Son of US Air Force officer shot dead in accident (AP)

LONDON ? The teenage son of a U.S. Air Force officer based in Britain has been shot dead in what the military described Tuesday as a tragic accident.

An Air Force statement did not identify the father but said that he was a lieutenant colonel assigned to an academic exchange program at Oxford University. A spokesman for the force declined to release any details of the incident, but British authorities said the 13-year-old had been shot in the head on Sunday morning.

The incident happened in the village of Souldern, about a 20-minute drive from Oxford, the South Central Ambulance Service's communications manager James Keating-Wilkes said. The youngster was taken to Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital but later died of his injuries.

In a statement the local Thames Valley Police said that "while the exact circumstances are as yet unclear this incident is not being treated as suspicious."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_accidental_death

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Livestock, not Mongolian gazelles, drive foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) ? Wildlife health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society have published evidence which supports the conclusion that Mongolian gazelles -- one of the most populous large land mammals on the planet -- are not a reservoir of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), a highly contagious viral disease that threatens both wildlife and livestock in Asia.

Outbreaks of FMD in Mongolia affect domestic sheep, goats, camels, and cattle as well as Mongolian gazelles. In a country where roughly one-third of the human population relies directly on livestock production for their subsistence, outbreaks of FMD cause severe disruption of the rural economy.

The study, titled "Serosurveillance for Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Mongolian Gazelles (Procapra gutturosa) and Livestock on the Eastern Steppe of Mongolia," appears in the January edition of the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. The authors include: Sanjaa Bolortsetseg, Shiilegdamba Enkhtuvshin, Wendy Weisman, Amanda Fine, Angela Yang, and Damien Joly of the Wildlife Conservation Society; and D. Nyamsuren of the Dornod Aimag Veterinary Laboratory, Choibalsan, Dornod Province, Mongolia.

The Mongolian gazelle is a medium-sized antelope with a heart-shaped patch of white fur on its rump. The species gathers in vast migratory herds across Mongolia's Eastern Steppe, considered the largest intact temperate grassland in the world. The gazelle is under pressure from a variety of threats, particularly exploration for oil, gas, and minerals.

The research culminates a decade-long effort to examine the potential role of the gazelles in FMD ecology. In the recently published study (undertaken between 2005-2008), the research team collected blood samples from 36 gazelle calves and 57 adult gazelles in order to determine the prevalence of antibodies to the foot-and-mouth virus (FMDV). The team also collected samples from domestic animals kept in areas frequented by gazelles, including 138 sheep, 140 goats, 139 Bactrian camels, and 138 cattle for comparison.

The authors found that the patterns of FMDV antibody prevalence in gazelle populations reflect the dynamics of FMD in livestock across the Eastern Steppe of Mongolia. During 1998-99 (outbreak free years in livestock), researchers detected no antibodies in gazelles; conversely, during a FMD outbreak in livestock in 2001, researchers detected a 67 percent prevalence rate in gazelles. The recently published study examines the following outbreak free periods, during which the team noted a declining prevalence in FMDV antibodies in the gazelle population. Based on these observations, the authors conclude that the Mongolian gazelle population is not a reservoir for FMDV on the Eastern Steppe of Mongolia, but rather, the virus enters the gazelle population after spillover from livestock during sporadic outbreaks.

"The successful control of foot-and-mouth disease on the Eastern Steppe will require a program that focuses on livestock populations and entails health monitoring and vaccinations of domestic animals when needed," said WCS veterinary epidemiologist and co-author Shiilegdamba Enkhtuvshin.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wildlife Conservation Society.

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Journal Reference:

1. Sanjaa Bolortsetseg, Shiilegdamba Enkhtuvshin, D. Nyamsuren, Wendy Weisman, Amanda Fine, Angela Yang, and Damien O. Joly. Serosurveillance for Foot-and-Mouth Disease in Mongolian Gazelles (Procapra gutturosa) and Livestock on the Eastern Steppe of Mongolia. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, Jan 2012

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130172408.htm

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As GOP presidential contenders dogfight, how's Obama doing? (The Christian Science Monitor)

It?s way too early in the presidential campaign to make predictions about the 2012 outcome. But at this point, President Obama might confidently say, ?I?ve got ?em right where I want ?em.?

Front-runners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are battering each other rhetorically as Rick Santorum and Ron Paul circle around, trying to get a jab in here and there.

Obama?s approval ratings are inching back upwards as much of the electorate begins to see glimmers of hope in the economy. And if the election were held today, he would beat any one of them, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.

Over at Betfair and Intrade, meanwhile, participants in those online betting and election prediction websites give Obama a comfortable lead in his chances of being re-elected ? averaging 56 percent compared to 37 percent for Romney?s winning and just 2 percent for Gingrich. (Both Betfair and Intrade give Romney better than an 80 percent chance of being nominated ? Gingrich is down in single digits ? which gives some indication of Obama?s likely opponent and the way the incumbent is already framing his campaign.)

The Monitor's Weekly News Quiz for Jan. 21-27, 2012

The important thing for Obama come November will be how people feel about his tenure as president.

There?s no doubt that it?s been a rough three years as the economy faltered, housing foreclosures remained a major problem, and the US slowly ? very slowly ? disengaged from two costly and unpopular wars.

Then there was the sharp partisan divisiveness in Washington ? something Obama hoped to transcend.

His failure there can be measured by the relative party polarization in his approval/disapproval ratings ? among the highest divide between Democrats and Republicans since the Gallup organization began tracking that during Eisenhower administration. (Political polarization was even higher during some of George W. Bush?s years in office.)

Still, Gallup finds some hopeful signs for Obama.

?US economic confidence continues to improve, consistent with recent modest improvement in unemployment, positive news on jobless claims, and the general perception that the overall US economy is getting slightly better,? writes Dennis Jacobe, Gallup?s chief economist. ?This seems like good news for the nation's businesses as well as for President Barack Obama's re-election chances.?

NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll results out this week second that observation.

While Obama has a long way to go to be considered a solidly popular president, the latest numbers likely put a spring in his step.

?More people said they believe the economy will get better (37 percent) in the next year rather than worse (17 percent),? NBC reported. ?That?s the highest level in more than a year and a seven-point jump over last month.?

While the number of people who said the country is headed in the right direction remains a relatively dismal 30 percent, that?s up 8 points from last month and 13 points from October. Meanwhile, for the first time in seven months, more people approve of Obama?s job performance than disapprove (48-46 percent).

What?s the political import of such numbers?

?Republicans had better bring their A-game to the election in November,? said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey together with Democratic pollster Peter Hart. ?Today's results are a reminder ? as attitudes about the economy improve, so does President Obama's standing.?

With his State of the Union address to Congress this week (which got a better reception among average viewers than it did from many pundits and partisans, according to focus groups and post-speech surveys), followed by a jaunt around the country to talk about the economy, manufacturing, and education, Obama launched his re-election campaign.

He has the advantages of incumbency, from Air Force One to a traveling press corps always standing by. In his case, there also seems to be a self-confidence and ease of manner that were big parts of his success in 2008. In a few months we?ll know whether his personality, character traits, and those polling numbers hinting at a turnaround in public perception are enough to win him a second term.

The Monitor's Weekly News Quiz for Jan. 21-27, 2012

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20120128/ts_csm/457992

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Egyptians move to reclaim streets through graffiti (AP)

CAIRO ? The conflict between Egypt's ruling military and pro-democracy protesters isn't just on the streets of Cairo, it's on the walls as well, as graffiti artists from each side duel it out with spray paint and stencils.

Earlier this month, supporters of the ruling generals painted over part of the largest and most famous antimilitary graffiti pieces in the capital.

The military's supporters then made a 15-minute video using footage posted by two young men stenciling pro-revolution graffiti and wearing Guy Fawkes masks, the grinning face made famous by the movie "V for Vendetta". In an attempt mock the revolutionary street art, the military supporters declared in their video, "The police, military and people are one hand," and, "The military is a red line."

They posted the video online, calling themselves the "Badr Battalion" and describing themselves as "distinguished Egyptian youth who are against the spies and traitors that burn Egypt."

It was an ironic turnabout, with backers of the authorities picking up the renegade street art medium of revolutionary youth.

During the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt had almost no graffiti on the walls of its cities. But when the uprising against Mubarak's rule erupted a year ago, there was an explosion of the art.

Taking control of the streets was critical for the thousands of Egyptians who eventually overthrew the country's authoritarian leader. The battle continues to be fought by graffiti artists who support the country's military rulers and those who want them to relinquish power.

Since Mubarak's fall on Feb. 11, graffiti is everywhere in Cairo and other cities, proclaiming the goals of the revolution and mocking the regime. Graffiti artists have continued to work, using walls, buildings, bridges and sidewalks as a canvas to denounce the generals who took power after Mubarak as new dictators and to press the revolution's demands.

Usually anti-military graffiti has a short lifetime before it is quickly painted over or defaced with black spray paint. And just as quickly the artists put up more.

The graffito that pro-military supporters painted over had survived remarkably long. Mohamed Fahmy, known by his pseudonym Ganzeer, put it up in May under a bridge. It depicts a military tank with its turret aimed at a boy on his bike who balances on his head one of the wooden racks that are traditionally used to deliver bread ? though instead of bread, he's carrying a city. It was a symbolic reference to revolutionary youth who care for the nation, heading into a collision with the generals.

Quickly after it was partially stenciled over, a new graffiti was up, depicting the country's military leader as a large snake with a bloody corpse coming out of his mouth.

Graffiti has turned into perhaps the most fertile artistic expression of Egypt's uprising, shifting rapidly to keep up with events. Faces of protesters killed or arrested in crackdowns are common subjects ? and as soon as a new one falls, his face is ubiquitous nearly the next day.

The face of Khaled Said, a young man whose beating death at the hands of police officers in 2010 helped fuel the anti-Mubarak uprising, even appeared briefly on the walls of the Interior Ministry, the daunting security headquarters that few would dare even approach in the past.

Other pieces mock members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the council of generals that is now in power, or figures from Mubarak's regime.

When a police officer was captured on an Internet video shooting at the eyes of protesters during clashes, his image immediately dotted walls, urging people to find the "Eye-Sniper."

State television is another frequent target because it has become the mouthpiece for the military's proclamations that protesters are vandals, thugs and part of a plot to throw Egypt into chaos. One graffito shows the word "Occupy" written in the shape of the State TV building. Stickers plastered on walls show the words "Go down to the street" emerging from a television set, a message to the so-called "Couch Party," people who sit and watch the protests on TV.

"It's about a message in the street. It reaches the poor, the rich, the trash collector, the taxi driver," graffiti artist Karim Gouda said. "Most of these people are away from the Internet and the social networking world so it's a way to reach them."

Not everyone is receptive. Gouda said he was accosted by residents as he put up posters depicting a rotting face with the words "open your eyes before it's too late" in the impoverished Cairo district of Sayeda Zeinab. They accused him of trying to create civil strife and of trying to encourage Egypt's Christian minority to take over from the Muslim majority. Such accusations about activists were rife at the time after an October protest by Christians in Cairo, which was crushed by soldiers, killing more than 20.

The residents tore down Gouda's posters and chased him out of the neighborhood.

Under Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule, political expression on the streets was repressed by his powerful police forces. Once every five years, parliamentary elections would see the country littered with posters for elections that always favored the ruling party. Billboards advertising a lifestyle that only a privileged few could afford for companies whose owners were often closely affiliated with the regime towered over the sprawling slums of Cairo, a bustling city of some 18 million people.

"It's liberating to see," blogger Soraya Morayef said of the proliferation of street art.

Morayef, who has dedicated her blog Suzeeinthecity to documenting graffiti artists' work, said the street art reflects what happened in the whole country.

"The fear barrier was broken," she said.

___

Soraya Morayef's blog on graffiti: http://suzeeinthecity.wordpress.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_graffiti

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Cars circle central Moscow in anti-Putin protest (AP)

MOSCOW ? Thousands of cars flying white ribbons or white balloons circled central Moscow on Sunday in a show of protest against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The cars jammed the inner lanes all along the 16-kilometer (nearly 10-mile) Garden Ring, which has as many as 16 lanes of traffic at its widest points. More protesters stood along the side of the road waving white ribbons and flags as the cars passed, their horns blaring.

White ribbons became an opposition symbol during demonstrations to protest alleged fraud in a Dec. 4 parliamentary election said to have boosted the results for Putin's party.

Tens of thousands turned out for two mass protests last month to demand free and fair elections, and protest organizers are now preparing for a third big demonstration on Saturday.

Putin is running in a March 4 presidential election to reclaim the post he held from 2000 to 2008. He is expected to win, but is under pressure to show he can win fairly.

Sunday's action was seen as helping to build momentum for the protest movement and it provided another outlet for the creativity that has been a defining feature of the demonstrations.

While most drivers were content to tie white ribbons and balloons to their car antennas, sideview mirrors and door handles, some decorated their vehicles with original signs and banners.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_opposition

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Cruise ship fuel removal stalled due to rough seas (AP)

GIGLIO, Italy ? Rough seas off Italy's Tuscan coast forced a delay in the planned Saturday start of the operation to remove a half-million gallons of fuel from the grounded Costa Concordia, and officials said pumping may now not begin until midweek.

Recovery operations continued, however, and on Saturday yielded a 17th body: The woman who wasn't wearing a life jacket was found by divers on the submerged sixth floor deck, civil protection officials said.

The Concordia ran aground on Jan. 13 off the port of the island of Giglio port after the captain deviated from his planned route and gashed the hull of the ship on a reef. Some 4,200 passengers and crew endured a panicked evacuation after the abandon ship alarm didn't sound until the ship had capsized so much that some life boats couldn't be lowered.

Some 16 people remain unaccounted for and are presumed dead. The body discovered Saturday has not yet been identified.

The removal of the fuel aboard the Concordia is a key concern since the seas around Giglio form part of a protected marine sanctuary and are a favorite destination for scuba divers. So far, no leakage has been detected.

Dutch shipwreck salvage firm Smit has been contracted by the Concordia's owner Costa Crociere SpA, a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp., to remove the fuel. Smit's divers have made the necessary preparations to begin pumping out fuel from six outer tanks that hold more than half of the 500,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil that are aboard the ship.

The rest of the fuel is contained in inner tanks that are harder to access.

So far, divers have drilled into four of the six outer tanks and fixed valves on them: one on top, one on bottom. Hoses will then be attached to the valves and as the oil ? which must be warmed to make it less gooey ? is sucked out of the upper hose, sea water is pumped in to fill the vacuum via the lower hose.

Smit spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer told reporters Saturday that the pumping operation may not begin now until midweek since the poor weather is forecast at least through Tuesday. Officials don't want to risk the possibility that a battering of the hoses caused by rough seas might lead to leakage.

On Saturday, the choppy waters partially dislodged Smit's barge that was hitched to the Concordia's hull and had served as a staging platform for the fuel removal operation. Smit brought it back into port, where it will stay until the weather improves, Schuttevaer said.

The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, remains under house arrest, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning a ship before its passengers had evacuated. He has admitted he took the ship on "tourist navigation" to bring it close to Giglio but said the reef he hit wasn't marked on his nautical charts.

___

Winfield reported from Rome.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_ship_aground

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[OOC] order of the hawk: the edge of time

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Twitter Puts Its DMCA Takedown Requests Up For All To See

Yesterday's announcement that Twitter would be selectively censoring tweets based on country was not well-received. But part of that announcement was the assurance that the process would at least be transparent. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. They also mentioned that they were working with Chilling Effects to make notices and orders sent to Twitter publicly available. At the time of the post yesterday, the site wasn't up yet, but you can now browse it at chillingeffects.org/twitter.

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

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Greece, creditors edge closer to deal (Reuters)

ATHENS (Reuters) ? Greece and its private creditors made progress on Thursday in talks on restructuring its debt, both sides said, and they will continue negotiating on Friday with the aim of sealing an agreement within a few days.

Athens needs a deal quickly to avert a chaotic default when a major bond redemption comes due in March. Greece's creditors are demanding that the European Central Bank contribute to a deal to put the country's messy finances back on track.

"The talks focused on legal and technical issues and progress was made. They will continue on Friday and probably on Saturday too," a senior Greek government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"We aim to conclude the deal very soon."

The Institute of International Finance, which leads talks on behalf of creditors, similarly cited progress and said work would continue Friday. Neither side disclosed any details.

After weeks of wrangling over the coupon, or interest rate, Greece must pay on new bonds it will swap for existing debt, attention has shifted to whether the ECB and other public creditors will follow private bondholders in swallowing losses.

A day after International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said the ECB may need to accept losses on its Greek holdings, the European Union's top economic official also warned more public money will be needed to make up a shortfall in the country's second bailout.

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters "there is likely to be some increased need of official sector funding, but not anything dramatic." It was the first time a top EU official had said more public money than a planned 130 billion euro package would be required to rescue Greece.

Private bondholders have added to the pressure by insisting that others who bought bonds, and in particular the ECB, which is Athens' single biggest creditor, take part in the bond swap.

The swap, also known as the Private Sector Involvement, is aimed at slashing Greece's debt by getting creditors to write down their holdings by 50 percent nominally. Real losses are expected to be higher, depending on the terms involved.

"It would be outrageous if the ECB doesn't take part in the PSI as keeping their Greek bonds to maturity would allow them to make a profit, while everybody else is taking 70 percent (losses) or even more," one source close to the talks said.

The IIF wants public sector officials to be more decisive in negotiations over Greek debt, the bank lobby group's chairman and Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann told CNBC.

The ECB, which owns roughly 40 billion euros worth of Greek bonds, is no closer to agreeing on whether or not it will take losses on the Greek bonds it owns after a late night Wednesday meeting, euro zone central bank sources told Reuters.

Either way, a debt deal at the very latest must be clinched a month before 14.5 billion euros of bond redemptions fall due on March 20, the first source said, i.e., in just over three weeks.

If a deal is not reached by then, Greece could sink into an uncontrolled default that would trigger a banking crisis spreading contagion through the euro zone, though the ECB's creation of nearly half a trillion euros of three-year money for the banks in December has tempered that fear.

Debt-laden Italy saw its government bond yields and the cost of insuring against a default fall on Thursday, helped by solid demand for short-term debt at an auction.

COUPON STUMBLE

So far the coupon on the new bonds had been the main stumbling block in the negotiations.

On Monday, euro zone ministers rejected the creditors' offer of a 4 percent coupon on new bonds after Greece and its EU/IMF lenders held out for a 3.5 percent interest rate. They want the lower coupon to ensure the country's debt falls to a target of 120 percent of GDP by 2020, from around 160 percent now.

A second source familiar with the negotiations said the "coupon is parked for current time until we can get closer on detail of the overall package". Asked if that would include the ECB, the source said: "We would expect it to, still to be determined though."

Greek bankers and government officials said they had not heard of any new proposal from creditors, after local media reported they were willing to improve their "final offer" of a 4 percent interest rate on the new bonds to about 3.75 percent.

One Greek daily, Kerdos, said participation of public sector creditors including the ECB in the swap deal was a pre-condition for that offer.

"Until last week, we knew that the steering committee was authorized to concede up to 3.8 percent for the average coupon," one senior Greek banker told Reuters.

"But things are once again up in the air. You have to deal with politicians and 15 different governments asking for different things."

Exact details of Friday's meetings have yet to be scheduled, after IIF chief Charles Dallara left a meeting with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos late on Thursday.

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the debt swap talks were on a "good path".

Senior EU, IMF and ECB officials are holding talks with the Greek government in parallel with the debt swap talks, to flesh out a new 130-billion euro bailout for Greece. They have warned they need the debt swap to cut Greece's debt substantially in order to go ahead with the new loans.

Talks with the "troika" inspectors on the new bailout program are expected to go well into next week.

A senior German official said Greece was not expected to play a major role at the EU leaders summit on Monday and that Germany does not expect the troika to deliver a report on Greece's progress before the summit.

Greece has made little progress on reforms as it stumbles through its worst post-World War II economic crisis. The task facing the country has been made harder with anger against austerity measures and squabbling politicians running high.

A poll on Thursday showed Greece's conservatives had widened their lead over socialist coalition partners ahead of elections expected in April, but they would not win an absolute majority if elections were held now.

Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted in a German newspaper as saying the euro zone would probably have to support Greece longer than expected -- more than 10 years.

(Additional reporting by Sarah White and Sophie Sassard in London, Paul Taylor and Axel Threlfall in Davos, Harry Papachristou, Tatiana Fragou, Renee Maltezou and Karolina Tagaris in Athens; Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_greece

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The Maximum-Gluten Diet

When hippies and their mainstream sympathizers looked to reduce or eliminate their meat consumption in the late 1960s, tofu was well positioned to grab that market. It had been a staple of Asian cooking for centuries, and came to America with Asian immigrants. Nearly every 19^th-century Asian community in California, Oregon, and Washington state had its own manufacturer. America boasted 528 commercial tofu makers between 1925 and 1975, according to William Shurtleff, the Japanese vegetarian cuisine expert who became tofu?s great champion when he published his Book of Tofu in 1975. Shurtleff was profiled in a People magazine article that named Doris Day, Cheryl Tiegs, Bill Walton, and Gloria Swanson among the growing ranks of celebrity tofu-philes.

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Japan's 'Nuclear Alley' conflicted over reactors (AP)

OHI, Japan ? International inspectors are visiting a rugged Japanese bay so thick with reactors it is dubbed "Nuclear Alley," where residents remain deeply conflicted as Japan moves to restart plants idled after the Fukushima disaster.

The local economy depends heavily on the industry, and the national government hopes that "stress tests" at idled plants ? the first of which is being reviewed this week by the International Atomic Energy Agency ? will show they are safe enough to switch back on.

But last year's tsunami crisis in northeastern Japan with meltdowns at three of the Fukushima reactors has fanned opposition to the plants here in western Fukui prefecture, a mountainous region surrounding Wakasa Bay that also relies on fishing and tourism and where the governor has come out strongly against nuclear power.

"We don't need another Fukushima, and we don't want to repeat the same mistake here," said Eiichi Inoue, a 63-year-old retiree in the coastal town of Obama. "I know they added stress tests, but what exactly are they doing?"

"I oppose restarting them," he said.

Other residents said that economic realities made the plants indispensable, including Chikako Shimamoto, a 38-year-old fitness instructor in Takahama, a town that hosts one of the region's nuclear plants.

"We all know that we better not restart them," Shimamoto said. "But we need jobs and we need business in this town.

"Our lives in this town depends on the nuclear power plant and we have no choice," she said.

On Thursday, an IAEA team visited a plant in the village of Ohi to check whether officials at operator Kansai Electric Power Co. had correctly done the tests at two reactors. The tests are designed to assess whether plants can withstand earthquakes, tsunamis, loss of power or other emergencies, and suggest changes to improve safety.

Their visit, at Japan's invitation, appeared aimed at reassuring a skeptical public that authorities are taking the necessary precautions before bringing nuclear plants back on line.

Some experts are critical of the stress tests, saying they are meaningless because they have no clear criteria.

The government idled most plants for mandatory tests and maintenance after the Fukushima disaster. Currently, only four of Japan's 54 reactors are operating. If no idled plants get approval to restart, the country will be without an operating reactor by the end of April.

Before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear plants generated about 30 percent of the country's electricity. To make up for the shortfall, utilities are temporarily turning to conventional oil and coal-fired plants, and the government has required companies to reduce their electricity consumption.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has promised to reduce Japan's reliance on nuclear power over time, but it still needs some nuclear power until next-generation sources are developed.

In Fukui, 13 reactors at four complexes are clustered along a 55-kilometer (35-mile) stretch of coast with snow capped mountains facing the Sea of Japan. It's known as "Gempatsu Ginza," a phrase that roughly translates to "Nuclear Alley."

Only one of the 13 reactors is still running. The rest have been shut down for regular inspections required every 13 months. To start running again, they must pass the stress test.

Another hurdle will be gaining local support for the plants to restart. While local consent is not legally required for that to happen, authorities generally want to win local backing and make efforts to do so.

Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa, however, says he will not allow a startup of any of the prefecture's commercial reactors.

And the city assembly in Obama ? a town that briefly enjoyed international fame when it endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential race_ has submitted an appeal to the central Tokyo government to make Japan nuclear-free.

But officials in Mihama, another town that hosts a nuclear plant, have expressed support for the town's three reactors also operated by Kansai Electric, also called Kepco.

Fukui is a largely rural area, traditionally focused on fishing and farming, but it has a significant textile and machinery industry, and boasts of being a major producer of eye-glasses. Its nuclear power plants supply approximately half of all the electricity used in the greater Kansai region, which includes Osaka and Kyoto.

Several towns' fortunes are tied closely to the nuclear industry.

Community centers and roads are paid by the government subsidies for hosting the plants. Closing the plants not only means losing jobs for thousands of workers, but hardship for stores, restaurants and other service industries.

Many of those interviewed had family members, relatives or friends with jobs at the plants, and some refused to give their names due to fear of repercussions.

Noda has said the final decision on restarting nuclear plants would be political, suggesting that the government would override any local opposition if Japan's energy needs become dire.

Naozane Sakashita, a taxi and bus driver, said his salary had decreased "substantially" after the Ohi and other plants went offline.

"I think these idle plants should resume as soon as their safety is confirmed," he said. "Our jobs and daily life are more important than a disaster that occurs only once in a million years."

Still, he said he is concerned about the safety of the plants because his son works as a control room operator at the Takahama plant.

"If our economy prospers without compromising our safety, of course it would be best to live without nuclear energy," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_nuclear

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Giants vs. 49ers in NFC Championship: D?ja vu all over again?

What does NFL playoff history tell us about the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers? The Giants and 49ers have met in the NFL playoffs seven times in the last 30 years.

There are some New York baseball fans still upset with the Stoneham family for moving their Giants team west to San Francisco after the 1957 season. But that only has only added to the passion of the New York football Giants fans over the years when they've met with their brethren in San Francisco during the NFC playoffs several times in the past three decades.

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The New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers first met in the post-season at the end of the 1981 NFL season. San Francisco, behind quarterback Joe Montana, prevailed and went on to win the franchise's first Super Bowl over the Cincinnati Bengals.

The two teams met three more times in playoff games during the 1980s, playing in consecutive seasons from 1984 to 1986. In that last year, the Giants won? their first Super Bowl over the Denver Broncos.

Then, at the end of the 1990 season, the Giants and 49ers faced off for the first time in the NFC championship game in San Francisco. In a tough defensive struggle, the Giants prevailed behind five Matt Bahr field goals, 15-13.

New York went on to win its second Super Bowl title, beating the Bills when Buffalo kicker Scott Norwood missed a late field goal attempt.

The Giants and 49ers met twice more in the playoffs in subsequent years. San Francisco beat New York in a 1993 NFC divisional playoff game and a 2002 wild card contest.

What to expect this Sunday

The 1990 NFC championship game could offer a window on this Sunday's contest, as the Giants once again boast a highly-rated defense. And the 49ers, despite giving up 32 points to the New Orleans Saints in the divisional playoffs last Saturday, have a defense that has improved steadily throughout this 2011 season.

Giants defensive tackle Chris Canty says that he's expecting a physical game: ?This is not going to be a cute football game. It?s not going to be for the meek and mild."

Is it ever in a NFL playoff match?

Both teams field productive offenses, with the biggest difference coming at quarterback. Eli Manning of the Giants is a seasoned leader, and has a Super Bowl MVP award to his credit. The 49ers' Alex Smith will be enjoying his first NFL playoff go-around.

Giants and 49ers fans: Who do you think will win this time around ? and by what margin of victory?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/CCcDQ-zy_RQ/Giants-vs.-49ers-in-NFC-Championship-Deja-vu-all-over-again

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Heidi Klum, Seal Confirm Split

Supermodel says she and singer husband 'have grown apart' after separation rumors ran rampant over the weekend.
By Jocelyn Vena

Heidi Klum and Seal
Photo: Michael Tran/ Getty Images

Chalk it up to the "seven-year itch." Heidi Klum and Seal have confirmed they are separating after rumors of their split reached a fever pitch over the weekend.

"While we have enjoyed seven very loving, loyal and happy years of marriage, after much soul-searching we have decided to separate," Klum said in a statement to People.

For a look back at Heidi and Seal's relationship in photos, click here.

"We have had the deepest respect for one another throughout our relationship and continue to love each other very much, but we have grown apart. This is an amicable process and protecting the well-being of our children remains our top priority, especially during this time of transition." The statement continues, "We thank our family, friends, and fans for their kind words of support. And for our children's sake, we appreciate you respecting our privacy."

In the days leading up to the confirmation, the most telling hint that there was trouble in paradise came in a post from the singer. "The End," he tweeted on Friday. Klum recently attended the January 15 Golden Globes without her husband by her side. The duo was spotted together on a Christmas vacation to Aspen.

The usually very public couple married in May 2005 after meeting in 2003, and they were frequently were seen side-by-side on the red carpet. They also kept up a tradition of annual vow renewals. The couple have four children: Leni, 7 (Klum's daughter with a previous partner), Henry, 6, Johan, 5, and Lou, 2.

The split has nothing to do with infidelity, according to a source who told TMZ that "it was a long time in coming." The source added that Klum's busy career may have also contributed to the separation.

Were you surprised to hear that Heidi and Seal are splitting? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

Related Photos

• Heidi Klum And Seal: A Look Back

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677698/heidi-klum-seal-split.jhtml

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Sen. Rand Paul stopped by Tenn. airport security (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and a frequent critic of the Transportation Security Administration, was stopped by security at the Nashville airport Monday when a scanner set off an alarm and Paul declined to allow a security officer to subsequently pat him down. The White House said airport security acted appropriately.

Police escorted Paul away, but he was allowed to board a later flight. The security scanner identified an issue with the senator's knee, although Paul said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint.

Paul, who frequently uses the airport about an hour from his home in Bowling Green, Ky., told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security.

Paul said he was "detained" at a small cubicle and couldn't make his flight to Washington for a Senate vote scheduled later in the day.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not confirm that the incident involved Paul, but said the passenger in question was never detained. He defended the TSA.

"Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures, are denied access to the secure gate area," Carney said. "I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe and I believe that is what TSA is tasked with doing."

Paul said the situation reflects his long-standing concern that the TSA shouldn't be "spending so much time with people who wouldn't attack us."

TSA spokesman Greg Soule confirmed there was an incident but didn't identify the passenger as Paul.

"When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport," Soule said in a written statement. "Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling."

Carney said an alarm was triggered during routine screening, but the passenger refused to continue with the screening process to resolve the issue. Local police escorted Paul out of the screening area, he said.

Paul went through a millimeter wave machine that uses a generic outline of a body for all passengers, according to a TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss agency screening procedures. When an alarm goes off, TSA officers target the area of the body that triggered the alarm and pat down the passenger.

Paul's father, Ron Paul, used his son's experience to promote his "Plan to Restore America," which would cut $1 trillion of federal spending in a year and eliminate the TSA.

"The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities," Ron Paul said in a statement issued by his presidential campaign. "The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe."

Rand Paul told reporters at the airport that he had no idea why his knee raised concerns with TSA. He said he showed his knee to the security agents and doesn't have any medical hardware or issues in the knee.

"There is no problem. It was just a problem with their machine. But this is getting more frequent, and because everybody has to have a pat down it's a problem," Paul said.

Paul said he was in Denver two days ago and allowed to walk through the screener again and avoided the pat down.

He said he didn't want special treatment from TSA because he's a senator. "I think we need to treat everybody with dignity."

The TSA said Paul was allowed to board another flight after a different screening.

In a November Senate hearing, Paul asked TSA Administrator John Pistole to change the policy so that adults could go through the machines a second time when an alarm is triggered on the first attempt.

"Let us go back through the machine rather than get a pat-down. You'll get rid of a lot of the anger and animosity towards the TSA and towards what you're doing, and give us a little more dignity when we travel," Paul said. "Just let us go back through the screener again ? you know, I mean, people don't want to have a pat-down."

Paul is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee does not regulate TSA, but holds hearings about airport security.

___

Schelzig contributed to this story from Nashville. Writer Roger Alford contributed from Frankfort, Ky.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_go_co/us_rand_paul_flight

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Obama honors Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama saluted the NHL's Boston Bruins for their 2011 Stanley Cup championship on Monday, citing the city's run of professional team championships in recent years.

The Bruins won their first Stanley Cup title in 39 years last June after a bruising seven-game final series against the Vancouver Canucks.

It was the latest in a string of Boston sports championships, including the Celtics in 2008, the Red Sox in 2007 and the New England Patriots in 2005. The Patriots play in next month's Super Bowl.

"The Bruins, the Sox, the Celtics, now the Patriots. Enough already, Boston," Obama said during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. "What's going on, huh?"

Obama also jokingly invoked some New England slang in welcoming the Bruins, along with the Stanley Cup, to the White House.

"I know you are all wicked happy to be here," he said.

The president said there was no better image of the Bruins' dominance than when Zdeno Chara, the team's 6-foot-9 defenseman, hoisted the Stanley Cup above his head in Vancouver in celebration last spring.

"Which is, I'm sure, the highest that the Stanley Cup had ever been," he said.

Obama drew laughter from the crowd when he cited the scrappy play of Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who emerged as a star with five goals in the last five games of the finals against Vancouver.

"'The `Little Ball of Hate' shrugged off the rookie jitters," said Obama, adding "What's up with that nickname, man?"

There was a notable no-show. Goalie Tim Thomas, who was the playoff MVP last year, chose not to attend the event, a team spokesman said.

Obama praised the teamwork of the six-time champions.

"Together, these players proved that teamwork is everything," he said. "It can overcome injuries, it can overcome long odds."

Obama praised the team for its work off the ice as well, noting the Boston Bruins Foundation has donated more than $7 million to charities in New England.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_sp_ot/us_obama_bruins

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Is pork safe? High levels of MRSA bacteria in U.S. retail meat products, study suggests

ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2012) ? Retail pork products in the U.S. have a higher prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria (MRSA) than previously identified, according to new research by the University of Iowa College of Public Health and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

MRSA can occur in the environment and in raw meat products, and is estimated to cause around 185,000 cases of food poisoning each year. The bacteria can also cause serious, life-threatening infections of the bloodstream, skin, lungs and other organs. MRSA is resistant to a number of antibiotics.

The study, published Jan. 19 in the online science journal PLoS ONE, represents the largest sampling of raw meat products for MRSA contamination to date in the U.S. The researchers collected 395 raw pork samples from 36 stores in Iowa, Minnesota and New Jersey. Of these samples, 26 -- or about 7 percent -- carried MRSA.

"This study shows that the meat we buy in our grocery stores has a higher prevalence of staph than we originally thought," says lead study author Tara Smith, Ph.D., interim director of the UI Center for Emerging and Infectious Diseases and assistant professor of epidemiology. "With this knowledge, we can start to recommend safer ways to handle raw meat products to make it safer for the consumer."

The study also found no significant difference in MRSA contamination between conventional pork products and those raised without antibiotics or antibiotic growth promotants.

"We were surprised to see no significant difference in antibiotic-free and conventionally produced pork," Smith says. "Though it's possible that this finding has more to do with the handling of the raw meat at the plant than the way the animals were raised, it's certainly worth exploring further."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Iowa, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ashley M. O'Brien, Blake M. Hanson, Sarah A. Farina, James Y. Wu, Jacob E. Simmering, Shylo E. Wardyn, Brett M. Forshey, Marie E. Kulick, David B. Wallinga, Tara C. Smith. MRSA in Conventional and Alternative Retail Pork Products. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (1): e30092 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0030092

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120120182427.htm

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Boehner: Republicans may link pipeline to tax bill (reuters)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

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Turkish hospital performs triple limb transplant (AP)

ANKARA, Turkey ? A hospital in southern Turkey on Saturday was attempting the world's first triple limb transplant, attaching two arms and one leg to a 34-year-old man, the country's state-run news agency reported.

A team of doctors at Akdeniz University Hospital, in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya, was at the same time transplanting the face of the same donor onto another patient ? a 19-year-old man. It would be Turkey's first face transplant.

"Today could be a day of many firsts for the medical world," the Anadolu Agency quoted Dr. Zafer Aydin as saying.

"We are hoping that the operation is a success and that it is a world first," said Aydin, who heads the organ transplant unit at the hospital in western Turkey where the donor's limbs were removed. "Two arms and a leg have never been transplanted on one patient until today."

The hospital in Antalya said an announcement would be made after the surgery.

Anadolu said Atilla Kavdir, the 34-year-old receiving the limbs, lost his arms and right leg when he was 11 after he hit power lines outside his home with an iron rod to scare away pigeons and received an electric shock.

The teenage face transplant recipient was burned in a house fire when he was a baby.

The limbs and the face became available early on Saturday and the hospital began the operation at 3:15 a.m., Anadolu said.

The world's first double arm transplant was in Germany in 2008, while the first double leg transplant took place in Spain in July 2011.

More than a dozen face transplants have been carried out around the world, starting in November 2005 with a French woman who was mauled by her dog. The first face transplant in the U.S. was in December 2008.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_he_me/eu_turkey_multiple_transplants

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Obama, in Florida, unveils plans to boost tourism

CORRECTS BYLINE - President Barack Obama speaks about tourism and travel, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, along Main Street USA at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

CORRECTS BYLINE - President Barack Obama speaks about tourism and travel, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, along Main Street USA at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

CORRECTS BYLINE - President Barack Obama speaks about tourism and travel, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, along Main Street USA at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

President Barack Obama delivers remarks on tourism and travel, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, along Main Street USA at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama greets guests after speaking at the Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) ? Targeting prize electoral territory, President Barack Obama called Thursday for America to become the world's top travel destination, making an economic pitch to Florida voters from the Magic Kingdom ahead of an upcoming Republican presidential primary.

"America is open for business," Obama declared in his talk in front of the sun-splashed Cinderella Castle in the heart of Disney World. "We want to welcome you," he said.

Obama issued an executive order seeking to boost tourist visa processing in China and Brazil and took additional steps including promoting national parks and adding business executives to a tourism advisory board.

The goal is to significantly increase travel and tourism in the United States. The White House said that more than 1 million U.S. jobs could be created over the next decade, according to industry projections, if the U.S. increases its share of the international travel market.

"The more folks who visit America, the more Americans we get back to work. It's that simple," Obama said.

Trumpeting America's attractions, Obama rattled off a list of can't-miss tourist sites from Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks to the Golden Gate Bridge and the skyline of his native Chicago.

"We've got the best product to sell. I mean, look at where we are. We've got the most entertaining destinations in the world. This is the land of extraordinary natural wonders," he said.

Beyond the economic case, Obama's trip to the tourist mecca was the latest bid by the White House and his campaign to steal a share of the spotlight from Republicans vying for the GOP presidential nomination. Obama held a live video conference with Iowa voters during the Republican caucus, Vice President Joe Biden held a similar event with voters in New Hampshire on the night of the state's first-in-the-nation primary, and next week Obama will travel to Nevada, which follows Florida on the primary calendar.

Obama's high-profile trip to Florida could help him counter attacks on his record lobbed by Republican presidential candidates during stops across the state, where tough television ads are already airing. And it allows Obama to lay the groundwork for the general election campaign in Florida, a key political battleground he carried in 2008.

The state holds 29 electoral votes, making it a top target for both Obama and his Republican rivals. Florida twice backed Republican George W. Bush, providing the decisive electoral votes in the cliffhanger 2000 election that was decided after a 36-day recount.

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney greeted Obama with an open letter to the president running as an ad in Thursday's editions of the Tampa Bay Times. "Welcome to Florida," Romney says in the ad. "I have a simple question for you: Where are the jobs?"

"Perhaps there's some poetic justice in the president speaking from Fantasyland," Romney added in a conference call with reporters. "Because, I'm afraid, he's been speaking from Fantasyland for some time now."

A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed the president in a near-statistical tie with Romney in Florida in a head-to-head matchup.

Tourism is a key component of the economy in Florida, which is burdened by 10 percent unemployment and rampant home foreclosures. Thursday's tourism and travel announcement was part of the president's "We Can't Wait" initiative aimed at promoting executive actions Obama can take without congressional approval.

The White House said the travel and tourism industry represent 2.7 percent of gross domestic product and 7.5 million jobs in 2010. But the U.S. share of spending by international travelers fell from 17 percent to 11 percent between 2000 and 2010, due to increased competition and changes in global development, as well as security measures imposed after Sept. 11, 2001, according to the White House.

Obama's executive order aims to: boost non-immigrant visa processing capacity in China and Brazil by 40 percent this year; expand a Visa Waiver Program that allows participating nationals to travel to the U.S. for stays of 90 days or less without a visa; appoint a new group of chief executives to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, and direct an interagency task force to develop recommendations for a National Travel and Tourism Strategy, including promoting national parks and other sites.

That was good news to Brazilian visitors Lilian Lara and Lindbergh Souza, who welcomed the change in visa procedures as they shopped along the resort's streets hours before the president's speech.

"It will make things a whole lot better," said Lara, a 22-year-old student from Sao Paolo, who is working as a summer intern at the theme park resort.

Souza said the visa process was expensive, at $500, and also time consuming, especially for Brazilians who don't live close to consuls in Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo.

"The whole process took me six months," said Souza, who welcomed the president's efforts to speed up the visa process especially for visitors from Brazil and China.

The White House insisted the president's trip to Florida was not purely political, dismissing suggestions that his itinerary was connected to a slate of upcoming Republican primaries. Obama spokesman Jay Carney said there were few tourist destinations "as iconic as Disney World" and the tourist attractions surrounding Orlando represented a fitting place to talk about the president's initiatives.

From Florida, Obama was to fly to New York City for four glitzy campaign fundraisers, including an event at the famed Apollo Theater featuring performances by Al Green and India.Arie. Tickets to that fundraiser start at $100.

The president also was to attend a $35,800 per ticket fundraiser at the home of director Spike Lee, and two small fundraisers at Daniel, an exclusive Manhattan restaurant. Tickets start at $5,000 for the first restaurant fundraiser and $15,000 for the second.

___

Associated Press writer Mike Schneider contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-19-Obama/id-6525769344d445b7bd01cc3a8a886fb5

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Gender differences in liver cancer risk explained by small changes in genome

Public release date: 19-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Karen Kreeger
karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu
215-349-5658
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

PHILADELPHIA - Men are four times more likely to develop liver cancer compared to women, a difference attributed to the sex hormones androgen and estrogen. Although this gender difference has been known for a long time, the molecular mechanisms by which estrogens prevent -- and androgens promote -- liver cancer remain unclear.

Now, new research, published in Cell this week from the lab of Klaus Kaestner, PhD, professor of Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that the difference depends on which proteins the sex hormones bind next to. Specifically a group of transcriptional regulatory proteins called Foxa 1 and 2.

Normally, when mice are given a liver carcinogen, male mice develop many tumors while females get very few. Strikingly, this gender-related incidence of liver cancer was completely reversed in mice genetically engineered by the team to lack the Foxa genes after the team induced cancer. Using complex genomic analyses, the researchers could show that the actions of both estrogens and androgens in the liver are Foxa dependent, explaining the reversal in cancer risk.

But how does this translate to human liver cancer when there are 5,000 places in the human genome where Foxa factors can bind? The team looked for genetic markers called SNPs that intersect with Foxa protein binding. A SNP is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide, or DNA building block, differs between members of a biological species or paired chromosomes in an individual. Knowing that in women the estrogen receptor protects against liver cancer, they looked for SNP markers within Foxa binding sites in tissue samples from women with and without liver cancer.

Strikingly, women with liver cancer frequently had SNPs within specific Foxa binding sites. The researchers then showed that the mutated SNP acts not only to abolish binding of the Foxa proteins, but also of the estrogen receptor to its target sites nearby. This impairment of estrogen receptor binding is thought to result in loss of the protective effect of estrogens, and increased liver cancer risk. Future research will have to determine if the same holds true in reverse in men. In addition, if the human data are validated in larger cohorts of patients, this research might lead to tests for predicting the genetic risk of liver cancer.

###

This study was funded through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P01 DK049210).

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4 billion enterprise.

Penn's Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools and among the top 10 schools for primary care. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $507.6 million awarded in the 2010 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2010, Penn Medicine provided $788 million to benefit our community.

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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.

Public release date: 19-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Karen Kreeger
karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu
215-349-5658
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

PHILADELPHIA - Men are four times more likely to develop liver cancer compared to women, a difference attributed to the sex hormones androgen and estrogen. Although this gender difference has been known for a long time, the molecular mechanisms by which estrogens prevent -- and androgens promote -- liver cancer remain unclear.

Now, new research, published in Cell this week from the lab of Klaus Kaestner, PhD, professor of Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that the difference depends on which proteins the sex hormones bind next to. Specifically a group of transcriptional regulatory proteins called Foxa 1 and 2.

Normally, when mice are given a liver carcinogen, male mice develop many tumors while females get very few. Strikingly, this gender-related incidence of liver cancer was completely reversed in mice genetically engineered by the team to lack the Foxa genes after the team induced cancer. Using complex genomic analyses, the researchers could show that the actions of both estrogens and androgens in the liver are Foxa dependent, explaining the reversal in cancer risk.

But how does this translate to human liver cancer when there are 5,000 places in the human genome where Foxa factors can bind? The team looked for genetic markers called SNPs that intersect with Foxa protein binding. A SNP is a DNA sequence variation occurring when a single nucleotide, or DNA building block, differs between members of a biological species or paired chromosomes in an individual. Knowing that in women the estrogen receptor protects against liver cancer, they looked for SNP markers within Foxa binding sites in tissue samples from women with and without liver cancer.

Strikingly, women with liver cancer frequently had SNPs within specific Foxa binding sites. The researchers then showed that the mutated SNP acts not only to abolish binding of the Foxa proteins, but also of the estrogen receptor to its target sites nearby. This impairment of estrogen receptor binding is thought to result in loss of the protective effect of estrogens, and increased liver cancer risk. Future research will have to determine if the same holds true in reverse in men. In addition, if the human data are validated in larger cohorts of patients, this research might lead to tests for predicting the genetic risk of liver cancer.

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This study was funded through the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P01 DK049210).

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4 billion enterprise.

Penn's Perelman School of Medicine is currently ranked #2 in U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools and among the top 10 schools for primary care. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $507.6 million awarded in the 2010 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top 10 hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2010, Penn Medicine provided $788 million to benefit our community.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uops-gdi011312.php

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