High winds short out high voltage power lines in Lawton, Okla., where the threat of severe weather remains throughout the day. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
A vast storm system pounded the Dakotas with snow, coated Oklahoma with rare spring ice and took aim at parts of the Mid-Atlantic and South, where forecasters warned of hail and perhaps tornadoes later Wednesday.
Snow, freezing rain and strong wind snapped trees, broke power poles and left cars sheathed in ice in South Dakota, and the city of Sioux Falls declared a state of emergency.
Forecasters said parts of that state could get 2 feet of snow before the storm moves out later Wednesday and heads for Minnesota, which was expecting as much as a foot through early Thursday.
More coverage from weather.com
Farther south ? and much more unusually ? ice coated roads in Oklahoma, all the way down to the Red River border with Texas.
Dirk Lammers / AP
Icy branches partially block a city street and fall amid parked cars in Sioux Falls, S.D.
?For April, that is really amazing,? said Tom Niziol, a meteorologist and winter weather expert for The Weather Channel.
It all made for a messy day of travel in the Great Plains and the Midwest. Chicago O?Hare, a hub airport for the central United States, reported almost 500 flight cancellations.
As the storm system lumbers eastward, powerful thunderstorms are expected later Wednesday and overnight in Pennsylvania and Maryland, including Philadelphia and its suburbs.
It has been unusually cold this week in the West and unseasonably warm in the East, including temperatures pushing 90 degrees Wednesday in Washington. That warm air makes the weather system more dangerous.
?There will be more than enough fuel for these storms,? said Carl Parker, another meteorologist for The Weather Channel.
A line of late-day storms was expected to sweep across Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon, threatening to dump damaging hail and perhaps spawn tornadoes before pushing out of the state in the evening.
The same storm system has already produced bizarre weather elsewhere in the country.
Earlier this week, the temperature fell 55 degrees in Denver in less than 24 hours. Gusty wind nudged 21 cars of a freight train off the tracks in Nebraska. And snowflakes the size of cotton balls fall in Marshall, Minn., NBC affiliate KARE in Minneapolis reported.
This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 6:32 AM EDT
Goal is to Reach One Million People Making this the Largest Prostate Health Effort Ever to Focus on Black America
The Rally will be held on Sunday, June 16, 2013 in partnership with churches nationwide during their regular church services.
All Churches are Invited to Join
PROSTATE CANCER SURVIVOR NETWORK
Prostate cancer survivors play a crucial role in the success of the Father?s Day Rally?by mobilizing their churches and communities. Survivors and their families are encouraged to join in this effort:?Survivor Network Registration?
?
FOCUS: KNOWLEDGE IS THE BEST?DEFENSE AGAINST
PROSTATE?CANCER
WEBCAST: Wednesday, April 10th at 6 pm ET?
The April webcast will present PHEN?s vision and plans for its ?Educational Symposiums? in cities across the country?on Saturday, June 15th, ?the day before its Father?s Day Rally. PHEN president Thomas A. Farrington will be the presenter.
*Link will be live at 6 pm ET*?
PROSTATE CANCER DREAM TEAM?
A Treatment Opportunity for?Black Men?
A unique opportunity for Black prostate cancer patients to receive treatment with a drug approved by the FDA to increase survival and to participate in a groundbreaking project that will help define the future approach for treating prostate cancer.
PHEN TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS?
PHEN SCHEDULE OF 2013 ACTIVITIES
Monthly Meetings and Webcast?-Second Wednesday of Each Month
PHEN Treatments and Clinical Trials e-Newsletters?-?
First Week of Each Month
Touch?106.1 FM Interview
10th Annual Tee Off to Fight Prostate Cancer?-
5th Annual Father?s Day Rally Against Prostate Cancer?-
9th Annual African American Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit?-?
Thursday & Friday, Sept. 19th ? 20th
PHEN THANKS ITS NATIONAL SPONSORS
Accuray, Inc. Amgen, Inc. Astellas / Medivation, Inc. Bayer Healthcare BN ImmunoTherapeutics, Inc. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Dendreon Corporation Genentech, Inc. Janssen Biotech, Inc. Millenium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. / The Takeda Oncology Company?
The cybersecurity bill was a flash point for privacy advocates a year ago. Now, changes have been made to the bill, which was the focus of a closed hearing Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee.
By Mark Clayton,?Staff writer / April 10, 2013
In this Oct. photo, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. (l.) and the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, D-Md., participate in a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP/File
Enlarge
Cyberthreat information sharing between private industry and government is getting a fresh look in Congress, even as civil-liberties groups cry foul over what they say are onerous provisions in a bill that runs roughshod over citizen privacy.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
If that seems like d?j? vu all over again, it?s because it is: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) was a flash point for privacy advocates a year ago, and now, it?s the focus of a closed hearing Wednesday by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The idea of cybersecurity legislation winning fresh attention isn?t too surprising given the drumbeat of cyber-insecurity in past months ? reports of Chinese cyberspying on US companies, bank websites under attack, news organizations? computers infiltrated. Key government officials have even declared the United States vulnerable to a Pearl Harbor-type cyberattack.
In response, the White House has ramped up cyberdiscussions with Russia and China, challenged China on cyberspying, and issued an executive order to boost the network protection for critical infrastructure.
Congress, meanwhile, has done ? well, not too much really.
Feeling the heat, Reps. Mike Rogers (R) of Michigan and C.A. ?Dutch? Ruppersberger (D) of Maryland, the chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, this month outlined changes to CISPA ? reportedly including up to five amendments intended to address privacy concerns and help its chances of winning Senate and White House approval.
The earlier version of CISPA, which did not include those amendments, passed the House last spring, but was opposed by the White House and did not advance in the Senate.
?This is clearly not a theoretical threat ? the recent spike in advanced cyber attacks against the banks and newspapers makes that crystal clear,? Representative Rogers said in a statement. ?American businesses are under siege. We need to provide American companies the information they need to better protect their networks from these dangerous cyber threats. It is time to stop admiring this problem and deal with it immediately.?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, attend the opening of the Hannover Fair at the Congress Center in Hannover, Germany, Sunday April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, attend the opening of the Hannover Fair at the Congress Center in Hannover, Germany, Sunday April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin for the opening of the Hannover Fair at the Congress Center in Hannover, Germany, Sunday April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, center left, pose for a photo at the opening of the Hannover Fair at the Congress Center in Hannover, Germany, Sunday April 7, 2013. (AP Photo/RIA Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)
HANNOVER, Germany (AP) ? Germany's leader has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Kremlin needs to encourage civil society as well as push for technological modernization, underlining tensions as Putin seeks to bolster economic ties with a visit to a major trade fair.
Putin's trip to the central German city of Hannover highlights Russia's interest in developing foreign trade, including further business ties with Germany. The two leaders were touring the fair on Monday.
At the opening of the event on Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said real modernization is enhanced by a strong civil society. Germany's ties with Russia have been strained lately by the Kremlin's heavy-handed response to opposition groups and pressure on non-governmental organizations.
Merkel said Germany was ready to help Russia diversify its economy, pointing to innovation, research and training as key points.
"We are convinced that this can best succeed if there is an active civil society," she said. "We must intensify this discussion ... and also give nongovernmental organizations ? the many groups that we in Germany know as motors of innovation ? a good chance in Russia."
A law approved last year in Russia requires all NGOs that receive funds from abroad and engage in vaguely defined political activities to register as "foreign agents," a term invoking Cold War-era spying connotations.
Leading Russian NGOs have pledged to boycott the bill. Putin responded by ordering wide-ranging checks of up to 2,000 NGOs across the country to check their compliance with the law. Among others targeted were two German think-tanks ? the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which is aligned with Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, linked to the opposition Social Democrats.
"I would have liked clearer words from the chancellor," Claudia Roth, a leader of Germany's opposition Greens, told ARD television. Roth said Russian NGOs face "repression ... defamation, discrediting and criminalization, and that simply requires very, very clear words."
After a review was published prematurely on another site revealing specs of Panasonic's Lumix DMC-GF6, Digicam Info has leaked press images of the upcoming model in white. As noted before, the stylish-looking MFT will pack 16-megapixels, a new Venus image engine, low light AF system, 4.2 fps burst speed, 1080-60i video, WiFi, NFC and up to 25,600 ISO, among other features -- if the leaks pan out, of course. We noted earlier that the GF6 would start at around $680 with a 14-42mm kit lens, and sources also claim the camera will be launched early tomorrow morning -- though at this point, there's very little left to actually announce.
With all this talk about the cord-cutting masses no longer wanting to subsidize TV channels they don't watch, it's a little surprising that one of the oldest, most widely available forms of TV is waning: over-the-air broadcast TV. Despite its attractive price of $0 per month and billions of advertising revenue, nobody ? including the broadcast networks, the tech companies that are out to disrupt them, and the cord-cutters and cord-nevers who hate cable ? is very enthusiastic about antennas. ...
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Wan Abdullah Wan Ibrahim, managing director of Malaysia's UEM Land's thought it was a "match made in heaven" when his state-linked property firm bought out Sunrise, a successful property developer owned by ethnic Chinese, in 2010.
Critics, however, saw it as a sign that Prime Minister Najib Razak's promise to roll back the state's overbearing influence in business and dismantle polices favoring ethnic Malays was already ringing hollow less than a year after it was made.
Najib will this month fight what is shaping up to be the closest election in Malaysia's 56-year post-colonial history. Despite his promise, state-controlled firms remain stubbornly dominant in Southeast Asia's third-largest economy and are even moving into new sectors like property.
Some high-profile government divestments turned Kuala Lumpur into Asia's IPO hotspot in 2012. But the enduring role of Malaysia's "GLCs" (government-linked companies) is stunting the private sector and entrenching an economic malaise dating back to Asia's 1997/98 financial crisis, according to a study by two Asian Development Bank (ADB) economists seen by Reuters.
"They can present evidence that they are divesting and yet move into new sectors and move vested interests to new opportunities," said Jayant Menon, one of the senior economists who wrote the report. "It's classic politics."
The GLCs are also central to policies favoring majority ethnic Malays over other races, including the economically dominant Chinese minority.
Najib wants to double Malaysians' incomes by 2020 but the economists' report is a sobering challenge to his contention that his government is breaking Malaysia out of its "middle-income trap".
"SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG THERE"
Najib acknowledged in 2010 that the state's overbearing influence on the economy was crimping Malaysia's growth and dynamism. He says the private sector must "return to the driver's seat" of the economy.
The government points to the $3.1 billion listing of palm oil firm Felda in 2012 and the $2.1 billion debut of IHH Healthcare as proof its plan to divest stakes in 33 firms is on track.
But critics point to an expansion of state involvement in other new areas, in particular the property sector, as evidence that vested interests within the bureaucracy and the ruling ethnic Malay party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), have pegged back Najib's early reform ambitions.
The ADB economists say in their report that, under Najib's rule, the real record on state firms was "more of a diversification than a divestment". It said the deterrent effect on private investment was contributing to Malaysia's status as the only major Southeast Asian nation with net capital outflows.
"What we do know is that investment has slumped in Malaysia, both foreign and domestic," said Menon.
"The fact is there is a net outflow of capital in a country that transformed itself with huge inflows in the past. Surely there is something terribly wrong there."
Private investment levels in Malaysia have picked up under Najib but have never fully recovered from the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s that signaled the end of rapid growth fuelled by exports and high foreign direct investment.
POLITICAL SETBACK
Najib dissolved parliament on April 3, paving the way for an election within weeks where he hopes to regain the two-thirds parliamentary majority the UMNO-led coalition lost for the first time in 2008. He came to power a year after that poll debacle.
In early 2010 he set out a transformative "New Economic Model", pledging the government would move away from being an "orchestrator" of the economy to being a "facilitator".
One stated goal of the planned 33 divestments is to help increase the share of national equity held by Malays to a long-held target of 30 percent. So far, 15 have been completed, but the pace slowed to four in 2012 from 11 in 2011.
Announcing the 2012 report card for his economic program last month, Najib hailed a 22 percent rise in private investment, compared with a 12 percent gain the previous year. That, however, includes spending by the GLCs.
Total committed investments under the program fell to 32 billion ringgit ($10.2 billion), down 82 percent from 179 billion ringgit in 2011. Foreign direct investment fell 26 percent to 29.1 billion ringgit in 2012.
GLCs play a big role across Malaysia's economy, taking up 56 percent of banking assets, 67 percent of the communication sector and 88 percent of utilities, according to the ADB.
Defined as companies with commercial goals but with some government control over decisions, they include Malaysia's two biggest banks, CIMB and Maybank.
Seven out of Malaysia's top 10 listed companies are majority-owned by the government, and GLCs make up about 36 percent of the stock market's capitalization.
"NATIONAL SERVICE"
Their political role has also been underlined in the run-up to the election, with Najib announcing that 40,000 employees of Telekom Malaysia and postal group Pos Malaysia would receive a 500 ringgit ($160) bonus.
He also authorized a 1,000 ringgit bonus for the 40,000 employees of state oil giant Petronas.
"They will think of it as a form of national service," an analyst with an investment bank in Kuala Lumpur, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said of the pre-election bonuses.
A flurry of recent moves by GLCs into Malaysia's property sector, like the $450 million Sunrise deal, has expanded the state's role in a sector traditionally dominated by Chinese business interests.
Teh Chi-Chang, director of the opposition-linked REFSA think tank, called them "backdoor nationalizations" that deter entrepreneurs in the sector.
In 2011, state investment firm Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) took a controlling stake in Malaysia's biggest property firm, SP Setia Berhad. State-controlled plantation Sime Darby became the largest shareholder in property developer E&O later that year.
The three-party opposition alliance, led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, has an outside chance of upsetting Najib's coalition, according to opinion polls. The alliance points to the expansion of state-linked firms as evidence Najib's reform agenda has stalled.
"Malaysia has one of the most vibrant private property sectors in the world and yet you have the government getting involved," said Tony Pua, a leading opposition politician.
"There's no point in having our GLCs competing on building luxury homes."
Malaysia's GLCs have increasingly gone international in their hunt for yield, despite the government's insistence that there are bountiful investment opportunities at home.
A consortium including Sime Darby, SP Setia, and Malaysia's Employees Provident Fund, bought Britain's Battersea power station for more than $600 million last year and plans to build luxury apartments on the site.
That helped put Malaysians ahead of Russian oligarchs and rich Chinese on the list of the biggest buyers of London property in the first seven months of 2012.
The government rejects accusations it is stifling enterprise in the property market, saying projects like a new publicly funded $8.4 billion financial exchange in the works in Kuala Lumpur will generate opportunities for companies.
Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah, a director at the government's economic performance unit and a Felda board member, said the move into London property showed that government-linked firms were keen to avoid suffocating private firms at home.
The government also notes that many GLCs are strong performers, with the biggest 20 generating a compound annual return of 14.5 percent from May 2004 to April 2012, far outperforming the Kuala Lumpur market.
($1 = 3.125 ringgit)
(Additional reporting by Niki Koswanage; Editing by Paul Tait)
SEOUL (Reuters) - Staff at embassies in North Korea appeared to be remaining in place on Saturday despite an appeal by authorities in Pyongyang for diplomats to consider leaving because of heightened tension after weeks of bellicose exchanges.
North Korean authorities told diplomatic missions they could not guarantee their safety from next Wednesday - after declaring that conflict was inevitable amid joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month.
Whatever the atmosphere in Pyongyang, the rain-soaked South Korean capital, Seoul, was calm. Traffic moved normally through the city centre, busy with Saturday shoppers.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government official as saying diplomats were disregarding the suggestion they might leave the country.
"We don't believe there's any foreign mission about to leave Pyongyang," the unidentified official was quoted as saying. "Most foreign governments view the North Korean message as a way of ratcheting up tension on the Korean peninsula."
North Korea has been angry since new U.N. sanctions were imposed following its third nuclear weapons test in February. Its rage has apparently been compounded by joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on March 1.
China's Xinhua news agency on Friday had quoted the North's Foreign Ministry as saying the issue was no longer whether but when a war would break out.
Most countries saw the appeal to the missions as little more than strident rhetoric after weeks of threatening to launch a nuclear strike on the United States and declarations of war against the South.
But Russia said it was "seriously studying" the request.
A South Korean government official expressed bewilderment.
"It's hard to define what is its real intention," said the official, who asked not to be identified. "But it might have intensified these threats to strengthen the regime internally or to respond to the international community."
The United Nations said its humanitarian workers remained active across North Korea. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, however, remained "deeply concerned" about tensions, heightened since the imposition of U.N. sanctions against the North for its third nuclear arms test last in February.
The appeal to diplomats followed news reports in the South that North Korea, under its 30-year-old leader Kim Jong-un, had moved two medium-range missiles to a location on its east coast. That prompted the White House to say that Washington would "not be surprised" if the North staged another missile test.
Kim Jong-un is the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, who staged confrontations with South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.
North Korea has always condemned the exercises held by U.S. forces and their South Korean allies. But its comments have been especially vitriolic this year as the United States dispatched B-2 bombers from its home bases to stage mock runs.
"MADCAP NUCLEAR WAR"
North Korea's government daily newspaper said tension remained high because the United States was "waging madcap nuclear war maneuvers".
"This is aimed at igniting a nuclear war against it through a pre-emptive strike," the Minju Joson said in a commentary. "The prevailing situation proves that a new war, a nuclear war, is imminent on the peninsula."
A television documentary broadcast on Friday quoted North Korean leader Kim as saying, during a provincial tour last month, that the country needed to "absolutely guarantee the quality of our artillery and shells to ensure a rapid pre-emptive attack on our enemies".
But some commentators examining the outcome of meetings in Pyongyang last week - of the ruling Workers' Party and of the rubber-stamp legislature - concluded that Kim and his leadership were more concerned with economic than military issues.
Internet site 38 North, which specializes in North Korean affairs, cited the reappointment of reformer Pak Pong Ju as prime minister, the limited titles given to top military and security officials and the naming of a woman to a senior party post.
"These personnel appointments make a great deal of sense in the context of Pyongyang's declarations ... that its economic policy will be modified by introducing systemic reforms while also continuing the development of nuclear weapons," 38 North commentator Michael Madden wrote.
"(They) appear to be important steps in moving key economic development products and production away from the control of the military to the party and government."
North Korea has not shut down one symbol of joint cooperation, the Kaesong industrial zone just inside its border. But last week it prevented South Koreans from entering the complex and about 100 of them who have since remained were due to return home on Saturday, leaving a further 500 there.
The barrage of North Korean threats has created jitters in South Korea's financial markets, with a top official warning a policy meeting on Friday of long-term effects.
Shares slid on Friday, but analysts said much of the decline was linked to the Bank of Japan's monetary easing policies and one analyst said further major falls were unlikely.
"In a sense, for now the yen is of greater concern than the North Korea risk," said Ko Seunghee, a market analyst at SK Securities. "There is a sense that the KOSPI (index) will not fall sharply or drop below the 1,900 level unless big news about North Korea breaks out."
(Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Robeert Birsel)
President Barack Obama speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama listens as National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis S. Collins speaks about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama leaves the stage in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, after he spoke about the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
President Barack Obama announces the BRIAN, Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies proposal, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, East Room of the White House in Washington. The president is asking Congress to spend $100 million next year to start a new project to map the human brain in hopes of eventually finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer's. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed an effort to map the brain's activity in unprecedented detail, as a step toward finding better ways to treat such conditions as Alzheimer's, autism, stroke and traumatic brain injuries.
He asked Congress to spend $100 million next year to start a project that will explore details of the brain, which contains 100 billion cells and trillions of connections.
That's a relatively small investment for the federal government ? less than a fifth of what NASA spends every year just to study the sun ? but it's too early to determine how Congress will react.
Obama said the so-called BRAIN Initiative could create jobs, and told scientists gathered in the White House's East Room that the research has the potential to improve the lives of billions of people worldwide.
"As humans we can identify galaxies light-years away," Obama said. "We can study particles smaller than an atom, but we still haven't unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears."
Scientists unconnected to the project praised the idea.
BRAIN stands for Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. The idea, which Obama first proposed in his State of the Union address, would require the development of new technology that can record the electrical activity of individual cells and complex neural circuits in the brain "at the speed of thought," the White House said.
Obama wants the initial $100 million investment to support research at the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation. He also wants private companies, universities and philanthropists to partner with the federal agencies in support of the research. And he wants a study of the ethical, legal and societal implications of the research.
The goals of the work are unclear at this point. A working group at NIH, co-chaired by Cornelia "Cori" Bargmann of The Rockefeller University and William Newsome of Stanford University, would work on defining the goals and develop a multi-year plan to achieve them that included cost estimates.
The $100 million request is "a pretty good start for getting this project off the ground," Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health told reporters in a conference call. While the ultimate goal applies to the human brain, some work will be done in simpler systems of the brains of animals like worms, flies and mice, he said.
Collins said new understandings about how the brain works may also provide leads for developing better computers.
Brain scientists unconnected with the project were enthusiastic.
"This is spectacular," said David Fitzpatrick, scientific director and CEO of the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience in Jupiter, Fla., which focuses on studying neural circuits and structures.
While current brain-scanning technologies can reveal the average activity of large populations of brain cells, the new project is aimed at tracking activity down to the individual cell and the tiny details of cell connections, he said. It's "an entirely different scale," he said, and one that can pay off someday in treatments for a long list of neurological and psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, Parkinson's, depression, epilepsy and autism.
"Ultimately, you can't fix it if you don't know how it works," he said. "We need this fundamental understanding of neuronal circuits, their structure, their function and their development in order to make progress on these disorders."
"This investment in fundamental brain science is going to pay off immensely in the future," Fitzpatrick said.
Richard Frackowiak, a co-director of Europe's Human Brain Project, which is funded by the European Commission, said he was delighted by the announcement.
"From our point of view as scientists we can only applaud and say we will collaborate as much as possible," he said. "The opportunities for a massive worldwide collaborative effort to solve the problem of neurodegeneration and psychiatric disease will ... really become absolutely feasible," he said. "We need that."
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Katey Sagal's is going to be a Fox-y mom again.
"Sons of Anarchy" star Sagal - who catapulted into the national consciousness as labor-averse mother Peg Bundy on Fox's ground-breaking "Married ... With Children," is returning to the network in another maternal role.
Sagal has been booked to appear on "Glee," series creator Ryan Murphy announced late Thursday via Twitter. Sagal will portray the mother of Kevin McHale's Artie Abrams.
"So thrilled to announce my friend Katey Sagal is playing Artie's mom on Glee!" Murphy shared. "There is nothing this woman can't do!"
Sagal will appear on the May 2 episode of the series, which winds up its fourth season May 9.
Now that Outlook.com seems to have its email product sorted, the folks up in Redmond have turned their attention to that other popular cloud service: the online calendar. Indeed, Outlook.com has completely revamped its digital planner, resulting in a clean and fresh redesign that is reminiscent of the company's other web products. Overall navigation is said to be more intuitive; for example, adding and editing events takes just one click, and a day view is presented just by selecting the date. Features include Exchange ActiveSync compatibility, integration with social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, calendar-sharing with friends and family, the ability to import .ics files and more. As you might expect, the design philosophy carries over to the smartphone and tablet side of things as well. While we're not sure if the redesign is enough to woo fans over from its Mountain View counterpart, it's at least a lot easier on the eyes than it was previously. The new look is rolling out slowly starting today and will be available to all users this week.
Contact: Deborah Wormser deborah.wormser@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center
DALLAS April 4, 2013 UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report that a pathogen annually blamed for an estimated 90 million cases of food-borne illness defeats a host's immune response by using a fat-snipping enzyme to cut off cellular communication.
"Our findings provide insight into severe bacterial infectious diseases, as well as some forms of cancer, in which the attachment of fat molecules to proteins is an essential feature of the disease process," said Dr. Neal Alto, assistant professor of microbiology and senior author of the study in today's print edition of Nature. The study's first author is Nikolay Burnaevskiy, a graduate student in microbiology.
The research group discovered a scissor-like enzyme that specifically cuts off functionally-essential fatty acids from proteins. "The one we studied in particular a 14-carbon saturated fatty acid called myristic acid has received a lot of attention due to its crucial role in the transformation of normal cells to cancer cells and for promoting cancer cell growth," Dr. Alto said.
Because of the fat's importance in human disease, researchers have tried for years to identify effective methods to remove them from proteins. "To our amazement, bacteria have invented the precise tool for the job," Dr Alto said.
The bacteria used in this study, Shigella flexneri, are able to cross the intestinal wall and infect immune cells. Other intestinal bacteria, such as E. coli, are unable to do this. Once Shigella encounters immune system cells, including white blood cells such as macrophages, the bacteria use a needle-like complex to inject the cells with about 20 bacterial toxins.
The UTSW researchers conducted a series of experiments to characterize one of those toxins, called IpaJ, chosen in part because so little was known about the protein. They not only discovered IpaJ's fat-cutting ability, but also determined how the protein disables the immune system's communication infrastructure, which Dr. Alto compared to knocking out a bridge needed to deliver a package.
"Normally, a macrophage will engulf an invading bacteria and send out cytokines, proteins that act as cellular alert signals, which in turn recruit more immune cells to the site of infection," Dr. Alto said. "When the macrophages engulf Shigella, however, the bacteria use IpaJ to cut fatty acids from proteins, which need those fats attached in order to sound the alarm. Doing so buys more time for the bacteria to grow and survive.
"It's very interesting from a disease process point of view, but it's also important because we now have a potential drug target," said Dr. Alto. The next step, he said, will be to identify small molecule inhibitors that are specific to this fat-snipping protease and that might be developed into drugs.
###
The study in Nature received support from the National Institutes of Health, the Welch Foundation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Other researchers from UTSW involved are Dr. Steven Patrie, assistant professor of pathology; former pediatrics fellow Dr. Thomas Fox, now an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Indiana University; Daniel Plymire, a graduate student of pathology in the molecular biophysics program; and graduate students Andrey Selyunin and Bethany Weigele, both in the molecular microbiology program. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati also participated in the investigation.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has many distinguished members, including five who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. Numbering more than 2,700, the faculty is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to nearly 100,000 hospitalized patients and oversee more than 2.1 million outpatient visits a year.
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Contact: Deborah Wormser deborah.wormser@utsouthwestern.edu 214-648-3404 UT Southwestern Medical Center
DALLAS April 4, 2013 UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report that a pathogen annually blamed for an estimated 90 million cases of food-borne illness defeats a host's immune response by using a fat-snipping enzyme to cut off cellular communication.
"Our findings provide insight into severe bacterial infectious diseases, as well as some forms of cancer, in which the attachment of fat molecules to proteins is an essential feature of the disease process," said Dr. Neal Alto, assistant professor of microbiology and senior author of the study in today's print edition of Nature. The study's first author is Nikolay Burnaevskiy, a graduate student in microbiology.
The research group discovered a scissor-like enzyme that specifically cuts off functionally-essential fatty acids from proteins. "The one we studied in particular a 14-carbon saturated fatty acid called myristic acid has received a lot of attention due to its crucial role in the transformation of normal cells to cancer cells and for promoting cancer cell growth," Dr. Alto said.
Because of the fat's importance in human disease, researchers have tried for years to identify effective methods to remove them from proteins. "To our amazement, bacteria have invented the precise tool for the job," Dr Alto said.
The bacteria used in this study, Shigella flexneri, are able to cross the intestinal wall and infect immune cells. Other intestinal bacteria, such as E. coli, are unable to do this. Once Shigella encounters immune system cells, including white blood cells such as macrophages, the bacteria use a needle-like complex to inject the cells with about 20 bacterial toxins.
The UTSW researchers conducted a series of experiments to characterize one of those toxins, called IpaJ, chosen in part because so little was known about the protein. They not only discovered IpaJ's fat-cutting ability, but also determined how the protein disables the immune system's communication infrastructure, which Dr. Alto compared to knocking out a bridge needed to deliver a package.
"Normally, a macrophage will engulf an invading bacteria and send out cytokines, proteins that act as cellular alert signals, which in turn recruit more immune cells to the site of infection," Dr. Alto said. "When the macrophages engulf Shigella, however, the bacteria use IpaJ to cut fatty acids from proteins, which need those fats attached in order to sound the alarm. Doing so buys more time for the bacteria to grow and survive.
"It's very interesting from a disease process point of view, but it's also important because we now have a potential drug target," said Dr. Alto. The next step, he said, will be to identify small molecule inhibitors that are specific to this fat-snipping protease and that might be developed into drugs.
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The study in Nature received support from the National Institutes of Health, the Welch Foundation, and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.
Other researchers from UTSW involved are Dr. Steven Patrie, assistant professor of pathology; former pediatrics fellow Dr. Thomas Fox, now an assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Indiana University; Daniel Plymire, a graduate student of pathology in the molecular biophysics program; and graduate students Andrey Selyunin and Bethany Weigele, both in the molecular microbiology program. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati also participated in the investigation.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has many distinguished members, including five who have been awarded Nobel Prizes since 1985. Numbering more than 2,700, the faculty is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide medical care in 40 specialties to nearly 100,000 hospitalized patients and oversee more than 2.1 million outpatient visits a year.
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A Hillsboro family escaped without injury from their burning home Wednesday night after a fire broke out in the home's utility room, Hillsboro Fire & Rescue reported.
The fire, which started about 7:30 p.m., caused an estimated $8,000 damage to the duplex at 851 N.W. 229th Ave.
Firefighters said Aaron Hanson, his wife and four children aged three to eleven were at home. Hanson and his wife smelled smoke and found flames in the utility room.
Investigators are checking the utility room and appliances to determine the cause of the fire.
The top Republican and Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are finally on the same page about a controversial energy policy after reading from two completely different playbooks the last four years.
Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., are both undecided about what Congress should do about the renewable-fuels standard, a federal mandate established in 2005 that requires increasingly large amounts of biofuels each year to be blended with gasoline.
?I don?t have an immediate solution. I don?t have the answer,? Upton said in a recent interview in his office. ?But we?re going to have thoughtful hearings, first a couple of white papers. We?re going to see where people are. I have confidence that we?ll have a solution by going regular order.?
So will Waxman, who has vehemently disagreed with Upton on everything from the Keystone XL pipeline to greenhouse-gas regulations, be working with him on this? ?I?d like to think Henry would be on board,? said Upton, noting the two jointly released the first of a series of white papers on the mandate last week.
In a recent interview in Waxman?s corner office in the Rayburn Office Building, the usually opinionated California liberal was noncommittal. ?I?m not going to take a position on this issue,? he said. ?I?m looking forward to working with [Upton]. Let?s explore it. Let?s get the options. Let?s get input. And then let?s sit down together.?
The geographical and parochial interests shaping the debate over the biofuels mandate put Waxman and Upton on the same side of one of the most controversial issues Congress is poised to take up this year. The mandate is facing criticism from an informal?and unusual?coalition that includes the American Petroleum Institute, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Chicken Council, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
While they?re not willing to admit it, both lawmakers seem open to reforming the policy, which has come under intense scrutiny from Republicans and Democrats alike in the wake of last summer?s record-setting drought that sent corn prices souring. Refineries that are required to blend biofuels with gasoline often use corn-produced ethanol to meet the mandate. Apart from providing fuel in the form of ethanol, corn also serves as a key feedstock to the poultry, pork, and cattle industries. More advanced biofuels made from products other than corn are not coming to market as quickly as the 2005 law had envisioned. On top of these concerns, the original intent of the standard?to wean America off foreign oil?has been trumped by the boom in oil and natural-gas production around the country in the last five years.
Waxman?s chief concerns, according to sources knowledgeable about his position, center on the impact corn-based ethanol could have on efforts to tackle global warming. Some reports have found that gasoline blended with corn-based ethanol is no better at reducing greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline alone. He is also aware of the legal liability automakers could incur if engines are unable to run using blends with more ethanol.
Waxman has never been a big fan of corn ethanol. He voted against the energy bill in 2005 that initially created the mandate but supported a 2007 measure that strengthened the mandate?s goal of promoting advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol, which don?t use corn and have lower carbon footprints.
Waxman may also be getting an earful from a powerful opponent of the standard: Chevron. Waxman?s newly redrawn district includes, for the first time since he came to Congress in 1975, a refinery. Chevron bills the facility, located along the coast near the Los Angeles International Airport, as the largest refinery on the West Coast. The facility spans 1,000 acres and employs 1,100 people, according to Chevron?s website. When National Journal Daily asked about the refinery in the interview, Waxman laughed, smiled broadly, and simply said: ?Yeah.? He said he hasn?t met (yet) to talk with Chevron about the biofuels mandatey.
?I?m not anti-oil,? Waxman said. ?I?m happy there is a refinery in my district that is producing a product that is very much needed. That doesn?t mean I?m going to agree with them on everything.? He quickly added: ?We?re going to need fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. I?d like us to start moving away as quickly as possible and make our portfolio of energy resources more than just fossil fuels.?
The background of Upton?s stance on the policy is equally nuanced. Along with 207 other Republicans, he supported the creation of the mandate as part of the 2005 bill and also the measure two years later that strengthened it. Republican President Bush signed both those bills into law.
Sources familiar with Upton?s thoughts on the policy now say the Republican is more inclined to oppose it, given the Republican Party?s growing hostility to federal mandates and the resurgence in oil and natural-gas production that?s helped get the U.S. closer than ever to the elusive goal of energy independence.
Upton has another concern to keep in mind: Ensuring that any movement on the standard doesn?t divide his conference, which is already splintered on a host of other issues. Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who works closely with Upton as the chairman of the House Environment and Energy Subcommittee, is a big proponent of ethanol (Illinois produces the third-highest amount of ethanol in the country). ?Yes, I know there are real hard feelings on all sides of the issue: oil and gas side to the corn folks,? Upton said.
For the next couple of months, expect Upton and Waxman to be reading quietly from the same playbook as they roll out white papers on the standard. The real test of how long this bipartisanship will last will come when the hearings?and actual debate?begin in the committee.
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - China's new president told Africans on Monday he wanted a relationship of equals that would help the continent develop, responding to concerns that Beijing is only interested in shipping out its raw materials.
On the first stop on an African tour that will include a BRICS summit of major emerging economies, Xi Jinping told Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete that China's involvement in Africa would help the continent grow richer.
"China sincerely hopes to see faster development in African countries and a better life for African people," Xi said in a speech laying out China's policy on Africa, delivered at a conference center in Dar es Salaam built with Chinese money.
Renewing an offer of $20 billion of loans to Africa between 2013 and 2015, Xi pledged to "help African countries turn resource endowment into development strength and achieve independent and sustainable development".
Africans broadly see China as a healthy counterbalance to Western influence but, as ties mature, there are growing calls from policymakers and economists for a more balanced trade deal.
"China will continue to offer, as always, necessary assistance to Africa with no political strings attached," Xi said to applause. "We get on well and treat each others as equals."
But gratitude for that aid is increasingly tinged with resentment about the way Chinese companies operate in Africa where industrial complexes staffed exclusively by Chinese workers have occasionally provoked riots by locals looking for work.
Countering concerns that Africa is not benefitting from developing skills or technology from Chinese investment, Xi said China would train 30,000 African professionals, offer 18,000 scholarships to African students and "increase technology transfer and experience".
"ALL-WEATHER FRIENDS"
"The Sino-Tanzania relationship has endured a lot," said Tanzania's Kikwete, whose nation built close ties with China in the early years after independence from the British in 1964. "Now we have become all-weather friends."
China built a railway linking Tanzania and Zambia in the 1960s and early 1970s.
The two leaders witnessed the signing of trade and other deals, including plans to co-develop a new port and industrial zone complex, a loan for communications infrastructure and an interest free loan to the government. No details were given on the size of the loans or the industrial projects.
Xi's next stop is South Africa for a BRICS summit on Tuesday and Wednesday where he could endorse plans for a joint foreign exchange reserves pool and an infrastructure bank.
Those proposals respond to frustrations among emerging markets at having to rely on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are seen as reflecting the interests of the United States and other industrialized nations.
Nigeria's central bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, wrote in the Financial Times this month that the trade imbalance between China and Africa was "the essence of colonialism" and cautioned the continent was vulnerable to a new form of imperialism.
China is keen not to be perceived as an imperial master.
"The legacy of (the) West is the feeling that Africa should thank them, and that Africa should recognize that it is not as good as the West," Zhong Jianhua, China's special envoy to Africa, said before Xi's trip. "That is not acceptable."
Lu Shaye, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's African affairs department, said it was the West which was only interested in African resources, not China.
"What have Western countries done for Africa in the 50 years since independence? Nothing. All they have done is criticize China and that is unfair," he told a Hong Kong television station, in remarks carried on the ministry's website.
Xi's African tour ends in Republic of Congo, from where China imported 5.4 billion tonnes of oil last year, just 2 percent of its total oil imports, but potentially the source of a lot more.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Writing by Edmund Blair and Richard Lough; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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Public release date: 4-Apr-2013
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