Metastasis stem cells in the blood of breast cancer patients discovered

Apr. 22, 2013 ? Individual cancer cells that break away from the original tumor and circulate through the blood stream are considered responsible for the development of metastases. These dreaded secondary tumors are the main cause of cancer-related deaths. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detectable in a patient's blood are associated with a poorer prognosis. However, up until now, experimental evidence was lacking as to whether the "stem cell" of metastasis is found among CTCs.

"We were convinced that only very few of the various circulating tumor cells are capable of forming a secondary tumor in a different organ, because many patients do not develop metastases even though they have cancer cells circulating through their blood," says Prof. Andreas Trumpp, a stem cell expert. Trumpp is head of DKFZ's Division of Stem Cells and Cancer and director of the Heidelberg Institute for Stem Cell Technology and Experimental Medicine (HI-STEM) at DKFZ. "Metastasis is a complex process and cancer cells need to have very specific properties for it. Our hypothesis was that the characteristics of cancer stem cells, which are resistant to therapy and very mobile, are best suited," says Trumpp.

Ir?ne Baccelli from Trumpp's team developed a transplantation test for experimental detection of metastasis-initiating cells. In collaboration with Prof. Andreas Schneeweiss from the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg along with colleagues from the Institute of Tumor Biology in Hamburg and the Institute of Pathology of Heidelberg University Hospitals, the researchers analyzed the blood of more than 350 breast cancer patients. Using specific surface molecules, Baccelli isolated circulating tumor cells from the blood and directly transplanted them into the bone marrow of mice with defective immune systems. "Bone marrow is a perfect niche for tumor sells to colonize," Trumpp explains. After more than one hundred transplantations, metastases actually started forming in the bones, lungs and livers of some of the animals.

This proved that CTCs do contain metastasis stem cells -- even though apparently with a low frequency. What characterizes these cells? To characterize their molecular properties, the researchers analyzed the surface molecules of those CTCs where the cell transplantation had led to metastases.

Three molecules characterize the metastasis stem cell

In a systematic screening process, Baccelli first isolated cells carrying a typical protein of breast cancer stem cells (CD44) on their surface from the CTCs. This protein helps the cell to settle in bone marrow. Next, the researchers screened this cell population for specific surface markers which help the cells to survive in foreign tissue. These include, for example, a signaling molecule that protects from attacks by the immune system (CD47) and a surface receptor that enhances the cells' migratory and invasive capabilities (MET).

Using a cell sorter, the researchers were then able to isolate those CTCs which exhibit all three characteristics (CD44, CD47, MET) at once. Another round of transplantation tests showed that these really were the cells from which the metastases originated.

Depending on the patient, cells exhibiting all three surface molecules ("triple-positive" cells) made up between 0.6 and 33 percent of all CTCs. "It is interesting that only cells with the stem cell marker CD44 carry the combination of the other two surface molecules," said Ir?ne Baccelli. "It looks like the triple-positive cells are a specialized subtype of breast cancer stem cells circulating in the blood."

Triple-positive cells as prognostic biomarkers

Are the triple-positive cells a more precise biomarker of breast cancer progression than the number of CTCs alone? In a small patient group, the researchers observed that as the disease advances, the number of triple-positive cells increases, but the total number of CTCs does not. In addition, patients with very high numbers of triple-positive cells had particularly high numbers of metastases and a much poorer prognosis than women in whom only few of these metastasis-inducing cells were detected. "On the whole, triple-positive cells seem to have a substantially higher biological relevance for disease progression than previously studied CTCs," Andreas Schneeweiss explains. The researchers plan to confirm these new results in a large study.

Andreas Trumpp considers it good news that the two proteins CD47 and MET are the ones characterizing metastasis-initiating cells. Therapeutic antibodies targeting CD47 to inhibit its functions are already being developed. A substance inhibiting the activity of the MET receptor has already been approved and shows good effectiveness for treating a certain type of lung cancer. The substance may also help breast cancer patients with detectable metastasis-inducing cells. "The triple-positive cells we have found turn out to be not only a promising biomarker of disease progression in breast cancer but also a prospect for potential new therapeutic approaches for treating advanced breast cancer," says Andreas Trumpp.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ir?ne Baccelli, Andreas Schneeweiss, Sabine Riethdorf, Albrecht Stenzinger, Anja Schillert, Vanessa Vogel, Corinna Klein, Massimo Saini, Tobias B?uerle, Markus Wallwiener, Tim Holland-Letz, Thomas H?fner, Martin Sprick, Martina Scharpff, Frederik Marm?, Hans Peter Sinn, Klaus Pantel, Wilko Weichert, Andreas Trumpp. Identification of a population of blood circulating tumor cells from breast cancer patients that initiates metastasis in a xenograft assay. Nature Biotechnology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2576

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/95xlx2nhOLU/130422101258.htm

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Antibody transforms stem cells directly into brain cells

Apr. 22, 2013 ? In a serendipitous discovery, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a way to turn bone marrow stem cells directly into brain cells.

Current techniques for turning patients' marrow cells into cells of some other desired type are relatively cumbersome, risky and effectively confined to the lab dish. The new finding points to the possibility of simpler and safer techniques. Cell therapies derived from patients' own cells are widely expected to be useful in treating spinal cord injuries, strokes and other conditions throughout the body, with little or no risk of immune rejection.

"These results highlight the potential of antibodies as versatile manipulators of cellular functions," said Richard A. Lerner, the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry and institute professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at TSRI, and principal investigator for the new study. "This is a far cry from the way antibodies used to be thought of -- as molecules that were selected simply for binding and not function."

The researchers discovered the method, reported in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of April 22, 2013, while looking for lab-grown antibodies that can activate a growth-stimulating receptor on marrow cells. One antibody turned out to activate the receptor in a way that induces marrow stem cells -- which normally develop into white blood cells -- to become neural progenitor cells, a type of almost-mature brain cell.

Nature's Toolkit

Natural antibodies are large, Y-shaped proteins produced by immune cells. Collectively, they are diverse enough to recognize about 100 billion distinct shapes on viruses, bacteria and other targets. Since the 1980s, molecular biologists have known how to produce antibodies in cell cultures in the laboratory. That has allowed them to start using this vast, target-gripping toolkit to make scientific probes, as well as diagnostics and therapies for cancer, arthritis, transplant rejection, viral infections and other diseases.

In the late 1980s, Lerner and his TSRI colleagues helped invent the first techniques for generating large "libraries" of distinct antibodies and swiftly determining which of these could bind to a desired target. The anti-inflammatory antibody Humira?, now one of the world's top-selling drugs, was discovered with the benefit of this technology.

Last year, in a study spearheaded by TSRI Research Associate Hongkai Zhang, Lerner's laboratory devised a new antibody-discovery technique -- in which antibodies are produced in mammalian cells along with receptors or other target molecules of interest. The technique enables researchers to determine rapidly not just which antibodies in a library bind to a given receptor, for example, but also which ones activate the receptor and thereby alter cell function.

Lab Dish in a Cell

For the new study, Lerner laboratory Research Associate Jia Xie and colleagues modified the new technique so that antibody proteins produced in a given cell are physically anchored to the cell's outer membrane, near its target receptors. "Confining an antibody's activity to the cell in which it is produced effectively allows us to use larger antibody libraries and to screen these antibodies more quickly for a specific activity," said Xie. With the improved technique, scientists can sift through a library of tens of millions of antibodies in a few days.

In an early test, Xie used the new method to screen for antibodies that could activate the GCSF receptor, a growth-factor receptor found on bone marrow cells and other cell types. GCSF-mimicking drugs were among the first biotech bestsellers because of their ability to stimulate white blood cell growth -- which counteracts the marrow-suppressing side effect of cancer chemotherapy.

The team soon isolated one antibody type or "clone" that could activate the GCSF receptor and stimulate growth in test cells. The researchers then tested an unanchored, soluble version of this antibody on cultures of bone marrow stem cells from human volunteers. Whereas the GCSF protein, as expected, stimulated such stem cells to proliferate and start maturing towards adult white blood cells, the GCSF-mimicking antibody had a markedly different effect.

"The cells proliferated, but also started becoming long and thin and attaching to the bottom of the dish," remembered Xie.

To Lerner, the cells were reminiscent of neural progenitor cells -- which further tests for neural cell markers confirmed they were.

A New Direction

Changing cells of marrow lineage into cells of neural lineage -- a direct identity switch termed "transdifferentiation" -- just by activating a single receptor is a noteworthy achievement. Scientists do have methods for turning marrow stem cells into other adult cell types, but these methods typically require a radical and risky deprogramming of marrow cells to an embryonic-like stem-cell state, followed by a complex series of molecular nudges toward a given adult cell fate. Relatively few laboratories have reported direct transdifferentiation techniques.

"As far as I know, no one has ever achieved transdifferentiation by using a single protein -- a protein that potentially could be used as a therapeutic," said Lerner.

Current cell-therapy methods typically assume that a patient's cells will be harvested, then reprogrammed and multiplied in a lab dish before being re-introduced into the patient. In principle, according to Lerner, an antibody such as the one they have discovered could be injected directly into the bloodstream of a sick patient. From the bloodstream it would find its way to the marrow, and, for example, convert some marrow stem cells into neural progenitor cells. "Those neural progenitors would infiltrate the brain, find areas of damage and help repair them," he said.

While the researchers still aren't sure why the new antibody has such an odd effect on the GCSF receptor, they suspect it binds the receptor for longer than the natural GCSF protein can achieve, and this lengthier interaction alters the receptor's signaling pattern. Drug-development researchers are increasingly recognizing that subtle differences in the way a cell-surface receptor is bound and activated can result in very different biological effects. That adds complexity to their task, but in principle expands the scope of what they can achieve. "If you can use the same receptor in different ways, then the potential of the genome is bigger," said Lerner.

In addition to Lerner and Xie, contributors to the study, "Autocrine Signaling Based Selection of Combinatorial Antibodies That Transdifferentiate Human Stem Cells," were Hongkai Zhang of the Lerner Laboratory, and Kyungmoo Yea of The Scripps Korea Antibody Institute, Chuncheon-si, Korea.

Funding for the study was provided by The Scripps Korea Antibody Institute and Hongye Innovative Antibody Technologies (HIAT).

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/4sCqbLxIxUg/130422154756.htm

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Deal of the Day: LLOYD Overlord T-Shirt

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/hDQAfqy_on4/story01.htm

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Gay marriage opponents demonstrate in Paris

PARIS (AP) ? Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to sunny Paris boulevards on Sunday to protest the expected passage this week of a bill legalizing gay marriage. One protestor called the bill "a threat to the social fabric."

Legalizing gay marriage was one of President Francois Hollande's campaign promises. Polls have shown a narrow majority of French favor allowing such unions, though the support weakens when questions about adoption and conception of children come into play.

As the bill has made its way through the French legislative process, opposition has mounted, especially from conservative groups from more rural parts of the country. While the protests against the gay marriage bill have been largely peaceful, violence has occasionally erupted on the sidelines.

Sunday's march wound across the Left Bank and culminated in a gathering on the vast Invalides esplanade. A heavy police presence was deployed along the route, while a smaller counter-demonstration drew thousands across the Seine river to the large Bastille square.

Gay marriage opponents lined the broad boulevard through the Montparnasse neighborhood waving blue, pink and white flags.

"I am here as a Catholic, in the name of Jesus," said a 65-year-old retired woman who would only identify herself as Maria.

A 58-year-old lawyer, Patrick Poydenot, stood outside the historic Select cafe with his young son. He'd been to past demonstrations and decided he would show up this time despite the bill's likely approval.

"We believe that this bill is a threat to the social fabric," Poydenot said. If the bill "passes, a fundamental rule of society will disappear."

Both houses of the French parliament have already approved the bill in a first reading. The second and final reading is expected Tuesday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-marriage-opponents-demonstrate-paris-163421092.html

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Check out our roundup of this week's best mommy and baby deals.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/uXmi1se1jFg/

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CSN: Cardinals hop on Lee, coast from Phillies

BOX SCORE

The Phillies just can?t get all three of their high-priced starting pitchers on track at the same time.

Two nights after Cole Hamels delivered his second straight solid outing and one night after Roy Halladay held the Cardinals to two hits over seven innings, Cliff Lee allowed four runs in the third inning and five runs total over five laborious innings. Staked to a sizable lead, St. Louis right-hander Lance Lynn cruised, allowing just one hit in a 5-0 Cardinals win.

The loss drops the Phillies to 7-11. The Cards improve to 10-7.

Starting pitching
Lee entered the night with the best strike percentage and first-pitch strike percentage in all of baseball. But he threw first-pitch strikes to just 13 of 24 batters and needed 42 pitches to get out of the third inning.

Lee walked three Cardinals in the third. It was his first time walking three in an inning since Sept. 15, 2009 against Washington.

He nearly escaped damage, as the Cards had men on first and second when Carlos Beltran made the second out. But Lee then walked Matt Holliday, and Allen Craig, Yadier Molina and David Freese followed with RBI singles.

Using mostly a fastball, Lynn was filthy from start to finish. He didn?t allow his first and only hit until the bottom of the fifth, when John Mayberry doubled.

Lynn?s final line read: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K. Entering the game, lefties were 9 for 28 off Lynn this season. Phillies lefties went 0 for 13.

Bullpen report
If only Phillippe Aumont could show such accuracy in high-pressure situations.

Aumont pitched two perfect innings with two strikeouts in relief of Lee, with 20 strikes on 30 pitches.

Jeremy Horst and Joe Savery, in his season debut, followed with scoreless innings.

The offense
The Phillies hit three balls hard: Mayberry?s double, an Erik Kratz blast that died at the warning track in center and a Domonic Brown lineout.

The first five batters in the Phils? order were a combined 1 for 17.

In the field
Freddy Galvis is a Gold Glove-caliber fielder no matter where you put him. Galvis made a tremendous running, jumping catch at the left field wall on a Shane Robinson flyball to start Saturday?s game.

It was just Galvis? third professional start in left field, yet he looks like a more seasoned corner outfielder than anyone on the roster.

Brown made his first start of the year in right field. He had an awkward play in the bottom of the seventh, when he caught a deep fly by David Freese but lost the ball after banging into the out-of-town scoreboard. The ball fell but the out-call stood.

Milestone for Beltran
Beltran homered for the third straight game to give him 30 all-time against the Phillies. He now sits alone as the active leader in homers vs. the Phils.

Beltran was just 3 for 19 off Lee entering the night.

A true Phillie-killer
Molina continues to destroy Phillies pitching. He?s 6 for 8 in the series and is now hitting .481 against the Phillies since 2010, with 11 extra-base hits and 13 RBIs in 22 games. He has 37 hits and has made 40 outs over that span. Kind of absurd.

Add in his stellar defense behind the plate and Molina might just be the Phils? biggest current nemesis.

What?s next
The four-game series wraps up tomorrow night at 8:05 p.m. with Kyle Kendrick (1-1, 3.38) opposing fellow sinkerballer Jake Westbrook (1-1, 0.00).

Source: http://www.csnphilly.com/phillies/instant-replay-cardinals-5-phillies-0

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Pro-Sharia march held in Male', NGO claims ... - Minivan News

Men and women of various ages marched through the streets of Male? yesterday (April 19), calling for Islamic Sharia to be fully implemented in the Maldives.

Yesterday?s march, which organisers claimed had no political backing, was said to have been led by a group of young people calling for Sharia to be fully implemented to protect the Maldives from ?calamities? that it is presently facing, according to local media.

However, one local religious NGO has argued that Maldivian society was not presently ready to undergo such radical reforms to the nation?s legal system, arguing that any changes would need to be made?gradually?over a long period of time.

Commencing yesterday at 4:30pm by the social centre in the capital, the pro-Sharia march concluded just before 6:00pm at the artificial beach area.

A small number of demonstrators were in attendance, reported the Sun Online news website. Organisers have pledged that further pro-Sharia marches were anticipated in future.

Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed and State Islamic Minister Mohamed Didi were not responding to calls at the time of press.

?Long process?

The Islamic Foundation of Maldives (IFM), a religious NGO based in Male?, said it had not been involved with the march, alleging that demonstrators may have been affiliated with fellow religious NGO Jamiyyathul Salaf.

IFM co-founder Ibrahim Nazim told Minivan News today key figures behind the demonstration would have likely been religious conservatives, who in some cases may have held more ?radical? views of Islam.

In addressing the key aims of the march, he added that from a personal perspective, Maldivian society was not presently an environment?conducive?for Islamic Sharia to be implemented outright.

Nazim argued that implementing Sharia law correctly would be a long process for the country. He took the example of other Islamic nations such as Pakistan that had sought to implement a complete adherence to Sharia law in a short period of time, resulting in power struggles and other political complications as a result.

?This is not something we can just implement overnight, we will require people to change their attitudes before we are ready for such a change,? he suggested. ?It will be a long process for the country.?

When contacted about the implementation of Sharia in the Maldives, President?s Office Media Secretary Masood Imad today recommended Minivan News contact the Islamic Ministry over religious issues concerning the state.

?I think it would be best to speak to the Islamic Ministry on this,? Masood said.

Meanwhile, a senior figure serving within the current government of President Dr Mohamed Waheed ? speaking on condition of?anonymity?- argued that any significant changes to the country?s faith would always have to be made gradually and could not be made in a short period of time.

The source argued that the previous government of former President Mohamed Nasheed ? which claimed to favour what it called a ?more moderate and tolerant? form of Islam ? had attempted to bring changes to the country?s perception of faith and religious conservatism in too short a period of time.

While claiming to personally favour a ?more tolerant? interpretation of Islam, the source argued that the resulting opposition to the former government?s religious stance had likely led to the controversial transfer of power that saw former President Nasheed resign on February 7, 2012. ?His resignation came on the back of a mutiny among sections of the police and military.

Islamic Sharia in the Maldives

Under article 142 of the Maldives? Constitution, the judiciary is presently required to looked to turn to Islamic Sharia in any matters where the Constitution or the law is silent.

To this end, the country?s courts have in certain cases granted the death sentence to severe crimes such as murder, while also using punishments like flogging in certain sexual offence cases.

However, the acting Head of State under each of the last three governments has commuted death sentences to life sentences in every single case.

The?last person to be judicially?executed?in the Maldives was Hakim Didi, who was?executed by firing squad in 1953 after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder using black magic.

Legal Reform

In December 2012, former Attorney General Azima Shukoor drafted a bill outlining how the death sentence should be executed in the Maldives as part of ongoing consultations on enacting such a punishment.

Lethal injection was identified as the state?s preferred method of capital punishment in the bill, while further consultations were being taken on possibly removing the?serving?Head of State?s right to commute death sentences upheld by the Supreme Court.

Earlier this year, the government of President Dr Mohamed Waheed had?pledged to review the possibility of legal reforms to bring an end to the use of punishments like flogging in the country?s justice system.

Addressing the scale of these potential reforms, President?s Office Media Secretary Masood said last month that all authorities involved in the process would have to tread ?a very fine line? in order to tackle long standing ?traditions? and beliefs in the country.

?Reforms must be undertaken, but this must be done gradually considering we are dealing with a process embedded in society,? he said, discussing the government?s commitments to bring an end to sentences like flogging. ?A certain amount of compromise may be needed.?

The wider Maldives legal system has itself been brought under the spotlight after former President Nasheed controversially detained the Criminal Court?Chief?Judge last year.

Nasheed?s government argued the decision was?necessary as the judge in question had become?a threat to ?national security? after ordering investigations into his own alleged misconduct halted.

Nasheed is presently facing trial in the country over the abduction of the judge.

Following the?commencement?of the trial, Gabriela Knaul, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, earlier this year raised several concerns about the?effectiveness?of the?wider?Maldives legal system following a fact-finding mission.

Knaul stated back in February that upon conclusion of her mission meetings, she had found that the concept of independence of the judiciary has been ?misconstrued and misinterpreted? by all actors, including the judiciary itself, in the Maldives.

Source: http://minivannews.com/politics/pro-sharia-march-held-in-male-ngo-claims-maldives-not-ready-for-full-implementation-56564

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Technique unlocks design principles of quantum biology

Apr. 19, 2013 ? University of Chicago researchers have created a synthetic compound that mimics the complex quantum dynamics observed in photosynthesis and may enable fundamentally new routes to creating solar-energy technologies. Engineering quantum effects into synthetic light-harvesting devices is not only possible, but also easier than anyone expected, the researchers report in the April 19 edition of Science.

The researchers have engineered small molecules that support long-lived quantum coherences. Coherences are the macroscopically observable behavior of quantum superpositions. Superpositions are a fundamental quantum mechanical concept, exemplified by the classic Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment, in which a single quantum particle such as an electron occupies more than one state simultaneously.

Quantum effects are generally negligible in large, hot, disordered systems. Nevertheless, the recent ultrafast spectroscopy experiments in UChicago chemistry Prof. Greg Engel's laboratory have shown that quantum superpositions may play a role in the near perfect quantum efficiency of photosynthetic light harvesting, even at physiological temperatures.

Photosynthetic antennae -- the proteins that organize chlorophylls and other light-absorbing molecules in plants and bacteria -- support superpositions that survive for anomalously long times. Many researchers have proposed that organisms have evolved a means of protecting these superpositions. The result: improved efficiency in transferring energy from absorbed sunlight to the parts of the cell that convert solar energy to chemical energy. The newly reported results demonstrate that his particular manifestation of quantum mechanics can be engineered into human-made compounds.

The researchers modified fluorescein -- the same molecule once used to dye the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's Day -- and then linked different pairs of these dyes together using a rigid bridging structure. The resulting molecules were able to recreate the important properties of chlorophyll molecules in photosynthetic systems that cause coherences to persist for tens of femtoseconds at room temperature.

"That may not sound like a very long time -- a femtosecond is a millionth of a billionth of a second," said study co-author Dugan Hayes, a UChicago graduate student in chemistry. "But the movement of excitations through these systems also occurs on this ultrafast timescale, meaning that these quantum superpositions can play an important role in energy transfer."

To detect evidence of long-lived superpositions, the researchers created a movie of energy flow in the molecules using highly engineered laboratories and state-of-the-art femtosecond laser systems. Three precisely controlled laser pulses are directed into the sample, causing it to emit an optical signal that is captured and directed into a camera.

By scanning the time delays between the arriving laser pulses, the researchers create a movie of energy flow in the system, encoded as a series two-dimensional spectra. Each two-dimensional spectrum is a single frame of the movie, and contains information about where energy resides in the system and what pathways it has followed to get there.

These movies show relaxation from high energy states toward lower energy states as time proceeds, as well as oscillating signals in very specific regions of the signal, or quantum beats. "Quantum beats are the signature of quantum coherence, arising from the interference between the different energetic states in the superposition, similar to the beating heard when two instruments that are slightly out of tune with each other try to play the same note," Hayes explained.

Computer simulations have shown that quantum coherences work in photosynthetic antennae to prevent excitations from getting trapped on their way to the reaction center, where the conversion to chemical energy begins. In one interpretation, as the excitation moves through the antenna, it remains in a superposition of all possible paths at once, making it inevitable that it proceeds down the proper path. "Until these coherences were observed in synthetic systems, it remained dubious that such a complex phenomenon could be recreated outside of nature," Hayes said.

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Journal Reference:

1. D. Hayes, G. B. Griffin, G. S. Engel. Engineering Coherence Among Excited States in Synthetic Heterodimer Systems. Science, 2013; DOI: 10.1126/science.1233828

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.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/oxNpfiK3x8Y/130419120954.htm

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Officer fatally shot on MIT campus

Police officers secure a school building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) near where a police??

[Updated at 12:55 a.m. ET]

BOSTON ? An intense manhunt is underway for a gunman who shot and killed a campus officer Thursday evening at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Middlesex County District Attorney's office confirmed the officer's death. The officer, who has not been identified, was reportedly answering a disturbance call when he was shot multiple times about 10:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the university is pleading for students to stay indoors and out of harm's way.

"The shooter remains at large, police continue to search the campus," the school warned in a campus alert at 12:37 a.m. "Please REMAIN INDOORS until further notice."

The university issued the first alert at 10:48 p.m.: "There are gunshots reported in the vicinity of Building 32 (Stata Center). Area is cordoned off. Stay away from area."

According to audio of MIT police dispatch radio chatter posted online, an officer described the suspected shooter as a black male wearing black clothing and weighing approximately 120 pounds.

Stunned students asked news reporters if the shooting could be tied to this week's terror attack. However, no motive for the Thursday shooting has been given.

Yahoo News' Dylan Stableford reported from New York City.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/gunman-reportedly-shoots-police-officer-mit-boston-034906627.html

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BBC America, Twitter reach first 'in-tweet branded video' deal for a TV series

Now that Twitter Music has been revealed there will be more anticipation of potential TV integration, and it appears BBC America will be among the first to participate. The network, which is owned both by BBC Worldwide (the Beeb's commercial arm) and Discovery Communications, sent out a tweet say it's signed up to "offer 1st in-Tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series." Its Tumblr page promises details to come, however so far there have been no further updates. We were told by the network that the deal has "literally just been signed", and to expect more info in the coming weeks. This sounds similar to the deals with Viacom and NBC that were rumored a few days ago, but what shape this may all take by the time it arrives remains to be seen.

Filed under: HD

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Via: AllThingsD

Source: BBC America (Twitter), BBC America (Tumblr)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/19/bbc-america-twitter-branded-video-tweets/

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1 of 2 Mass. bomb suspects dead; suburbs shut down

WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) ? Two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing killed an MIT police officer, injured a transit officer in a firefight and threw explosive devices at police during their getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left one of them dead and another still at large Friday, authorities said as the manhunt intensified for a young man described as a dangerous terrorist.

The suspects were identified to The Associated Press as coming from the Russian region near Chechnya, which has been plagued by an Islamic insurgency stemming from separatist wars. A law enforcement intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP identified the surviving bomb suspect as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old who had been living in Cambridge, just outside Boston, and said he "may be armed and dangerous."

Two law enforcement officials told the AP that Tsarnaev and the other suspect, who was not immediately identified, had been living legally in the U.S. for at least one year.

In Boston, still on edge over the attack on the marathon, and its western suburbs, authorities suspended mass transit and urged people to stay indoors as they searched for the remaining suspect, a man seen wearing a white baseball cap on surveillance footage from Monday's deadly bombing at the marathon finish line.

"We believe this man to be a terrorist," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. "We believe this to be a man who's come here to kill people."

Authorities urged residents in Watertown, Newton, Arlington, Waltham, Belmont, Cambridge and the Allston-Brighton neighborhoods of Boston to stay indoors. At least a quarter of a million people live in those suburbs. All mass transit was shut down, and businesses were asked not to open Friday. People waiting at bus and subway stops were told to go home.

The shutdown came hours after the killing of one suspect, known as the man in the black hat from marathon surveillance footage.

All modes of public transportation were shut down, including buses, subways, trolleys, commuter rail and boats, said Joe Pesaturo, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

The suspects' clashes with police began only a few hours after the FBI released photos and videos of the two young men, who were seen carrying backpacks as they mingled among marathon revelers. The bombings on Monday killed three people and wounded more than 180 others, and authorities revealed the images to enlist the public's help finding the suspects.

The images released by the FBI depict two young men, each wearing a baseball cap, walking one behind the other near the finish line. Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, said the suspect in the white hat was seen setting down a bag at the site of the second of two deadly explosions.

Authorities said surveillance tape recorded late Thursday showed the suspect known for the white hat during a robbery of a convenience store in Cambridge, near the campus of MIT, where a university police officer was killed while responding to a report of a disturbance, said State Police Col Timothy Alben. The officer died of multiple gunshot wounds.

From there, authorities say, the two men carjacked a man in a Mercedes-Benz, keeping him with them in the car for half an hour before releasing him at a gas station in Cambridge. The man was not injured.

The search for the vehicle led to a chase that ended in Watertown, where authorities said the suspects threw explosive devices from the car and exchanged gunfire with police. A transit police officer was seriously injured during the chase, authorities said.

In Watertown, witnesses reported hearing multiple gunshots and explosions at about 1 a.m. Friday. Dozens of police officers and FBI agents were in the neighborhood and a helicopter circled overhead.

Watertown resident Christine Yajko said she was awakened at about 1:30 a.m. by a loud noise, began to walk to her kitchen and heard gunfire.

"I heard the explosion, so I stepped back from that area, then I went back out and heard a second one," she said. "It was very loud. It shook the house a little."

She said a police officer later knocked on her door and told her there was an undetonated improvised explosive device in the street and warned her to stay away from the windows.

"It was on the street, right near our kitchen window," she said.

Yajko said she never saw the suspect who was on the loose and didn't realize the violence was related to the marathon bombings until she turned on the TV and began watching what was happening outside her side door.

State police spokesman David Procopio said, "The incident in Watertown did involve what we believe to be explosive devices possibly, potentially, being used against the police officers."

Boston cab driver Imran Saif said he was standing on a street corner at a police barricade across from a diner when he heard an explosion.

"I heard a loud boom and then a rapid succession of pop, pop, pop," he said. "It sounded like automatic weapons. And then I heard the second explosion."

He said he could smell something burning and advanced to check it out but area residents at their windows yelled at him, "Hey, it's gunfire! Don't go that way!"

Doctors at a Boston hospital where a suspect in the marathon bombings was taken and later died are saying they treated a man with a possible blast injury and multiple gunshot wounds.

MIT said right after the 10:30 p.m. shooting that police were sweeping the campus in Cambridge and urged people to remain indoors. They urged people urged to stay away from the Stata Center, a mixed-use building with faculty offices, classrooms and a common area.

The suspects' images were released hours after President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended an interfaith service in Boston to remember the dead and the wounded.

At the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Obama saluted the resolve of the people of Boston and mocked the bombers as "these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build and think somehow that makes them important."

"We will find you," he warned.

In the past, insurgents from Chechnya and neighboring restive provinces in the Caucasus have been involved in terror attacks in Moscow and other places in Russia.

Those raids included a raid in Moscow in October 2002 in which a group of Chechen militants took 800 people hostage and held them for two days before special forces stormed the building, killing all 41 Chechen hostage-takers. Also killed were 129 hostages, mostly from effects of narcotic gas Russian forces used to subdue the attackers.

Chechen insurgents also launched a 2004 hostage-taking raid in the southern Russian town of Beslan, where they took hundreds of hostages. The siege ended in a bloodbath two days later, with more than 330 people, about half of them children, killed.

Insurgents from Chechnya and other regions also have launched a long series of bombings in Moscow and other cities in Russia. An explosion at the international arrivals hall at Moscow's Domodedovo airport in January 2011 killed at least 31 people and wounded more than 140.

___

Sullivan reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Pat Eaton-Robb contributed to this report from Boston.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/1-2-mass-bomb-suspects-dead-suburbs-shut-101813648.html

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Kerry disappointed by recent talks with Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry called for patience despite widespread frustration with the recent failure of negotiations between six world powers and Iran over its disputed nuclear program and growing fears of Tehran developing a weapon of mass destruction.

Testifying Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry said he was disappointed by the inconclusive talks in Kazakhstan earlier this month, but insisted that a diplomatic resolution is still the best option. The international community fears Tehran is developing a nuclear weapon; Iran insists its work is for peaceful purposes.

Congress has repeatedly pressed for tough sanctions on Iran, convinced that undermining its economy and oil revenue will thwart its nuclear program. Kerry, in urging patience, highlighted uncertainty in Tehran, with a power struggle two months ahead of June elections, and said he did not expect "anything dramatic" in the next few weeks.

"We don't need to spin this up at this point in time," Kerry told the panel.

The secretary reiterated President Barack Obama's past statements that the United States will ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.

Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and other lawmakers have succeeded in securing several rounds of penalties on Iran's banking and energy sectors.

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., a top sponsor of sanctions legislation since his arrival in the Senate in January 2011, is crafting a bill that would target regime officials who violate human rights with travel bans and seizure of assets, and essentially impose a commercial and financial embargo on Iran.

It also would basically impose a tough arms embargo on Iran, its proxies in Gaza and southern Lebanon, as well as North Korea, Syria and Sudan. The measure would close loopholes in current law related to Iran's access to foreign exchange reserves.

Current sanctions have undercut the Iranian economy, causing high unemployment and inflation, while daily oil production and the value of the country's currency, the rial, have dropped.

Kirk's latest effort would mark the fifth time since June 2010 that Congress has slapped penalties on Iran.

Any penalties are certain to draw strong bipartisan support as lawmakers, fearful of Iran's ambitions and worried about its threat to Israel, have overwhelmingly embraced past sanctions legislation.

Menendez reminded Kerry that the diplomatic window with Iran is closing, giving impetus to the congressional moves for more sanctions.

Kerry said the State Department would like to work with Congress on the timing of any new initiatives.

Kerry, the former Massachusetts senator, was testifying for the first time since his confirmation before the panel that he once chaired. He described sitting on the other side of the dais as surreal.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-disappointed-recent-talks-iran-153649333--politics.html

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Jewish life, not death, the focus of new museum in Poland

By Dagmara Leszkowicz

WARSAW (Reuters) - A new museum of Jewish history opens in Poland this week to refocus attention on a vibrant community that has lived in the country for centuries but whose history, for many, has been eclipsed by the Nazi death camps that nearly wiped them out.

Every year some 1.5 million people visit Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp in southern Poland which has become a grisly emblem of the holocaust.

Yet in the Polish capital there is little evidence of what was for generations one of Europe's biggest Jewish communities - just a couple of memorials down quiet streets, and a synagogue tucked away in a court-yard behind Communist-built high-rise apartment blocks.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw will try to educate people about the community's rich past, and, say its curators, might also help dispel some of the suspicion towards Jews that still now - seven decades after the Holocaust - lingers in parts of Polish society.

"I want this museum to be a museum of life, not a museum of death," said Andrzej Cudak, acting head of the museum.

The museum, the first of its kind in Poland, is on a street that used to be part of the Warsaw ghetto. At the front, the building's undulating walls split apart, to symbolize the rupture of the holocaust.

It opens its doors on Friday, 70 years to the day since groups of young Jews in the ghetto, with scavenged or improvised weapons, launched an uprising against German troops. It was crushed about a month later.

For now the museum will have only temporary exhibits, but once it is fully up and running next year, it will house artifacts chronicling the 1,000-year history of Jews in Poland.

"This is not going to be another holocaust-type museum," said Robert Supel, a project director at the museum.

One of the eight galleries will be devoted to the holocaust, he said, "but primarily we are talking about life, we are talking about culture, we are talking about the exchange of influence of nations, we are talking about all aspects of Jewish life in Poland since the early medieval period."

LOW-KEY COMMUNITY

Before World War Two, more than three million Jews lived in Poland. By the end of it, 90 percent of them were dead.

The museum will become the most visible symbol in Warsaw of a Jewish presence which is strikingly low-key.

Other eastern European capitals where Jews were exterminated have seen a limited revival of their Jewish communities since the end of Communist rule two decades ago.

But only 7,500 Jews live in Poland, according to a census conducted in 2011, though the real figure is probably higher. In the capital, there are few synagogues left. It is rare to see anyone in the street wearing a yarmulke or the fedora of an orthodox Jew.

Anti-Semitic attitudes could be part of the reason for this low profile. There is no anti-Semitism in public life in Poland, unlike nearby Hungary where one far-right member of parliament last year called for lists of Jews to be compiled. The Polish government helped pay for the museum.

Nevertheless, low-level anti-Semitism is present, from soccer chants where fans use the term "Jew" as an insult hurled at rival supporters, to the graffiti on suburban walls.

A poll conducted last month by the Homo Homini public opinion institute found that half of Warsaw high-school students would be unhappy if they discovered someone in their family had Jewish origins. Sixty percent of young people would be displeased if their boyfriend or girlfriend turned out to be Jewish, according to the survey.

The poll was commissioned by the Jewish Community of Warsaw, one of the country's biggest Jewish groups. Its head, Piotr Kadlcik, said he hoped the new museum would shine an objective light on how Poles and Jews have co-existed through history.

"Let's not think that the museum will be a panacea for all the problems we have with Polish-Jewish relations," Kadlcik said. "But if it helps just in part, that will be a success."

(Additional reporting by Piot Pilat and Marcin Goettig; Editing by Christian Lowe and)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jewish-life-not-death-focus-museum-poland-181454480.html

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NASA's big decision: Build a moon base or lasso an asteroid?

NASA and lawmakers disagree over the future of human spaceflight. NASA has its sights set on an asteroid landing, while legislators want a permanent moon base.

By Mike Wall,?SPACE.com / April 11, 2013

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin plant the U.S. flag on the lunar surface, July 20, 1969. No human has set foot on the moon since 1972, something Congress wants to change.

NASA / AP

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While NASA's proposed budget for 2014 unveiled this week reaffirms the space agency's ambitious plan to send astronauts to an asteroid, some members of Congress are pushing for a more familiar goal: a moon base by 2022.

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President Barack Obama's federal budget request for 2014, released Wednesday (April 10), gives NASA $105 million to jump-start a bold plan to?park an asteroid near the moon. Astronauts would then explore the space rock using the agency's Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule, with the first visit perhaps coming as early as 2021.?

The proposed "Asteroid Initiative" lines up with the manned spaceflight priorities of the Obama Administration, which three years ago cancelled NASA's moon-oriented Constellation program and directed the agency to get astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.?

But some lawmakers contend that?the moon?should still be NASA's immediate human spaceflight target. They have reintroduced a 2011 bill called the RE-asserting American Leadership in Space Act (or REAL Space Act for short), which asks NASA to send astronauts to the moon by 2022 with the goal of establishing a long-term settlement there.

"The moon is our nearest celestial body, taking only a matter of days to reach," Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) said in a statement Wednesday. "In order to explore deeper into space ? to Mars and beyond ? a moon presence offers us the ability to develop and test technologies to cope with the realities of operating on an extraterrestrial surface."

The bill would also give NASA's manned spaceflight efforts more direction, its sponsors say.

"This legislation is not just about landing another human on the moon. It is about restoring our nation?s now-defunct human spaceflight program and setting clear and achievable goals that will lead to advancements in science and technology," said Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah). "This legislation restores and clarifies NASA?s role in human spaceflight and sets the US back on course to lead exploration of the cosmos."

Astronauts have not walked on the surface of the moon since NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972, which marked the final lunar landing mission of the Apollo program.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/ytfd-n76Ooc/NASA-s-big-decision-Build-a-moon-base-or-lasso-an-asteroid

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The Daily Roundup for 04.17.2013

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Comments

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

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Obama: Gun lobby 'willfully lied' (CNN)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Assad accuses West of backing al-Qaida in Syria

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, during an interview broadcast on Syrian state television in Damascus, Syria. Syria's president accused the West on Wednesday of backing al-Qaida in his country's civil war, warning it will pay a price "in the heart" of Europe and the United States as the terror network becomes emboldened. Bashar Assad also lashed out at Jordan for allowing "thousands" of fighters to enter Syria through its borders. The rare TV interview comes as the embattled president's military is fighting to reverse rebel advances, with a rocket attack killing at least 12 people in a central village on Wednesday. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, during an interview broadcast on Syrian state television in Damascus, Syria. Syria's president accused the West on Wednesday of backing al-Qaida in his country's civil war, warning it will pay a price "in the heart" of Europe and the United States as the terror network becomes emboldened. Bashar Assad also lashed out at Jordan for allowing "thousands" of fighters to enter Syria through its borders. The rare TV interview comes as the embattled president's military is fighting to reverse rebel advances, with a rocket attack killing at least 12 people in a central village on Wednesday. (AP Photo/SANA)

In this image from video broadcast on Syrian state television Wednesday, April 17, 2013, President Bashar Assad speaks during an interview. yria's president accused the West on Wednesday of backing al-Qaida in his country's civil war, warning it will pay a price "in the heart" of Europe and the United States as the terror network becomes emboldened. The rare TV interview comes as the embattled president's military is fighting to reverse rebel advances, with a rocket attack killing at least 12 people in a central village on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Syrian State TV via AP video)

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's president accused the West on Wednesday of backing al-Qaida in his country's civil war, warning it will pay a price "in the heart" of Europe and the United States as the terror network becomes emboldened.

Bashar Assad also lashed out at Jordan for allowing "thousands" of fighters to enter Syria through its borders and warned that the "fire will not stop at Syria's border."

The rare TV interview with the government-run Al-Ikhbariya channel marking Syria's independence day comes as the embattled president's military is fighting to reverse rebel advances, with a rocket attack killing at least 12 people in a central village on Wednesday.

"Just as the West financed al-Qaida in Afghanistan in its beginnings, and later paid a heavy price, today it is supporting it in Syria, Libya and other places and will pay the price later in the heart of Europe and the United States," Assad said.

He offered no evidence to back his charge that the U.S. was now backing the international terror group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

Extremist groups such as the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra are gaining ground in Syria's two-year civil war. Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, has emerged as the most effective force among the mosaic of rebel units fighting to topple Assad.

Last week, Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammad al-Gonali pledged allegiance to al-Qaida's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Washington has designated Jabhat al-Nusra a terrorist organization over its links with al-Qaida. The Obama administration opposes directly arming Syrian opposition fighters, in part out of fear that the weapons could fall into the hands of Islamic extremists such as the Nusra Front.

Earlier this year, the U.S. announced a $60 million non-lethal assistance package for Syria that includes meals and medical supplies for the armed opposition.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized an upcoming meeting of the Friends of Syria group in Istanbul ? which brings together Western and Arab supporters of the Syrian opposition ? and said efforts to isolate Assad and to arm the opposition were strengthening Islamic militants.

"If the priority is peace, changes and democratic reforms, it's necessary to force the warring parties to sit down for talks. If Assad's departure is the priority, the cost of such geopolitical approach will be more casualties," Lavrov said.

"If we allow those making the emphasis on (a) military solution to control the situation, those horrors ... will multiply and the terrorists' influence in the region will grow," he added.

The Syrian conflict began with largely peaceful protests demanding reforms and eventually turned into an insurgency and war in response to a brutal military crackdown on the protesters. More than 70,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations.

In the hour-long interview, Assad also criticized Jordan, accusing it of allowing "thousands" of fighters to enter Syria across its borders.

His comments follow statements from U.S. and other Western and Arab officials that Jordan has been facilitating arms shipments and hosting training camps for Syrian rebels since last October.

"It's hard to believe that thousands are entering Syria with their equipment (from Jordan) when Jordan is capable of stopping or arresting a single person carrying light arms for the resistance in Palestine," Assad said.

Over the years, Syria has called Jordan a "puppet" of America because of its strong alliance with the United States. It's also accused Jordan of being a "spy" for Israel, with which Jordan maintains cordial ties under a peace treaty signed in 1994.

Assad said that Syria has sent two envoys to Jordan in the past two months to warn Jordanian officials about the dangers of the flow of fighters into Syria. He said Jordanian officials denied the reports and that their statements were "not convincing."

"We hope that Jordanian officials ... will be more aware because the fire will not stop at our border and everyone knows that Jordan is as exposed as Syria," Assad said.

On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Congress that the Pentagon is sending about 200 soldiers from a U.S. Army headquarters unit to Jordan to assist efforts to contain violence along the Syrian border and plan for any operations needed to ensure the safety of chemical weapons in Syria.

The 1st Armored Division troops will replace a similar number of U.S. forces that have been in Jordan for some months. They will include specialists in intelligence, logistics and operations. Sending a cohesive headquarters unit will enhance the troops' ability to respond to any security needs.

"Currently, the U.S. forces assisting Jordan now are troops pulled from various units and places," Hagel said.

In what has become a familiar refrain, Assad said the war on Syria was being waged by "mercenaries" and Islamic extremists but said Syria will be victorious.

"There is no other option, otherwise it will be the end of Syria," he said. Assad added that what is happening now for Syrians is like a "vaccine which, if it doesn't kill you, makes you immune."

Assad's military is currently fighting to reverse rebel advances that have left vast stretches of northern Syria in the hands of opposition fighters. The government is also eager to shore up supply lines to its forces stretched thin by the fighting.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rockets struck the central Syrian village of Eastern Buwaydah and that two children and three women were among the 12 killed. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said rebels and government forces also engaged in heavy fighting nearby.

Eastern Buwaydah is located between Homs, Syria's third-largest city, and the Lebanese border. The region is of strategic value to Assad's regime because it links Damascus with the coastal enclave that is the heartland of Syria's Alawites and also home to the country's two main seaports, Latakia and Tartus.

Syria's regime is dominated by the president's minority Alawite sect ? an offshoot of Shiite Islam ? while the rebels are mostly from the country's Sunni majority. Assad's major allies, the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group and Iran, are both Shiite.

An amateur video posted online showed at least seven bodies, including a young girl with a bloody gash to her head, laid out on the floor of a room. A man can be seen wrapping the body of a boy in a white sheet as another man standing over them cries out, "Oh God, turn us victorious against Bashar. They killed innocent children."

"Is this child carrying a gun? This child is 12 years old," says the man, who appears to be the father of the dead boy. "Oh God. You gave him to me and now you are taking him."

The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting of the events depicted.

In the northwestern province of Idlib, rebels were attacking government troops Wednesday as anti-Assad fighters tried to check recent regime advances around the military bases of Hamadiya and Wadi Deif near the city of Maaret al-Numan.

Government forces killed more than 20 fighters in an ambush in the area on Saturday, allowing them to break the rebel hold on the countryside around the bases and ferry supplies to forces in the camps. For weeks, the military had to drop supplies in by helicopter to the besieged troops.

"The rebels are trying to re-impose a siege on the camps," Abdul-Rahman said. "They want to close the highway ... to stop them from supporting Wadi Deif and Hamadiya."

The fight for the two bases fits into the broader struggle for control of northern Syria. Most of the northern countryside is in the hands of anti-Assad fighters, while the regime is holding out in isolated military bases and most urban centers.

___

AP writers Bassem Mroue and Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-17-Syria/id-fc45b9a1cd8546338004a2e1686f31ed

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Mercedes-Benz, Bosch And HDI Create New Accelerator With Startupbootcamp Berlin

We've seen a lot lately of car companies sidling up the technology world and vice versa. Consider Ford's Open Developer Program for instance. But today, three big companies get involved in startups, one of them being the huge Mercedes-Benz. It, along with industrial giant Bosch and insurance company HDI, are partnering with tech accelerator Startupbootcamp in Berlin to create a new kind of accelerator vehicle called SBC2go.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/NClHrRwr6aU/

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Boston Marathon bombings: 5 books to read in the aftermath

In times of national crisis such as the bombings at the Boston Marathon, does reading for pleasure do any good? The great food writer MFK Fisher provided an answer of sorts during World War II when she produced a cookbook, ?How to Cook a Wolf,? aimed at teaching Americans how to continue eating delicious meals even in the face of wartime shortages. She knew that readers might wonder why she was focused on such a thing at a time of national trial.

But affirming the best qualities of civilization is the best way to answer the worst qualities in human nature, Fisher told her readers several years after the war. ?Then Fate, even tangled as it is with cold wars as well as hot, cannot harm us,? she wrote.

Surely, good books rank with good food and good music as important ways to nourish our souls when times are bad.

Here are five books that offer special comfort in the wake of tragedies like the Boston bombings.

- Danny Heitman

1. 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey,' by Thornton Wilder

First published in 1927, Wilder?s novel tells the story of a bridge collapse in Peru in 1714, using the tragedy to explore the cruel acts of timing that allow some to be spared from harm and others to lose their lives. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair quoted from the book to honor the attack?s victims, saying, ?There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/vgMcYeeGSYA/Boston-Marathon-bombings-5-books-to-read-in-the-aftermath

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'Hemlock Grove' Exclusive Red-Band Trailer: Watch Now!

Eli Roth's new thriller series, starring Bill Skarsgård, debuts Friday on Netflix.
By Josh Wigler

Famke Janssen in "Hemlock Grove"
Photo: Netflix

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705733/hemlock-grove-eli-roth-netflix.jhtml

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A Mother's Top Cringe-Worthy Moments | Fatherhood Factor

Before I had my own children, I had an idea of how parenting would go. I operated under the assumption that I would parent my children to the best of my ability and that would be enough. I believed that my efforts would ensure me happy and obedient children, all the time.

I was wrong.

It turns out that you can parent a child with all your might. You can train. You can teach. You can make up good-behavior charts and bribe reward a child with all manner of stickers and special treats, but these things might not make a difference at crucial times in their life. No parent has ever been able to predict and control every choice a kid makes. That?s the thing about kids?they come with minds of their own. And this often becomes obvious in front of other people, and we mothers are embarrassed beyond words, possibly even stunned silent.

For example, our daughter recently startled a room full of relatives at the family reunion when she yelled, ?Pray, Larry!? at her grandfather. You see, my father-in-law is a dear man of God, but he often takes a bit of time to gather his thoughts before beginning the prayer. My mother-in-law has been known to nudge him with a whispered, ?Pray, Larry!? to get him moving. My own husband has taken up this prayer-hesitation as he ages, so I?ve started mimicking his mom at the dinner table. ?Pray, Larry!? I hiss at Eric.

I think I?m terribly funny, and if he?s honest, so does my husband. He snorts and starts praying. But we forgot to tell Audrey that sometimes little family jokes are just that?little and with only the four of us. So when she was hungry at the family reunion and Grandpa wasn?t on her schedule, she just did what comes naturally?she ordered him to pray. And the whole room thought it was hysterical, except for maybe me. And Grandpa, who apparently doesn?t appreciate being called by his first name by a grandchild. He did get right to the prayer, so I guess the child made her point.

In another example, I think of the time that Caleb threw up on me, all over me, at story time at the library. We were sitting quietly when I suddenly realized he was burning up, then he was throwing up. There was no time to prevent the disaster. My first instinct was to start cleaning the mess, but there was no way I could do that and care for my sick child at the same time. The dear librarians came to my rescue and started mopping up the mess. They cleaned the carpet and the chair and sent me home. My daughter was heartbroken to leave story time early, so they let her stay and then walked her home when it was over.

I could go on and on about the chances God has given me to get over myself as I parent. In fact, I wrote an entire book called There?s a Green Plastic Monkey in My Purse, and it?s all about the ways God has let me grow closer to Him through parenting. Each parenting challenge is another chance to move past my initial reaction to seek the good of my children, and to move past pride and self-absorption. These things are poison to our walks with God, and He lets the difficulties of parenting teach us this over and over.

Colossians 3:12-15 says:

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other?s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful. (NLT)

Those cringe-worthy moments in motherhood give me a chance to do just these things. They let me learn how to clothe myself with tenderheartedness towards a child even when I?m embarrassed. They give me a chance to react with kindness when a child blurts out something at the wrong time. They let me learn forgiveness over and over again, just like Christ forgives me over and over again. My life is not about me. I live to glorify God, and He teaches me how to do it as I parent. I pray that He lets you learn these same blessed things through your own experiences as a parent!

About the Author

Jessie Clemence is a mother of two fun and occasionally sassy children who keep life interesting. She is married to Eric and their family lives in southwest Michigan. To find Jessie online, visit her blog at www.jessieclemence.com. You can keep up with their daily adventures there.

Source: http://fatherhoodfactor.com/a-mothers-cringe-worthy-moments/

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