Amnesty International on Iran

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(CNN) -- Thirty-two planets have been discovered outside Earth's solar system through the use of a high-precision instrument installed at a Chilean telescope, an international team announced Monday.

This artist's rendering shows one of the so-called exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system.

The existence of the so-called exoplanets -- planets outside our solar system -- was announced at the European Southern Observatory/Center for Astrophysics, University of Porto conference in Porto, Portugal, according to a statement issued by the observatory.
The announcement was made by a consortium of international researchers, headed by the Geneva Observatory, who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. The device can detect slight wobbles of stars as they respond to tugs from exoplanets' gravity. That tactic, known as the radial velocity method, "has been the most prolific method in the search for exoplanets," according to the European Southern Observatory statement.

Should the West provide Iran with reactor fuel in exchange for its uranium stockpile?

FOR NOW, at least, nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West have narrowed to an issue that was not even on the agenda a month ago: Iran's possible export of most of its existing stockpile of enriched uranium to Russia and France, which would turn it into fuel for an Iranian research reactor. This is both a bad and a good development. It is bad because it diverts attention from Iran's continuing refusal to comply with U.N. resolutions ordering it to cease uranium enrichment and from its failure to accept Western proposals even for a temporary freeze. But if Iran goes through with the agreement in principle announced by the Obama administration on Oct. 1, the tangible good would be the removal from Iran of most of the known raw material it could use to make a bomb -- and a probable delay of one to two years in the West's estimates of how quickly it could produce one.

old photos of Tehran 1959

there used to be complaints of air pollution in Tehran by then, while there is no comparison with its present condition. there used to be blue sky up there.

Australia brokers Israel-Iran talks

Iran map (AAP)

Australia has achieved a diplomatic coup, encouraging Iran and Israel to the negotiating table on nuclear weapons.

• No obstacle to more nuclear talks: Iran
• Iran nuclear talks a positive step: US
• UN to inspect Iran's new nuclear plant

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Fairfax newspapers report that a meeting between Israeli and Iranian officials was brokered by Australia and took place in Cairo at a meeting of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, an expert panel assembled by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The talks led to a "very robust exchange", a source said, occurring days after Iran, a nation suspected of having nuclear weapons ambitions, revealed it had built a uranium enrichment plant.

Sources told Fairfax there were "serious discussions" between Iran and Israel, and while they did not claim a substantial breakthrough from the talks, the prospect of a nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East was discussed.

A bedroom outside? But where is toilet?!

Ten Years Later, Boy's 'Hand of Hope' Continues to Spark Debate

 The Armas Family

Samuel Armas, 9, proudly displays ribbons he's won for swimming. Backstroke is his best stroke, he said.

Samuel Armas, 9, proudly displays ribbons he's won for swimming. Backstroke is his best stroke, he said.

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Nearly 10 years after a stunning photograph of his tiny hand traveled the world, Samuel Armas has a firm grip on what "The Hand of Hope" means to him.
"When I see that picture, the first thing I think of is how special and lucky I am to have God use me that way," Samuel told FOXNews.com. "I feel very thankful that I was in that picture."
On Aug. 19, 1999, photographer Michael Clancy shot the "Fetal Hand Grasp" — his picture of a 21-week-old fetus grasping a doctor's finger during innovative surgery to correct spina bifida. Nearly four months later, on Dec. 2, Samuel Armas was "born famous."