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The Penske Automotive Group said it could not proceed with the deal because another auto manufacturer, which it did not identify, said it would not build vehicles to be distributed under the Saturn brand name.

The decision by Penske Automotive stunned G.M. and Saturn dealers, who had hailed Mr. Penske, who has built a track record of successful turnarounds, as the savior of the brand that G.M. was forced to sell as part of its government-financed bankruptcy reorganization.

“Today’s disappointing news comes at a time when we’d hoped for a successful launch of the Saturn brand into a new chapter,” G.M.’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, said in a statement. “We will be working closely with our dealers to ensure Saturn customers are cared for as we transition them to other G.M. dealers in the months ahead.”

There were no indications that the negotiations — first announced in June — were faltering.

They use live video feeds (sometimes from many angles) to find the position and motion of various objects, which they then combine with behavioral simulations to produce real-time animations for Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth.

They use motion capture data to help their animated humans move realistically, and were able to extrapolate cars’ motion throughout an entire stretch of road from just a few spotty camera angles.

From their video of an augmented virtual Earth, you can see if the pickup soccer game in the park is short a player, how traffic is on the highway, and how fast the wind is blowing the clouds across the sky.

Up next, they say they want to add weather, birds, and motion in rivers.

Vanishing of the Bees, which will be released in Britain next month, claims the cause is the use of a new generation of pesticides that weakens the bees and makes them more susceptible to other diseases.

Narrated by the British actress Emilia Fox, the 90-minute film tells the story of what has become known as colony collapse disorder.

The problem first appeared in America in the winter of 2004, when many beekeepers across the country found that their bees had suddenly vanished, leaving behind empty hives. Since then scientists have failed to find a single cause for it.

The film goes on to suggest that neonicotinoid pesticides, some of them made by Bayer, one of the world’s biggest chemical companies, may be behind the disappearances.

This was it. The moment the reporter had been working for.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) emerged, briefly, from the chamber. A genial 60-year-old with bushy eyebrows, the diminutive Rahall didn’t look anything like a medieval crusader. In fact, his family roots are in Lebanon, not Europe.

But Rahall is also a 33rd Degree Mason, who joined the secretive society about five years before he ran for Congress in 1976. “When I joined, there were a great deal of older individuals who helped me along the way and to whom I am deeply indebted to this day,” he said.

“We call each other ‘travelers,’” Rahall explained. “To become a 32nd or 33rd Degree Mason, there are a whole slew of degrees before that, and it’s a long road we’ve taken together.”

Rahall said he achieved his 33rd Degree status by two routes: through the Scottish Rite and through the York Rite, where he participated in the Commandery. That’s the portion of the Freemason tradition that makes Rahall a Knight Templar.

And although he hadn’t read the Dan Brown book, Rahall says he understands why the Masons attract so many conspiracy theories.

“It’s because, particularly in the early days, there were code words to get into the lodge, and everything is done by rituals,” Rahall said. “The Masons themselves helped perpetuate the myth, knowing it was just that — a myth.”

The reporter screwed up his courage to ask one final question.

So is there a global conspiracy?

“No.”

But you wouldn’t tell me if there was, would you?

“That’s right,” Rahall said with a smile.

Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart also told The Associated Press that as many as 400 troops are ready to go to five regional headquarters around the country to assist federal health and emergency management officials if needed as the flu season heats up.

The 15-year-old pupil became cold, weak and dizzy less than an hour after the vaccine and only a short time after schoolmate Natalie Morton became fatally ill.

Her symptoms were so severe that paramedics did emergency blood tests and an ECG scan in a back room at the school, the girl’s mother said.

The teenager refused to go to hospital because of a phobia of ambulances so her mother collected her from school on Monday.

The girl remains ill with chronic chest and back aches and loss of appetite.

Her twin sister also had the vaccine on Monday but suffered only a sore arm and tiredness. Neither have any allergies.

Last night the mother criticised Blue Coat School for failing to contact her and check on her daughter’s condition.

NHS Direct advised that she monitor her daughter and wake her during the night to check her responsiveness.

The mother, who has five children including twins, told the Daily Mail: ‘She was and still is really quite ill. I don’t know what caused it but she went to school perfectly healthy and became sick soon after the vaccine.

‘Now she’s completely out of sorts.

Paramedics said she might have been low on blood sugar because she hadn’t eaten lunch. But that’s not true – she did have lunch on Monday.

‘It’s a very anxious time. My daughter knew Natalie from seeing her around school and she’s petrified that whatever killed Natalie might have got to her too.

‘I’m angry that the school sought emergency medical help but haven’t followed it up at all. What happened is tragic for Natalie but where is the help in place for the girls who suffered side effects?

Natalie Morton died in hospital on Monday after receiving the Cervarix jab at the Blue Coat Church of England School in Coventry.

…

There have been 4,657 suspected reactions to Cervarix from more than 1.4m doses, according to experts.

The Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency added it had received 2,137 reports between 14 April 2008 and 23 September this year.

However, the risk of severe, potentially life-threatening reactions is estimated at no more than one per million doses of vaccine.

And it is possible that Natalie’s death was due to an underlying health problem, or was a coincidence, and nothing directly to do with the vaccine.

Dizziness and nausea

The batch of the vaccine used has been placed into quarantine as a “precautionary measure”.

The local NHS also confirmed the vaccination programme would continue, but after a “short pause”.

Dr Caron Grainger, joint director of public health for NHS Coventry and Coventry City Council, said their sympathies were with the girl’s family and friends.

She said: “The incident happened shortly after the girl had received her HPV vaccine in the school. No link can be made between the death and the vaccine until all the facts are known and a post-mortem takes place.

“We are conducting an urgent and full investigation into the events surrounding this tragedy.”

A small number of girls at the school had also reported mild symptoms such as dizziness and nausea but were not admitted to hospital.

…

Dr David Elliman, a consultant in community paediatrics at Great Ormond Street Hospital, told the BBC it was important to investigate “very quickly” to allay people’s fears about the safety of the jab.

He said: “Once in a while you will expect someone to have a severe allergic reaction to a vaccine, just as with food or any medication.

The latest hit happened at an undisclosed winery in Rutherford early Monday morning. The Napa County Sheriff’s Office says 25 solar panels worth $30,000 were stolen.

It is the 16th theft of solar panels in Napa County since January 2008. Ten of the businesses were wine-related. That adds up to about $400,000 worth of panels.

The majority of the thefts happen late at night or early in the morning at rural locations, Capt. Tracey Stuart said. She added that she thinks the panels are probably being resold.

“It’s not something somebody can just throw in the back of a vehicle. It requires some planning, probably more than one person and also to be able to do this when people aren’t around to observe them because it’s not something you can do in five minutes,” Stuart said.

ZD Winery told NBC Bay Area’s Jodi Hernandez they have been hit twice by solar thefts. In response, they’ve made security improvements in hopes of keeping the thieves at bay for a third time including the addition of tamper resistant labels on the panels and covering the bolts in apoxy.

Owner Robert deLeuze called it disheartening because he was doing his best to help out the environment. He said to have somebody come in and shut it down was frustrating.

“The thieves came around from the backside. They cut our neighbors fence. Came back around the property and cut our fence again and entered from our neighbors property. They had to know what they were doing. They had to disconnect the electrical properly and unbolt the panels from the array and get them off the structure and onto their truck and they did it quite efficiently,” deLeuze said.

Other wineries have put up fences or tried to bolt the panels to the ground. So far that isn’t stopping the thieves.

In the latest case, the thieves drove through a field and knocked down two trees on their way to the panels.

Investigators think there is more than one group responsible.