The minute hand of the famous Doomsday Clock has been moved to six minutes to midnight - one minute further away from human annihilation than before.

The timepiece in New York conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction, which is represented by midnight.

It is changed periodically by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists board, which includes Professor Stephen Hawking and 18 other Nobel scientists.

The US is sending up to 3,500 troops and 2,200 marines but correspondents say aid is so far only trickling in.

President Barack Obama pledged one of the biggest relief efforts in recent US history and said Haiti would "not be forgotten" in its hour of need.

Aid groups say they need food, water, medical supplies and lifting equipment.

The Red Cross estimates that up to three million people in Haiti have been affected by Tuesday's earthquake.

Quake-stunned Haitians pile bodies...

France fears everyone inside U.N. HQ dead...

Presidential Palace Collapsed in Haiti Earthquake

Map of Haiti Earthquake and Locations

Up to 3 million in need...
US Red Cross runs out of medical supplies...
VIDEO: Dog bolts from office before quake tremors strike building... 

The minute hand of the famous Doomsday Clock will be moved at 3pm tomorrow afternoon, for the first time in two years.

The timepiece in New York conveys how close humanity is to catastrophic destruction, which is represented by midnight.

It was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947, two years after the U.S dropped the first atomic bombs on Japan in World War II. It was originally set at seven minutes to midnight.

The clock has been altered 18 times since then by the Bulletin's scientific board. This now includes Professor Stephen Hawking and 18 other Nobel laureates.

The latest recorded time was two minutes to midnight in 1953 as the Cold War heated up between the U.S and Soviet Union.

It will miss us, and if it did hit us, it wouldn't do any damage anyway, but I managed to pick up on some chatter between planetary scientists and found out that the "asteroid," or whatever it is, gives us a new standard: A 10-meter-wide (33-foot-wide) asteroid can be detected two days before it potentially hits Earth. A pretty useful warning, if you ask me.

Expert astronomers will be able to observe it shining with a brightness of a 14th-magnitude star (the approximate brightness of Pluto's weak glow as seen from Earth) as it dashes through the constellations of Orion, Taurus, and Pisces. (Further details about the orbit of 2010 AL30 can be found on NASA's Solar System Dynamics Web site).

NEW YORK CITY - NEWS ADVISORY - January 14, 2010 - The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) will move the minute hand of its famous "Doomsday Clock " at 10 a.m. EST/1500 GMT on January 14, 2010 in New York City. For the first time ever, the event will be opened up to the general public via a live Web feed at http://www.TurnBackTheClock.org.

The last time the Doomsday Clock minute hand moved was in January 2007, when the Clock's minute hand was pushed forward by two minutes from seven to five minutes before midnight.

The precise time to be shown on the updated Doomsday Clock will not be announced until the live news conference in New York City takes place on January 14, 2010. Factors influencing the latest Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.

Britain's big freeze is the start of a worldwide trend towards colder weather that seriously challenges global warming theories, eminent scientists claimed yesterday.

The world has entered a 'cold mode' which is likely to bring a global dip in temperatures which will last for 20 to 30 years, they say.

Summers and winters will all be cooler than in recent years, and the changes will mean that global warming will be 'paused' or even reversed, it was claimed.

 

"This is the first evidence of a new type of supernova remnant -- one that was heated right after the explosion," said Hiroya Yamaguchi at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan.

A supernova remnant usually cools quickly due to rapid expansion following the explosion. Then, as it sweeps up tenuous interstellar gas over thousands of years, the remnant gradually heats up again.

Power was mostly restored and phones were working again Sunday in Humboldt County, where residents were cleaning up and checking for structural damage in the aftermath of the 6.5 earthquake that hit late Saturday afternoon.

A mall in Eureka likely will remain closed for a few days so crews can clean up broken glass and water damage from activated sprinklers. But injuries were minor, according to hospital officials. Transportation authorities said Sunday there were no accidents or significant bridge damage attributed to the quake.

The temblor was centered in the Pacific about 22 miles west of Ferndale. It was felt in towns more than 300 miles south into central California and as far north as central Oregon, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Ferndale is about 240 miles north of San Francisco.

Dozens of people suffered minor injuries and thousands lost power.

In short, temperature differences in the space around the sun, 4.6 billion years ago, caused Earth to migrate outward as much as gravity was trying to pull it inward, and so the fledgling world found equilibrium in what we now know to be a very habitable orbit.

Planets like the Earth are thought to form from condensing clouds of gas and dust surrounding stars. The material in these disks gradually clumps together, eventually forming planetesimals – the asteroid-sized building blocks that eventually collide to form full-fledged planets.

The sharp drop in the work force - 661,000 fewer people - showed that more of the jobless are giving up. Once people stop looking for jobs, they're no longer counted among the unemployed.

When discouraged workers and part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs are included, the so-called "underemployment" rate in December rose to 17.3 percent, from 17.2 percent in November. That's just below a revised figure of 17.4 percent in October, the highest on records dating from 1994.

Frigid weather also was gripping the South, where a rare cold snap was expected to bring snow and ice Thursday to states from South Carolina to Louisiana. Forecasters said wind chills could drop to near zero at night in some areas.

Dangerously cold wind chills were anticipated in the Midwest overnight, including as low as 35 below in eastern Nebraska, minus 45 in parts of South Dakota and negative 50 in North Dakota, according to National Weather Service warnings. (Source : YAHOO )

Britain in grip of coldest winter for 30 years

Britain remained in the grip of the coldest winter for more than 30 years today, with conditions set to feel even more icy in the coming days.

Temperatures were already on a par with the South Pole after the country suffered its coldest night of the winter so far. (Source : INDEPENDENT UK )