Scientists have used a powerful new technique to prove that some tiny crystals found in Western Australia are indeed the oldest known materials formed on Earth. Back in 2001, scientists reported that one of the zircon crystals was about 4.4 billion years old — so old that not everyone believed it.
"There have been challenges, because nothing in science goes without being questioned. It always has to be proven," says , a geochemist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
The crystals formed just tens of millions of years after an early proto-Earth was melted by a violent impact with a Mars-sized object. The crash created the moon and turned our young planet into a red ball of molten rock.




Uganda's president is expected on Monday to sign into law a controversial anti-gay bill that has harsh penalties for homosexual offenses.
Following a day of extraordinary drama, Ukraine faces a new and uncertain future after the country's parliament voted to impeach the president, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, was released from prison. She has pledged to stand in elections in May.
HSBC will announce staff bonuses totaling just under 2.4 billion pounds ($4 billion) globally for 2013 and is expected to report a significant rise in pretax profit, Sky News reported on its website on Saturday without citing its sources.
A longshot push to get the professional association of US psychologists to consider banning its members from providing aid to military interrogations failed on Friday, but gathered enough support to make supporters optimistic about a follow-on effort in August.
An eviction hearing at an American Indian headquarters in North California turned bloody when a former tribal leader went berserk, killing four people and wounding two others, cops said.
Despite warnings that tanning brings a greater risk of skin cancer, many still tan to excess and U.S. researchers suggest mental health issues may play a role.





























