hOphelia downgraded to tropical storm

hOphelia downgradedto tropical storm
WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Hurricane Ophelia shirts are on sale at a shop in Avon, N.C. Ophelia kept up its teasing dance along the coast of the Carolinas on Monday, dropping slightly in strength from hurricane to tropical storm as it barely moved toward land.
Although Ophelia was centered more than 200 miles offshore, nonresidents were ordered to leave one of North Carolina's Outer Banks islands and 300 National Guard troops were sent to mustering points along the coast. School systems in five counties closed, even though the storm's eye was predicted to remain offshore until Wednesday.
Many people acknowledged they were paying closer attention to Ophelia because of the vast destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast.
NASA satellite detectsdistant exploding star
WASHINGTON -- In the equivalent of spotting a bonfire at the dawn of time, NASA's orbiting Swift satellite has detected the most distant exploding star -- a cosmic conflagration that took place a mere 500 million years after the creation of the universe.
Located 12.6 billion light years from Earth, the explosion shows that giant stars formed earlier than previously thought.
"This is the first direct evidence of very early stars," said Neil Gehrels of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. "It tells us when the dark ages of the early universe were coming to an end."
The dark ages refers to the time when the cosmos went black a few hundred million years after the Big Bang flooded the universe with light and matter. The dark ages lasted a few hundred million more years until stars began to form, relighting the universe.
Pair hijacks Colombian jet,surrenders after 5 hours
BOGOTA, Colombia -- A father in a wheelchair and his son used two grenades to hijack an airliner Monday, but peacefully surrendered five hours later after allowing the crew and passengers, including one American, to leave the plane, authorities said.
The freed hostages told reporters the elder hijacker said he was partially paralyzed by a police bullet during a drug raid some 14 years ago and had unsuccessfully sought compensation.
Sen. Carlos Moreno, who helped negotiate the standoff, said a $230,000 check was handed to the hijacker, but that the government would not honor it.
The Aires airliner, believed to be carrying 20 passengers and five crew, had departed the southern city of Florencia when the two men commandeered it, said Gen. Edgar Lesmez, the chief of the Colombian Air Force. The plane landed in Bogota, the flight's original destination, but at a military airfield next to the capital's civilian El Dorado Airport.
Hippo numbers declining
GLAND, Switzerland -- Only 887 hippos are left in Congo, once home to the world's largest population of the water-loving mammal, and they will be extinct in the African country, an international environmental group warned Monday.
Hippos are being killed by government soldiers, local militia and poachers, the World Wildlife Fund said. The meat is sold as food while teeth end up as part of the illegal ivory trade. Hippos fetch around $50 per animal.
The latest aerial survey puts the hippopotamus population in northeastern Congo's Virunga National Park down to under 1,000 animals, compared to some 29,000 in 1974. The last survey in 2003 counted 1,307.
2 journalists released
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A judge Monday ordered the release of a Haitian and an American journalist who were arrested as they covered a police search of the church of a jailed priest who is a potential presidential candidate.
Kevin Pina was reporting for a U.S. radio program and Haitian Jean Ristil was working for The Associated Press. After spending the weekend in jail, they were freed without being charged by the judge who had ordered their arrest at the church of the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste.
"I thank all the media for the formidable solidarity they showed," Pina told reporters outside the jail.
Combined dispatches