Today on New Scientist: 11 December 2012

Out-of-season's greetings from the Arctic frost flowers

Season's regards from an icy meadow in the Arctic, but it's no winter wonderland and please don't dash out into it

How hacking a mosquito's heart could eradicate malaria

Watch how a double-pronged trick helps mosquitoes remain healthy while carrying disease, a process that could be exploited to eliminate malaria

New drug lifts hard-to-treat depression in hours

A new class of drugs that changes the way neurons interact in the brain can rapidly lift people out of depression

E. O. Wilson and poet laureate on altruism and mystery

Leading evolutionary biologist E. O. Wilson and former US poet laureate Robert Hass discuss free will, wilderness and the mysterious origin of the arts

Souped-up immune cells force leukaemia into remission

Genetically engineered white blood cells have been shown to have a strong impact on leukaemia after just three months

War of words: The language paradox explained

If language evolved for communication, how come most people can't understand what most other people are saying?

AC/DC's Highway to Hell sent via a drone's laser beam

A dose of rock music proves that a drone's reconnaisance data can be sent via reflected laser beam instead of radio

'Biology is a manufacturing capability'

Soon we'll be able to engineer living things with mechanical precision, says Tom Knight, father of synthetic biology

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Football: Anti-racism body slams "weak" FA, Premier League

LONDON: The chairman of an anti-racism group has accused England's Football Association and the top-flight Premier League of lacking morality and leadership over their handling of recent racism cases.

Herman Ouseley, who heads the Kick It Out organisation, also rebuked Chelsea and Liverpool over the racism incidents involving their players John Terry and Luis Suarez, saying they failed to take a stand against unacceptable behaviour.

"There is very little morality in football among the top clubs," Ouseley, a lawmaker in Britain's upper chamber of parliament, said in an interview with The Guardian newspaper published on Tuesday.

"Leadership is so important; you have to send a powerful message that racism is completely unacceptable. But there is a moral vacuum.

"The big clubs look after their players as assets. There was no bold attitude from them, to say that they would not put up with it."

Terry served a four-game ban earlier this season after being found guilty of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers' Anton Ferdinand by the FA, while Suarez was hit with an eight-match suspension for a similar offence last season.

Despite the punishments dealt out to the two players, Ouseley said the football authorities should have been more outspoken in their criticism.

"The condemnations have been mealy-mouthed," the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality said.

"We want all players and fans to feel confident about reporting abuse. But the FA did not say anything about the lies and distortions which came out in John Terry's and Ashley Cole's evidence. Instead the players are protected.

"The Premier League could have set the tone; they and the FA do a good job in community work. But on this, I have not heard anything from the Premier League."

Ouseley also chastised the former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish and ex-Chelsea coach Andre Villas-Boas for giving too much support to Suarez and Terry during their respective cases.

"We were observing the process but the managers were speaking out and sticking up for Luis Suarez and John Terry," Ouseley added.

"The FA should have asserted themselves, said they would not put up with people disrespecting the process, but the FA were very slack and weak."

Responding to Ouseley's criticism, Heather Rabbatts, the FA's independent director, admitted the game's authorities must show greater determination to completely stamp out the evil of racism.

Rabbatts, appointed as an independent board member earlier this year and a potential candidate to be the next FA chairman, believes Ouseley has raised important issues that must not be swept under the carpet.

"The issues that Herman Ouseley is raising are hugely important issues for the whole game and it has to respond to these challenges," she said.

"There are a number of members from different parts of the game being consulted and we all have to rise to the current challenge.

"Despite the huge progress that has been made in tackling discrimination there is a need for renewed energy."

English football has been hit by a spate of incidents of racial abuse this year, with a succession of players allegedly targeted by fans both at grounds and on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Chelsea also had a claim of racial abuse against referee Mark Clattenburg dismissed by the FA over a lack of evidence.

Meanwhile, the Professional Footballers' Association has (PFA) announced plans for players and coaches to receive "cultural lessons" to improve awareness of the rules regarding discrimination.

"Up until now we have had cultural awareness courses for our apprentices and the plan now is to extend these to senior players and coaches, including those coming from overseas," said PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor.

"We want to make sure there is no misunderstanding with regards to the rules and regulations on discrimination."

-AFP/ac

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Angry with Obama, GOP regroups for next political war

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Republican leaders call for President Obama to detail his proposed spending cuts


• Sen. Graham: "We're not going to raise the debt ceiling" without deficit reduction


• Obama says don't make the nation's credit standing a political issue


• Polls show most Americans back the president on raising taxes on the rich

Washington (CNN) -- They are losing the battle over higher taxes on the wealthy, so now Republicans are threatening a political war next year when it comes time to raise the nation's debt ceiling.

With cracks appearing in their anti-tax facade and polls showing most Americans favoring President Barack Obama's stance in fiscal cliff negotiations, GOP legislators are starting to advocate a tactical retreat to fight another day.

Conservative Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, promised the newly re-elected Obama a "rude awakening" next year if the president forces through his plan for high-income earners to pay more taxes without agreeing to substantive steps to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt.

"In February or March, you have to raise the debt ceiling," Graham noted Monday on Fox News. "And I can tell you this: there's a hardening on the Republican side. We're not going to raise the debt ceiling. We're not going to let Obama borrow any more money or any American Congress any more money until we fix this country from becoming Greece."

Survey: 70% want compromise

Meanwhile, the top congressional Republicans called Tuesday for Obama to make public the specific spending cuts he will offer in a deficit reduction deal.

Both House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complained that Obama was deliberately holding up progress in negotiations by refusing to provide details of his cost-savings plans.

"Where are the president's spending cuts?" asked Boehner, R-Ohio, the lead GOP negotiator. "The longer the White House slow-walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff."

In response, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi noted Congress had passed more than $1 trillion in spending cuts in the past two years that Obama signed into law.

"Where are the cuts? They're in bills that you, Mr. Speaker, have voted for," Pelosi said.

Three weeks remain to cut a deal before the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts of the fiscal cliff go into effect on January 1.

Without a deal during the current lame-duck session of Congress, everyone's taxes go up and economists warn the impact of the fiscal cliff could cause another recession.

However, the administration has signaled it can delay some of the effects to allow time to work out an agreement when a new Congress convenes in January.

Obama has held a campaign-style series of public events to back his call for extending Bush-era tax cuts for 98% of Americans while allowing rates to return to higher 1990s levels on income over $250,000.

The issue was central to his re-election in November and Obama made clear on Monday that he intended to adhere to his belief that the wealthy must contribute more.

"I'm willing to compromise a little bit," Obama said at a Michigan diesel engine plant. However, he said higher tax rates on the the top income brackets was "a principle I'm not going to compromise on."

The president's public push appears to be working as polls show most Americans back the president's position.

A new Politico/George Washington University survey on Monday said 60% of respondents supported Obama's proposal compared to 38% who opposed it, the latest of four surveys in the past two weeks showing public backing.

On Tuesday, a Gallup poll showed that 70% of adult Americans want Congress and the White House to reach a compromise that would avoid the fiscal cliff. A similar Gallup poll last week said 62% wanted compromise.

The deficit reduction debate hinges on the tax issue, with Republicans opposing any increase in tax rates in their quest to shrink government while Obama and Democrats want to secure more tax revenue as part of a broader package.

Both sides call for eliminating tax deductions and loopholes to raise more revenue, but Obama also demands an end to the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for the top brackets.

Republicans oppose the return to higher rates, saying it will inhibit job growth because small business owners declare their profits as personal income and therefore would face a tax increase.

In response, Obama and Democrats note that their plan -- already approved by the Senate and needing only House approval to be signed into law by the president -- affects just 2% of taxpayers and 3% of small business owners.

While Republicans argue those small business owners account for about half of all business income, Democrats say that's because they include law firms, hedge funds traders and other high-income operations.

Obama and Boehner met face-to-face on Sunday for the first time since November 16. It also was their first one-on-one meeting in more than a year, when deficit talks broke down.

The outline for a deal has become clear in recent weeks. Both sides agree that more revenue from taxes should be part of the equation, with Obama seeking $1.6 trillion and Republicans offering $800 billion.

A source close to the talks said Tuesday that the White House had floated the idea of dropping the revenue target to $1.2 trillion, then went up to $1.4 trillion on Monday.

Boehner's side wants additional revenue to come from tax reform, such as eliminating some deductions and loopholes, while Obama demands the higher rates on income over $250,000 for families as part of the equation.

Republicans also seek savings from entitlement programs totaling another $800 billion or so, while Obama has proposed $400 billion in reduced entitlement costs. Social Security would not be included in the president's plan.

Another sticky issue -- whether the need to raise the federal debt ceiling early next year should be part of the discussion -- also remains unresolved. Obama says absolutely not, while Boehner says that any increase in the federal borrowing limit must be offset by spending cuts.

Graham's comments Monday showed that Republicans plan to regroup around negotiations to raise the debt ceiling, which allows the government to borrow more money to pay its bills.

He noted that Obama proposed making permanent a process originated by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that would allow the president to increase the debt ceiling and Congress to then try to block it -- an unlikely scenario given Democratic control of the Senate.

"That's going nowhere," Graham said, adding: "He's not king. He's president."

However, a top House Democrat said that exploiting the debt ceiling for political gain would backfire on Republicans.

"Threatening to tank the entire economy, which is what would happen if we ever defaulted on our debt, is not a kind of negotiating strategy that is going to be popular with the American people," Rep. Chris Van Hollen told MSNBC on Monday.

It remains unclear if a deal will happen before the end of the year or if the negotiations will carry over into 2013, after the fiscal cliff takes effect.

Without action now on the fiscal cliff, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that middle-class families would pay about $2,000 a year more in taxes. Even with a deal, revisions in the tax code and other changes would mean everyone pays a bit more starting next year.

All signs point toward a two-step approach sought by Obama, with initial agreement now on some version of his tax plan with targets set for comprehensive negotiations on a broader deficit reduction deal in the new Congress next year.

Such an outcome would put off the main worry of the fiscal cliff -- expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts that would result in higher rates for everyone.

Obama and Democrats say they would then be ready to negotiate significant savings from entitlement programs, while Republicans say they need to first see commitment on entitlement reforms before accepting any higher tax rates.

McConnell, R-Kentucky, warned on the Senate floor on Tuesday that "until the president gets specific about cuts, nobody should trust Democrats to put a dime in new revenue toward real deficit reduction or to stop their shakedown of the taxpayers at the top 2%."

He and Boehner want Obama to take some of the political heat for proposing cuts to entitlement programs and other government spending.

On Tuesday, congressional Democrats rejected any cuts to the Medicaid health care system for poor and disabled Americans as part of a fiscal cliff deal. The opposition by Democrats showed the pressure Obama faces from his liberal base to avoid significant changes to the entitlement program that benefits millions.

Pelosi, however, argued that spending cuts agreed to by Congress in the past two years should be counted toward deficit reduction in the current negotiations.

The California Democrat argued those cuts showed Obama's commitment to what the president calls a balanced approach of increasing revenue and cutting costs.

Some in Congress warn that the legislative process will need at least a week to work through potentially complex measures from any proposed deal, meaning a de facto deadline of Christmas Day at the very latest exists for negotiators.

CNN's Dana Bash and Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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Venezuela: Hugo Chavez being prepped for surgery

Updated at 1:23 p.m. ET

CARACAS, Venezuela Venezuela's government says President Hugo Chavez is going through "pre-operative" steps for cancer surgery in Cuba.

According to the statement, Chavez was being prepared to undergo surgery in Havana Tuesday, CBS News' Portia Siegelbaum reports.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas read the announcement on television.

In the statement, the government also urged Venezuelans to pray.

Venezuela released the statement on Tuesday after Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said Chavez was undergoing the operation "at this moment."

"At this time he's passing through one of the hardest moments of his life. Our heart and our solidarity go out to a historic president," Correa said at an event in the Ecuadorean city of Tulcan.

Correa, a close ally of the Venezuelan leader, traveled to Cuba on Monday and met with Chavez.

Chavez announced on Saturday that he needed to undergo a third cancer-related surgery in about a year and a half after tests showed that "some malignant cells" had reappeared in the same area where tumors were previously removed.

Chavez also said for the first time that if his illness cuts short his presidency, Vice President Nicolas Maduro should take his place and should be elected president to lead his leftist movement.

The operation aims to remove cancerous tissue from Chavez's pelvic area. An initial surgery for a pelvic abscess in June 2011 helped reveal he had cancer.

Chavez has also undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

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Video of Columbus Circle Killer Released

The hunt for New York's Columbus Circle killer took on a new impetus today as police released surveillance video showing the killer moments before he calmly walked up to Brandon Lincoln Woodard and put one bullet from a silver colored handgun into the back of the Los Angeles man's head in full view of holiday shoppers.

The video confirms the details of the hit man's calculated wait for his victim as first reported on ABCNews.com on Monday.

"In the video, the gunman wanted in the shooting death yesterday of Brandon Lincoln Woodard, 31, of Los Angeles, is seen 10 minutes before the shooting," Deputy Commissioner for Public Information Paul Browne said in a statement today.

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Woodard, who is described by police as linked to the hip hop part of the Los Angeles entertainment industry, was strolling down 58th Street near the southern end of Central Park when he was gunned down.

"The shooter, who appears to be bald and may have a beard, exited a late model Lincoln sedan, initially bare-headed, but soon pulled the hood of his jacket over his head. Ten minutes later, at approximately 2 p.m., the shooter walked up behind Woodard and fired," Browne said.

In a grainy still image also released, the gunman is seen behind Woodard a moment before the shooting, pulling the weapon from his jacket.

Just before he was shot, Woodard turned "instinctively almost," then turned back to his portable electronic device, police told ABC News.

Sources tell ABC News that Woodard was arrested in 2009 in connection with a robbery in California.

Woodard was raised in Los Angeles' Ladera Heights neighborhood and attended the private Campbell Hall High School, they said. He attended college and law school at Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles, law enforcement sources and friends said.

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Doha summit launches climate damage aid

The latest summit to stop climate change, held in Doha, Qatar, over the past two weeks has been roundly slammed. Little was agreed to curb greenhouse gas emissions and the latest modelling, carried out by the Climate Action Tracker consortium shows global averages temperatures are still set to rise by at least 3 °C above pre-industrial levels.

There was one breakthrough: developing countries won a promise from developed ones that they would compensate them for losses and damage caused by climate change. The deal offers the promise of large amounts of climate aid. But first, science will have to catch up with politics.

All countries will suffer from climate change. There will be consequences even if humanity slashed its emissions and stopped temperatures rising more than 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, the stated goal of the UN negotiations. In actual fact, with emissions rising faster than ever, a 3 or 4 °C rise is likely this century.

The consequences will be manifold. Deserts will spread and lethal heatwaves become more frequent. Changes in rainfall will bring droughts, floods and storms, while rising seas will swamp low-lying areas, obliterating valuable territory. Food production will fall.

Before Doha kicked off, the charities ActionAid, CARE International and WWF released a report arguing that rich countries should compensate poor countries for such damages. Tackling the Limits to Adaptation points out that climate change will cost countries dearly, both economically and in less tangible ways such as the loss of indigenous cultures.

Two-pronged approach

So far, climate negotiations have taken a two-pronged approach to the problem. On the one hand, they have sought to create incentives or imperatives to cut emissions. On the other, they have established a pot of money for poor countries to pay for measures that will help them fend off the unavoidable consequences of climate change – such as sea walls and irrigation systems.

That, according to some, leaves a third element missing. Helping those who suffer the consequences of climate change is a moral obligation and must be part of any treaty on climate change, says Niklas Höhne of renewable energy consultancy Ecofys. The idea of climate compensation has been around since the early 1990s, when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was negotiated.

In Doha, a coalition including China, the Alliance of Small Island States and the G77 group of developing countries pushed for it to revived.

They proposed a scheme that would decide when countries had suffered climate harms, and compensate them. It would be a form of insurance, and the greatest international aid scheme ever. The idea gained momentum after Typhoon Bopha struck the Philippines last week, and that country's negotiator Naderev "Yeb" Saño broke down in tears during a speech. And, although developed nations had little incentive to agree, the conference concluded with a promise to set something up next year.

Compensation poses a fundamental challenge to climate science, which still struggles to work out if trends and events are caused by greenhouse gases or would have happened anyway. "We can't say that an individual event was caused by climate change," says Nigel Arnell of the University of Reading, UK. "What we can do is say that the chance of it happening was greater."

Systematic tests

Some climatologists are now running systematic tests to decide whether extreme weather events are caused by climate change. They run climate models with and without humanity's emissions. If the odds of a particular event are different, it suggests it was at least partially driven by emissions. By this measure, the 2003 European heatwave and 2011 Texas drought were both made more likely by human emissions.

But this science is in its infancy. We can confidently attribute large-scale trends and temperature changes, says Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. But changes in rainfall, and short-term events like hurricanes, are harder because we do not really understand them. Trenberth speculates that superstorm Sandy would not have flooded the New York subways without climate change, but says it's not possible to prove.

Arnell says that might prove unworkable. Gradual changes – such as rising sea levels, melting glaciers and ocean acidification – are easy to attribute to climate change but their consequences difficult to cost; sudden events are easy to cost but difficult to attribute.

There may be another possibility. Rather than examining individual events, climate models could predict the extra climate-related costs each country would experience, allowing regular payouts. "That would be a way round it," says Arnell. Delegates at next year's conference will have to consider these questions.

Positive step

Harjeet Singh of ActionAid in New Delhi, India, calls the Doha deal "a positive step forward". But it is only an agreement in principle: no money was committed, and even a promise to do so in the future was left out of the final text. Edward Davey, the UK's secretary of state for energy and climate change, said it was "far too early" to talk about committing money. "We aren't saying there should be compensation," he said.

Singh says the developed world would save money by cutting emissions now, rather than letting temperatures rise and then paying compensation. Small island states were keen to get an agreement on loss and damage because emissions cuts are going so slowly, making dangerous climate change almost certain. The Doha agreement is a first step towards dealing with the consequences of that failure.

On 'other business'

Aside from agreeing to make compensation available for loss and damage, the Doha summit achieved little. Nearly two decades ago, the world's governments set out to agree a binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Doha included some baby steps towards a deal in 2015, but that is not guaranteed and in any case will come too late to stop dangerous climate change. Only Lebanon and the Dominican Republic made new emissions pledges.

The talks were bogged down in rows over financing. In a deal that was separate to the adaptation fund, developed countries had promised in 2009 to deliver $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor nations prepare for climate change. Between 2009 and 2012 they allocated $10 billion a year. In Doha they refused to say how they would scale that up, simply promising to "continue" – leaving developing countries unsure if or when they would get more.

The Kyoto protocol was renewed until 2020, but its global effect is likely to be limited. Its value is partly symbolic, to show that binding agreements can be reached, and as one of many small and medium-scale projects to cut emissions.

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EU "deeply dismayed" by Israeli settlements

BRUSSELS: The EU said Monday it is "deeply dismayed" by Israel's plans for new West Bank settlements, a move which threatens to undercut peace efforts that instead should be revived.

The E1 project that calls for the construction of new settler homes on a strip of West Bank land outside Jerusalem has fueled a major diplomatic backlash, with experts warning it could wipe out hopes of establishing a viable Palestinian state.

"The European Union is deeply dismayed by and strongly opposes Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, and in particular plans to develop the E1 area," the 27 EU foreign ministers said in a statement at the end of a day-long meeting.

The E1 plan "if implemented, would seriously undermine the prospects of a negotiated resolution of the conflict" as it would question the viability of the two-state settlement central to the peace process.

On the day the bloc collected the Nobel Peace Prize, the EU "reiterates that settlements are illegal under international law and constitute an obstacle to peace," it added.

Ministers agreed that in view of recent developments, which include an unprecedented UN upgrade of the Palestinians' diplomatic status, they believed it was now time to take "bold and concrete steps towards peace."

To this end, both sides must "engage in direct and substantial negotiations without pre-conditions in order to achieve a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ending all claims."

The EU also called on the Palestinian leadership to use the UN upgrade constructively and not take steps which would "deepen the lack of trust and lead further away from a negotiated solution."

Meanwhile, Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat said Monday that the Palestinians were looking to reactivate peace talks with Israel with the aim of resolving all final status issues within six months.

Erakat told the official Voice of Palestine radio that the UN vote meant "a new stage" had been reached, convincing the Arab world that the peace process could be reconsidered.

Direct peace talks which began in September 2010 collapsed quickly in a dispute over settlements, with the Palestinians calling for a construction freeze and Israel arguing for a return to talks without such preconditions.

Before the start of talks in 2010, Israel observed a 10-month freeze on new West Bank construction but has refused repeated requests to renew it, dismissing them as an unacceptable "precondition" for talks.

The Palestinians say it is an "obligation" under international law.

-AFP/ac

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DJs 'heartbroken' and 'sorry' over prank gone wrong

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Michael Christian says he's "gutted, shattered and heartbroken"


• It's "gut-wrenching" that the prank apparently led to a nurse's suicide, Mel Greig said


• The pair says the decision to air the recorded prank call was not theirs

(CNN) -- The two Australian radio personalities who made the prank phone call to a British hospital caring for the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge made tearful apologies Monday for making the call, which may have led to the suicide of a nurse who spoke to the pair.

Mel Greig and Michael Christian, both crying at times, told two Australian television shows Monday that their thoughts are with the family of Jacintha Saldanha, the 46-year-old nurse who put the prank call through to the ward where the duchess was.

Saldanha apparently committed suicide Friday.

"I'm very sorry and saddened for the family, and I can't imagine what they've been going through," Greig said on the program "Today Tonight."

Christian described himself as "gutted, shattered and heartbroken."

"For the part we played, we're incredibly sorry," Christian said on "Today Tonight."

The pair said the idea for the call came out of a production meeting before their 2DayFM show, the idea being to capitalize on what was the hottest topic in the news, Catherine's pregnancy.

The prank has drawn public outrage, which has snowballed since the nurse's death.

"This death is on your conscience," reads one post on 2DayFM's Facebook page. Several posters accused Greig and Christian of having "blood on your hands."

But in their interviews Monday, both stressed that while they made the call to King Edward VII Hospital, they did not have a say on whether it went to air. The call was recorded and then went through a vetting process at their network, Southern Cross Austereo, before it was broadcast, they said.

"This was put through every filter that everything is put through before it makes it to air," Christian said in an interview with the program "A Current Affair."

But Christian said he did not know what that vetting process entailed.

"I'm certainly not aware of what filters it needs to pass through," he said.

"Our role is just to record and get the audio," Christian said.

Greig and Christian said they never expected the prank call to be successful.

Death casts glare on 'shock jocks'

Posing as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, the pair said they thought their bad accents would give them away and whoever answered the phone at the hospital would hang up on them.

"We wanted to be hung up on with our silly voices," Greig said.

"We assumed that we'd be hung up on, and that would be that," Christian said.

But they were put through to the duchess's ward and given some details of her medical condition.

"It was never meant to go that far. It was meant to be a silly little prank that so many people have done before," Greig said.

It was Saldanha who put the call through.

"If we played any involvement in her death, then we're very sorry for that," said Greig, who described how she found out about Saldana's apparent suicide.

"It's the worst phone call I've had in my life," she said, fighting tears.

"There's not a minute that goes by that we don't think about her family and what they must be going through, and the thought that we may have played a part in that is gut-wrenching," Greig said.

The pair have been taken off the air by their network, which has not said when they might return.

"I don't even want to think about going back on air, to be honest," Greig said.

"I'm still trying to make sense of it all," Christian said. "We're shattered. We're people, too."

Greig said she'd willingly face Saldanha's family if it would help bring them closure.

"If that's gonna make them feel better, then I'll do what I have to do," she said.

"I've thought about this a million times in my head, that I've wanted to just reach out to them and just give them a big hug and say sorry," Greig said. "I hope they're OK, I really do."

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N. Korea extends rocket launch window a week

SEOUL, South Korea North Korea on Monday extended the launch period for a controversial long-range rocket by another week, until Dec. 29, citing technical problems.

An unidentified spokesman for the North's Korean Committee of Space Technology told state media scientists found a "technical deficiency in the first-stage control engine module of the rocket." The statement didn't elaborate, but said technicians were "pushing forward" with final preparations for the launch.

North Korea is making its second attempt of the year to launch a rocket that the United Nations, Washington, Seoul and others call a cover meant to test technology for missiles that could be used to strike the United States. They have warned North Korea to cancel the launch or face a new wave of sanctions.

The North Koreans call the launch a peaceful bid to advance their space program, and a last wish of late leader Kim Jong Il, who died a year ago, on Dec. 17. North Korea is also celebrating the centennial this year of the birth of national founder Kim Il Sung, current leader Kim Jong Un's grandfather. An April launch broke apart seconds after liftoff.

The announcement of the planned rocket launch has sparked worry because of the timing: South Korea and Japan hold key elections this month, President Obama begins his second term in January, and China has just formed a new leadership.

The North had originally set up a 13-day launch window, starting Monday, but it announced early Sunday that it may delay the liftoff for unspecified reasons.

Experts in Seoul and Tokyo had speculated that technical glitches may have forced scientists to postpone the launch of the finicky three-stage rocket, its fifth attempt since 1998.

Temperatures in the border city of Sinuiju, near the launch site, dropped to 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit Monday morning, and the Korean Peninsula has been seized by early winter storms and unusually cold weather, the Korea Meteorological Administration said in Seoul.

Engineers can launch a rocket when it's snowing, but lightning, strong wind and freezing temperatures have the potential to stall liftoff, said Lee Chang-jin, an aerospace professor at Seoul's Konkuk University.

Snow covered the North's launch site last week, according to commercial satellite imagery taken by GeoEye on Dec. 4 and shared with The Associated Press by the 38 North and North Korea Tech websites. The road from the main assembly building to the launch pad showed no fresh tracks, indicating that the snowfall may have stalled the preparations.

Still, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Monday that his government would maintain vigilance. Tokyo has mobilized its military to intercept any debris from the rocket.

"At this moment, we are keeping our guard up," Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto told reporters Monday. "We have not seen any objective indication that would cause us to make any change to our preparedness."

In addition to four failed launches, North Korea has unveiled missiles designed to target U.S. soil and has tested two atomic devices in recent years. It has not yet proven to have mastered the technology for mounting a nuclear warhead to a long-range missile, however.

A successful launch would mean North Korea could develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland within two to three years, said Chong Chol-Ho, a weapons of mass destruction expert at the private Sejong Institute near Seoul.

Six-nation negotiations to offer North Korea much-needed aid in exchange for nuclear disarmament have been stalled since early 2009.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington was deeply concerned, and urged foreign ministers from NATO and Russia to demand that Pyongyang cancel its plans. Moscow joined calls on Pyongyang to reconsider.

China, North Korea's main ally and aid provider, also noted its concern, acknowledging North Korea's right to develop its space program but urging Pyongyang to harmonize the bid with restrictions, including those set by the U.N. Security Council.

International pressure and the prospect of dialogue may be a factor in the delay, analysts in Seoul said.

China must have sent a "very strong" message calling for the North to cancel the launch plans, said analyst Baek Seung-joo of the South Korean state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.

North Korea may also be holding off if the U.S., its longtime Korean War foe, actively engages Pyongyang in dialogue, said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Seoul's Dongguk University.

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Iran: We Stole All Secrets From US Drone

An Iranian military commander claimed Monday that the country has stolen all the secrets held by a high-tech American surveillance drone that crashed in Iran last year, according to Iranian news reports.

"All the intelligence in this drone has been completely decoded and extracted and we know each and every step it has taken," said Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, Commander of the Aerospace Division for the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard, according to an English-language report by Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency.

Another Iranian outlet, Press TV, reported that Hajizadeh said that data gleaned from the drone showed that it was not spying on the Iranian nuclear program – a story Hajizadeh said the Americans had spread "as an excuse for hostile practices."

The RQ-170 Sentinel drone, a classified unmanned surveillance craft produced by defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin, was on a CIA mission when it mysteriously crashed in Iranian territory last December, according to U.S. officials at the time. Days after the crash, Press TV broadcast video of what appeared to be the drone propped up but in good condition. Iranian officials said then they were going to set about analyzing the advanced aircraft.

At the time of the crash, American officials said that the drone had been operating over Afghanistan when its operators lost control, after which it floated into Iranian airspace. Iranian officials said their country's electronic warfare experts had been able to take control of the drone and bring it down -- a claim disputed by Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby, who said the drone was not taken down by "hostile activity of any kind."

READ: US Drone on CIA Mission Before Crashing Into Iran

The bat-wing shaped craft is designed to dodge enemy radar and slip unnoticed into hostile territory to gather information or support operations on the ground. It was reportedly used to keep tabs on the man believed to be Osama bin Laden during the Navy SEAL mission that took out the terror leader in Pakistan in May.

Hajizadeh also reportedly said today that a surveillance drone sent by Hezbollah to spy in Israel in October was "an old product of Iran" and featured none of the technology allegedly gleaned from the RQ-170.

Representatives from the CIA and the U.S. military did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this report.

ABC News' Luis Martinez and Martha Raddatz contributed to this report.

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