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.

The new test, which goes on sale Wednesday, joins another one that recently came on the market. Both analyze multiple genes in a biopsy sample and give a score for aggressiveness, similar to tests used now for certain breast and colon cancers.

Doctors say tests like these have the potential to curb a major problem in cancer care overtreatment. Prostate tumors usually grow so slowly they will never threaten a man's life, but some prove fatal and there is no reliable way now to tell which ones will. Treatment with surgery, radiation or hormone blockers isn't needed in most cases and can cause impotence or incontinence, yet most men are afraid to skip it.

"We're not giving patients enough information to make their decision," said Dr. Peter Carroll, chairman of urology at the University of California, San Francisco. "You can shop for a toaster" better than for prostate treatment, he said.

A study he led of the newest test the Oncotype DX Genomic Prostate Score is set for discussion Wednesday at an American Urological Association meeting in San Diego.

The results suggest the test could triple the number of men thought to be at such low risk for aggressive disease that monitoring is a clearly safe option. Conversely, the test also suggested some tumors were more aggressive than doctors had believed.

Independent experts say such a test is desperately needed but that it's unclear how much information this one adds or whether it will be enough to persuade men with low-risk tumors to forgo treatment, and treat it only if it gets worse. Only 10 percent who are candidates for monitoring choose it now.

"The question is, what's the magnitude of difference that would change the patient's mind?" said Dr. Bruce Roth, a cancer specialist at Washington University in St. Louis.

One man may view a 15 percent chance that his tumor is aggressive as low risk "but someone else might say, 'Oh my God, let's set the surgery up tomorrow,'" he said. "I don't think it's a slam dunk."

Also unknown: Will insurers pay for the expensive test without evidence it leads to better care or saves lives?

The newest test was developed by Genomic Health Inc., which has sold a similar one for breast cancer since 2004. Doctors at first were leery of it until studies in more groups of women proved its value, and the same may happen with the prostate test, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society's deputy chief medical officer.

The company will charge $3,820 for the prostate test and says it can save money by avoiding costlier, unnecessary treatment. Another test for assessing prostate cancer risk that came out last summer Prolaris by Myriad Genetics Inc. sells for $3,400.

Both companies can sell the tests without Food and Drug Administration approval under separate rules that govern lab diagnostics. Myriad Genetics has published nine studies on Prolaris involving more than 3,000 patients. Genomic Health has not published any results on the prostate test, another thing that makes doctors wary. Yet it has a track record from its breast cancer test.

About 240,000 men in the U.S. are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, and about half are classified as low risk using current methods. Doctors now base risk estimates on factors such as a man's age and how aggressive cells look from biopsies that give 12 to 14 tissue samples. But tumors often are spread out and vary from one spot to the other.

"Unless you can be sure your biopsy has hit the most aggressive part that's in the prostate, you can't be sure" how accurate your risk estimate is, explained Dr. Eric Klein, chief of urology at the Cleveland Clinic,who led early development of the Oncotype prostate cancer test.

For one study, researchers used prostates removed from 440 men. They measured the activity of hundreds of genes thought to be involved in whether the cancer spread beyond the prostate or proved fatal. A second study of biopsies from 167 patients narrowed it down to 81 genes, and researchers picked 17 that seemed to predict aggressiveness no matter the location in the tumor.

A third study used single needle-biopsy samples from 395 UCSF patients scheduled to have their prostates removed. The gene test accurately predicted the aggressiveness of their cancer once doctors were able to see the whole prostate after surgery.

Using one current method, 37 of the 395 men would have been called very low risk and good candidates for monitoring. Adding the gene test put 100 men into that category, said another study leader, Dr. Matthew Cooperberg of UCSF.The gene test shifted about half of the men into either a lower or a higher risk category.

"It went both ways that was the remarkable thing. In any category of risk it added independent information compared to the standard criteria we use today," Carroll said. "More work needs to be done, but, in my opinion, this is a very good start."

However, Dr. Kevin McVary, chairman of urology at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and a spokesman for the Urological Association, said the test must be validated in more men before it can be widely used.

"It's not there yet," he said.

UCSF just got a federal grant to see how men choose treatments and whether this test might sway them.

"We throw all these numbers at them. Are they really going to make a better decision?" Cooperberg said.

Dean Smith, 60, a retired marketing executive from Mill Valley, Calif., is following his doctor's advice to monitor the cancer he was diagnosed with in March. He said a gene test may have made him more comfortable with that decision.

At least six of his friends suffered side effects ranging from urinary leakage to inability to have sex after having their prostates removed.

"I would suspect that having cancer and having to live with it would be very difficult for them," but it doesn't bother him, Smith said. "I will die from something other than prostate cancer, I guarantee you."

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

But before all of the youngsters could get there, the tornado alarm sounded.

The plan changed quickly.

"All the teachers started screaming into the room and saying, 'Get into the hallway! We don't want you to die!' and stuff like that," said sixth-grader Phaedra Dunn. "We just took off running."

In the moments that followed, some of the children at Plaza Towers Elementary would, in fact, die. At least seven were killed by the twister Monday afternoon. Others would crawl out of the rubble, bloodied and bruised, utterly terrified.

The tornado that devastated this Oklahoma City suburb of 56,000 people destroyed Plaza Towers and also slammed Briarwood Elementary, where all the children appear to have survived. Students and parents recounted stories Tuesday of brave teachers who sheltered their pupils, in some cases by herding them into a closet and a restroom amid the fear and panic.

After the tornado alarm went off, students at Plaza Towers scrambled into the halls. But the halls some of which were within the view of windows did not appear safe enough.

Sixth-grader Antonio Clark said a teacher took him and as many other youngsters as possible and shoved them into the three-stall boys' bathroom.

"We were all piled in on each other," the 12-year-old said. Another teacher wrapped her arms around two students and held Antonio's hand.

Twenty seconds later he heard a roar that sounded like a stampede of elephants. His ears popped.

Then it all stopped almost as suddenly as it started. Crouched down, his backpack over his head, Antonio looked up. The skylight and the ceiling were gone, and he was staring up into a cloud filled with debris.

Antonio and a friend were among the first to stand up. They climbed over debris where their classroom had been just moments earlier. Students and teachers were struggling to free themselves from under the bricks, wooden beams and insulation. Some people had bleeding head wounds; blood covered one side of someone's eyeglasses, Antonio said.

"Everybody was crying," Antonio said. "I was crying because I didn't know if my family was OK."

Then Antonio saw his father ride up on a mountain bike, yelling his son's name.

Phaedra survived, too. Her mother rushed to the school just moments before the tornado hit, covered Phaedra's head with a blanket to protect her from hail and ushered her out the door. Phaedra's 10-year-old sister, Jenna, didn't want to budge from the school.

The principal "grabbed her backpack, put it over her head and literally said, 'You're mom's going to open the door. Get out. You're safer with your mom,' and pushed her out the door," said Amy Sharp, the girls' mother.

At Briarwood Elementary, the students also went into the halls. But a third-grade teacher didn't think it looked safe, so she herded some of the children into a closet, said David Wheeler, one of the fathers who tried to rush to the school after the tornado hit.

The teacher shielded Wheeler's 8-year-old son, Gabriel, with her arms and held him down as the tornado collapsed the school roof and starting lifting students upward with a pull so strong that it literally sucked glasses off kids' faces, Wheeler said.

"She saved their lives by putting them in a closet and holding their heads down," Wheeler said.

Gabriel and the teacher whom Wheeler identified as Julie Simon had to dig their way out of the rubble. The boy's back was cut and bruised and gravel was embedded in his head, Wheeler said. It took nearly three hours for father and son to be reunited.

Other parents waited even longer, as they drove from one emergency shelter to another in search of their children.

At St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 15-year-old Caitlin Ulrey waited about seven hours before her parents found her. Her high school had not been hit by the tornado. But her nerves were frayed.

"I was starting to panic and shake and have an anxiety attack," Caitlin said.

At Plaza Towers, several students were pulled alive from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. Parents carried dazed and terrified children in their arms to a triage center in the parking lot.

Hundreds of Oklahoma schools have reinforced tornado shelters, but not the two that were hit on Monday.

Albert Ashwood, director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, said it is up to each jurisdiction to set priorities for which schools get funding for safe rooms. But he said a shelter would not necessarily have saved more lives at Plaza Towers. The tornado was an EF5 twister, the most powerful type, with winds of at least 200 mph.

"When you talk about any kind of safety measures ... it's a mitigating measure, it's not an absolute," Ashwood said. "There's not a guarantee that everyone will be totally safe."

Moore School Superintendent Susan Pierce said teachers and administrators put their well-rehearsed crisis plan into action as the tornado approached. But she suggested there are limits to what people can do in the face of such a powerful storm.

"Safety is our main priority," Pierce said. "We monitored the weather throughout the day and when it was time to shelter, we did just that."

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Associated Press writers Ramit Plushnick-Masti and Sean Murphy contributed to this report.

(Logo: )

Recall Summary

Name of product: High-Pressure Scuba Diving Air Hoses

Hazard: The diving hose that connects the regulator to the tank's pressure gauge can leak, posing a drowning hazard to the user.

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the hoses and contact Trident Diving Equipment for a free replacement hose.

Consumer Contact: Trident Diving Equipment at (800) 234-3483, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or e-mailor online at , then click on "Smooth High Pressure Hose Safety Recall" for more information.

Photos are available at

Recall Details

Units: About 200

Description: The recalled air hoses are high-pressure scuba air hoses with a black, smooth rubber outer covering. They are about five millimeters in diameter and 32 or 36 inches long. These hoses connect the regulator to the tank pressure gauge. The phrase "Scuba Diving High Pressure hose I.D. 3/16 (4.76 mm) W.P. 5000 PSI Exceeds SAE 100RT braid with Kevlar fiber from Dupont" is printed in white lettering on the hose's outer covering. The hoses have metal fittings on each end one female fitting and one male fitting. "CE EN 250 230" is stamped on the female fitting and one of the following production date codes is on the male hex head fitting: T1011, T1111 or T0312.

Incidents/Injuries: Trident has received one report of a hose leaking. No injuries have been reported.

Sold at: Scuba diving retailers nationwide from November 2011 through June 2012 for about $35.

Importer: Trident Diving Equipment, of Chatsworth, Calif.

Manufactured in: Taiwan

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

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

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

SOURCE U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

The game was seen by an estimated 23.4 million people, the Nielsen company said. That was a bigger audience than the last two men's championship games, and just slightly less than the 23.9 million who watched Duke beat Butler in 2010.

Only two scripted series finished in Nielsen's top 10 programs last week, Nielsen said. They were CBS' Tuesday night mainstays, "NCIS" and its spinoff, "NCIS: Los Angeles,"

For the week, CBS led with an average of 10.8 million viewers (6.9 rating, 11 share). Fox had 6.1 million (3.7, 6), ABC had 5.9 million (3.9, 6), NBC had 5.1 million (3.3, 5), ION Television had 1.2 million (0.8, 1) and the CW had 940,000 (0.6, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with an average of 3.7 million viewers (2.0, 3), Telemundo had 1.4 million (0.7, 1), UniMas had 520,000 (0.3, 0), Estrella had 180,000 (0.1, 0) and Azteca had 80,000 (0.0, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.3 million viewers (5.6, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.5 million (5.1, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.2 million viewers (4.2, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of April 8-14, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Louisville vs Michigan, CBS, 23.43 million; "NCIS," CBS, 17.22 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 14.1 million; "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 14.03 million; "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 13.31 million; "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 13.19 million;"Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 13.15 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.62 million. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 12.23 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 12.13 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. UniMas is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com

"If there is no basis to the , then how do you explain the suns alignment with the center of our galaxy that is predicted to occur on Dec. 21?"

Putting as earnest a look on my face as possible, I replied, "Youre absolutely correct the sun will indeed be aligned with the center of our galaxy on Dec. 21." I then quickly added, "But of course that happens every year on Dec. 21." []

The look on my inquisitors face was priceless. "Really? But how can that be?"

The sun's annual path

As the Earth moves around the sun, we see the sun change its position against the background stars a full 360-degree circle around the sky during the course of a year. That apparent path is known to astronomers asout toward the sky.

As it turns out, the moon and the seven other planets that comprise thealso move in orbits whose planes dont vary too greatly from that of Earths orbit. As a result, the moon and the other planets also appear to stay relatively close to the ecliptic.

The sun never deviates from the ecliptic and so as Earth travels around it, from our perspective, it will always take the exact same path against the same background stars every year.

Since when were looking towardwere also looking toward the center of the Milky Way, when the sun reaches that same point on the ecliptic in Sagittarius on Dec. 21 every year, the sun and the galaxys center are indeed aligned.

The ecliptic is a very important feature because it marks "the pathway," so to speak, for the sun, moon and planets as they move across the sky. Most sky charts plot the position of the ecliptic for this reason, for it provides sky watchers with a clue as to where one or more of these objects will appear.

Because theyre not located exactly in the same orbital plane as Earth, the moon and planets usually are not found exactly on the ecliptic line, but rather within several degrees of it. Thus, instead of a line, we find the moon and planets wandering along the sky within a band that encompasses the entire sky, which we call the zodiac.

The ecliptic runs exactly along the middle of that zodiacal band.

The 'classic 12'

The word "zodiac" is derived from the Greek, meaning "animal circle." A sort of "celestial zoo."

And with the sole exception of one of the "classic 12"that belong to the zodiac, all of the zodiac members refer to living things. Many of these constellations are named for animals, such as Leo, the Lion, Taurus, the Bull and Cancer, the Crab, just to name a few.

The sole inanimate member is Libra, the Scales.

All of these names can be readily identified on sky charts and are familiar to millions of horoscope users (who ironically would be hard pressed to find them in the actual sky.) []

If we could see the stars in the daytime, we would see the sun slowly wander from one constellation of the zodiac to the next, making one complete circle around the sky in one year.

Ancient astrologers were able to figure out where the sun was on the zodiac by noting the last zodiacal constellation to rise ahead of the sun, or the first to set after it. Obviously, the sun had to be somewhere in between.

Each month a specific constellation was conferred the title, "house of the sun," and in this manner each month-long period of the year was given its "sign of the zodiac."

Some discrepancies

A couple of years ago, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society caused quite a stir when he pointed out that the zodiacal sign that had been assigned for a given month in the newspaper horoscope is not where the sun actually is for that month.

He pointed out that, in reality, todays astrologers continue to adhere toby at least a millennium. For instance, according to astrology, youre a Leo if you were born between July 23 and Aug. 22 because thats the time of year where the sun supposedly is in the zodiac.

That might have been true 1,000 years ago, but no longer. In fact, on July 23, the sun is not in Leo, but in Cancer. This discrepancy is due to the "wobble" of the Earths axis (known as precession).

As a consequence, there then came the revelation (even though it has been known by astronomers for a long time) that astrologers continue to adhere to star positions that for all intents and purposes are out of date by 10 centuries or more.

Outcasts of the zodiac

One thing that I have never been able to understand is why astrologers fail to recognize Ophiuchus, the serpent holder. He certainly should be considered as a card-carrying member of the zodiacal fraternity since the sun spends more time traversing through Ophiuchus than .

It officially resides in Scorpius for less than a week: from Nov. 23 to 29. It then moves into Ophiuchus on Nov. 30 and remains within its boundaries for more than two weeks until Dec. 17. And yet, the serpent holder is not considered a member of the Zodiac.

In addition, because theand planets are often positioned either just to the north or south of the ecliptic, they sometimes appear within the boundaries of several other non-zodiacal star patterns.

The revered Belgian astronomical calculator Jean Meeus has pointed out that there are actually 22 zodiacal constellations in which the moon and some of the planets from Mercury to Neptune can occasionally enter.

In addition to the 12 classical zodiacal signs and , we can also add: Auriga, the charioteer; Cetus, the whale; Corvus, the crow; Crater, the cup; Hydra, the water snake; Orion, the hunter; Pegasus, the flying horse; Scutum, the shield; and Sextans, the sextant.

And in case youre interested, in the upcoming month, the moon will be in Orion on May 13, Sextans on May 19 and Ophiuchus on May 26.

I guess you can say that so far as the celestial zoo is concerned, these three constellations are on the outside of the cage looking in.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for the New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow us on , and . Original article on .

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The new H7N9 bird flu virus can be transmitted between mammals not only via direct contact but also in airborne droplets, and may be capable of spreading from person to person, Chinese and American researchers have found.

A study published in the journal Science and presented at a briefing in Hong Kong on Friday found that three ferrets - an animal often used for research on flu - that were in the same cage as ferrets infected with H7N9 had contracted the disease.

One of three ferrets kept in separate cages nearby also became infected, through airborne exposure.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said it has no evidence of "sustained human to human transmission" of the virus, which has killed 36 people in China.

"The findings suggest that the possibility of this virus evolving further to form the basis of a future pandemic threat cannot be excluded," said the research team, led by bird flu expert and microbiologist Yi Guan.

The virus can also infect pigs, but could not be transmitted from pig to pig or from pigs to other animals, the study showed, although the team urged authorities to maintain surveillance to check whether the virus was mutating.

The WHO said the findings were useful but warned that people "have to be very careful about what's going onthe ground".

"Studies like that are really helpful for increasing general knowledge and it's really helpful to know that, under lab conditions, this thing could transfer from person to person," WHO chief spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.

"We've already seen maybe a few limited instances of human to human transmission within close family range, within close contacts, so this is another piece of the puzzle," he said.

The findings come just days after the WHO said the H7N9 virus appeared to have been brought under control in China thanks to restrictions at bird markets.

H7N9 has relatively mild clinical signs in ferrets, according to the study. All the animals infected with the virus in the experiments presented symptoms for no more than seven days and all recovered from the disease.

The researchers said that all cases where humans had died or become extremely ill had involved additional factors.

The team also found that some infected animals did not develop fever or other clinical signs, suggesting that asymptomatic infections among humans may also be possible.

"The potential public health implication of this ... is that a person infected by H7N9 avian influenza virus who does not show symptoms could nevertheless spread the virus to others," the researchers wrote in their study.

United Nations experts said this week the bird flu outbreak in China had caused some $6.5 billion in losses to the economy.

The H7N9 virus is known to have infected 131 people in mainland China and one in Taiwan since February, but no new cases have been detected since early May.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London, Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing and Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Ron Popeski and Sonya Hepinstall)

European Tour CEO George O'Grady said Thursday that "most of Sergio's friends are colored athletes in the United States."

O'Grady now says he regrets "using an inappropriate word in a live interview" with Sky Sports, adding "I unreservedly apologize."

The word "colored" was once widely used in the United States to refer to African-Americans but it is now considered antiquated and offensive. In some African countries, it is used to denote individuals of mixed racial ancestry.

Woods and Garcia have exchanged barbs over the past two weeks, but the spat took an uglier turn this week when Garcia made his own racially insensitive comment. He told a questioner he would invite Woods over for dinner during the U.S. Open and serve fried chicken. Garcia has since apologized.