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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46188844#46188844
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
Video: Clearing Up Facebook Fallacies
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Syria troops battle to retake Damascus suburbs, 19 die (Reuters)
AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Around 2,000 Syrian troops backed by tanks launched an assault to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels on Sunday, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of worsening violence.
They said 19 civilians and rebel fighters were killed as the soldiers in buses and armoured personnel carriers moved in at dawn, along with at least 50 tanks and armoured vehicles.
The forces of President Bashar al-Assad pushed into the Ghouta area on the eastern edge of Damascus to take part in an offensive in the suburbs of Saqba, Hammouriya and Kfar Batna.
Tanks advanced into the centre of Saqba and Kfar Batna, the activists said, in a move to flush out fighters who had taken over districts just a few kilometres from Assad's centre of power.
"It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," said one activist, speaking from Kfar Batna. Activists said 14 civilians and five insurgents from the rebel Free Syrian Army were killed there and in other suburbs.
The escalating bloodshed prompted the Arab League to suspend the work of its monitors on Saturday. Arab foreign ministers, who have urged Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity, will discuss the crisis on February 5.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby left for New York where he will brief representatives of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to seek support for an Arab peace plan that calls on Assad to step aside after 10 months of protests.
He will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the League's committee charged with overseeing Syria.
Speaking shortly before he left Cairo on Sunday, Elaraby said he hoped to overcome resistance from Beijing and Moscow over endorsing the Arab proposals. "There are contacts with China and Russia on this issue," he said.
A Syrian government official was quoted by state media as saying Damascus was surprised by the Arab League decision to suspend monitoring, which would "put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence."
Assad blames the violence on foreign-backed militants.
ARMY DEATHS
State news agency SANA reported funerals on Saturday for 28 soldiers and security force members killed by "armed terrorist groups" in Homs, Hama, Deraa, Deir al-Zor and Damascus province.
Another 24 soldiers were reported killed on Sunday. SANA said six soldiers were killed in a bombing southwest of Damascus, while the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 18 soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by army deserters in the northern province of Idlib.
Faced with mass demonstrations against his rule, Assad launched a military crackdown to subdue the protests. Growing numbers of army deserters and gunmen have joined the demonstrators, increasing instability in the country of 23 million people at the heart of the Middle East.
The insurgency has been gradually approaching the capital, whose suburbs, a series of mainly conservative Sunni Muslim towns bordering old gardens and farmland, known as the al-Ghouta, are home to the bulk of Damascus's population.
One activist reported heavy shelling in the suburb of Saqba, and said the army was facing stiff opposition from rebels.
Another, who identified himself as Raid, said mosques had been turned into field hospitals and were appealing for blood supplies. "They cut off the electricity. Petrol stations are empty and the army is preventing people from leaving to get fuel for generators or heating," he said.
The Damascus suburbs have seen large demonstrations demanding the removal of Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated the mostly Sunni Muslim country for the last five decades.
TOWN BESIEGED
In Rankous, 30 km (20 miles) north of Damascus by the Lebanese border, Assad's forces have killed at least 33 people in recent days in an attack to dislodge army defectors and insurgents, activists and residents said on Sunday.
Rankous, a mountain town of 25,000 people, has been under tank fire since Wednesday, when several thousand troops laid siege to it, they said.
France, which has been leading calls for stronger international action on Syria, said the Arab League decision highlighted the need to act.
"France vigorously condemns the dramatic escalation of violence in Syria, which has led the Arab League to suspend its observers' mission in Syria," the Foreign Ministry said.
"Dozens of Syrian civilians have been killed in the past days by the savage repression taken by the Syrian regime ... Those responsible for these barbarous acts must answer to their crimes," it said.
The Arab League mission was sent in at the end of last year to observe Syria's implementation of the peace plan, which failed to end the fighting. Gulf states withdrew monitors last week, saying the team could not stop the violence.
The United Nations said in December more than 5,000 people had been killed in the protests and crackdown. Syria says more than 2,000 security force members have been killed by militants.
On Friday, the U.N. Security Council discussed a European-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting the bloodshed. Britain and France said they hoped to put it to a vote next week.
Russia joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October, and has said it wants a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome" or Libyan-style "regime change.
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/wl_nm/us_syria
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Strike on summit day shows task at hand
BRUSSELS (AP) ? German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders meeting for a summit will only have to look out of the window to see the biggest problem with their steady diet of austerity and belt-tightening to fix the financial crisis: disgruntled workers organizing a nationwide strike to protest the direction in which Europe is heading.
That is, if the 27 government leaders can even get to European Union headquarters in time for Monday's meeting.
Belgium's three main unions are joining hands as of late Sunday in a 24-hour strike to protest national budgetary measures that have in part been imposed on Belgium by the EU. If the country hadn't met cost-cutting targets, financial sanctions would have been imposed.
Instead of a beacon for a better future, many Europeans are starting to see the EU as a death knell, one that is suffocating them with austerity instead of supporting them with job-boosting measures.
"We fully understand the sentiments of all Europeans, especially here in Belgium, where we are so close, the frustrations and doubt and the worries," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.
The question is where to find money to boost growth when debt is preoccupying everyone. The austerity measures raise taxes and cut benefits for hundreds of thousands of workers in Belgium. And Monday's strike has been mirrored in many other member states.
Overall, 23 million people are jobless across the EU, 10 percent of the active population.
"Europe has to offer jobs, social protection and perspective for the future. Otherwise it risks losing the support of its citizens," said the strike manifesto of the ACV union.
For Monday, Thalys and Eurostar bullet trains to Brussels have already been cut, one airport has been closed and Brussels international airport is expecting heavy disruption. Contingency plans have been made to get the 27 European leaders to the center of Brussels, but even then convoys could end up in choking traffic if workers block the capital's beltway during morning rush hour.
No major demonstrations are planned but the union leaders will head to the summit site to deliver a symbolic "eurobond" ? pressing for a joint pooling of debt in the eurozone, a measure that has been steadfastly opposed by Germany.
The noise of workers and lack of growth is having a profound impact on Monday's summit.
Even if the debt crisis in Greece will take center stage for part of the meeting, "at the same time, we need to take active measures to enhance growth and competitiveness and above all create jobs," EU president Herman van Rompuy said.
The leaders, though, will be happy to learn that Greece and investors who own its bonds have reached a tentative deal to significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed euro130 billion bailout.
Negotiators for the investors announced the agreement Saturday and said it could become final within the next week. If the agreement works as planned, it will help Greece remain solvent and help Europe avoid a blow to its already weak financial system, even though banks and other bond investors will have to accept multibillion-dollar losses.
Still, it doesn't resolve the weakening economic conditions in Greece and other European nations as they rein in spending to get their debts under control.
Under the agreement, investors holding euro206 billion in Greek bonds would exchange them for new bonds worth 60 percent less.
Without an agreement, bankruptcy would loom large for Greece and raise a big question mark over the euro currency shared by 17 nations.
Another divisive issue is a German proposal that debt-ridden Greece temporarily cede sovereignty over tax and spending decisions to a powerful eurozone budget commissioner before it can secure further bailouts.
The idea was quickly rejected by Barroso's Commission and the government in Athens, both insisting the budget remain a national prerogative.
At the same time, the EU also has to deal with an increasingly tough labor market.
Spain's brutal unemployment rate has soared to nearly 23 percent and closed in on 50 percent for those under age 25, leaving more than 5 million people ? or almost one out of every four ? out of work as the country slides toward recession.
To help jump-start the EU toward more growth and employment, the EU Commission is proposing to the summit leaders to redirect euro82 billion in existing funds toward countries in dire need of help to fix their labor market.
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D.R. Horton profit beats on higher home orders (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? D.R. Horton Inc (DHI.N), the top U.S. homebuilder, posted a first-quarter profit that beat market expectations, helped by a surge in orders indicating a stabilizing housing market, and said it was looking at spring selling season with "cautious optimism."
The meltdown in the U.S. housing market triggered the 2007-09 recession, but home building has seen growth in the last few quarters and building permits jumped to a 1- year high in November.
Horton, which focuses on lower-end homes for first-time homebuyers, had been hurt as a massive overhang of used and foreclosed homes have resulted in lower pricing power for builders of new houses.
Evidence is mounting that a recovery is building, though the improvement has been erratic.
Earlier in the day, Canadian wood panels maker Norbord Inc (NBD.TO) said the U.S. housing sector is at an inflection point and is now in the early phase of a more gradual rebound.
Horton, which competes with Lennar Corp (LEN.N) and PulteGroup (PHM.N), said net sales orders rose 17 percent to $705.6 million. Orders are a leading indicator for builders, which do not recognize revenue until they close on a home.
Lennar, which also posted a sharp jump in quarterly orders, said high rental rates were driving customers to buy new homes, and low home prices and low interest rates were helping.
Horton's October-December net income was $27.7 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $20.4 million, or 6 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 15 percent to $885.6 million.
Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of 4 cents a share, on revenue of $896.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of the company closed at $14.12 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Megha Mandavia in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian and Gopakumar Warrier)
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
One million children in Sahel at risk, UNICEF warns (Reuters)
GENEVA (Reuters) ? More than 1 million children in the Sahel are at risk of severe malnutrition and urgent action is needed to avert starvation akin to that in Somalia, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.
The agency appealed for $67 million for 8 countries in the region where it said instability fueled by increasing activities of al-Qaeda and Boko Haram was compounding humanitarian needs. They are Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and the northern regions of Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal.
"In the Sahel we are facing a nutrition crisis of a larger magnitude than usual with over 1 million children at risk of severe, acute malnutrition," Rima Salah, acting UNICEF deputy executive director, told a news briefing.
"The countries in the Sahel, for example, if we do not now attend to their needs, it will become like Somalia and other countries," she said. "We have to prevent it before it becomes a disaster."
She was referring to the anarchic Horn of Africa country where the U.N. says 250,000 still live in famine conditions due to drought and conflict and a total of 4 million need aid.
More than nine million people in five countries in Africa's Sahel region face food crisis next year, following low rainfall, poor harvests, high food prices and a drop in remittances from migrants, aid agency Oxfam said last month.
The funds for the Sahel, for an initial six-month phase, will provide therapeutic feeding to malnourished children and campaigns to prevent the spread of epidemics including cholera. Some families will receive cash to cover higher food prices.
It is part of UNICEF's overall appeal of $1.28 billion for 98 million women and children in 25 countries. Somalia and other Horn of Africa countries (Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya) account for nearly one-third of the total amount sought.
"There is growing instability in the Sahel region, fuelled by the Arab Spring and increasing activities of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Boko Haram, all compounding the humanitarian needs of children and women in the region," UNICEF's report, "2012 Humanitarian Action for Children," said on Friday.
The Libyan civil war might have given militant groups in Africa's Sahel region like Boko Haram and al Qaeda access to large weapons caches, according to a U.N. report released in New York on Thursday.
The U.N. report on the impact of the Libyan civil war on countries of the Sahel region that straddle the Sahara - including Nigeria, Niger and Chad - also said some national authorities believe the Islamist sect Boko Haram, which killed more than 500 people last year and more than 250 this year in Nigeria, has increasing links to al Qaeda's North African wing.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay Editing by Maria Golovnina.)
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Republican senator wants Keystone XL bill (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Republican Senator John Hoeven is set to introduce legislation on Monday seeking to bypass President Barack Obama and empower Congress to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, an aide said on Friday.
Obama put TransCanada's $7 billion Canada-to-Texas pipeline on ice last week, saying that the administration needed more time to review its environmental impacts.
Hoeven's bill would seek to put Congress effectively in control of the pipeline decision and take it away from the Obama administration.
But any such measure faces the steep hurdle of having to be approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate. And even if it did, it would have to be signed by the president in order to become law.
Environmentalists pushed for Obama to block the 1,700-mile (2,735-km) pipeline. They loathe the idea of increasing the flow of oil sands crude from Canada because of its bigger carbon footprint in the mining process.
Republicans say the pipeline would create jobs but environmentalists say the job-creation claims are inflated.
"We've been working with (the Republican) leadership in the Senate and all our colleagues, and we believe Senator Hoeven's bill has support from a lot of people in the Senate," said Ryan Bernstein, an energy advisor to Hoeven.
Bernstein declined to elaborate on how many other senators have signed on to sponsor the bill.
Republicans have made the pipeline and its construction jobs a key political issue in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives also are considering legislation to advance the project, and have not ruled out attaching it to payroll tax cut legislation that needs to pass Congress by the end of February.
On the Senate side, the route for Keystone to advance to a vote is not yet clear.
"We'll introduce it and I'm sure we'll be looking at all options," Bernstein told Reuters.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Wilson)
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Islamists, protesters scuffle at at Egypt rally (AP)
CAIRO ? Muslim Brotherhood supporters and secular protesters hurled bottles and rocks at each other and got into fistfights in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday as their political differences boiled over at a rally by tens of thousands marking an anniversary in the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
The scuffles, in which there were no reports of injury, were the first time the two sides have come to blows over resentments that have been rising between them since they worked together during the 18 days of protests against Mubarak a year ago.
Now they are locked in a competition to shape the transition. The differences do not focus on the Brotherhood's religious agenda ? though it worries many in the other camp. Instead, the divisions are over the military, which have ruled since Mubarak's fall, and ultimately whether dramatic change will be brought to Egypt's long autocratic system.
The "revolutionaries," the leftist and secular activists who launched the anti-Mubarak revolt, now demand the ruling generals quit power immediately and have vowed protests to force them out. The Brotherhood, meanwhile, has vaulted to political domination by winning the largest bloc in the new parliament and has been willing to let the military follow its own timetable for stepping down.
The revolutionaries suspect the Brotherhood will strike a deal with the ruling generals ? giving them a future say in politics to ensure the Brotherhood's hold on authority and influence on the writing of a new constitution, effective shelving serious reform. They also bristle over what they see as the Brotherhood's attempts to monopolize the political scene.
Nevertheless, the two sides have been uneasily trying to share Tahrir Square this week since a giant rally Wednesday marking the Jan. 25 start of the anti-Mubarak protests. But on a new rally Friday, tempers broke.
"Out, out, out!" revolutionaries chanted at the Brotherhood's main stage in the square, holding their shoes in the air in a sign of contempt at a line of Brothers forming a human chain in front of the podium.
"Dogs of the military council," others chanted at the Brothers.
The political differences have translated into a dispute over the very meaning of the anniversary. The Brotherhood has presented this week as a celebration of the revolution's successes ? particularly their own parliament victory. The secular groups say there is nothing to celebrate when so many demands of the revolution are left unachieved and killings of protesters have gone unpunished.
The fights erupted over the Brotherhood's giant stage in the square, bristling with loudspeakers. Some protesters complain the Brotherhood sought to drown out other protesters by blaring religious anthems, Quranic recitations and music.
Others were angered a celebratory banner on the stage proclaiming, "Holiday of the Revolution." Another note of triumphalism that irritated many was a song played repeatedly celebrating the military's victories in the 1973 war with Israel and proclaiming "may the victory be bigger" in the revolution.
Arguments about the stage turned into pushing and shoving then fistfights and exchanges of hurled bottles and rocks.
The scuffles reflect both the frustrations and the growing confidence of the revolutionary groups. The military has been seeking to isolate them from a public tiring of turmoil, and the Brotherhood's election victories left them with little say in parliament. But on Wednesday and Friday, they succeeded in bringing out numbers of protesters that rivaled or even surpassed the Islamists' presence, raising their hopes that they can push the Brotherhood to a firmer line on the military.
The leftists and secular groups accuse the military of being as dictatorial as Mubarak and of intending to preserve their power even after a handover to civilians. There is widespread resentment that little has been done to dismantle Mubarak's regime and prosecute security officers for the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the past year in crackdowns by both Mubarak and the military. The Brotherhood insists it wants the military to leave power, but it is willing to let it stay until late June when the generals have promised to hand over rule to a civilian president.
In Tahrir, Ahmed Kamal, a 39 year old engineer who voted for the Brotherhood in recent parliament elections but is not a member, said he hopes the movement takes a stronger tone. "Their rhetoric has been too soft" on the military, he said. "In the end, the military council won't hand over power unless the Square and the parliament are on the same wavelength."
The day's protests, which included mass rallies in other Egyptian cities, commemorated the first anniversary of the "Friday of Rage," one of the bloodiest days of the 18-day protests that led to Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster.
In last year's "Friday of Rage," Mubarak's security forces fired on protesters marching toward Tahrir from around the capital, killing and wounding hundreds. Protesters battled back for hours until the police collapsed and withdrew from the streets.
"This is a day of mourning, not celebration," said Abdel-Hady el-Ninny, the father of a slain protester, Alaa Abdel-Hady. He and his family carried large posters of his son around Tahrir.
In Friday's rally, large marches organized by the leftist and secular groups streamed from mosques around Cairo to join the tens of thousands in Tahrir. "We want civilian, not military," they chanted in the marches, and some young men shaved the words "down with military rule" in their hair cuts. One protester, carried on his comrades' shoulders, portrayed a slain protester.
Several thousand also protested in front of the state television building, near Tahrir ? a focus of anger because state media have served as a mouthpiece for the military and its denunciations of protesters, just as it did under Mubarak.
A march to the Defense Ministry was confronted by dozens of supporters of the military. The two sides chanted slogans outside the building, guarded by barbed wire and armored vehicles, until a series of loud booms went off. The protesters scattered, and several said they saw military supporters throw homemade bombs and that one protester was injured.
"We delivered a message to the military that we are not scared," Milad Daniel, whose brother Mina was killed in a military crackdown on protesters in October, said after the ministry protest. "They have tanks and armored vehicles but we have God."
Amid the crowds in Tahrir, a Muslim cleric delivered a boisterous Friday sermon, proclaiming protesters must determine the country's course.
"Our right is to dictate the decisions of the revolution," said the cleric, Muzhar Shahine, speaking from the "revolutionaries" stage, as the crowd cried, "God is great."
He gave a litany of the unrealized changes sought by the revolution.
State media must be purged, a constitution must be written that is "shared by all political parties and that gives rights for all of Egypt's children," and Christians must be given the same rights as Muslims, he said.
"A year later, has State Security really been dissolved," he said, referring to Mubarak's feared internal security force that was the backbone of his police state. "Has our land been freed?"
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Ecuador cracks down on lesbian 'torture clinics'
By msnbc.com staff
Women?s rights groups are claiming victory in their efforts to get the government of Ecuador to shut down underground clinics that they say used torture techniques to try to ?cure? lesbians.
Fundacion Causana, Taller de Comunicacion Mujer and Artikulacion Esporadika, a coalition of Ecuadorian women?s rights activists, started an online campaign on Change.org after working with women who had escaped what they call ?torture clinics.? Many of the women cited physical and psychological abuse, including verbal threats, shackling, days without food or water, sexual abuse, and physical torture in efforts to make them ?straight.?
?After years of campaigning about the practice of torture rehab clinics that claim to cure homosexuality, the Ecuadorian government has committed to deconstructing the belief that homosexuality is a sickness,? Fundacion Causana representative Karen Barba said in a press release issued by Change.org on Tuesday. ?Using Change.org, we were able to achieve victory in closing down ex-gay torture clinics.?
The online petition to close the clinics drew more than 100,000 signatures from across the world.
Earlier this week, President Rafael Correa also appointed Carina Vance, a lesbian and a gay-rights activist, as the new health minister. Vance is former executive director of Fundacion Causana.
Vance succeeds Minister of Health Dr. David Chirriboga, who before stepping down last week announced the government would investigate and close all such clinics in the country, launch a national advertising and awareness campaign against homophobia, and develop a crisis hotline for victims, according to Change.org.
?The Ministry of Public Health, the governing body of Ecuador?s health sector, is committed to strengthening the measures and institutions that contribute to the eradication of abusive practices such as the supposed treatment of homosexuality,? Chirriboga was quoted as saying. ?The Ecuadorian government rejects such practices as criminal and in direct conflict with the individual freedoms granted to all our citizens.?
Thirty so-called reparative therapy clinics were shut down by Correa's government in September after pressure from activists, including Vance, who will continue the campaign against remaining clinics as health minister.
A story on cnn.com on Thursday highlighted stories of alleged abuse by women who visited the clinics. The woman told CNN that her family contacted a center that promised to ?cure? her of her homosexuality when she was 23.?
The woman, now 28, said she was kept in handcuffs for more than three months in a ?therapeutic? center called Puente a la Vida, or Bridge of Life. Concha says she endured all kinds of demeaning and abusive treatment during the 18 months she was held there, according to CNN.
The clinic has since been shut down. CNN said efforts to?reach its former director for a comment?were unsuccessful.
Under?Vance's leadership as health minister, three raids have already taken place in the Quito area, and dozens of women have been rescued, CNN reported.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Chris Weigant: The Alternative Millionaires' Minimum Tax
President Obama last night unveiled a new twist on an old idea in his State of the Union address to Congress -- limit the loopholes and tax giveaways that very wealthy people use to reduce their taxes far below the rate honest workers pay. Obama called for a minimum tax rate of 30 percent on income over one million dollars. To some, this sounds like a radical idea, but it really isn't. It is merely a refinement of a part of the tax code that has been with us for decades: the Alternative Minimum Tax.
The A.M.T. was enacted for precisely the same reason Obama is calling for a 30 percent tax rate on every dollar made over and above the first million per year -- fairness. The ultra-wealthy have always been able to afford spending money to use tax shelters and tax attorneys to move their dough around so they avoid paying what they should be paying -- the same rates everyone else pays. So the A.M.T. was introduced to fix the problem. If you make a substantial amount of money, you must figure your income taxes two ways: the traditional way, and using the A.M.T. worksheet. Whichever's higher, in essence, is what you must pay (if you fall under the rules for using the A.M.T.).
Now you may be thinking, "I've heard of the A.M.T. before... something about Congress 'fixing' it... " This is where we get into some massive budgetary fiction, or (if you prefer) blatant hypocrisy by our lawmakers (of both parties, it bears mentioning). The problem stems from the fact that the A.M.T. has not been truly modernized in quite a while. The income limits it set when it was enacted covered people who made a lot of money back then -- but when you fast-forward three or four decades, the same dollar amount now regularly hits people in the middle class (and really hits people in the upper middle class), rather than its intended target: the truly wealthy.
This is where the hypocrisy comes in. Why don't the folks in Congress just up the limits? It's common sense, right? If there's a problem with the dollar limits to the A.M.T., then adjust the limits and it works as intended again. Simple!
Well, that's what does indeed happen. Every single year, like clockwork, Congress passes an "A.M.T. fix," usually late in December when they think nobody's paying attention. They do not do this by honestly fixing the law, but instead by only carving out an exemption for a single year. There's a reason for this, which is where the budgetary fiction comes in. When Congress puts together a federal budget, they project it out for ten years into the future. These projections are nothing more than smoke and mirrors to begin with, because nobody -- that's nobody, no matter how many economic degrees they have -- can accurately predict the future, whether economically or otherwise. Putting that fiction aside, though, the A.M.T. is a fiction on top of this basic budgetary fiction. Because the A.M.T. -- if not "fixed" -- is scheduled to take in billions and billions of dollars in tax revenue. To put it another way, by using the outdated A.M.T. formula in the ten-year projections, it makes the budget picture look rosier than it actually is. If the A.M.T. were permanently fixed -- instead of year-to-year, the way it is done now -- then the deficit projections would be a lot larger. The fact that this is closer to actual reality matters little, because most people aren't aware of the fiction and the hypocrisy Congress regularly operates under.
So we continue "fixing" the A.M.T., and Congress pretends that they're not going to fix it for the next nine years, and the budget numbers are easier to work with -- even though Congress does indeed fix the A.M.T. each and every single year, and the tax revenues in the budget projections never actually appear. Once again, to be clear: both political parties are in on this scam. They both use the fictional numbers, while they know full well it is nothing more than a pipe dream that this money will ever materialize in the U.S. Treasury.
Which brings us back to Obama's suggestion in the State of yhe Union. While to some it might sound like a brand-new program, it really isn't. It would just be beefing up and modernizing the A.M.T. so that it works as it was originally intended -- to make sure the ultra-wealthy are paying the same rates as everyone else. But there's a golden opportunity here as well, because Obama's plan would bring in more money -- actual, real money and not fictional, budgetary-dream money. Because more money would be coming in, it would be the prime time to institute a permanent "fix" on the A.M.T. -- because the new income could balance out the "loss" of the fictional income in the ten-year budget projections.
It is silly and (at its core) dishonest to "fix" the A.M.T. every single year as if it is some sort of emergency situation. It should be fixed once and for all. If Obama's new "Alternative Millionaires' Minimum Tax" were combined with such a permanent fix, it could also be a lot easier to sell politically, since it would be "lowering taxes" on millions of households (in the ten-year projections), while only forcing a relative few households to "pay their fair share, just like everybody else." I realize this is no more than political rhetoric, and I also realize the chances of Obama actually passing this scheme are extremely low this year.
Whether it passes or not, it's an idea that most Americans are going to agree with -- even more so if the threat of paying the A.M.T. is removed entirely for (say) all households making less than $250,000 (Obama's usual dividing line for the middle class). End the A.M.T. on the middle class, and beef it up considerably on the millionaires and billionaires. Tying the two together is the logical way to go, and it also has the benefit of removing the yearly hypocrisy over the fictional budget numbers for nine out of ten of the projected years. It's time to end this scam -- perpetrated by both parties -- once and for all. Obama should go ahead with his A.M.M.T., and at the same time reform the A.M.T. so that Congress won't have to perform this fudging of reality every single year.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/the-alternative-millionai_b_1232427.html
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Certain Brain Cells Become Toxic in Lou Gehrig's Disease
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Mind & Brain
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Brain cells known for assisting neurons may be killing them in patients with ALS
?| January 25, 2012?|
Image: Stephen Waxman and Hank Morgan/Photo Researchers, Inc
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig?s disease, is a progressive neuromuscular disease that affects about 130,000 people worldwide a year. The vast majority of patients are isolated cases with no known family history of the disease. They usually start developing symptoms of the loss of motor neurons in middle age and die within five years of diagnosis. Researchers know very little about what causes ALS. Now a recent study in Nature Biotechnology suggests that the neuron death associated with the disease may be caused by astrocytes, a type of brain cell that normally helps neurons.
Previous research had suggested that astrocytes could become toxic in the rare form of ALS known to have genetic roots, and the study authors wanted to see if a similar phenomenon might happen in the more common iso??lated cases. The answer turned out to be yes: when they cultured astro?cytes from those ALS patients, the healthy motor neurons in the culture began to die off after a few days. Other types of neurons were unaffected by the astrocytes, suggesting that they specifically harm the neurons involved in controlling the body?s movements.
Lead author Brian Kaspar, a neuroscientist at Ohio State University, and his collaborators next will attempt to figure out what makes the astrocytes behave this way. If researchers can understand why motor neurons die in ALS, they may have a better chance of finding a cure.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=7f392269aa08b9b49eb0529be7e71105
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Prostate cancer study proves drug delays disease progression
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Public release date: 23-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jane Finlayson
jane.finlayson@uhn.ca
416-946-2846
University Health Network
(TORONTO, Canada Jan. 24, 2012) For men diagnosed with low-risk, localized prostate cancer, being treated with the drug dutasteride ("Avodart") delays disease progression and initiating active treatment, and also reduces anxiety, show the results of a three-year international clinical trial led by Dr. Neil Fleshner, Head of the Division of Urology, University Health Network (UHN).
The findings are published online today in The Lancet. "The results prove that using active surveillance plus dutasteride is a viable, safe and effective treatment option for men who often undergo aggressive local treatment despite low risk of dying from the disease," says Dr. Fleshner, a surgical oncologist in UHN's Princess Margaret Cancer Program and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Fleshner also holds the Love Chair in Prostate Cancer Prevention Research.
"This is very good news for men with low-risk disease because aggressive treatment can have a major impact on their quality of life, with risks of impotence and incontinence," says Dr. Fleshner.
The three-year clinical trial enrolled 302 men between the ages of 48 and 82 diagnosed with low-risk localized prostate cancer and regularly monitored for clinical changes a treatment option called "active surveillance". In the trial known as REDEEM (REduction by Dutasteride of clinical progression Events in Expectant Management of prostate cancer) participants were randomized 1:1 to receive dutasteride or a matching placebo daily. The men also underwent biopsies at 1.5 and three years.
The study showed a significant delay in disease progression in the men treated with dutasteride ? 38% compared with 48% who received the placebo. As well, the final biopsies showed the men treated with the drug were less likely to have cancer detected ? 36% compared with 23%.
"This is the first study to show that a 5a-reductase inhibitor such as dutasteride reduces the need for aggressive treatment in low-risk disease," says Dr. Fleshner. "The drug, currently commonly used to treat enlarged prostate, works by inhibiting the male sex hormone that causes the enlargement in the first place."
Dr. Fleshner says a small percentage of men reported drug-related side effects including sexual difficulty with either desire or erections (5%), or breast tenderness or enlargement (3%). "It's important to realize that these drugs have been around for almost 20 years in clinical practice to treat enlarged prostates and so we have a wealth of knowledge about their side effects, which are reversible if the drug is stopped."
Participants were also assessed for cancer-related anxiety and the men on dutasteride reported feeling much less anxious because their biopsies and PSA values improved, adds Dr. Fleshner. (PSA or prostate-specific antigen is a blood test used to help diagnose prostate cancer.)
The Canadian Cancer Society estimates 25,500 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed this year and that 4,100 men will die from the disease.
###
The clinical research was funded by GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Fleshner is affiliated with The Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute at PMH and his research is also supported by The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.
Princess Margaret Hospital and Ontario Cancer Institute, the hospital's research arm, have achieved an international reputation as global leaders in the fight against cancer. Princess Margaret Hospital is a member of the University Health Network, which also includes Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. All are research hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto. For more information, go to www.uhn.ca
Media contact: Jane Finlayson, Public Affairs, (416) 946-2846 jane.finlayson@uhn.ca
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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: 23-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Jane Finlayson
jane.finlayson@uhn.ca
416-946-2846
University Health Network
(TORONTO, Canada Jan. 24, 2012) For men diagnosed with low-risk, localized prostate cancer, being treated with the drug dutasteride ("Avodart") delays disease progression and initiating active treatment, and also reduces anxiety, show the results of a three-year international clinical trial led by Dr. Neil Fleshner, Head of the Division of Urology, University Health Network (UHN).
The findings are published online today in The Lancet. "The results prove that using active surveillance plus dutasteride is a viable, safe and effective treatment option for men who often undergo aggressive local treatment despite low risk of dying from the disease," says Dr. Fleshner, a surgical oncologist in UHN's Princess Margaret Cancer Program and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Fleshner also holds the Love Chair in Prostate Cancer Prevention Research.
"This is very good news for men with low-risk disease because aggressive treatment can have a major impact on their quality of life, with risks of impotence and incontinence," says Dr. Fleshner.
The three-year clinical trial enrolled 302 men between the ages of 48 and 82 diagnosed with low-risk localized prostate cancer and regularly monitored for clinical changes a treatment option called "active surveillance". In the trial known as REDEEM (REduction by Dutasteride of clinical progression Events in Expectant Management of prostate cancer) participants were randomized 1:1 to receive dutasteride or a matching placebo daily. The men also underwent biopsies at 1.5 and three years.
The study showed a significant delay in disease progression in the men treated with dutasteride ? 38% compared with 48% who received the placebo. As well, the final biopsies showed the men treated with the drug were less likely to have cancer detected ? 36% compared with 23%.
"This is the first study to show that a 5a-reductase inhibitor such as dutasteride reduces the need for aggressive treatment in low-risk disease," says Dr. Fleshner. "The drug, currently commonly used to treat enlarged prostate, works by inhibiting the male sex hormone that causes the enlargement in the first place."
Dr. Fleshner says a small percentage of men reported drug-related side effects including sexual difficulty with either desire or erections (5%), or breast tenderness or enlargement (3%). "It's important to realize that these drugs have been around for almost 20 years in clinical practice to treat enlarged prostates and so we have a wealth of knowledge about their side effects, which are reversible if the drug is stopped."
Participants were also assessed for cancer-related anxiety and the men on dutasteride reported feeling much less anxious because their biopsies and PSA values improved, adds Dr. Fleshner. (PSA or prostate-specific antigen is a blood test used to help diagnose prostate cancer.)
The Canadian Cancer Society estimates 25,500 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed this year and that 4,100 men will die from the disease.
###
The clinical research was funded by GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Fleshner is affiliated with The Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute at PMH and his research is also supported by The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.
Princess Margaret Hospital and Ontario Cancer Institute, the hospital's research arm, have achieved an international reputation as global leaders in the fight against cancer. Princess Margaret Hospital is a member of the University Health Network, which also includes Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. All are research hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto. For more information, go to www.uhn.ca
Media contact: Jane Finlayson, Public Affairs, (416) 946-2846 jane.finlayson@uhn.ca
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
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.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/uhn-pcs012312.php
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
What on Earth Happened to BlackBerry?
First, a confession: I haven't used the BlackBerry PlayBook yet. The seven-inch tablet computer is scheduled to go on sale next week, and I hope to get my hands on one soon. This, then, is not a product review. It's more like a eulogy, or perhaps an autopsy, for a company circling the drain. Reviewers who have gotten early access to the PlayBook have been almost universally puzzled by how half-baked it is. In its current form, the PlayBook doesn't include any apps to access your email, calendar and address book. To get those things, you've got to have a BlackBerry phone, too. The PlayBook pairs with the phone, and gives you access to the phone's e-mail, calendar, and address book. Does this sound insane? It is. The PlayBook doesn't have many other apps, either. And even a few days before launch, the company is still making frequent, major updates to the tablet's software.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=3d229eb6290b614ae7ca34af07e99a14
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Friend: Defendant tried to sell bloodstained rug
ALHAMBRA, California (AP) ? A man who masqueraded as a Rockefeller on the East Coast and is now accused of murder in California has been confronted in court by witnesses who say he tried to sell them an Oriental rug with a bloodstain.
Christian Gerhartsreiter is charged with murdering 27-year-old John Sohus, whose bones were unearthed in a backyard in a wealthy Los Angeles suburb in 1994, nearly 10 years after Sohus and his wife vanished.
Robert Brown testified Monday during a preliminary hearing that in 1985 the man he and his wife knew as Chris Chichester showed up with the rug among belongings he wanted to sell because he was going away.
Brown says his wife looked at the rug, pointed out the bloodstain, and Chichester quickly rolled it up and left.
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Remorseful man admits he caused big Reno blaze
The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area Thursday. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area Thursday. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., are seen on Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, after a wind-driven brush fire raced through the area. The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by wind gusts reaching 82 mph, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
Firefighters battle a wind-driven brush fire burning through Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev., on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez says crews were able to stop the wall of flames before it reached Galena High School. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
Firefighters wait for water before attacking an outbuilding adjacent to a home Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 in Pleasant Valley, Nev. Winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south of Reno out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. (AP Photo/The Reno Gazette-Journal, Tim Dunn) NEVADA APPEAL OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES
The ruins of a home in Pleasant Valley, south of Reno, Nev. smolders as firefighters battle a wind-driven brush fire on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. Winds gusting up to 82 mph pushed a fast-moving brush fire south of Reno out of control on Thursday as it burned several homes, threatened dozens more and forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate their neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Cathleen Allison)
RENO, Nev. (AP) ? An elderly man discarding fireplace ashes accidentally touched off the brush fire that raged south of Reno, destroying 29 homes and forcing thousands of people to flee the flames, authorities said.
The man admitted his role by improperly disposing of the ashes at his home.
Investigators already had tracked the origin of the fire to a location in East Lake on the north end of the Washoe Valley, where the man lives about 20 miles south of downtown Reno.
"He came forward on his own accord," Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez said. "He has given statements to our investigators as well as law enforcement officers. He is extremely remorseful."
Fueled by 82 mph wind gusts, the blaze burned nearly 3,200 acres and forced the evacuation of up to 10,000 people Thursday.
A break in the weather and calmer winds allowed firefighters to get the upper hand on the blaze Friday.
Hernandez estimated it to be 65 percent contained Friday night. He said 300 firefighters would remain on the scene through the night checking for hot spots along with another 125 support people, including law enforcement officers and the Nevada National Guard.
The next challenge may be the forecast for rain and snow in the mountains on Saturday, which officials fear could cause flooding in burned areas.
The Highway Patrol said Friday night that all of U.S. Highway 395 between Reno and Carson City had reopened.
Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley said a formal case file will be forwarded to the district attorney next week for consideration of charges.
"The DA will have to give this case a lot of deliberation," Haley said.
"The fact he came forward and admitted it plays a role. But so does the massive damage and loss of life," he said. "It's a balancing act."
In addition to the potential for facing jail time on arson charges, the man could also be ordered to pay the cost of fighting the fire, which already totals $690,000.
Washoe County Manager Katy Simon said she expects the final bill to run into the millions of dollars.
Gov. Sandoval toured the fire damaged area Friday, describing it as "horrendous, devastating."
"There is nothing left in some of those places except for the chimneys and fireplaces," he said.
The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by the wind, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno.
The strong, erratic winds caused major challenges for crews evacuating residents, Sierra Front spokesman Mark Regan said. "In a matter of seconds, the wind would shift," he said.
Haley confirmed that the body of June Hargis, 93, was found in the fire's aftermath, but her cause of death has not been established, so it's not known if it was fire related.
Jeannie Watts, the woman's 70-year-old daughter, told KRNV-TV that Hargis' grandson telephoned her to tell her to evacuate but she didn't get out in time.
About 2,000 people remained subject to evacuation, and about 100 households still were without power.
Marred in Reno's driest winter in more than 120 years, residents had welcomed the forecast that a storm was due to blow across the Sierra Nevada this week.
Instead, thousands found themselves fleeing their homes Thursday afternoon.
Connie Cryer went to the fire response command post Friday with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Maddie Miramon, to find out if her house had survived the flames.
"We had to know so we could get some sleep," Cryer said, adding her house was spared but a neighbor's wasn't. She had seen wildfires before, but nothing on this scale.
"There was fire in front of me, fire beside me, fire behind me. It was everywhere," she said. "I don't know how more didn't burn up. It was terrible, all the wind and the smoke."
Fire officials said Thursday's fire was "almost a carbon copy" of a blaze that destroyed 30 homes in Reno during similar summer-like conditions in mid-November.
State Forester Pete Anderson said he has not seen such hazardous fire conditions in winter in his 43 years in Nevada. Reno had no precipitation in December. The last time that happened was 1883.
An inch of snow Monday ended the longest recorded dry spell in Reno history, a 56-day stretch that prompted Anderson to issue an unusual warning about wildfire threats.
"We're usually pretty much done with the fire season by the first of November, but this year it's been nonstop," Anderson said.
Kit Bailey, U.S. Forest Service fire chief at nearby Lake Tahoe, said conditions are so dry that even a forecast calling for rain and snow might not take the Reno-Tahoe area out of fire danger.
"The scary thing is a few days of drying after this storm cycle and we could be back into fire season again," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report.
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Why bats, rats and cats store different amounts of fat
Friday, January 20, 2012
Animals differ in the amount of fat they carry around depending on their species, status and sex. However, the causes of much of this variation have been a mystery. The Bristol study shows that many differences can be understood by considering the strategies animals employ to avoid two causes of death: starvation and being killed by predators.
These causes of death often exert opposite pressures on animals, for example, storing lots of fat helps animals survive periods without food but also slows their running and so makes getting caught by a predator more likely. Animals can be stronger to compensate, but the energetic costs of extra muscle mean that the animal would starve quicker during a food shortage.
Led by Dr Andrew Higginson of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, the researchers used mathematical models to explore how much muscle and fat animals should have in their body to give themselves the best chance of survival. They showed that an important consideration was how much carrying fat increases the energetic costs of movement. The models revealed that the size of this cost influenced whether larger animals should have more fat than smaller animals, or vice versa.
Dr Higginson said: "Our results explain differences between different families of mammal. For example, larger bats carry proportionally less fat than small bats but larger carnivores carry more fat than small carnivores. Among rodents, it's the medium-sized species that carry around the most fat! These differences agree with the models predictions if you consider the costs of carrying fat for these three groups. Bats fly and so have high costs of carrying extra weight, whilst carnivores spend much of their time resting and so will use less energy than busy scurrying rodents."
The work, published in The American Naturalist, also shows that much of the variation between animals in their amounts of fat and muscle can be explained by differences between the sexes, how much animals have to fight to get food, and the climate in which they live.
The researchers plan to put the theory to the test by looking in more detail at the amounts of fat stored by different animals. If their theory is correct, much of the mystery in how species and sexes differ in their amount of fat will have been solved.
###
University of Bristol: http://www.bristol.ac.uk
Thanks to University of Bristol for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 94 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116911/Why_bats__rats_and_cats_store_different_amounts_of_fat
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Republicans say Obama wrong to cut military funds (AP)
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Republicans looking to challenge President Barack Obama say the president is wrong to cut military spending and charge that he's putting the United States at risk.
Front-runner Mitt Romney says the United States needs to maintain its military at any cost so that no one would ever think of testing its might.
GOP rival Rick Santorum says Obama is trying to balance the budget at the expense of those serving in uniform. And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says military spending not only protects the country but educates its veterans.
Congressman Ron Paul of Texas alone says he would cut spending, an unpopular position in South Carolina, home to 413,000 veterans and eight military bases.
Santorum calls such cuts "disgusting" and Romney calls them "doomsday."
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Cops: Arrests in 2008 Long Beach homeless deaths
By Associated Press and msnbc.com staff
Police in Long Beach, Calif., say they have made arrests in?unsolved 2008 slayings of five transients in a homeless encampment near a freeway.
Police Chief Jim McDonnell will hold a press conference late Wednesday about the arrests in connection with the fatal shootings of Hamid Shraifat, Frederick Neumeier, Katherine Verdun, Lorenzo Perez Villicana and Vanessa Malaepule.
A police statement says no details of the arrests would be released until the press conference.
However,?Lt. Lloyd Cox of the Long Beach Police Department told The Los Angeles Times "persons are in custody for the killings" following an extensive investigation.
Authorities believed at the time that?all five victims, including Malaepule, who was an unemployed single mother of six, were friends and had been socializing with one another for some time, the Times reported.
News of the arrests?comes a day after an Iraq war veteran was charged in nearby Orange County with stabbing to death four homeless men in a weeks-long rampage.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
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Jogger: Dogs 'gnawing at my body like I was hamburger'
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
?Scarf Night? at Union County Carnegie Library
by Union Daily Times
Charles Warner|Daily Times Pat Jones, circulation supervisor, and Kim Horne, front staff clerk, of the Union County Carnegie Library, sort through the supplies which will be used for the library's 'Scarf Night' this Thursday and its Jan. 23 basic crochet class.
slideshowThere?s a lot of things to do at the Union County Carnegie Library.
You can, of course, check out a book as previous generations of library patrons did. You also can check out a videocassette or DVD of a favorite movie or one whose title strikes your fancy. You can also log on to one of the computers at the library for informational, educational and recreational purposes.
You can also learn how to crochet and/or make a scarf or tote bag.
This Thursday, the library will host ?Scarf Night,? a class that will teach participants how to make a scarf. On Jan. 23, it will host a basic crochet class and, on Feb. 13, the library will host ?Mother-Daughter Day,? giving mothers and daughters the chance to work together to make a felt flower tote bag.
Library Director Ben Loftis said Tuesday these events are part of the library?s efforts to reach out to and serve the community in new ways and attract new patrons.
?The staff got the idea for these activities from staff members of other libraries during an exchange of ideas at the State Library,? Loftis said. ?We?re using these activities to reach out to people in the community to get them in the library and have them come back.
?Just as with the videocassettes, DVDs and computers, we?re trying offer more than just books,? he said. ?It?s very important as we go forward in this age of ever increasing technology for libraries to find unique ways to serve the community.?
For more information about Scarf Night and the basic crochet class, contact the Union County Carnegie Libary at 427-7140, ext. 301. For Mother-Daughter Day and any children?s programs call 427-7140, ext. 302.
Source: http://uniondailytimes.com/bookmark/17202182
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Researchers identify potential new therapy approach for hepatitis C
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found a new way to block infection from the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the liver that could lead to new therapies for those affected by this and other infectious diseases.
More than 170 million people worldwide suffer from hepatitis C, the disease caused by chronic HCV infection. The disease affects the liver and is one of the leading causes of liver cancer and liver transplant around the world. HCV is spread by blood-to-blood contact and there is no vaccine to prevent it. Current treatments for the disease are only moderately effective and can cause serious side effects.
"As HCV infects a person, it needs fat droplets in the liver to form new virus particles," says Fran?ois Jean, Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and Scientific Director of the Facility for Infectious Disease and Epidemic Research (FINDER) at UBC. "In the process, it causes fat to accumulate in the liver and ultimately leads to chronic dysfunction of the organ."
"HCV is constantly mutating, which makes it difficult to develop antiviral therapies that target the virus itself," says Jean. "So we decided to take a new approach."
Jean and his team developed an inhibitor that decreases the size of host fat droplets in liver cells and stops HCV from "taking residence," multiplying and infecting other cells.
"Our approach would essentially block the lifecycle of the virus so that it cannot spread and cause further damage to the liver," says Jean. The team's method is detailed in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
According to Jean, HCV is one of a number of viruses that require fat to replicate in the human body. This new approach to curbing the replication of HCV could translate into similar therapies for other related re-emerging viruses that can cause serious and life threatening infections in humans, such as dengue virus. Dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries, with approximately 2.5 billion people at risk of infection globally. In some countries, Dengue has become the leading cause of child mortality.
###
University of British Columbia: http://www.ubc.ca
Thanks to University of British Columbia for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 38 time(s).
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116742/Researchers_identify_potential_new_therapy_approach_for_hepatitis_C_
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