An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday, sending a Mars orbiter on its way to study how the planet most like Earth in the solar system lost its water. Unlike previous Mars probes, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission, or MAVEN, will not be looking at or landing on the planet's dry, dusty surface. Instead, MAVEN will scan and sample what remains of the thin Martian atmosphere and watch in real-time how it is peeled away, molecule by molecule, by killer solar radiation. The first step of the planned year-long, $671 million mission was getting MAVEN into space. The satellite, tucked inside a protective nosecone, lifted off aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket at 1:28pm EST/1838 GMT to begin a 10-month flight to Mars. United Launch Alliance is a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Upon arrival, MAVEN will fire its braking rocket to put itself into a highly elliptical orbit around Mars, which will allow it to dip down as close as about 65 miles from the ground to gather air samples for analysis. At its highest point, MAVEN will be about 3,728 miles away, a vantage point for measuring how much and what types of radiation are sweeping past the planet from the sun and cosmic sources. The point of the project is to determine how much of the atmosphere is being lost to space today and extrapolate back in time to figure out what was happening in Mars' past.

Fugitive US whistleblower Edward Snowden is still in the transit area at Moscow airport, Russia's President Vladimir Putin has confirmed. Mr Putin said the intelligence leaker remained a free man, and the sooner he chose a destination the better. The US said earlier that it did not seek "confrontation", but that Russia should hand over Mr Snowden. Because Mr Snowden is in the pre-immigration area of the airport, he is technically not yet on Russian soil. The Russians have rejected American charges that they have assisted Mr Snowden. China has also rejected similar charges, saying accusations that it allowed him to leave Hong Kong despite a warrant for his arrest were "groundless and unacceptable". Mr Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday. The US has revoked Mr Snowden's passport, and he has applied for asylum in Ecuador. He was expected to board a flight to the Venezuelan capital Caracas on Monday but never appeared. Speaking at a news conference earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Moscow to comply with common law practices between countries and extradite Mr Snowden to America. "There are standards of behaviour between sovereign nations. There is common law,'' Mr Kerry said. "We would simply call on our friends in Russia to respect the fact that a partner nation- a co-member of the permanent five of the United Nations [Security Council] - has made a normal request under legal systems.'' But Mr Putin said that Russian security agencies "didn't work and aren't working" with Mr Snowden. His comments back up those of his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who earlier insisted that "we are in no way involved with either Mr Snowden, his relations with US justice, nor his movements around the world." . The 30-year-old IT expert is wanted by the US for revealing to the media details of a secret government surveillance programme, which he obtained while working as a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA). He is charged with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.

Nelson Mandela's still critical in hospital, says Zuma Former South African President Nelson Mandela remains in a critical condition in hospital, President Jacob Zuma says. Mr Zuma said the doctors were doing everything they could to make the former leader comfortable, but he could not give any more medical details. South Africa's first black president, 94, was taken to hospital in Pretoria earlier this month for the third time this year, with a lung infection. A senior official said South Africans should not hold out "false hopes". On Sunday, the presidency announced that Mr Mandela had become critical, after Mr Zuma visited him in hospital. Mr Zuma said on Monday he had found Mr Mandela asleep, but had spoken to his wife and medical teams. "All of us in the country should accept the fact that Madiba [Nelson Mandela's clan name] is now old. As he ages, his health will... trouble him and I think what we need to do as a country is to pray for him." Mac Maharaj, Mr Zuma's spokesman, told the BBC's Newshour on Sunday said this was a stressful time for the Mandela family. "I think there is need to be sombre about the news. There is a need not to hold out false hopes but at the same time let's keep him in our thoughts and let's will him more strength," he said. Nelson Mandela's daughter, Makaziwe, whom he had with his first wife Evelyn, asked in an interview with CNN on Saturday for the family's privacy to be respected: "Other people want to lecture us on how we should behave, and what we should do. Really, it's our dad, it's the children's grandfather. We've never had him in our life for the better part of our years. This is in a sense quality and sacred time for us, and I would expect the world to really back off and leave us alone."

'Bigger and brighter super moon to light up night sky The night sky is set to be illuminated later by what will appear to be a much bigger and brighter Moon. The so-called "supermoon" occurs when the Moon reaches its closest point to earth, known as a perigee full moon. The effect is to make the Moon seem 30% bigger and 14% brighter than when it is furthest from the planet. Skywatchers who miss the phenomenon this weekend because of cloudy skies will have to wait until August 2014 for the next one. Space expert Heather Couper said "supermoons" were the result of coincidence. The Moon goes round in an oval orbit so it can come very close to us, and if that coincides with a full moon, then it can look absolutely enormous," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. She explained that when the Moon was high in the sky, it looked normal. But as it got closer to the horizon, a "kind of optical illusion" occurred where it looked bigger when compared with trees or houses, she said. She suggested it might be possible to dispel the illusion by turning away from the Moon, bending over and looking at the sky from between your legs. Writing in Sky and Telescope about the "myth of the super moon" Shari Balouchi said much of what we called the supermoon was just our eyes playing tricks on us. "The supermoon might look bigger than normal if you see it in the evening when the Moon's just rising, but the real size difference isn't big enough to notice." BBC Weather's Darren Bett said he was confident most people in the UK would be able to see the Moon at some point on Saturday night, but warned it might be fleeting. Bands of showers are forecast over the UK, with some gaps in the clouds. Sunday night should be better, he added, with people in south-west England and south Wales likely to have the clearest views of the Moon. Scientists have dismissed the idea that the perigee can cause strange behaviour, like lycanthropy or natural disasters. Dr Couper said the tides this weekend would be unaffected We'd like to see your pictures of the super moon.

Gia Gvaramia's patients can't wait for him to get his hands on them. Literally. At 56, he is a pioneering plastic surgeon who opened Georgia's first cosmetic surgery clinic in 2000. Since then business has bloomed in line with an explosion in consumerism for a growing middle class. Average household incomes have risen nearly 50% since the war with Russia in 2008. Gia now has a further six clinics. Every year he and his colleagues see 3,000 new patients. Georgians, young and old, come to his surgeries for Botox, nose jobs, breast enhancement, liposuction and other treatments, luxuries not everyone can afford. He is surprised by the popularity of his business "When I began my business people asked me if I was crazy. They'd ask: 'Who needs this business in Georgia?'" Gia says he has since proven people wrong. "Now we have so many competitors it means plastic surgery is a business people need." Back in Gia's family home, his wife, daughter and grandchildren discuss how work is going over coffee and cakes. Has he ever had to perform plastic surgery on any of his family members I ask. "Yes, sometimes," he says with a wide grin though not yet on Marika his wife, he confides. "There are things I think I could do for her," he says as Marika gives a wry smile.

The wait is over for Superman fans as the much-anticipated film reboot, Man of Steel, is released in cinemas this weekend. It is 35 years since Richard Donner's "origins" movie propelled Superman into the spotlight as a revolutionary superhero, impacting popular culture and influencing the various superhero movies that followed. The iconic film also made actor Christopher Reeve a household name and spawned a series of sequels and new versions which have graced both the big and small screens, each hoping to capitalise on the popularity of a character whose ultimate goal was to save the human race. Zack Snyder's bombastic 2013 revamp is a different take on a compelling character and an attempt to reinvent Kal-El, the son of Krypton, for the modern era and reposition him as the ultimate superhero who "does his thing among us". Snyder said: "I believe he belongs at the top of the superhero pyramid because he is the first and purest mythological superhero. "Every other is just a version of Superman with different dungeons and dragons," says the 47-year-old director behind Dawn of the Dead, 300 and Watchmen. In Man of Steel, Superman is no longer an impenetrable, godlike figure. Instead, he is portrayed as a young Clark Kent, in conflict with his identity. As he grows older we see his emotional side as he grapples with human issues such as love, loss and divided loyalties. "I didn't want him to exist in a stylised universe. The Superman mythology is way more potent when it's speaking to the modern condition that we are in. I think it makes him more interesting," says Snyder. Suggestions of Snyder's involvement in the cult franchise arose around the time he was looking to make the 2009 costumed hero drama, Watchmen, which he made to "deconstruct" the mythology of comic book heroes. "Once [I was] into [Watchmen, I was] thinking 'no, Superman's stupid, I'm cooler than that'." Nevertheless, he had always been a fan and when producer Christopher Nolan, the force behind the successful Dark Knight franchise, asked him to come on board, he was "surprised by his reaction". "I thought I'd be more snarky about it, but when I actually heard about it, I thought it was cool. Watchmen helped me because I knew how to take that same formula for destroying a superhero and flip it." To create a "true reboot" of the film series, Snyder, Nolan and scriptwriter David S Goyer - another Dark Knight collaborator - set out to base their Superman solely on the 75 years of "dense" history created by the comic books. "We really just pretended that the other movies didn't exist. The thesis was 'oh look we've found some comic books, we should make a movie out of these'. "You can't cherry pick. You have to either wipe it clean or try and reimagine what exists already. Doing a [combination] is weird because you still have the baggage of the movies. "We were trying to have no baggage but that also gives you no advantage, so you have to create your advantage," he says. What Man of Steel displays in highly visual and dramatic set pieces, it lacks in humour. The fumbling, bumbling characteristics of the Reeve movies have been replaced by a po-faced Cavill, whose no-nonsense attitude leaves little time for romance with prize-winning journalist Lois Lane, played by Amy Adams. However, there are hints of a burgeoning romance. "That earnestness is an essential part of Superman," suggests Snyder. "The nice thing is, he balances it with humanity which makes him not corny." Referring to Donner's 1978 movie, Snyder says he was against creating a film that had any hint of a superhero who saved people with a wink and a smile. "At the end of the movie, Christopher Reeve looks in the camera and smiles. In 1978 that made me crazy. "I was 12 years old but it made me say 'why would you do this? You just ruined it for me because I believed that was real until that moment and now I know I'm watching a movie'." Snyder also dismisses "purists" who have criticised his movie for portraying Superman as a superhero who causes chaos and destruction rather than preventing it, using the character's tragic back story as a defence. "Everything you know about him in the last three minutes [of Man of Steel] is who he is; he doesn't want to kill. "In classic superman mythology, he never kills. He always prevents as best he can. All the things you equate with Superman, I believe are still true, [Man of Steel] just offers an explanation for why that is the case." As well as bringing along the hardcore fans, Snyder hopes Man of Steel will inspire a host of new Superman followers who were not around to see the last origin film 35 years ago. "My kids have no idea what Superman's story is, that he's an alien, he's always been an alien. "It's fun to know that for a generation of kids, this is going to be their Superman mythology, it's going to come from this movie," he says. In the same way that Batman was reinvigorated as a cultural phenomenon with the multi-billion dollar Dark Knight series, Snyder hopes his revamp can help pave the way for Superman to return to the centre of popular culture and is "very interested" in continuing his involvement. "It would be naive to say that we made this as a one-off. I feel this movie is just breaking the ice for Superman."

Nelson Mandela 'recovering well' - grandson Former South African President Nelson Mandela is "recovering well" in hospital, his grandson says. Mr Mandela is spending his eighth day in hospital in the capital, Pretoria, to receive treatment for a recurring lung infection. His grandson Mandla Mandela said the former president "looked good" when he visited him in hospital. Mr Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994 after leading the struggle against apartheid. He stepped down five years later. "I thank the nation and the world for the prayers for Madiba, and the doctors and the office of the ANC for keeping the family updated," Mandla Mandela said, using the former leader's clan name, according to the AFP. Mandla Mandela's comments seem to be essentially line with statements made by the South African government in recent days, balancing a reported improvement in the former leader's condition with the fact that it remains serious, the BBC's Mike Wooldridge reports from Johannesburg.