Tanker hit discarded pipe

Tanker hit discarded pipe
PHILADELPHIA -- A Greek tanker that spilled almost half a million gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River last month apparently gashed its hull on a discarded pipe protruding from the river bottom, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.
Sonar tests Saturday located the 15-foot, U-shaped pipe. Investigators found gouges on it and traces of paint that matched the ship, officials said.
The rusty pipe, made of cast iron, stuck out about three feet from the river bottom and was found about 700 feet from the water's edge, roughly the same distance from land where the Athos I began gushing oil after an uneventful trip from Venezuela.
Saving Hubble telescope
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Trying to save the famed Hubble Space Telescope with a robot would cost $2 billion with just a 50-50 chance of success, an aerospace research group is advising NASA in the coming days.
And that thumbs-down is likely to be preceded by another potentially negative finding from the National Academy of Sciences, due to report today.
Both reports could spell doom for the popular, aging Hubble, whose fans have lobbied heavily to get it repaired to prolong its life and continue its stream of stunning and revealing pictures from space.
NASA requested the reviews of the National Academy and the Aerospace Corp., a California-based nonprofit research group, in hopes that a robotic repair could be made.
An Aerospace Corp. summary provided to the academy estimates a robotic Hubble mission would cost $2 billion and would take at least five years to be ready for launch. By then there would be a less than 40 percent chance that Hubble still would be functioning.
Killer gets life sentence
PONTIAC, Mich. -- A confessed serial killer was put away for the rest of his life Tuesday after being convicted in a murder case brought by Michigan prosecutors in a desperate bid to keep him from getting out of prison less than two years from now.
Coral Eugene Watts, 51, was found guilty last month of stabbing 36-year-old Helen Dutcher to death in a Detroit suburb in 1979.
Before receiving the mandatory sentence of life without parole, Watts denied committing the crime, saying: "I never seen her before in my life. It's one murder in my life I did not do."
In 1982, Watts struck a deal with Texas prosecutors in which he received immunity for 12 killings -- 11 in Texas and one in Michigan -- and drew a 60-year sentence for burglary with intent to murder.