NEW YORK (AP) ? A former New York lawyer convicted in a terrorism case says her request for early release from a 10-year prison sentence to fight cancer has been rejected.
Lynne Stewart said in a statement to supporters this week that she was "disappointed but not devastated" by a Federal Bureau of Prisons letter. She said it was flawed factually and medically.
Stewart has said medical authorities at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, recommended her for compassionate release. The program permits early release for "extraordinary and compelling reasons." She said the warden then forwarded the application to Washington.
The 73-year-old Stewart was sentenced on a charge of conspiracy to provide support to terrorist organizations.
A Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said she can't comment for privacy reasons about individual inmates.
--DJOKOVIC AND WILLIAMS CRUISE ON ANOTHER RAINY DAY AT WIMBLEDON
Title favorites Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams dodge the carnage among the leading players and win at Wimbledon.
http://apne.ws/13aj6IK
--SPAIN DOWNS ITALY ON PENALTIES, REACHES CONFEDERATIONS CUP FINAL
After a scoreless draw, Spain downs Italy in a penalty shootout to set up a Confederations Cup final against host Brazil.
http://apne.ws/14djcw2
--SURPRISES AT NBA DRAFT AS CANADIAN GOES AT NUMBER ONE
Cleveland Cavaliers select Canadian Anthony Bennett in an unpredictable first round at the NBA draft.
http://apne.ws/13bDGHt
--WEBBER TO QUIT F1, HEADING TO SPORTSCARS WITH PORSCHE
Australian Mark Webber confirms longstanding speculation he will quit the Red Bull F1 team at season's end and return to sportscar racing with Porsche.
http://apne.ws/1aQfH20
--CONTADOR BULLISH ABOUT CHANCES IN RETURN TO TOUR DE FRANCE
Two-time champion Alberto Contador predicts an aggressive Tour de France in his return to the event after missing a year under a doping ban.
When we got hands-on with the Windows 8.1 preview earlier this week, it was on a Surface Pro -- i.e., an x86 system running full Windows. Until today, though, we hadn't had a chance to try the software on a device running Windows RT. Well, fortunately for us, Microsoft has a row full of freshly updated Surface RT units on display here at Build, so we took the opportunity poke around a little. As you'd expect, Windows RT 8.1 has all the trappings of the full Windows version, including an always-there Start button and new apps like Food & Drink and Health & Fitness. What's sort of interesting is that you can boot to the desktop here as well, just as you would on Windows 8.1. (We say "interesting" because, well, how urgently do you need the desktop on RT anyway?) The desktop also still comes with Office apps pinned to the Taskbar, in case you were wondering.
Performance seems much the same as before, particularly because we were handling last year's Surface RT, which still ships with a Tegra 3 SoC. Browsing and loading tabs in IE11 feels snappy but then again, IE11 was supposed to be a tick faster than IE10. Overall, navigating the OS can still feel slightly sluggish, but the build we tried is at least stable. Other than that, it looks like we'll have to wait for some new ARM chips before we can revisit performance in Windows RT. We'll also be back to take a look at the forthcoming RT Outlook app, which we haven't seen yet. Until then, don't expect us to write another 4,000 words on the subject.
After getting upset about the fact that Guardian has been breaking news and leaking classified documents about the many and varied spying programs of the NSA, the US Army has decided to block access to the news site among its employees.
An Army spokesperson told the Monterey Herald "some access to press coverage and online content about the NSA leaks" was being filtered as part of routine "network hygiene". He continued, pointing out that there are "strict policies and directives in place regarding protecting and handling classified information", suggesting the block was in place to limit unauthorized disclosures of classified material.
If the block sounds familiar, that's because it is: in 2010, the Army blocked the New York Times and Guardian during the US diplomatic cables leak by Assange et al. The reasoning? Well, at the time the White House insisted that "classified information, whether or not already posted on public websites or disclosed to the media, remains classified, and must be treated as such by federal employees and contractors."
That seems slightly farcical when you consider that the classified documents released by the Guardian are now freely available online. But rules are rules, and it seems the Army is doing the only thing it can to stop its staff coming across the documents. There are no plans to block website from the general public. [Monterey Herald via Verge]
June 27, 2013 ? Data from Voyager 1, now more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, suggest the spacecraft is closer to becoming the first human-made object to reach interstellar space.
Research using Voyager 1 data and published in the journal Science today provides new detail on the last region the spacecraft will cross before it leaves the heliosphere, or the bubble around our sun, and enters interstellar space. Three papers describe how Voyager 1's entry into a region called the magnetic highway resulted in simultaneous observations of the highest rate so far of charged particles from outside heliosphere and the disappearance of charged particles from inside the heliosphere.
Scientists have seen two of the three signs of interstellar arrival they expected to see: charged particles disappearing as they zoom out along the solar magnetic field, and cosmic rays from far outside zooming in. Scientists have not yet seen the third sign, an abrupt change in the direction of the magnetic field, which would indicate the presence of the interstellar magnetic field.
"This strange, last region before interstellar space is coming into focus, thanks to Voyager 1, humankind's most distant scout," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "If you looked at the cosmic ray and energetic particle data in isolation, you might think Voyager had reached interstellar space, but the team feels Voyager 1 has not yet gotten there because we are still within the domain of the sun's magnetic field."
Scientists do not know exactly how far Voyager 1 has to go to reach interstellar space. They estimate it could take several more months, or even years, to get there. The heliosphere extends at least 8 billion miles (13 billion kilometers) beyond all the planets in our solar system. It is dominated by the sun's magnetic field and an ionized wind expanding outward from the sun. Outside the heliosphere, interstellar space is filled with matter from other stars and the magnetic field present in the nearby region of the Milky Way.
Voyager 1 and its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, were launched in 1977. They toured Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before embarking on their interstellar mission in 1990. They now aim to leave the heliosphere. Measuring the size of the heliosphere is part of the Voyagers' mission.
The Science papers focus on observations made from May to September 2012 by Voyager 1's cosmic ray, low-energy charged particle and magnetometer instruments, with some additional charged particle data obtained through April of this year.
Voyager 2 is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun and still inside the heliosphere. Voyager 1 was about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun Aug. 25 when it reached the magnetic highway, also known as the depletion region, and a connection to interstellar space. This region allows charged particles to travel into and out of the heliosphere along a smooth magnetic field line, instead of bouncing around in all directions as if trapped on local roads. For the first time in this region, scientists could detect low-energy cosmic rays that originate from dying stars.
"We saw a dramatic and rapid disappearance of the solar-originating particles. They decreased in intensity by more than 1,000 times, as if there was a huge vacuum pump at the entrance ramp onto the magnetic highway," said Stamatios Krimigis, the low-energy charged particle instrument's principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "We have never witnessed such a decrease before, except when Voyager 1 exited the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter, some 34 years ago."
Other charged particle behavior observed by Voyager 1 also indicates the spacecraft still is in a region of transition to the interstellar medium. While crossing into the new region, the charged particles originating from the heliosphere that decreased most quickly were those shooting straightest along solar magnetic field lines. Particles moving perpendicular to the magnetic field did not decrease as quickly. However, cosmic rays moving along the field lines in the magnetic highway region were somewhat more populous than those moving perpendicular to the field. In interstellar space, the direction of the moving charged particles is not expected to matter.
In the span of about 24 hours, the magnetic field originating from the sun also began piling up, like cars backed up on a freeway exit ramp. But scientists were able to quantify that the magnetic field barely changed direction -- by no more than 2 degrees.
"A day made such a difference in this region with the magnetic field suddenly doubling and becoming extraordinarily smooth," said Leonard Burlaga, the lead author of one of the papers, and based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "But since there was no significant change in the magnetic field direction, we're still observing the field lines originating at the sun."
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
For more information about the Voyager spacecraft mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .
June 26, 2013 ? For most terrestrial life on Earth, oxygen is necessary for survival. But the planet's atmosphere did not always contain this life-sustaining substance, and one of science's greatest mysteries is how and when oxygenic photosynthesis -- the process responsible for producing oxygen on Earth through the splitting of water molecules -- first began. Now, a team led by geobiologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has found evidence of a precursor photosystem involving manganese that predates cyanobacteria, the first group of organisms to release oxygen into the environment via photosynthesis.
The findings, outlined in the June 24 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), strongly support the idea that manganese oxidation -- which, despite the name, is a chemical reaction that does not have to involve oxygen -- provided an evolutionary stepping-stone for the development of water-oxidizing photosynthesis in cyanobacteria.
"Water-oxidizing or water-splitting photosynthesis was invented by cyanobacteria approximately 2.4 billion years ago and then borrowed by other groups of organisms thereafter," explains Woodward Fischer, assistant professor of geobiology at Caltech and a coauthor of the study. "Algae borrowed this photosynthetic system from cyanobacteria, and plants are just a group of algae that took photosynthesis on land, so we think with this finding we're looking at the inception of the molecular machinery that would give rise to oxygen."
Photosynthesis is the process by which energy from the sun is used by plants and other organisms to split water and carbon dioxide molecules to make carbohydrates and oxygen. Manganese is required for water splitting to work, so when scientists began to wonder what evolutionary steps may have led up to an oxygenated atmosphere on Earth, they started to look for evidence of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis prior to cyanobacteria. Since oxidation simply involves the transfer of electrons to increase the charge on an atom -- and this can be accomplished using light or O2 -- it could have occurred before the rise of oxygen on this planet.
"Manganese plays an essential role in modern biological water splitting as a necessary catalyst in the process, so manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis makes sense as a potential transitional photosystem," says Jena Johnson, a graduate student in Fischer's laboratory at Caltech and lead author of the study.
To test the hypothesis that manganese-based photosynthesis occurred prior to the evolution of oxygenic cyanobacteria, the researchers examined drill cores (newly obtained by the Agouron Institute) from 2.415 billion-year-old South African marine sedimentary rocks with large deposits of manganese.
Manganese is soluble in seawater. Indeed, if there are no strong oxidants around to accept electrons from the manganese, it will remain aqueous, Fischer explains, but the second it is oxidized, or loses electrons, manganese precipitates, forming a solid that can become concentrated within seafloor sediments.
"Just the observation of these large enrichments -- 16 percent manganese in some samples -- provided a strong implication that the manganese had been oxidized, but this required confirmation," he says.
To prove that the manganese was originally part of the South African rock and not deposited there later by hydrothermal fluids or some other phenomena, Johnson and colleagues developed and employed techniques that allowed the team to assess the abundance and oxidation state of manganese-bearing minerals at a very tiny scale of 2 microns.
"And it's warranted -- these rocks are complicated at a micron scale!" Fischer says. "And yet, the rocks occupy hundreds of meters of stratigraphy across hundreds of square kilometers of ocean basin, so you need to be able to work between many scales -- very detailed ones, but also across the whole deposit to understand the ancient environmental processes at work."
Using these multiscale approaches, Johnson and colleagues demonstrated that the manganese was original to the rocks and first deposited in sediments as manganese oxides, and that manganese oxidation occurred over a broad swath of the ancient marine basin during the entire timescale captured by the drill cores.
"It's really amazing to be able to use X-ray techniques to look back into the rock record and use the chemical observations on the microscale to shed light on some of the fundamental processes and mechanisms that occurred billions of years ago," says Samuel Webb, coauthor on the paper and beam line scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, where many of the study's experiments took place. "Questions regarding the evolution of the photosynthetic pathway and the subsequent rise of oxygen in the atmosphere are critical for understanding not only the history of our own planet, but also the basics of how biology has perfected the process of photosynthesis."
Once the team confirmed that the manganese had been deposited as an oxide phase when the rock was first forming, they checked to see if these manganese oxides were actually formed before water-splitting photosynthesis or if they formed after as a result of reactions with oxygen. They used two different techniques to check whether oxygen was present. It was not -- proving that water-splitting photosynthesis had not yet evolved at that point in time. The manganese in the deposits had indeed been oxidized and deposited before the appearance of water-splitting cyanobacteria. This implies, the researchers say, that manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis was a stepping-stone for oxygen-producing, water-splitting photosynthesis.
"I think that there will be a number of additional experiments that people will now attempt to try and reverse engineer a manganese photosynthetic photosystem or cell," Fischer says. "Once you know that this happened, it all of a sudden gives you reason to take more seriously an experimental program aimed at asking, 'Can we make a photosystem that's able to oxidize manganese but doesn't then go on to split water? How does it behave, and what is its chemistry?' Even though we know what modern water splitting is and what it looks like, we still don't know exactly how it works. There is a still a major discovery to be made to find out exactly how the catalysis works, and now knowing where this machinery comes from may open new perspectives into its function -- an understanding that could help target technologies for energy production from artificial photosynthesis. "
Next up in Fischer's lab, Johnson plans to work with others to try and mutate a cyanobacteria to "go backwards" and perform manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis. The team also plans to investigate a set of rocks from western Australia that are similar in age to the samples used in the current study and may also contain beds of manganese. If their current study results are truly an indication of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis, they say, there should be evidence of the same processes in other parts of the world.
"Oxygen is the backdrop on which this story is playing out on, but really, this is a tale of the evolution of this very intense metabolism that happened once -- an evolutionary singularity that transformed the planet," Fischer says. "We've provided insight into how the evolution of one of these remarkable molecular machines led up to the oxidation of our planet's atmosphere, and now we're going to follow up on all angles of our findings."
Funding for the research outlined in the PNAS paper, titled "Manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis before the rise of cyanobacteria," was provided by the Agouron Institute, NASA's Exobiology Branch, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program. Joseph Kirschvink, Nico and Marilyn Van Wingen Professor of Geobiology at Caltech, also contributed to the study along with Katherine Thomas and Shuhei Ono from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
AAA??Jun. 26, 2013?8:27 AM ET Azarenka, Isner and Darcis out of Wimbledon By STEPHEN WILSONBy STEPHEN WILSON, AP Sports Writer??
John Isner of the United States, right, is attended to before retiring injured from his Men's second round singles match against Adrian Mannarino of France at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
John Isner of the United States, right, is attended to before retiring injured from his Men's second round singles match against Adrian Mannarino of France at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
John Isner of the United States, right, is attended to before retiring injured from his Men's second round singles match against Adrian Mannarino of France at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, second from right, is helped up after taking a fall during her Women's first round singles match against Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Monday, June 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, left, is attended to after taking a fall during her Women's first round singles match against Maria Joao Koehler of Portugal at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Monday, June 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
John Isner of the United States leaves the court after retiring injured during his Men's second round singles match against Adrian Mannarino of France at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships in Wimbledon, London, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
LONDON (AP) ? Injuries have knocked three key players out of Wimbledon ? second-seeded Victoria Azarenka, the Belgian who stunned Rafael Nadal in the first round and the American who won the longest match in tennis history.
Azarenka pulled out Wednesday after hurting her right knee in her opening-round win against Maria Joao Koehler. She withdrew minutes before her second-round match against Flavia Pennetta was to begin.
Azarenka, a two-time Australian Open champion, had reached the semifinals at Wimbledon the last two years and had been seeded to face Serena Williams in the final.
Steve Darcis, who beat two-time champion Nadal in straight sets on Monday in one of Wimbledon's greatest upsets, pulled out on because of a right shoulder injury.
The 135th-ranked Darcis withdrew was scheduled to play Lukasz Kubot of Poland.
John Isner, the 18th-seeded American, retired during his second-round match against Adrian Mannarino of France with a left knee injury after only two games.
Associated Press People, Places and Companies: Steve Darcis, John Isner, Victoria Azarenka, Rafael Nadal, Maria Joao Koehler, Flavia Pennetta, Serena Williams, Lukasz Kubot, Adrian Mannarino, United Kingdom
All the draft picks at this week?s NFL Rookie Symposium are learning about the pitfalls that can come with their new opportunities.
But as the first quarterback taken, and the guy expected to lead the Bills out of a generation of mediocrity-at-best, there?s an extra burden on E.J. Manuel.
Manuel said that the Symposium was an introduction into what he can expect as the guy the Bills expect to become the face of the franchise.
?It?s a great responsibility,? Manuel said, via Tim Graham of the Buffalo News. ?You?re always going to be watched, always going to be evaluated each and every day. You?ve got to take that responsibility and respect it. . . .
?I had high expectations no matter where I went in the draft. I?m a natural competitor. I mean, that?s something I was going to work toward anyway. So I don?t feel any added pressure.?
Of course, the first thing Manuel has to do to reach his goal is to prove more able than Kevin Kolb. While that shouldn?t be the most difficult thing in the world, being in a setting where setting up their future is the main topic of discussion had Manuel thinking about what his legacy as a player would be.
?I?ve always been taught that a good name is more important than great treasure,? Manuel said. ?So just keeping that respect for yourself and keeping your name clean, I think that?s what adds to your legacy.
?Obviously, when you play well you have a football legacy. But at the end of the day, I still want to be known as more than a football player. I want to be remembered as a great man.?
If he can deliver the Bills to the playoffs for the first time since 1999, he?ll have the first half of that taken care of.
DEAR ABBY: I was taken away from my parents at 13 and placed into foster care, where I stayed until I aged out at 21. My biological mother is a drug addict who abandoned me to my father when I was 11. She never tried to contact me while I was in care.I am now 24 and she won't leave me alone. She sends Facebook messages that alternate between begging me to let her get to know me, and condemning me for being vindictive and not having forgiveness in my heart. Abby, this woman exposed me to drugs and all manner of seedy people and situations. ...
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The Kenyan union representing more than 200,000 state school teachers on Monday said it will go on strike over payment of allowances, adding to the government's woes as it struggles to put a lid on wages and keep control of the budget.
President Uhuru Kenyatta said days after his inauguration in April that the state could not afford a bigger wage bill. But he faced almost immediate calls from members of parliament for higher salaries, fuelling concern that other state workers could follow suit.
Analysts have said other state employees may be inspired to push for better terms after already well-paid MPs secured generous benefits even if their salary demands were not met.
"The strike will start immediately after midnight," Wilson Sossion, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) chairman, told the union's top officials. "We have negotiated enough and signed an agreement. This time we must reach the promised land."
Thousands of secondary school teachers began strike action last week. The latest announcement means that action will become nationwide and will include primary schools.
The union has demanded that the state body responsible for teachers' pay agree to implement what they say is a 1997 deal for housing, medical and transport allowances.
"The discussions between the teachers union and government have not broken down," said government spokesman Muthui Kariuki, adding the government sought an "amicable solution".
The government says teacher demands are unsustainable. The president wants to cut a public sector wage bill that is now 50 percent of annual tax revenue, while the International Monetary Fund puts the global benchmark at about 35 percent.
Inflation is running at about 4 percent in Kenya.
Teachers' salaries range from about 16,000 Kenyan shillings per month to 142,000 shillings. They are seeking extra allowances on top of those salaries.
Kenyatta on Friday directed government agencies and teachers unions to negotiate, the second directive in a week after the initial deadline lapsed without any development.
Teachers went on strike in September demanding more teachers be hired to cope with a surge in student numbers after then President Mwai Kibaki introduced free primary and secondary education.
Home values in Las Vegas are increasing faster than any other major metro area according to a new report by Zillow. In May the valley?s median home value was $146,400 which is up 28 percent from a year ago. This was the highest year-to-year percent jump compared to the 30 largest regions evaluated in the report.
The other major markets where home values improved over the past year include Sacramento (26.1 percent), San?Francisco?(24.2 percent),?San Jose (21.8 percent), and Phoenix (21.3 percent). Only one of the 30 metros covered in the report had home values decreased year-over-year which was St. Louis.
Nationwide home values have risen 5.4 percent year-over-year to $159,000 in May. Home values are predicted to raise another 4.1 percent by May 2014. Zillow anticipates the pace of appreciation will slow down as more sellers list their homes and builders increase construction. This will help?alleviate?the low supply of housing inventory.
Call one of our top real estate agents to where they will give you a free estimate of your home value. ?Click here to choose the agent you would like to contact.
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) ? The stage at Walt Disney Studios where "The Mickey Mouse Club" was filmed is now officially the Annette Funicello Stage.
Disney chief Bob Iger led a ceremony Monday dedicating the soundstage to Funicello, the Mouseketeer-turned-movie star who died in April at age 70.
Iger confessed to having a crush on Funicello when he was growing up, as many who watched the perky brunette on TV did.
Former Mouseketeers, Funicello's family and colleagues and Mickey Mouse himself also participated in Monday's dedication. Frankie Avalon, Richard Sherman and Leonard Maltin were among those honoring the late actress.
Julie Andrews is the only other entertainer to have a namesake stage at Disney studios.
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Republicans used their majority to cut short debate and give preliminary approval early Monday to some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country as time was running out on the Texas Legislature's special session.
Many members of the conservative majority had flyers on their desks that read "Psalm 139:13-14," which reads in part, "You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
Democrats gained strength from more than 800 demonstrators who packed the hallways of the Capitol carrying signs reading, "Stop the War on Women" to oppose Senate Bill 5. The measure would ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and limit abortions to surgical centers.
Supporters say the bill will raise the standard of women's health care, but opponents point out the bill would shut down 37 out of 42 abortion clinics in the state.
"If this passes, abortion would be virtually banned in the state of Texas, and many women could be forced to resort to dangerous and unsafe measures," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late former Texas governor Ann Richards.
Democrats used parliamentary tactics to draw out the debate for 15 hours, pointing out technical mistakes in the process or trying to tack on amendments to fundamentally change the bill. Republicans remained largely silent, until finally passing a motion to stop accepting amendments and force a vote, a highly unusual and partisan move.
"We are willing to have an attack on women in order to have someone's political agenda achieved," Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, said in opposition to stopping debate on the bill. "It may be in the dark of night now ... but the sun will shine on each and every one of us, and we will be held accountable."
Republicans, though, needed to end debate and move the process forward if they hope to make a midnight Tuesday deadline, when the session ends. House members must still give final approval to the bill, and then it must sit for 24 hours before the Senate can consider it.
The bill's sponsor stopped answering questions about her bill after the first two hours after she got into trouble denying Democratic amendments. When Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, called for an exemption for women who were victims of rape and incest, Rep. Jody Laubenberg, R-Parker, explained why she felt it was unnecessary.
"In the emergency room they have what's called rape kits where a woman can get cleaned out," she said, comparing the procedure to an abortion. "The woman had five months to make that decision, at this point we are looking at a baby that is very far along in its development."
The remark about rape kits, which is not accurate, sparked widespread ridicule on social media sites. Laubenberg, who has difficulty debating bills, then simply rejected all proposed changes to her bill without speaking until the end of the debate.
"At five months, we are talking about a human being, unless you think it's still a clump of mass ... and we have to protect that babies rights," Laubenberg said in her closing argument. "Too often the back alley clinic today is the abortion clinic because of lax standards."
Three Democrats joined the Republican majority and voted for the bill 97-33. Protesters jeered their disapproval as security guards ordered them out of the chamber and they regrouped to protest outside.
The Texas Medical Association, the Texas Hospital Association and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had sent letters urging lawmakers to vote no on the bill, saying it would not raise the standard of care.
Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, gave a personal privilege speech decrying how the Republicans were manipulating the parliamentary process to rush it to a vote.
"Everything about the process related to these abortion regulation bills has smelled like partisan politics," Farrar said. "Proponents of the bill have failed to demonstrate any evidence that the regulations imposed by these bills are necessary. Nor have they expressed any sign of responsible governance in ensuring that women will continue to be able to access safe and legal abortion care."
Democrats in the Senate said they would try to filibuster the bill if it came to them on Tuesday, which now appears assured.
Gov. Rick Perry added abortion to the special session in the final two weeks, after lawmakers had already taken up redistricting.
___
Texas Senate Bill 5: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=831&Bill=SB5
___
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cltomlinson
Kidney cancer progression linked to shifts in tumor metabolismPublic release date: 24-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: NCI Press Office ncipressofficers@mail.nih.gov 301-496-6641 NIH/National Cancer Institute
Scientists with the Cancer Genome Atlas identify genomic alterations tied to tumor aggressiveness
Investigators in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network have uncovered a connection between how tumor cells use energy from metabolic processes and the aggressiveness of the most common form of kidney cancer, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Their findings demonstrate that normal metabolism is altered in ccRCC tumor cells, and involves a shift from using one metabolic pathway to another. This change termed a metabolic shift correlates with tumor stage and severity in some cases.
The scientists also found mutations in a pathway that may cause increased aggressiveness in this cancer. Taken together, the findings may offer new insight into underlying disease mechanisms and potential treatments as well as an understanding of how some cancer cells can shift from using normal metabolic pathways to alternative pathways, thereby providing a growth advantage to tumor cells. In general, changes in metabolic enzymes that promote growth of the tumor are associated with worse patient outcomes in this disease. This latest TCGA research supports previous evidence of a metabolic shift in a different subtype of kidney cancer.
The scientists used data generated by TCGA, a collaborative effort funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), both parts of the National Institutes of Health. The results of this study were published online June 23, 2013, in Nature.
"Because of TCGA's comprehensive characterization of kidney tumors and correlating that with patient survival data, researchers now can begin applying this knowledge to validating prognostic biomarkers and identifying new therapeutic strategies for this disease," said NIH Director, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
In the study, scientists examined nearly 450 ccRCC tumors and matched each with a normal sample from the same patient. When they looked at the amounts of specific proteins expressed in cancer cells, they found that low levels of one protein essential to cell metabolism (AMPK) and high levels of another (acetyl-CoA carboxylase) were associated with worse patient outcomes.
"Earlier findings from the characterization of other types of cancers have given us important clues as to how to design better therapies for these cancers," said NCI Director Harold Varmus, M.D. "The new results from the TCGA analysis of clear cell renal cell carcinomas provide an explanation for how mutations in certain genes can alter chromosome chemistry to produce changes in enzyme levels that affect cell metabolism in ways correlated with clinical outcomes. These findings will stimulate some novel ideas about therapies for other lethal cancers."
In addition to the connection between metabolic shift and tumor aggressiveness, TCGA Research Network scientists discovered that, in some cases, the metabolic shift may be caused by changes in the PI3K cellular pathway, which helps regulate cell metabolism. The investigators observed a number of changes in P13K pathway genes and its regulators in tumor cells, including DNA mutations in protein-coding areas, as well as other changes affecting gene expression. They found such alterations in the PI3K pathway or its partner pathways, AKT and mTOR in 29 percent of tumor samples. AKT and mTOR also are essential for regulating cellular metabolism.
The effects of these changes show the importance of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. For example, researchers found a decrease in factors that activate tumor suppressor genes the genes that produce proteins aimed at blocking tumor development. At the same time, factors that turned on genes that inhibit the PI3K pathway were blocked. Both of these changes promote activity in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. The results suggest the pathways' potential as therapeutic targets with inhibitor drugs.
"These findings illustrate how large, multi-dimensional datasets obtained from the rigorous analyses of hundreds of tumors can be mined to uncover new insights into cancer biology," said NHGRI Director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D. "By creating these types of datasets, TCGA has advanced our fundamental understanding of this type of cancer."
W. Marston Linehan, M.D., chief of the NCI Urologic Oncology Branch and one of the study's leaders, sees several implications from the results. "The finding of a metabolic shift in the aggressive tumors could provide the foundation for the development of a number of novel approaches to therapy for patients with advanced kidney cancer," said Linehan.
New therapies are especially important since advanced kidney cancer is often resistant to chemotherapy. TCGA data offer insights into various global processes occurring in kidney cancer and can show how different tumor pathways intersect.
"The molecular analysis of this disease impacts understanding of all cancers through furthering insights into the role of metabolic perturbation in malignancy," said Richard A. Gibbs, Ph.D., another lead investigator in the project and director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
NCI estimates that nearly 65,000 people in this country will be diagnosed with ccRCC in 2013, and more than 13,000 people will die from the disease. More than 50 percent of patients with early stage renal cell cancer are successfully treated with current therapies. However, nearly all patients with the most severe stage of this cancer have a poor prognosis.
To date, the TCGA Research Network has generated data and published analyses on glioblastoma multiforme, ovarian serous adenocarcinoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, invasive breast cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, and endometrial cancer. TCGA-generated data are freely available at the TCGA Data Portal and CGHub.
###
This work was supported by the following grants: 5U24CA143799, 5U24CA143835, 5U24CA143840, 5U24CA143843, 5U24CA143845, 5U24CA143848, 5U24CA143858, 5U24CA143866, 5U24CA143867, 5U24CA143882, 5U24CA143883, 5U24CA144025, U54HG003067, U54HG003079, and U54HG003273, P30CA16672.
Reference: The Cancer Genome Atlas Network. Integrative analysis of genomic and molecular alterations in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Nature. Online June 23, 2013. In print July 4, 2013. doi:10.1038/nature12222.
The TCGA Research Network consists of more than 150 researchers at dozens of institutions across the nation. A list of participants is available at http://cancergenome.nih.gov/abouttcga/overview. More details about The Cancer Genome Atlas, including Quick Facts, Q&A, graphics, glossary, a brief guide to genomics and a media library of available images can be found at http://cancergenome.nih.gov.
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Kidney cancer progression linked to shifts in tumor metabolismPublic release date: 24-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: NCI Press Office ncipressofficers@mail.nih.gov 301-496-6641 NIH/National Cancer Institute
Scientists with the Cancer Genome Atlas identify genomic alterations tied to tumor aggressiveness
Investigators in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network have uncovered a connection between how tumor cells use energy from metabolic processes and the aggressiveness of the most common form of kidney cancer, clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). Their findings demonstrate that normal metabolism is altered in ccRCC tumor cells, and involves a shift from using one metabolic pathway to another. This change termed a metabolic shift correlates with tumor stage and severity in some cases.
The scientists also found mutations in a pathway that may cause increased aggressiveness in this cancer. Taken together, the findings may offer new insight into underlying disease mechanisms and potential treatments as well as an understanding of how some cancer cells can shift from using normal metabolic pathways to alternative pathways, thereby providing a growth advantage to tumor cells. In general, changes in metabolic enzymes that promote growth of the tumor are associated with worse patient outcomes in this disease. This latest TCGA research supports previous evidence of a metabolic shift in a different subtype of kidney cancer.
The scientists used data generated by TCGA, a collaborative effort funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), both parts of the National Institutes of Health. The results of this study were published online June 23, 2013, in Nature.
"Because of TCGA's comprehensive characterization of kidney tumors and correlating that with patient survival data, researchers now can begin applying this knowledge to validating prognostic biomarkers and identifying new therapeutic strategies for this disease," said NIH Director, Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
In the study, scientists examined nearly 450 ccRCC tumors and matched each with a normal sample from the same patient. When they looked at the amounts of specific proteins expressed in cancer cells, they found that low levels of one protein essential to cell metabolism (AMPK) and high levels of another (acetyl-CoA carboxylase) were associated with worse patient outcomes.
"Earlier findings from the characterization of other types of cancers have given us important clues as to how to design better therapies for these cancers," said NCI Director Harold Varmus, M.D. "The new results from the TCGA analysis of clear cell renal cell carcinomas provide an explanation for how mutations in certain genes can alter chromosome chemistry to produce changes in enzyme levels that affect cell metabolism in ways correlated with clinical outcomes. These findings will stimulate some novel ideas about therapies for other lethal cancers."
In addition to the connection between metabolic shift and tumor aggressiveness, TCGA Research Network scientists discovered that, in some cases, the metabolic shift may be caused by changes in the PI3K cellular pathway, which helps regulate cell metabolism. The investigators observed a number of changes in P13K pathway genes and its regulators in tumor cells, including DNA mutations in protein-coding areas, as well as other changes affecting gene expression. They found such alterations in the PI3K pathway or its partner pathways, AKT and mTOR in 29 percent of tumor samples. AKT and mTOR also are essential for regulating cellular metabolism.
The effects of these changes show the importance of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. For example, researchers found a decrease in factors that activate tumor suppressor genes the genes that produce proteins aimed at blocking tumor development. At the same time, factors that turned on genes that inhibit the PI3K pathway were blocked. Both of these changes promote activity in the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. The results suggest the pathways' potential as therapeutic targets with inhibitor drugs.
"These findings illustrate how large, multi-dimensional datasets obtained from the rigorous analyses of hundreds of tumors can be mined to uncover new insights into cancer biology," said NHGRI Director Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D. "By creating these types of datasets, TCGA has advanced our fundamental understanding of this type of cancer."
W. Marston Linehan, M.D., chief of the NCI Urologic Oncology Branch and one of the study's leaders, sees several implications from the results. "The finding of a metabolic shift in the aggressive tumors could provide the foundation for the development of a number of novel approaches to therapy for patients with advanced kidney cancer," said Linehan.
New therapies are especially important since advanced kidney cancer is often resistant to chemotherapy. TCGA data offer insights into various global processes occurring in kidney cancer and can show how different tumor pathways intersect.
"The molecular analysis of this disease impacts understanding of all cancers through furthering insights into the role of metabolic perturbation in malignancy," said Richard A. Gibbs, Ph.D., another lead investigator in the project and director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.
NCI estimates that nearly 65,000 people in this country will be diagnosed with ccRCC in 2013, and more than 13,000 people will die from the disease. More than 50 percent of patients with early stage renal cell cancer are successfully treated with current therapies. However, nearly all patients with the most severe stage of this cancer have a poor prognosis.
To date, the TCGA Research Network has generated data and published analyses on glioblastoma multiforme, ovarian serous adenocarcinoma, colorectal adenocarcinoma, lung squamous cell carcinoma, invasive breast cancer, acute myeloid leukemia, and endometrial cancer. TCGA-generated data are freely available at the TCGA Data Portal and CGHub.
###
This work was supported by the following grants: 5U24CA143799, 5U24CA143835, 5U24CA143840, 5U24CA143843, 5U24CA143845, 5U24CA143848, 5U24CA143858, 5U24CA143866, 5U24CA143867, 5U24CA143882, 5U24CA143883, 5U24CA144025, U54HG003067, U54HG003079, and U54HG003273, P30CA16672.
Reference: The Cancer Genome Atlas Network. Integrative analysis of genomic and molecular alterations in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Nature. Online June 23, 2013. In print July 4, 2013. doi:10.1038/nature12222.
The TCGA Research Network consists of more than 150 researchers at dozens of institutions across the nation. A list of participants is available at http://cancergenome.nih.gov/abouttcga/overview. More details about The Cancer Genome Atlas, including Quick Facts, Q&A, graphics, glossary, a brief guide to genomics and a media library of available images can be found at http://cancergenome.nih.gov.
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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.
BOSTON (Reuters) - The jury in the murder and racketeering trial of accused mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger will hear on Monday from a former FBI supervisor who admitted he and another agent used to swap secrets with the notorious Winter Hill Gang.
John Morris, who supervised the Federal Bureau of Investigation's local organized crime squad during the Winter Hill's bloody rampage in Boston in the 1970s and '80s, helped its members elude arrest and silence so-called rats, threatening to implicate them in crimes.
Prosecutors will now call him to testify against Bulger, 83, who is accused of killing or ordering the murders of 19 people while at the helm of the gang as it ran extortion and gambling rings, and settled scores.
The accused gangster's story has captured Boston's imagination for decades and inspired the Academy Award-winning 2006 film "The Departed."
On Friday, jurors got their first inside glimpse of the FBI's reported double-dealings with members of Winter Hill.
Special Agent James Marra, an investigator with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, detailed how Bulger and his associate Stephen Flemmi signed on as FBI informants in the 1970s and '80s.
Both men were overseen by FBI agent John Connolly, who has since been convicted of racketeering, obstruction of justice and murder for tipping off the gang's leaders of efforts to arrest them as well as for identifying informants.
Morris, expected to take the witness stand at the ongoing trial on Monday, was Connolly's supervisor. He was granted immunity in exchange for his testimony in 1998 federal court hearings.
Prosecutors alleged that Connolly told Bulger and Flemmi in 1982 that another Winter Hill associate, John Callahan, was being investigated in connection with another murder carried out by the gang.
Callahan later died at the hands of Winter Hill's "Executioner," John Martorano, who confessed to the killing and said Bulger ordered the hit to keep Callahan from talking.
Connolly was sentenced in 2009 to 40 years in prison for the murders, with Judge Stanford Blake saying he had "crossed over to the dark side."
Prosecutors have said Bulger fled Boston after a 1994 tip from Connolly. He eluded arrest for over 16 years before FBI officials tracked him down in June 2011, living with his girlfriend in a seaside apartment in Santa Monica, California.
If convicted, he faces the possibility of life in prison.
Prosecutors are also preparing to submit as evidence the 700-page file that the FBI developed on Bulger in the years when the agency claims he served as an informant.
Through his attorney, Bulger denied ever being an informant, insisting that he paid the corrupt FBI agent for information but never provided any of his own.
Jurors on Monday also are set to hear from Karen Smith, the daughter of Edward Connors, a Boston bar owner who was shot dead in a phone booth in 1975, allegedly because he bragged about helping the Winter Hill Gang kill another man.
Martorano has testified that Bulger and Flemmi were the gunmen in Connors' murder.
(Writing by Richard Valdmanis; editing by Barbara Goldberg, G Crosse)
Brendan Rodgers has deemed that midfielders Jonjo Shelvey and Jay Spearing are extra weight at Anfield and will look to move them, according to a report in the Mirror.
Shelvey, a member of the England U-21 squad that crashed and burned at the Euros this season, was linked with Stoke in the past while Tony Pulis was in charge, and apparently can leave for a bid of ?7 million ($10.8 million).
The 21-year-old attacking midfielder made 19 appearances in the Premier League last season (9 starts) but could only muster a single goal and did not record an assist.? Rodgers tested Shelvey at a pure attacking midfielder as well as a central midfielder and out on the left wing.
Spearing spent the last season on loan at Bolton Wanderers in the Championship, impressing with two goals and six assists from the defensive midfield.? The 24-year-old can apparently leave for ?3 million ($4.6 million).
He made a whopping 36 starts in the English second division, and picking up a ton of playing time as Bolton finished 7th, fighting for a playoff spot but fading down the stretch.
Roger Federer of Switzerland plays a return during a training session at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The Championships start Monday, with defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland attempting to win the title for the eighth time. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Roger Federer of Switzerland plays a return during a training session at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The Championships start Monday, with defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland attempting to win the title for the eighth time. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
In this photo taken on Sunday, June 23, 2013 and made available by The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Wimbledon, defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland, gestures during a press conference at Wimbledon. The Championships start Monday, with defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland attempting to win the title for the eighth time. (AP Photo/Jon Buckle/AELTC)
In this photo taken on Sunday, June 23, 2013 and made available by The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Wimbledon, defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland, listens during a press conference at Wimbledon. The Championships start Monday, with defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland attempting to win the title for the eighth time. (AP Photo/Jon Buckle/AELTC)
Andy Murray of Britain plays a return during a training session at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The Championships start Monday, with defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland attempting to win the title for the eighth time. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Andy Murray of Britain arrives for a training session at the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, Sunday, June 23, 2013. The Championships start Monday, with defending men's champion Roger Federer of Switzerland attempting to win the title for the eighth time. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
LONDON (AP) ? As he has six previous times, Roger Federer will begin Wimbledon on Monday as the defending champion. When he steps onto Centre Court he hopes it will be the start of another two-week stay at the All England Club.
It's an honor reserved for the men's titleholder. That scheduling perk is also where any hint of preferential treatment for Federer comes to a halt. Because of the way the draw came out, Federer could have to defeat Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray before even getting to the final.
Federer said Sunday he's "ready for the challenge" and he doesn't shy away from "tough draws."
His quest for a record eighth Wimbledon title begins against 47th-ranked Victor Hanescu of Romania.
Microsoft pulled a huge U-turn this week by pulling all it's DRM, and we're just itching to tell you why that's horrible. While we're at it, we've got a first look at OSX Mavericks, a lesson on what's wrong with the iOS 7 icons, billion-year-old drinking water, a new subatomic particle, and a smartphone tripod that will blow you away. Dig in!
(Reuters) - France has "all reason" to believe that the French hostages being held by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are alive, President Francois Hollande said on Sunday.
The Islamist group said in a statement posted on its Twitter account on Saturday that eight European hostages, including five from France, were safe.
The message repeated previous statements by AQIM that it would kill the hostages if there were any new French military intervention in North Africa, but said it remained open to negotiations to free them.
"We are still looking for contacts, we have all reason to believe that the hostages are alive but we must seek to free them," Holland said during a visit to Qatar.
The AQIM statement coincided with rallies across France organized by the families of French hostages who were seized in Niger in September 2010 to mark more than 1,000 days of captivity.
French newspapers have reported the hostages had been transferred to Algeria and were in the hands of AQIM's new chief, Yahia Abou el Hamam. The French government declined to comment on the report.
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Home values in Las Vegas are increasing faster than any other major metro area according to a new report by Zillow. In May the valley?s median home value was $146,400 which is up 28 percent from a year ago. This was the highest year-to-year percent jump compared to the 30 largest regions evaluated in the report.
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Public release date: 24-Jun-2013
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