World Vignettes

Mozart for the cops

ANKARA: The Turkish police department plans to play Mozart and Beethoven to reduce stress and thereby keep officers from using excessive force on the public. The classical music would be played in police cars and vans, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Wednesday. Turkish policemen are often criticized for kicking or hitting protesters with truncheons to break up demonstrations.

Pathfinder dead

LOS ANGELES: After more than five fruitless months, NASA scientists declared the Pathfinder spacecraft officially dead after a last-ditch attempt to communicate with the little Rover and Lander that made history last summer. Up to the final 8220;time of death8221; at 1:21 pm local time, they held out hope that they could communicate once more with the comatose craft that likely had long ago succumbed to the cold and dust of the Martian winter. 8220;This is sort of the end of the end. This is an actual goodbye,8221; said Richard Cook, the mission manager. BenToyoshima, the flight controller who spent three hours yesterday looking for a flicker on his computer screen, took the loss in stride. 8220;There was a kind of a sadness, but there was also a sense of closure,8221; he said. He said Pathfinder did seem to go gently, compared with the Mars observer that disappeared unexpectedly in 1993.