MADRID, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Lionel Messi has rarely been accused of failing to deliver in big games, having scored in two European Cup finals, but after subdued performances against AC Milan and Real Madrid, questions are being asked. The four-times World Player of the Year and leading scorer in one of the greatest club teams of all time, was a shadow of his usual self at the San Siro in a Champions League last-16 first leg last week, when Barcelona slumped to a 2-0 defeat. ...
by AWR Hawkins 23 Feb 2013, 12:00 PM PDT post a comment
The force of 32,000 gives Afghan officials time to hold their presidential elections. "Once those elections are completed," Panetta said "we will then begin the final drawdown."
Panetta spoke highly of the Afghan military and police forces: "There is a strong consensus that our mission is succeeding... on the ground because of the growing role and capabilities all of us have seen in the Afghan national security forces."
The Obama admin is currently talking with U.S. allies in Europe to decide how many troops will stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014. Pentagon press secretary George Little said a force of "8,000 to 12,000 has been discussed," but no decision has been made.?
There is no getting around the fact that Samsung and Apple have one of the most complex relationships in the tech world. While Apple may be looking to change this, the fact is that Samsung is one of the largest suppliers of components used in Apple products, and the legal battles between the two tech-giants will continue regardless of the goods exchanged.
Well, it turns out that Samsung has decided that they need to step up their game against their rival, albeit, in a passive aggressive way. Already the company has opened up a new innovation center in Menlo Park, planning a research and development lab in San Jose, and is working on opening up a startup incubator in Palo Alto, but that apparently isn't good enough.
In a move to compete with Apple's proposed spaceship-like campus, Samsung is going to build a massive semiconductor campus with a distinctive design as well. Samsung claims that its Silicon Valley expansions are needed in order to bring more entrepreneurial DNA into the company so that it can move from being an innovation leader instead of a follower.
Samsung's chief strategy officer Young Sohn believes the company needs to do this in Silicon Valley because it is the center of disruptive forces and he wants the company to be a part of those disruptions.
In order to make that shift, the company wants to get rid of the insular culture that Samsung has been focusing to develop most of its technologies and products internally. To do this, Samsung is partnering and investing with startups, supporting other innovators, and being a more active buyer of other companies.
Sohn also says that much of the company's innovation is currently done in Korea, but he believes that they need to reach out to global hot spots and how Samsung taps into global innovation will dictate their success.
The new semiconductor campus will cost Samsung $300 million and sport an open-air design meant to rival both Apple and Facebook?s.
Aspen ? The Aspen Institute is the latest U.S. organization to see some of its email accounts targeted in the purported wave of Chinese cyberattacks.
Three of the institute's estimated 350 email accounts were broken into, said Trent Nichols, director of information technology and services for the think-tank, which keeps its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and holds a strong presence in Aspen. The accounts belonged to high-ranking institute officials.
Nichols said institute President and CEO Walter Isaacson was one of the victims. He declined to identify the other two.
?Walter has made no secret about this,? Nichols said. ?His reaction was pretty much that anything he says is public knowledge, and he doesn't consider anything in his inbox privileged or confidential.?
The news was first reported Thursday night by the Huffington Post.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has beamed home photos confirming that it recovered samples from deep within a Red Planet rock, cementing the robot's place in?exploration history.
The Curiosity rover drilled 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) into a Martian outcrop on Feb. 8, and today (Feb. 20) mission scientists first set eyes on images showing drill tailings sitting in Curiosity's scoop, waiting to be transferred to analytical instruments on the robot's body.
The photos confirm that Curiosity has pulled off an historic achievement, scientists said.
"This is the first time any robot, fixed or mobile, has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars," Louise Jandura, sample system chief engineer for Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters today.
"In fact, this is the first time any rover has drilled into a rock to collect a sample anywhere but on Earth," Jandura added. "In the five-decade history of the space age, this is indeed a rare event." [Curiosity's First Drilling on Mars (Photos)]
Breaking open a time capsule
Curiosity landed inside Mars' huge Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5, kicking off a two-year prime mission to determine if the area has ever been capable of supporting microbial life.
Along with its 10 science instruments and 17 cameras, Curiosity's hammering drill is considered key to this quest, for it allows scientists to peer deep into Martian rocks for evidence of past habitability ? something no other Red Planet robot has been able to do.
The arm-mounted drill "allows us to go beyond the surface layer of the rock, unlocking a kind of time capsule of evidence about the state of Mars going back three or four billion years," Jandura said.
The first drilling location is an intriguing time capsule indeed, scientists say. Curiosity bored into part of an outcrop called "John Klein," which is shot through with light-colored mineral veins and other evidence of long-ago exposure to liquid water.
"All of these features tell us that the rocks in this area have a really rich geological history, and they have the potential to give us information about multiple interactions between water and rock at this location," said JPL's Joel Hurowitz, sampling system scientist for Curiosity.
Mission scientists will learn more about that history when the drilled sample is transferred to two of Curiosity's key instruments, CheMin (short for Chemistry and Mineralogy) and SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars).
"That'll play out over the next few days here," said JPL's Daniel Limonadi, lead systems engineer for Curiosity's surface sampling and science system.
A few glitches
The recovered powder has already been used to clean out Curiosity's sample-handling system, to help ensure that the system is scrubbed free of potential contaminants from Earth. A minor software glitch has delayed the delivery of the sample to CheMin and SAM, but the team found a workaround, researchers said.
The Curiosity team has also become aware of another potential issue with the the sample-handling hardware. Engineers built two models of this hardware to run tests here on Earth, and the sieving screen has begun to detach on one of them.
But this only happened after extensive use, and the sieve remained functional, rover team members said. And they stressed that there is no sign of any problem with the sampling-handling gear Curiosity toted to Mars, though they'll take some measures to lessen the sieve's workload on the Red Planet.
"Based on the test results to date, and based on how we expect to use the hardware on Mars, we really have pretty good confidence that we're going to be able to use this hardware through the prime mission and beyond," Limonadi said.
Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall?or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?and?Google+.?
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) ? The start of the landmark trial in absentia of four Hezbollah fighters charged in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was postponed Thursday by a judge at the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The decision is a major setback for efforts to prosecute the Feb. 14, 2005, bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others, one of the Middle East's most notorious assassinations.
Judge Daniel Fransen said in a written ruling the provisional March 25 start date set last year could not go ahead because prosecutors have not yet disclosed all evidence to defense attorneys for the suspects, and the attorneys can't access other material because of technical issues. Also, defense attorneys have a number of outstanding requests for assistance in their investigations with Lebanese authorities.
Fransen ruled that the problems and delays would "not allow Defense Counsel adequate time to prepare for trial and would be in violation of the most basic right of the accused and the principle of fair trial," the tribunal said in a statement.
No new date was immediately set for the trial.
The Shiite militia Hezbollah denies involvement in Hariri's killing and has refused to extradite the suspects, leading the tribunal to order them put on trial in absentia.
Hariri was once one of Lebanon's most powerful Sunni leaders.
When the case gets under way, it will be the first trial in absentia since the post-World War II Nuremberg tribunal that prosecuted Nazi war criminals.
The suspects were indicted after prosecutors analyzed a vast network of telephone records to link an "assassination team" to the suicide truck bombing on a seafront boulevard.
The indictment says the records showed "a coordinated use of these phones to carry out the assassination." According to the records, there was a flurry of calls shortly before Hariri's murder, but they stopped two minutes before the explosion and the phones were never used again.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - British singer Morrissey has convinced a Los Angeles concert venue to not sell meat at concessions during his performance next month.
The longtime animal rights activist and former singer for 1980s rock group The Smiths urged the Staples Center arena to shutter the concession stands of fast food chain McDonald's and to halt the sale of meat by other outlets at the venue for his March 1 performance.
"We respect Morrissey's lifestyle and his concern for the wishes of so many of his fans and are happy that we are able to honor his requests in this manner," Lee Zeidman, the arena's general manager, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Staples Center operator Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) said the arena will also roll out a special line of meatless food concessions, including vegan sloppy Joes, vegan sushi, and hummus and pita bread.
"I don't look upon it as a victory for me, but a victory for the animals," the "Irish Blood, English Heart" singer said earlier this week.
AEG and its promoter subsidiary Goldenvoice will donate a portion of ticket sales from the show to the animal rights group PETA, Morrissey said.
Morrissey, 53, who co-wrote The Smiths' 1985 song "Meat Is Murder," postponed a series of concerts on his North America tour last month after being hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer.
He is expected to relaunch the tour with a performance on U.S. late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" next week.
(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Stacey Joyce)
About the Author: Christina Agapakis is a biological designer who blogs about biology, engineering, engineering biology, and biologically inspired engineering. Follow on Twitter @thisischristina.
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The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
LONDON (AP) -- What's new for fashion in the coming winter? Consider glamorous animal prints, a touch of punk, polished tailoring, furry collars and lashings of shiny PVC.
London Fashion Week on Tuesday wrapped up a whirlwind of runway previews that offered a huge variety of looks from dozens of designers, but one thing seemed clear: This season, many of the styles were more wearable by women who aren't necessarily models.
That's not to say the looks were boring or conventional. Glossy rubberized material -- think translucent raincoats -- was everywhere, as were boxy, roomy jacket shapes. There were punk-inspired biker zips and a black and red theme at Preen, but clean and minimalist tailoring kept the outfits sophisticated.
Erdem offered dark dresses brightened up with neon florals, while Christopher Kane, recently acquired by luxury conglomerate PPR, showcased a whole range of creative looks from camouflage-printed kilts to dark velvet dresses to feather trims.
Roksanda Ilincic brought out a series of feminine dresses and separates in peachy pinks, but clashed them with fluorescent green and emerald accents, ghostly makeup and statement striped lace-up boots in bright metallic hues.
"It's about daring to bring the pink into winter because it's such a spring color, and it's such a girly color," the designer said after her show on Tuesday -- the fifth day of the British capital's fashion week.
Earlier, the headline acts of the week lived up to high expectations.
Luxury brand Burberry updated its classic trenches with bold animal prints and more of the ubiquitous plastic, latex-like material, while Tom Ford unveiled bright, saturated tribal patterns. Vivienne Westwood delivered what she does best: draped dresses and jackets that magically create hourglass shapes for the wearer.
Color-wise, Ilincic and others brought pink and coral to the catwalk, but a deep palette of burgundy and wine, navy and bottle green was most popular.
Compared to New York, Milan or Paris, London fashion attracts many with its younger, edgier and more urban vibe, and catwalk shows were often full of theatrical or even madcap looks.
"I find it an exuberant, inspirational city, so that's why I chose to show here," said Ford, who staged a lavish runway showcase on Monday night, marking the first full-fledged womenswear catwalk show for his Tom Ford brand.
Officials have made a point of nurturing that creative energy, though increasingly designers based in the capital are encouraged to take a more business-savvy approach to fashion -- the leading creative industry in Britain, worth 21 billion pounds (US$33 billion) to the U.K. economy.
"Before it was more like an art show, but now -- now the creativity is still there, though with collections that are saleable, that generate a profitable business," said British Fashion Council chief executive Caroline Rush.
Designers including handbag specialist Anya Hindmarch, Ashish and newcomer Simone Rocha were the last to show at the fashion event on Tuesday.
As the runways get dismantled in London, models, editors and bloggers are jetting off to more womenswear shows in Milan, which begins its fashion week Wednesday, followed by Paris next week.
(Copyright (c) 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
As if it isn't embarrassing enough for a company to have its official Twitter account compromised, sometimes hackers like to add insult to injury. On Monday, a post on the official (and verified) Twitter account for Burger King declared that the fast-food chain "just got sold to McDonalds!"
The Twitter account was renamed "McDonalds" and the profile image was changed to the iconic golden arches. The account description? "Just got sold to McDonalds because the whopper flopped ..." After the "announcement," a stream of tweets and retweets followed, making light of the situation. Based on retweets between @YourAnonNews, a Twitter account associated with Anonymous, and the compromised @BurgerKing account, it appears as if the hacktivist group is behind the hack.
Twitter suspended the account about an hour after the first compromised tweet.
We reached out to Twitter and Burger King for an explanation as to what efforts are being made to reinstate Burger King's control of the Twitter account. A Twitter spokesperson responded with a standard explanation that the social network doesn't "comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons."
"This incident has nothing to do with us," a McDonald's spokesperson told NBC News, dismissing the question of an acquisition (and making plain that it wasn't to blame for the social media mess, either). "We empathize with our @BurgerKing counterparts. Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking," a tweet laterposted through the official McDonald's Twitter account further emphasized.
No matter. The Internet's getting a kick out of the whole incident. "The fact that @BurgerKing got hacked and turned into a @McDonalds feed is pretty funny," one Twitter user wrote. "Never know what is going to happen in social media."
"Somebody needs to tell Burger King that 'whopper123' isn't a secure password," another quipped.
A social media specialist for Wendy's, Amy Rose Brown, tweeted (on her personal account), that her "real life nightmare is playing out over on @BurgerKing."
It's not all bad news for Burger King, though. As toy review site OAFE tweeted: "They may be hacked, but when was the last time ANYBODY talked about @BurgerKing this much?" Indeed, the Twitter account gained some 30,000 new followers before the account suspension.
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
Households will face yet more energy hikes over the next three years as ageing power plants close and the country is forced to import fas at a time of tighetening global supply, it has been claimed by the energy watchdog.
Outgoing chief executive Alistair Buchanan said Britain was set for an "uncomfortable" squeeze as energy reserves dry up.
With coal and oil-fired power stations closing earlier than expected to meet environmental targets, around 10% of current generation stock will go by April. And within three years, the reserve margin of generation will fall from around 15 per cent to below 5 per cent.
Mr Buchanan, who steps down in June after 10 years in the post, said it was inevitable that prices will rise as supply struggles to keep up with demand.
"We've got to go shopping around the world for our gas," he said.
"It's just horrendous serendipity that just as we have a squeeze on our power and turn to gas, the global markets have a squeeze," he added.
He called on the Government to deliver on its energy bill, which is going through Parliament and is designed to encourage investment in low-carbon generation, while saying consumers will have to better manage their bills through energy efficiency.
Energy providers will also be watched closely by the regulator to ensure they do not "take advantage" of the situation to try to raise prices by more than necessary, said Mr Buchanan.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said consumers will be "alarmed" at Ofgem's price warnings.
It?s a forum that isn?t known for making news ? so Dr. Ben Carson says the buzz created by his speech at last week?s National Prayer Breakfast,?including a Wall Street Journal staff editorial with the headline ?Ben Carson For President? ? came as a surprise.
?I don?t think it was particularly political,? Carson, the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, told ABC?s Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl during an interview for??This Week.???You know, I?m a physician. I like to diagnose things. And, you know, I?ve diagnosed some pretty, pretty significant issues that I think a lot of people resonate with.?
With an audience that included President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Carson spoke out about political correctness, health care and taxes at the breakfast. In his roughly 23-minute address, Carson called for a private health care savings plan and a flat tax for all Americans. His address has since gone viral, racking up more than two million views on YouTube.
The speech isn?t Carson?s first foray into national politics. In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded the successful brain surgeon?the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation?s highest civilian honor.
On Sunday, Carson criticized some of President Obama?s policies but also called him a ?very talented politician.?
?There are a number of policies that I don?t believe lead to the growth of our nation and don?t lead to the elevation of our nation,? Carson added. ?I don?t want to sit here and say all of his policies are bad.?
He also offered his diagnosis for today?s political environment.
?What I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation, not people just casting aspersions at each other,? Carson said on ?This Week.? ?I mean, it?s unbelievable to me the way people act like third graders. And if somebody doesn?t agree with them, they?re this and they?re that and, you know ? it comes from both sides. And it?s just so infantile.?
As for his own ambitions, Carson, 61, is retiring from practicing medicine this summer. But he told Jonathan Karl he?s not ruling out a future bid for political office.
?That?s not my intention,? he said. ?But I always say, ?I?ll leave that up to God.??
To read an excerpt of Carson?s 2012 book ?America the Beautiful,? click HERE.
In this photo provided by Chelyabinsk.ru, a meteor contrail is seen over Chelyabinsk on Friday, Feb. 15, 2013.
By Suzanne Choney
There aren't yet any advance warning systems that could give Earthlings a heads-up before an untracked space rock hits. But a telescope project in Hawaii aims to change that, and potentially provide a chance for those in threatened areas to evacuate. A meteor alert might have made a difference to Russia's Chelyabinsk region on Friday.
Read:?Nuclear-like in its intensity, Russia meteor blast is largest since 1908
"There are excellent ongoing surveys for asteroids that are capable of seeing such a rock with one to two days' warning, but they do not cover the whole sky each night, so there's a good chance that any given rock can slip by them for days to weeks. This one obviously did," astronomer John Tonry of the?Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii?told NBC News Friday.
Tonry is one of the key players in a NASA-backed effort to build ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System), two observatories in Hawaii that can simultaneously scan the entire visible?sky twice a night.
"If ATLAS were up and running we might very well have seen" the meteor that hit Russia, he said, and "could have provided one to two days' warning."
However, he adds, the success of detection "depends on a couple of assumptions." One is that it's not cloudy. Another is that the asteroid doesn't go over the South Pole, "where ATLAS cannot see."
Telescopes, Tony said, "can only see the sky above the horizon, obviously. A telescope that's sited in the northern hemisphere (which ATLAS will be) cannot see all the way to the South Pole of the sky." And, "if the asteroid were coming from that direction, there's a good chance that it would never rise above the horizon for a northern telescope before it hits."
While it would "easy to build multiple copies of ATLAS and put some in the south, and spread them out so they see different weather patterns ... that's for the future," he said.
Dozens were hospitalized and nearly 1,000 residents suffered minor injuries from fallen debris and the impact of the meteor's powerful landing. NBC's Tom Costello reports.
The ATLAS telescopes are "just now" being built, Tonry said; ATLAS should "start running around the end of 2014 and be fully operational by the end of 2015." NASA has provided $5 million in funding for ATLAS.
At one time, NASA considered launching an asteroid-hunting probe, but that didn't go forward because of the cost, estimated at $500 million almost a decade ago.
Other private efforts are in the works, too.
Last year, leaders of the nonprofit?B612 Foundation,?including Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart, started a campaign to fund and launch a space telescope that will?hunt for potential killer asteroids?over the course of five and a half years.
Another venture, from a group called?Planetary Resources, ultimately wants to do asteroid mining, but says its first step is to "launch an orbital fleet of 'personal space telescopes' capable of looking out into the heavens or back down on Earth," wrote Alan Boyle, NBC News.com's Science editor?last year.
More about cosmic hits (and near misses):
Suzanne Choney is a contributing writer for NBC News.com.?You can follow her on?Twitter.
NASA looks at the flyby of asteroid 2012 DA14 from several amateur observatories across Australia.
Google Chrome Zone section of PC World on London's Tottenham Court Road.
(Credit: CNET Crave U.K.)
Google plans to open its own retail stores across the United States, according to a new report, giving the increasingly hardware-focused company a place to show off its growing number of physical products.
Citing "an extremely reliable source," 9to5Google says the company "hopes to have the first flagship Google Stores open for the holidays in major metropolitan areas."
The report says Google accelerated plans to build physical stores because customers are unlikely to buy expensive hardware, including the upcoming Google Glass, without first having a chance to try it for free.
Google already has set up Chrome mini-stores inside U.S. Best Buy locations and electronic retailers in the United Kingdom. From the start, those stores have prompted speculation that Google will open a full-scale retail presence. Google Stores could help bolster the company's brand image, showcase new products, and win over Android skeptics.
Still, Google is on the record denying any move into retail. In December, Google Shopping head Sameer Samat told All Things D that the company "had no aspirations to open a store."
"We aren't planning on being a retailer," he said. "We don't view being a retailer right now as the right decision."
CNET has contacted Google for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
(Businessweek) It hasn?t drawn much attention, but Facebook?s first annual earnings report contains an accounting gem: a multibillion-dollar tax deduction for the cost of executive stock options and share awards.
Even though Facebook (FB) reported $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations in 2012, it will probably pay zero federal and state taxes?and even receive a federal tax refund of about $429 million?according to a Feb. 14 statement from Citizens for Tax Justice.
Mississippi University for Women students, faculty and staff are getting into shape this spring. MUW is offering a contest to all the school?s patrons called the Spring Fitness Challenge.?
It is designed to help people lose weight and live a better lifestyle. The challenge consists of tracking and recording one?s daily steps in order to receive prizes and to also help get into those tight jeans. The longer the person endures the challenge, the greater the prize will be.
Exactly 100 people registered for the Spring Fitness Challenge. Each one of them was given a
pedometer to wear on the waistband of his or hers pants. The pedometer will keep track of the number of steps a person takes throughout the day. Each contestant is instructed to at least take 10,000 steps a day. Five miles equals 10,000 steps. At the end of each week, the contestant should have aimed to walk 70,000 steps. The challenge will continue for six weeks.
Including the 70,000 steps, each contestant is required to attend two fitness classes each week. They can choose from a variety of aerobic exercises, such as a cycling class. Many people don?t know it, but a person can burn more than 300 calories in a cycling class during his or her lunch break.
If both of these requirements are not met, then the person is not allowed to move on to the next stage of the program.
The challenge can be a difficult one, and it takes a lot of dedication.
?I really like the challenge. It is great motivation for me,? says Tawnya Sanders, a psychology major from Columbus, Miss.
?This is a good challenge. Having other people doing it with you gives you the motivation that you need,? says Carmen Haynes, a family studies major.
?I love the Spring Fitness Challenge. It motivates me to live a healthier lifestyle,? says Samantha Tarver, a senior speech pathology major from Vicksburg, Miss.
?I have really enjoyed the Spring Fitness Challenge because I have been trying for years, and failing, to keep up a regular workout routine during school,? says Natalie Thomas, a senior graphic design major.
Many contestants have set their own personal goals that they want to accomplish while doing the Spring Fitness Challenge.
?I want to lose 35 pounds,? says Sanders.
?My main goal is to finish the entire Spring Fitness schedule. My secondary goals include getting my resting heart rate and blood pressure back into normal range,? says Thomas.
?My goals are to get in shape and to be as healthy as I can be. I have also been dieting at the same time and have dropped a jean size in two and a half weeks! I would recommend this in the future to anyone wanting to lose some weight or just become an overall healthier person,? says Tarver.
Some contestants are vowing to continue the challenge even after the spring.
?My goals are to just to continue with the classes after the challenge is over with so I can get in shape,? says a public health education major from Columbus, Miss who chose to remain anonymous.
LONDON (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's British supermarket arm, Asda, said on Thursday it had discovered horse DNA in its beef bolognese sauce and was withdrawing that product and three others from its stores.
"We have a preliminary test result that suggests the presence of horse DNA in our 500g Beef Bolognese sauce. As you'd expect, we have withdrawn this product from our shelves," Asda spokeswoman Jo Newbould said. Asda has about 550 shops across the UK.
"We are taking a belt-and-braces approach so in addition, as a precaution, we're also withdrawing three other beef-based products produced by the same supplier," she said.
The three other products are beef broth soup, meat feast pasta sauce and chilli con carne soup. Asda said it does not have positive test results for horse DNA in those products. It said the products were made at the Irish food group Greencore's plant in Bristol.
Last month, Asda withdrew four burger products after they were found to contain trace levels of horse DNA. The burgers were supplied by Silvercrest, which had also sold Tesco and other grocers beef burgers containing horse meat.
Separately on Thursday, Irish supplier Rangeland Foods said it was withdrawing its frozen burger products after discovering that some contained 5 percent to 30 percent horse meat. Rangeland supplies frozen burgers to restaurants, pubs, caterers and fast food chain Supermac's.
The discovery of horsemeat in products supposed to contain beef has rocked the food industry in Europe and Britain and triggered investigations into Irish and Romanian suppliers that sell products to major supermarkets.
Britain's Food Standards Agency (FSA) said on Thursday that six horses slaughtered in the UK that tested positive for the drug phenylbutazone were exported to France and may have entered the human food chain.
The drug known as bute is a common anti-inflammatory painkiller for sporting horses, but it is banned for animals intended for eventual human consumption because of concerns that it poses a health risk to humans.
(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Toni Reinhold)
Fans of Beitar Jerusalem shout slogans during a soccer match against Bnei Sakhnin on Sunday amid controversy over Beitar's signing of two Muslim players.
By Paul Goldman, Producer, NBC News
TEL AVIV, Israel ?? Hatred is boiling over in Israeli soccer.
The Beitar Jerusalem club has long been known for its fans' racist chants, but the situation escalated dramatically last month after the team signed Zaur Sadayev and Gabriel Kadiev, two Muslim players from Chechnya.
The most outspoken wave of hate comes from a hardcore section of supporters ? known as La Familia -- who see themselves as Beitar?s real owners.
?Death to the Arabs,? they yell during matches. ?Beitar, pure forever,? they declare.
Rocks have been thrown at players and, during a recent practice, a fan ran onto the soccer field and tried to attack one of the new Muslim players.
Nir Elias / Reuters
Beitar Jerusalem's new player Gabriel Kadiev, a Muslim player from Chechnya, (right) is seen in action during the game.
The most shocking incident happened on Feb. 8 when the 76-year-old Beitar clubhouse -- home to the club?s trophies -- was burned to the ground. Extremist fans are suspected.
After this, team management and the government decided to take a hard line.
?The police are taking this very seriously,? Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said.? ?People who would burn an office are not fans, they are dangerous criminals.?
Abir Sutan / EPA
Meir Harush, one of the board members of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team, looks over the damage after a fire destroyed the club's history room on Feb. 8. Right-wing extremist fans opposed to a decision by the club owner to sign two Muslim Chechen players are thought to have been responsible.
Bernat Armangue / AP
Burned soccer club trophies won by Beitar Jerusalem are seen after the fire.
Beitar chairman Itzik Kornfein pledged to hold firm too, according to Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronot.
?We took an important step and we?re moving forward. In the end, all the fans will understand that this is a done deal and there?s no turning back,? he said, referring to the signing of the Muslim players.
?No turning back? took the form of 400 police officers and 200 private security guards sent to secure a Feb. 10 game between Beitar and the Arab-Israeli club Bnei Sakhnin.
Bernat Armangue / AP
Players Zaur Sadayev, center, and Gabriel Kadiev, background, seen after a press conference, have been subjected to abuse from their own fans.
Despite the security, some Beitar fans hurled abuse about Sadayev and Kadiev as well as the Arab team.
When Kadiev entered the game in the 79th minute, fans from La Familia cursed and booed him, but thousands of other supporters cheered him.
Abir Sultan / EPA
An Israeli fan of Beitar Jerusalem soccer team wearing an Israel flag during the game Sunday.
On the other side, fans from Bnei Sakhnin whistled during the Israeli national anthem.
Two Israeli and three Arab fans were arrested and are awaiting indictment for violent actions during the game.
Abir Sultan / EPA
Muslim supporters of the Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin football team cheer after their team scores in Sunday's game.
Bernat Armangue / AP
Israeli security forces detain Bnei Sakhnin supporters during a game against Beitar Jerusalem on Sunday.
If anyone noticed, the game ended with a 2-2 draw.
Abir Sultan / EPA
Israeli border police stand guard during the game Sunday.
Internet Explorer 9, one of the affected browser versions fixed in February's Patch Tuesday, under a previously discovered malware attack. (Credit: Rapid7)
Microsoft has released its latest round security fixes in a massive Patch Tuesday update, with fixes for 57 known security vulnerabilities in total.?
In 12 bulletins, five of the flaws are rated "critical," in which hackers and malware writers could remotely execute code on vulnerable machines, opening the doors up to malware attacks.?
Two of the bulletins focus on all versions of Internet Explorer 6 and above?including IE7, IE8, IE9, and even IE10, which is only available for Windows 8 and Windows RT-powered devices, such as the Surface tablet.
For Windows 8 and Windows RT users, ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley explains?that amid the security patches, a number of issues relating to Wi-Fi and "Connected Standby" have also been fixed.
In one bulletin, MS13-009,?13 flaws in total are patched,?with one critical vulnerabilities fixed, which could have allowed hackers to gain access to a machine after visitors access a page laden with malware. Often the user doesn't even know that malware has been installed, but it could allow the hacker to access files and documents, and hijack the machine.
The second bulletin relating to Internet Explorer, MS13-010, fixes a vulnerability in an ActiveX library. Also rated critical, the flaw is being actively exploited in the wild, Microsoft said last week. The vulnerability lies in the Vector Markup Language (VML) library, which can be exploited if an unsuspecting user visits a malware-laden Web page.
Once versions of Internet Explorer are patched, they should become safe to use again?for now.
Another critical vulnerabilities found in Exchange Server, which could allow remote code execution through its WebReady document viewing service; another in Microsoft Office that could be exploited by a specially crafted media file; and one more fixes a critical bug in Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), which could allow a hacker to access a machine with the same user permission rights.
The rest of the vulnerabilities are rated "important," but could also allow denial-of-service attacks and the elevation of user privileges.?
Patch Tuesday fixes are available through the usual update channels, such as Windows Update, Microsoft Update, and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).
If you're like me and rocking a Nexus device, you might want to see if there's any updates available to your device. Judging from posters on Reddit and Android Police, Android 4.2.2 is floating out to users, slowly.
?
?
The update seems to have arrived for Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 owners, but I've just checked my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 and both of them don't have updates available. Mind you, I'm in Australia. The only changes listed by Google are for "performance and stability", but we should also see fixes for BluetoothA2DP problems.
Feb. 11, 2013 ? A discovery using stem cells from a patient with motor neuron disease could help research into treatments for the condition. The study used a patient's skin cells to create motor neurons -- nerve cells that control muscle activity -- and the cells that support them called astrocytes.
Researchers studied these two types of cells in the laboratory. They found that a protein expressed by abnormalities in a gene linked to motor neuron disease, which is called TDP-43, caused the astrocytes to die.
The study, led by the University of Edinburgh and funded by the Motor Neurone Disease Association, provides fresh insight into the mechanisms involved in the disease.
Although TDP-43 mutations are a rare cause of motor neuron disease (MND), scientists are especially interested in the gene because in the vast majority of MND patients, TDP-43 protein (made by the TDP-43 gene) forms pathological clumps inside motor neurons.
Motor neurons die in MND leading to paralysis and early death.
This study shows for the first time that abnormal TDP-43 protein causes death of astrocytes. The researchers, however, found that the damaged astrocytes were not directly toxic to motor neurons.
Better understanding the role of astrocytes could help to inform research into treatments for MND.
Professor Siddharthan Chandran, of the University of Edinburgh, said: "Motor neuron disease is a devastating and ultimately fatal condition, for which there is no cure or effective treatment. It is not just a question of looking solely at motor neurons, but also the cells that surround them, to understand why motor neurons die. Our aim is to find ways to slow down progression of this devastating disease and ultimately develop a cure."
These findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences., are significant as they show that different mechanisms are at work in different types of MND.
The research, led by the University of Edinburgh's Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neurone Research, was carried out in collaboration with King's College, London, Columbia University in New York, the University of California and the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco.
Dr Brian Dickie, the MND Association's Director of Research Development, said: "From a therapeutic perspective this finding is important because it means that specific treatments targeted at astrocytes may only be relevant and effective, in specific subsets of patients who will have to be carefully selected for drug trials."
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Gedolei Yisrael are not in agreement as how to respond to plans to induct bnei Torah into the IDF or national service. On Monday 1 Adar 5773, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be meeting with potential coalition partners from Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid to present the new draft plan prepared by the head of the National Economic Council Prof. Eugene Kandel. The new plan is more radical than the Ya?alon model while less severe than the Yair Lapid plan while demands setting a maximum number of bnei Torah permitted to continue learning annually.
The prime minister hopes both Bayit HaYehudi and Yesh Atid will give the Kandel Plan their stamp of approval but the two party leaders, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have already signaled they will oppose it, the daily Maariv reports.
Despite Shas efforts to team up with Bennett?s dati leumi party to form a chareidi bloc, Bennett and Lapid appear committed to their agreement, to either join the coalition or opposition as a unit, each promising not to cut a deal with the prime minister without the other. Clearly, if the prime minister wishes to include the chareidim with their combined 18 seats in the coalition he will have to find an acceptable share the burden formula, which seems to lock out Bennett and Lapid with their combined 31 seats.
Likud appears to be heading away from the Ya?alon plan which was acceptable to Gedolei Yisrael Shlita in Bnei Brak. Some Yahadut Hatorah MKs released statements that they can live with such an arrangement, as did Shas officials. However, it appears the coalition cannot, resulting in the modified plan prepared by Professor Kandel. The new plan is more severe than the original plan in the hope of winning over Bennett and Lapid, but modified enough that Likud/Beitenu feels the chareidim will still accept it.
It appears HaGaon HaRav Aaron Yehuda Leib Shteinman Shlita is willing to accept the Ya?alon plan while HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Auerbach Shlita is unwilling to accept a situation in which bnei Torah are drafted. The new plan is just being unveiled so it is too soon to know if this will result in a change in the decision of Rav Shteinman.
(YWN ? Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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Beyonc? is gorgeous and glamorous on the cover of Vogue?s Power Issue. Queen B poses in designer gowns in the striking images by famed photographer Patrick Demarchelier. In the pages, she discusses her ?sensual? and ?empowering? new album, which she compares to a blend of 4 and 2008?s I Am?Sasha Fierce. She also chats about giving birth to her one-year-old daughter Blue Ivy, brushing off rumors, and her HBO documentary Life Is But a Dream.
On motherhood: ?I felt very maternal around eight months. And I thought I couldn?t become any more until I saw the baby. ? But it happened during my labor because I had a very strong connection with my child. I felt like when I was having contractions, I envisioned my child pushing through a very heavy door. And I imagined this tiny infant doing all the work, so I couldn?t think about my own pain. ? We were talking. I know it sounds crazy, but I felt a communication.?
On giving birth: ?My family and my closest people were there when I gave birth. Everything that scared me just was not present in that room. So for me to really let go and really appreciate every contraction?it was the best day of my life.?
On Blue Ivy: ?She?s my road dog. She?s my homey, my best friend.?
On her documentary: ?This movie has healed me in so many ways. It makes me want to cry.?
On rumors that she faked her pregnancy: ?That was very odd. Who even thinks that? Like, who would make that up. ? You can?t take it too seriously.?
On the recording sessions for her new album, which took place in New York?s Hamptons: ?We had dinners with the producers every day, like a family. It was like a camp. Weekends off. You could go and jump in the pool and ride bikes?the ocean and grass and sunshine. ? It was really a safe place.?
On blogs: ?Don?t scroll down! You?re definitely going to get your feelings hurt.?
Go behind the scenes of her cover shoot below and read the full story on Vogue.com.
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Mouse models fail to reproduce inflammatory genomic response to serious injuriesPublic release date: 11-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Inflammatory gene expression changes are consistent in humans, no matter the injury, but not reflected in mouse models
Existing mouse models do not appear to accurately reproduce the human genomic response to serious traumatic injury, including major burns, according to an article appearing in PNAS Early Edition. The report from a national consortium investigating the role of inflammation in the body's response to injury finds little correlation between the human response to burns, trauma or a bacterial toxin and that of currently used mouse models for those conditions. The authors note that their results cannot be applied to the use of mouse models for other research purposes.
"Our findings question the validity of using mouse models to mimic inflammatory conditions in humans," says Shaw Warren, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), co-lead author of the report. "An additional finding is that the whole-genome responses to these conditions in humans correlated well with each other, suggesting that treatments developed for an inflammatory disease from one cause might also work for inflammatory diseases with different causes."
The study is part of the Inflammatory and Host Response to Injury consortium (www.gluegrant.org), established in 2001 to investigate how the human body responds to injury, with particular attention to factors that set off excessive, uncontrolled inflammation. Based at the MGH, the program includes investigators from 20 academic research centers around the country and is led by Ronald G. Tompkins, MD, ScD, Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Surgery at MGH and co?corresponding author of the current report.
In 2011, the group reported finding that serious injuries set off a "genomic storm" in the human body, altering around 80 percent of normal gene expression patterns. The current study drew on information from that study and others conducted by the consortium to compare the human genomic response to inflammatory disease with that of mouse models. The investigators from MGH, the Stanford University Genome Technology Center and several other research centers combined data from four of their studies of genomic responses to systemic inflammation: two in burn or trauma patients and volunteers treated with a bacterial toxin that produces brief flu-like symptoms and two studies of the responses in mouse models of the three conditions.
While the responses among human patients were very similar, showing highly significant changes in the expression of more than 5,500 genes, there was very little correlation with the expression patterns of corresponding genes in the mouse models. Not only was the human genomic response to inflammatory injury much greater affecting the expression of more than three times as many genes as in the models but it also lasted longer, up to six months in humans compared with a few days at most in mice. To confirm their findings, the investigators analyzed data from an additional 20 studies of acute inflammatory disease 10 in humans and 10 in mice and found a similar lack of correlation between the response of human patients and the mouse models. In all the human studies, the genomic responses were very similar, despite differences in patient age, gender, type and severity of injury or illness, treatment and outcomes.
"Mice have been used in biomedical research for well over 50 years, in part because of the cost, size, convenience, ease of genetic manipulation and social acceptability. But it is often forgotten that mice appear to be much more resistant to inflammation and infection than humans," says Warren, an associate professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "By studying and understanding the mechanisms by which mice differ from humans, we may be able to develop treatments that help make humans more resistant to damaging inflammation. We also hope that our article will start a broader discussion among scientists, research organizations, journals and granting and regulatory agencies as to the value of mouse models in different specific circumstances."
###
Co-lead authors of the PNAS report are Junhee Seok, PhD, Stanford Genome Technology Center, and Alex Cuenca, MD, University of Florida College of Medicine. Co-corresponding authors are Ronald Davis, PhD, Stanford Genome Technology Center, and Wenzhong Xiao, PhD, of both Stanford and MGH. The study was supported by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant W9111NF-10-1-0271; National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research grant H133A070026; National Institute of General Medical Sciences grants 5P50GM060338, 5R01GM056687, R24GM102656, and 5U54GM062119; and National Human Genome Research Institute grant P01HG000205.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $750 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Mouse models fail to reproduce inflammatory genomic response to serious injuriesPublic release date: 11-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sue McGreevey smcgreevey@partners.org 617-724-2764 Massachusetts General Hospital
Inflammatory gene expression changes are consistent in humans, no matter the injury, but not reflected in mouse models
Existing mouse models do not appear to accurately reproduce the human genomic response to serious traumatic injury, including major burns, according to an article appearing in PNAS Early Edition. The report from a national consortium investigating the role of inflammation in the body's response to injury finds little correlation between the human response to burns, trauma or a bacterial toxin and that of currently used mouse models for those conditions. The authors note that their results cannot be applied to the use of mouse models for other research purposes.
"Our findings question the validity of using mouse models to mimic inflammatory conditions in humans," says Shaw Warren, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), co-lead author of the report. "An additional finding is that the whole-genome responses to these conditions in humans correlated well with each other, suggesting that treatments developed for an inflammatory disease from one cause might also work for inflammatory diseases with different causes."
The study is part of the Inflammatory and Host Response to Injury consortium (www.gluegrant.org), established in 2001 to investigate how the human body responds to injury, with particular attention to factors that set off excessive, uncontrolled inflammation. Based at the MGH, the program includes investigators from 20 academic research centers around the country and is led by Ronald G. Tompkins, MD, ScD, Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Surgery at MGH and co?corresponding author of the current report.
In 2011, the group reported finding that serious injuries set off a "genomic storm" in the human body, altering around 80 percent of normal gene expression patterns. The current study drew on information from that study and others conducted by the consortium to compare the human genomic response to inflammatory disease with that of mouse models. The investigators from MGH, the Stanford University Genome Technology Center and several other research centers combined data from four of their studies of genomic responses to systemic inflammation: two in burn or trauma patients and volunteers treated with a bacterial toxin that produces brief flu-like symptoms and two studies of the responses in mouse models of the three conditions.
While the responses among human patients were very similar, showing highly significant changes in the expression of more than 5,500 genes, there was very little correlation with the expression patterns of corresponding genes in the mouse models. Not only was the human genomic response to inflammatory injury much greater affecting the expression of more than three times as many genes as in the models but it also lasted longer, up to six months in humans compared with a few days at most in mice. To confirm their findings, the investigators analyzed data from an additional 20 studies of acute inflammatory disease 10 in humans and 10 in mice and found a similar lack of correlation between the response of human patients and the mouse models. In all the human studies, the genomic responses were very similar, despite differences in patient age, gender, type and severity of injury or illness, treatment and outcomes.
"Mice have been used in biomedical research for well over 50 years, in part because of the cost, size, convenience, ease of genetic manipulation and social acceptability. But it is often forgotten that mice appear to be much more resistant to inflammation and infection than humans," says Warren, an associate professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "By studying and understanding the mechanisms by which mice differ from humans, we may be able to develop treatments that help make humans more resistant to damaging inflammation. We also hope that our article will start a broader discussion among scientists, research organizations, journals and granting and regulatory agencies as to the value of mouse models in different specific circumstances."
###
Co-lead authors of the PNAS report are Junhee Seok, PhD, Stanford Genome Technology Center, and Alex Cuenca, MD, University of Florida College of Medicine. Co-corresponding authors are Ronald Davis, PhD, Stanford Genome Technology Center, and Wenzhong Xiao, PhD, of both Stanford and MGH. The study was supported by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant W9111NF-10-1-0271; National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research grant H133A070026; National Institute of General Medical Sciences grants 5P50GM060338, 5R01GM056687, R24GM102656, and 5U54GM062119; and National Human Genome Research Institute grant P01HG000205.
Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $750 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine. In July 2012, MGH moved into the number one spot on the 2012-13 U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Gedolei Yisrael are not in agreement as how to respond to plans to induct bnei Torah into the IDF or national service. On Monday 1 Adar 5773, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be meeting with potential coalition partners from Bayit Yehudi and Yesh Atid to present the new draft plan prepared by the head of the National Economic Council Prof. Eugene Kandel. The new plan is more radical than the Ya?alon model while less severe than the Yair Lapid plan while demands setting a maximum number of bnei Torah permitted to continue learning annually.
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Public release date: 11-Feb-2013
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