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MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Group of 20 nations should focus on structural reforms rather than on short-term fiscal and monetary stimulus, EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Friday.
Rehn did not name any G20 countries but his remarks, at a conference in Moscow before a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, appeared to refer to policies in Japan and the United States.
"The G20 should focus more on reforms than on short-term fiscal and monetary stimulus," Rehn said.
Central banks in Japan and the United States have policies of buying government bonds to boost credit to the economy, and Japan's government also wants to additionally stimulate the economy fiscally.
Such policies have led to a weakening of the dollar and the yen, making exports of these countries more competitive, in what some policy makers refer to as "currency wars".
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
The Waves' lineup is Page, Sanders, DeHuff, Morris and Wedel.
Feb. 16, 2013
Pepperdine Notes
MALIBU, Calif. -- The spring season rolls on for the Pepperdine men's golf team when the Waves take part in The Prestige at PGA West starting Monday. Pepperdine has played this event 11 of the last 12 years, though this is the first time it's been held in the spring. Pepperdine's best finish was second place in 2000 (new head coach Michael Beard was co-medalist that year).
EVENT INFO -- The tournament will be held at the par-71, 7,046/7,035-yard Greg Norman Course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif. Eighteen holes will be played each day between Monday and Wednesday (Feb. 18-20). Live scoring will be provided at www.golfgamebook.com.
FIELD -- Pepperdine is one of 15 teams in the field, along with co-hosts Stanford and UC Davis, Arizona State, Colorado, Fresno State, Oklahoma State, Oregon, San Diego State, Stirling University (from Scotland), Texas Christian, Texas Tech, UCLA, USC and Washington.
PEPPERDINE LINEUP -- The Waves will be sending juniors Parker Page (Louisville, Ky./Ballard HS) and Jeremy Sanders (Chatsworth, Calif./New Community Jewish HS/Univ. of Redlands), sophomores Kevin DeHuff (Coto de Caza, Calif./Santa Margarita Catholic HS) and Andrew Morris (Cape Town, South Africa/Rondebosch Boys HS) and freshman Frederick Wedel (The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands HS). Morris is making his collegiate debut.
ROSTER -- Pepperdine's roster saw a good deal of change in the offseason (and even midseason). Of Pepperdine's 11-man roster, four saw action for the Waves last season. The newcomers consist of four true freshmen, two transfers and one student-athlete who didn't compete last season. The breakdown is one senior, two juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen. The Waves added Cal transfer Nick Thomas at the start of the spring semester.
BEARD -- Former Pepperdine All-American Michael Beard was named the Waves' new head coach in December 2012. He has spent the previous season-and-a-half as an assistant at Arizona State. Beard competed for the Waves between 1999-2002 and was a GCAA All-American honorable mention selection in both 2000 and 2002. He was the medalist at the 2000 NCAA West Regional and the 2002 WCC Championships and was a four-time All-WCC first teamer. He still ranks first in total rounds played (1652) and fourth in career scoring average (72.72) at Pepperdine. After playing professionally for several years, he served as an assistant coach at Pepperdine for one season and helped the Waves to make the 2011 NCAA Championships.
PLAYER NOTES -- Four different Waves have ended up with the low score at the five tournaments thus far ... Johnny Mac Arthur is the Waves' top returner. He had a stroke average of 72.86 last season, second on the team, and qualified for the NCAA West Regional as an individual last spring. His scoring average improved by multiple strokes from his freshman to sophomore to junior seasons ... Parker Page is the last Wave to win a tournament, as he was co-medalist at the Folino Invitational in spring 2012 ... Jeremy Sanders was a two-time Division III All-American first teamer at Redlands and had two top-five finishes at the NCAA Division III Championships before transferring to Pepperdine last fall.
PEPPERDINE GOLF HISTORY -- Thanks to its victory at the 1997 NCAA Championships, Pepperdine will always be known on a national level for its outstanding men's golf program. The Waves have made eight appearances at the NCAA Championships since 1993 and have made NCAA Regional berths in 19 of the last 21 years. In the West Coast Conference, they've won a league-best 17 championships since 1987 and have finished either first or second in 21 of the last 26 years.
FOLLOW ONLINE -- The squad has sites on both Facebook (Pepperdine Men's Golf) and Twitter (@PeppMensGolf). You can also follow the coaches on Twitter at @mbbeard11 and @CoachCarlSmith.
ABOUT PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY -- Pepperdine boasts a one-of-a-kind athletic department with unprecedented success for a school of its size. The Waves have won NCAA Division I championships in five different men's sports - one of just 16 schools to have accomplished this feat - and nine overall. Of this elite group, Pepperdine has the smallest enrollment and is the only school not in a major conference. Located in scenic Malibu, Calif., the university overlooks the Pacific Ocean and its campus and athletic facilities are regularly voted among the nation's most beautiful. Pepperdine, which is affiliated with the Church of Christ, ranks #54 overall on U.S. News and World Report's list of America's best colleges.
For many, visiting an animal shelter is an unpleasant experience. Animals are often cramped and frantic, waiting to be saved from an imminent death. But the scene at Austin Pets Alive! (APA) is markedly different: classical music plays over a loudspeaker, animals romp together in guided play groups, while others lounge in their kennels, awaiting a pleasant?volunteer-led walk.
At APA, animals have a future, and the sense of safety is evident in the calm environment.
As recently as 2007, more than 14,000 animals were euthanized in Austin per year. Most were healthy, many were full grown, and the majority of the animals that were sick could have been cured. Beginning in 2008, APA stepped in to work with the city shelter to save those animals ? the dogs and cats that were more fit for a family home than a crowded kennel. Owing in part to APA's commitment to that mission, the city of Austin now boasts a 90 percent save-rate, and the organization single-handedly saved 6,000 animals just last year.
At any given time, two-thirds of the animals that APA has rescued from city shelters are housed with foster parents. Those fosters take it upon themselves to find those animals a permanent home. The other third of the animals reside at the APA Town Lake shelter, which is also home to APA's surgery center, offices and specialized wards.
For example, an entire facility,?Dazey's Ward, is devoted to cats with ringworm, a condition that's curable but would immediately send them to the euthanization list at a city shelter. At APA, almost all of these cats are adopted.
"It just goes to show that we have so many preconceived notions about what people will deal with as adopters," says Executive Director Ellen Jefferson. "I think as animal welfare people, we've given animals the short end of the stick by not letting people make that decision. You never know who's going to fall in love with a ringworm cat, for instance. It's not about whatever is wrong with [the animal], it's about the relationship."
Other laudable programs include the Parvo Ward, Bottle Baby Nursery, Louie's Fresh Start Program, the APA Medical Clinic and Barn Cat Placements.
The APA operation is a legitimate labor of love for its staff and volunteers. They believe in connecting with the heart of the animal and the capacity for rehabilitation; they truly give these animals a chance, and with each adoption, the fruit of their compassionate labor shines.
Each week, CultureMap will feature an APA animal ready to be placed in a permanent, loving home: dog or cat, big or small. We will tell you about the animal's personality and unique traits and, most of all, encourage you to meet one another. And if you're not ready to parent, there are a plethora of ways to get involved as a volunteer. You might be surprised by who emerges as your new best friend (and roommate).
---
Austin Pets Alive! will present Austin's No Kill Anniversary Party on February 24. Tickets are available online.
World-renowned Professor of Linguistics, Noam Chomsky, has come out supporting David Ward?s comments. He has said:
?I agree that there's nothing remotely anti-Semitic in his remarks, which are in fact familiar in Israeli discussions.?
Zionists have continued to hound David Ward and the Lib Dems to take action, inflating the issue to much more than what it is. This is, of course, the job of the Zionists, even if it works against the party?s interest. In this case, it certainly does. In reality, it is much to do about nothing.
Chomsky?s comments, however, must be illuminating to the Owen Jones & Mehdi Hasan, who had commented that Ward?s comments were anti-Semitic. Would they argue with a man who understands a thing or two about language?
David Ward has clarified numerous times what he was saying and if that is still not enough, he clarified once more:
"The intention behind my comments was to start a genuine discussion about Israel's treatment of Palestinians and how the Israeli government seemingly acts with impunity for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank.?
Mr Jones & Mr Hasan already know that Zionists rampantly overplay the anti-Semitic card to shut down any attempt to bring Israel?s crimes to public scrutiny. By reacting to the Zionists narrative in the way they did, they have effectively squashed David Ward?s attempt to have a real debate about Israel impunity for its actions as they are some of the few voices of reason left who talk about issues that Zionists would rather not have discussed. They are no doubt very pro-Palestinian and we hope that they will come out in support of the MP as it is widely understood that he was not demonising an entire community.
We cannot allow Zionists to dictate the narrative of his comments as he is trying to get a real discussion on an issue that is dear to us all.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech under portraits of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini, left, and Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei in Tehran's Azadi Square on Feb. 10, 2013
Slumped in a Nairobi courtroom, suit coats rumpled and reading glasses dangling from librarian chains, the defendants made a poor showing for the notorious Quds Force of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ahmad Abolafathi Mohammed and Sayed Mansour Mousa had been caught red-handed and middle-aged. And if the latter did them a certain credit ? blandly forgettable always having been a good look for a secret agent ? the prisoners still had to explain why they had hidden 15 kg of the military explosive RDX under bushes on a Mombasa golf course.
Created to advance Iran?s interests clandestinely overseas, the Quds Force has lately provided mostly embarrassment, stumbling in Azerbaijan, Georgia, India, Kenya and most spectacularly in Thailand, where before accidentally blowing up their Bangkok safe house, Iran?s secret agents were photographed in the sex-tourism mecca of Pattaya, one arm around a hookah, the other around a hooker. In its ongoing shadow war with Israel, the Iranian side?s lone ?success? was the July 18 bombing of a Bulgarian bus carrying Israeli tourists ? though European investigators last week officially attributed that attack to Iran?s Lebanese proxy, Hizballah. That leaves the Islamic Republic itself with a failure rate hovering near 100% abroad and an operational tempo ? nine overseas plots uncovered in nine months ? that carries a whiff of desperation. A Tehran government long branded by U.S. officials as the globe?s leading exporter of terrorism may be cornering the market on haplessness.
Within Iran?s own borders, however, the story is different. Twice in the past two years Iranian intelligence has cracked espionage rings working with Israel?s Mossad, Western intelligence officials tell TIME. In both cases, the arrests were the furthest thing from secret: announced at a news conference, each was later followed up by televised confessions broadcast on Iranian state television in prime time. Given Iran?s history of trumped-up confessions, skepticism is more than justified. But the arrests appear to be solid. One intelligence official said the captured Iranians provided ?support and logistics? to the Mossad operatives who carried out the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.
At least four scientists were killed on Tehran?s streets from 2010 to 2012, when, as TIME has reported, Israel ratcheted back on covert operations inside Iran.?Officially, Israel has remained silent on the killings, though government officials will coyly say they welcome the deaths. The Jewish state maintains the same ambiguous posture on other ?setbacks? to Iran?s nuclear program widely ? and correctly, Western intelligence officials say ? attributed to Mossad, from the Stuxnet computer virus, to mysterious explosions like?the massive blast at a missile base, which destroyed ballistic missiles that could reach Israel.
The covert onslaught dovetails with Israel?s history of reaching ?over the horizon? to disarm perceived threats at a distance. To keep advanced arms from reaching Hamas and Hizballah, Israel in the past year sent warplanes to bomb convoys and arms depots in Sudan and Syria, respectively, without apparent retribution. In the case of Iran, however, experts say the audacity of Israel?s covert campaign stirred Tehran to revive an espionage effort that lay largely fallow since 9/11. The Spy vs. Spy contest that ensued would prove woefully one-sided, even in the third-world countries where Iran chose to strike, hoping to avoid heightened security awareness in the developed world. In the end, its only success came inside Iran, where the secret police operate without inhibition.
The shadow war may have started on Jan. 15, 2007, the day Ardeshir Hosseinpour passed away. Hosseinpour was a specialist in electromagnetics at the Nuclear Technology Center in the city of Isfahan, Iran, but his death might have escaped notice had Iran?s government not kept it under wraps for almost a week, finally attributing it to fumes from a faulty heater. An online report by the American private intelligence firm Stratfor suggested another cause ? radioactive poisoning ? and hinted that Mossad?s Caesarea section was back in business. Caesarea, named for an Israeli beach town that dates back to Roman times, is the operations branch of Israel?s secret service, most notoriously responsible for the assassinations of some two dozen Palestinians (and an innocent waiter) after the 1972 Munich Olympics. Assassinations are carried out by a very small unit dubbed Kidon, the Hebrew word for ?tip of the spear.? Kidon operates at a remove from the legions of Mossad employees working in less lethal fields.
It would have been a unit called Hatzomet, or ?The Junction,? that recruited Majid Fashi, a handsome young Iranian who dropped out of high school to pursue a career in kickboxing. By the account he gave on Iranian state television early in 2011, Fashi presented himself at the Israeli consulate in Istanbul in 2007 and was vetted for a solid year before being shown any trust. Two years later, on Jan. 12, 2010, he would place a bomb on a motorbike parked on the sidewalk outside the Tehran home of Masoud Alimohammadi; the nuclear physicist was killed when it was detonated by remote control.
In the broadcast, Fashi accurately described the Mossad campus north of Tel Aviv. He said he had been given a laptop equipped with a second operating system and used it to communicate through online drop boxes. He was impressed by his handlers? thoroughness. At one point Fashi described studying a scale model of Alimohammadi?s street. ?It was an exact copy of the real one,? Fashi said. ?The tree next it, the street curb, the bridge.? In a later broadcast, he was seated across from Alimohammadi?s widow, who glared at him as he bowed his head and wept. Mossad officials were ?pissed off and shocked? seeing their agent on television, the intelligence official said.
Fashi was executed in May 2012. About the same time, Iran?s intelligence minister announced the arrest of 14 more Iranians, eight men and six women dubbed members of the ?Terror Club? in the subsequent prime-time broadcast of that name. Filmed in shadow, and rich in atmospherics, the Aug. 5 program recreated Alimohammadi?s death and four subsequent attacks: they started with the Nov. 29, 2010 nearly simultaneous attempts on Majid Shariari and Fereydoun Abbasi, nuclear scientists driving to work when magnetic ?sticky bombs? were attached to the side of their cars from passing motorcycles. Abbasi managed to escape before it detonated, saving his wife as well. Shariari was killed ? a significant setback for the Iranian nuclear program where he was the top scientist, according to a Western intelligence official.
The confessed agents offered absorbing detail ? they were aboard a Bajaj Pulsar, wearing helmets, when the magnet bomb stuck on the right front panel of Shariari?s car exploded. The riders scrambled into the ?trail car? assigned to follow the target and disappeared into the traffic of the Imam Ali Autobahn. Already gone was the car assigned to cut off and slow the car carrying the scientist. They claimed to have rehearsed on a practice track inside Israel. None of the details could be confirmed, but an intelligence official acknowledged: ?Another network was taken.?
The third scientist, Dariush Rezaeinejad was shot on July 23, 2011 after picking up his child at a day care; his wife described hearing shots whiz by as she chased the assailants. The most recent assassination was the Jan. 11, 2012 death of Mustafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an expert on uranium enrichment, also by a magnet bomb slapped on his car during his morning commute.
By then, Iran was trying to strike back. The task of avenging the scientists fell to the sprawling Quds Force?s own covert-operations division, known as Unit 400. It took a shotgun approach, targeting Israeli diplomatic missions in a variety of countries, mostly in the developing world where the global antiterrorism mesh is not so fine. Exposed in Baku, Tbilisi, Johannesburg, Mombasa and Bangkok, the failures mounted at a pace that was itself one of the problems. In the world of espionage, a quality covert operation can take years to pull together. Yet in the 15 months from May 2011 to July 2012, the Quds Force and Hizballah attempted 20 attacks, by the count of Matthew Levitt, a former State Department counterterrorism official. ?Hizballah and the Quds Force traded speed for tradecraft and reaped what they sowed,? Levitt writes in a January report for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ?Quds Force planners were stretched thin by the rapid tempo of their new attack plan, and were forced to throw together random teams of operatives who had not trained together.?
The decline in quality was so striking it initially inspired disbelief. Recall the preposterous-sounding plot weaving together a former used-car salesman, Mexico?s Zetas drug gang and a bank transfer from a Revolutionary Guard account to assassinate Saudi Arabia?s ambassador ? by bombing a Washington restaurant? A year on it looks like the new normal. In Bangkok last month, an Iranian agent entered a courtroom in a wheelchair, having accidentally blown his legs off while fleeing police. A January alert issued by Turkish intelligence was light on specifics but quite certain the Quds operatives would be staying in five-star hotels.
?There?s a number of reasons that Iranian intelligence has suffered,? says Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born analyst who lectures at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. ?No. 1,? he says, ?is the 2009 uprisings in Iran.? The street protests over a fraudulent election undermined the perceived legitimacy of the state among people who once would work for it, including in its secret services. ?People less and less see it as a nationalist endeavor and more as a Khamenei-related project to strengthen himself,? Javedanfar says, referring to Iran?s Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, who by some published accounts personally authorizes all overseas attacks.
Hard-liners further aggravated the situation by purging competent reformists from both the secret services and from Iran?s embassies ? crucial to a force expected to work undetected abroad. ?Basically the Quds Force doesn?t cooperate with the Foreign Ministry, and the Foreign Ministry isn?t what it used to be either,? says Javedanfar. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 42% of ministry employees have only high school degrees. ?The regime is a bigger threat to itself than Israel,? he says.
Freshman Legislator Ed Thompson Files First Bill to Benefit Disabled Military?
by: Rep. Thompson, Ed
02/12/2013
AUSTIN ? State Representative Ed Thompson filed his first bill Monday in the Texas House of Representatives. HB 1162 seeks to exempt 100% disabled veterans and surviving spouses from paying sales tax.
"Our military and veterans make sacrifices for every American on a daily basis, and many of these sacrifices go unnoticed," Representative Thompson stated. "Passing this bill is one way we can show our gratitude to these deserving men and women for the hardships they've faced and their unwavering dedication to our country," he said.
A person is eligible for the sales tax exemption if he or she is a resident of Texas who has been honorably discharged and been certified by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to be in disability compensation at the 100% rate. The disability must have been a result of a permanent disability that was sustained through military action or accident, or the result of a disease contracted by active service. The surviving, un-remarried spouse of a veteran described above is also eligible. HB 1162 allows the Comptroller's office to set up the registration process necessary to implement the exemption.
Representative Thompson fashioned the bill after an Oklahoma law which exempts 100% disabled vets and their un-remarried spouses from paying sales tax (up to $25,000 and up to $10,000 of taxable goods per year, respectively). He structured HB 1162 similarly, however his bill does not have a threshold limit.
To view the full text of HB 1162 please follow this link.
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=HB1162
I have incurred alot of credit card debt that is associated with a small business that I own and I am faced with closing the business. I have been told that I will held personally responsible for the debt since it is credit card debt and not directly owed to vendors. I don?t want to file bankruptcy but am not sure of other options. I have tried to contact the credit card companies to negotiate the interest rates but they are unwilling to assist because I am a payment behind. I get mail all the time regarding debt reduction but I am worried they are all a scam. I am not sure what to do.
I received a flyer from Rescue One Financial and was going to work with them regarding the above but decided not to after reading the information on your website. When I was reading articles that you had posted, I clicked on a link that I thought was part of your site but I think it was an advertisement. It brought me to another company called FAMILY FINANCIAL CARE. I thought it was something that you endorsed as a safe company but am unsure. I looked online and can?t find much about them. I am worried about putting myself in a worse financial situation. Do you know anything about this organization or a resource that can assist with the above situation.
Stacy?
Don?t miss our free Get Out of Debt ? ?How To? Guide Series on a number of topics, for loads of practical advice, tips, and help to beat back debt. ? Click Here
The Answer
Dear Stacy,
I?m not familiar with Family Financial Care. It sounds like it might have been an advertisement. For the scoop on ads, see this.
I looked at their site and it seems to be focused on selling debt settlement as the primary solution.
I looked around their site a bit and it is perplexing. On one hand they say ?Family Financial Care is attorney owned and operated and as such, must answer to a higher authority; The Bar!? and then they say ?Family Financial Care is not a law firm and does not practice law.? So which is it? ? Source
There page of past settlements is totally meaningless as well. There is no way to know if these are their clients or what percentage of overall accounts they have actually settled. ? Source
Then they make this erroneous statement that appears to scare people away from bankruptcy.
After you have filed for bankruptcy, it can affect your every day life in many ways. Bankruptcy can prevent you from getting a good job, getting a mortgage or buying a car. The stigma of bankruptcy can haunt you for years. Family Financial Care is dedicated to educating you about your rights. ? Source
If they are there to educate you about your rights then why avoid telling the truth about these myths.
See So You Are Going to File Bankruptcy. That?s Great News. Congratulations. for the real answers.
But that?s just my take on the site.
And besides, we don?t even know if debt settlement is even the best solution for your situation. Let?s take a step back.
I?d suggest you first read How to Get Out of Debt. The Honest and Unvarnished Truth and The Truth About The Success Rates, Failure Rates and Completion Rates of Credit Counseling, Debt Settlement, and Bankruptcy. They will give you a great overview of what we need to deal with to get you moving in the right direction.
Then use the free How to Get Out of Debt Calculator to review your options.
Once you?ve identified a company you want to work with, then follow my step-by-step guide on what you should look for and expect from a good debt relief company.
Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.
Big Hug!
Get Out of Debt Guy ? Twitter, G+, Facebook
If you have a credit or debt question you?d like to ask just use the online form. I?m happy to help you totally for free.
JERUSALEM (AP) ? An Australian-Israeli citizen who mysteriously died in prison after an apparent career in Israel's spy agency had denied the allegations against him and was considering a plea bargain just before he died, his lawyer said Thursday.
The attorney, Avigdor Feldman, told Israeli Channel 10 that he saw Ben Zygier a day before he allegedly committed suicide. Zygier was "rational," Feldman said, adding that the two discussed legal options, including a plea bargain.
Feldman said the allegations against Zygier were "serious" but would not elaborate further.
The lawyer's remarks were the latest in the saga of a man known as Prisoner X. On Wednesday, Israel acknowledged for the first time that it held a dual Israeli citizen under a false name for security reasons and that he died in prison in 2010.
The story broke earlier this week when Australian ABC reported that the prisoner, who it referred to as Ben Zygier, migrated from Australia to Israel in 2000 and worked for the Mossad spy agency. It reported that Zygier's incarceration was top secret, but did not say why he had been arrested. It said he was known by at least three different names and had visited countries hostile to Israel.
The report forced the Australian government to admit that it had known about the case all along but kept it under wraps. It also unraveled the media blackout that the Israeli government had imposed using military censorship laws.
Feldman said he met with Zygier in prison. "I met a balanced person ... He was rationally considering legal options."
"I can say that he denied the charges ... The crimes he was suspected of were serious," Feldman said but would not elaborate further. "He didn't admit to anything."
Israel, which initially refused to acknowledge the Australian report, on Wednesday night lifted a series of gag orders dating to March 2010, and said an Israeli man who held dual citizenship in an undisclosed country died in custody in 2010.
Identifying the man only as the Hebrew equivalent of John Doe, the court order said the prisoner's family was notified immediately after he was detained. It said he was jailed under a court order and that the prisoner's full rights were retained. It named three Israeli lawyers to represent him. Channel 10 did not ask Feldman, who was not among the three named attorneys, who hired him. Feldman could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press.
The court order said that after the prisoner was found dead in his cell, a judge ordered an investigation, which concluded that he committed suicide. A judge has now asked the state to check for possible negligence.
There were no details how the prisoner, under 24-hour surveillance in a maximum security facility, had committed suicide.
Channel 10 also said that in 2009, Australian intelligence officers interrogated Zygier about trips to Iran, Lebanon and Syria. The report alleged that the case was leaked to an Australian reporter who phoned Zygier and questioned him about his alleged Mossad links.
Zygier denied the links, Channel 10 said, adding that sometime after that interview, Zygier was jailed in Israel and died six months later.
1:15 PM: Madison Park (Mass.) High School girls basketball player Amber Edwards scored all 32 of her team's points in the Cardinals' 56-32 loss to Charlestown Wednesday night.
1:00 PM: Advertising tickets for Thursday's basketball game against Penn State, Illinois sent out an email featuring a photo of coach John Groce hugging his young shirtless son. Former Penn State football assistant Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child sex abuse.
12:45 PM: A federal judge has dismissed one of the libel claims filed by Laurie Fine against ESPN. Fine's husband, former Syracuse basketball assistant Bernie Fine, was accused of molesting ball boys.
12:30 PM: An 8-foot-tall statue of Woody Hayes was placed outside the Ohio State athletic center that bears his name on Wednesday. Thursday would have been the 100th birthday of the former Buckeyes football coach.
12:15 PM: After Wednesday's 66-58 loss to UConn, Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim called ESPN reporter Andy Katz an "idiot" and a "disloyal person" and refused to answer Katz's question.
12:00 PM: The St. Louis Cardinals have picked up the 2014 option of manager Mike Matheny and signed GM John Mozeliak to a three-year contract extension.
11:45 AM: Notre Dame safety Jamoris Slaughter has been denied a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. Slaughter tweeted after the decision: "It's been great ND! Hey you know what they say when one door closes another one opens! #NFLDREAMING"
11:30 AM: Dallas Mavericks player Vince Carter passed Larry Bird on the NBA career scoring list during Wednesday's 123-100 win over the Sacramento Kings: "I knew we were rolling. The rim looked like a lake a couple of times."
11:15 AM: Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson is out indefinitely and will need surgery on his left Achilles tendon after it was cut by the skate of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Matt Cooke during Wednesday's game.
11:00 AM: Former Arkansas & NFL player Keith Kidd was arrested Tuesday on charges of not paying child support.
10:45 AM: University of Toledo football player Ben Pike is forgoing his final year of eligibility in order to be with his girlfriend who is battling leukemia.
10:30 AM: Double amputee Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius has been charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
10:15 AM: The Lexington Herald-Leader profiles Chris Bunn, a one-armed barber who his hoping to earn his state certification next month. Bunn lost his arm in a motorcycle accident four years ago.
10:00 AM: A San Diego Chargers spokesman said that unlike the Oakland Raiders, the Chargers do not plan to put tarps over seats at Qualcomm Stadium to increase chances for home sellouts & decrease chances for local TV blackouts.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
9:00 PM: For its opening weekend in April, the Lakewood BlueClaws minor league baseball team will wear special jerseys that will have the names of New Jersey shore towns affected by Hurricane Sandy. The jerseys will later be auctioned off to benefit relief efforts.
Contact: William Davis william_davis@med.unc.edu 919-962-3405 University of North Carolina Health Care
Chapel Hill, NC Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) hide within the worldwide human population. While dormant in the vast majority of those infected, these active herpesviruses can develop into several forms of cancer. In an effort to understand and eventually develop treatments for these viruses, researchers at the University of North Carolina have identified a family of human genes known as Tousled-like kinases (TLKs) that play a key role in the suppression and activation of these viruses.
In a paper published by Cell Host and Microbe on Feb. 13, a research team led by Blossom Damania, PhD, of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, found that suppressing the TLK enzyme causes the activation of the lytic cycle of both EBV and KSHV. During this active phase, these viruses begin to spread and replicate, and become vulnerable to anti-viral treatments.
"When TLK is present, these viruses stay latent, but when it is absent, these viruses can replicate" said Dr. Damania.
Patrick Dillon, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Damania's lab, led the study. Other co-authors included UNC Lineberger members Drs. Dirk Dittmer, Nancy Raab-Traub and Gary Johnson.
KSHV and EBV are blood-borne viruses that remain dormant in more than 95 percent of those infected, making treatment of these viruses difficult. Both viruses are associated with a number of different lymphomas, sarcomas, and carcinomas, and many patients with suppressed immune systems are at risk for these virus-associated cancers.
"The dormant state of these viruses is what makes it so hard to treat these infections and the cancers associated with these infections," said Dr. Damania.
Researchers have known that stimuli such as stress can activate the virus from dormancy, but they do not understand the molecular basis of the viral activation cycle. With the discovery of the link between these viruses and TLKs, Dr. Damania said that researchers can begin to look for the molecular actions triggered by events like stress, and how they lead to the suppression of the TLK enzymes.
"What exactly is stress at a molecular level? We don't really understand it fully," said Dr. Damania.
With the discovery that TLKs suppresses these viruses, Dr. Damania said that the proteins can now be investigated as a possible drug target for these virus-associated cancers. In its normal function in the cell, TLKs play a role in the maintenance of the genome, repairing DNA and the assembly of the chromatin, but there is a lot more to learn about the function of the TLKs, said Dr. Damania. One avenue of her lab's future research will investigate how TLKs function in absence of the virus.
"If we prevent this protein from functioning, and we combine this with a drug that inhibits viral replication, then we could have a target to cure the cell of the virus. If the virus isn't there, the viral-associated cancers aren't present," said Dr. Damania.
###
This research was supported by NIH grants CA096500, CA163217, and CA019014, and the UNC Lineberger training grant NIH T32CA009156. Dr. Damania is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Foundation Scholar and a Burroughs Wellcome Investigator in Infectious Disease.
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Contact: William Davis william_davis@med.unc.edu 919-962-3405 University of North Carolina Health Care
Chapel Hill, NC Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) hide within the worldwide human population. While dormant in the vast majority of those infected, these active herpesviruses can develop into several forms of cancer. In an effort to understand and eventually develop treatments for these viruses, researchers at the University of North Carolina have identified a family of human genes known as Tousled-like kinases (TLKs) that play a key role in the suppression and activation of these viruses.
In a paper published by Cell Host and Microbe on Feb. 13, a research team led by Blossom Damania, PhD, of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, found that suppressing the TLK enzyme causes the activation of the lytic cycle of both EBV and KSHV. During this active phase, these viruses begin to spread and replicate, and become vulnerable to anti-viral treatments.
"When TLK is present, these viruses stay latent, but when it is absent, these viruses can replicate" said Dr. Damania.
Patrick Dillon, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Damania's lab, led the study. Other co-authors included UNC Lineberger members Drs. Dirk Dittmer, Nancy Raab-Traub and Gary Johnson.
KSHV and EBV are blood-borne viruses that remain dormant in more than 95 percent of those infected, making treatment of these viruses difficult. Both viruses are associated with a number of different lymphomas, sarcomas, and carcinomas, and many patients with suppressed immune systems are at risk for these virus-associated cancers.
"The dormant state of these viruses is what makes it so hard to treat these infections and the cancers associated with these infections," said Dr. Damania.
Researchers have known that stimuli such as stress can activate the virus from dormancy, but they do not understand the molecular basis of the viral activation cycle. With the discovery of the link between these viruses and TLKs, Dr. Damania said that researchers can begin to look for the molecular actions triggered by events like stress, and how they lead to the suppression of the TLK enzymes.
"What exactly is stress at a molecular level? We don't really understand it fully," said Dr. Damania.
With the discovery that TLKs suppresses these viruses, Dr. Damania said that the proteins can now be investigated as a possible drug target for these virus-associated cancers. In its normal function in the cell, TLKs play a role in the maintenance of the genome, repairing DNA and the assembly of the chromatin, but there is a lot more to learn about the function of the TLKs, said Dr. Damania. One avenue of her lab's future research will investigate how TLKs function in absence of the virus.
"If we prevent this protein from functioning, and we combine this with a drug that inhibits viral replication, then we could have a target to cure the cell of the virus. If the virus isn't there, the viral-associated cancers aren't present," said Dr. Damania.
###
This research was supported by NIH grants CA096500, CA163217, and CA019014, and the UNC Lineberger training grant NIH T32CA009156. Dr. Damania is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Foundation Scholar and a Burroughs Wellcome Investigator in Infectious Disease.
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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.
Slacker Radio has decided time is now for it to announce itself to the world. No, you didn?t miss anything ? it?s been around for a while, but today, the Internet music streaming service redesigned its digital properties and is now actively promoting itself with an updated brand. It is also taking some shots at Pandora and Spotify, two popular services, along the way.
To mark the launch of this new product phase, Slacker is giving listeners free access to all of the features and benefits from its premium service on February 14 and 15.
Although it launched in 2006, today is the first time Slacker has focused on a concentrated effort to market the company, rather than its offering. Jim Cady, its CEO, says that over the years, it has been quietly building a scalable business that now has more than 500,000 paying subscribers and over 4 million monthly average users. He believes that 2013 will be a ?blockbuster? year as it seeks to finally ramp up its marketing initiatives and expand its audience.
Available on iPhones, iPads, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, and other various devices, Slacker says that what makes its business model unique is that it is ?gross margin positive for every user?. Cady explains that anyone who uses Slacker, whether they are a paid or a free member will generate a positive value to the company. The company has two ways to make money: advertisements or subscriptions.
Craig Rechenmacher, Slacker?s Chief Marketing Officer, tells us that the reason why the company hasn?t been marketed in the past is because he wanted to make sure Slacker had the right product, content, and scalable business model. Now that all of those items are in alignment, he feels now is right to take on the competition. When it comes to Pandora and Spotify, Rechenmacher says that those services only do one thing well, whether it?s streaming, playing custom content, or anything else, ?but in the end, it?s forcing listeners to bounce from service to service, never satisfied.
With Pandora, Slacker states that it has 10 times more music used for live streaming and custom stations. In Spotify?s case, it?s known for on-demand listening, but Slacker says it offers more than 200 special genre stations that can be used for music discovery. In addition, the company has a rather extensive array of customizations, including additional filtering.
At a press conference last night in San Francisco, Cady admitted that Slacker wasn?t going to hold back any punches ? it was going directly at its competitors and had no reason to ?pussyfoot around?. To that end, Rechenmacher introduced the company?s new commercial and online advertisements aimed at convincing listeners to use its service. In the video spot, Slacker pokes fun at Pandora by saying that it plays the same music repeatedly while Slacker gives users the option of similar songs, but with much less repetition.
In the banner ads, however, this is where Slacker seems to strike directly at Pandora founder Tim Westergren and Spotify founder Daniel Ek in the messaging. Although the full names aren?t mentioned, it?s pretty apparent that the ads are meant to attack both companies ? as the San Francisco Chronicle puts it, ?the display ad criticizes Spotify for its propensity to post annoying updates to a user?s Facebook account.?
Its online advertising efforts, combined with the TV commercial are all part of Slacker?s $5.5 million media placement campaign and will be run on YouTube, Vevo, College Humor, and other relevant sites.
While it boasts an audience in the millions, Slacker?s numbers pale in comparison to Pandora?s (65 million monthly listeners) and Spotify?s (20 million) and even though it has a larger collection of music and programming, those unfortunately don?t mean anything if you don?t have the audience to help generate revenue for the company.
In addition, Slacker is only available in the US and Canada, but when you compare that against Spotify?s 26 countries, it?s a rather small number. Only Pandora is available in less countries, but when you consider the entire picture, it?s a wonder how Slacker could compete against the two services. Let?s not forget that there are more Internet music streaming services that are also fighting for supremacy, including Rdio and Rhapsody. The marketplace has definitely gotten crowded so it will be interesting to see how Slacker can stand out.
After all, Slacker is practically everywhere ? it?s just that no one knows what it is, let alone that it exists. Already it comes practically pre-installed on every Android phone sold through Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T and US Cellular, and can also be downloaded from the major mobile app stores. Additionally, over the past 18 months, the company has been moving into the automotive industry, establishing partnerships with GM, Ford, Chrysler (it integrated with Uconnect Access during CES last month), Honda, Acura, and others.
Perhaps it?s also Slacker?s partnerships with non-music outlets that may distinguish it from others. The company says that it has deals with ABC News, ESPN, the Weather Channel, and American Public Media to broadcast through its service. Through these license arrangements and the revenue gained from Slacker?s three tiers of service, it says that it has a scaleable and sustainable business.
Slacker has raised $68.1 million since 2007. This is more than Pandora?s $56.3 million before it went public, but significantly less than Spotify?s $188 million.
BRASILIA: Regulators in Brazil on Wednesday rejected Apple's application to register its iPhone trademark in the country, having already recognized a local manufacturer's claim to the name.
The Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) "denied Apple registration of the iPhone trademark," the institute's press office told AFP. The decision was officially published by the INPI.
Apple had applied for exclusive rights to the iPhone name in Brazil in 2007 when it launched the wildly popular smartphone in the huge Latin American market.
But Brazilian manufacturer Gradiente SA had applied to register the brand "Gradiente iphone" in 2000, and was granted rights to it in 2008.
Apple can still sell its smartphones in Brazil with the iPhone name, but Gradiente has the option of suing for exclusivity, the institute said.
Apple petitioned the institute to cancel Gradiente's trademark, arguing that it had expired because the company had not used it in five years, the institute said.
But Gradiente surprised the market by launching a "Gradiente iphone" at the end of the year, bringing the dispute to a head.
At the end of 2012, a Mexican court ruled in favor of the Mexican telecommunications firm Ifone in a similar trademark dispute with Apple.
Feb. 11, 2013 ? Emissions from coal power stations could be drastically reduced by a new, energy-efficient material that adsorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide, then releases it when exposed to sunlight.
In a study published February 11 in Angewandte Chemie, Monash University and CSIRO scientists for the first time discovered a photosensitive metal organic framework (MOF) -- a class of materials known for their exceptional capacity to store gases. This has created a powerful and cost-effective new tool to capture and store, or potentially recycle, carbon dioxide.
By utilising sunlight to release the stored carbon, the new material overcomes the problems of expense and inefficiency associated with current, energy-intensive methods of carbon capture. Current technologies use liquid capture materials that are then heated in a prolonged process to release the carbon dioxide for storage.
Associate Professor Bradley Ladewig of the Monash Department of Chemical Engineering said the MOF was an exciting development in emissions reduction technology.
"For the first time, this has opened up the opportunity to design carbon capture systems that use sunlight to trigger the release of carbon dioxide," Associate Professor Ladewig said.
"This is a step-change in carbon capture technologies."
A promising and novel class of materials, MOFs are clusters of metal atoms connected by organic molecules. Due to their extremely high internal surface area -- that could cover an entire football field in a single gram -- they can store large volumes of gas.
PhD student Richelle Lyndon and lead author of the paper said the technology, known as dynamic photo-switching was accomplished using light-sensitive azobenzene molecules.
"The MOF can release the adsorbed carbon dioxide when irradiated with light found in sunlight, just like wringing out a sponge," Ms Lyndon said.
"The MOF we discovered had a particular affinity for carbon dioxide. However, the light responsive molecules could potentially be combined with other MOFs, making the capture and release technology appropriate for other gases."
The researchers, led by Professor Matthew Hill of CSIRO, will now optimise the material to increase the efficiency of carbon dioxide to levels suitable for an industrial environment.
The study was supported by the Science and Industry Endowment Fund.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Monash University.
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Journal Reference:
Richelle Lyndon, Kristina Konstas, Bradley P. Ladewig, Peter D. Southon, Prof Cameron J. Kepert, Matthew R. Hill. Dynamic Photo-Switching in Metal-Organic Frameworks as a Route to Low-Energy Carbon Dioxide Capture and Release. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/anie.201206359
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry has a full plate of global crises as he plots his maiden voyage abroad: Egypt in chaos, Syria engulfed in civil war, moribund Mideast peace talks and North Korea threatening to detonate an atomic bomb while Iran moves closer to developing one of its own.
Kerry has to deal with all of these unresolved diplomatic crises even as he looks to put his personal stamp on American diplomacy and prepares for President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to the Middle East.
Diplomats say the 2004 presidential candidate is likely to embark on his first trip as secretary to Europe and the Middle East in the last week of February. He is expected in several European capitals and Israel, the Palestinian territories and possibly Egypt.
Daniel Packard performs his comedy and relationship advice shown in Baker University Center for the first day of sex week (Arielle Berger | For The Post).
A provocatively-themed event hosted by University Program Council dove into a humor based show on love and relationships Monday night.
?The Live Group Sex Therapy Show? kicked off at 7 p.m. in Baker Center Ballroom when 150 students sat in front of a stage to listen to comedian Daniel Packard start a discussion on images of love and self-worth.
Packard, who has travelled to 300 different college campuses to perform the show, started off the event with some sexual jokes and past experiences dealing with love. However, the show took an unexpected turn when he began asking the audience what love was, how people defined it and why they feared it.
?I think people don?t like who they are and that they blame themselves or others,? Packard said. ?They never learn to focus on what?s important, like having courage.?
Packard asked questions regarding fear and anger in relationships. Asking women and men if it was okay to judge one another on their actions in relationships as well as addressing topics of insecurities as well as the need for communication.
?Ladies, if you judge and disconnect from a man, you?ll miss out on a very nice guy,? he said. ?Men, love and listening mean the same thing to a woman. Covering up the fear keeps you from love.?
The show became interactive when Packard asked the audience to give input on perceptions of men and women in relationships. A live text stream during the show was used, showing different opinions on a projection that students had texted.
All the texts were anonymous, some examples of the texts that were sent included ?Marry me,? ?Men are stupid? and ?Will someone be my valentine?? Megan Scalf, live entertainment executive chair for UPC and a senior studying communications, said that the event went ?perfect.?
?I thought it was very successful,? she said. ?I think UPC will definitely consider doing a similar event next year.?
Student reactions were positive and some commented on the way Packard delivered humor along with addressing sensitive themes of relationships.
?It went fantastic,? said Kari Nickell, a senior studying strategic communications. ?I thought the audience was very receptive to what (Packard) was saying. I think the message was very empowering for women and men.?
After the show, Packard said that he hoped that Ohio University students will take a lesson out of his show.
?I think it went well,? he said. ?If anything I want them to learn to love themselves and to have courage in opening up about receiving love and not think they?re not worthy enough to receive it.?
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Public release date: 13-Feb-2013
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