Seventeen poachers armed with Kalashnikov riflesin the Central African Republic earlier this week, representatives from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a statement. The poachers made their way to the Dzanga Bai, an open area where anywhere from 50 to 200 elephants gather daily to drink nutrients and mineral salts in the sands.

At least 26 elephant carcasses, including four calves, were counted in and around the Dzanga Bai on Thursday (May 9), WWF officials said. All had had their tusks removed, Jules Caron, head of communications for the WWF's anti-poaching program in Central Africa, confirmed to LiveScience.

Wildlife representatives described the Dzanga Bai scene as an "elephant mortuary," and it was evident that local villagers had started taking meat from the remains of the dead animals, they added. []

"The killing has started," Jim Leape, WWF's international director general, said in a statement. "The Central African Republic must act immediately to secure this unique [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] World Heritage site. The brutal violence we are witnessing in Dzanga Bai threatens to destroy one of the world's great natural treasures, and to jeopardize the future of the people who live there."

Poachers continue to kill elephants and strip them of their ivory tusks to sell on global markets, despite a ban onthat was instituted in Africa in 1989. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, some 25,000 African elephants are killed every year.

"The elephants here face a sure death as , which fuels even more violence in [the Central African Republic]," Cristin Samper, the Wildlife Conservation Society's president and CEO, said in a statement. "On my recent visit to Dzanga Bai, I stood in awestruck silence as I watched hundreds of elephants gathering in this incredible area. WCS stands with our conservation partner WWF calling for immediate action to stop the killing of these elephants."

The Dzanga Bai area is known to locals as the "village of elephants," because of the herds of elephants that assemble there every day. Because the poachers raided the sanctuary, however, nohave been seen at the Bai, WWF officials said.

The Central African Republic has been a hotbed of violence and political instability since the beginning of the year. In April, the WWF and other conservation organizations were forced to leave their field offices next to the Dzanga Bai due to security concerns, agency officials said.

"The international community must also act to assist the Central African Republic to restore peace and order in this country to safeguard its population and its natural heritage," Leape said. "WWF also asks Cameroon and the Republic of [the] Congo to assist the Central African Republic in preserving this World Heritage Site, which not only encompasses the Bai, but also includes large neighboring areas of these two countries."

The WWF fears poachers in the region will take advantage of the Central African Republic's political turmoil for their gains. The 17 individuals who raided the Dzanga Bai this week presented themselves as part of the country's transitional-government forces. They have since left the sanctuary, but WWF officials are concerned that poaching will continue unless the area is secured.

"The events in Dzanga Bai are a vivid reminder of thein Central Africa," Leape said. "Populations of this species have plummeted 62 percent over the past 10 years. The unfolding tragedy in Dzanga Bai must also spur the governments of China and Thailand to act on their commitments to shut down the ivory markets in their countries that are fueling this illicit trade."

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter . Follow LiveScience , & . Original article on.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican authorities acknowledged Tuesday that a motorist tweeted them a warning about an impending mudslide on one of the nation's busiest highways hours before a huge slide swallowed two cars, killed seven people and blocked the roadway.

Responding to criticism that the stretch of highway should have been closed before the disaster, the Transportation Department said the Twitter warning came too early and described a location about three miles (5 kilometers) down the road from where the mudslide actually occurred Sunday.

The flap over the potentially life-saving tweet highlighted the growing power of social networks in Mexico, where a number of high-profile scandals have been exposed by tweets and text messages.

"I regret that this message was ignored and so many lives were lost," the motorist, Ricardo Miranda, wrote on his Twitter account Tuesday.

Miranda was driving on the highway that connects Mexico City with the north-central city of Queretaro on Sunday when he spotted the risk.

"There is a stretch of hillside that is about to collapse on the low-speed lanes," Miranda wrote in a tweet that included "(at)capufe," the account of the federal highway administration.

The highway administration said in a statement that it saw Miranda's tweet and sent inspectors to the site, which he identified as "between kilometer 74 and 75" on the highway.

"An inspection was conducted of the site that Mr. Miranda was kind enough to have reported, and at that time there was no sign of cracks or risks," the department said.

About five hours later, three miles up the highway, an entire hillside swept over two vehicles carrying two families on their way to Mexico City. The vehicles were hit by tons of mud and rock and partly crushed. Seven people ranging in age from 9 to 71 died, while a 3-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy were injured.

Asked why the highway administration didn't shut the road and carry out a fuller inspection after the first report, agency spokeswoman Carolina Alvarez said: "There was no evidence of any risk. That is why it wasn't closed."

Alvarez said an unusually heavy rain occurred in the hours after the tweet and appeared to have changed roadside conditions after the first inspection was carried out.

But the tragedy raised questions about how Mexican use, or don't use, Twitter.

Transportation Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Esparza told local media Tuesday that the high administration didn't really use its Twitter account as a two-way street.It sends out informational tweets to travelers, but isn't accustomed to receiving danger reports via Twitter.

"We have a system to inform people ... but not for receiving information from the public," Ruiz Esparza said. "I have given orders that we have to listen to people on the social networks."

Ruiz Esparza said authorities were trying to reach Miranda to thank him for the warning and had begun an internal investigation.

Miranda did not respond to a message requesting comment.

Harry Black won an incredible $31.7 million in the lottery. But the way he accomplished it is even more amazing.

As the BBC reports, .

"This is a wonderful surprise to all of us," said Kevin Gass of the British Columbia Lottery. "While it's not known how many people buy identical tickets for a draw, it is the first time in the company's recollection that we've had this unique sort of win."

The $63 million jackpot was ultimately split four ways. Meaning that if Black had used his winning numbers on just one ticket, the jackpot would have been split three ways and he would have walked away with a still whopping $20 million.

Black, 66, is not only a huge lottery winner, he's also patient. The Surrey resident has been playing the same lottery numbers since he was 31which means he waited 35 years for his enormous payday.

Black said .

For the record,were 02, 10, 17, 19, 44 and 47.

Black already knew he was holding the winning pair of tickets since April 13, but he didn't step forward to claim the jackpot until the end of May while making plans for how he'd spend the money.

After this is done, Ive got to get out of Dodge and do something I've never done in my entire life: Go on a holiday, he told CTV.

Interestingly, Black said he has no plans to retire on his winnings. Instead, hell use the proceeds from the jackpot to build a home and go on vacation. He also plans to share some of the winnings with friends and family.

"I already got enough toys, he said at the press conference where he was awarded his giant lottery check. I worked hard for them. Maybe Ill have time to play with them.

Black said hed never won more than $10 off a single ticket before. He purchased the two winning tickets at a local Chevron gas station.

LONDON (Reuters) - Three peers were suspended from their parties on Sunday after media sting operations caught them apparently offering to use their influence for personal gain.

The undercover investigations have thrust the issue of lobbying into the limelight and had already forced an MP, Patrick Mercer, to resign from the ruling Conservative Party and seek legal advice.

The three peers caught out by a Sunday Times sting operation are John Cunningham and Brian Mackenzie of the main opposition Labour Party and John Laird of the Ulster Unionist Party.

All three denied breaking the chamber's rules but their parties took swift action against them.

"Lord Cunningham and Lord Mackenzie of Framwellgate have been suspended from the Labour Party pending further investigation," the party said in a statement.

Mike Nesbitt, leader of the Ulster Unionists, said in a statement he had called Laird after reviewing the media coverage and as a result of that call Laird had resigned from the party pending an investigation.

The trio were covertly filmed offering to ask parliamentary questions, lobby ministers and host events in the prestigious Lords premises in exchange for payment by what they were told were lobbyists acting for companies.

The scandal will renew pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to introduce a statutory register of lobbyists, as promised in 2010 in the coalition agreement between his Conservatives and their junior partners, the Lib Dems.

Cameron warned more than three years ago that lobbying was "the next big scandal waiting to happen" but critics, including some Lib Dems, accuse him of dragging his feet.

SUSPICION

Sunday Times reporters approached Cunningham, a former minister under then Prime Minister Tony Blair in the 1990s, pretending to represent a South Korean solar energy company.

"Are you suggesting 10,000 pounds a month? Make that ... 12,000 pounds a month. I think we could do a deal on that," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper during a discussion about his fees for what was described as consultancy work.

Cunningham later sent a statement to the Sunday Times saying he had referred to "a fanciful 12,000 pounds a month" to test his suspicion that he was talking to undercover journalists.

"I deny any agreement to operate in breach of the House of Lords code of conduct and, in fact, recall that I made it clear that I would only operate within the rules," Cunningham said.

Laird also issued a statement denying he had broken the rules and Mackenzie denied wrongdoing in two BBC interviews. The three peers could not immediately be reached by Reuters.

Mercer was caught out by undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph newspaper and the BBC's investigative Panorama programme posing as lobbyists for businesses seeking to end Fiji's suspension from the Commonwealth on human rights grounds.

His resignation from the Conservative Party was no great loss to Cameron as the Commons MP was an outspoken critic of the prime minister, but the allegations against him reflect badly on the party and on parliament in general.

Mercer tabled five questions to government and a parliamentary motion on the Fiji issue after being paid 4,000 pounds ($6,100) as part of a bogus contract he believed would earn him 24,000 pounds a year, the two media reported.

He told the fake lobbyists he had persuaded 18 other members of parliament to join an all-party group on Fiji, commenting that they included "several freeloaders that would like to go to Fiji" and one who asked to take his wife, the media said.

(Editing by Pravin Char)

A win Sunday night would be Johnson's fourth in NASCAR's longest race, trailing only Darrell Waltrip's five spring victories at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Johnson could also strengthen his series points lead with his third win this season as he chases his sixth Sprint Cup title.And a win would be a record seventh at Charlotte.

It's a resume already worthy of NASCAR's Hall of Fame perhaps even in the running for NASCAR's greatest driver but that is not something the 37-year-old Johnson is ready to think about.

"I just don't pay attention to it all," Johnson said. "It's very difficult to think about where I fit in while I'm still racing. I think of drivers' careers ending mid 40s. I still have 10 years or so to even think about that."

He's got plenty of others thinking about it as Johnson's milestones pile up. He captured his fourth Sprint All-Star race at Charlotte last week, a record.

Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, a four-time Sprint Cup champion, called Johnson's career phenomenal.

Johnson had won several off-road racing titles when Gordon backed him to team owner Rick Hendrick. Johnson drove his first Sprint Cup race for the team in 2001 and joined the series full time the next season.

Combine Johnson's talent with Hendrick's resources and the skill of crew chief Chad Knaus and "the rest is really history in what his career has been and the numbers that he has put up I think speak for themselves," Gordon said.

Johnson's numbers at Charlotte speak very loudly, too. He won three straight Coca-Cola 600s from 2003 through 2005, a stretch that also included victories in the fall races in 2004 and 2005.Johnson won here in October 2009, tying Waltrip and Bobby Allison for the all-time mark of six Charlotte victories.

"How do I describe his career? Do we have that much time?" said Matt Kesenth, who leads the series with three victories this season.

Johnson believes his success in the non-points all-star race gives him confidence for Sunday. His winning All-Star car is still in NASCAR's technical section and the team couldn't get it back in time to run in the 600.

"We have a lot to work from, but it's still a new weekend," Johnson said. "(The) race is much different than before. We feel like we have a good direction and we'll see where things stack up at the end of the night on Sunday."

NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France gave an update on the sport's Gen-6 car, which was put in use this year and he says has brought tighter, closer racing to the tracks.

"That's the hallmark of NASCAR," France said. "We boldly say that. We don't talk about that's sort of part of it, that's the steak on the plate for us. Our fans have come to expect us to deliver on that that as much as possible."

Expect Johnson to get pressured from many fronts during the race.

Sprint Cup super power Joe Gibbs Racing has three cars among the top eight starters, including pole sitter Denny Hamlin, who led qualifying with a track record of 195.624 mph Thursday night.Kenseth, who won at Darlington two weeks ago, will start third while Kyle Busch starts eighth. Busch has won 11 times at Charlotte in the Nationwide and Truck series, but never on NASCAR's biggest stage.

Defending champion Kasey Kahne, Johnson's teammate, will start near the front in sixth.

Kurt Busch of Furniture Row Racing looked like he had taken his second straight pole after Darlington before Hamlin caught him by about five-hundreths of a second for the top spot.Kurt Busch led 69 of the first 73 laps at Darlington before fading to 14th. He'll give it another go Sunday night.

"We know we've got some good things going right now," he said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will start at No. 11. He was on his way to victory in this race two years ago when he famously ran out of gas on the final lap and got passed by winner Kevin Harvick.

Danica Patrick is running her second Sprint Cup race at Charlotte. She finished 30th in 2012 and hoped to build on that in his first full season in the series. However, her engine was leaking oil during Saturday's first practice session and her team was going to change it out, moving her to the back of the field for Sunday night.

Johnson can't escape some critics. He jokingly took aim at them after his all-star win, saying he was simply "lucky."

"That's what people say. There's no talent involved, we just got lucky tonight," he said back on May 17.

If Johnson won't tout his achievements, others in the garage are happy to do it.

"People can say whatever they want about him, but I don't know how you can't say that he's not the best ever," Kenseth said.

Johnson will think about those sorts of accolades later on when he's finished winning races. There are too many standouts through the years, Johnson says, who have had wonderful careers and he's simply happy that his name is mentioned among them.

"We just have the questions and the conversations" about who's the greatest driver, Johnson said. "I'm glad we have those conversations in our sport."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - FX's border-cop drama "The Bridge" will premiere on July 10, the cable network said on Thursday.

After its debut, the new 13-episode series will continue to air on Wednesdays during the 10 p.m. timeslot.

Oscar-nominee Demin Bichir ("A Better Life") and Diane Kruger ("National Treasure") star as two detectives, one from each side of the U.S.-Mexican border, trying to solve serial murders.

Executive Producers Meredith Stiehm and novelist and writer Elwood Reid adapted "The Bridge" for American television from the international hit series "Bron," which was set on the border of Denmark and Sweden.

"Bron" was produced by Shine Group's Filmlance and Denmark's Nimbus Film Production. Shine America's Carolyn G. Bernstein and Filmlance's Lars Blomgren are executive producing the American version.

Ted Levine, Annabeth Gish, and Thomas M. Wright, and Matthew Lillard guest star in the pilot episode directed by Gerardo Naranjo.

The attack in Arlit was claimed by Moktar Belmoktar, the extremist who led the attack on a natural gas plant in Ain Amenas in Algeria in January, according to a communique posted on jihadist forums.

Both attacks were claimed by a spinoff of al-Qaida, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, which earlier vowed to avenge the four-month-old French-led military intervention which ousted them from neighboring Mali's north.

The timing of the attacks, which occurred at the same moment more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) apart, and the fact that the bombers were able to penetrate both a well-guarded military installation and a sensitive, foreign-operated uranium mine, highlight the growing reach and sophistication of the Islamic extremists based in Mali.

The bomb blasts are the most damaging attacks by the jihadists to date.

Of the two attacks, the higher death toll was in the desert city of Agadez, located almost 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of the capital, where the attackers punched their explosive-laden car past the defenses at a military garrison and detonated inside the base, killing 20 soldiers and injuring 16, said Niger's Minister of Defense Mahamadou Karidjo at a press conference in Niamey. Three suicide bombers died, but a fourth escaped and grabbed a group of military cadets, said Interior Minister Abdou Labo.

Draped in an explosive belt, the attacker was threatening to blow himself up along with his hostages, said Labo, who could not confirm how many cadets were being held. The military was negotiating with the suicide bomber for their release.

At the same time the Agadez attack occurred, a different group of suicide bombers slipped past a truck entering a uranium mine in Arlit operated by French nuclear giant Areva. Once inside the campus, the car exploded, injuring 14 employees, one of whom died later, according to a statement by the French corporation and witnesses. Two suicide bombers were also killed, said Niger's ministry of defense.

"We saw a car enter the factory and immediately it exploded," said Agoumou Idi, a worker inside the factory who was reached by telephone. "The terrorists, probably from MUJAO, took advantage of the fact that the entrance gate was open in order to let in a truck carrying the next shift of workers. They used that opening to enter the heart of our factory and explode their vehicle."

In January, when France scrambled war planes over Mali and sent in thousands of ground troops to try to take back the country's al-Qaida-held north, the extremists vowed to hit back not just at French interests, but also at the African governments that helped them.

Niger sent 650 troops to Mali to help France combat the Islamists.

Hitting Arlit is especially symbolic. Niger produces up to 40 percent of France's uranium imports a considerable amount as the European country derives 80 percent of its energy from nuclear power, according to an analysis released Thursday by global intelligence unit, Stratfor.

French President Francois Hollande told reporters during a visit to Germany that he will take every measure to protect French assets. "We will also protect our interests, because Arlit is an interest of a large French company: Areva. May everyone understand it well that we will not let anything happen, and will support the Nigeriens' efforts to halt this hostage-taking and destroy the group behind these attacks."

Up until Thursday's twin attacks, some security analysts had doubted the strength of groups like MUJAO, which has carried out repeated suicide attacks in Mali since January with varying degrees of success. Several of the kamikaze operations killed only the bomber.

Residents in the two towns remarked on how closely coordinated the attacks appear to have been, taking place just moments apart at 5:30 a.m., a time when many in the majority-Muslim nation are laying their carpets toward Mecca in the first of the day's five prayers.

Alhousseiny Moussa, a resident of Agadez, was walking to the mosque when he heard the boom. "I heard the explosion and immediately after, I heard a volley of gunfire. The area where it happened was inside the military camp, and it's now been roped off so we cannot go in," he said.

Al-Qaida's affiliate in Africa and groups allied with it seized the northern half of Mali in April of last year. They pushed into major towns, setting up their own administration and alarming western nations who saw it as precursor to a new Afghanistan. In fact, for nearly a decade before that they had already made themselves at home in Mali, using its remote and lawless northern reaches to train fighters and hold the European hostages they kidnapped including many from Niger.

In 2008, they grabbed two Canadians on the outskirts of Niger's capital, including United Nations special envoy Robert Fowler, who was held for 130 days before a ransom was negotiated. Two years later, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb infiltrated Arlit, grabbing seven employees of Areva and one of its contractors, SATOM.

Four of them all French nationals are still being held by the terror cell more than two years later. The group has repeatedly threatened to execute them in retaliation for the French-led intervention in Mali

Late Thursday, SITE Intelligence released a partial transcript of a communique signed by Moktar Belmoktar, claiming to have taken part in the attack on Arlit alongside MUJAO. The attack is the first by Belmoktar's brigade, which calls itself "Those Who Sign In Blood," since the catastrophic assault on a BP-operated gas plant in Algeria in January. In a four-day standoff, 37 foreign hostages, including American, British, Irish, Norwegian and Japanese nationals, were killed.

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Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton, Jamey Keaten and Sarah DiLorenzo contributed to this report from Paris.

include hurricanes and typhoons, storms that form in the world's tropical latitudes and spin ferociously around a center called an eye. Only eight named tropical cyclones hit Hawaii between 1979 and 2010, said scientists at the University of Hawaii's International Pacific Research Center. But the researchers' new model predicts a two-to-three-fold increase in such storms between 2075 and 2099. The study is detailed in the May 5 issue of the journal Nature Climate Change.

The results illustrate how global warming can lead to strong regional climate differences, the researchers said. "Computer models run with global warming scenarios generally project a decrease in tropical cyclones worldwide. This, though, may not be what will happen with local communities," lead study author Hiroyuki Murakami said in a statement.

In the Pacific Ocean, tropical cyclones that could threatentypically arise off the west coast of Mexico from June through November. But lack of moisture over the Pacific and strong westerly winds usually stop the storms from reaching the islands.

But the new model predicts that these westerly winds called aand similar to the polar jet stream will shift northward in the next 60 years, removing the roadblock. The projections also suggest the eastern Pacific Ocean will warm, giving storms more fuel in the form of rising moisture.

"The yearly number we project, however, still remains very low," study co-author Bin Wang said in a statement. Between 1979 and 2003, on average, one tropical cyclone pummeled the islands every four years. The researchers expect that number will double or triple.

The storm projections are based on athat includes the history of North Pacific tropical cyclones and a temperature rise of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius).

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"There's Rachael Ray for cooking and Rachel Zoe for style, but who in motherhood? That's my dream," said the affable mom of three as she signed copies of her pregnancy guide, "Mommy IQ," showed off her maternity clothing line and chatted up fans Saturday at the New York Baby Show.

Making sense of maternity and baby gear these days isn't easy, so Pope may just get her shot. More than a few moms-to-be were befuddled as they walked the crowded show floor, some with exhausted husbands in tow, at a cavernous pier just off the West Side Highway.

There's the "Tortle," for example. It's an infant hat with a soft wedge built in to battle flat head syndrome. And there's Clean Bee Baby, an eco-friendly cleaning service for strollers and car seats.

The sellers of the Woolino were there. It's a four-season wearable sleep bag for baby in Australian merino wool that promises to regulate body temperature, wick away moisture and last until age 2 in place of those dangerous things called blankets.

There were also numerous reinventions of the wearable baby carrier, bright and cheery seats and rides of all kinds, including one that looks like an actual car, and all-natural everything, from squeezable baby fruit to Kinder by Nature herbal wipes, loaded with certified organic aloe vera, tea tree and ylang ylang extracts.

A couple of doulas turned up with a pink Mini Cooper, extolling such services as "placenta encapsulation." It involves dehydrating one's placenta, turning it into a powder and putting it inside capsules for ingestion as a postpartum supplement. Which is not to be confused with a reinvention of prenatal vitamins as a powder you can sprinkle on food or mix with a liquid, or with services that will store umbilical cord blood for its stem cells soon after birth.

In addition to a little trend-spotting (highlighter orange is in and the nursery animal of the moment is the hedgehog), Pope offered her view on the explosion of gear for mom, dad and baby.

"There's so much we do not need," she said. "What we do need is a safe place for the baby to sleep. We do need a safe car seat. We do need a stroller system that the car seat can snap into. What we do need is SOME clothes. What we don't need is shoes and hair accessories and wipe warmers and bottle warmers and all of this sort of extra stuff that really is just adding complication to what you're doing rather than making your life easier."

Like gear, maternity clothes have come a long way, as have some famous expectant moms, she said.

Of the very pregnant Kim Kardashian's criticized floral Met Gala gown by Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy, Pope offers:

"I think that maybe she's a PR genius since that caused her a lot of attention, but really what I always tell my clients is stay true to your sense of style. Kim was very sensuous and her clothing was generally very tight and you could see her curves. But an upholstered turtleneck gown with matching gloves is really hard for anybody to pull off. She is a beautiful pregnant woman, though."

And the other high-profile mom-to-be, the former Kate Middleton?

"She is keeping to her sense of style, so very understated, very demure and classic and tailored. And what she's really showing, which I love, is that you don't have to just wear stretchy clothes when you're pregnant."

In addition to sellers of wearable baby carriers and a foundation looking for donations to fund kiddie yoga lessons for the underprivileged, the makers of modesty covers for nursing women were on hand at the show sponsored by New York Family magazine.

Pope said she used one called the Hooter Hider but made clear she casts no judgments on breast-feeding versus bottle feeding. She nursed her first, now 4, for about six months but said "it didn't work" for her second. When her third came along she decided as a busy working mom on a combination of pumping and formula.

"There's a lot of pressure to breast-feed and I think if you can do it, it's a wonderful thing, but it doesn't work for everybody," Pope said.

The star of Bravo's "Pregnant in Heels" reality series takes a similar approach to many maternity issues in her book, out last October with medical-related advice by one of New York City's foremost obstetrician-gynecologists, Amos Grunebaum, who was Pope's doctor as she navigated infertility treatment.

"So many of the books I find to be quite heavy and quite hard to figure out whether they're saying yes or no. It's always in the middle, the advice. I wanted to know what is right and what is wrong and then what is up to me. That's really important."

She professes zero tolerance for caffeine and alcohol during pregnancy, "but then I am much more open-minded when it comes to breast-feeding and when it comes to attachment parenting or sleeping. I really believe every family is very, very different and what's right for one person is not right for another."

In decades past, maternity advice was "this way or the highway," but so many options and so much readily available information today is a "blessing and a curse," Pope acknowledged. "If you can navigate your way through that you can really find a path that is wonderful for you."

Agnieszka Golasik of Brooklyn, an artist by way of Poland, wasn't looking to help expectant moms navigate so much as decorate. She'll turn your sonogram pregnancy image into a psychedelic portrait of your fetus through her company Your Baby to Be, at a starting price of $250.

"I was experimenting with these images for a series of small monotypes when I found out I was pregnant," Golasik said at the booth she shared with co-founder Margaret Blat. "This is a special time and new way to remember your baby."

The folks over at Cast in Time were of similar minds. They'll take a plaster cast of your naked and pregnant silhouette, from pubic bone to breasts, decorate it and frame it for hanging, at a minimum of $495.

Said the founder, who goes by Bindia: "Pregnant women are beautiful."

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Follow Leanne Italie on Twitter at http://twitter.com/litalie

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican took another step Wednesday to show greater financial transparency by publishing the first annual report from its financial watchdog agency and announcing new regulations to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The report from the Financial Intelligence Authority showed the agency received six internal reports on suspicious transactions in 2012, up from one a year earlier, and that two were sent onto Vatican prosecutors for investigation.

But the 10-page report made scant mention of any supervisory operations carried out in 2012. International financial authorities have recommended the agency conduct inspections and issue internal regulations to fight money laundering and terror financing.

The report also made no mention of the troubles that led to the suspension of credit card services inside the Vatican for several months, an embarrassment that inconvenienced the thousands of people who visit the Vatican and its museums each day.

The Vatican created the oversight agency in 2010 in a bid to shed its image as a secretive tax haven and improve its reputation in global financial circles following a series of scandals at its bank and a money laundering investigation launched by Rome prosecutors in 2010.

As part of that effort, the Holy See submitted itself to the Council of Europe's Moneyval evaluation process, which assesses countries' compliance with international anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing norms.

The Vatican in July passed the test on the first try and Moneyval said it had made great progress in a short amount of time. But the Holy See received poor or failing grades for the watchdog agency and its bank.

Specifically, Moneyval said the role, authority and independence of the watchdog agency was unclear and that the Vatican bank's rules for customer due diligence, wire transfers and suspicious transaction reporting were insufficient. It said the bank needed an independent supervisor and must conduct a thorough risk assessment to ensure that it knew its clients and the risks it faces.

The report issued Wednesday addressed few of those recommendations.

"I'm not here today to say that everything is great and perfect," said Rene Bruelhart, the agency director.

But at a press briefing, he stressed that a lot had been accomplished and that the Vatican was committed to pursuing the Moneyval process. He said that within the coming weeks and months, the Vatican would update its laws to more closely respond to the Moneyval recommendations and he said that screening of the bank account-holders was currently under way.

"We are more than on the right track in having an increased amount of suspicious transactions reports, that's also a clear sign that this type of screening is taken very seriously," he said.

The Vatican must submit a progress report to Moneyval in September, Bruelhart said.

In addition to the report, the Vatican has recently announced other measures aimed at greater financial transparency, including publication of the annual report of its bank and enlisting an international agency to certify the bank's compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance norms.

The watchdog agency has two main functions: one, as a financial intelligence unit that gathers and analyzes financial information, and the other supervising and regulating the Holy See's government, including the bank.

While the report released Wednesday provided 2012 statistics and updates on the financial intelligence work of the agency, there was slim information about the supervisory and regulatory work conducted in 2012.

There were no reports, for example, of any on-site inspections being carried out or any sanctions being meted out for infractions. The report was also silent on Moneyval's recommendation that the financial authority review the NGOs that work inside the Vatican for compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terror finance norms.

And it made no mention of the decision by Italy's central bank to compel Deutsche Bank Italia to stop providing electronic payment services to the Holy See on Dec. 31. That meant that for several months in 2013, until a new service provider was found, visitors to the Vatican Museums they numbered 5 million last year and the Vatican post office had to pay cash for tickets and any other transactions.

While the cash-only problem didn't begin until Jan. 1, after the 2012 reporting period, presumably the problems that led to it were known last year.

In its decision, the central bank had cited the fact that the Vatican had insufficient banking supervision. Bruelhart, however, said Wednesday the dispute was between the Bank of Italy and Deutsche Bank, not the Vatican.

He added that as a result of the dispute, however, relations had improved between the Bank of Italy and Vatican and that an agreement formalizing such relations might soon be reached.

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield