Menendez says he reimbursed donor for 2 jaunts

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2013 file photo, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Menendez's office says he traveled on a plane owned by a Florida physician who is a friend and political donor, but denied that the senator had engaged with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2013 file photo, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Menendez's office says he traveled on a plane owned by a Florida physician who is a friend and political donor, but denied that the senator had engaged with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Sen. Robert Menendez's office says he reimbursed a prominent Florida political donor $58,500 on Jan. 4 of this year for the full cost of two of three trips Menendez took on the donor's plane to the Dominican Republic in 2010.

More details about the New Jersey senator's trips emerged as his office said unsubstantiated allegations that the senator engaged in sex with prostitutes in the Dominican Republic are false.

There had been no public disclosure of the two trips until now.

"The senator paid for the two trips out of his personal account and no reporting requirements apply," Menendez spokeswoman Tricia Enright said Wednesday night.

The FBI searched the West Palm Beach, Fla., office of the donor ? eye doctor Salomon Melgen ? on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, but it was unclear if the raid was related to Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat. In addition the FBI agents, investigators with the U.S. Health and Human Services Department also were seen carting boxes out of the office.

A third trip by Menendez aboard Melgen's plane ? a campaign fundraising journey to the donor's residence in the Dominican Republic ? took place in May 2010. That trip was reported to the Federal Election Commission as a $5,400 expenditure by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Menendez chaired. The trip, for fundraising from the community of Americans in the region, took Menendez to Puerto Rico as well as the Dominican Republic, said Menendez's office. The $5,400 was paid to one of Melgen's companies, Vitreo Retinal Consultants.

Menendez categorized the other two trips as personal. The first was Aug. 6-9, 2010, a round trip from South Florida to the Dominican Republic. The second was Sept. 3-6, 2010, from New Jersey to the Dominican Republic and back.

Menendez could have invoked what is known as a "friendship exemption" regarding the two personal trips, which would have required the senator to report the travel to the Senate Ethics Committee as a gift. Instead, Menendez chose to reimburse the full cost of the two trips.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., turned aside questions about Menendez at a news conference Thursday, saying they should be directed to the New Jersey Democrat instead. On Tuesday ? before the disclosures about the FBI raid and the trips ? he had expressed skepticism about the allegations, telling reporters to consider the source.

White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to answer when asked whether the president still has full faith and confidence in Menendez. "I don't have anything for you on that," Carney told reporters Thursday.

The Daily Caller, a conservative website, reported shortly before the November election that Menendez traveled on Melgen's private plane to the Dominican Republic to engage in sex with prostitutes. Some New Jersey Republicans filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee last fall in the wake of the allegations by The Caller. In response, Menendez's staffers searched records for trips by the senator and found the two additional trips that hadn't been reimbursed.

On Tuesday, Menendez became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, succeeding Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

At FBI headquarters in Washington, spokesman Jason Pack said the bureau "cannot comment on the existence or status of an investigation." Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler also declined to comment.

Records filed in Palm Beach County show an Internal Revenue Service lien against Melgen of more than $11.1 million for unpaid taxes from 2006-09. Prior liens for taxes from 1998 to 2002 were subsequently withdrawn, records show.

Menendez's office said the accusations of engaging with prostitutes "are manufactured by a politically motivated right-wing blog and are false."

Menendez's office said Melgen has been a friend and political supporter of the senator for many years and said the three trips Menendez took have been "paid for and reported appropriately." Menendez's office later changed the statement's wording to specify that the trips had been "paid for or reported appropriately," correcting the misimpression that all three trips had been publicly disclosed.

The Daily Caller began publishing stories about Menendez and Melgen on Nov. 1, when it reported that two women from the Dominican Republic said Menendez paid them for sex earlier in 2012. Prostitution is legal in the Caribbean nation.

Melgen is involved in numerous businesses, all sharing the same address in West Palm Beach, according to records filed with the Department of State in Florida.

Late Tuesday and early Wednesday, FBI agents were seen inside the West Palm Beach building, walking its halls and standing beside shelves full of files.

Melgen is listed as having an ownership interest in DRM Med Assist, which Federal Aviation Administration records show is the owner of a CL-600 Challenger plane. Flight records for the aircraft were not immediately available.

Melgen, a registered Democrat, has made $193,350 in political contributions since 1998, including $14,200 to Menendez, according to Federal Election Commission records. Menendez was chairman of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, which raises money for Democratic Senate candidates, from 2009-11.

Menendez, a lawyer, is a former mayor of Union City, N.J., and also served in the New Jersey state General Assembly and the New Jersey state Senate. He is divorced and has two children.

Melgen, 58, is a native of the Dominican Republic, where he earned his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henr?quez Ure?a in 1978. He has lived in the U.S. since at least 1980, holding an internship, residency and fellowship at hospitals in Connecticut, Missouri and Massachusetts, according to records filed with the Florida Department of Health.

Melgen has been licensed to practice in Florida since 1986 and purchased the West Palm Beach plot of land where he built his main office in 1991. Over the years, Melgen has become regarded as a top ophthalmologist, speaking at conferences and even operating on then-Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1997. The governor later appointed Melgen to a state panel on HMOs.

Calls to Melgen's offices Wednesday were forwarded to an answering service where receptionists told callers to try back Thursday. Calls to Melgen's home in North Palm Beach, which is appraised at $2.1 million, went unanswered.

On the website for his medical practice, Melgen writes: "I am always asked what sets me apart from most other doctors, and I would have to say that I do not consider myself to be a 'cookbook' physician. My patients are my number one priority, and when I am looking to treat a diagnosis I try to look at all the data at hand and extrapolate the best treatment instead of solely adhering to what the current 'standard' of treatment may be."

___

Associated Press writers Matt Sedensky in West Palm Beach, Fla., Curt Anderson in Miami and Jack Gillum and Larry Margasak in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-31-Menendez/id-30bf183a07d344a49111a9af5c2803a8

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Hezbollah condemns Israel's raid on Syria

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syria threatened Thursday to retaliate for an Israeli airstrike and its ally Iran said there will be repercussions for the Jewish state over the attack.

U.S. officials said Israel launched a rare airstrike inside Syria on Wednesday. The target was a convoy believed to be carrying anti-aircraft weapons bound for Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militant group allied with Syria and Iran.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali said Damascus "has the option and the capacity to surprise in retaliation."

In Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian as saying the raid on Syria will have significant implications for Israel.

Hezbollah condemned the attack as "barbaric aggression" and Syrian ally Russia said it appeared to be an unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation.

In Israel, a lawmaker close to hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped short of confirming involvement in the strike. But he hinted that Israel could carry out similar missions in the future.

The Syrian ambassador said he could not predict when Damascus would retaliate. He told Hezbollah's al-Ahd news website that it was up to the relevant authorities to prepare the retaliation and choose the time and place.

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi condemned the airstrike on state television, calling it a clear violation of Syria's sovereignty. Iran is Syria's strongest ally in the Middle East, and has provided President Bashar Assad's government with military and political backing for years.

Russia, Syria's strongest international ally, said Moscow is taking "urgent measures to clarify the situation in all its details."

"If this information is confirmed, we have a case of unprovoked attacks on targets in the territory of a sovereign state, which grossly violates the U.N. Charter and is unacceptable," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "Whatever the motives, this is not justified."

Hezbollah, closely allied with Syria and Iran, said it "expresses full solidarity with Syria's command, army and people."

Hezbollah did not mention any convoy in the statement but said the strike aimed to prevent Arab and Muslim forces from developing their military capabilities.

The Syrian military denied the existence of any weapons shipment and said a scientific research facility outside Damascus was hit by the Israeli warplanes. It said the target was in the area of Jamraya, northwest of Damascus and about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the Lebanese border.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Jassem al-Shallal, who became in December one of the most senior Syrian army officers to defect, told The Associated Press by telephone from Turkey that the targeted site is a "major and well-known" center to develop weapons known as the Scientific Research Center.

Al-Shallal, who until his defection was the commander of the Military Police, said no chemical or nonconventional weapons are at the site. He added that foreign experts, including Russians and Iranians, are usually at such centers.

Regional security officials said Wednesday that the targeted shipment included sophisticated Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles, which if acquired by Hezbollah would enable the militants to shoot down Israeli jets, helicopters and surveillance drones. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, who is close to the prime minister, said pinpoint strikes are not enough to counter the threat of Hezbollah obtaining sophisticated weaponry from Syria.

"Israel's preference would be if a Western entity would control these weapons systems," Hanegbi said. "But because it appears the world is not prepared to do what was done in Libya or other places, then Israel finds itself like it has many times in the past facing a dilemma that only it knows how to respond to," he added.

He was referring to NATO's 2011 military intervention in Libya that helped oust dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

"Even if there are reports about pinpoint operations, these are not significant solutions to the threat itself because we are talking about very substantial capabilities that could reach Hezbollah," he added.

Syria's civil war has sapped Assad's power and threatens to deprive Hezbollah of a key supporter, in addition to its land corridor to Iran. The two countries provide Hezbollah with the bulk of its funding and arms.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu warned of the dangers of Syria's "deadly weapons," saying the country is "increasingly coming apart."

The same day, Israel moved a battery of its new "Iron Dome" rocket defense system to the northern city of Haifa, which was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire in the 2006 war. The Israeli army called that move "routine."

The Israeli army won't say whether Iron Dome was sent north in connection to this operation. It does note that it has deployed the system in the north before.

Syria and its allies, including Hezbollah, deny there is an uprising against the government and say what is happening is part of a conspiracy against Damascus because of its support for anti-Israeli groups.

Hezbollah said the attack is part of that conspiracy "that aims to destroy Syria, its army and vital role in the line of resistance" against Israel.

----

Associated Press writer Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA_ISRAEL?SITE=CAACS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Gabrielle Giffords appears at Senate hearing on gun violence (Washington Post)

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Cops: Elderly patient fatally shoots doctor in clinic

By Jason Kandel, Vikki Vargas and Angie Crouch, NBCLosAngeles.com

A doctor was fatally shot and the suspected gunman was in custody on Monday after a shooting at a doctor's office in Newport Beach, police said.

The shooting happened at 2:45 p.m. in a second-floor patient room at 520 Superior Ave., said Kathy?Lowe, of the the Newport Beach Police Department.

Lowe said police received a call from someone reporting hearing up to seven shots fired in the medical office. Police arrived and found both the gunman and the shooting victim in the office.

Read more on NBCLosAngeles.com

The gunman, a?man in his 70s?whose name was not immediately released, was arrested without a struggle. An employee who works in the building said the gunman had a scheduled appointment with the slain doctor.

Police did not identify the person who was shot, but witnesses told NBC4 that the man was possibly a urologist.

Because the building is so new, witnesses initially thought the shooting was the sound of construction.

"I thought it was construction, like a nail gun," said Kristin Crotty, an employee at the medical facility.

The doctor has a wife and two children. His family declined to comment late Monday.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/28/16743437-cops-elderly-patient-fatally-shoots-doctor-in-clinic?lite

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Study shows climate change could affect onset and severity of flu seasons

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The American public can expect to add earlier and more severe flu seasons to the fallout from climate change, according to a research study published online Jan. 28 in PLOS Currents: Influenza.

A team of scientists led by Sherry Towers, research professor in the Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center at Arizona State University, studied waves of influenza and climate patterns in the U.S. from the 1997-1998 season to the present.

The team's analysis, which used Centers for Disease Control data, indicates a pattern for both A and B strains: warm winters are usually followed by heavy flu seasons.

"It appears that fewer people contract influenza during warm winters, and this causes a major portion of the population to remain vulnerable into the next season, causing an early and strong emergence," says Towers. "And when a flu season begins exceptionally early, much of the population has not had a chance to get vaccinated, potentially making that flu season even worse."

The current flu season, which is still in high gear in parts of the nation, began early and fiercely. It followed a relatively light 2011 season, which saw the lowest peak of flu since tracking efforts went into effect, and coincided with the fourth warmest winter on record. According to previous studies, flu transmission decreases in warm or humid conditions.

If global warming continues, warm winters will become more common, and the impact of flu will likely be more heavily felt, say the study's authors.

Mathematical epidemiologist Gerardo Chowell-Puente, an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, adds that the findings could inform preparedness efforts following mild winters: "The expedited manufacture and distribution of vaccines and aggressive vaccination programs could significantly diminish the severity of future influenza epidemics."

###

Arizona State University: http://asunews.asu.edu/

Thanks to Arizona State University 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.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126504/Study_shows_climate_change_could_affect_onset_and_severity_of_flu_seasons

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10 dead Borneo pygmy elephants feared poisoned

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? Ten endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in a Malaysian forest under mysterious circumstances, and wildlife officials said Tuesday that they probably were poisoned.

Carcasses of the baby-faced elephants were found near each other over the past three weeks at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, said Laurentius Ambu, director of the wildlife department in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island.

In one case, officers rescued a 3-month-old calf that was apparently trying to wake its dead mother.

Poisoning appeared to be the likely cause, but officials have not determined whether it was intentional, said Sabah environmental minister Masidi Manjun. Though some elephants have been killed for their tusks on Sabah in past years, there was no sign that these animals had been poached.

"This is a very sad day for conservation and Sabah. The death of these majestic and severely endangered Bornean elephants is a great loss to the state," Masidi said in a statement. "If indeed these poor elephants were maliciously poisoned, I would personally make sure that the culprits would be brought to justice and pay for their crime."

The WWF wildlife group estimates that fewer than 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants exist. They live mainly in Sabah and grow to about eight feet (245 centimeters) tall, a foot or two shorter than mainland Asian elephants. Known for their babyish faces, large ears and long tails, pygmy elephants were found to be a distinct subspecies only in 2003, after DNA testing.

Their numbers have stabilized in recent years amid conservation efforts to protect their jungle habitats from being torn down for plantations and development projects.

The elephants found dead this month were believed to be from the same family group and ranged in age from 4 to 20 years, said Sen Nathan, the wildlife department's senior veterinarian. Seven were female and three were male, he said.

Post-mortems showed they suffered severe hemorrhages and ulcers in their gastrointestinal tracts. None had gunshot injuries.

"We highly suspect that it might be some form of acute poisoning from something that they had eaten, but we are still waiting for the laboratory results," Nathan said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/10-dead-borneo-pygmy-elephants-feared-poisoned-054810375.html

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Picture Perfect

Emily Yoffe

Photograph by Teresa Castracane.

Emily Yoffe, aka Dear Prudence, is on Washingtonpost.com weekly to chat live with readers. An edited?transcript of the chat is below. (Sign up here?to get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week. Read Prudie?s?Slate columns?here. Send questions to Prudence at prudence@slate.com.)

Q. Family Gathering Dilemma: My father is turning 70 at the end of February and my mom has organized a party to get all of my siblings to attend. With everyone scattered across the country, this is a rare occurrence and we have decided to get a professional photographer to take some family pictures. I am the youngest in the family and the only one who is unmarried, although I am in a long-term relationship with a great guy. My dad and the family love the boyfriend and he has been included in the festivities. He's met a few of my sibs before, they all approve and I'm really happy that he has been welcomed so fully into my family's plans. Here's my problem: I love my boyfriend and I plan on being with him for the long haul, but if we do break up in the future, I don't want our family picture to include my future ex. All of my high school graduation pictures are marred by an ex that, at the time, I was clearly going to spend the rest of my life with whom I have since fallen out of touch with and they're awkward to look at now. How do I navigate having my boyfriend attend this happy event, but not include him in the pictures? Is there a delicate way to tell him I feel it would be inappropriate? I don't want it to seem like I'm planning to skip town, but these pictures are one of the few cases where my whole family will be together and I don't want everyone to look back on them in a few years and go "Oh yea, whatever happened to that guy little sis was seeing?" Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks!

A: If you don't want to end your long-term relationship with the great guy at your father's party, when the photographer is gathering everyone for group shots, do not say, "Honey, please stay in your seat. I know we've been together awhile. But you may not be around for the long haul, and I don't want your face to haunt me for years to come." You're hiring the photographer for the event, so there should be plenty of photos of various groupings: immediate family, siblings, everyone and their spouses, good friends, etc. That means your boyfriend will be in some photos and not others. If you two get married, it would be odd that there weren't any photos of him at this 70^th birthday, even though he was there. It may turn out that down the road some of the happy couples captured on film will be set asunder. Fortunately, no one's going to remove them from the photographic record, Soviet-style.

Dear Prudence: Desperate Single

Q. Firing an Officiant: My fianc? and I are atheists, and we were overjoyed when our friend's boyfriend decided to get ordained to marry us. We paid him a few hundred dollars to read our vows. But he quickly became domineering, offering endlessly unsolicited advice and trying to run the show. After he came over and insulted our vows last weekend (and insulted me, believing that I wrote them), I've had enough with his behavior. He's only talked to me once since, and that was to back up his earlier comments. Since then, despite calmly telling him once again what we want, he's ignored me. I've been kind to him only to preserve my friendship, but at this point it looks lost. How do I go about firing him?

A: This is a first: an officiant-zilla. Luckily you still have time so you say, "Pastor [Ha ha!] Brad, we appreciate your willingness to officiate at our wedding, but as we've all discovered our styles aren't meshing, so we're going to go another way for our officiant. We appreciate the time you've put into this and hope the money we've given you compensates you for it. We look forward to having you as a guest at the wedding." Then you find someone who's not a nut who can perform your nuptials.

Q. Miscarriage With My Ex: I broke up with my boyfriend three weeks ago after I found out that he had been cheating on me. We had been together about a year, but did not live together. I knew he was not right for me and we were not going to end up married, but still, the infidelity and accompanying lies really stung. In the weeks leading up to the split, I suspected I was pregnant (I was) but didn't say anything to him because things were so difficult between us. A few days after we broke up, I miscarried. It was devastating. Even though I know he would not have been an ideal father, and I definitely didn't set out to get pregnant, I still wanted the baby and now feel a sense of loss mixed with relief and guilt. My question is, should I tell my ex about the miscarriage? Some of my friends say he has the right to know.

A: You had a troubled relationship with a compulsive liar, so I don't think you owe him any information about your miscarriage. In a way, telling him could be interpreted as an attempt if not to get back together, to at least see each other in a state of high emotion. I understand you're mourning this loss, but I hope your feelings eventually shift so that you do start recognizing more of the accompanying relief that you will not be yoked to someone so unsuitable as a romantic partner and father. As you go out and look for someone new, first discuss with your gynecologist some of the safe and extremely reliable forms of birth control now available, so you don't end up in this situation again. I hear from too many woman who are raising children utterly alone, their kids abandoned emotionally and financially by jerk fathers.

Q. Ogling: My boyfriend (we are both around 50 years old) has a habit of ogling women, sometimes rather obviously and often when we are together. I find it rude and annoying, but not a huge issue in and of itself. However, I recently discovered that he sometimes takes pictures surreptitiously of women, often of their rear ends and legs. I am very bothered by this, find it creepy, and also wonder if he could get in trouble for it. I know that if I bent over at a bus stop to pick up a quarter, and some stranger took a picture, I would be really furious, and feel violated. If someone did that to my daughter, I would be murderous. He knows I am aware of the obvious staring, but I don't think he realizes that I have actually seen him snap a picture, and I am quite sure that if I bring it up, it will not be an easy conversation. I can't decide if I am overreacting, or if I should talk to him about it, or I should just get the hell out of Dodge. I have tried to just ignore it, but it does bother me a lot.

A: I assume you don't want to stand by him when he's hauled into court for taking an "up-skirt" photo. Often when I get letters such as yours they start by averring the wonderfulness of the (awful) partner. But all you've given me is a description of a creep. I think you should have a talk with him and it should consist of one word: "Goodbye."

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=74768837b81469e373e605a8cb49a5a3

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In Timbuktu, a giant task of reconnecting a remote city to the world

Before they left, Islamists in northern Mali cut Internet and phone connections. Restoring them is just the first step toward piecing Mali back together.

By John Thorne,?Correspondent / January 29, 2013

When the Internet got knocked out three weeks ago here in Timbuktu, Islamist militants who then ran the city did what most of us would do: They harassed their service provider.

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?They all had my number, and they all called to complain,? says Aguissa Maiga, the local chief technician for Orange, a leading telecoms company in Mali that serves many customers in Timbuktu.

There was an irony to the cries for restored connectivity. Militants have spent the past nine months trying to isolate northern Mali as a hardline Islamist realm. Those in Timbuktu ultimately sabotaged telecoms stations as French and Malian forces advanced on the city last week, says Mr. Maiga.

Now he faces the urgent mission of helping get Timbuktu?s citizens back on their phones and back online ? among the first of many tasks involved in knitting a torn country back together.

Administration must be rebuilt, and tens of thousands of displaced people need to return home. Meanwhile, French and Malian forces must keep the peace. Islamists have been evicted from cities and towns, but could turn to a guerrilla campaign. Many in Mali also fear reprisal attacks as authorities work to restore order.

Mali began fraying years ago. Under-development and poor governance in the north helped fuel ethnic Tuareg rebellions, and in recent years enabled criminal networks that Al Qaeda-linked militants tapped for cash.

Last April, Islamist militants capitalized on yet another Tuareg revolt to launch their own takeover of Mali?s north. In Timbuktu, as elsewhere, they set up a harsh rule based on a literalist reading of Islamic texts.

Some things were compulsory ? among them attending prayer and dressing modestly. Others, such as cigarettes, mixed-sex socializing, and music, were forbidden. Punishments ranged from simple beatings to stoning alleged adulterers and cutting off the hands of people accused of theft.

Morality police

Militants in Timbuktu set up morality police to keep an eye on residents and enforce their version of religious strictures, with one office near a busy market. Before long, people were avoiding the area, said a local merchant who asked not to be named because she feared a possible reprisal.

?There were always lots of Islamists in the street, though,? he says. ?Sometimes they would even grab people returning home from prayer at the mosque, and force them to pray again.?

One day the merchant?s sister was caught getting water from a pump by her door while wearing a knee-length dress, the merchant said. She was held for ten hours in a bank ATM booth, then released with a beating. Her brother began monitoring the morality police office, passing information on abuses to Human Rights Watch.

The militants grew watchful against such activities, says the merchant, who escaped suspicion by being discreet. One day he was alarmed by a summons for questioning by a morality police commander over two men who loitered regularly in the area.

?Every day I see them, and one wears dark glasses,? the commander said, according to the merchant. ?Who is that one, and what is he doing??

?He?s old and unemployed, that?s all,? the merchant began. The commander cut him off:??You tell them if they come back again, we?ll take them.?

Reports filtered out

Islamist efforts to escape outside scrutiny ultimately failed. Thanks in part to people like the merchant, reports of life under their rule filtered out of the north, and helped build international pressure for a military campaign to unseat them.

That campaign was kick-started this month by a surprise Islamist advance south to the city of Konna, prompting a distress call from Mali?s interim president and overnight deployment of French troops to lead a counter-offensive.

Somehow during the turmoil, the Orange relay station at Konna was knocked out of service, cutting Internet connections from cities up the line. It was then that Islamists in Timbuktu, served by Konna?s station, began pestering Maiga, the Orange technician.

Over the past weekend, French and Malian forces have pushed into the north, taking cities including Timbuktu apparently without a fight. Islamists there mostly fled town as their enemies advanced ? but not before burning the main Orange telecoms relay and shooting up two others, says Maiga.

?When they realized the French were coming, they decided to cut all communications so people couldn?t give away their positions,? he says.

Today Timbuktu remains offline. Cell phones and the Internet are inaccessible, while the main Orange relay station is a twisted wreck of blackened metal and tumbled machinery. Maiga hopes to get new equipment in place in the coming days.

?They even burned the generator that powers the station, and the fuel tank, and they stole most of the backup batteries some time ago,? Maiga says. He paused, then spoke words that would be as true in many other contexts across northern Mali: ?All these things need to be replaced.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/7EPKwqlAFmA/In-Timbuktu-a-giant-task-of-reconnecting-a-remote-city-to-the-world

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WindowsAndroid runs Google's mobile OS natively on the Windows kernel

Sure, you could enjoy Android on your PC through dual-booting or virtualization, but the folks at Socketeq have whipped up yet another alternative: a port of Mountain View's mobile OS, fittingly dubbed WindowsAndroid, that runs natively on the Windows kernel (under Vista, 7 and 8) instead of Linux. Not only does the operating system run speedily since its free of virtualization chains, but it serves up the appropriate tablet or smartphone UI based on window size, and plays nice with keyboards and mice, too boot. Socketeq's solution serves up the full Android experience, but you'll have to separately flash the Google apps that typically come baked in, according to Android Police. Ice Cream Sandwich is the freshest flavor of Android to have undergone the kernel-replacement treatment, and it's currently being offered as a free "first-try" download at the source.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Tablets, Microsoft, Google

Comments

Via: Android Police

Source: Socketeq

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/27/android-native-windows-kernel/

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Rep Introduces Bill To Ban 'Mature' Video Games Being Sold To ...

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When food porn holds no allure: The science behind satiety

Public release date: 28-Jan-2013
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Contact: Brian Lin
brian.lin@ubc.ca
604-822-2234
University of British Columbia

New research from the University of British Columbia is shedding light on why enticing pictures of food affect us less when we're full.

"We've known that insulin plays a role in telling us we're satiated after eating, but the mechanism by which this happens is unclear," says Stephanie Borgland, an assistant professor in UBC's Dept. of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the study's senior author.

In the new study published online this week in Nature Neuroscience, Borgland and colleagues found that insulin prompted by a sweetened, high-fat meal affects the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, which is responsible for reward-seeking behaviour. When insulin was applied to the VTA in mice, they no longer gravitated towards environments where food had been offered.

"Insulin dulls the synapses in this region of the brain and decreases our interest in seeking out food," says Borgland, "which in turn causes us to pay less attention to food-related cues."

"There has been a lot of discussion around the environmental factors of the obesity epidemic," Borgland adds, pointing to fast food advertising bans in Quebec, Norway, the U.K., Greece and Sweden. "This study helps explain why pictures or other cues of food affect us less when we're satiated and may help inform strategies to reduce environmental triggers of overeating."

The VTA has also been shown to be associated with addictive behaviours, including illicit drug use. Borgland says better understanding of the mechanism in this region of the brain could, in the long run, inform diagnosis and treatment.

###

The study is available at dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3321

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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: 28-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Brian Lin
brian.lin@ubc.ca
604-822-2234
University of British Columbia

New research from the University of British Columbia is shedding light on why enticing pictures of food affect us less when we're full.

"We've known that insulin plays a role in telling us we're satiated after eating, but the mechanism by which this happens is unclear," says Stephanie Borgland, an assistant professor in UBC's Dept. of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the study's senior author.

In the new study published online this week in Nature Neuroscience, Borgland and colleagues found that insulin prompted by a sweetened, high-fat meal affects the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, which is responsible for reward-seeking behaviour. When insulin was applied to the VTA in mice, they no longer gravitated towards environments where food had been offered.

"Insulin dulls the synapses in this region of the brain and decreases our interest in seeking out food," says Borgland, "which in turn causes us to pay less attention to food-related cues."

"There has been a lot of discussion around the environmental factors of the obesity epidemic," Borgland adds, pointing to fast food advertising bans in Quebec, Norway, the U.K., Greece and Sweden. "This study helps explain why pictures or other cues of food affect us less when we're satiated and may help inform strategies to reduce environmental triggers of overeating."

The VTA has also been shown to be associated with addictive behaviours, including illicit drug use. Borgland says better understanding of the mechanism in this region of the brain could, in the long run, inform diagnosis and treatment.

###

The study is available at dx.doi.org/10.1038/nn.3321

---

[ | 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/2013-01/uobc-wfp012813.php

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Washington casts wary eye at Muslim Brotherhood (The Arizona Republic)

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Obama: Gun-control advocates have to listen more (The Arizona Republic)

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Chocolate cake with buttercream frosting

Jan. 27 is National Chocolate Cake Day. Celebrate with this chocolate cake and buttercream frosting recipe that has been a favorite with Monitor readers for decades.

By Kendra Nordin,?Kitchen Report / January 26, 2013

Celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day on Jan. 27 with this tried-and-true dense and moist chocolate cake with buttercream frosting.

Kitchen Report

Enlarge

There?s not a lot to say here except that this will be the best chocolate cake you ever bake. Ever. It has stood the test of time, fads, and the convenience of box cake mixes. This chocolate cake recipe first appeared in The Christian Science Monitor in the 1930s or ?40s. It was reintroduced to readers a few years ago in this?essay.

Skip to next paragraph Kendra Nordin

Staff editor

Kendra Nordin is a staff editor and writer for the weekly print edition of the Monitor. She also produces Stir It Up!, a recipe blog for CSMonitor.com.

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When my mom gave me cake tools for Christmas this year, an eight-layer cakemaker complete with a plastic wand with interchangeable parts for carving pretty patterns in the icing, I decided to put them to the test for a friend's New Year?s Eve birthday bash.

I don?t think I had even made a double-layer cake before attempting this towering masterpiece.

I layered the cake with alternating buttercream frosting and raspberry preserves that I heated in the microwave for about 10 seconds to get it to a spreadable texture. I covered the sides and top with a chocolate buttercream frosting. I adapted the frosting recipe a bit from the original recipe, made it less sweet, which I think works just fine ? because this is a really moist, dense cake.

On a whim I decided to use a few fresh flowers for a decorative touch, since I don't quite trust my skills yet to make frosting flowers.

It?s?delicious?either as a simple sheet cake or dressed up into a multilayer celebration cake.

There was just enough to give our revelers a nice big piece each ? and left the Birthday Girl with a giant piece to eat the next day, which she did for breakfast. While sweet endings are nice, sweet beginnings are even better.

Chocolate cake

2 cups sugar

1-1/2 sticks butter

1-1/2 cup boiling water

2 cups flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9- x 13-inch pan or two 9-inch round cake pans. If you are using round pans, it is recommend that you cut out a piece of parchment paper and line each pan, since this cake tends to stick.

Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add boiling water and stir until the butter and sugar are dissolved.

Sift the dry ingredients into the batter and combine. Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.

Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake about 35 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Note: Homecooks who have used this recipe find that the cake rises higher in the middle.

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

1/2 stick butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1-2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream butter until fluffy, gradually add powdered sugar. Stir in milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you achieve the consistency you want. Add vanilla. This is a thick, rich icing.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, soda, salt) into the batter. Mix well. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

1-1/2 sticks butter, room temperature

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

3 egg yolks, unbeaten

6 1-ounce squares unsweetened baker?s chocolate

In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate completely. Remove from heat, allow to cool.

Cream butter until fluffy, gradually add powdered sugar. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time. Add in chocolate, beat until desired consistency.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of food bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by The Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own and they are responsible for the content of their blogs and their recipes. All readers are free to make ingredient substitutions to satisfy their dietary preferences, including not using wine (or substituting cooking wine) when a recipe calls for it. To contact us about a blogger, click here.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/8a97oexheLU/Chocolate-cake-with-buttercream-frosting

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What is it? Social Cells

Social cells: The slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum spends much of its time as an apparently typical microscopic single-celled amoeba, oozing around in wet soil as it grazes on bacteria. Something truly odd happens, however, when the food runs out. Starving D. discoideum band together to form a conglomerate organism. A multicellular slug of sorts, the group grows into a spore-making tower, a beacon for sending amoebae out to richer grounds. The sudden lifestyle change is interesting enough, but the real evolutionary puzzle is the cells that make up the delicate stalk. They die without reproducing, which means cells at the top of the tower can turn into more effective spores. This form of altruistic sacrifice has fascinated biologists for decades. (It appears that related amoebae are more likely to group together, so even the dying cells get to pass on their genes.) Here is an organism that is both solitary and fully, suicidally social, a nearly perfect model creature for understanding how multicellular life emerged from the amoebae. In this shot, a slice through a culture dish, you can see a progression of slugs into towers.

Image: Alex Wild

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=bc7d0588624d48413ef030b006140b27

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A New Blood Test for Depression Proves It's Not All In Your Head

Mental Health Innovation: MDD Score is the first-ever blood test that screens biological indicators of depression, like inflammation and neurochemicals (the company that makes it won't reveal which ones it tests for, exactly). The test, which will soon be out in the U.S. and requires a doctor's precription, is the first ?objective diagnostic measure? for the disorder? which means you can get a diagnosis without filling out a questionnaire or talking to a physician or a mental health professional. You get a numerical score that suggests how likely it is that you have depression. Studies show that MDD Score is about as accurate at making a diagnosis as the most rigorous questionnaires.

Who: Lonna J. Williams

What She Does: CEO of Ridge Diagnostics, the company introducing MDD Score

U.S Mental Illness Rates are Persistently High

Why It's Innovative:?"Every psychiatrist and primary care physician we talk to says?they need to be able to diagnosis early and get the patients on the right treatment,? says Williams. ?And they need to know as quickly as possible if the treatment is working.??The test has the potential to improve treatment, as well, because patients may be more accepting of a blood-test result, she says. "It's of significant impact to the patient. Suddenly the patient sees a blood test that says ?this is your disorder.? It's like any other disorder. It's not in your head. It's meaningful. It's not your fault. The stigma abates and they become more involved in their own care."

The idea for the MDD Score blood test first came up when a scientist who was studying biological signs of depression saw how those ?biomarkers? changed when patients responded to therapy. The scientist's son had a mental health disorder that had been misdiagnosed and, in turn, he wasn?t being treated appropriately. That was further motivation to try to create a biologically-based diagnostic test for major depression, Williams says.

Sneak Peek: Psychiatry's 'Bible' is Updated After Nearly 20 Years

The Problem That Keeps Her Up at Night:?"Are physicians going to accept this and make it available to their patients? I believe strongly that patients will embrace it. But any time something new is introduced to physicians, they can be a little hesitant until some time goes by. I look forward to physicians embracing this."

Where Mental Health Needs More Innovation: ?We need stronger and larger consumer awareness organizations, such as those that address cancer or HIV or other highly prevalent diseases," says Williams. ?There hasn't been much of that with mental health. There is no organized patient advocacy. There are bits and pieces here and there, but they are disparate and not organized. I think this industry needs to start creating that to help with innovation and education and abatement of the stigma."

Feeling Blue? Let Dr. Feel Good Make a House Call

How You Can Take Action: "Seek out innovative technologies. There are physicians who are using treatments other than drugs. There are particular blood tests or genetic tests that can tell you if you are a metabolizer of one kind of drug or another. There is more personalization of medicine." Moreover, she adds, don't be embarrassed by having a mental health disorder. "There shouldn't be a stigma. It's not your fault. The more these technologies become broadly used, the more the stigma will abate."

The MDD Score test is expected to cost $745 if paid for out-of-pocket.

Would you trust a blood test to diagnose depression? If you deal with depression, what innovations would you like to see in diagnosis or treatment?

Related Stories on TakePart:

? Mental Medicine: The Power of Mindset

? Log Off: Internet Addiction

? Why It's Time to Link Medical and Psychiatric Records

---

Shari Roan is an award-winning health writer based in Southern California. She is the author of three books on health and science subjects.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blood-test-depression-proves-not-head-133922250.html

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Jet fuel, plastics exposures cause disease in later generations; Reproductive diseases, obesity

Jan. 24, 2013 ? Washington State University researchers have lengthened their list of environmental toxicants that can negatively affect as many as three generations of an exposed animal's offspring.

Writing in the online journal PLOS ONE, scientists led by molecular biologist Michael Skinner document reproductive disease and obesity in the descendants of rats exposed to the plasticizer bisephenol-A, or BPA, as well DEHP and DBP, plastic compounds known as phthalates.

In a separate article in the journal Reproductive Toxicology, they report the first observation of cross-generation disease from a widely used hydrocarbon mixture the military refers to as JP8.

Both studies are the first of their kind to see obesity stemming from the process of "epigenetic transgenerational inheritance." While the animals are inheriting traits conveyed by their parents' DNA sequences, they are also having epigenetic inheritance with some genes turned on and off. Skinner's lab in the past year has documented these epigenetic effects from a host of environmental toxicants, including plastics, pesticides, fungicide, dioxin and hydrocarbons.

The recent PLOS ONE study found "significant increases" in disease and abnormalities in the first and third generations of both male and female descendants of animals exposed to plastics. The first generation, whose mother had been directly exposed during gestation, had increased kidney and prostate diseases. The third generation had pubertal abnormalities, testis disease, ovarian disease and obesity.

The study also identified nearly 200 epigenetic molecular markers for exposure and transgenerational disease. The markers could lead to the development of a diagnostic tool and new therapies.

The Reproductive Toxicology study exposed female rats to the hydrocarbon mixture as their fetuses' gonads were developing. The first generation of offspring had increased kidney and prostate abnormalities and ovarian disease. The third generation had increased losses of primordial follicles, the precursors to eggs, polycystic ovarian disease and obesity.

The study, said Skinner, "provides additional support for the possibility that environmental toxicants can promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease."

"Your great-grandmothers exposures during pregnancy may cause disease in you, while you had no exposure," he said. "This is a non-genetic form of inheritance not involving DNA sequence, but environmental impacts on DNA chemical modifications. This is the first set of studies to show the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease such as obesity, which suggests ancestral exposures may be a component of the disease development."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Washington State University. The original article was written by Eric Sorensen.

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

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Journal References:

1. Mohan Manikkam, Rebecca Tracey, Carlos Guerrero-Bosagna, Michael K. Skinner. Plastics Derived Endocrine Disruptors (BPA, DEHP and DBP) Induce Epigenetic Transgenerational Inheritance of Obesity, Reproductive Disease and Sperm Epimutations. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e55387 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055387
2. Carlos Guerrero-Bosagna, Trevor R. Covert, Md. M. Haque, Matthew Settles, Eric E. Nilsson, Matthew D. Anway, Michael K. Skinner. Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of vinclozolin induced mouse adult onset disease and associated sperm epigenome biomarkers. Reproductive Toxicology, 2012; 34 (4): 694 DOI: 10.1016/j.reprotox.2012.09.005

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://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/nhS_5chaCz8/130124183630.htm

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