Fireball remnants likely in California

Fireball remnants likely in California

reno, nev.

Tiny meteorites found in the Sierra foothills of northern California were part of a giant fireball that exploded over the weekend with about one-third the explosive force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II, scientists said Wednesday.

The rocks each weighed about 10 grams, said John T. Wasson, a longtime professor and expert in meteorites at UCLA’s Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

Experts say the flaming meteor, dating to the early formation of the solar system 4 billion to 5 billion years ago, was probably about the size of a minivan when it entered the Earth’s atmosphere with a loud boom early Sunday. It was seen from Sacramento, Calif., to Las Vegas and parts of northern Nevada.

Burger King makes cage-free promise

In a boost to animal-welfare activists looking to get livestock out of cramped cages, Burger King will be the first major U.S. fast-food chain to give all of its chickensSFlband pigs some room to roam.

On Wednesday, the world’s second-biggest burger chain pledged that all of its eggs and pork will come from cage-free chickens and pigs by 2017, hoping to satisfy rising consumer demand for humanely produced fare and increase its sales in the process.

Floods kill 9, cause evacuation of 11,000

port-au-prince, haiti

Heavy rains drenching the Caribbean island of Hispaniola have caused mudslides and floods that killed nine people in Haiti and forced more than 11,000 people to flee their homes in the neighboring Dominican Republic, authorities said Wednesday.

High water and heavy rain are creating problems for the nearly 500,000 people still without homes in the aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.

In the Dominican Republic, officials said there were no reports of deaths or injuries, but said about 11,150 people had been evacuated from their homes.

Facebook posts get Marine discharged

san diego

A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon’s policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active-duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.

Sgt. Gary Stein will get an other-than-honorable discharge and lose most of his benefits for violating the policies, the Corps said.

Associated Press