Los Angeles

20 suspected aliens rescued from truck

Twenty suspected illegal immigrants were found Monday crammed inside the sweltering camper compartment of a pickup truck on a freeway.

Seven were taken to the hospital. The discovery came amid a hot spell, with temperatures already into the 80s at midmorning.

California Highway Patrol officers stopped the pickup on a Harbor Freeway exit south of downtown, tipped off by a motorist who noticed people in the back of the pickup waving, possibly asking for help, CHP Officer Alex Delgadillo said.

“He called us and he stayed on the phone with us until we were finally able to catch up with the truck,” Delgadillo said. “They were in very cramped spaces, in need of medical attention.”

Los Angeles

Mars rover unable to dent Red Planet rock

The sophisticated grinding tool deployed by NASA’s rover Opportunity was apparently no match for a chunk of martian rock.

The rover was to use its rock abrasion tool Sunday to grind away at a martian outcropping dubbed “Flat Rock,” but the tool left “no discernible impression on the rock,” NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists now hope to learn more about the rock’s makeup by scraping its exterior. All indications are that the tool is working, NASA said.

Researchers also plan to have Opportunity use its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to identify the rock’s chemical elements before attempting to grind away at it again later this week.

Ohio

Nuclear plant reopens after 2-year shutdown

A puff of smoke and spray of water came from an Ohio nuclear plant Monday as workers brought it back online after a two-year shutdown ordered when leaking acid nearly ate through a protective steel reactor cap.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the plant permission to restart, beginning a process expected to last 10 to 14 days to bring it to full power.

Corrosion on the reactor vessel at the Davis-Besse plant, east of Toledo, Ohio, along Lake Erie, was the most extensive ever found at a U.S. nuclear reactor. It led to a precautionary review of 68 similar plants nationwide.

NRC officials blamed plant operators for allowing the erosion of safety standards that caused the leak to go unnoticed for years. The plant is owned by FirstEnergy Corp., of Akron, Ohio, the company that a U.S.-Canadian government task force said shared much of the blame for the Northeast blackout last August.