A volcanic alert has been issued after the Popocatepetl volcano erupted an enormous cloud of gas and ash.

The blast could create an ash cloud bound for Mexico City, which is about 40 miles south of the volcano.

The volcano has been restive since last year. The blast was captured on film stretching high into the sky and dumping bits of rock into neighboring areas.

If Popocatepetl continues to erupt, the area will likely be evacuated. Evacuations were planned in mid-May during another active period, but were never enacted.

The volcano is under constant monitoring for activity using cameras, satellites and sensors to track changes in temperature and ground movement.

The volcano is the second-highest volcano in Mexico, and it had its last major eruption in 1947. It was dormant from the 1950s until 1994, when it began to erupt intermittently. A large eruption in December 2000 caused damage, but evacuations and monitoring kept residents from getting hurt.

Lil Wayne said in a Facebook post Tuesday he didn't mean to "desecrate the flag of the United States of America" during a recent video shoot in New Orleans.

Wayne, 30, came under fire Monday after footage of him stepping on the United States flag was unveiled by TMZ.

When the clip went viral, many fans were quick to reprimand the rapper via social media for what he had done. Nevertheless, Wayne stood strong behind his position that he meant no harm.

Congressman Michael Burgess, a former OB/GYN, said Monday that he opposes abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy because male fetuses can put "their hand between their legs" for pleasure.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said the Texas Republican.

Burgess' remarks spread online where the idea of "fetal masturbation" took hold -- an idea many found not only distasteful, but impossible.

The rationale for the Republican bill, which advanced through the House Judiciary last week on a near-total party-line vote, is one oft-disputed study that asserts fetuses can feel pain as early as 20 weeks after conception.

In 2010, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Britain said of fetal awareness that, “Connections from the periphery to the cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception, it can be concluded that the fetus cannot experience pain in any sense prior to this gestation.”

The 20-week ban was initially meant to apply only to the District of Columbia, but the arrest and murder conviction of Kermit Gosnell, who ran an illegal abortion clinic in Philadelphia, has given conservatives new momentum.

The White House has already vowed to veto the abortion bill if it should pass Senate.

The Kentucky 14-year-old that was suspended for wearing an National Rifle Association shirt to school may now face up to a year in jail.

Jared Marcum was charged Tuesday with obstructing an officer, and now faces a $500 fine and jail time. He had no criminal background prior to the arrest.

In April, Marcum got into an argument with a teacher over his NRA shirt, which read "Protect Your Rights" with a gun graphic below it. He was arrested for disturbing the education process and obstructing an officer. His school suspended him.

The charge came after Marcum refused to stop talking as he was being arrested, which the police report says hindered the officer's ability to do his job.

The report did not mention any threats or violent activity on Marcum's part.

"In my view of the facts, Jared didn't do anything wrong," Ben White, Jared's attorney said. "I think officer Adkins could have done something differently."

White has until July 11 to get Marcum's charges dismissed. If the charges are not dropped by then, Marcum will appear in court again.

Labour councillor Simon Parkes, who represents Stakesby on Whitby Town Council, has previously claimed he has not only fathered an alien child named Zarka, but that his "real mother" is an extraterrestrial as well.

The driving instructor, who has three children with his human wife, said sexual intercourse with the alien he refers to as the Cat Queen happens about four times a year. And now he says his alien relationship is causing marital strife.

"My wife found out about it and was very unhappy, clearly," Parkes said. "That caused a few problems, but it is not on a human level, so I don’t see it as wrong."

“What will happen is that we will hold hands and I will say ‘I’m ready’ and then the technology I don’t understand will take us up to a craft orbiting the earth," he explained.

He explained in a YouTube video that his "real mother" is a green alien with eight fingers who is nine feet tall. Parkes also said on the Channel 4 documentary "Confessions Of An Alien Abductee" his first recollection is of being lifted out of his cot by an alien.

"There are plenty of people in my position who don’t chose to come out and say it because they are terrified it will destroy their careers," he said.

But Parkes, who was also councillor for Hackney in the 1990s, says his experiences with aliens don't hinder his ability to serve. "I’m more interested in fixing someone’s leaking roof or potholes," he said.

Parkes says he is followed and monitored by the extraterrestrials, and that they told him "you will never be hurt, you will never be harmed."

Fellow councillor Terry Jennison said "I am completely in the dark about this.”

A team of Australian researchers have uncovered a 1,200-year-old city buried beneath the jungles of Cambodia thanks to new technology that allowed them to create a detailed archeological survey.

The city, which predates the famous Angkor Wat by several centuries, indicates the previously known temple complex was a part of a much larger, sprawling city rather than a walled-in city.

A study led by the Archaeology and Development Foundations Phnom Kulen program and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences relied on LiDAR -- light detection and ranging -- airborne laser scanning to across a swath of about 140 square miles in northwestern Cambodia.

The images revealed, "with exceptional clarity," "a vast, low-density urban periphery stretching far beyond the major Angkorian temples."

Most of these structures were only revealed thanks to LiDar's "unparalleled ability to penetrate dense vegetation cover and map archeological remains on the floor," the researchers said.

In video footage of the team trooping through the jungle, only a few stones are visible, as much of the archaeology is encased in the ground.

Sofia Vergara posted a revealing selfie on her WhoSay account on Monday.

In the photo captioned, "Where @keegankillian and @luisbalaguer [her manager] cant find me!!!," the "Modern Family" star is all smiles as she sunbathes by a pool in a pink bikini bottom.

Vergara, 40, has become an international icon for her curvacious figure that contradicts the current standards for women in the entertainment business.

However, the brunette bombshell -- who is actually a natural blonde -- is as self conscious about her body as everyone else.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (GPI)--The dim light of the cafe in Buenos Aires, Argentina’s capital, invites confession. At a table next to a window overlooking a street corner, residents withdraw from the autumn evening to focus on the group discussion.

Participants exchange markers to the beat of the words. They color the mandalas distributed by Zulma Fuentes, who runs this workshop, Puerto de Ilusiones, to promote mental health.

“Here we have the opportunity of expressing what we feel and what we think,” Fuente says. “What I highlight and what I love about this program is that it is fundamentally mutual aid. This means that we all help each other with our experiences.”

While some talk about their problems, others color the patterns. Coloring is a way to reduce anxiety, says Fuentes, a social psychologist who has led this workshop for five years.

The objective of the workshop is to provide a space where one can chat with friends. Participants meet from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. every Monday in a cafe in the center of the city to share their experiences from the past week.

The workship is one of many under the Programa de Salud Mental Barrial del Hospital Pirovano, a community organization that promotes mental health. It operates under Hospital General de Agudos Ignacio Pirovano, a public hospital run by the city government’s Ministery of Health.

The mental health program is unique because local residents conceive and lead its free workshops, which offer participants the opportunity to discuss their problems in an accepting environment. The design also departs from past handling of mental health by promoting the complete physical, mental and social well-being of the entire community, and not merely preventing illness. In pursuit of this objective, the program builds community to erode the anonymity and isolation in a big city like Buenos Aires.

Argentine psychologist Carlos Campelo launched the program in 1985 while working in mental health at the hospital, says psychologist Miguel Enrique Espeche, who currently runs the program. Campelo gathered residents who had similar problems so that they could share them with each other. In hardly a decade, the prestige of the program grew thanks to the number of participants, the originality of the topics and the benefits for the community.

The program now consists of 200 workshops that draw 3,000 participants in various neighborhoods of Buenos Aires and its suburbs. They meet in unused spaces within the hospital, outdoors or in cafes to promote mental health and to restore a sense of community in the massive city.

The program is unique because local residents, “called animators,” conceive and lead the workshops for their fellow community members based on topics they want to work on or share with their neighbors. The only requirements are that they attend a three-month preparatory course and then participate in a weekly meeting of animators to supervise their work.

In this way, the program provides an essential role for the city's residents as promoters of their peers’ health. The animators of the workshops are the heart of the program, Espeche says.

The Los Angeles Clippers have backed down on a deal to acquire the Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett and Doc Rivers.

The Clippers have no plans to continue talks as they move to hire a coach.

Danny Ainge confirms to the @BostonGlobe that the proposed Clippers-Celtics deal is, in fact, dead.

— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) June 18, 2013

Earlier this year, Celtics president Dan Ainge said the team wanted Rivers to return to coach the team next season. Rivers has been uneasy about rebuilding the Celtics, especially after public talks with the Clippers.

The Clippers would not continue with the deal after a proposal that asked for DeAndre Jordan, Garnett and two first-round draft picks. The impasse came with the Celtics' request for Eric Bledsoe, backup point guard, whom the Clippers did not want to lose.

The deal would have broken Rivers' contract with three years and $21 million remaining. Clippers point guard Chris Paul, who has been reported to have power over the hiring process, favors Rivers as the next coach.

"This was about the actual trade and not giving up too many assets," the source said.

Another source said he thinks both teams are posturing to claim more bargaining power than the other, and that the teams could make a deal that would benefit each other.

"They know if they don't do this, they're going to look bad," he said.

The Clippers have second interviews with Byron Scott on Tuesday and Brian Shaw on Wednesday. Lionel Hollins had a two-day interview last week. Owner Donald Sterling is predicted to hire a coach by early next week.

After nearly two full days of searching, federal investigators are hopeful the signs are pointing to the discovery of the remains of Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamster boss who disappeared almost 40 years ago near Detroit.

A cadaver dog, working with FBI investigators in an abandoned field about a half hour's drive away from where Hoffa was last seen on July 30, 1975, "reacted to some scents" at the dig site Tuesday afternoon. Investigators said they were not sure what -- if anything -- the dog was reacting to.

Some bones had been found in the field, a former farm, but none were human bones, said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard.

Earlier in the day, searchers turned up a "suspicious" slab at the dig site, but it is too soon to know if the cement is just the old foundation of a barn -- or Hoffa's concrete coffin.

The FBI were pointed to the field in Oakland Township by an ex-mobster Tony Zerilli, who was in prison at the time of Hoffa's disappearance but said he was told of Hoffa's fate after his release.

Zerilli said Hoffa, who was last seen at a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, was abducted, hit on the head with a shovel, buried in a shallow grave and covered in concrete on a property once owned by mob boss Jack Tocco.