Sunday, June 30, 2013

Better antibiotics: Atomic-scale structure of ribosome with molecule that controls its motion

June 28, 2013 ? This may look like a tangle of squiggly lines, but you're actually looking at a molecular machine called a ribosome. Its job is to translate DNA sequences into proteins, the workhorse compounds that sustain you and all living things.

The image is also a milestone. It's the first time the atom-by-atom structure of the ribosome has been seen as it's attached to a molecule that controls its motion. That's big news if you're a structural biologist.

But there's another way to look at this image, one that anyone who's suffered a bacterial infection can appreciate. The image is also a roadmap to better antibiotics. That's because this particular ribosome is from a bacterium. And somewhere in its twists and turns could be a weakness that a new antibiotic can target.

"We're in an arms race with the resistance mechanisms of bacteria," says Jamie Cate, a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and a professor of biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology at UC Berkeley.

"The better we understand how bacterial ribosomes work, the better we can come up with new ways to interfere with them," he adds.

Cate developed the structure with UC Berkeley's Arto Pulk. Their work is described in the June 28 issue of the journal Science.

Their image is the latest advance in the push for more effective antibiotics. The goal is new drugs that kill the bacteria that make us sick, stay one step ahead of their resistance mechanisms, and leave our beneficial bacteria alone.

One way to do this is to get to know the bacterial ribosome inside and out. Many of today's antibiotics target ribosomes. A better understanding of how ribosomes function will shed light on how these antibiotics work. This could also lead to even "smarter" molecules that quickly target and disable a pathogen's ribosomes without affecting friendly bacteria.

Cate and Pulk used protein crystallography beamlines at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source to create diffraction patterns that show how the ribosome's molecules fit together. They then used computational modeling to combine these patterns into incredibly high-resolution images that describe the locations of the individual atoms.

The result is the colorful structure at the top of this article. Those blue and purple halves are ribosomes. They're from E. coli bacteria, but they work in similar ways throughout nature. Ribosomes move along messenger RNA and interpret its genetic code into directions on how to stitch amino acids into proteins.

But sometimes ribosomes want to move backward, which isn't good when you're in the protein-making business. That's where that yellow-red-green squiggle wedged between the two ribosome halves comes in. It's elongation factor G. It acts like a ratchet and prevents the ribosome from slipping backward. It also pushes the ribosome forward when it's sluggish.

Scientists knew that elongation factor G performs these jobs, but they didn't know how. Now, with an atomic-scale structure in hand, they can study the chemical and molecular forces involved in this ratcheting process. Cate and Pulk found that the ratchet controls the ribosome's motion by stiffening and relaxing over and over. This is the kind of insight that could lead to new ways to monkey-wrench the ribosome.

"To create better antibiotics, we need to learn how bacterial ribosomes work at the smallest scales, and this is a big step in that direction," says Cate.

The National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute supported the research. The U.S. Department of Energy provides support for the Advanced Light Source, where this research was conducted.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/zlOztV3J4SM/130628103149.htm

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Bulgarian Football Union Office 'Badly Damaged' by CSKA Fans

The office of the Bulgarian Football Union has suffered heavy damages after an attack by angered CSKA Sofia fans Saturday.

The windows and door of the office have been broken and part of the inscription has been removed.

There are damages even to the above ground floors, according to the Bulgarian Focus Information Agency.

Police have closed down the area, located on the central Ivan Asen II Str. in Bulgarian capital Sofia.

CSKA fans are currently protesting in front of the team's stadium in the nearby Borisova Gradina park.

The rally has been provoked by??the takeover of the team by former football legend?Hristo Stoichkov, and its possible merger with the team of?Litex Lovech.

The change of ownership comes after years of financial trouble and unconvincing performance by?CSKA, which however finished third in Bulgaria's latest national football championship.

Source: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=151633

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Cambodia bans foreign radio programs in run-up to election

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia has banned local radio stations from broadcasting content from foreign media in the run-up to a general election next month and also told them to stop carrying reports on foreigners playing any role in the campaign.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the world's longest-serving leaders, has total control of local television and most radio stations and his Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is expected to win the July 28 election.

Radio Free Asia (RFA), one of two U.S. funded stations which offer programs in Khmer through local radio and is free from government influence, said the media censorship would hinder democratic elections.

In a statement late on Friday, the Ministry of Information said all radio stations must be neutral in their coverage before the election and not carry reports on foreigners playing any role in the election. It was not clear if the directive was aimed at any individuals or monitoring groups.

The statement said stations must also suspend broadcasting Khmer-language programs by foreign media.

Radio Free Asia spokesman John A. Estrella called the ban "the most sweeping and stunning frontal assault on media freedom in Cambodia in recent memory" and "a blatant strategy to silence the types of disparate and varied voices that characterize an open and free society".

"Unfettered access to diverse, accurate, election information provides the foundation for fair and free elections, and Prime Minister Hun Sen's decision represents a major regression in the march towards democracy and freedom in Cambodia," he said in a statement.

Two local stations, Women's Media Center FM 102 and Beehive FM 105, stopped re-broadcasting RFA and VOA reports on Friday.

Last year, the Cambodian government threatened legal action against RFA and VOA, accusing them of favoring opposition parties and promoting U.S. foreign policy.

Earlier this month a panel dominated by the CPP expelled 29 members of parliament because three parties had merged to form a new party to contest the election. It ruled that made them ineligible to continue to sit for the old parties.

The new formation, the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), will be the main challenger to the CPP.

It has already accused the National Election Committee of bias, listing irregularities including names missing from electoral rolls, the presence of "ghost names" and the disruption of CNRP public events. It has threatened to pull out of the election if things get worse.

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Alan Raybould and Michael Perry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cambodia-bans-foreign-radio-programs-run-election-044852319.html

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Friday, June 28, 2013

As Egypt nears boil, leading religious institution calls for calm

? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Egypt's leading religious institution made an urgent appeal for calm and encouraged the defiant opposition to accept President Mohamed Morsi's calls for dialogue after a member of the Muslim Brotherhood was killed today. But there is little indication that tensions will ease as the country braces for what may be the biggest protests since the revolution that ousted former dictator Hosni Mubarak ? and brought the Egyptian military onto the streets to restore order.

According to Reuters, Al Azhar University usually keeps itself separate from politics, but today it waded in. "Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war," a statement from Al Azhar read. Al-Azhar scholar Hassan El-Shafei said the opposition, which plans to hold massive rallies across the country on June 30, should choose dialogue "for the benefit of the nation instead of the insistence on confrontation."

Al Azhar is not the only institution inserting itself into the fray in an attempt to turn down the heat.

RECOMMENDED: How much do you know about Egypt? Take this quiz.

The powerful military, which maintains the respect of both government supporters and the opposition, has also made clear that it is willing to step in temporarily, invoking "national security," according to a separate Reuters report.

Earlier this week the head of the armed forces warned that Egypt was headed toward a "dark tunnel."

The warning at the start of the week from General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was presented as a wake-up call to the rival factions, President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist allies on one side, a disparate coalition of liberals and a mass of Egyptians simply frustrated by economic stagnation on the other.

But the velvet glove of Sisi's language, urging politicians to find consensus and avert bloodshed, could not conceal an iron-fist of possible intervention, even if he was widely believed when he said the generals, secure and prosperous in their new role, have no wish to go back to running the country.

?

Few believe Sisi and a new generation of leaders elevated by Mursi want to grab long-term control in a full coup by a military that is held in high regard by almost all Egyptians.

But many of the Islamists' adversaries, from hardline Mubarak nostalgists to liberal idealists, seem ready to welcome a short-term shove by the army to abort the direction the revolution has taken and give a second chance to efforts to agree an institutional framework to end the polarised deadlock.

Respect for the military is one of the only things that President Morsi's supporters and the opposition have in common. Whether it makes good on its threat to intervene will depend in part on whether there is violence.

"The army has made its position clear: it will not allow violence and won't stand by if things seem to be getting out of control," one military source told Reuters yesterday, noting that it doesn't seem that leaders on either side can control their supporters.

Also at play is what the military judges as "popular will," Reuters reports. The military source said that if the size of the June 30 protests rivals that of the 2011 uprising, Morsi will be forced to relent. "No one will be able to oppose the will of the people," he said. "At least, not for long."

Egypt expert Nathan Brown writes in Foreign Policy that the potential for violence and mass protest have made military intervention an "explicit option."

The message from the military leadership in recent months has been clear in its general thrust but generally short on specifics: the military does not wish to take a political role, but it does regard itself as responsible for security of Egypt. That vagueness has likely sprouted from a desire to communicate to the presidency that it needed to improve its governance performance without offering the opposition the incentive to be so disruptive as to provoke an intervention.

?

Much still remains unclear. What would provoke an intervention? And what would the military do? Military intervention can take many forms -- suppressing demonstrations or violence, imposition of a government of national unity, deposing the president, suspending the constitution, asserting temporary authority -- and since it is not clear that any of these options would solve or even alleviate Egypt's political crisis, it can hardly be taken for granted that the military would intervene.

But all signs point to escalation, Mr. Brown writes, painting a picture of deep polarization, rhetoric on both sides running at an alarmingly high temperature, and a conflict that has become deeply personal for all involved.

And now attitudes have grown hard indeed. I asked one leading [Morsi-allied] parliamentarian ? a figure I have come to respect as level headed, calm, introspective, and patient ? whether he thought he wished his side had done anything differently? . He replied with visible anger that not only did he think they would do it all over again but that in fact they will do it all over again if necessary. And when I remarked to a friend in a responsible position that I did not think Morsi would leave office voluntarily, he replied that he thought the Egyptian people would deal with him as Libyans had dealt with Muammar al-Qaddafi.

Calmer language was used in Europe in the summer of 1914.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-nears-boil-leading-religious-institution-calls-calm-132648846.html

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

All-time greatest TV shows and movies are ...

Pop culture

1 hour ago

Summer's here! And while many favorite and critically acclaimed shows have ended their seasons (see you next year, Don Draper!), summer blockbusters are starting to show up in theaters and many popular television programs are returning to the airwaves.

Image: "Casablanca," "The Sopranos," "The Simpsons" and "The Godfather Part 2."

Warner Bros. / HBO / FOX / Paramount

"Casablanca," "The Sopranos," "The Simpsons" and "The Godfather Part 2" all made Entertainment Weekly's list of top movies and TV shows ever.

And as the summer entertainment season kicks into gear, Entertainment Weekly has unveiled its list of All Time Greatest TV Shows and Movies.

On Wednesday morning, the top five results for each category were revealed on TODAY.

Gangsters, outlaws, star-crossed lovers and creepy shower killers are among those viewers meet in the magazine's films list -- and not one of the movies that made the top five came along after America?s bicentennial.

The No. 1 pick is "Citizen Kane," the 1942 saga of old-school journalism.

The gritty and engrossing tales of mob life in "The Godfather" (1972) and "The Godfather Part 2" (1974) tie for second place in the roundup. In third is 1967's murder and mayhem-filled "Bonnie and Clyde." The classic tale of war-torn love, "Casablanca" (1942), takes the fourth spot. And 1960?s legendary ?Psycho,? dubbed the ?granddaddy of all slasher films,? rounds out the list.

(Before the EW results were revealed, we put the contenders to a vote and our readers put "The Godfather" films way ahead of the others, with "Casablanca" a distant second and "Citizen Kane," "Psycho," and "Bonnie and Clyde" trailing at the end of the list.)

On the small screen, only one of the magazine's top five picks for All Time Greatest TV Shows is still on the air. (Seriously, "Breaking Bad," "Walking Dead" and "Game of Thrones" didn't crack the summit of the list!)

Topping the list is complex crime drama "The Wire," which wrapped up its run in 2008.

The still-on-the-air show in second place is Fox's very long-running "The Simpsons." "Seinfeld," which aired its last episode in 1998, comes in at third place, followed by "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1977) in fourth. "The Sopranos," the HBO antihero drama that ended in 2007, takes fifth.

(In our vote, readers picked "Seinfeld" as No. 1, followed by "The Sopranos," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Simpsons." As for EW's top choice? "The Wire" landed in last place.)

See the full Top 100 lists in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly.

Which movies and TV shows would put in your top 5? Click on "Talk about it" below and give us your list!

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/all-time-greatest-tv-shows-movies-are-6C10423399

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South Africa's rand firmer on exporter, corporate demand

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's rand strengthened in early trade on Tuesday, bolstered as domestic firms brought back overseas earning ahead of the end of the financial quarter.

The rand was at 10.0020 against the dollar at 0627 GMT, 0.62 percent stronger than its New York close of 10.0675 overnight.

"The repatriation of foreign earnings is adding a bit of support but nothing has changed, we are not out of the woods yet," said Ion de Vleeschauwer, a trader at Bidvest Bank.

"The underlying sentiment is still bearish."

The end of June marks the end of either the second quarter or fiscal year for many South African companies with offshore operations such gold producer Gold Fields and transport firm Imperial Holdings.

Government bonds also firmed, recouping some of the losses suffered in the wake of the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to withdraw its stimulus programme.

The yield, which moves inversely to the price, on the benchmark bond due in 2026 fell 13.5 basis points to 8.170 percent, while the paper due in 2015 dropped 13 basis points to 6.355 percent.

Emerging markets have been heavily sold after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week the U.S. central bank could soon start scaling down its monthly $85 billion in asset purchases, which have boosted appetite for risky assets such the rand and local bonds.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africas-rand-firmer-exporter-corporate-demand-072051807.html

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Volkswagen ponders extra Golf production for holidays

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen is looking for volunteers among its workforce in Wolfsburg, Germany, to build its flagship Golf hatchback during next month's three-week plant holiday to keep up with customer orders.

Additional production shifts could point to a gradually improving outlook for Europe's mass market carmakers, after export-heavy luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz already plan to produce throughout the summer.

"Due to the high demand for the Golf, Volkswagen is examining whether to continue manufacturing in parts of the Wolfsburg plant during the summer holidays," a spokesman for Europe's largest carmaker said on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, German daily Braunschweiger Zeitung reported that VW was looking to find enough personnel to form one or two shifts daily, each building up to 300 cars per shift.

The paper also said, however, that because most workers had already planned holidays during the three-week production pause scheduled between July 15 and August 2, interest had not yet been sufficient.

(Reporting by Christiaan Hetzner in Frankfurt and Jan Schwartz in Hamburg; Editing by Marilyn Gerlach and Patrick Graham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/volkswagen-ponders-extra-golf-production-holidays-115757311.html

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Snowden leaves Hong Kong, may head for Venezuela

By James Pomfret and Lidia Kelly

HONG KONG/MOSCOW (Reuters) - An aircraft believed to be carrying Edward Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday after Hong Kong let fugitive former U.S. security contractor leave the territory, frustrating Washington's efforts to extradite him on espionage charges.

The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Snowden was heading for a "democratic nation" which it did not name, although a source at the Russian airline Aeroflot said he would fly on within 24 hours to Cuba and then planned to go to Venezuela.

Snowden's departure from Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to China in 1997, is likely to be highly embarrassing for the administration of President Barack Obama. U.S. authorities had said only on Saturday they were optimistic Hong Kong would cooperate over Snowden, who revealed extensive U.S. government surveillance in the United States and abroad.

Moscow airport officials said the flight from Hong Kong had landed but could not immediately confirm Snowden was on board. However, a source at Aeroflot said he had booked a seat on the service.

Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency, had been hiding in Hong Kong since leaking details about the U.S. surveillance activities to news media.

In their statement announcing Snowden's departure, the Hong Kong authorities said they were seeking clarification from Washington about reports of U.S. spying on government computers in the territory.

The Obama administration has previously painted the United States as a victim of Chinese government computer hacking.

Earlier this month Obama called on his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to acknowledge the threat posed by "cyber-enabled espionage" against the United States and to investigate the problem when they met in California. Obama also met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Northern Ireland last week.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said it had allowed the departure of Snowden - regarded by his supporters as a whistleblower and by his critics as a criminal and perhaps even a traitor - because the U.S. request to have him arrested did not comply with the law.

In Washington, a Justice Department official said it would seek cooperation with countries Snowden may try to go to.

"It's a shocker," said Simon Young, a law professor with Hong Kong University. "I thought he was going to stay and fight it out. The U.S. government will be irate."

OBAMA AGENDA SIDELINED

Obama has found his domestic and international policy agenda sidelined as he has scrambled to deflect accusations that the surveillance violates privacy protections and civil rights. The president has maintained it has been necessary to thwart attacks on the United States, and the U.S. government filed espionage charges against Snowden on Friday.

A source at Aeroflot said Snowden would fly from Moscow to Cuba on Monday and then planned to go on to Venezuela. Reporters at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport said there was no immediate sign of Snowden, but Russian media suggested he may have been whisked away by car to a foreign embassy in the capital.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper said earlier his final destination might be Ecuador or Iceland.

The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website said it helped Snowden find "political asylum in a democratic country".

The group said he was accompanied by diplomats and was travelling via a safe route for the purposes of seeking asylum. Sarah Harrison, a legal researcher working for the WikiLeaks, was "accompanying Mr. Snowden in his passage to safety".

"The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden's rights and protecting him as a person," former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, legal director of WikiLeaks and lawyer for the group's founder Julian Assange, said in a statement.

"What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange - for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest - is an assault against the people."

Assange has taken sanctuary in the Ecuadorean embassy in London and said last week he would not leave even if Sweden stopped pursuing sexual assault claims against him because he feared arrest on the orders of the United States.

U.S. authorities have charged Snowden with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.

The United States had asked Hong Kong, a special administrative region (SAR) of China, to send Snowden home.

"The U.S. government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden," the Hong Kong government said in a statement.

"Since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the U.S. government to provide additional information ... As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

It did not say what further information it needed.

The White House had no comment.

CHINA SAYS U.S. "BIGGEST VILLAIN"

Although Hong Kong has an independent legal system and its own extradition laws, China controls its foreign affairs. Some observers see Beijing's hand in Snowden's sudden departure.

Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden, a former employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said earlier this month that Russia would consider granting Snowden asylum if he were to ask for it and pro-Kremlin lawmakers supported the idea, but there has been no indication he has done so.

The South China Morning Post earlier quoted Snowden offering new details about the United States' spy activities, including accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile telephone companies and targeting China's Tsinghua University.

Documents previously leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.

China's Xinhua news agency, referring to Snowden's accusations about the hacking of Chinese targets, said they were "clearly troubling signs".

It added: "They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age."

Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador are all members of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America who pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials.

(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in Shanghai, Nishant Kumar in Hong Kong and Andrew Cawthorne in Caracas; Alexei Anishchuk and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, and Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Felsenthal in Washington; Writing by Nick Macfie and David Stamp; Editing by Anna Willard)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-nsa-contractor-snowden-leaves-hong-kong-moscow-080843121.html

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Wing walker, pilot die in crash at Ohio air show

CINCINNATI (AP) ? A plane carrying a wing walker crashed Saturday at an air show and exploded into flames, killing the pilot and stunt walker instantly, authorities said.

The crash happened at around 12:45 p.m. at the Vectren Air Show at Dayton International Airport. No spectators were hurt.

A video posted on WHIO-TV shows the plane turn upside-down as the performer sits on top of the wing. The plane then tilts and crashes to the ground, exploding into flames as spectators screamed.

Ian Hoyt, 20, an aviation photographer and licensed pilot from Findlay, was at the show with his girlfriend. He told The Associated Press he was taking photos as the plane passed by and had just raised his camera to take another shot.

"Then I realized they were too low and too slow. And before I knew it, they hit the ground," he said.

He couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it appeared that the plane stalled and didn't have enough air speed, he said.

"I'm still shaking," Hoyt said. He said he had been excited to see the show because he'd never seen the scheduled performer ? wing walker Jane Wicker ? in action.

The names of those killed weren't immediately released, but a schedule on the event's website and the announcer at the show said Wicker was performing.

Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes and Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston confirmed the deaths to the AP.

The show was canceled for the rest of the day, but organizers said events would resume Sunday. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the crash.

Another spectator, Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, told the Dayton Daily News that he was watching the flight through binoculars.

"I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground. She was sitting on the bottom of the plane," he said. "I saw it just go right into the ground and explode."

Wicker's website says she responded to a classified ad from the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, Va., in 1990, for a wing-walking position, thinking it would be fun. Her full-time job was as a budget analyst for the Federal Aviation Administration, according to her website.

She told WDTN-TV in an interview this week that her signature move was hanging underneath the plane's wing by her feet and sitting on the bottom of the airplane while it's upside-down.

"I'm never nervous or scared because I know if I do everything as I usually do, everything's going to be just fine," she told the station.

Wicker wrote on her website that she had never had any close calls.

"What you see us do out there is after an enormous amount of practice and fine tuning, not to mention the airplane goes through microscopic care. It is a managed risk and that is what keeps us alive," she wrote.

In 2007, veteran stunt pilot Jim LeRoy was killed at the Dayton show when his biplane slammed into the runway while performing loop-to-loops and caught fire.

Organizers were presenting a trimmed-down show and expected smaller crowds at Dayton after the Air Force Thunderbirds and other military participants pulled out this year because of federal budget cuts.

The air show, one of the country's oldest, usually draws around 70,000 people and has a $3.2 million impact on the local economy. Without military aircraft and support, the show expected attendance to be off 30 percent or more.

___

Thomas reported from Philadelphia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wing-walker-pilot-die-crash-ohio-air-show-191655523.html

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Fighter jets to provide training in Jordan

WASHINGTON (AP) ? About a dozen U.S. fighter jets will be flying and conducting training operations in Jordan, poised to respond if needed to protect allies if the war in neighboring Syria spills over the border, U.S. administration officials said Friday.

The increased show of U.S. military might ? which brings the total number of U.S. forces in Jordan to as many as 1,000 ? should be seen as a signal to Syria that it must confine its 2-year-old civil war within its borders, officials said. The officials said it is meant to show that the U.S. is committed to its defense relationship with Jordan and that America intends to maintain a strong presence in the region.

The officials added, however, that the decision to keep the F-16 fighters there is not a first step toward establishing a no-fly zone around any parts of Syria and should not be interpreted as a move to begin staging American troops there for possible military action in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the mission publicly.

The F-16 fighters, along with a Patriot missile battery and about 700 U.S. troops, are staying in Jordan beyond an international military exercise, which ended this week. The decision significantly increases the number of U.S. troops in Jordan, adding to the approximately 250 that have been there for some time.

Jordan had asked the U.S. to leave some military troops and equipment behind.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved the order last week for the U.S. Air Force to leave the fighters there, and military officials have been working to carve out exactly what the troops' mission will be in the coming weeks and months. No date has been set for the forces to leave.

In a letter to congressional leaders, President Barack Obama said Friday, "the detachment will remain in Jordan, in full coordination with the government of Jordan, until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed."

The training mission also provides a way for the fighter pilots to meet their flight requirements. F-16 pilots are required to fly nine or 10 sorties a months in order to remain combat ready.

The added U.S. military support to Jordan comes as the Obama administration hammers out details to provide lethal aid for Syrian rebels.

U.S. officials announced earlier this month that they had conclusive evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against opposition forces. The White House said multiple chemical attacks last year killed up to 150 people.

As a result, officials said that Obama authorized sending weapons to Syrian opposition groups ? a policy shift after months of wrangling over whether or not the chemical weapons had actually been used. Obama had said that the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line" triggering greater U.S. involvement in the civil war.

Syrian rebels have been pressing for additional weapons, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, but administration officials have worried that high-powered weapons could end up in the hands of terrorist groups. Hezbollah fighters are among those backing Assad's armed forces, and al-Qaida-linked extremists back the rebellion.

Officials have said that the CIA would largely coordinate the delivery of arms to the rebels.

The CIA has led U.S. outreach to the rebels from outside Syria, meeting them at refugee camps and towns along the Turkish and Jordanian borders. CIA paramilitary officers, as well as special operations trainers, have trained select groups of rebels in Jordan on the use of encrypted communications equipment ? the nonlethal aid provided by the Obama administration ? and they have helped the rebels learn how to fire anti-aircraft weapons and small arms provided by Gulf states.

The U.S. troops were in Jordan for a 12-day military exercise, dubbed Eager Lion, which ended this week. It included land, air and sea maneuvers across the country and involved about personnel from 19 Arab and European nations.

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fighter-jets-training-jordan-212638451.html

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Cameron And Tyler Winklevoss Tell Us Why They're So Bullish On Bitcoin [TCTV]

Screen shot 2013-06-20 at 3.21.55 PMCameron and Tyler Winklevoss first emerged as household names in the tech world because of their contentious relationship with that major social networking company and its famous founder. But these days, their focus has shifted onto a new area of the tech industry that's very different (though no less controversial): Bitcoin.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/j5RstTUkkfM/

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Report: NSA can keep US records indefinitely

A banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district, Thursday, June 20, 2013. A WikiLeaks spokesman who claims to represent Snowden has reached out to government officials in Iceland about the potential of the NSA leaker applying for asylum in the Nordic country, officials there said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district, Thursday, June 20, 2013. A WikiLeaks spokesman who claims to represent Snowden has reached out to government officials in Iceland about the potential of the NSA leaker applying for asylum in the Nordic country, officials there said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

(AP) ? The National Security Agency can keep copies of intercepted communications from or about U.S. citizens if the material contains significant intelligence or evidence of crimes.

That's according to exemptions in NSA's top secret rules published Thursday in the latest leak of classified U.S. materials.

Top secret documents published by The Guardian describe how NSA must first build a case in order to target a foreigner for phone or Internet surveillance. The documents also describe how the agency is to make sure the person is outside the U.S. ? and not an American.

But if the target is communicating with an American, the record of contact can be kept indefinitely. Administration officials have said material NSA inadvertently gathers on Americans is destroyed. NSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-20-NSA%20Surveillance/id-3dce72cb771c48ca8a7baf49ba4f5481

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

Microsoft Heeds Gamer Feedback, Dumps Xbox One DRM Restrictions

ps4Attention gamers: you win. The folks at Redmond infuriated many when it revealed that the Xbox One would come with a long list of potential caveats -- there was the automated 24 hour check-in to keep the console in playable condition, and the restrictions on who you could share disc-based games with, not to mention the fact that it would shipped region-locked. Unsurprisingly, the gaming community lashed out in a big way, and Microsoft is finally doing something about it. According to a recent mea culpa from Microsoft Interactive Entertainment President Don Mattrick, the company has suddenly decided to drop all that nonsense due to an outpouring of (largely negative) feedback.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/-yWWquk8tTA/

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Ask Engadget: help me tame my home network!

Ask Engadget help me tame my home network!

We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Daniel, who needs our help to tame his home network. If you're looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

"My home network is a mess. It used to be simple, after all, you'd just need a modem to connect to your ISP and a router. Lately, however, I've been adding more components like a NAS, a Z-Wave bridge, a 3G microcell and a computer for telecommuting. All of these things need a wired connection, which means I'm going to need to buy an eight-port switch sooner rather than later. As consumer hardware isn't designed to be uniform and stackable, I'm now living in a mess! What I'd like to know is how others have tidied up -- did you find an off-the-shelf cabinet or do I need to start building something on my own?"

Here's where we turn the question over to you, our loyal Engadgeteers, to help solve and spread some peace through the gadget ecosystem this Saturday night. If you've tamed your own out-of-control home network, share your experiences below.

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Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/15/ae-network-mess/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Samsung analysts ask hard questions as S4 marketing charm wears off

By Miyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - Analysts fell under Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's marketing spell when they made what they now admit were hopelessly optimistic forecasts for its smartphone sales.

Samsung's huge share of the high-end smartphone market also persuaded some analysts to downplay industry data pointing to a fast-saturating segment, a reality that is already eating into sales of Apple Inc's iPhone 5.

Woori Investment & Securities, one of South Korea's largest securities firms, cut its outlook for Samsung's earnings and target share price on June 5. It was the first to adjust its view.

A massive wave of downgrades has since followed, with forecasters including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs taking a harder look at their assumptions of how well the S4, Samsung's latest Galaxy smartphone, would actually do.

Sales estimates for the S4 were slashed by as much as 30 percent, stirring investor concerns over Samsung's mobile devices division - the company's biggest profit generator.

Investors in the South Korean IT giant have paid dearly. Samsung lost nearly $20 billion in market value in a week as shares plunged following the downgrades.

"I'd say most forecasters including myself had this conviction that they'll outperform again - because it's Samsung," said Byun Hanjoon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities. "They had beaten expectations before, which led many to believe they are bound to excel again with the S4."

The S4 sold 10 million sets in just one month of its debut in late April, outperforming its predecessor, the S3.

Yet analysts now say the high-end smartphone segment is slowing, citing lacklustre prospects in Europe and South Korea in particular.

The S4, in reality, also lacks any real wow factor, they say.

"The Street, including Goldman Sachs, admittedly extrapolated the first-quarter earnings momentum through the year," Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Bang said in a report. "This resulted in very optimistic earnings expectations."

Most analysts have reduced their estimates for S4 shipments to around 7 million units a month from their previous average expectation of 10 million.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has lowered its S4 sales estimate for this year by 5 million to 65 million units.

Some analysts say a loss in potential sales of 5 million S4 units would cut around $1 billion of Samsung's operating profit.

"S4 sales are solid. It's just that some analysts had higher expectations and then they lowered them," J.K. Shin, head of Samsung's mobile devices division, told reporters last week.

Over the past month, 17 out of 43 analysts have downgraded their earnings estimates for Samsung, leading to a 0.6 percent drop in their average forecast for the company's April-to-June earnings to 10.4 trillion won ($9 billion), according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

The lowered forecast, however, would still be a quarterly record.

Many analysts say weaker-than-expected S4 sales will not necessarily stop Samsung from posting record quarterly profits. The company has diversified into many segments of the smartphone market, Merrill Lynch says.

MID-TIER PHONES

Still, the scale of the downgrades has cast a shadow on Samsung's dominance in the $250 billion smartphone market.

Doing it no favour, Chinese rivals are aggressively growing their market share, aided by strong sales of mid-tier models - a segment in which Samsung has relatively weak positioning, according to analysts.

The mid-tier segment accounted for less than 15 percent of Samsung's total shipments last year.

Analysts say Samsung has to focus on this lower tier in the medium term.

The high-end segment is losing momentum, with manufacturers struggling to differentiate themselves and consumers calling for a leap in innovation, they say.

To be sure, Samsung has not sat idle.

It has gradually expanded its offerings. Among four varieties of the S4 introduced in recent weeks, there was one stripped-down version called the Galaxy Mini.

By comparison, Apple has had no new offerings since the iPhone 5 hit the market in September last year.

Samsung bulls are also pinning their hopes on product launches later this year including the Galaxy Note 3, a phone-tablet hybrid.

Some analysts say conservative forecasts will prevail.

"Expectations for innovation have been lowered, and I don't think there'll be as much buzz surrounding new product launches as it used to be," said Byun at KB.

Samsung's stock, which slumped to a six-month low on Thursday, inched up 0.9 percent on Friday.

($1 = 1134.4000 Korean won)

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Ryan Woo)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-analysts-ask-hard-questions-s4-marketing-charm-210603000.html

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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Kennedy, Mattingly, Gibson among 8 suspended

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, center, yells at members of the Arizona Diamondbacks while umpire Manny Gonzalez holds him back as Jerry Hairston Jr. looks on after starting pitcher Zack Greinke was hit by a pitch during the seventh inning of their baseball game, Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, center, yells at members of the Arizona Diamondbacks while umpire Manny Gonzalez holds him back as Jerry Hairston Jr. looks on after starting pitcher Zack Greinke was hit by a pitch during the seventh inning of their baseball game, Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, second from left, and Arizona Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson shake hands as umpires watch prior to their baseball game, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Yasiel Puig, below, is seen to by Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero after being grazed by a pitch as home plate umpire Clint Fagan signals during the sixth inning of their baseball game, Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Yasiel Puig, left, is seen to by trainers after being grazed by a pitch as manager Don Mattingly looks on during the sixth inning of their baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Yasiel Puig, left, is seen to by trainers after being grazed by a pitch during the sixth inning of their baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

(AP) ? Arizona pitcher Ian Kennedy was suspended for 10 games and Diamondbacks infielder Eric Hinske for five Friday for their roles in a brawl this week, while managers Don Mattingly and Kirk Gibson were given one-game bans.

In all, eight members of the Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers organizations were suspended by Major League Baseball Senior Vice President Joe Garagiola Jr.

He cited Kennedy for intentionally throwing a pitch at the head of Zack Greinke after a warning had been issued on Tuesday night and Hinske for leaving the dugout and "aggressive actions." Mattingly was penalized for his conduct and Gibson for Kennedy's actions following a warning.

Dodgers pitcher J.P. Howell and infielder-outfielder Skip Schumaker were suspended two games apiece for "aggressive actions" and Los Angeles hitting coach Mark McGwire two games for his conduct.

Los Angeles pitcher Ronald Belisario was suspended one game for "aggressive actions."

All eight were fined, as were Greinke, Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, Arizona catcher Miguel Montero and Diamondbacks outfielder Gerardo Parra.

MLB fined the Dodgers for allowing players on the disabled list to leave the dugout and enter the field during the brawl. MLB also banned disable list players on the Dodgers and Diamondbacks from sitting in their dugouts through Sunday.

Mattingly was to serve his penalty during Friday night's series opener at Pittsburgh and Gibson during Arizona's game at San Diego. McGwire was to miss games Friday and Saturday.

If players appeal, they're penalties are held off until after hearings and decisions.

Kennedy hit Puig with a pitch that deflected off his back to his nose in the sixth, and Greinke hit Montero on the back in the seventh, drawing a warning from umpires. Both teams charged onto the field, but the scrum broke up quickly with no punches thrown.

Kennedy then hit Greinke on the upper left shoulder in the bottom half of the inning, and the ball deflected off his helmet. A prolonged and more heated scuffle ensued against a railing on the first-base side.

Kennedy, Gibson and Diamondbacks coach Turner Ward were ejected after the shoving match. Puig, McGwire and Dodgers reliever Ronald Belisario also were tossed.

Mattingly had to be restrained as he tried to get at Gibson, and they exchanged words briefly. McGwire and third base coach Matt Williams grabbed each other's shirts in a tense standoff and shouted at each other.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-14-BBN-Diamondbacks-Dodgers-Suspensions/id-96d80f1cd82f4098a19452c258eac04b

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Friday, June 14, 2013

Simi Teacher Arrested in Student Sex Scandal

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/simi-teacher-arrested-in-student-sex-scandal/

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App Deals Of The Day: Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone

Left vs Right now free on Android, Agricola now available on iOS, Beyond Ynth HD now free on iPad, Civilization Revolution reduced to 99c on Windows Phone, plus lots more. Deals end without warning, so be quick or miss out!

This is a hand-picked list of apps that we think are worth checking out, but we do not endorse them in any way, nor have we reviewed them.

Productivity and lifestyle apps are listed first. Games are stacked towards the bottom of each list. Otherwise, the apps are not listed in any particular order. Some apps may require in-app purchases for extra features or levels.

Android

? PixelPhone Pro reduced to $1.99 (normally $3.99)
? Sweet Pixels ? Live Wallpaper for free (new)
? iFunFace ? Create Funny Videos for free (new)
? Vodio Personal Video Curator for free (new)

? Despicable Me by Gameloft for free (new)
? Left vs Right ? A brain game now free (normally $0.99 ? Amazon Free App of the Day)
? Cut My Puzzle (photo jigsaw) now free (normally $24.99)
? Yesterday reduced to $0.99 (normally $2.49)
? Same Game Physics + for free (new)
? Commander Keen in Keen Dreams for $0.99 (new)
? DaVinci 2: Renaissance for free (new)
? Stargate SG-1: Unleashed Ep 1 for $2.99 (new)

iOS

? Groove: Smart Music Player for iPhone and iPad now free (normally $4.49)
? PDF Reader ? iPhone Premium Edition reduced to $0.99 (normally $2.99)
? Caged for free (new)

? Toca Hair Salon 2 now free (iTunes App of the Week)
? Agricola for $7.49 (new)
? Despicable Me: Minion Rush for free (new)
? Sherlock Holmes 2 for free (new)

iPad Only

? Photo Calendar & Drawings for iPad now free (normally $1.99)

? Beyond Ynth HD now free (normally $2.99)
? Palm Kingdoms 2 Deluxe reduced to $0.99 (normally $5.49)

Windows Phone

? CoPilot GPS for free (now available for WP8)
? Weather Flow reduced to $0.99 (normally $2.49)

? Fairway Solitaire by Big Fish for free (new)
? Civilization Revolution reduced to $0.99 (normally $7.49)
? Farming Simulator reduced to $1.99 (normally $3.99)
? Wordness for free (new)


App Deals is a daily roundup of notable new, updated and discounted apps. Know of any other awesome deals? Are you a developer and want your app listed here? Leave a comment or contact us.

Source: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/06/app-deals-of-the-day-android-iphone-ipad-windows-phone-121/

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Journalist: Snowden fled US fearing unfair trial

HONG KONG (AP) ? The American intelligence contractor who disclosed U.S. government surveillance programs fled to Hong Kong because he believed he wouldn't get a fair trial in his home country, the journalist who broke the story said Monday.

Glenn Greenwald of the British-based Guardian newspaper said Edward Snowden chose the semiautonomous Chinese region because it was the least bad option open to him.

Greenwald said in an interview that Snowden wants to remain out of the "clutches" of the U.S. government for as long as possible but is fully aware that he won't succeed.

Snowden says he worked as a contractor at the National Security Agency and the CIA.

He allowed the Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers to reveal his identity on Sunday as the source of a series of top-secret documents outlining two NSA surveillance programs.

The Guardian reported that Snowden arrived in Hong Kong on May 20. He checked out of the Mira Hotel on Monday and his current location is unclear.

The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into the leaks at the request of the NSA.

"If the Justice Department does end up indicting him, which almost certainly it will ? it's basically inevitable at this point ? he doesn't really trust the judicial system in the United States to give him a fair trial," Greenwald said in Hong Kong.

"I think if he trusted the political system and the political culture in the United States he would have just remained there and said 'I did what I did and I want to defend it,'" Greenwald said.

He said Snowden chose Hong Kong because it has a history of strong political activism, free speech and respect for the rule of law. But he added that once Snowden decided to leak the information, "all of the options, as he put it, are bad options. There were no good options for him."

Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997 but was allowed to retain a high degree of autonomy and its own legal system. The city has an extradition treaty with the U.S., but it contains some exceptions, including for crimes deemed political.

Greenwald said Snowden had watched with concern the court martial of Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private on trial for handing a trove of classified material to WikiLeaks, and that it had raised fears for him about secrecy and "abridgement of due process."

Snowden, 29, believes he will eventually end up with the same fate as Manning, Greenwald said.

"I think that his goal is to avoid ending up in the clutches of the U.S. government for as long as he can, knowing full well though that it's very likely that he won't succeed and he will end up exactly where he doesn't want to be," Greenwald said.

Snowden told The Guardian that he hoped for asylum in Iceland, which he believed was a champion of Internet freedom, though Greenwald said as far as he was aware, he hadn't filed a claim for asylum anywhere.

When asked why Snowden didn't just head to Iceland, Greenwald said he was unsure but guessed that because the North Atlantic nation is a small country, it would find it much more difficult to say no to the United States than Beijing or Hong Kong.

"There's a lot of history in terms of small Scandinavian countries or small countries in Europe succumbing to U.S. demands and doing things that are contrary to their values or even their law," Greenwald said. "I think he feels that won't happen here."

It's unclear how Snowden, who earned $200,000 a year while working at Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., was funding his stay in Hong Kong. Greenwald said he had been "living on credit cards essentially for the last several weeks."

But he added that since Snowden revealed his identity, he has been contacted by "countless people" offering to pay for "anything he might need."

___

Follow Kelvin Chan on Twitter at twitter.com/chanman

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/journalist-snowden-fled-us-fearing-unfair-trial-161050096.html

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Grandmother says she watched officer shoot girl, 7

DETROIT (AP) ? Beneath a multi-colored quilt of Disney cartoon characters, 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones lay peacefully on the living room couch of her grandmother's first-floor flat on Detroit's east side.

Mertilla Jones lay at the other end, having recently put the girl to sleep.

Within seconds ? maybe as few as three ? a stun grenade smashed through a window, exploding over the couch. Armed, black-clad and masked police officers swarmed into the living room and, moments later, Aiyana lay bleeding to death with a gunshot wound to her head.

"As soon as they came in, their guns were just pointing right there, and he pulled the trigger," Aiyana's grandmother, Mertilla Jones said Monday of Joseph Weekley during the Detroit police officer's involuntary manslaughter trial in Wayne County Circuit Court.

"I seen the light leave out of her eyes and the blood started gushing out her mouth and she was dead," testified the 50-year-old Jones, who then broke into tears.

For members of the Detroit police special response team, the May 2010 nighttime raid on the two-family flat on Lillibridge was one of hundreds they had taken part in as a unit. This time they were being shadowed by a crew from the reality TV show, "The First 48."

Armed with an MP5 submachine gun and behind a shield, team veteran Weekley was selected as point man for the operation ? tasked with being first into the home in search of murder suspect, Chauncey Owens.

Weekley has said his gun accidentally fired when Mertilla Jones bumped into him or grabbed it. Prosecutors say he was negligent in failing to control his weapon.

Jones testified she rolled onto the floor after the noise and flash from the grenade, and was on her stomach when Weekley stormed in.

She said Aiyana's head was propped against the armrest of the couch as she slept and Weekley was holding the gun right next to the armrest when his weapon discharged.

"The gun went off and shot her in the head. I started screaming and hollering. ... 'Y'all done killed my grandbaby,'" Jones told the courtroom.

Special response team member Larry Davis testified Monday that Weekley told him after the shooting that someone grabbed his weapon.

"I told him things would be OK. That's about it," Davis said.

Last week, a neighbor testified that he tried to tell officers before they raided the home that children were inside. Under cross-examination Monday, Jones said the officers were negligent.

"They knew there were children in there. So why would they come in there like that? They came to kill, and they killed a 7-year-old."

Davis, the officer who tossed the stun grenade, said the team was unaware children were inside.

When asked by prosecutors if knowing children were in the house would have forced police to change raid tactics, Davis responded: "Probably not."

It was Owens they were after. Two days before the raid 17-year-old Je'rean Blake was standing outside a neighborhood convenience store when he was shot to death following a dispute.

Mertilla Jones testified that Owens lived in the upper unit with her daughter, LaKrystal Sanders. Police found Owens in the upstairs flat and he was arrested.

Owens pleaded guilty in April 2011 to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 28 years in prison for Blake's slaying.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/grandmother-says-she-watched-officer-shoot-girl-7-164739315.html

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Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs

Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Deborah Robison
drobison@sanfordburnham.org
407-615-0072
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

A collaboration of scientists at Sanford-Burnham and the University of California, Santa Barbara, finds that rod-shaped particles, rather than spherical particles, appear more effective at adhering to cells

LA JOLLA, Calif., June 10, 2013 Conventional treatments for diseases such as cancer can carry harmful side effectsand the primary reason is that such treatments are not targeted specifically to the cells of the body where they're needed. What if drugs for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases can be targeted specifically and only to cells that need the medicine, and leave normal tissues untouched?

A new study involving Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute's Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., contributing to work by Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that the shape of nanoparticles can enhance drug targeting. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that rod-shaped nanoparticlesor nanorodsas opposed to spherical nanoparticles, appear to adhere more effectively to the surface of endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels.

"While nanoparticle shape has been shown to impact cellular uptake, the latest study shows that specific tissues can be targeted by controlling the shape of nanoparticles. Keeping the material, volume, and the targeting antibody the same, a simple change in the shape of the nanoparticle enhances its ability to target specific tissues," said Mitragotri.

"The elongated particles are more effective," added Ruoslahti. "Presumably the reason is that if you have a spherical particle and it has binding sites on it, the curvature of the sphere allows only so many of those binding sites to interact with membrane receptors on the surface of a cell."

In contrast, the elongated nanorods have a larger surface area that is in contact with the surface of the endothelial cells. More of the antibodies that coat the nanorod can therefore bind receptors on the surface of endothelial cells, and that leads to more effective cell adhesion and more effective drug delivery.

Testing targeted nanoparticles

Mitragotri's lab tested the efficacy of rod-shaped nanoparticles in synthesized networks of channels called "synthetic microvascular networks," or SMNs, that mimic conditions inside blood vessels. The nanoparticles were also tested in vivo in animal models, and separately in mathematical models.

The researchers also found that nanorods targeted to lung tissue in mice accumulated at a rate that was two-fold over nanospheres engineered with the same targeting antibody. Also, enhanced targeting of nanorods was seen in endothelial cells in the brain, which has historically been a challenging organ to target with drugs.

Nanoparticles already used in some cancer drugs

Nanoparticles have been studied as vessels to carry drugs through the body. Once they are engineered with antibodies that bind to specific receptors on the surface of targeted cells, these nanoparticles also can, in principle, become highly specific to the disease they are designed to treat.

Ruoslahti, a pioneer in the field of cell adhesionhow cells bind to their surroundingshas developed small chain molecules called peptides that can be used to target drugs to tumors and atherosclerotic plaques.

Promising results

"Greater specific attachment exhibited by rod-shaped particles offers several advantages in the field of drug delivery, particularly in the delivery of drugs such as chemotherapeutics, which are highly toxic and necessitate the use of targeted approaches," the authors wrote in their paper.

The studies demonstrate that nanorods with a high aspect ratio attach more effectively to targeted cells compared with spherical nanoparticles. The findings hold promise for the development of novel targeted therapies with fewer harmful side effects.

###

We acknowledge support from a California Institute of Regenerative Medicine Fellowship, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant DGE-1144085, and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program of the NSF under Award Division of Materials Research 1121053.

The study was co-authored by Poornima Kolhar, UC Santa Barbara; Aaron C. Anselmo, UC Santa Barbara; Vivek Gupta, UC Santa Barbara; Kapil Pant, UC Santa Barbara; Balabhaskar Prabhakarpandian, UC Santa Barbara; Erkki Ruoslahti, Sanford-Burnham and UC Santa Barbara; and Samir Mitragotri, UC Santa Barbara.

About Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Sanford-Burnham takes a collaborative approach to medical research with major programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is recognized for its National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and expertise in drug discovery technologies. Sanford-Burnham is a nonprofit, independent institute that employs 1,200 scientists and staff in San Diego (La Jolla), California, and Orlando (Lake Nona), Florida. For more information, visit us at sanfordburnham.org.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 10-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Deborah Robison
drobison@sanfordburnham.org
407-615-0072
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

A collaboration of scientists at Sanford-Burnham and the University of California, Santa Barbara, finds that rod-shaped particles, rather than spherical particles, appear more effective at adhering to cells

LA JOLLA, Calif., June 10, 2013 Conventional treatments for diseases such as cancer can carry harmful side effectsand the primary reason is that such treatments are not targeted specifically to the cells of the body where they're needed. What if drugs for cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases can be targeted specifically and only to cells that need the medicine, and leave normal tissues untouched?

A new study involving Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute's Erkki Ruoslahti, M.D., Ph.D., contributing to work by Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., at the University of California, Santa Barbara, found that the shape of nanoparticles can enhance drug targeting. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that rod-shaped nanoparticlesor nanorodsas opposed to spherical nanoparticles, appear to adhere more effectively to the surface of endothelial cells that line the inside of blood vessels.

"While nanoparticle shape has been shown to impact cellular uptake, the latest study shows that specific tissues can be targeted by controlling the shape of nanoparticles. Keeping the material, volume, and the targeting antibody the same, a simple change in the shape of the nanoparticle enhances its ability to target specific tissues," said Mitragotri.

"The elongated particles are more effective," added Ruoslahti. "Presumably the reason is that if you have a spherical particle and it has binding sites on it, the curvature of the sphere allows only so many of those binding sites to interact with membrane receptors on the surface of a cell."

In contrast, the elongated nanorods have a larger surface area that is in contact with the surface of the endothelial cells. More of the antibodies that coat the nanorod can therefore bind receptors on the surface of endothelial cells, and that leads to more effective cell adhesion and more effective drug delivery.

Testing targeted nanoparticles

Mitragotri's lab tested the efficacy of rod-shaped nanoparticles in synthesized networks of channels called "synthetic microvascular networks," or SMNs, that mimic conditions inside blood vessels. The nanoparticles were also tested in vivo in animal models, and separately in mathematical models.

The researchers also found that nanorods targeted to lung tissue in mice accumulated at a rate that was two-fold over nanospheres engineered with the same targeting antibody. Also, enhanced targeting of nanorods was seen in endothelial cells in the brain, which has historically been a challenging organ to target with drugs.

Nanoparticles already used in some cancer drugs

Nanoparticles have been studied as vessels to carry drugs through the body. Once they are engineered with antibodies that bind to specific receptors on the surface of targeted cells, these nanoparticles also can, in principle, become highly specific to the disease they are designed to treat.

Ruoslahti, a pioneer in the field of cell adhesionhow cells bind to their surroundingshas developed small chain molecules called peptides that can be used to target drugs to tumors and atherosclerotic plaques.

Promising results

"Greater specific attachment exhibited by rod-shaped particles offers several advantages in the field of drug delivery, particularly in the delivery of drugs such as chemotherapeutics, which are highly toxic and necessitate the use of targeted approaches," the authors wrote in their paper.

The studies demonstrate that nanorods with a high aspect ratio attach more effectively to targeted cells compared with spherical nanoparticles. The findings hold promise for the development of novel targeted therapies with fewer harmful side effects.

###

We acknowledge support from a California Institute of Regenerative Medicine Fellowship, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant DGE-1144085, and the Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers Program of the NSF under Award Division of Materials Research 1121053.

The study was co-authored by Poornima Kolhar, UC Santa Barbara; Aaron C. Anselmo, UC Santa Barbara; Vivek Gupta, UC Santa Barbara; Kapil Pant, UC Santa Barbara; Balabhaskar Prabhakarpandian, UC Santa Barbara; Erkki Ruoslahti, Sanford-Burnham and UC Santa Barbara; and Samir Mitragotri, UC Santa Barbara.

About Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is dedicated to discovering the fundamental molecular causes of disease and devising the innovative therapies of tomorrow. Sanford-Burnham takes a collaborative approach to medical research with major programs in cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, and infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. The Institute is recognized for its National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and expertise in drug discovery technologies. Sanford-Burnham is a nonprofit, independent institute that employs 1,200 scientists and staff in San Diego (La Jolla), California, and Orlando (Lake Nona), Florida. For more information, visit us at sanfordburnham.org.


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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/smri-son061013.php

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Saturday, June 1, 2013

Online Tools Every Writer Should Use ? Guest Post by Marcela De ...

Tools for writers
Image courtesy of Kittikun Atsawintarangkul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


Whether you?re just starting out in your freelancing writing journey or you?re a veteran author?working on your masterpiece, there is a plethora of online services and applications that should?be in every writer?s toolbox. From document sharing to copyright checks, to finding interviewees?to SEO assistance, there are more tools at a writer?s disposal for online success than ever?before.

The Associated Press Stylebook ? Starting with the old stalwart, the hard copy version of ?the Associated Press Stylebook is a well-known standard tool for writers. The online version?makes for a faster search and more environmentally-friendly than the original; it is a must-have?if you spend a lot of time writing news articles, or if the company you work for does not have a?set style. The AP Stylebook is a great resource to aid with consistency and grammar checks. A?fee is required to access the full site; once a member, you are able to access the site through?computer, tablet and smartphone.

Google Drive ? Another fairly straightforward writers? tool is Google Drive. Like Dropbox,?Google Drive is a cloud storage system with a host of web-based productivity tools and is ideal?for collaborative projects. Particularly useful for telecommuters, documents are easily uploaded?for review. Documents that are uploaded show when they were last edited and by whom.?Access to your work is permitted only by invitation or ?sharing.?

Copyscape ? This program is the ultimate tool for checking for any copyright issues. If content?has been plagiarized from someone else?s work, this program will highlight it. Even if you are?sure you haven?t accidentally lifted a sentence or two, it?s always wise to utilize this program?as clients tend to use it themselves to test any work they?ve been given. Always opt for the?premium Copyscape check as it?s far more accurate. Although it demands a small fee, the value?for money aspect makes this more than worthwhile.

tools for writers

Image courtesy of marin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Grammarly ? For the times you don?t want to review your work for the third time, and your?editor is not available, Grammarly will perform a quick grammar, punctuation and spelling check.?While far from being a replacement from the human eye, the program does provide tips and?advice to improve your writing.

Dragon Naturally Speaking ? Love Siri? If your carpal tunnel is acting up, but you have?a deadline to meet, Dragon Naturally Speaking is exactly what you need. With this speech?recognition program, you can dictate your story directly to your computer.

Sourcebottle ? Ideal for journalists, writers and bloggers who need to interview sources for?their articles, Sourcebottle can help you find an expert for your piece. A free service that is?particularly helpful when your cadre of resources has dried up, or if you are researching a very?specific topic. All you have to do is enter your information as well as what you?re looking for to?Sourcebottle. They contact relevant parties from their email database; interested parties will?email you with contact information.

These are just a few of the more popular tools available, with many more available to address?any number of needs. Online content writers can find SEO analytics tools to maximize their?performance; bloggers can find programs that will link them to like-minded companies to?improve traffic and affiliate marketing; and novel authors can find communities and outlets to?promote their work. Taking advantage of these online tools can lead to greater returns on work?written (and greater demand as well).

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer and online marketing professional in the Los Angeles?area. In addition to covering topics like health & wellness, travel, and music, she specializes in?social media and search marketing, which has been instrumental for her freelance career. Read?more of her articles on online marketing expertise at the Gryffin Media blog.

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Source: http://socialmedia4writers.com/2013/05/31/online-tools-every-writer-should-use-guest-post-by-marcela-de-vivo/

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