A military statement said the protesters had just arrived at the embassy area when clashes broke out and a civilian opened fire. The embassy is in a predominantly pro-Hezbollah area.

Witnesses saw men wearing yellow armbands the color of Hezbollah's flag attacking the protesters with batons. It was unclear if they were affiliated with the militant Shiite group, and the identity of the gunman was unknown, a senior security official said.

The official identified the man killed as a 28-year-old member of the small Lebanese Option Party, which had called for the anti-Hezbollah protest. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The Syria conflict is increasingly spilling over into Lebanon, home to a fragile mosaic of more than a dozen religious and ethnic groups. Hezbollah's overt participation in the conflict, backing forces of Syria's President Bashar Assad in a successful campaign to drive rebels out of Qusair near the Lebanese border, heightened tensions.

The Obama administration could decide this week to approve lethal aid for the Syrian rebels, officials said Sunday. Secretary of State John Kerry postponed a planned trip Monday to Israel and three other Mideast countries to participate in White House discussions, said officials who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement Sunday that it backed the Lebanese Red Cross in evacuating since Friday 87 Syrians seriously wounded in the fighting in Qusair to hospitals in Lebanon.

The leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said during the battle for Qusair that he would side with Assad until the rebels are defeated. Assad's Syria is Hezbollah's main ally and supplier of weapons.

Gunmen from rival religious sects have gone to Syria to fight on the rebel side. Rebels have threatened to target Hezbollah's bases in Lebanon.

Clashes in northern Lebanon between rival Lebanese groups since last month claimed more than 28 lives, and rockets have targeted Hezbollah strongholds.

Hezbollah's rivals have increased their criticism, deepening a political stalemate and postponing elections for 17 months.

The Lebanese Option Party is headed by a Shiite politician, Ahmad El Assaad, who has long been opposed to Hezbollah. Sunday's clash outside the Iranian Embassy marked rare fighting between two opposing Shiite groups.

The official Lebanese National News Agency said the army cordoned off the area of the clashes in southern Beirut. The private Al-Jadeed Lebanese TV said a girl who was protesting was also wounded.

The station said the protester who was killed was shot twice in the leg, once in the back, and was hit on the head with a baton.

The protest at the embassy coincided with another small rally in downtown Beirut also criticizing Hezbollah's military intervention in Syria's conflict.

Dozens of protesters, including many Syrians, converged on Beirut's central Martyrs Square where a large banner read: "Rejecting Hezbollah's fighting in Syria."

"Those fighting in Syria are not Lebanese. Their culture, their flag, money and weapons are Iranian," said Saleh el-Mashnouk, an ardent critic of Hezbollah. "We are here to erase the shame that struck Lebanon because of them."

Lebanese protester Samara el-Hariri, 31, said Syria's war is hurting Lebanon's economy and increasing sectarian tension. "My country is stricken," she said.

Shiite Iran, Hezbollah's patron, has strongly backed Assad, who belongs to a Shiite offshoot.

The fighting in Syria has claimed more than 80,000 lives and displaced several million people. Beside Lebanon, it has also threatened to spill into neighboring countries, like Israel and Turkey.

In Syria, fighting between government troops and rebels raged in different provinces, including near the capital, Damascus, and in the northern Aleppo province. Pro-regime media outlets said that after securing control of Qusair, government forces are preparing to move to recapture the contested city of Aleppo next. Activists said there were no signs of a new push on the city or its surrounding areas.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of Syrians inside the country for information, said six regime fighters were killed in clashes in Aleppo. The city has been carved up into areas controlled by rebels and the regime, and families have been displaced by shelling.

The Observatory also documented a rare case of a public killing of a 15-year-old youth by Islamist rebel fighters in the city of Aleppo. The center said the gunmen detained Mohammed Kattaa late Saturday, accusing him of being an "infidel" for mentioning Islam's Prophet Muhammad in vain.

The witnesses told the center the gunmen overheard the teenager arguing with a colleague, telling him that he would not lend him money even if "Muhammad comes back to earth," a common phrase used to describe an impossible task.

The men then brought Kattan back to the coffee shop where he works, with his shirt over his face and his back covered in marks from whips, the witnesses told the Observatory.

The militants threatened the same punishment for anyone who commits blasphemy, the witnesses said. Then they shot the boy in front of his parents and a crowd before fleeing the scene.

It was not clear which rebel group the gunmen belonged to.

Rights groups have warned against rising abuses by rebel fighters, including killing of captured regime soldiers or allied fighters. Kattan's case was a rare example of rebels killing a civilian for blasphemy.

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Associated Press writers Zeina Karam and Yasmine Saker, and Bradley Klapper in Washington, contributed to this report.

The Special One returned to Stamford Bridge on Monday, 5 1-2 years after his departure, to the delight of Blues fans

"I had to prepare myself not to be too emotional on my arrival at the club, but obviously I am very happy," Mourinho told Chelsea TV. "It was an easy decision. I met the boss, I met the owner, and in five minutes after a couple of very short but pragmatic questions, we decided straight away. I asked the boss: 'Do you want me back?' And the boss asked me: 'Do you want to come back?' And in a couple of minutes, the decision was made."

The 50-year-old Portuguese coach was given a four-year contract as Chelsea manager, nine years and one day after he first was hired by the club. It was on that first day at Chelsea in 2004 that Mourinho declared himself a "Special One," a nickname that stuck.

Mourinho's relationship with Abramovich has improved over the years, and the unpredictable manager said their divorce back in 2007 benefited both him and the club.

"It was a difficult moment because I love it here and have a big connection with the club. Also for the club, my departure, it was not easy," Mourinho said. "But if you analyze it in a cool way and you leave emotions a bit apart, I think it was fantastic. Because after that I had in my career what I was aiming for, and Chelsea as a football club got important trophies after that, with important moments in the history of the club. Now we are back together, and it is a great moment for both, so I think we are ready to marry again and to be happy and successful again."

Madrid released the charismatic and fiery coach from his contract, so Abramovich will not have to pay compensation.

"I never hide that in my career in football I had two great passions, Inter and Chelsea, and Chelsea is more than important for me," Mourinho said. "It was very hard to play against Chelsea. I did it twice, which was not so bad. Now I promise exactly the same things I promised in 2004."

There had been seven managers at Chelsea since Mourinho left. He led Chelsea to its first league title in 50 years in 2005 and followed up with another in 2006, and won one FA Cup and two league Cups. But he fell short of giving Abramovich a Champions League trophy, which finally was won with Roberto Di Matteo as coach in 2012.

"His continued success, drive and ambition made him the outstanding candidate," Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay said. "It is our aim to keep the club moving forward to achieve greater success in the future, and Jose is our No. 1 choice as we believe he is the right manager to do just that."

Chelsea finished third in the Premier League this season and was eliminated in the group stage of the Champions League after winning the title in 2012.

Rafa Benitez, hired in November as interim manager after Di Matteo was fired, was repeatedly jeered by Chelsea fans, who distrusted him following his six-year stretch with Liverpool. Benitez led Chelsea to the title of the Europa League, the continent's second-tier tournament, and was hired last week to coach Napoli.

After leading Porto to the 2004 Champions League title, Mourinho became a popular and divisive figure when he arrived at Chelsea.

"I'm sorry I'm a bit arrogant, but we have a top manager," he said at his initial news conference. "I am the European champion. I think I am a special one."

After leaving Chelsea, Mourinho went on to coach Inter Milan, winning two Serie A titles, the Italian Cup and the 2010 Champions League. With Madrid, he won the 2011 Copa del Rey and 2012 Spanish league title.

He became unpopular with segments of the Madrid fan base this year, when he dropped goalkeeper Iker Casillas, captain of Madrid and of the world and European champion Spanish national team.

Chelsea said Mourinho is bringing along three members of his coaching staff, Rui Faria, Silvino Louro and Jose Morais, and each will be given the title assistant first team coach. There was no word whether Aitor Karanka, his assistant manager at Madrid, will follow him to Chelsea.

Mourinho was an unsuccessful player in the 1980s, and his big break in management came when he was hired as an interpreter for English coach Bobby Robson at Portugal's Sporting Lisbon.

Robson took Mourinho with him to Porto and his influence increased as he took on coaching responsibilities. The duo moved to Barcelona for the 1996-97 season, and Mourinho remained at the club under Louis van Gaal following the Robson's departure.

Mourinho returned to Portugal but failed to win any titles during stints as a senior coach at Uniao Leiria and Benfica. That changed in his first full season at Benfica's rival, Porto, where he won the league, Portuguese Cup and UEFA Cup in 2003.

Chelsea said Mourinho will hold a news conference June 10 at Stamford Bridge.

In a wild game before 39,129 fans, each team slugged four home runs and the Orioles rallied from a four-run deficit against one of the best pitchers in the game.

Zimmerman hit solo homers in the first and fourth innings before adding a two-run drive in the fifth, all off Chris Tillman. With a chance to tie the major-league record of four homers in a game, Zimmerman came to the plate in the seventh against Steve Johnson and looked at a third strike.

It was the first three-homer game of Zimmerman's career.

Davis hit a solo drive in the fourth and capped a six-run seventh with his major-league leading 19th homer, a two-run shot off Tyler Clippard.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Rosalva Jimenez of Bakersfield, Calif., said she last spoke with her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Esteban Smith, on Thursday.

Speaking in Spanish, Jimenez said her son "was OK, but he went crazy all of a sudden."

Smith also is suspected of killing his wife, whose body was found in a North Carolina motel room near Camp Lejeune, N.C., where Smith was based. His mother said she knew of no problems between her son and daughter-in-law and that her son's wife had even gone from California to North Carolina to surprise him.

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Entertainment One has secured domestic distribution rights to "Diana," a biopic of the late princess starring Naomi Watts, the company announced on Thursday.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Oliver Hirschbiegel ("Downfall") directed the film from a script by Stephen Jeffreys. The film depicts the last two years of Diana's life, in particular her relationship with Dr. Hasnat Khan.

"'Diana' will give audiences worldwide a chance to not only fall in love with the Princess all over again, but also discover a part of her life up until now kept out of the public eye," Dylan Wiley, eOne US VP of theatrical marketing and distribution, said in a statement. "And only Naomi Watts could bring such a modern icon to life, through a truly beautiful and nuanced performance."

eOne will release the film later this year. Produced by Robert Bernstein and Douglas Rae, it is currently in post-production. Other eOne titles set for release later this year include Jim Mickle's "We Are What We Are," Brian De Palma's "Passion" and Sergio Castellitto's "Twice Born."

Saldia often buzzes around Philadelphia with his year-old feline Mary Jane perched on his shoulder. Their urban adventures have turned heads on the street and garnered big hits on YouTube.

The 26-year-old bike courier didn't intend to become Internet-famous. He originally shot footage of the outings only to prove to his mom that he was taking Mary Jane nicknamed MJ for a spin.

"She said, 'No way! You're not taking your cat out for the ride,' which is the reaction I still get even after people see this video," Saldia said.

Saldia used a GoPro sports camera mounted on his bike to capture images of him and MJ, a brown and black tabby with bright yellow eyes. She seems to take the trips in stride, even nuzzling her owner as he pedals, though she gets a bit spooked by sirens and buses.

"She enjoys seeing everything and having the wind blow in her ears, especially being an indoors cat. This is really her only time outside," he said. "On the shoulder, she loves it. She's in total zen mode."

The first video, which he posted last October, has more than 1.2 million views on YouTube. GoPro spokeswoman AnneMarie Hennes said she saw it earlier this year and was blown away. She immediately reached out to Saldia to get permission to use the footage in a camera ad, which was posted online last month.

"It's just unique and he did a really good job shooting it," said Hennes. "We hooked him up with some cameras so he can make more cool MJ content."

Saldia, who also belongs to long-distance riding club, said he began taking out MJ when she was 2 months old, at first just along his quiet street in downtown Philadelphia. The rides eventually went farther, with positive reactions from both MJ and passers-by.

"People are thrilled to see the guy with the cat ride his bike down the street," Saldia said.

But online commenters have been less kind, questioning whether the unharnessed cat is safe. Saldia noted he is equally vulnerable while riding in the city and takes necessary precautions.

"I'm very confident that the cat would be better off in an accident than I would be, so I'm not worried about taking her out," he said.

Saldia's mom said although she didn't believe her son at first, she now thinks the tandem rides are "kind of cool."

"He enjoys it, the cat loves to be with him (and) it's better than being home alone," said Sarah Saldia, of Sewell, N.J. "I don't think they're hurting anybody."

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Online:

Saldia's video: http://bit.ly/ZdGK4U

GoPro video: http://bit.ly/1a70dUa

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Follow Kathy Matheson at www.twitter.com/kmatheson.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The H7N9 virus appears to have been brought under control in China largely due to restrictions at bird markets, but caused some $6.5 billion in losses to the economy, U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

Health authorities worldwide must be on the lookout to detect the virus, the experts said, which could still develop the ability to spread easily among humans and cause a deadly influenza pandemic.

The new bird flu virus is known to have infected 130 people in mainland China since emerging in March, including 36 who died, but no cases have been detected since early May, Health Minister Li Bin told a meeting of the World Health Organization. One case was found in Taiwan in April, making a total of 131.

"The immediate outbreak has been controlled, but it is also unlikely that virus has simply disappeared. We believe we need go another autumn/winter/spring season to know," said Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general for health security.

"We also have high concern over the potential, I stress the potential, to gain the ability to sustain transmissibility."

There was no evidence of sustained spread among people and "most cases probably resulted from infected poultry or perhaps contamination related to live poultry markets," Fukuda said.

Li said local Chinese authorities had shut down live poultry markets "temporarily or permanently as needed" to control the source of outbreaks in 10 provinces. It standardized methods of transporting poultry to reduce spread among birds.

China's government had spent 600 million RMB or $97 million to support healthy development of the poultry industry, Li said.

"In view of the present situation, H7N9 is preventable and controllable. There has been no qualitative change in the epidemic. Cases are sporadic and there has been no genetic mutation (of the virus)," she said.

H7N9 is highly pathogenic in humans, causing severe respiratory disease, but is not virulent among birds, making it nearly impossible for farmers to detect, experts said.

"There have been no (human) cases since May 8, that is a good indication and means measures are being taken seriously. Now when the virus is found at market, all birds are killed, that is important too," Bernard Vallat, head of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), told reporters.

Out of 60,000 samples taken from birds, 53 were found to carry the virus, Liang Wannian of China's health ministry said.

There is "no red flag" for H7N9 among poultry, unlike H1N1 which kills off flocks, said Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer at the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

"Economic impacts of H7N9 have been astounding," he said.

"Over $6.5 billion has been lost in the agriculture sector because of prices, consumer confidence and trade. So poultry industry losses in China have been high," Lubroth said, later making clear it was an estimate by China's agriculture ministry.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Jon Hemming)

SAN FRANCISCO/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Apple has operated almost tax-free in Ireland since 1980, welcomed by a government keen to bring jobs to what was then one of Europe's poorest countries, former company executives and Irish officials have said.

Chief Executive Tim Cook faced criticism from a Senate subcommittee in Washington on Tuesday over the iPad and iPhone maker's tax practices, which had been shrouded from full view behind secretive tax-exempt Irish-based corporate entities.

Apple, one of Ireland's top multinational employers, denied avoiding billions of dollars in U.S. taxes and said its arrangements helped fund research jobs in the United States.

The committee revealed that Apple's Irish companies, some of which are not tax resident in any jurisdiction, allowed the group to pay no tax on much of its overseas earnings in recent years.

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee, said Apple had sought "the Holy Grail of tax avoidance".

A former company executive and Irish officials told Reuters the almost tax-free status dates all the way back to Apple's arrival in County Cork 32 years ago.

Apple must have seemed attractive to Ireland and to Cork. Amid a generally moribund Irish economy, Cork had been hard hit by the closure of its shipyards and a Ford car plant, and in 1986 nearly one in four were out of work in the city.

In the early days, Apple's staff sat down to meals together. Now the company employs 4,000 in Ireland.

"There were tax concessions for us to go there," said Del Yocam, who was Vice President of manufacturing at Apple in the early 1980s. "It was a big concession."

In fact, the deal was about as good as a company can get.

"We had a tax holiday for the first 10 years in Ireland. We paid no taxes to the Irish government," one former finance executive, who asked not to be named, said.

Apple wasn't an exception, although it was among the last to enjoy such favorable treatment. From 1956 to 1980, Ireland attracted foreign companies by offering a zero rate of tax, according to the Irish government's website. Eligible companies arriving in 1980 were given holidays until 1990.

"Any multinational attracted into Ireland that was focusing on the export market paid zero percent corporation tax," said Barry O'Leary, CEO of IDA Ireland, which is charged with attracting investment into Ireland.

Apple said it pays all the tax due in every country where it operates. It declined to comment on the tax treatment it received in the 1980s.

As part of Ireland's accession to the European Economic Community, precursor to the European Union, in 1973, it was forced to stop offering tax holidays to exporters.

From 1981, companies arriving in Ireland had to pay tax, albeit at a low 10 percent rate, providing they qualified for manufacturing status.

ECONOMIC COUP

Apple's investment was a major coup for Ireland. At the time, the country was struggling with high and rising unemployment, double-digit inflation and a brain drain of the young and educated through emigration.

"We were the first technology company to establish a manufacturing operation in Ireland," recalled John Sculley, Apple's CEO from 1983 to 1993. He said government subsidies had also played a role in deciding to set up a base in Ireland.

Ireland also offered low wage rates - a big attraction when it came to hiring hundreds of people for the relatively low-skilled work of assembling electronic equipment.

Apple told the subcommittee it could not answer questions about why it chose Ireland as a base since it had lost the paperwork from the period.

The operation in Cork built the company's Apple II computer and would later build disc drives, Mac' computers and others. These would be sold in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

But having a tax holiday in Ireland would not, in itself, have allowed Apple to operate tax free in these markets.

Equipment assembly is not the kind of activity that economists or tax authorities usually credit with generating a large share of a technology company's profits.

More value has been associated with generating the intellectual property behind the technology - which Apple did in the United States - and with the selling of goods, which was to be done on the ground in France, Britain and India.

But none of these countries offered the tax advantages Ireland did. The key to minimizing Apple's tax bill was maximizing the amount of profit that could be ascribed to Apple's Irish operations.

THE ARCHITECT

This task fell to Mike Rashkin, Apple's first tax director, two executives from the period said. One called him "the father of it all".

Rashkin arrived at Apple in 1980, from computer pioneer Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) in Massachusetts, where he had learnt about tax-efficient corporate structuring in tech companies.

Apple had already decided to establish its base in Ireland when Rashkin moved to Silicon Valley, but he used his experience at DEC to set up a tax structure that took advantage of Apple's base in the country, the executives said. Rashkin declined to comment.

The Senate subcommittee's report reveals how the arrangement was structured. In 1980, Apple entered into a deal with its Irish operation, whereby the latter would share the cost of funding Apple's research and development. In return, the Irish unit would be able to enjoy rights to Apple's intellectual property for goods sold outside the Americas.

Apple secured the blessing of the U.S. tax authority, the Internal Revenue Service, for the deal, one executive said. The IRS gave Apple an advance pricing agreement, or APA, an agreement which establishes how the IRS will treat a transaction between affiliates for tax purposes, before it is entered into.

Many countries' tax authorities offer APAs, and companies say they are necessary to facilitate international trade and investment. Tax campaigners say tax authorities have been too ready to accept the pricing proposed by companies which apply for APAs.

The New York Times reported last year that Apple's low taxes were at least in part due to the confidential technology transfer arrangement.

The terms of the deal and subsequent cost-sharing deals were favorable for Apple's Irish unit. In effect, the Irish unit paid much less to its U.S. parent for the use of Apple intellectual property than it made from selling that property on to affiliates.

"Apple's cost sharing agreement (CSA) with its offshore affiliates in Ireland is primarily a conduit for shifting billions of dollars in income from the United States to a low tax jurisdiction," the subcommittee's report said.

Meanwhile, Apple also constructed a system whereby the affiliates which were actually selling the finished equipment would earn minimal profits.

The techniques Apple used over the years included selling goods to affiliates at prices which generated little profit at the retail level, or by paying sales affiliates commissions which are just about enough to cover their operating costs.

Rashkin's work and Ireland's accommodating approach had the desired result for Apple.

"We're very, very pleased," Apple's then-President A.C. Mike' Markulla said in 1981. "The Irish have really lived up to their promises."

Indeed, the accounts for Apple's main Irish unit, then known as Apple Computer Inc. Ltd, for 1989, the earliest year for which detailed accounts were filed, show exactly how effective the arrangement was.

The subsidiary paid $500,000 in income tax on profits of $317 million, a rate of 0.2 percent.

END OF THE HOLIDAY

In 1990, Apple's tax holiday came to an end, and in that year, the Irish operation's tax rate hit 4 percent, accounts from the period show.

At the same time, Apple's Irish manufacturing activities came under question as the company looked to cut costs by outsourcing. In 1992, the company announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs after deciding to shift some work to Singapore, which at this time was attracting increasing investment by offering tax holidays.

"They nearly left Ireland altogether," O'Leary said.

By this stage, the European Community had banned tax holidays of the kind given to Apple, so the company and Dublin negotiated an arrangement which had a similar outcome but fell within European rules.

The precise details of the arrangement were not disclosed, but Phillip Bullock, Apple's head of tax operations, indicated that it was linked to minimizing taxable profit.

"Since the early 1990s, the Government of Ireland has calculated Apple's taxable income in such a way as to produce an effective rate in the low single digits," he told the subcommittee.

The deal didn't stop Apple from shifting manufacturing work to Asia, but in the years that followed new jobs were created in Cork, in sales and administrative support for the European operation, the accounts of the Irish units show. Some manufacturing remains in Ireland, the subcommittee said.

An Irish government spokesman declined to even confirm it held discussions with Apple regarding tax, citing rules on taxpayer confidentiality.

From 1996 Ireland phased in a 12.5 percent tax on all corporate trading income, although foreign companies often pay effective rates lower than this by shifting money into tax havens such as Bermuda.

Apple's Cook told the Senate panel on Tuesday that Apple does not hold money on a Caribbean island or divert profits from sales to U.S. customers to other jurisdictions to avoid U.S. taxes.

(Writing by Tom Bergin; Additional reporting by Conor Humphries in Dublin, Jonathan Weber and Peter Henderson in San Francisco, and Tom Bergin in London; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Engineers commanded the twin spacecraft, Ebb and Flow, to fire their engines and burn their remaining fuel. Ebb plunged first followed by Flow about 30 seconds later.

Afterward, NASA said it had dedicated the final resting spot in honor of mission team member, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space who died earlier this year. By design, the impact site was far away from the Apollo landings and other historical sites.

Ride's sister, who huddled in the NASA control room for the finale, said it might be time to dust off Ride's first telescope to view the newly named site.

"We can look at the moon with a new appreciation and a smile in the evening when we see it knowing that a little corner of the moon is named after Sally," the Rev. Bear Ride said in an interview.

Since the back-to-back crashes occurred in the dark, they were not visible from Earth. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the moon will pass over the mountain and attempt to photograph the skid marks left by the washing machine sized-spacecraft as they hit the surface at 3,800 mph.

After rocketing off the launch pad in September 2011, Ebb and Flow took a roundabout journey to the moon, arriving over the New Year's holiday on a gravity-mapping mission.

More than 100 missions have been flung to Earth's nearest neighbor since the dawn of the Space Age including NASA's six Apollo moon landings that put 12 astronauts on the surface.

The loss of Ebb and Flow comes on the same month as the 40th launch anniversary of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon.

Ebb and Flow focused exclusively on measuring the moon's lumpy gravity field in a bid to learn more about its interior and early history. After flying in formation for months, they produced the most detailed gravity maps of any body in the solar system.

Secrets long held by the moon are spilling out. Ebb and Flow discovered that the lunar crust is much thinner than scientists had imagined. And it was severely battered by asteroids and comets in the early years of the solar system more than previously realized.

Data so far also appeared to quash the theory that Earth once had two moons that collided and melded into the one we see today.

Besides a scientific return, the mission allowed students to take their own pictures of craters and other lunar features as part of collaboration with a science education company founded by Ride, who died in July of pancreatic cancer at age 61. About 3,600 classrooms around the world participated, sending back 114,000 photos.

Scientists expect to sift through data and images from the $487 million mission for years.

Obtaining precise gravity calculations required the twins to circle low over the moon, which consumes a lot of fuel. During the primary mission, they flew about 35 miles above the lunar surface. After getting bonus data-collecting time, they lowered their altitude to 14 miles above the surface.

With their fuel tanks almost on empty, NASA devised a controlled crash to avoid contacting any of the treasured sites on the moon. Mission controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory applauded when they lost signal, one of the rare celebrations of a spacecraft's demise.

Mission chief scientist Maria Zuber approached Ride's family about a month ago about naming the impact site. Zuber said she will also petition the International Astronomical Union to name mountain after the late astronaut as well.

"We looked very hard to find a very prominent feature on the near side of the moon that didn't have a name," said Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

CBIG Principal John Onder credited this years success in large part to smart investments and further advancements in Big Data Analytics and Cloud BI services.Mr. Onder said, CBIG stresses continuous creativity, innovation and staying ahead of the technology curve. Our recruitment of top talent in the field of Big Data and Business Intelligence also cant be overstated, and were really starting to reap the benefits now.Weve been very fortunate thus far in our teams advancements in leading-edge, goal-oriented services that deliver faster results with bigger returns on customers investments.

Looking ahead to 2013, the firm is poised for continued growth in each of its market regions.Mr. Onder also stated that CBIG management is exploring additional office locations including an international presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

About CBIG Consulting (CBIG):

Founded in 2002, CBIG Consulting, a division of Chicago Business Intelligence Group, Inc., is a consortium of experts in Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Big Data, and delivering Analytics via the CBIG Cloud Services platform.CBIG consultants average over ten years of direct experience in the field working with Fortune 100 to mid-size businesses in solving mission-critical reporting and analytical needs. For more information, visit

John OnderCBIG Consulting(800) 334-2078