Witness Alif Sankey told a jury deciding a lawsuit that the pop star appeared thin and unprepared in 2009 for the rigors of his planned comeback concerts known as "This Is It."

The singer showed up at one rehearsal with shoes that had holes in the soles, missed rehearsals and appeared much thinner than earlier in his career, Sankey testified.

Sankey showed jurors an email she wrote to tour director Kenny Ortega in early June 2009, urging him to try to improve Jackson's health and spirits. She never got a direct reply but testified that Ortega raised the concerns with concert promoter AEG Live.

"Please help me help you to get him back into that Magical Light, please let me help you help him find what was lost, his GRAIL," Sankey wrote to Ortega, who she had worked closely with for a number of years.

Testimony showed Ortega copied Sankey on several email messages that he sent to AEG executives about Jackson's condition and the need for him to receive physical therapy and better nutrition.

"He requires more attention and management," Ortega wrote in one email. "I truly believe he needs nourishment guidance and physical therapy (massage) for his fatigued muscles and injuries. He is not in great physical shape. I believe he's hurting."

Sankey met Jackson while working on his 1987 video for "Smooth Criminal" and was an associate producer and planned to dance onstage during "This Is It."

She was testifying at the trial of a negligent hiring lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother against AEG Live LLC. Katherine Jackson claims AEG failed to properly investigate the doctor who was caring for her son and later administered a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to the singer in June 2009.

The promoter has denied wrongdoing and its attorneys have said the singer hid his addiction to propofol. Jackson's former physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter.

Plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish asked Sankey about one message in which AEG executive Paul Gongaware told Ortega that he planned to talk to Murray.

"We want to remind him that it is AEG, not MJ who is paying his salary," the message said. "We want him to understand what is expected of him."

Sankey said she based some of her impressions of Jackson over the years on how he felt when they hugged.

"When I hugged him, he just felt like marble," Sankey said about Jackson early in his career. "But when I hugged, when I saw him briefly in 2006, he didn't feel like that anymore. He felt thin."

On cross-examination, Sankey acknowledged that her impressions were formed from brief interactions with the singer and she never had a long conversation with him.

She was, however, trusted enough to be around Jackson's children, whose privacy he fiercely protected.

Sankey testified that Paris Jackson once shared a secret, saying she didn't want her father to find out about candy stuffed inside her purse.

There were also several tiny pictures inside her purse all of her father.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Conte was jailed in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute banned steroids and his association with Khan has been criticized by UK Anti-Doping.

However, Khan said the controversial American, who was introduced to the boxer by trainer Virgil Hunter, had passed on a lot of invaluable tips.

"The advice he's been giving me has been brilliant," Khan told the BBC's website. "I know he's had a bad background and has done things he shouldn't have.

"Virgil Hunter is my trainer and he's the one who's told me we are going to use Victor Conte as an assistant in a way, as he has a team of trainers who can teach you stuff.

"On the training methods he's brought so much good training into the game. He's introduced me to a lot of new trainers who have helped me on my running, sprinting, on my engine really, which is working my fitness, also breathing methods and telling me what to do and what not to do."

Conte was at the center of the BALCO doping program which included several high profile athletes like Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.

A steroid specifically designed to fool testers, dubbed tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), was produced and distributed by BALCO.

Following his release from prison, Conte became an anti-drug campaigner who works with several anti-doping bodies in a bid to clean up sport.

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

Theinhad revenues of $4 billion for an event that lasted only three weeks, explainsWhy? Because people wanted to tune in and see what humans are capable of. [Mr.] Lansdorp stated that by the time the mission launches the settlers to Mars in 2023, four billion people will be connected to the Internet. Thus, a massive audience is equipped to watch the journey and see how the colonizers time on Mars unfolds.

In other words, Lansdorp plans to fund a Mars colony by turning it into a reality TV show. His organization, Mars One, is accepting applications for the first wave of astronauts. Lansdorp plans for a second voyage to depart in 2025, just in time for Season 2.

PATENTS FOR HUMAN GENES

The Supreme Court heard arguments in April over whether companies should be able to patent human genes. The biotechnology firmincurrently holds patents for BRCA1 and BRCA2, two human genes that doctors have linked to breast and ovarian cancer. Because of these patents, Myriad is the only company that may create tests to detect mutations in those genes.

The legal issue here comes down to how the court defines genes. If it decides that genes are products of nature, then they cannot be patented. But Myriads patents do not cover the genes as they occur in living cells, writesRather, they cover isolated forms of the genes ... snipped from the genome and chemically modified to make them analysable in a laboratory. The company says it spent $500 million creating viable tests for the BRCA pair. That investment and others from the $92 billion biotechnology industry deserve to be protected by patents, argues Myriad.

COMPANIES THAT TRACK YOUR PHONE

Cellphone companies have an unprecedented ability to track the behavior of subscribers. Through phone data, carriers know where people go, how long they stay, and what applications they use while there. This data is under lock and key no more, writesUnder pressure to seek new revenue streams, a growing number of mobile carriers are now carefully mining, packaging, and repurposing their subscriber data to create powerful statistics about how people are moving about the real world.

, s largest carrier, changed its privacy policy in 2011 to give itself permission to sell anonymous data to businesses, city planners, and marketers. For example, Verizon determined that there were three times as many fans in the stands fromat this years Super Bowl than fans from . (The Ravens won, too.)

Data-tracking firmhas signed its own deals with two major US carriers to monitor and look for patterns among the activities of about one-third of all Americans. AirSage does not know the identities of the millions of people it follows, but it can track their movements to within 100 yards.

While these new practices raise many privacy concerns, Ms. Leber writes, Research and experience suggest that in practice most people dont mind, or dont care as much as they think they do about privacy.

WHO WOULD HAVE BELIEVED IT?

Revolutionary ideas can sound pretty dumb at first. On the website , serial tech entrepreneurdistilled a list of start-ups down to their absurd-sounding essence:

it is like email, SMS, or RSS. Except it does a lot less. It will be used mostly by geeks at first, followed byand .

people will use their insecureandemail addresses to pay each other real money, backed by a non-bank with a cute name run by 20-somethings.

we are building the worlds 20th search engine at a time when most of the others have been abandoned as being commoditized money losers. Well strip out all of the ad-supported news and portal features so you wont be distracted from using the free search stuff.

NARROWS ITS FOCUS

Netflixs transformation from rental service to Web video empire has taken many years and many business deals to pull off. When Netflix first got into the streaming video business, it went to movie studios and TV networks and bought whatever they were selling, writesIt didnt have a choice. Things are different now. Netflix says that it will not renew its sweeping contract with TV giant . Instead, Netflix will cut deals for only the Viacom shows that it knows viewers want to see. (Think more quality dramas and fewer old reality shows.)

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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- The average retail cost of a gallon of gas in Maine has dropped nearly 3 cents in the past week to an average of $3.50.

Price-monitoring website MaineGasPrices.com reports Monday that the in-state price is now just a penny above the national average.

Prices in Maine are now almost 40 cents lower than on the same day last year and more than 21 cents per gallon lower than a month ago.

The Maine prices are based on a survey of more than 1,200 gas stations in the state.

A company analyst is warning consumers not to get too comfortable with the prices, as they are expected to start rising again soon.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The biggest drama in soap operas these days isn't who's cheating, fighting amnesia, or waking up from a coma. It's whether the backstabbing and love triangles that hooked afternoon TV viewers will work on the Internet.

In a bold wager to revive canceled ABC soaps "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," a pair of Hollywood veterans are taking the 40-year-old dramas online, remaking them for lifelong fans and a younger, Internet-savvy audience.

Starting Monday, new 30-minute episodes will appear each Monday through Thursday on the free Hulu.com website and the paid monthly subscription service Hulu Plus. Fans can also buy episodes in Apple Inc's iTunes store.

The producers, former Walt Disney Co TV chairman Rich Frank and talent management veteran Jeff Kwatinetz, hope to ride a wave of interest in first-run series online, highlighted by the recent buzz for Netflix original drama "House of Cards" and its coming revival of one-time Fox comedy "Arrested Development."

The trick will be to entice the soaps' older and not always Internet-savvy viewers while luring a younger crowd with faster-paced storylines, modern music and contemporary actors next to the shows' longtime stars.

"The challenge and opportunity for them," says Stephanie Stopulos, digital director for media buying firm Starcom USA, "is how to continue to engage the people that are so passionate about it, and also use it as an opportunity to grow."

To beckon new viewers, the producers cast "Jersey Shore" star Jenni "Jwoww" Farley as a bartender on "One Life to Live." Paula Garces from the wacky "Harold & Kumar" movie franchise has joined "All My Children." Snoop Lion, previously known as rapper Snoop Dogg, wrote and sings on the theme song for "One Life to Live," and will play himself in some episodes. He made cameo appearances when the show was on ABC.

The soaps' rebirth will test whether older-skewing audiences will migrate online, and reverse a trend that has seen viewership decline by more than one-third since 2000. When it ended its TV run, "All My Children" attracted an average audience of 2.5 million viewers with a median age of 57, according to Nielsen data provided by Horizon Media.

To appeal to both older and younger viewers, the online soaps will have the same suspense, heartbreak and betrayal, though plots will move quickly and avoid the more outlandish storylines from the soap operas of the past, Kwatinetz says.

The shows "won't be bringing people back from the dead," he says. "There won't be people rescued from aliens. The stories are grounded, the storytelling is quicker paced. It's more relevant."

The online soaps need to attract new generations to survive long term, says syndicated columnist Lynda Hirsch, who has written about soaps for more than 30 years. "You can't have your base die off," she says. "You've got to get younger people."

"All My Children" and "One Life to Live," once hour-long afternoon dramas, were stalwarts in what Time magazine once called "TV's richest market." The big advertising dollars from the daytime soaps supported prime time schedules during their heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, when Luke and Laura's 1981 wedding on "General Hospital" attracted a massive 30 million viewers on ABC.

Soaps thrived because they had a lock on one of TV's most sought-after demographics, stay-at-home moms, who couldn't get enough of the hunky doctors, evil twins and juicy cliffhangers. As the numbers of women in the workforce increased, soap operas' popularity faded, the audience aged, and network executives had trouble making the economics work.

In April 2011, Disney-owned ABC announced it was canceling "All My Children" and "One Life to Live." At the time, producers Frank and Kwatinetz were building a studio called Prospect Park with cable TV hits "Royal Pains" and "Wilfred," and taking note of online video's growing popularity.

Internet distribution offered a direct route to younger viewers in the 18-to-34 demographic, a group that watches video whenever they choose on cell phones and tablets. Having episodes on demand also meant viewers didn't need to be home during the day, or to even be near a television, to catch up.

Prospect Park is backed by funding from private equity firm ABRY Partners. The studio will receive a majority of the ad revenue collected from episodes on Hulu, a person familiar with the arrangement said, and a percentage of the sales from iTunes. Content providers typically keep 70 percent of iTunes sales.

Each soap has its own Facebook page splashed with glitzy, Vanity Fair-style cast photos, and they have already registered more than 1 million "likes" combined. Stars tweet and field questions via video chats. The studio is also running print, television and radio promotions, including an ad in Parade magazine, a weekly that draws readers over age 50.

Soap expert Hirsch believes fans will embrace the shows, if they understand the new platform. Some longtime viewers don't realize they can watch for free on Hulu.com, she said. "There is so much confusion. No matter how many times you write this, they are not getting it." (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

The government had previously announced it would join the whistle-blower lawsuit brought by former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis under the federal False Claims Act. Tuesday was the deadline for the Justice Department to file its formal complaint.

The Postal Service paid about $40 million to be the title sponsor of Armstrong's teams for six of his seven Tour de France victories. The filing in U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., says the USPS paid Armstrong $17 million form 1998-2004. The lawsuit also names former team Armstrong team director Johan Bruyneel and team management company Tailwind Sports as defendants.

---

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff.

The BCS conference commissioners announced the name of the new postseason system that starts in 2014 on the first of three days of meetings at a resort hotel in the Rose Bowl's backyard. They also will choose the remaining three sites for the six-bowl semifinal rotation and the site of the first championship game to be held Jan. 12, 2015, this week.

The website www.collegefootballplayoff.com is already up and running and allowing fans to vote on a new logo. And there also is a Twitter handle: (at)cfbplayoff.

''It's really simple. It gets right to the point,'' BCS executive director Bill Hancock, who will hold the same position in the playoff system, said at a short news conference with the 10 commissioners of the FCS conferences.

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The Rose Bowl will celebrate its 100th game on New Year's Day in 2014 as college football's oldest bowl.

To mark the occasion, the game trophy has been modified by Tiffany to add 24-karat yellow gold vermeil accents to the 21-inch tall design that includes a three-quarter size sterling silver football. It was unveiled at the iconic stadium, where the logo for the 2014 BCS national championship game was already on the field.

The stadium also will host the last national title game under the current BCS configuration on Jan. 6.

---

PRO FOOTBALL

NEW YORK (AP) - The NFL is increasing security for this week's draft at Radio City Music Hall, with everyone subject to screenings, including use of metal detectors and pat-downs, and searches of personal property.

Even league officials, players and their families will be subject to such measures. The league said that spectators who don't consent to the security requirements will be refused admission. The draft begins Thursday night and has sessions Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

All sports events have ramped up security since the Boston Marathon bombings last week.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Former Baltimore Ravens reserve linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo called on professional athletes to stand up for marriage equality because he said it is ''the right thing to do.''

Ayanbadejo took his support for gay marriage to South Florida, where his career started with Miami in 2003 and where he has lived for the past decade. The 36-year-old Ayanbadejo said he had a ''bigger calling than football'' and this was it. An open proponent of gay marriage, Ayanbadejo spoke in favor of it in November, before Maryland passed a law allowing it, and also prior to the Super Bowl. He also recently spoke at a rally on the steps of the Supreme Court.

DENVER (AP) - Dear incoming NFL rookie: Worried your $8 million contract might get held up by a balky fax machine? Worry no more.

The NFL Players Association announced a deal with an electronic-signature company that will give players being drafted this week, along with their current NFL brethren, access to technology that makes signing a contract as easy as hitting a few buttons on their cellphone.

The well-timed deal between the NFLPA and DocuSign comes two days before the draft and with memories of the Denver Broncos-Elvis Dumervil fax fiasco still fresh on everyone's mind. Last month, the Broncos and their defensive end were unable to seal the deal on a restructured contract because Dumervil couldn't get the signed paperwork back to the team in time via fax.

CINCINNATI (AP) - James Harrison is bringing a healed body and his old No. 92 with him down the Ohio River. Next goal: Get a Bengals ring to go with all that Steelers bling.

The former Pittsburgh linebacker signed a two-year contract, completing the deal he agreed to four days earlier. The five-time Pro Bowl player had to find a new team when he couldn't agree on a restructured contract with the Steelers, who needed to get under the salary cap. The 2008 Defensive Player of the Year wound up going downriver to play for an AFC North rival, one that knocked Pittsburgh out of the playoff chase in a head-to-head game last December at Heinz Field.

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PRO BASKETBALL

CLEVELAND (AP) - Mike Brown and the Cavaliers are getting back together.

Brown, who led the Cavs to the playoffs in all five seasons he coached them from 2005-10, has agreed in principle to a contract to return as their coach for a second time, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

Brown hasn't yet signed his new deal, but has agreed to take the job, according to the person who spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations were ongoing. Brown's hiring could be announced as early as Wednesday. The sides are working through the length of the deal and other matters, but Brown's back with the team he guided to its greatest successes.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Mike Dunlap is one and done with the Charlotte Bobcats, fired after a single season.

The Bobcats went 21-61 under Dunlap, finishing with the second-worst record in the NBA ahead of only the Orlando Magic. Charlotte won just seven games in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, but tripling last season's victory total and a three-game winning streak to close the season weren't enough to save Dunlap's job.

Bobcats president of basketball operations Rod Higgins said he and general manager Rich Cho met with players and Dunlap before approaching owner Michael Jordan and asking him to make a coaching change.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana forward Paul George was honored as the NBA's Most Improved Player.

The announcement came less than a week after the 6-foot-9 forward finished his breakthrough regular season and less than 48 hours after he became only the second player in franchise history to record a triple double in the NBA playoffs. He had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists in the Pacers' 107-90 Game 1 win over Atlanta - giving the Pacers their first 1-0 series lead since 2006.

---

BASEBALL

NEW YORK (AP) - Stadium operations officials from the 30 big league baseball teams will meet this week and are expected to discuss whether to make any security changes in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Major League Baseball said the session Thursday in New York was planned before the attacks last week.

''This stadium operations meeting scheduled for later this week was not a product of the incidents in Boston,'' MLB spokesman Michael Teevan said. ''It is a part of our ongoing efforts to discuss state-of-the-art security measures with the clubs, and it's standard operating procedure.''

Among the security topics that could be discussed are backpacks that fans bring into ballparks.

DENVER (AP) - Atlanta Braves right fielder Jason Heyward was placed on the 15-day disabled list after an appendectomy.

The team said late Monday that Heyward had surgery at Rose Medical Center in Denver.

Manager Fredi Gonzalez said before the opener of Tuesday's day-night doubleheader against Colorado that there was no set timetable for Heyward's return. The Braves recalled infielder Tyler Pastornicky from Triple A Gwinnett to fill Heyward's roster spot.

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Padres outfielder Carlos Quentin returned to San Diego's lineup and said he has spoken with Dodgers right-hander Zach Greinke following a scuffle that left the pitcher with a broken left collarbone and Quentin with an eight-game suspension. Quentin charged Greinke after he was hit by a pitch during a game April 11, leading to a bench-clearing brawl in San Diego.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The commemorative plaque honoring home run king Barry Bonds' record 756th clout has gone missing from AT&T Park.

San Francisco Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said that the reigning World Series champions in the process of replacing the plaque, which hung on the brick facade inside the ballpark beneath the flag court area in right-center field until a few days ago. The team is investigating where the missing hardware might be, Slaughter said. There is still white glue on the brick wall where the plaque used to be.

---

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) - With his voice quivering at times, Eddie Jordan returned to Rutgers and took over as coach of the scandal-marred basketball program, promising to move forward and restore the dignity, pride and integrity to a university embarrassed by abuses that forced the firing of coach Mike Rice.

In choosing the 58-year-old Jordan, Rutgers turned to one of its greatest sports heroes to restore the image of university tarnished by a former coach who grabbed players in practice, threw balls at them and uttered gay slurs. The hiring came a little less than three weeks after Rice was fired after a videotape of his practice tantrums was televised. The ensuing scandal forced the resignation of athletic director Tim Pernetti, a top university lawyer and an assistant coach.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - Two former Syracuse University basketball ball boys have asked a judge to reinstate their slander lawsuit against the school and head coach Jim Boeheim over comments the Hall of Famer made following the firing of his longtime assistant amid a sex abuse scandal.

Attorneys for Bobby Davis and Mike Lang filed a 54-page brief with the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Rochester in March. State Supreme Court Justice Brian DeJoseph threw out their lawsuit in May, ruling that comments made by Boeheim after assistant coach Bernie Fine was fired were not statements of fact but were opinions that are protected from defamation lawsuits.

---

AUTO RACING

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Penske Racing will take its appeal of penalties and fines against defending champion Brad Keselowski and teammate Joey Logano before a three-member NASCAR panel next week.

NASCAR selects the panel from a list of 48 people - former car owners, crew chiefs and drivers, as well as current track promoters and industry veterans. Their identities will not be revealed until after their decision, which can be appealed to NASCAR chief appellate officer John Middlebrook. The May 1 appeal will be conducted at the Research and Development Center in Concord. NASCAR seized parts from the rear suspensions of both Penske cars during pre-race inspections at Texas, accusing the team of using unapproved parts in the rear housing.

2013 - Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan, Kansas City

2012 - Andrew Luck, quarterback, Stanford, Indianapolis

2011 - Cam Newton, quarterback, Auburn, Carolina

2010 - Sam Bradford, quarterback, Oklahoma, St. Louis

2009 - Matthew Stafford, quarterback, Georgia, Detroit

2008 - Jake Long, offensive tackle, Michigan, Miami

2007 - JaMarcus Russell, quarterback, LSU, Oakland

2006 - Mario Williams, defensive end, N.C. State, Houston

2005 - Alex Smith, quarterback, Utah, San Francisco

2004 - Eli Manning, quarterback, Mississippi, San Diego (traded to NY Giants)

2003 - Carson Palmer, quarterback, USC, Cincinnati

2002 - David Carr, quarterback, Fresno State, Houston

2001 - Michael Vick, quarterback, Virginia Tech, Atlanta

2000 - Courtney Brown, defensive end, Penn State, Cleveland

1999 - Tim Couch, quarterback, Kentucky, Cleveland

1998 - Peyton Manning, quarterback, Tennessee, Indianapolis

1997 - Orlando Pace, offensive tackle, Ohio State, St. Louis

1996 - Keyshawn Johnson, wide receiver, USC, NY Jets

1995 - Ki-Jana Carter, running back, Penn State, Cincinnati

1994 - Dan Wilkinson, defensive tackle, Ohio State, Cincinnati

1993 - Drew Bledsoe, quarterback, Washington State, New England

1992 - Steve Emtman, defensive tackle, Washington, Indianapolis

1991 - Russell Maryland, defensive tackle, Miami, Dallas

1990 - Jeff George, quarterback, Illinois, Indianapolis

1989 - Troy Aikman, quarterback, UCLA, Dallas

1988 - Aundray Bruce, linebacker, Auburn, Atlanta

1987 - Vinny Testaverde, quarterback, Miami, Tampa Bay

1986 - Bo Jackson, running back, Auburn, Tampa Bay (did not sign)

1985 - Bruce Smith, defensive end, Virginia Tech, Buffalo

1984 - Irving Fryar, wide receiver, Nebraska, New England

1983 - John Elway, quarterback, Stanford, Baltimore (traded to Denver)

1982 - Kenneth Sims, defensive tackle, Texas, New England

1981 - George Rogers, running back, S.Carolina, New Orleans

1980 - Billy Sims, running back, Oklahoma, Detroit

1979 - Tom Cousineau, linebacker, Ohio State, Buffalo (did not sign)

1978 - Earl Campbell, running back, Texas, Houston

1977 - Ricky Bell, running back, USC, Tampa Bay

1976 - Lee Roy Selmon, defensive end, Oklahoma, Tampa Bay

1975 - Steve Bartkowski, quarterback, California, Atlanta

1974 - Ed Jones, defensive end, Tennessee State, Dallas

1973 - John Matuszak, defensive end, Tampa, Houston

1972 - Walt Patulski, defensive end, Notre Dame, Buffalo\

1971 - Jim Plunkett, quarterback, Stanford, New England

1970 - Terry Bradshaw, quarterback, Louisiana Tech, Pittsburgh

1969 - O.J. Simpson, running back, USC, Buffalo

1968 - Ron Yary, tackle, USC, Minnesota

1967 - Bubba Smith, defensive tackle, Michigan State, Baltimore

(Compiled by Larry Fine,)

Utah's biggestruns east of Salt Lake City, at the base of the steep Wasatch Mountains. About 75 percent of the state's population lives near the 240-mile-long (385 kilometers) Wasatch Fault, according to the Utah Geological Survey. Its last big earthquake hit in 1600, 147 years before Mormon settlers arrived.

To the west, in urban , a 4-mile-wide (6 km) zone of fault segments called the West Valley Fault Zone stretches north-northwest for 9 miles (14 km)beneath the valley.

Trenches along a portion of the West Valley fault zone, near Salt Lake City's airport, reveal that both the West Valley and Wasatch faults seem to rupture simultaneously during earthquakes, scientists will report today at the meeting.

While dating techniques can't confirm that the earthquakes were synchronous, instead of within a few days, month or years, modeling suggests they strike at the same time, said Christopher DuRoss, study co-author and a geologist at the Utah Geological Survey.

"Based on models of how the crust would behave, we expect the West Valley Fault Zone would rupture instantaneously with the Salt Lake City segment," DuRoss told OurAmazingPlanet.

Two faults, more shaking

If both fault zones ruptured during an earthquake, it would mean more shaking for Salt Lake City, which sits atop soft lake sediments, the kind that experience liquefaction during severe earthquakes. In the 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake, liquefaction destroyed the city's downtown core. In Salt Lake City, planners are also concerned about the risk of flooding from waves in theand landslides in mountain canyons during a major earthquake.

Residents of Salt Lake will get a better picture of their risk when the Utah Geological Survey and U.S. Geological Survey release updated hazard maps in 2014, which are based on today's presentation and other recent work, DuRoss said. []

The Wasatch Fault is divided into 10 segments, which act mostly independently, researchers think. The 25-mile-long (40 km) Salt Lake City segment is thought to be one of the most hazardous, with the probability of a large quake (magnitude 7.0) put at 16.5 percent in the next 100 years, according to the Utah Geological Survey. However, that earthquake forecast is now out-of-date, thanks to new research, and will be updated next year by the Working Group on Utah Earthquake Probabilities, DuRoss said.

Trenches find big quakes

DuRoss and study co-author Michael Hylland looked at the link between the Wasatch Fault and the West Valley Fault Zone with trenches dug near the Salt Lake City airport, where the shrinking Great Salt Lake has exposed West Valley fault traces. For the Wasatch fault, the team dug new trenches near the University of Utah.

Disturbed sediment layers indicate fouron the West Valley fault broke ground in the past 15,700, 13,000, 12,300 and 5,500 years ago, said Hylland, also a geologist at the Utah Geological Survey.dating ties the broken ground to earthquake records in trenches along the Salt Lake City section of the Wasatch Fault.

More complete sediment records exist for the Salt Lake City section of the Wasatch Fault, with nine prehistoric temblors found, Hylland said.The last big earthquake on the Salt Lake City segment was 1,400 years ago. The quakes hit every 1,300 to 1,500 years, researchers think.

"From what we can see, it looks like the frequency is about the same" on the two fault zones, Hylland told OurAmazingPlanet. "What it really comes down to is 'how active is the Salt Lake City segment?'" Hylland said. "That's the real driver of the hazard for Salt Lake Valley."

The separate faults likely merge into a single fault deep beneath the valley, Hylland said. The West Valley faults angles to the east, and the Wasatch Fault dips to the west.

Movement on both faults is up-down. They are both normal faults, sliding one block of the Earth's crust away from another block during an earthquake.

Emailor follow her . Follow us, & . Original article on .

Britain's first and only female political leader died on Monday, aged 87, after suffering a stroke.

Streep, 63, described Thatcher as a trailblazer, "willingly or unwillingly", for female political leaders. "To me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit," the American actress said in a statement.

"To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable."

Streep paid tribute to Thatcher for rising to the position of prime minister from her upbringing as a grocer's daughter on the back of her own hard work.

The multi-Oscar-winning actress acknowledged that the right-wing Thatcher divided opinion. But Streep said Thatcher deserved credit for standing by her convictions despite the "special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer".

Streep said she was honored to try to imagine Thatcher's late life journey in playing her in "Iron Lady" but only really had a "glancing understanding" of Thatcher's struggles.

"I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends," she said.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Mark Heinrich)