Sarai Sierra's 2 Young Boys Don't Know Mom's Dead

The two young sons of slain New York mom Sarai Sierra are under the impression that their father has gone to Turkey to bring their mother home - alive.

Sierra, whose battered body was found near a highway in Istanbul over the weekend, was the mother of two boys aged 9 and 11.

Steven Sierra, who went to Istanbul in search of his wife after she disappeared nearly two weeks ago, told his children that he was going to Turkey to bring their mom home.

"The father will be speaking to them and it's something that's going to be hard and he's going to be talking to them when he comes back," Betsy Jimenez, the mother of Sarai Sierra, said today during a family news conference.

State Representative Michael Grimm said Steven Sierra's biggest concern is telling his children that mom's not coming home.

"It's going to be the hardest thing he's ever going to have to do in his life," said Grimm, who added that the Staten Island family isn't sure when Steven Sierra will be able to bring home his wife's body.

An autopsy was completed Sunday on Sarai Sierra, 33, but results aren't expected for three months. Turkish officials however said she was killed by at least one fatal blow to her head.

A casket holding the Staten Island mother was carried through alleyways lined with spice and food stalls to a church, where the casket remained on Monday.

Turkish police hope DNA samples from 21 people being questioned in the case will be key to finding the perpetrators, the Associated Press reported, according to state run media.

Sarai Sierra's Body Found: Missing New York Mom Found in Turkey Watch Video

Body Found in Search for Missing Mother in Turkey Watch Video

Vanished Abroad: US Woman Missing in Turkey Watch Video

Earlier this week, it was also reported that Turkish police are speaking to a local man who was supposed to meet Sierra the day she disappeared, but he said she never showed.

After an intense search for Sierra that lasted nearly two weeks, her body was found Saturday near the ruins of some ancient city walls and a highway. Sierra was wearing the same outfit she was seen wearing on surveillance footage taken at a food court and on a street the day she vanished, Istanbul Police Chief Huseyin Capkin said.

Sierra's body was taken to a morgue, Capkin said, and was identified by her husband.

It did not appear she had been raped or was involved in any espionage or trafficking, Capkin said.

Betsy Jimenez said Monday that her family has many unanswered questions such as what happened to her daughter after she left her hotel room to go and take photographs of a famous bridge.

"They're still investigating so they might think it might be a robbery, but they're not sure," said Jimenez.

Sierra, who had traveled to Istanbul on Jan. 7 to practice her photography hobby, was last heard from on Jan. 21, the day she was due to board a flight home to New York City.

Dennis Jimenez, Sierra's father, told reporters Monday that he didn't want her to go on the trip.

"I didn't want her to go. But, she wanted to go because this was an opportunity for her to sightsee and pursue her photography hobby because Turkey was a land rich with culture and ancient history and she was fascinated with that," said Jimenez.

While in Istanbul, Sierra would Skype with her family and friends daily, telling them about how amazing the culture was.

Sierra's best friend Maggie Rodriguez told ABC News that she was forced to pull out of the trip at the last minute because she couldn't afford it. That's why Sierra traveled alone.

Her husband, Steven Sierra, and brother, David Jimenez, traveled to Istanbul last Sunday to meet with American and Turkish officials and push the search forward.

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Bug protects itself by turning its environment to gold

Mythical King Midas was ultimately doomed because everything he touched turned to gold. Now, the reverse has been found in bacteria that owe their survival to a natural Midas touch.

Delftia acidovorans lives in sticky biofilms that form on top of gold deposits, but exposure to dissolved gold ions can kill it. That's because although metallic gold is unreactive, the ions are toxic.

To protect itself, the bacterium has evolved a chemical that detoxifies gold ions by turning them into harmless gold nanoparticles. These accumulate safely outside the bacterial cells.

"This could have potential for gold extraction," says Nathan Magarvey of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who led the team that uncovered the bugs' protective trick. "You could use the bug, or the molecules they secrete."

He says the discovery could be used to dissolve gold out of water carrying it, or to design sensors that would identify gold-rich streams and rivers.

The protective chemical is a protein dubbed delftibactin A. The bugs secrete it into the surroundings when they sense gold ions, and it chemically changes the ions into particles of gold 25 to 50 nanometres across. The particles accumulate wherever the bugs grow, creating patches of gold.

Deep purple gold

But don't go scanning streams for golden shimmers: the nanoparticle patches do not reflect light in the same way as bigger chunks of the metal – giving them a deep purple colour.

When Magarvey deliberately snipped out the gene that makes delftibactin A, the bacteria died or struggled to survive exposure to gold chloride. Adding the protein to the petri dish rescued them.

The bacterium Magarvey investigated is one of two species that thrive on gold, both identified a decade or so ago by Frank Reith of the University of Adelaide in Australia. In 2009 Reith discovered that the other species, Cupriavidus metallidurans, survives using the slightly riskier strategy of changing gold ions into gold inside its cells.

"If delftibactin is selective for gold, it might be useful for gold recovery or as a biosensor," says Reith. "But how much dissolved gold is out there is difficult to say."

Journal reference: Nature Chemical Biology, DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.1179

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More bus drivers from China sign up as union members

SINGAPORE: NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say said there has been an increase in the number of bus drivers from China working with SMRT signing up to become union members.

Mr Lim said this in Parliament when he joined Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin in his reply to questions on the SMRT bus drivers' illegal strike last year.

Mr Lim said prior to the November 2012 incident, less than five percent of the 400 drivers from China working with SMRT were union members. As of today, about 75 percent of them have signed up to be union members.

In the case of SBS Transit, Mr Lim said they have about 600 drivers from China, and more than 90 per cent are already union members.

Overall, of the 1.2 million foreign workers in Singapore, about 100,000 of them are union members making up about 15 per cent of the union membership in Singapore.

- CNA/de

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How Oreo created the tweet that won the Super Bowl

This ad, included in a tweet from Oreo, won the Super Bowl Sunday night.

(Credit:
Oreo)

Anyone watching the Super Bowl this evening saw a great game -- and one of the greatest embarrassments in pro sports history: a power outage that halted play for a full half hour.

As the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers -- and tens of thousands inside New Orleans' Superdome and millions watching on TV -- waited, Oreo came up with an idea so brilliant and bold that it out and out won the night.

"Power out? No problem," the tweet read, along with a hastily-put together image of an ad showing an Oreo and the brilliant tag line, "You can still dunk in the dark."

The tweet caught fire, and as of this writing had been retweeted 13,734 times.

So how did the cookie company act so fast, and get so many talking -- all with minimal time available, and negligible expense?

While CNET reached out to Oreo in search of the answer, it was Buzzfeed that got the scoop. Apparently, it was the very quick thinking of the company's agency, 360i:

"We had a mission control set up at our office with the brand and 360i, and when the blackout happened, the team looked at it as an opportunity," agency president Sarah Hofstetter told BuzzFeed. "Because the brand team was there, it was easy to get approvals and get it up in minutes."

Oreo had already aired a solid TV ad with their "Cookie or Creme" spot. But they were ready to capitalize on social media as well when the lights went out.

"The big question is, what happens when everything changes, when you go off script?," Hofstetter said. "That was where it got fun."

The key? Having OREO executives in the room, and ready to pull the trigger.

Other brands, of course, took to Twitter -- and Twitter's video service, Vine -- during the blackout.

Some examples:

Calvin Klein used Vine to tempt some fans with a buff male model working out:

And Tide tried to convince people it could help them with their laundry:

All told, the Super Bowl was yet another big win for Twitter. According to the official Twitter blog, there were more than 24.1 million tweets about the game, the ads, and the halftime show. But no matter how good the game itself was, the peak of interest on Twitter came during the blackout, when there were 231,500 tweets per minute, and during Beyonce's halftime show, when 268,000 tweets per minute marked the end of her show.

As for actual football? The top moment was the kickoff for a touchdown by the Ravens' Jacoby Jones, which compelled 185,000 tweets per minute, a tad more than the 183,000 tweets per minute that came when the Ravens sealed the deal.

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. With the help of a prosthetic leg, Exantus is able to dance again. (Read about his comeback.)

Why We Love It

"This is an intimate photo, taken in the subject's most personal space as he lies asleep and vulnerable, perhaps unaware of the photographer. The dancer's prosthetic leg lies in the foreground as an unavoidable reminder of the hardships he faced in the 2010 earthquake. This image makes me want to hear more of Georges' story."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

"This image uses aesthetics and the beauty of suggestion to tell a story. We are not given all the details in the image, but it is enough to make us question and wonder."—Janna Dotschkal, associate photo editor

Published February 1, 2013

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Ravens Defeat 49ers in Historic, Unusual Super Bowl

The Baltimore Ravens emerged Super Bowl champions after one of the strangest and most incredible Super Bowl games in recent memory.

It's the second championship for the Ravens, who pulled out a 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers at the Superdome in New Orleans.

The Super Bowl is the biggest spectacle in American sports, and each year becomes the most watched television event in history. This year, Jennifer Hudson kicked things off with a touching performance of "America the Beautiful" with a choir of students from Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Alicia Keys accompanied herself on the piano for a long, jazzy rendition of the national anthem, before the coin toss which resulted in San Francisco receiving to start the first half.

Although the game looked at one point like it was going to be a completely unexpected blow-out, with the Ravens leading 28-6 at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, the 49ers got some unusual help that turned the showdown into a much more exciting battle.

About a third of the way into the 3rd quarter, right after a record-tying Ravens rushing touchdown, the power went out at the Superdome, knocking the lights and air conditioning out in the indoor stadium. The crowd of more than 71,000 strong, along with a lot of antsy players, coaches, and staff waited for 34 minutes for the power to fully come back on and the game to resume.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Super Bowl 2013: Beyonce Rocks the Halftime Show Watch Video

Super Bowl 2013: Alicia Keys Sings 'The Star-Spangled Banner' Watch Video

Super Bowl 2013: Jennifer Hudson, Sandy Hook Students Perform Watch Video

In a statement, the NFL said authorities were "investigating the cause of the power outage," and law enforcement sources told ABC News it was just an issue with the building.

That didn't stop many people on Twitter from jokingly blaming Beyonce, the energetic halftime performer who surprisingly reunited shortly with her former band Destiny's Child, for shutting down the power. After her performance, even her husband Jay-Z got in on it, tweeting "Lights out!!! Any questions??"

VIDEO: Super Bowl 2013: Beyonce Rocks the Halftime Show

The 49ers quickly followed the long delay with a touchdown, getting themselves right back into the game. Then just a few minutes later, they found themselves in the end zone again, and it appeared the power outage had flipped the momentum towards the 49ers.

With a score of 31-29 with more than 7 minutes left in the game, San Francisco looked poised to make the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, but the team, trying for its 6th title, wasn't able to overcome the Ravens lead.

Baltimore was able to run out the clock, and the game ended with a final score of 34-31. Purple and gold confetti fell as the Ravens rushed onto the field and celebrated -- with some colorful language from quarterback Joe Flacco audible on the live broadcast, who was caught saying, "f***ing awesome" on CBS' cameras.

The game was already historic thanks to the match-up for John and Jim Harbaugh, the first head coach brothers to ever face each other on football's biggest stage. It was also the final game for the future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis, who is, as of the conclusion of the game retired from football.

This is the fifth season in a row that the Ravens have made it to the playoffs, led by Coach John Harbaugh, and SB XLVII MVP Quarterback Joe Flacco. It's the team's first Lombardi trophy since 2000. Their victor tonight made them the only team left in the NFL to have never lost a Super Bowl in multiple appearances.

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Two worms, same brains – but one eats the other

IF TWO animals have identical brain cells, how different can they really be? Extremely. Two worm species have exactly the same set of neurons, but extensive rewiring allows them to lead completely different lives.

Ralf Sommer of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and colleagues compared Caenorhabditis elegans, which eats bacteria, with Pristionchus pacificus, which hunts other worms. Both have a cluster of 20 neurons to control their foregut.

Sommer found that the clusters were identical. "These species are separated by 200 to 300 million years, but have the same cells," he says. P. pacificus, however, has denser connections than C. elegans, with neural signals passing through many more cells before reaching the muscles (Cell, doi.org/kbh). This suggests that P. pacificus is performing more complex motor functions, says Detlev Arendt of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.

Arendt thinks predators were the first animals to evolve complex brains, to find and catch moving prey. He suggests their brains had flexible wiring, enabling them to swap from plant-eating to hunting.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Identical brains, but one eats the other"

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Militants free Filipinos seized with Jordanian journalist

MANILA: Islamist Abu Sayyaf militants have freed two Filipino television crew members seized along with a Jordanian journalist nearly eight months ago in the southern Philippines, police said Sunday.

Looking frail and gaunt, audio technician Roland "Buboy" Letriro and cameraman Ramil Vela walked free Saturday on Jolo island where they had been held since June last year, regional police chief Noel delos Reyes told AFP.

Delos Reyes said there was "no word" on the fate or exact whereabouts of the Jordanian journalist, Bakr Atyani, of the Dubai-based Al Arabiya network.

"Shortly after they were freed they called their families from a hotel room in Jolo," delos Reyes said. "They were then taken by authorities to the provincial hospital to be checked up."

As they lay on their hospital beds, the two tearfully recounted their ordeal in the hands of the militants in Jolo's harsh jungle terrain, according to Jolo deputy provincial police chief Roy Gabor.

"We went through so much difficulty. We didn't know whether we would make it out alive," Gabor quoted the two as saying as they were fed bread and water.

He described the pair as very emotional, and said they emerged from the jungle looking thin and with unkempt hair and beards.

"They were a bit confused. They said they were just told to leave the hostage lair," Gabor told AFP.

He said the two related that they were separated from Atyani on the fifth day of their captivity, and that they had not seen him since.

The gunmen gave them a horse because Vela could not walk due to a swollen leg, and both left the jungle hideout unescorted until they reached a highway.

They then rode a tricycle to Jolo's main port where went to a hotel and sought help, Gabor said, adding that they would soon fly back to Manila to be reunited with their families.

Delos Reyes denied a ransom was paid for their release.

The two travelled with Atyani to Jolo island in June of last year after they were locally hired in Manila by the Jordanian to film the militants.

They went missing a day after they arrived, and police subsequently said the trio were held captive by the Abu Sayyaf -- a group of self-styled militants blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks as well as other kidnappings.

The group was founded with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network to fight for an independent Islamic state, though it later degenerated into a criminal gang.

US special forces have been rotating in the southern Philippine for over a decade to train local troops in crushing Abu Sayyaf which is on Washington's list of wanted foreign terrorist organisations.

At least four other foreign hostages are believed still held in the south by Abu Sayyaf and other militant outfits -- a Dutchman, a Swiss national, an Australian and a Japanese man.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr last month welcomed news that Warren Rodwell, 54, was alive after being held hostage for more than a year, but said his prolonged captivity was a "major concern".

European birdwatchers, Dutchman Ewold Horn, 52, and Swiss national Lorenzo Vinciguerra, 47, were kidnapped in February last year. The Japanese man, Toshio Ito, was seized in July 2010.

-AFP/ac

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How Boeing's 777-300ER could help save American Airlines

American Airlines hopes its rise back to profitability and relevance can get a big jump start with the launch of all-new livery, and Boeing's 777-300ER. It is the first U.S. carrier to fly the plane, the most successful twin-engine aircraft in the world.

(Credit:
Chris Sloan/Airchive.com)

It has become the world's most-successful twin-engine airplane, but until now, no U.S. carrier has flown Boeing's 777-300ER. But with the launch on Thursday of its Dallas to Sao Paolo, Brazil flight, American Airlines has broken new ground, and is now depending on its fledgling 777-300ER fleet to re-earn its once legendary wings. And make it a lot of money.

Among the many passengers aboard the inaugural flight to Sao Paolo was Chris Sloan, an aviation writer who often flies on the most notable planes in the skies. Sloan, who previously shared his impressions of the inaugural Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial flight with CNET, has once again let us in on what it's like to be among the first people aboard a notable, world-class airplane.

As Sloan notes, the past few years have not been kind to American Airlines. The carrier has gone through bankruptcy, seats becoming unbolted, a disastrous crash, and more.

But the airline is doing its best to come back from the dead, and the launch of service aboard the 777-300ER, as well as the roll-out of all-new livery, show that American can't be counted out.

As Sloan wrote:

In an era of smaller airliners, American inaugurated the 777-300, the largest new airliner by a U.S. carrier since the last Boeing 747-400s entered service with U.S. airliners in the late 1990s. Built to handle up to 386 passengers and fly up to 7,825 nautical miles, American's 777-300ER is the first plane flown by a U.S. carrier to feature a stand-up bar since the 1970s, Sloan wrote. American flies the aircraft in a 304-passenger, four-class and six-cabin configuration.

This inaugural, flight 963, from Dallas/Ft. Worth to São Paulo, Brazil in the author's view is one of the most significant in the airline industry in years because it is about something much bigger than just the launch of a new airliner, it's about the re-birth of a proud American institution that happens to bear the name of our country - American Airlines.

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. With the help of a prosthetic leg, Exantus is able to dance again. (Read about his comeback.)

Why We Love It

"This is an intimate photo, taken in the subject's most personal space as he lies asleep and vulnerable, perhaps unaware of the photographer. The dancer's prosthetic leg lies in the foreground as an unavoidable reminder of the hardships he faced in the 2010 earthquake. This image makes me want to hear more of Georges' story."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

"This image uses aesthetics and the beauty of suggestion to tell a story. We are not given all the details in the image, but it is enough to make us question and wonder."—Janna Dotschkal, associate photo editor

Published February 1, 2013

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