Italy forms new government after 2-month stalemate

ROME (AP) ? Center-left leader Enrico Letta forged a new Italian government Saturday in a coalition with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives, an unusual alliance of bitter rivals that broke a two-month political stalemate from inconclusive elections in the recession-mired country.

The daunting achievement was pulled off by Letta, who will be sworn in as premier along with the new Cabinet at the presidential Quirinal Palace on Sunday.

Letta, 46, is a moderate with a reputation as a political bridge-builder. He is also the nephew Berlusconi's longtime adviser, Gianni Letta, a relationship seen as smoothing over often nasty interaction between the two main coalition partners.

Serving as deputy premier and interior minister will be Berlusconi's top political aide, Angelino Alfano. He is a former justice minister who was the architect of legislation that critics say was tailor-made to help media mogul Berlusconi in his many judicial woes.

The creation of the coalition capped the latest political comeback for Berlusconi, a former three-time premier who was forced to resign in 2011 as Italy slid deeper in to the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

On Monday, Letta is expected to lay out his strategy to Parliament, before required confidence votes from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

"We negotiated for the formation of the government without throwing up any stop signs," Berlusconi told one of his TV networks. "That's how we contributed to forming a government in short time" after Letta was tapped Wednesday.

Berlusconi, a fervent anti-Communist, views Italy's left as a personal nemesis, and Letta's Democratic Party has some of its roots in what was the West's largest Communist Party.

Letta expressed "sober satisfaction over the team we put together and its willingness" to form a coalition.

Although Letta strove to fill his Cabinet with new faces, a longtime Italian central bank official, Fabrizio Saccomanni, who also served a stint at the International Monetary Fund, was chosen for the key economy ministry portfolio.

In the role, Saccomanni will have to balance European Union insistence on rigorous austerity to heal Italy's finances with politicians' sensitivities to voters. The public's patience has been tried by spending cuts and higher taxes without seeing the start of any economic revival.

Only a few weeks earlier, the head of the Democrats, Pier Luigi Bersani, resigned from the party post in humiliation and he refused Berlusconi's offer for a "grand coalition" and futilely tried to form a government without the center-right. Letta was a Bersani loyalist.

Bersani hailed the coalition formula as a "necessary compromise" that gives the country "freshness and solidarity."

The No. 3 bloc in Parliament, the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement, is led by comic Beppe Grillo, who ruled out any alliance with the largely sullied political class that has ruled Italy for decades.

President Giorgio Napolitano, who tasked Letta with creating a government out of bitter rivals, called upon the coalition partners to work "in a spirit of absolute, indispensable cohesion" as they work for sorely needed political and economic reforms.

The 87-year-old head of state sounded almost breathless as he expressed confidence the rivals could work together "without conflict or prejudices to find the right solutions" to the country's pressing economic and political problems.

Napolitano didn't name the challenges, but they include fighting unemployment, especially for young people, and corruption sullying much of the political class.

Napolitano said: "It was and is the only possible government," and one "whose formation couldn't be delayed further, in the interest of our country and of Europe."

He reluctantly agreed to be re-elected by Parliament earlier this month for another seven-year term because of the political instability.

Italy's economy is No. 3 among eurozone members, and financial markets have been anxiously watching to see if an effective government could be formed to carry on with outgoing Premier Mario Monti's efforts to keep the country from sliding into the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

Some Italian political observers have predicted such a hybrid government might last only a few months of Parliament's five-year term, before collapsing in squabbling.

But the fear of elections, especially after the lightning-quick rise of comic Grillo's grassroots movement, could prove to be strong glue.

Giovanni Orsina, deputy director of LUISS university's school of government in Rome, ventured that Letta's new coalition could "last more than we expect, 18 to 24 months, more or less."

The history professor cited "lack of alternatives, and because I believe Parliament's members are not particularly eager to get back to the polling booth and face new elections."

Voters, fed up with new and higher taxes, including a despised property tax revived by Monti, rejected his severe austerity policies.

The small centrist party created in time for the election by Monti, an economist and former European Union commissioner, will participate in the coalition, although Monti won't be in the Cabinet, which is heavy on two novelties ? a large presence of female ministers and Italy's first black minister.

A native of Congo, Cecile Kyenge is a doctor who will serve as minister of integration. Proposals to make it easier for Italy' growing immigrant population to become citizens have gone nowhere in Parliament amid fierce opposition from the anti-immigrant Northern League party. The party, a Berlusconi ally, isn't in the new government.

Prominent among the women in the Cabinet is Emma Bonino, a former EU commissioner and Radical Party leader who will serve as foreign minister. Olympic gold medal kayaker Josefa Idem was tapped as minister of equal opportunity and sports.

Letta comes from a moderate wing of the left-rooted Democratic Party that is close to the Vatican. Since Parliament always includes an array of lawmakers enjoying good ties to the politically influential Catholic church in Italy, this was one more qualification on Letta's bridge-building resume.

The father of three sons, he lives in Rome's working-class Testaccio neighborhood. When he was tapped by Napolitano on Wednesday, he drove his own car to the Quirinal Palace, in what was seen as a photo opportunity gesture to Italian taxpayers who widely despise the huge fleet of luxury cars that shuttles around ministers and lawmakers.

In 1998, when he was 32, Letta became the youngest minister in Italy's history when he served as minister for European policy for then-Premier Massimo D'Alema, an ex-Communist leader. Letta seemed a natural for that post. He spent his childhood in Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, and studied international law before jumping into politics.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-forms-government-2-month-stalemate-153710380.html

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Exec threatens to pull Fox signal if Aereo goes on

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A top executive with the owner of the Fox broadcast network on Monday threatened to convert the network to a pay-TV-only channel if Internet startup Aereo Inc. continues to "steal" Fox's over-the-air signal and sell it to consumers without paying for rights.

Anyone with an antenna can pick up a TV station's signals for free. But cable and satellite companies typically pay stations and networks for the right to distribute their programming to subscribers. Industrywide, those retransmission fees add up to billions of dollars every year.

Last week, that business was shaken after Aereo won an appeals court ruling saying it doesn't have to pay those fees because it relies on thousands of tiny antennas.

News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said that not being paid by Aereo jeopardizes the economics of broadcast TV, which relies on both retransmission fees and advertising.

"This is not an ideal path we look to pursue, but we can't sit idly by and let an entity steal our signal," Carey said at the annual gathering of broadcasters, called NAB Show, in Las Vegas. "If we can't do a fair deal, we could take the whole network to a subscription model."

If realized, Carey's proposal would amount to a sea change in how Fox does business. Currently, Fox sends its signal to TV station affiliates, including 27 that it owns directly. Those stations relay Fox programming such as "Glee" and "Family Guy" for free over the airwaves in local markets, and add their own local news and other programming. While most people get Fox through a pay TV provider anyway, millions of other Americans rely on the free signal coming over their own antennas.

Carey didn't explain how TV stations would be affected if Fox shut off the signals it sent to broadcasters and went straight to a pay TV model. Later, the company said in a statement that any change would occur "in collaboration with both our content partners and affiliates."

Gordon Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, was interviewing Carey onstage when he made the comments. Smith said he hopes that the courts will eventually rule against Aereo, and force it to get in line with other pay TV operators.

"We think in the end, we'll be on the right side of the law and we will never get to the 'what-if' scenarios," Smith said.

Aereo takes broadcast signals for free from the air with thousands of little antennas, recodes them for Internet use and feeds that to subscribers' computers, tablets and smartphones. Plans start at $8 a month, which is much cheaper than a cable package, though the service is mostly limited to broadcast channels.

Last week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said that Aereo could continue its service despite a legal challenge by broadcast networks Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS.

In a sharply divided ruling, the court accepted Aereo's position that having individual antennas meant that Aereo wasn't retransmitting signals. Rather, the appeals court said that Aereo enabled its subscribers to do what they already could on their own with their own antenna and video recorder.

In a separate case, broadcasters are suing a different Internet company called Aereokiller LLC. It also takes broadcast signals using mini antennas and transmits them to paying customers. That case is now before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Smith said he hopes that a different ruling at the 9th Circuit will prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to take over the matter.

Aereo, backed by billionaire Barry Diller, was limited to New York City when it debuted early last year, but has since expanded to the New York City suburbs, including parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. It plans to expand to Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington and 18 other U.S. markets this spring.

Aereo Chief Executive Chet Kanojia said the legal OK for Aereo's service is now the "law of the land" with or without Fox.

"We believe that broadcasting in this country, irrespective of Fox, is a very powerful, fundamental presence," he said. If Fox exits the space, "we think somebody will be there to take advantage of that great idea of reaching this mass audience."

Analyst Todd Juenger of Bernstein Research speculated in a research note in January on what would make broadcast networks transition to a pay TV model.

Such a system would result in the loss of local news programs, broadcast personalities and advertising. But a pay TV system could be better for network owners such as Fox if services like Aereo were to thrive, because doing so would cut off technology that siphons away customers from pay TV operators, he wrote.

News Corp.'s stock rose 77 cents, or 2.5 percent, to close Monday at $31.41.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-04-08-Fox%20Broadcast%20Threat-Aereo/id-72ca6aae34e64e20bb775a9da543cef8

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Video: Shedding light on a gene mutation that causes signs of premature aging

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Research from Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute sheds new light on a gene called ATRX and its function in the brain and pituitary. Children born with ATRX syndrome have cognitive defects and developmental abnormalities. ATRX mutations have also been linked to brain tumors. Dr. Nathalie B?rub?, PhD, and her colleagues found mice developed without the ATRX gene had problems in in the forebrain, the part of the brain associated with learning and memory, and in the anterior pituitary which has a direct effect on body growth and metabolism. The mice, unexpectedly, also displayed shortened lifespan, cataracts, heart enlargement, reduced bone density, hypoglycemia; in short, many of the symptoms associated with aging. The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Ashley Watson, a PhD candidate working in the B?rub? lab and the first author on the paper, discovered the loss of ATRX caused DNA damage especially at the ends of chromosomes which are called telomeres. She investigated further and discovered the damage is due to problems during DNA replication, which is required before the onset of cell division. Basically, the ATRX protein was needed to help replicate the telomere.

Working with Frank Beier of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, the researchers made another discovery. "Mice that developed without ATRX were small at birth and failed to thrive, and when we looked at the skeleton of these mice, we found very low bone mineralization. This is another feature found in mouse models of premature aging," says B?rub?, an associate professor in the Departments of Biochemistry and Paediatrics at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, and a scientist in the Molecular Genetics Program at the Children's Health Research Institute within Lawson. "We found the loss of ATRX increases DNA damage locally in the forebrain and anterior pituitary, resulting in systemic defects similar to those seen in aging."

The researchers say the lack of ATRX in the anterior pituitary caused problems with the thyroid, resulting in low levels of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor-one (IGF-1) in the blood. There are theories that low IGF-1 can deplete stores of stem cells in the body, and B?rub? says that's one of the explanations for the premature aging. This research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

###

University of Western Ontario: http://www.uwo.ca

Thanks to University of Western Ontario for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 26 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127648/Video__Shedding_light_on_a_gene_mutation_that_causes_signs_of_premature_aging

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ANALYSIS: Don't look for cheaper food yet, even as grain prices drop

By Veronica Brown and Tom Polansek

LONDON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - Consumers can't yet bank on a year of cheaper food, despite predictions for bulging grain crops in the United States and other major global producers that have dragged futures prices back from last year's record highs.

The forecasts, analysts say, are just that - with seeds not yet in the ground for the all-important U.S. corn crop that is used to feed cows and produce cereal products and other foods.

The next few months will be crucial in determining prices, as weather conditions will ultimately determine the size of the harvest.

"There's not enough assurance here yet of lower grain prices in the long run to start marking down those food items," said Steve Meyer, president of Paragon Economics.

After a bruising 2012, which featured a historic U.S. drought, dryness in Eastern Europe and the third spike in global food prices in four years, farmers have dusted themselves off to start a new growing season.

Grain prices, which touched record highs late last summer, have been under pressure recently as some livestock producers have cut herd sizes due to high feed costs. Meanwhile, the acreage dedicated to key crops has increased and reserves look fatter than previously thought.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in a report issued on March 28, forecast that U.S. growers will harvest a record 14.6 billion bushels of corn and a record 3.4 billion bushels of soybeans - bumper crops that would help replenish razor-tight supplies.

The USDA also said corn inventories as of March 1 were 8 percent higher than traders expected, sparking the biggest weekly loss in corn prices in 21 months last week at the Chicago Board of Trade.

Prices are down 25 percent since reaching a record high in August.

Investors have been turning their backs on commodity index funds, which take long positions in a range of commodities including grains, due to higher returns offered by equity markets.

The Thomson Reuters/Jefferies CRB index, which tracks a range of commodities, has fallen around 8 percent in the last six months while the Dow Jones Industrial Average index has risen about 10 percent over the same period.

USDA's planting intentions survey fulfilled expectations flagged by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), whose food price index has stabilised from historically high levels.

OVERLY OPTIMISTIC?

Still, the markets may have run ahead of themselves, FAO chief economist Abdolreza Abbassian said.

"There has been a price correction, but that probably tended to give too much credit to optimism over very favourable growing conditions in the coming months," Abbassian told Reuters.

"Right now we're in a situation of a generally good and favourable outlook for 13/14 for nearly all the crops, but it all depends on the next few months' growing conditions and nobody today can predict what those will be," he added.

"We're not out of the woods yet."

A steep decline in nearby grain futures, compared to deferred contract months that represent the crops that will be harvested in the autumn, reflects USDA's larger-than-expected stocks estimate and lingering uncertainty over the size of the upcoming U.S. harvests.

Front-month July corn has tumbled almost 14 percent since the USDA issued its report, compared to a roughly 6 percent drop for December corn.

MEAT AND BREAD

Wariness on the final outcome for crops cannot be ignored, given the drama of recent years and resulting food emergencies.

Early predictions for a record-breaking 2012 U.S. corn crop proved wrong after the worst drought in more than half a century drove yields to a 17-year low, while the Black Sea breadbasket saw poor weather slash its collective wheat crop by more than one-third.

A resulting surge in food prices last year revived memories of the 2007/08 food crisis, which the UN estimated added 75 million to the number of chronically hungry people in the world.

If the United States produces a large corn crop in 2013, sending grain prices lower, it will take two years before cheaper feed prices impact beef prices, Meyer said. The lag is the time needed to produce a new cow for slaughter.

Chicken prices could weaken in late 2013 and pork prices could drop in 2014 due to shorter turnaround times, he said.

"Until we see that this crop has been made, I don't think you're going to see a response from the protein sectors," Meyer said.

Goods like bread and breakfast cereal won't cheapen much either, said Bill Tierney, chief economist for AgResource Co and a former principal grains economist for USDA. The cost of corn and wheat is "inconsequential" in many bakery products, overshadowed by packaging, transportation and marketing costs, he said.

"The cost of a plastic wrapper is more than the cost of wheat that goes into a loaf of bread," he said.

TIGHTER BELTS

U.S. shoppers paid about 2 percent more for a basket of food at grocery stores in the first quarter of 2013 than they did in the last quarter of 2012, according to a study issued last week by the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Food prices will likely rise by 3 percent to 4 percent during 2013 because of tight meat supplies, slightly exceeding the average rate of inflation over the past decade, said John Anderson, the Farm Bureau's deputy chief economist.

A drop of $1 in the corn market "is probably not even going to be a blip at the retail level," he said.

"Right now we're focused on planting, and we're having a late spring," Anderson said, referring to concerns about cold weather slowing the start of U.S. planting.

"There are million things that can happen between now and when we know what the size of this crop will be."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-dont-look-cheaper-food-yet-even-grain-075902262.html

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Acer's 7.9-inch Iconia A1-810 outed with quad-core CPU

Acer doesn't seem to have officially announced the Iconia tab A1-810 yet... at least not that we can see. But French retailer Rue Du Commerce already has the 7.9 inch listed, though, since it was first spotted the spec sheet has been cleared. Thankfully, MiniMachines caught the page before someone scrubbed it clean. If the numbers are to be believed, then the Taiwanese company has the Nexus 7 and iPad mini squarely in its sights. The A1-810's crams some reasonably impressive internals into a diminutive and affordable package. Under the hood is 1GB of RAM, and a 1.2GHz quad-core processor. Granted, the Cortex-A9 chip is produced by MediaTek instead of one of the bigger boys like Qualcomm or NVIDIA, but it should prove plenty robust for everyday tasks. The 1024 x 768 IPS panel puts it right in league with Apple's mini, but it also means a lower pixel density than the middle child of the Nexus family. You'll also find 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS radios inside, along with a 3,250 mAh battery -- which is quite a bit smaller than its competitors (despite its 10.5mm thick, 430g body being quite a bit larger). The biggest news about this Android 4.2 device though, is the price: it's yet another uber-cheap slate, currently listed at €199, or about $259.

Filed under: Tablets

Comments

Via: Android Authority, MiniMachines

Source: Rue Du Commerce

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/4WaFo7P9U_A/

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G-Technology shows off a Thunderbolt-powered dock with dual hard drive bays

We have a feeling 4K is going to be a major theme at this year's NAB, which also means we'll be seeing a good deal of hardware that can actually handle such high-res content. Mostly, we're talking pro cameras and the like, but at least one company will be showing off some professional-grade hard drives -- after all, you're gonna need a solid storage solution to process those supersize files, right? G-Technology just introduced the "Evolution" family of products, the centerpiece of which is the G-Dock ev, a mini-tower with two hard drive modules and dual Thunderbolt connections. What you put in those hard drive slots is up to you: the company is offering both a 9.5mm 7,200RPM drive (rated for 136 MB/s transfers) and a beefier 15mm cartridge promising 250 MB/s. Once you choose your drives, you can arrange them in a RAID 1 configuration if redundancy is important, or RAID 0 for maximum speed.

What's more, each of the drives has a USB 3.0 socket on board, so if you needed to you could hand it to someone else in your office and let them grab whatever data they needed off the HDD. In any case, the dock will come standard with two 1TB, 9.5mm drives -- look for it next month, priced at $750 for the bundle. If you later need some additional cartridges, the 9.3mm G-Drive ev will cost either $150 or $200, depending on whether you want 500 gigs or a full terabyte. The bigger 15mm G-Drive ev Plus will go for $350 (it'll be sold with 1TB only). Lastly, G-Technology also announced the G-Drive Pro with a Thunderbolt port and claimed transfer speeds of 480 MB/s. That'll ship this summer for either $700 or $850, depending on whether you want 2TB or 4GB of storage. All that's in the PR after the break, along with an endorsement from Vincent Laforet himself. Must be good, right?

Filed under: Storage

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/08/g-technology-g-dock-ev-evolution-series/

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Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case Gives Logitech A Competitor For The Best iPad Keyboard Crown

Keyboard cases for iPad are many and multiplying, but at this point it's a question of refining the best concepts, not creating dramatically different devices. The Belkin Ultimate Keyboard Case for iPad is a great example, taking a lot of cues from the massively popular Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad and folio style designs to create a solution that might be as near as perfect as tablet typers can get.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/aPlD6ikPv0k/

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RIL plans to borrow $2 billion to refinance debt

South Korea's consumer prices rose more than the targeted maximum four percent in December for a second straight month, highlighting persistent inflation pressures, official figures showed Friday.Statistics Korea said the consumer price index rose 4.2 percent in December year-on-year, the same as in November. The index was up 0.4 percent month-on-month compared with a 0.1 percent rise in November.Core inflation, which strips out volatile fuel and food costs, grew 3.6 percent from a year earlier, the largest rise for this year. It gained 0.4 percent from the previous month.

Source: http://www.bullfax.com/?q=node-ril-plans-borrow-2-billion-refinance-debt

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Kidnapped 89-year-old to captors: 'You got to be kind to other people'

An 89-year-old woman who spent two days locked in her car trunk thinking she'd never be found has a message for her teen captors.

"You got to be kind to other people if you want somebody to be kind to you," Margaret Smith said.

The 4-foot-11 octangenerian's story began with an act of kindness on March 18.

Smith had stopped at the Chicken Man Convenience Store in Milford, Del., for a Butter Pecan ice cream cone when two teenage girls approached her and asked for a ride across town.

"I decided not to, then I said, 'Well, a good deed,'" Smith said.

After driving around for a while, Smith said the girls snatched her car keys and stuffed her in the trunk of her Buick.

"The way they drove off flying, I didn't think nobody would ever find me," she said. "I just had to pray about and hope that I'd be found."

Smith spent the next two days crammed in the trunk, without food, water and her blood pressure medication. She said the only time the girls opened the trunk was to rob her of the cash she was carrying.

"I was very tired, cold, hungry, scared," Smith said. "I didn't know what to expect."

After spending 48 hours locked in her trunk, Smith's kidnappers inexplicably decided to dump her in a remote cemetery.

"I was crawling through the cemetery on hands and knees," Smith said. "Nothing but a pair of stockings on, no jacket...Finally somebody found me. I don't know who."

Smith was taken to a local hospital, where her family, who had reported her missing, received a call that she was safe.

Delaware State Police found Smith's car days later and arrested and charged five teenagers inside. All are believed to have some involvement in the kidnapping, robbery and theft, ABC News' Philadelphia affiliate WPVI reported.

Four of the teens, ranging in age from 14 to 17, are being charged as adults, while a fifth faces receiving stolen property and conspiracy charges as a minor.

Also Read

Source: http://gma.yahoo.com/kidnapped-89-old-her-captors-got-kind-other-155806683--abc-news-topstories.html

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New St. Thomas Twp. Family Dollar to offer 8-10 jobs

By MARCUS RAUHUT

@MarcusRauhutPO

A new Family Dollar store in St. Thomas Township is on schedule to open this summer. Company spokeswoman Bryn Winburn said an official opening date will be announced six to eight weeks prior to the opening.

The 8,300-square-foot store is under construction at 3835 Lincoln Way West, adjacent to Laurich Building Supply. Family Dollar will lease the property.

Winburn said a typical store employs eight to 10 people, and the company looks to hire from within the community. Hiring will also take place about six to eight weeks before the opening. Apply online at http://corporate.familydollar.com/pages/careers.aspx.

Family Dollar carries a mix of groceries, auto and hardware, clothing, health and beauty, home decor, household and pet products.

Winburn said the company's real estate team uses modeling software to determine locations for stores. Family Dollar also has locations at Southgate Shopping Center, Chambersburg, and in Fayetteville, Greencastle and McConnellsburg.

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Marcus Rauhut can be reached at mrauhut@publicopinionnews.com and 262-4752, or follow him on Twitter @MarcusRauhutPO.

Source: http://www.publicopiniononline.com/news/ci_22965145/new-st-thomas-twp-family-dollar-offer-8?source=rss_viewed

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Health insurance premium spin

Posted Apr 5, 2013, 5:40 pm

Lori Robertson FactCheck.org

A new analysis on the Affordable Care Act prompts Republicans and the White House to trade misleading claims about the law?s impact on insurance premiums. Predictably, one side says they?ll go up; the other says they?ll go down. But both are stretching the facts, just as they?ve been doing since 2010, before the law was even enacted.

The latest spin comes from the majority staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which published a report in March that wrongly said the Society of Actuaries ?estimates an average premium increase of 32 percent in the individual market.? The analysis published by the actuaries specifically said it wasn?t giving an estimate on premiums. The Republican line was picked up by two conservative groups, the National Taxpayers Union and the Conservative 50 Plus Alliance.

The White House, meanwhile, repeated a misleading claim that average premiums will go down ?for the same benefits that are being provided.? This twisted claim is based on a Congressional Budget Office report that said average premiums would go up for the individual market.

Republicans spin new report

Let?s start with the Republican claim: It refers to a March analysis sponsored by the Society of Actuaries ? a professional organization for actuaries, most of whom work for the insurance industry ? and conducted by the Lewin Group, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group that operates independently of the health care company. The report looked at what may happen to the individual market, which will see plenty of change as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

Not much will be different as the law is put into place for those who get insurance through their employers, and that?s the bulk of Americans. The Society of Actuaries/Lewin Group report estimates that those with employer-based insurance will decline by 2 million because of the law, for a total of 155 million people. That?s similar to estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office.

However, new minimum benefit standards will mean more generous insurance plans for many of those who buy health coverage on their own on the individual market, which has been able to offer cheap, bare-bones plans. Plus, tens of millions of people will join this market through state-based exchanges ? 21 million, according to the Lewin analysis.

The analysis estimated that for the individual, or nongroup, market, the ?cost per member per month will increase 32 percent under ACA, compared to pre-ACA projections.? But that?s costs for insurance companies, not an increase in premiums. In fact, the report didn?t attempt to estimate what the change might be in premiums.

Instead, it said: ?We focused only on the changes in allowable costs. Actual premiums will vary for each insurer based on many factors which are beyond the scope of this report, since each insurer will have different circumstances and strategies with regard to competition.?

So, the additional competition that will come with new business through the exchanges will affect how insurers price their plans. The report also says there will be risk mitigation, designed to shift funds among health plans to decrease the unknown risks for insurers, as so many new customers of varying health statuses join the exchanges.

Republicans have a point: It?s true that insurers, like any other business, could pass along any increased costs to customers, in this case policyholders. So if costs go up, premiums would likely go up. But again, the report doesn?t attempt to give an estimate for premiums. The Congressional Budget Office did give an estimate, saying premiums on the individual market would go up by 10 percent to 13 percent on average, about a third of the figure used by the House GOP committee. But the truth is that no one knows what exactly will happen to premiums on the individual market, as we explained in a recent Ask FactCheck.

Why do the costs for insurers go up? The actuaries/Lewin Group analysis says the increased costs will come from sicker ? and therefore more expensive ? uninsured individuals, plus those in high-risk pools, who also have health conditions, joining the individual market. The report notes that the costs will vary by state, with states that already limit premium variability based on age or health status ? known as community rating ? not seeing much of an increase. In fact, their costs could decrease, as ?younger and healthier individuals ? will enroll due to the reduced cost from the premium subsidies,? the report says. States without community rating will experience an increase in costs as older and sicker individuals who previously didn?t have insurance are able to get it.

It?s the addition of the uninsured and individuals who are currently in high-risk pools that increases insurers? costs.

Society of Actuaries report, ?Cost of the Future Newly Insured under the Affordable Care Act,? March 2013: Our analysis also indicates that while high risk pools generally have few enrollees, the cost per individual is very high. Movement of the high risk pool individuals into the non-group Exchange will generally create a significant increase in cost. However, it can be reasonably argued that proportionately more uninsured individuals will have similar risks in states that had relatively small high risk pools.

The report says that there would be some savings because the uninsured would have access to primary and preventive care that they didn?t use before. But it says those savings would be more than offset by increased use of other care.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently referenced the actuaries report in an op-ed published in USA Today. He correctly said that ?insurers could pay an average of 32% more for medical claims.? He went on to say that the costs ?will be passed onto those who buy insurance on the individual market in the form of dramatically higher premiums.? But again, the report gave no estimate for premiums, which will vary by state, and also by individual, with, as the report says, younger and healthier people generally seeing premium increases and older and less healthy individuals paying less than the otherwise would have.

McConnell went on to say that the premium increases ?will be especially devastating for middle-class families.? But he fails to mention that most of those getting insurance through the individual market as a result of the health care law will do so with the help of federal subsidies. Those with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty level ($92,200 for a family of four and $44,680 for a single person in 2012) qualify for federal subsidies to help them purchase insurance.

While the CBO said that the average premium per person in the individual market would go up by 10 percent to 13 percent because of the health care law, it added that for most, subsidies would push their costs ?well below? what they would have been charged in the absence of the law. In its latest report, the CBO says about 80 percent of an estimated 25 million joining the exchanges by 2023 will receive subsidies.

White House spins its response

When White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked about the Society of Actuaries report during a press briefing on March 27, he said the law when fully enacted would ?result in average premiums that ? will be lower in the future than they are today for the same benefits that are being provided.? He cited the CBO as his source.

We wrote about a similar claim in March 2012, when the White House said ?families who purchase private health insurance through state-based exchanges could save up to $2,300 on their health care each year.? A January 2011 White House report said families would save that much ?in 2014 compared to individual market coverage with the same level of benefits without the law,? citing a CBO analysis.

But that CBO analysis actually said that premiums on the individual market would go up by 10 percent to 13 percent because of the law, as we?ve mentioned. The catch in the White House?s claim is that it?s talking about ?the same benefits.? But plans on the individual market will, overall, have much better benefits because of the law than they do now. That?s why the CBO expects premiums on average to go up.

The CBO did say that the average premium increase would be offset by a larger pool of customers, including healthy folks who would purchase plans due to the requirement to have insurance. But the increase in costs would outweigh those offsets as the plans became much more generous. That?s how the CBO arrives at its estimate of an average premium increase of 10 percent to 13 percent.

In the White House press briefing, Earnest also painted the Lewin report as biased, saying it was ?conducted by a health insurance company that?s critical of the Affordable Care Act.? While the Lewin Group is a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, it has editorial independence and a solid reputation for nonpartisan research. Its analyses have been cited by both political parties.

The White House has a point, too: One could glean from the CBO report that plans with the same level of benefits (i.e., good benefits) would cost less on the individual market because of the law than they would have otherwise, but those on the individual market largely don?t have those plans now anyway.

Beyond that, no one is actually going to save money compared with what they?re paying now ? the estimates pertain to what premiums will cost in the future compared with what they would have cost without the law. And without the law, premiums would still be going up.

- 30 -

Source: http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/040513_insurance_spin/health-insurance-premium-spin/

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Mmm, ranch! Melissa McCarthy back on 'SNL'

NBC

H-V-R! H-V-R! Melissa McCarthy gets a faceful of Hidden Valley Ranch during her first hosting appearance on "SNL."

By Kurt Schlosser, TODAY

Melissa McCarthy is returning to host "Saturday Night Live" this week and we've got two reasons why we hope that's great news: Arlene and Linda.

Our two favorite skits from her October 2011 hosting stint were her overly sexually aggressive office worker, Arlene, and her overly excited salad dressing taste-tester, Linda.

Both characters are certainly reminiscent of Megan, the "Bridesmaids" character which earned McCarthy an Oscar nomination. The film was a hit in theaters as McCarthy was tapped for her first "SNL" appearance.

You'll never looks at a horse balloon or a bottle of ranch dressing the same way again.

Check out the promos for McCarthy's return on April 6. The musical guest is Phoenix.

Related content:

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/04/05/17618585-melissa-mccarthy-back-on-snl-whos-hungry-for-ranch-dressing?lite

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2 with gang ties sought in Colo. prisons chief's death

DENVER (AP) ? Authorities investigating the death of Colorado's prisons chief told law enforcement officers Wednesday to be on the lookout for two known associates of a white supremacist prison gang.

James Lohr, 47, and Thomas Guolee, 31, aren't being called suspects in the death of Colorado Department of Corrections chief Tom Clements, but their names have surfaced during the investigation, El Paso County sheriff's Lt. Jeff Kramer said. He wouldn't elaborate.

An officer safety bulletin regarding the two was sent out Wednesday. Kramer said Lohr and Guolee are known associates of the 211 Crew. That's the same gang whose members included Evan Ebel, who is a suspect in the death of Clements on March 19 and of Nathan Leon, a pizza deliveryman, two days earlier.

Ebel was killed in a shootout with Texas authorities after the deaths. Investigators have said the gun Ebel used in the shootout was also used to kill Clements when the prisons chief answered the front door of his home.

Ebel is the only suspect that investigators have named in Clements' death, but they haven't given a motive. They have said they're looking into his connection to the gang he joined while in prison, and whether that was connected to the attack.

"Investigators are looking at a lot of different possibilities. We are not stepping out and saying it's a hit or it's not a hit. We're looking at all possible motives," Kramer said Wendesday.

Sheriff's investigators said they don't know the whereabouts of Lohr and Guolee or if they are together, but Kramer said it's possible one or both of them could be headed to Nevada or Texas.

Both are wanted on warrants unrelated to Clements' death, and authorities believe they are armed and dangerous.

Guolee is a parolee who served time for intimidating a witness and giving a pawnbroker false information, among other charges, court records show. Lohr was being sought on warrants out of Las Animas County for a bail violation and a violation of a protection order, according to court records.

The 211 gang is one of the most vicious white supremacist groups operating in U.S. prisons, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups. It was founded in 1995 to protect white prisoners from attacks and operates only in Colorado, according to the center.

Ebel joined the 211 Crew after he entered prison in 2005 for a string of assault and menacing charges that combined for an eight-year sentence. He was supposed to spend an extra four years in prison for punching a prison officer in the face in 2006, but a clerical error led that sentence to be recorded as one to be served simultaneously with his previous sentences.

He was released on parole Jan. 28.

Records show that the vendor operating the electronic monitoring bracelet that Ebel wore noted a "tamper alert" March 14. Corrections officials left a message for Ebel telling him to report in two days and have the bracelet repaired, records show.

The next day, for the first time since his release, Ebel did not call in for his daily phone check-in.

On March 16, he missed his appointment to repair the bracelet. Only on the following day do the records show that a note was made in the corrections system that he failed to show up.

By then, Leon, a father of three, was shot and killed after answering a call for a pizza at a Denver truck stop.

On March 18, parole officers contacted Ebel's father, who said he was concerned his son had fled and gave them permission to search Evan Ebel's apartment. The next afternoon, two parole officers concluded he had fled.

Hours later, Clements answered his doorbell and was fatally shot.

The next morning, still unaware of a connection with the most recent slaying, the state issued a warrant for Ebel's arrest on parole violations.

A sheriff's deputy in rural Texas pulled Ebel over March 21, but he fled. Ebel was killed in the shootout that followed.

Clements, born in St. Louis, worked for 31 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, both in prison and as a parole officer, before he joined the Colorado Department of Corrections in 2011.

___

Associated Press writers P. Solomon Banda and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-gang-ties-sought-co-prison-chief-death-025957294.html

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Scientists develop monkey model to study novel coronavirus infection

Apr. 3, 2013 ? National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers have developed a model of infection in rhesus macaques that will help scientists around the world better understand how an emerging coronavirus, first identified in September 2012, affects people.

The virus has so far infected at least 17 people in the Middle East and Europe, killing 11 of them. The NIH team established the nonhuman primate model in December 2012 and is using it to study how the virus causes disease and to evaluate potential vaccines and antiviral treatments.

The model shows that clinical signs of coronavirus disease appear within 24 hours of infection. These signs include reduced appetite, elevated temperature, increased respiratory rate, cough, goose bumps and hunched posture. In monkeys and humans, the infection causes disease deep in the lungs, leading to pneumonia. Scientists are exploring whether the virus' foothold in the lower respiratory tract impedes its ability to spread efficiently.

Researchers at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) developed the model after obtaining coronavirus samples from collaborators at Erasmus Medical Center in The Netherlands.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Munster et al. Novel Human Coronavirus Causes Pneumonia in a Macaque Model Resembling Human Disease. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1215691

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/R9N7TBUrLZ4/130403200258.htm

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The Facebook Phone: It's Finally Sorta Real (UPDATING LIVE)

We've been talking about it for years now—half dread, half excitement—and now it's no longer just our imaginations. The Facebook Phone is as real as it's probably ever going to get: a complete Android takeover that converts your smartphone. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/pnBPks2spx4/the-facebook-phone-its-finally-real

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Letter from governor promotes insurance

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A letter has gone out to Indiana residents from the governor?s office. And while it may surprise some people, it?s perfectly legitimate.

The letter has the official seal of the governor on the outer envelope. Inside, the letter has the governor's signature. But the big surprise is that the letter talks about an insurance policy.

The Indiana Department of Insurance said the letter is legit. But the governor isn't selling insurance. Instead, he's calling attention to a long-term care insurance program that's been around since 1993.?

Hoosiers still buy the insurance from an insurance company. But because it's part of the state's partnership program, there are two special benefits: Personal control over heath care decisions and protection for certain financial assets that might not otherwise be protected.??

There is of course, more to it than that. Insurance policies should be well researched. For more details on the program, click here.?

Source: http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/indiana/letter-from-governor-promotes-insurance

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China: 4 more rare bird flu cases, new steps taken

BEIJING (AP) ? China reported Tuesday that four more people in one province have been seriously sickened by a bird flu virus new to humans, as cities along the eastern seaboard stepped up public health measures to guard against the disease, which has already caused two deaths.

The health bureau of eastern Jiangsu province said three women and a retired man from different cities in the province were all critically ill with the H7N9 virus, a diagnosis confirmed by the provincial disease prevention center. The cases are the second batch to be confirmed after three in Anhui province and nearby Shanghai on Sunday.

The H7N9 bird flu virus has previously not been a problem in humans. That compares to the more virulent H5N1 strain, which began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003 and has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.

The reports of the new cases suggest that authorities are taking a closer look at severe flu cases after identifying the first known infections on Sunday.

"When you don't look, you don't find them, but when you look, you'll find," said Dr. Ray Yip, a public health expert who heads the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China.

"A lot of people get severe respiratory conditions, pneumonias, so you usually don't test them. Now all of a sudden you get this new reported strain of flu and so people are going to submit more samples to test, (so) you're more likely to see more cases," Yip said.

All of the new patients have been sick since about March 19, when they had fevers, coughs and other flu-like symptoms, the Jiangsu health bureau said in a statement. Their conditions worsened over periods of time ranging from a week to 11 days and they were transferred to intensive care units in the provincial capital, Nanjing.

Based on the statement, only one of the patients appeared to have had daily contact with birds ? a 45-year-old woman who was described as a poultry butcher. The four cases did not appear to be connected, and other people who have had close contact with the patients have not reported having fevers or respiratory problems, it said.

The provincial health bureau said it was strengthening measures to monitor suspicious cases and urged the public to stay calm, joining Beijing and China's financial capital, Shanghai, in rolling out new steps to respond to the virus.

The three earlier cases reported Sunday included two men who died in Shanghai, resulting in the city activating an emergency plan that calls for heightened monitoring of suspicious flu cases. Under the plan, schools, hospitals and retirement facilities are to be on alert for fevers, and administrators are to report to health authorities if there are more than five cases of flu in a week.

Cases of severe pneumonia with unclear causes are to be reported daily by hospitals to health bureaus, up from the weekly norm. The plan also calls for stronger monitoring of people who work at poultry farms or are exposed to birds.

"The health bureau will take effective and powerful measures to prevent and control the disease, to make sure the flu epidemic is effectively guarded against and to safeguard the health of the city's residents," said Xu Jianguang, head of the Shanghai Health Bureau.

Health officials said this week there was no evidence that any of the three earlier cases, who were infected over the past two months, had contracted the disease from each other, and no sign of infections in the 88 people who had closest contact with them.

Health authorities in Beijing also upped the capital's state of readiness, ordering hospitals to monitor for cases of flu and pneumonia without clear causes, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The announcements, which lacked many details, show that the government has become mildly more transparent in handling health crises than it was a decade ago during the SARS pneumonia epidemic. Then, as rumors circulated for weeks of an outbreak of an unidentified disease in southern Guangdong province, government silence contributed to the spread of the virus to many parts of China and to two dozen other countries.

Scientists are closely monitoring these viruses for fear they could mutate into a strain that easily spreads among people, but there's no evidence of that occurring.

___

Associated Press researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-4-more-rare-bird-flu-cases-steps-133557850.html

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FTC reveals $50,000 Robocall Challenge winners, alarms Rachel from card services (video)

The FTC has managed to find two non-violent solutions to its Robocall Challenge, aimed at blocking auto-dialing telemarketers, thanks to winners Serdar Danis and Aaron Foss. The pair, who will receive $25,000 each, came up with variations on a system that would pre-screen calls before ringing your phone while allowing the FTC to blacklist known scammers at the same time. Google took a non-cash prize in a separate category with a scheme that would foil caller-ID spoofing often used by boiler rooms like the notorious "Rachel from card services" outfit, which has over a hundred numeric aliases. The FTC receives a whopping 200,000 complaints per month about the nuisance and screened nearly 800 submissions (see the More Coverage link), many of which show a certain, shall we say, passion for the topic. Check winner Foss' video submission after the break.

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Via: Huffington Post

Source: FTC

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/YJsi73Ay4WU/

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Obama introduces $100 million brain mapping initiative

President Barack Obama exits the East Room following his BRAIN initiative unveiling. (Charles Dharapak/AP)

UPDATED 11:50 a.m. ET

President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled the BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), a $100 million project aimed to increase understanding of the human brain.

The president, who publicly unveiled the program in the White House East Room, asked observers to imagine technology improving the lives of billions of people by reversing the effects of Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and traumatic brain injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder for military veterans.

"There is this enormous mystery waiting to be unlocked" within the human brain, Obama said. And the BRAIN Initiative "will change that."

The initiative?a subject the president first referenced during his State of the Union address in January?would support technologies that map the brain in order to gain greater understanding of a variety of diseases in the hopes of leading to new cures, prevention and treatment, as well as the links between the brain and behavior.

But the president on Tuesday also promoted his program as an economic effort.

"Every dollar we spent to map the human genome has returned $140 to our economy," Obama said.

The president also argued that efforts such as the BRAIN Initiative keep America ahead in innovation and help produce new discoveries that might otherwise be made in countries such as "China, India or Germany."

"Ideas are what power our economy," he said. "We do innovations better than anyone else."

The $100 million in government funds being spent on the program will be included in Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget to be released April 10. The funding breakdown includes: $40 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH); $50 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is part of the Department of Defense; and $20 million from the National Science Foundation.

Support will also be provided by private sector foundations.

Some critics have suggested that the cost of the program is too low when compared to other research initiatives, but in a phone call with reporters following the president's unveiling, Francis Collins, NIH director, said the amount is "substantial ... considering this is the first year" of the project.

It's a "pretty good start for getting this project off the ground," Collins said.

Still others, notably some Republicans and fiscal conservatives, suggested Tuesday that the country needs to re-evaluate federal funds already being spent on this subject and took issue with the price.

?Mapping the human brain is exactly the type of research we should be funding, by reprioritizing the $250 million we currently spend on political and social science research into expanded medical research, including the expedited mapping of the human brain," Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said in a statement. "It's great science."

Chris Moody contributed to this story

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-introduce-brain-mapping-initiative-132407332--politics.html

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Suit says Huffington Post founder trashed NYC loft

NEW YORK (AP) ? A lawsuit accuses Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington of trashing a New York City loft that she leased from a documentary filmmaker.

Huffington calls the allegations false.

Filmmaker Eric Steel filed the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday. It asks for $275,000 in damages.

The lawsuit says cabinets were broken and "the walls of the apartment were gouged, stained and otherwise damaged" during the two years Huffington rented the apartment.

Under the terms of the lease agreement, Steel says Huffington was told she could not use the loft for business or parties.

The apartment was designed by Steel's stepfather, modernist architect Charles Gwathmey.

In a statement, Huffington says Steel "happily" renewed the lease twice and visited the apartment in Manhattan's Chelsea section. She says he has refused to return her $93,000 deposit.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/suit-says-huffington-post-founder-trashed-nyc-loft-131510922.html

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DNA: How to unravel the tangle

Monday, April 1, 2013

A research coordinated by the scientists at SISSA of Trieste has now developed and studied a numeric model of the chromosome that supports the experimental data and provides a hypothesis on the bundle's function.

A chromosome spends most of its life "diluted" in the nuclear cytoplasm. To the untrained eye it may look like a randomly entangled thread, yet biologists claim the opposite: although a chaotic component does exist in the bundle, experimental measurements have identified regions that tend to contain specific genes. Thanks to such measurements, researchers have obtained maps of the chromosome in its diluted form, the one in which the DNA transcription processes occur.

Cristian Micheletti, a physicist of SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste, has coordinated an international research team - in which Marco Di Stefano and Angelo Rosa stand out - that has devised an ingenious method which, on one hand, has allowed to verify the already known experimental measures and, on the other, to find data in support of a theory which explains why the DNA bundle is arranged in regions. "Employing the vast amount of publicly available data on gene expression, we have identified families of genes co-regulated within a chromosome" explains Micheletti. The co-regulated genes codify "in accord", but how such synchronization occurs is a mystery, since often the genes are located very far from one another on the DNA filament. "Two main hypotheses may be considered: either 'messengers' exist that travel back and forth from one gene to the other and coordinate the activity, or the DNA filament folding up inside the tangle brings the genes belonging to the same family physically close."

On the basis of the second assumption Micheletti and his colleagues have used the computer to induce the DNA numeric model to bring the co-regulated genes closer. "The outcome of the simulation has provided a map of chromosome arrangement that is very close to the one obtained through experimentation," explains Micheletti. "Besides, the model has successfully brought closer the genes belonging to the same family, as we had asked for, in 80% of cases, that is without too much effort, which corroborates the validity of the hypothesis and the effectiveness of the simulation."

The article was chosen by PLOS Computational Biologyjournal as the cover story for the March issue.

###

International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA): http://www.sissa.it

Thanks to International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127533/DNA__How_to_unravel_the_tangle

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'Fast & Furious 7' May Be In The Works Soon As Vin Diesel Teases Plans

Vin Diesel stars in the "Fast & Furious" movies.

With months until the release of "Fast & Furious 6," Universal may already have plans for a seventh film in the ongoing franchise.

"Fast Six" star Vin Diesel posted a photo of himself to Facebook on Saturday with a caption reading, "There was an early screening in LA this week of 'Fast 6.' The crowd reaction was surreal... and their demand for the continuation was powerful."

Diesel teased plans for an upcoming "Fast & Furious 7" by adding, "It's remarkable to think I first embodied this character in 1999... and the evolution continues... Filming begins this summer in LA, where it all started... talk about a studio in sync with the audience."

"Fast Six" hits theaters on May 24.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/fast-and-furious-7-vin-diesel_n_2989412.html

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Palestinian leader clamps down on critics

HUSSAN, West Bank (AP) ? Mahmoud Abbas' government in the West Bank is getting tougher with critics, interrogating, prosecuting and even jailing several journalists and bloggers in recent months for allegedly "defaming" the Western-backed Palestinian leader.

Rights activists say the legal hassles are meant to silence dissent and that the campaign is intensifying despite promises to the contrary by Abbas. Targets of the crackdown include supporters of Abbas' political rival ? the Islamic militant Hamas ? and political independents who have written about alleged nepotism and abuse of power in Abbas' Palestinian Authority.

Abbas' aides insist the Palestinian leader opposes any curb on expression. They blame overzealous prosecutors and security officials, but government critics say Abbas could easily halt the clampdown.

"It's a good cop, bad cop routine. The bad cops are the security services, and the good cop is the benevolent president," said Diana Buttu, a former Palestinian Authority insider. They want to send a chilling message, she said, "and it works."

Abbas' foreign backers, who view him as key to delivering any future peace deal with Israel and maintaining quiet in the West Bank, have said little in public about the issue. Instead, during a visit to the West Bank in late March, President Barack Obama showered Abbas and his security forces with praise for their efforts to prevent militant attacks on Israel.

The new tactic of taking journalists and bloggers to court has invited speculation about timing and motive.

Some say Abbas and his inner circle are lashing out at critics because they feel increasingly vulnerable politically. Others suggest the 78-year-old Abbas is either an old-school Arab politician not used to criticism or an out-of-touch leader getting bad advice.

"It's a weak authority and that's why it's doing this," said Shahwan Jabareen, who heads the human rights group Al-Haq. "They fear the criticism is growing ? that they will lose the (Palestinian) authority ? and they are trying to keep it by acting like this."

Such insecurities are rooted in the political split of 2007, when Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Abbas.

Since then, Hamas has been going after sympathizers of Abbas' Fatah movement in Gaza, while Abbas' security forces have tried to dismantle the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank to prevent a similar takeover there.

Reconciliation efforts have failed, and both sides are entrenched in their respective territories.

The split has prevented new elections, meaning Abbas has already overstayed his term as president by four years, weakening his claim to lead. His troubles are compounded by a cash crisis in his foreign aid-dependent government and lack of progress toward his main objective of negotiating terms of a Palestinian state with Israel.

There have been waves of crackdowns on political rivals, particularly Hamas, since the Palestinian Authority was established two decades ago, as part of interim peace deals with Israel.

However, Palestinian journalists say they are increasingly being targeted.

"I think it is getting worse, although we are getting very rosy promises" from the president's office, said Nabhan Khraishi, a spokesman for the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, a union with hundreds of members.

Ahead of Obama's March 21 meeting with Abbas, 18 Palestinian journalists were told that they would not be allowed to enter the president's compound to cover the event. Veteran reporters were among those denied accreditation apparently for being perceived as politically hostile to the Palestinian Authority.

Khraishi said that in talks with the journalists' union, political advisers and security officials blamed each other for banning an unprecedented number of journalists from covering Obama.

Tayeb Abdel Rahim, an Abbas adviser who dealt with the issue, did not return phone messages Sunday.

Two recent court rulings have drawn more attention to the clampdown on free speech.

On Thursday, an appeals court in the West Bank upheld a one-year prison term for Mamdooh Hamamreh for "defaming" Abbas. Hamamreh allegedly posted a photo montage on his Facebook page in September 2010 that showed Abbas next to that of a TV villain. A caption read: "They're alike in all ways." The villain in the TV drama collaborated with French colonial rule in Syria.

Hamamreh, a Hamas activist in his college years, denies having posted the photos. He said he spent 53 days in interrogation, missing the birth of his son and was banned from seeing his lawyer for the first 20 days.

After his release on bail, his trial and an appeal dragged on for more than two years. Abbas pardoned him hours after the appeals court decision Thursday, and Hamamreh was released later that day.

Nimer Hamad, an Abbas adviser, said the Palestinian leader hadn't pushed for Hamamreh to be prosecuted. "This young man did not deserve such a sentence," Hamad said. "The freedom and right of expression is guaranteed to all people and the president is keen on protecting freedom of expression."

Hamamreh said he believes the main point was to deter him and others from speaking out, and that he will stay clear of any potential trouble in his work.

"I now censor myself regarding anything I say," the 29-year-old said Saturday, surrounded by well-wishers at his family home in the village of Hussan, near Bethlehem. "It's the one thing they (the authorities) succeeded in doing, which is intimidation."

On the same day as Hamamreh's verdict, another court in the northern town of Salfit sentenced a blogger, Anas Ismail, to six months for "liking" three Facebook posts critical of the Ministry of Telecommunications and the minister himself.

Ismail, 30, said he was jailed for 17 days of interrogation in February and convicted and sentenced Thursday for "insulting a minister." The judge allowed him to appeal immediately, meaning he is staying out of prison for now.

He later posted on his Facebook page: "For a 'tag,' you get one year. For a 'like,' you get six months, for a 'share' you get a suspended sentence. A comment invites the biggest disaster."

A Palestinian advocacy group, MADA, said it counted 238 violations of the rights of Palestinian journalists last year, including detentions, travel bans and the closing of media outlets. MADA said that of those, 70 percent, or 164, were committed by Israel and the rest in equal measure by the two rival Palestinian governments.

Last year, 12 journalists were detained by Palestinian security forces, up from five in 2011, while 13 were summoned for questioning, the group said. Overall, there was a drop in Palestinian and a rise in Israeli violations, the group said.

Jihad Harb, an independent Palestinian commentator, said dragging journalists to court for defaming the president and the government is a relatively new tactic.

Harb himself was summoned to the prosecutor's office in Ramallah in November, three months after writing about he claimed was nepotism in filling senior public service positions. Harb said he is still waiting to hear how the case against him, on possible defamation charges, will proceed.

"The biggest loser is the president, Mahmoud Abbas, and his image in the world," said Harb.

Another journalist, Yousef Shayeb, said he was jailed for interrogation for eight days, after writing in a Jordanian newspaper last year about alleged abuse of power in the PLO embassy in Paris. He said he faces a civil suit by the Palestinian foreign minister and two top embassy officials who have dismissed Shayeb's allegations as baseless.

Buttu, a former legal adviser in the Palestinian Authority, said it's unclear to what extent Abbas is involved in the clampdown or is being pushed by those around him.

"Part of it is that they fear they have lost their grip on Palestinian society," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-leader-clamps-down-critics-183110334.html

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