Holmes blog

Pending home sales unexpectedly rise in February

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly rose in February, a trade group said on Monday, pointing to a modest pick-up in home sales.

The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in February, increased 2.1 percent to 90.8.

Economists had expected the index, which leads existing home sales by a month or two, to fall 1.0 percent after a previously reported 2.8 percent decline.

"We may not see notable gains in existing-home sales in the near term, but they're expected to rise 5 to 10 percent this year with the economic recovery, job creation and excellent affordability conditions providing confidence to buyers who have been on the sidelines," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

Compared to February last year, the index was down 8.2 percent.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)

Exploded Star's 'Stripes' Hold Clue to Cosmic Mystery

stripes" in the remains of an exploded star may help astronomers learn how some of the highest-energy particles in our galaxy reach their incredible speeds, a new study suggests.

NASA'sspacecraft detected a suprisingly regular pattern of X-rays in a well-known supernova remnant called Tycho. The new observations provide the first direct evidence that a cosmic event can rocket particles to energies 100 times higher than those achieved by Earth's most powerful accelerators, researchers said.

The find may also help scientists figure out how some of those super-speedy particles — which are known as cosmic rays, and constantly bombard Earth— are produced, they added.

"We’ve seen lots of intriguing structures in supernova remnants, but we’ve never seen stripes before," said study leader Kristoffer Eriksen of Rutgers University in a statement. "This made us think very hard about what’s happening in the blast wave of this powerful explosion." []

Staring at an exploded star

Theremnantis located in our own Milky Way galaxy, about 13,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.

It's named for the , who reported observing the supernova in 1572. The event likely occurred when a white dwarf star grew so much in mass that it eventually exploded in a so-called Type Ia supernova, researchers said.

Chandra peered at the supernova remnant for more than 200 hours back in 2009. Over these extended observations, the spacecraft picked up some strange X-ray stripes in Tycho.

These stripes provide support for a theory about how exploding starsto incredible energies, researchers said.

A supernova shock wave

When a star explodes, it creates a fast-moving shock wave that spreads through space. High-energy charged particles — such as protons and electrons — can bounce back and forth across this shock wave repeatedly, gaining energy with each crossing.

One theory predicts that, near this ever-expanding shock wave, magnetic fields become highly tangled and the motions of the charged particles extremely chaotic. This creates a messy network of X-rays, with some "holes" of little emission and some "walls" with lots of the stuff.

Researchers think Tycho's stripes are evidence that this is happening.

The stripes are likely the "walls" of theory — regions where the magnetic fields are more tangled than surrounding areas, and where particle movement is more turbulent. In these areas, protons and electrons become trapped and spiral around the magnetic field lines; the electrons emit lots of X-rays in the process, researchers said.

However, the regular and almost periodic pattern of the X-ray stripes was unexpected. It wasn't predicted by theory, researchers said.

"It was a big surprise to find such a neatly arranged set of stripes,"said co-author Jack Hughes of Rutgers. "We were not expecting so much order to appear in so much chaos. It could mean that the theory is incomplete, or that there’s something else we don’t understand."

The researchers published their results last month in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Spawning speedy cosmic rays

The stripes could also help researchers understand how some of the highest-energy cosmic rays— which are mostly protons — are spawned. []

The spacing of the X-ray stripes likely indicates proton energies about 100 times higher than those reached in Earth's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider — and they're equivalent to the highest-energy cosmic rays thought to be produced in our galaxy, researchers said.

That result also supports previous theory, as supernova remnants have long been considered a good candidate for producing the Milky Way's most energetic cosmic rays.

Protons can reach energies hundreds of times higher than the highest-energy electrons, but since they do not radiate X-rays efficiently like electrons do, direct evidence for the acceleration of cosmic ray protons in supernova remnants has been lacking, researchers said.

The new results also support the prediction that magnetic fields in interstellar space are greatly amplified in supernova remnants. The difference between the observed and predicted structures, however, means that other interpretations cannot be ruled out.

"We were excited to discover these stripes because they might allow us to directly track, for the first time, the origin of the most energetic particles produced in our galaxy,"Eriksen said. "But we’re not claiming victory yet."

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitterand on .

Jay-Z, Beyonce, Will Smith have pre-Grammy brunch

LOS ANGELES – Jay-Z laughed it up with Will Smith; Beyonce stood close to sister Solange in a DJ booth; and Charlize Theron made a late entrance.

It was an ultra-exclusive affair on Saturday as Jay-Z's RocNation and Gucci threw a pre-Grammy brunch for guests including Rihanna, Adrian Brody and Ryan Phillippe at the Soho House West, where the emphasis was on mingling and grooving to the beat.

Solange was one of the celebrity DJs at the event, entertaining the crowd while Beyonce and Solange's young son looked on.

Best new artist nominee Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine was greeted by admirers when she walked in.

Welch says she's excited about the Grammy week festivities.

Jay-Z is up for six awards at Sunday's Grammys.

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House Republicans deepen spending cuts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the House of Representatives Thursday agreed to deepen proposed federal spending cuts, resolving a split within their party that threatened their ability to unite behind a top campaign promise.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said in a statement he would cut nearly $58 billion from current spending levels, as Tea Party-aligned conservatives have sought, nearly double his original proposed cuts.

The deeper spending cut package is unlikely to become law, as President Barack Obama and Democrats who control the Senate are certain to oppose it.

Rogers' committee had nearly completed a less dramatic plan that would immediately impose spending cuts averaging 15 percent on a wide range of domestic programs, from scientific research to law enforcement.

But conservatives said it did not go far enough, imperiling its chance of winning passage in the House at a time when Republican leaders have failed to round up votes for other measures that had been expected to pass easily.

Congress must agree on a spending plan to avoid a government shutdown when current funding runs out on March 4.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; editing by Vicki Allen)

Pirates hijack U.S.-bound oil tanker off Oman

LONDON/ATHENS (Reuters) – Suspected Somali pirates captured a U.S.-bound tanker carrying around $200 million worth of crude oil in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday in one of the biggest hijackings in the area so far.

The Irene SL, the length of three soccer pitches and with 25 crew members on board, was carrying about 2 million barrels of oil, or nearly one fifth of daily U.S. crude imports.

The hijacking came a day after an Italian tanker carrying oil worth more than $60 million was snatched by Somali pirates, reinforcing industry fears that the piracy scourge is "spinning out of control".

"This morning the vessel was attacked by armed men," the Irene SL's Greece-based manager Enesel said. "For the moment there is no communication with the vessel."

Commander Susie Thomson, spokeswoman for the multinational Combined Maritime Forces fighting piracy in the area, said the 333-meter tanker was hijacked 220 miles off Oman and was likely to have been attacked by Somali pirates. "We can only speculate as to where the ship is being taken."

Shipping industry associations have warned that over 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil supply passing through the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea is at risk from Somali pirates, who are able to operate ever further out to sea and for longer periods, using mother ships.

John Drake, a senior risk consultant with security firm AKE Ltd, said pirate activity off Oman first emerged in 2009.

"This is a strategic area of concern because it implicates shipping traveling to and from the Persian/Arabian Gulf," he said. "This area also does not have a significant naval presence like the Gulf of Aden."

On Tuesday, pirates firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades hijacked an Italian oil tanker in the Indian Ocean and diverted the vessel toward Somalia.

The Irene SL is only the fourth very large crude carrier to have been hijacked by Somali gangs since piracy escalated in 2008, the International Maritime Bureau said.

PIRATE CRISIS

Joe Angelo, managing director of INTERTANKO, an association whose members own the majority of the world's tanker fleet, said the hijacking of the Irene SL marked "a significant shift in the impact of the piracy crisis in the Indian Ocean."

Angelo said the Irene SL's cargo of Kuwaiti crude oil represented nearly 20 percent of total U.S. daily crude oil imports and urged governments to step up anti-piracy efforts.

"The piracy situation is now spinning out of control into the entire Indian Ocean," he told Reuters.

"If piracy in the Indian Ocean is left unabated, it will strangle these crucial shipping lanes with the potential to severely disrupt oil flows to the U.S. and to the rest of the world."

Pirate gangs are making tens of millions of dollars in ransoms, and despite successful efforts to quell attacks in the Gulf of Aden, international navies have struggled to contain piracy in the Indian Ocean owing to the vast distances involved.

"The situation is only going to worsen. With rising ransoms pirates are able to hire more men, bribe more officials and wait longer periods to negotiate," said AKE's Drake.

"Pirates may not set out into the Indian Ocean with specific intent to capture oil tankers but if they see one they will likely attack it with more determination and ferocity than other vessel types, simply because of the potential ransom sum they could secure through holding such a vessel."

Pirates last year received a record $9.5 million ransom for the release of the Samho Dream South Korean oil tanker. A study showed maritime piracy costs the global economy between $7 and $12 billion a year.

The European Union Naval Force said a South Korean fishing vessel, the Golden Wave, and its 43 crew had been released from pirate control. The ship was hijacked off the Kenyan coast last October. EU NAVFOR did not say if a ransom had been paid.

(Additional reporting by Frederik Richter in Manama and Yaw Yanchong in Singapore; editing by Amran Abocar and Keiron Henderson)