp's foothills, which lie about 5 miles (8 km) away from Yellowknife Bay, were identified as Curiosity's main destination before the rover's November 2011 launch.

Mars-orbiting spacecraft have spotted signs that the mountain's base was exposed to liquid water long ago, and the team wants Curiosity to read the Red Planet's environmental history like a book as it climbs up Mount Sharp's lower reaches.

Curiosity has taken plenty of time to check out interesting rocks and riverbeds near its landing site thus far, putting just 2,300 feet (700 meters) on its odometer to date. But the long trip to Mount Sharp will force a shift in the rover team's mindset, requiring them to ignore some intriguing features in the interest of making tracks.

Mission scientists are already starting to plan Curiosity's route to Mount Sharp, a process that involves identifying high-priority science targets along the way. Still, there's no way the team will be able to look at everything that draws their interest.

"One of our engineers said it's like putting your family in the car to go to Disneyland," Vasavada said. "Along the way, there's the biggest ball of twine, and a little dinosaur museum and all this stuff. But you have to tell your kids, 'We can't do everything, or we'll never get to Disneyland.'"

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From the attention-grabbing bangs, to the high-end Jason Wu dresses, to the colorful J. Crew ensembles, first lady Michelle Obama is considered by many to be a style icon in her own right. But one famous fashion designer - Vivienne Westwood - is unimpressed, describing Obama's fashion sense as "dreadful."

"Don't talk about her.It's dreadful what she wears," Westwoodearlier this week.

"I don't want to talk about it.Really, I can't.She's a very nice-looking lady, but it's a nonstarter regarding clothes that suit her," Westwood added.

Westwood, a 71-year-old English fashionista who designed for the punk rock band the Sex Pistols, heaped praise on another first lady for her style.

"Jackie Kennedy was a different matter altogether," Westwood said. "Itjust has to suit her and be something that makes a human being more glamorous.That's what fashion is there for.It's there to help, not just to make you look more conservative."

The White House has not responded to a request for comment.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Harvey Weinstein's hopes of getting Congress to enact a royalty-based compensation system for movie clips played on the web so far appears to be a long shot.

None of the movie industry trade associations are rushing to champion Weinstein's idea.

"While Harvey's ideas are characteristically interesting and provocative, the topic isn't something that we're able to comment on at this time," said Chris Green, supervisor of communications for the Producers Guild of America.

Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America East, and one of the few association execs willing to speak more in detail praised the suggestion

"It's an interesting idea. It's a way to regularize a lot of licensing," he said. "I"m not aware of it having a lot of traction yet in the industry."

Capitol Hill aides say they have heard little about the proposal yet, but they also say that Weinstein made his proposal at the right time -- just as the House Judiciary Committee readies to undertake a thorough review of copyright laws.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, (R-Va.), has announced plans for a comprehensive review of U.S. copyright laws. Several Capitol Hill aides suggest it would offer a perfect opportunity to make a pitch for creating a royalty system for movies.

The review could also present an opportunity for the movie industry to seek some of the curbs on illegal downloads of movies it was unable to get in the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA).

Weinstein unveiled his proposal prior to attending the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner April 26.

In the speech, Weinstein attacked Silicon Valley for profiting from the work of the movie industry without payment to the creative that created the work.

"Look at 'Chicago.' If you go to YouTube, you can download nine songs. There are 13 songs in the entire movie, pretty much 70 or 80 minutes of it. Nobody is getting paid for that. Neither Rob Marshall who directed, me, nor the studio. Nothing," said Weinstein.

He predicted a push for changes could come quickly in Congress. And told TheWrap he was willing to come to Washington to lobby personally for the proposal.

Weinstein didn't offer a lot of specifics but indicated his proposal is for the movie industry to adopt the kind of compensation system that music publishers use to ensure song writers are paid for performances on the web. That system created by Congress in 1998 in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives the Library of Congress authority to set royalty rates for Web play of performances.

The level of compensation per performance is tiny, but the system offers some advantages. Instead of individual works being licensed, collections of works are licensed creating a lot more certainty about licensing costs.

Efforts to expand the royalty system for music have been fraught with controversy. The National Assn. of Broadcasters has so far successful fought an effort to use royalties to compensate artists for radio play of their albums.

Peterson said that one obvious question about the royalty system for movies, would be the compensation level.

"In chasing after the nickels, you don't want to miss the dollars," he said.

He noted that while YouTube pays nothing, companies like Netflix and Amazon have been willing to pay "pretty good rate" to license movie content. That could make a switch to a royalties-based system risky.

While Goodlatte has announced plans for the House Judiciary Committee to consider copyright legislation, the Senate Judiciary Committee has been tied up with immigration reform legislation and hasn't yet announced plans for which other issues it will consider this year.

But when Holmes got to page 13, there it was againThe Suns regular topless featurelarger than life, and larger than the images of female sporting prowess: it had just been moved back 10 pages for the occasion. It really pissed me off, Holmes says. The paper is always showing pictures of men in suits doing things, while women just stand around in their underpants.

It was that night, lying awake and annoyed, Holmes resolved to start the No More Page3 campaign. But taking on a national institution isnt easy.

For the past 43 years, if you turned over the front page of Britains bestselling newspaper, youd invariably be confronted by a pair of naked breasts. Their appearance might change. In the past, the girls on the page were often teenagers with breasts that looked augmented and improbable; more recently, theres been a move toward a more natural and less adolescent look. But every daily edition of the tabloid has, for almost half a century, promoted an idea of female availability. So prominent is Page 3 that satirical magazine Private Eye accorded the papers proprietor the moniker Rupert Thanks for the Mammaries Murdoch.

In the early 70s, the novelty was a succs du scandale. Murdoch had already bought the worlds bestselling English-language newspaper in 1969, the now shuttered News of the World, which thrived historically on murder and salacious sex exposs. But the daily Sun, which he acquired soon after, had a staid reputation. So Murdoch ordered a redesign to mimic the more successful Daily Mirror, and added a topless model on the inside pagean innovation actually started by a rival Australian paper in 1966.

In the subsequent furor, The Sun was banned from some public libraries, but peddling soft porn didnt exactly hurt sales. Combined with canny TV advertising and stories focused on football and soap stars, The Sun became Britains most popular selling newspaper within a decade, selling more than 4million copies a day by the time of Margaret Thatchers election in 1979.

Though often referred to as a bit of fun, Page 3 has been an icon of Murdochs tabloid project. Like The Suns famous headline when the Argentine cruiser, the Belgrano, was torpedoed by a British submarine during the 1982 Falklands warGotcha!the daily pin-up helped sum up the chirpy shock-jock tone. Page 3 appealed to a male constituency of working-class conservatives, who still enjoyed the social permissiveness of the 60s. Those who disapproved were killjoys, snobs, censorious feminists.

When during a parliamentary debate in 1986 over a law banning sex-education materials the Labour politician Clare Short suggested Page 3 would be a better candidate, she was ferociously vilified. The YouTube video showing her being jeered by male M.P.s is a lesson in how what purports to be a celebration of the female form quickly lurches into misogyny. Nearly 20 years later The Sun was still on the attack, with an editorial: Fat, jealous Clare brands Page 3 porn. When it comes to breasts and the British press, the personal is political.

So Page 3 is a peculiarly British battleground in the culture wars. Its prominent in one of the most famous editions of The Sun. On the morning of the 1992 general election, after a front page attacking Labour leader Neil Kinnock, the feature pictured a large, middle-aged woman in Victorian underwear, wearing a clownish red wig with the caption: Heres what Page Three will look like under Kinnock.

The next day, as the Conservative Party was returned for an unexpected fourth successive victory, the front page featured the same clownish figure, dancing in front of the Houses of Parliament, underneath the headline Its the Sun Wot Won It!

Ten years later, taking on Page 3 wasnt any easier. Rebekah Brooks, close confidante of the Murdoch family, said she planned to get rid of the feature when she took over the editorship of The Sun in 2003. But even the ultimate insider and Queen of Fleet Street couldnt actually get rid of the bare-breasted symbol of male liberty, though obvious implants and just 16 models were frowned upon.

Brooks was felled by the phone-hacking scandal, and dozens of senior Sun reporters and editors have been arrested in related bribery allegations over the last year, but the current editor Dominic Mohan vociferously defended Page 3 in the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics as an innocuous British institution. News International might have been holed below the waterline, but if the ship was going down, the seminaked women were going last.

However, Mohan hadnt reckoned on Holmes. Though she had never been involved in a campaign before, within days, Holmes had created a petition at Change.org urging Mohan to drop the bare boobs from The Sun newspaper. She adroitly deployed the laddish tabloid tone for her counterattack. We are asking very nicely, Holmes wrote, using a cheeky humor that has made the campaign hard to dismiss as some dour academic feminism. Television presenters Philip and Holly dont flash up pictures of Danni, 19, from Plymouth, in just her pants and a necklace, on This Morning, do they, Dominic?

Key to the campaign was also the line of attack: Holmes wasnt complaining about erotica, or even soft porn, but to it being so prominent in a family paper: As one of her online petitioners wrote, Boobs arent news. So why are they in the newspaper?

For the past two years, Alison Webster, an award-winning photographer, has been the chief Page 3 photographer and the woman responsible for the marked shift toward health and beauty. When approached for a response to Holmess initiative Webster says, We have a policy of not commenting, because it gives their campaign more publicity. Its so stupid, Webster continues. Just a bunch of feminists and nonfeminists ... People should be able to make their own choices.

In response to the Well, dont buy the newspaper line, Holmes retorts: I dont buy that argument. The paper isnt bought and read in isolation, We all have to live in a society that says, Shut up and get your tits out.

But the campaign is not without its critics, even from self-professed feminists. The columnist Rowan Pelling, formerly editor of The Erotic Review, agrees with Holmes that Page 3 is demeaning. Its just not high on my list of concerns, she says. I wouldnt want my two young boys to see Page3we dont have it in the house anywaybut Im much more worried about mens magazines like Nuts and Loaded, she said. Those lads mags encourage boys to send in naked pictures of their girlfriends, Pelling pointed out. And dont get me started on the Internet ...

Despite resistance and ennui in some quarters, Holmess campaign was quick to take off. It wouldnt have been possible without social media, Holmes says. Twitter helped us approach opinion formers and celebrities, while Facebook linked us all up. In the next few manic months, Holmes got to know hundreds of other women through the Internet who felt the same. Some had disturbing stories of male intimidation, abuse, and even rape, allegedly inspired by the newspapers constant insistence on entitlement to womens bodies.

Given its heavily concentrated ownershipfour male proprietors control 70percent of the British national pressthis was a not cause likely to be taken up by Fleet Street. But social media allowed Holmes to bypass the mainstream media. Celebrities started retweeting links to the petition. Tony Blairs former press supremo, Alastair Campbell, approached on the street by a campaigner, also lent his support on Twitter. And then the extraordinary happened this February. A Tweet Murdoch campaign finally elicited a response.

Using the #nomorepage3 tag @Kazipooh tweeted: Seriously, we are all so over page 3it is so last century! Astonishingly the 82-year-old replied: page three so last century! You maybe [sic] right, dont know but considering. Perhaps halfway house with glamorous fashionistas.

It seemed that, thanks to the extraordinary direct access of the peer-to-peer networks, the campaign might have achieved success in only six months. But it was not to be. Before long, former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott broadened the attack. I see youre considering axing The Suns Page 3, he tweeted. While youre at it, cut pages 1-2 and 4-76 too. Within days, Murdoch had retracted and complained about politically correct hypocrites who scream about Sun.

Realizing she needed to change tactics, Holmes took a page from the playbook of Avaaz and Political Scrapbook, two websites instrumental in getting Murdochs News of the World closed down after it was revealed its journalists had hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler. Since Murdoch and The Sun wouldnt budge, she decided to go after the advertisers.

So far, the toy manufacturer Lego has decided not to renew a sponsorship deal with the tabloid. And the upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose is considering removing The Sun from its shelves. Earlier this month, the British Girl Guides expressed its support, and Holmes is currently lobbying Prime Minister David Cameron to ask him if he agrees with the Girl Guides about the demeaning effect of the iconic piece of sexism in the national press. As I write, the online petition is hovering just under the 100,000 mark. The battle for Page 3 is far from over.

Related from The Daily Beast

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LONDON (Reuters) - King Edward VIII may be best known for giving up the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, but it wasn't the first time his love affairs posed a threat to the British monarchy.

A new book by British barrister and former judge Andrew Rose unearths a little-known affair with a French courtesan 20 years before Edward's abdication, which ended in a rigged trial at the behest of the British establishment trying to protect a future king's reputation.

"The Prince, The Princess, and The Perfect Murder" details how the then-Prince of Wales's first great love, French courtesan Maggie Meller, blackmailed him to avoid the gallows after murdering her playboy Egyptian prince husband.

Meller was acquitted in a high profile trial at London's Old Bailey in 1923 despite the evidence stacked against her.

Rose said the acquittal was a shock but his research has now revealed an extraordinary story involving the murder trial, a secret cache of vanished letters and a cover-up to save the reputation of the future king.

Six years before her trial, Meller had an affair with the British prince. She used evidence from that relationship to force the royal household to lean on the establishment in an effort to get her off the hook and cover up the scandal, Rose told Reuters.

"This affair had been carefully airbrushed from history so the connection between the murder and the Prince of Wales was never drawn," Rose told Reuters.

"The royal household took steps to make sure that the prince's name did not come out in the trial to protect the reputation of the future king. It is amazing that she got away with it."

Rose's book, published by Coronet this week forms the basis of a TV documentary, "Edward VIII's Murderous Mistress", on Britain's Channel 4 later this month.

The latest book was a follow-on work from Rose's book about the trial, "Scandal at the Savoy", published in 1991.

He was intrigued by Marguerite Alibert, better known as Meller, who, dressed in a Chanel gown, shot her second husband, Egyptian Prince Fahmy Bey, at London's Savoy Hotel in 1923.

COVER UP FOR THE PRINCE

At the time her past reputation as a gold digger was brushed off and the focus was on her claim that she acted in self-defense to protect herself from her abusive husband.

But after his book was released, Meller's grandson contacted Rose, informing him of her affair with the prince, love letters between the two, and a memoir she wrote in 1934.

Rose said it took several years to trace the relationship, accessing unpublished documents in royal archives and private collections but also finding a trail of destroyed documents.

Rose said the prince's involvement came as a surprise but was in character as Edward, who abdicated in 1936 after less than a year on the throne, was a well-known womanizer.

"He was emotionally immature and feckless in his private life ... although he had enormous charm," said Rose.

"But you can be approachable and amusing and also neurotic, self-centered and unreliable. He spent his time chasing woman, had a string of love affairs and was always susceptible particularly to powerful women."

Rose said the prince's protectors were quick to move once Meller was arrested, negotiating with her to return the prince's letters that she had stored in Cairo.

The crucial part of the deal, however, was that she would not mention the prince in court and she stuck to that.

Her promiscuous past was never mentioned in court and the trial instead focused on the violent nature and perverted sexual tastes of her husband.

"Really this was a show trial," said Rose, "The authorities wanted Marguerite to be acquitted. A murder conviction would have been catastrophic for the Crown."

Meller was released and moved back to France where she lived the rest of her life in Paris, dying wealthy in 1971.

"This story really does show another side to Edward and how unsuitable he always was to be king," said Rose.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Maggie Smith and Kevin Kline are set to untangle the vagaries of Paris real estate law in the upcoming dramatic comedy "My Old Lady."

The film marks the directorial debut of prolific playwright and screenwriter Israel Horovitz ("Author! Author!"), who wrote the play that inspired the film.

Jane Birkin ("A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries") and Dominique Pinon ("Delicatessen") will co-star in the movie. In the film, Kline plays a down-and-out New Yorker, who travels to Paris to liquidate a valuable apartment he inherited from his estranged father. Once he arrives in the city of lights, Mathias discovers a refined old lady (Smith) living in the apartment with her daughter (Birkin). His plans are thwarted when he discovers that due to French law, he will not actually get possession of the apartment until the woman dies.

Principal photography begins in Paris in September. Protagonist Pictures is introducing the project to foreign buyers at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Cinetic Media will handle the North American sale.

"Distracted driving is athat has devastating consequences on our nation's roadways,"who has made fighting texting-while-driving one of his personal crusades. According to , distracted driving was instrumental in 10 percent of all traffic deaths in 2011 — 3,331 killed, up from 3,092 in 2010 — and aindicates that texting, dialing, and other smartphone and portable-device use increases the risk of getting into a crash by up to three times.

Specifically, the Transportation Department would like automakers to disable :

* Manual text entry for the purposes of text messaging and internet browsing

* Video-based entertainment and communications like video phoning or video conferencing

* Display of certain types of text, including text messages, web pages, and social media content

Right now, the recommendations are only for devices that automakers install in their cars, and "most of the recommendations are common sense, like limiting text input and what can be displayed on screens or the windshield," . "But this is only the first part in a trilogy of recommendations to limit in-car distractions," and the other two parts will deal with smartphones. "Here's where Samsung, HTC, and Apple have something to worry about."

A new study from the Texas Transportation Institute found that using voice-activated texting apps (think Siri on the iPhone) while driving is  as texting by hand. And a , by two West Virginia University physicians, suggests athat the NHTSA is sure to consider: "The federal government should enact stringent new safety standards that require all handheld devices to be rendered inoperable when the motor vehicle is in motion."

Legislation, stepped-up penalties and enforcement, and education will all help cut down on distracted driving,Dr. Jeffrey Coben and Dr. Motao Zhu, but that isn't enough. In a survey they conducted, 40 percent of drivers admitted they use their cell phone while driving, and 15 percent cop to texting behind the wheel. Abacks that up: 49 percent of adults (and 43 percent of teens) admit to texting while driving, even though 98 percent know it's unsafe, the practice seems to be growing — 60 percent of adults say they didn't text-and-drive three years ago.

The technology is out there to jam your smartphone while behind the wheel — a company called Scosche issuch a device — and LaHood suggested in 2010 that "the government was examining cell phone jammers and scramblers as a possible solution to distracted driving," , "though a Department of Transportation spokesperson later downplayed LaHood's statements."

, arguing that smartphones are more dangerous than built-in devices and that it's unfair to just target navigation, communication, and entertainment add-ons that come in your new vehicle. But before anyone starts mourning their turn-by-turn directions from Siri, it's worth remembering that the NHTSA guidelines are just that — non-binding suggestions, . "And since car infotainment systems are often designed years in advance, it will be some time before we see automakers voluntarily adding the functionality, if ever."

Now, maybe LaHood or his successor can focus on getting drivers to stop driving .

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The efforts under way in mountainous Sichuan province after a quake Saturday that killed at least 192 people showed that the government has continued to hone its disaster reaction long considered a crucial leadership test in China since a much more devastating earthquake in 2008, also in Sichuan, and another one in 2010 in the western region of Yushu.

"Lushan was so heavily hit and my family's house toppled. It has been such a disaster for us," said Yue Hejun, 28, as he waited to recharge his family's three mobile phones at a charging stall, volunteered by a communications company and coordinated by the government in a new addition to the arsenal of services after natural disasters. "If we can charge our phones, we are at least able to keep in touch with our family members outside and that helps to set our minds at ease."

At a mini-clinic with two green cots in the open air and a small tent for doctors to sleep, a doctor said Monday the government has learned the importance of fast coordination since the Yushu quake, which killed more than 2,600 people.Much of the initial relief in that disaster came from Buddhist monks and other non-government volunteers, partly because of the remoteness of much of the affected areas.

"After 24 hours or 48 hours in Yushu, things were not so orderly or settled in," said the doctor, who like many government officials would give only her surname, Luo. "The government's quick, organized response is very important. It's no use to blindly come here and try to save people."

Helicopters have been an obvious presence in the latest rescue efforts, used to reach outlying communities, unlike in 2008 when bad weather hampered their use in the critical first 36 hours.This time, better use of helicopters for reconnaissance with remote sensing technology and for the distribution of aid has allowed help to get out more quickly to where it is needed, said Teng Wuxiao, director of the Institute of Urban Public Security at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Still, complaints were common among the survivors of the latest quake, especially in the more hard-to-reach areas. While aid was being delivered, it was not getting out to all who need it. Yue said family members in his remote mountain village had received no help with shelter and were living under tarpaulins.

Huang Mingxian, 47, who was camped out with seven family members in a government-issued blue tent in a small public square, said the government's efforts were appreciated but that supplies were not always distributed fairly.

"This morning is the first time in three days that we have gotten instant noodles," Huang said, waving a pair of long chopsticks she was using to stir the noodles in a wok over a gas canister-powered mobile stove. "Other areas have electricity and water, what about us?"

Earlier Monday, about two dozen residents briefly gathered on a street corner near a camp area, shouting that they had not been given food in two days. A half-hour later, a large truck rolled up and dozens of evacuees ran up to it, jostling as the supplies were being handed out.

The death toll in Saturday's quake measured at magnitude 7.0 by Chinese authorities and at magnitude 6.6 by monitors in the U.S. may continue to tick upward, with about two dozen people still missing.

The state Xinhua News Agency, quoting provincial emergency officials, said Tuesday that 192 people were killed, 23 left missing and 11,470 wounded.

Central authorities' ability to respond to natural disasters has been seen as tests of legitimacy for centuries. Chinese emperors put state resources into controlling floods, and earthquakes and other disasters were believed to be signs that a dynasty was losing the "mandate of heaven."

The state-run tabloid Global Times boasted in an editorial of China's communal "disaster-relief" culture, and its "more mature" response to the latest quake, comparing it favorably to those overseas. "In its ability to mobilize people and in other indicators, China's disaster relief comes ahead of the United States, Japan and other developed countries," the newspaper said.

The Foreign Ministry said that Beijing is turning away foreign offers of assistance, saying China is capable of handling it on its own.

Emergency teams in orange jumpsuits and helmets have fanned out in the affected communities in rescue efforts. In Lushan county's town, where many of the buildings are unsafe for use, the grounds of schools, hospitals, a gymnasium and other government buildings have been converted into evacuee camps. Quake survivors formed long lines in front of trucks and stalls to receive instant noodles, bottled water and other supplies.

Beyond the bare necessities, there are also stalls for survivors to make insurance claims, a large vehicle that converts into a bank and ATM-on-wheels, and tents sponsored by Chinese telecoms companies providing numerous electrical extension cords for residents to recharge their electrical gadgets.

High school seniors in the disaster area will be moved this week to the provincial capital, Chengdu, along with 30 teachers so that they can continue classes and take the all-important university entrance exam, Xinhua reported.

As typically happens after disasters, Chinese with cars were packing them with supplies and heading to the disaster area. Anticipating traffic congestion that could hamper emergency teams, the government was asking volunteers, tourists and others not trained as rescuers to stay out of the disaster area.

However, authorities were letting motorcyclists through.

Peng Song, 28, an outdoor equipment retailer who biked to Lushan from the provincial capital of Chengdu, had his motorcycle packed with tents and bottled water and was riding with 14 other bikers-turned-volunteers out to remote communities.

"Those in the disaster area need help. We just want to offer a hand to them, that's all," Peng said.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Singing a duet in front of thousands of fans with South Korean rapper Psy, a world sensation for his "Gangnam Style" and "Gentleman" videos, would be heady for any singer, much less one who's only 16 years old and has just launched her first album.

But the soulful-voiced Lee Hi, like Psy, has been breaking rules for the K-pop music industry since her discovery in an amateur talent show two years ago, including looking more like the girl next door than a diva.

South Korea's love affair with pretty boy bands and doll-like girl groups may be starting to crack and its music industry is becoming more willing to experiment with talented and less lovingly groomed stars, following Psy's megahit "Gangnam Style," YouTube's most popular song with over 1.5 billion hits.

The song catapulted the sunglass-wearing singer with the garish jackets to global fame and gave an additional boost to the growing K-pop industry, despite his difference from the polished K-pop norms - a change that came just in time for Lee Hi, who sang with Psy at an April 13 concert at a Seoul stadium.

"Other singers are very pretty and tall. I am short, no matter how high my heels are," said Lee, referring to the height and well-groomed slimness of the nine-member Girls Generation, one of K-pop's most famous groups.

"I cannot beat them with looks, so I figured, I need to focus on singing well. That's what I'm good at and like most," added Lee, whose demure clothing contrasts with the long-legged, miniskirted look of Girls Generation.

Lee was runner-up in a national talent show while still in junior high school, gaining a contract with YG Entertainment Inc, the same company that manages Psy. The top song from her debut album, "Rose", surged to the top of the charts after its March release.

By contrast, the vast majority of K-pop wannabes go through years of rigorous training at entertainment agencies, sometimes even 10 years. Many in Girls Generation trained for five years.

These "idol trainees" prepare with lessons in singing, dancing, acting and foreign languages and lives similar to that of military cadets. They live together, stick to a schedule prepared by their agencies, and practice dancing and singing for hours each day, without knowing if they will ever even debut.

Some will go on severe diets and have plastic surgery, aiming for the pale-skinned, slender and double-eyelid looks idealized by Yoona from Girls Generation.

The result is an industry whose overseas sales surged 135 percent in 2011 to $196 million, according to a Music Industry White Paper published by the Korean Creative Content Agency. In 2006, overseas sales were worth $16.7 million.

SIGNS OF CHANGE

But change had begun, slowly, before Lee Hi took the stage.

A handful of singers have now come out of audition and talent shows on Korean television, most notably the indie band Busker Busker. Their single "Cherry Blossom Ending" reigned on the charts after its release and topped them again this spring.

Analysts say growth of audition stars, who have worked their way into the industry through their love of music and sheer talent, may help widen the spectrum of K-pop.

"Such audition programs can contribute to species diversity of Korean pop music," said Lee Dongyeon, professor at Korea National University of Arts.

Cultural critic Bae Kook-nam agreed that the programs have provided a fairer way into the industry for talented individuals, but what K-pop really needs is to improve content, its songs are often slammed as cookie-cutter replicas.

"Quality content is best achieved through diversifying musical genres and performance. Healthy indie music, for example, can imbue a new strength into the mainstream music," he said. "K-pop has to prove that it has more than idols."

In the end, it may just come down to personalities.

"I think what I have in common with Psy is that we both have very strong characteristics of our own that help us define who we are," said Lee. "We both know for sure what we can do well and what we like."

(Reporting By Jane Chung and Narae Kim, Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

"I know this is how people live every day in other countries. But I'm not used to it here," said Greeley, 27, a technician at Tufts Medical Center who was on duty Monday when part of the hospital was briefly evacuated even as victims of the blast were being treated in the emergency room.

Anger, crying jags and nightmares are all normal reactions for both survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings and witnesses to the mayhem. While the injured and those closest to the blasts are most prone to psychological aftershocks, even people with no physical injuries and those like Greeley might feel the emotional impact for weeks afterward as they struggle to regain a sense of security. What's not clear is who will suffer lingering anxiety, depression or even post-traumatic stress disorder.

But specialists say that how resilient people are helps determine how quickly they bounce back. The resilient tend to be people who share their emotions before becoming overwhelmed, who know how to copewith stress, and who have the ability to look for a silver lining such as focusing on bystanders who helped the wounded.

Focusing on the horror, "that's harder on our body and our mind," said Dr. Catherine Mogil, co-director of the family trauma service at the University of California, Los Angeles. "People who tend to be able to make positive meaning out of tough situations are going to fare better."

Among the typical reactions that psychologists say anyone who witnessed the bombings or their aftermath might experience include difficulty sleeping or eating; sweats or stomachaches; anxiety or fear especially in crowded situations that remind people of the bombing. People may have a hard time focusing on work or other everyday activities. They may feel numb, anger easily, or cry often.

Priscilla Dass-Brailsford, a psychologist at Georgetown University Medical Center, said that if those symptoms don't fade in about a month, of if they are bad enough to impair function, people should seek help.

But for most, "time is a great healer," said Dass-Brailsford, who served on disaster mental health teams that counseled survivors of 9/11 in New York.

Specialists say only a small number of people are expected to be so severely affected that they develop PTSD, a disorder that can include flashbacks, debilitating anxiety, irritability and insomnia months after the trauma. Even among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the best estimate was that just under 20 percent returned with symptoms of PTSD or major depression.

More at risk for lingering psychological effects are people who've previously been exposed to trauma, whether from the battlefield, a car crash or a hurricane.

During two stints in Iraq as a Marine, Eusebio Collazo of Humble, Texas, was gravely wounded and today runs regularly to help deal with PTSD. Running with a veterans group called Team Red, White & Blue, he was at mile 25 of the marathon when the bombs detonated and adrenaline fueled his frantic race to find his wife, Karla, at the finish line. She was unharmed.

"My wife keeps asking me, 'I don't know how I should be feeling. I want to cry but I can't.' And then I want to cry, and I can't cry either. So, there's a lot of weird, different feelings going on," Collazo said Thursday. It's harder, he said, to handle explosions on the home front than in a war zone.

In Boston's hospitals, teams of counselors and social workers are telling patients and their families what to expect in the difficult days and weeks ahead.

"Most people are having a lot of flashbacks," and thoughts of the bombing interrupt their days and nights, said Lisa Allee, who directs the Community Violence Response Team at Boston Medical Center. "These are very typical, normal, expected emotions after any traumatic event or disaster."

Beyond hospitalized patients, part of coping is awareness about how to take care of the psyche turning off scary TV coverage and reading a book, going out for a quiet dinner, anything to temporarily cut the stress, says Dass-Brailsford, the disaster specialist.

That's especially true for parents who are trying to calm their children, added UCLA's Mogil, because kids take their emotional cues from the adults around them. Younger children especially don't need to see repeated footage of the blasts, because they may think it's happening again.

For a lot of people, psychiatrists say, talking about their experience can be cathartic.

A cashier's routine "how are you?" was enough for Anndee Hochman to tear up in a Philadelphia hardware store Wednesday. Hochman and her 12-year-old daughter had traveled to Boston to watch her partner run the marathon and all three were in different places when the bombs exploded, Hochman herself just a few blocks from the finish line.

Hochman spent 10 minutes telling the store clerk her family's story of reuniting and said it helps every time she's told friends, family, even a near-stranger about the experience.

Unknowingly, Hochman echoed the advice to look for a silver lining as she counseled daughter Sasha, who was nervous about returning to school.

"I reminded her, " 'Sweetie' and reminded myself, too 'there may have been a few people who planned those bombs and wanted to hurt people," Hochman said, "but there are so many more people there and in the world who want to help.'"

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AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard reported from Washington. AP writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.