Cowboys Stadium gets 1st playoff championship game

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2011, file photo, fans cheer as the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys play in an NFL football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press that Arlington, Texas, has beaten out Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first title game in the new playoff system. The game will be Jan. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2011, file photo, fans cheer as the St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys play in an NFL football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press that Arlington, Texas, has beaten out Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first title game in the new playoff system. The game will be Jan. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Sharon Ellman, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2009, file photo, the Dallas Cowboys new football stadium Cowboys Stadium is shown in Arlington, Texas. A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press that Arlington, Texas, has beaten out Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first title game in the new playoff system. The game will be Jan. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Donna McWilliam, File)

Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Bill Hancock, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Bill Hancock, right, executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, introduces the new name - College Football Playoffs - and competition framework of what will replace the BCS in 2014 at a meeting of the football conference commissioners in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, April 23, 2013. He is joined onstage by, from left, commissioners Mike Slive of the Southeastern Conference, Britton Banowsky of Conference USA, Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12, and Larry Scott of the Pac-12. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? The grandest stage in sports was too much for the guys who are putting together the College Football Playoff to pass up.

The BCS conference commissioners announced Wednesday that Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, edged Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first championship game in the new playoff system.

"The stadium itself was the biggest determiner," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said about the $1.2 billion dollar, 100,000-plus seat home of the NFL's Cowboys and the Cotton Bowl. "It's still THE stadium with a capital 'T.'"

The College Football Championship Game will be held Jan. 12, 2015.

"We couldn't be more excited about bringing college football's biggest game to Cowboys Stadium," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said in a statement. "Rest assured, we all pledge to do everything we can to make sure this game exceeds everyone's highest expectations."

The final three sites for the semifinal rotation also were announced during the second of three days of meetings at a resort hotel a few miles from the Rose Bowl. And Cowboys Stadium came up a winner again. The Cotton Bowl will be part of the six-bowl rotation, along with the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta and the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also bid for a spot in the semifinal rotation, but couldn't pull the upset.

The Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls are already part of the semifinal rotation. The Rose and Sugar will host the first semifinals Jan. 1, 2015,

The next season, the Cotton and Orange bowls will host the semifinals on New Year's Eve. The semis will be played in the Fiesta and Chick-fil-A bowls after the 2016 season.

In the years those games do not host a national semifinal, they will stage a major, BCS-type bowl game played on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. That means two days of huge college football triple-headers.

For the Cotton Bowl and its organizers, landing a spot in the rotation and the first title game is the culmination of a long slow return to prominence for a game with a rich history.

The game dates to 1937 and has hosted some of the most memorable matchups in college football, including Notre Dame's stirring comeback victory led by Joe Montana against Houston in the 1979 game.

But when the Bowl Championship Series was implemented in 1998, the Cotton Bowl was left out and lost much of its luster. Organizers for years tried to break into the BCS, but couldn't overcome the limitations of their antiquated namesake stadium in Dallas.

Things turned for the Cotton Bowl when it moved out of the old stadium at the fairgrounds in 2010 and into Cowboys Stadium.

When the conference commissioners announced last year that the BCS would be abandoned for a four-team playoff starting in 2014, with the championship game bid out like a Super Bowl, it was all but assumed the Cotton Bowl would be part of the new system and that Cowboys Stadium would be a strong candidate to eventually host a championship game.

They didn't have to wait long to accomplish both goals.

"The Cotton Bowl did it right," Hancock said. "Kept the Cotton Bowl a terrific event, bided their time and now they're back among the top group."

Tampa made a strong push for the first championship game to be played at Raymond James Stadium, home of the NFL's Buccaneers and the Outback Bowl. But Jones' football palace was too much to overcome.

"They were very close. Tampa won a lot of hearts and minds of the commissioners," Hancock said.

Raymond James' capacity is listed at 65,857, but seated about 71,000 for the Super Bowl. Hancock said neither bidder guaranteed a specific amount of revenue.

"Obviously, with 20,000 more tickets certainly there are better revenue opportunities," Hancock said.

As for filling out the rest of the rotation, the sites that got the nod were no surprise.

The Fiesta Bowl has been part of the Bowl Championship Series from the start, though its place among the elite bowls was threatened when the Arizona Republic reported in December 2009 allegations of a political-contribution scheme being run by game organizers. It also was revealed the bowl officials were misusing funds.

The scandal was an embarrassment to the BCS and the conferences that run it, but the Fiesta Bowl overhauled its front office and implemented reforms that allowed the game to stay in the good graces of the commissioners.

"This is a confirmation that that's all in the rearview mirror," Fiesta Bowl executive director Robert Shelton said.

In the heart of both the SEC and Atlantic Coast Conference, Atlanta gives the College Football Playoff a second game in the East, joining the Orange Bowl in Miami.

The Chick-fil-A Bowl, formerly the Peach Bowl, has been played in the Georgia Dome since 1992.

"For 16 years, we've made this our goal," said Gary Stokan, president of the Chick-fil-A bowl.

A new domed stadium is in the works for Atlanta and the Chick-fil-A bowl will move into that when it opens in 2017.

The new postseason system was named the College Football Playoff by the conference commissioners Tuesday, the first of three days of meetings at a resort hotel a few miles from the Rose Bowl.

Now that the sites are locked in, the only major remaining issue to tackle for the commissioners is the composition and structure of the selection committee, which will pick the teams that play for the national championship.

That won't be finalized at these meetings, but it's on the agenda and they would like to leave California with a framework in place.

___

Follow Ralph D. Russo at www.Twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-24-BCS%20Changes/id-5633838c140143928cea2934a0fe4e66

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HTC: Nokia's injunction doesn't apply to the One

In an email to press, HTC took the opportunity to make a few clarifications about the injunction filed by Nokia this week regarding the dual-membrane microphone in the One. The preliminary injunction claims that the high-amplitude mic, which HTC uses in its flagship device, was supposed to be manufactured exclusively for the Finnish company (and currently used in the Lumia 720). If you've been wondering how this particular action would affect sales of the high-end HTC handset, spokespeople assure us that it's business as usual for the company. According to its official statement, the One is not the actual target of any injunction in The Netherlands -- in actuality, the legalities of the matter are apparently only between Nokia and STMicroelectronics, the supplier of the component in question. HTC tells us that Nokia's attempts to institute a recall of the One failed; since the products were purchased in good faith, the ruling states that HTC can continue to use microphones that were already bought. The Taiwanese manufacturer plans to make a transition to "improved microphone designs" as soon as its current stock of STM inventory has been sold. Head below to see the full statement.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, Nokia

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/24/htc-nokia-injunction/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Pro-Kremlin youth hunt down 'spice' pushers

MOSCOW (AP) ? Two men in their early twenties lie face down in the snow, hands tied behind their backs, heads doused with dark red paint. A dozen young men, some wearing surgical masks, wreck a car with hammers and axes. One sets fire to a plastic bag filled with a greenish powder and a stack of cards that read: "Aroma. Smoking mixes."

The powder is a synthetic drug known as "spice" that is Russia's latest scourge. The pair on the ground are pushers. And the hammer-wielding men? Vigilantes fighting the drug's spread with widespread public approval, admiring television coverage ? and, according to critics, the Kremlin's tacit blessing.

The anti-drug gangs roaming streets in Moscow and other urban centers are an offshoot of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Young Russia. The vigilantes, who call themselves the Young Anti-Drugs Special Forces, have tapped into rising public outrage over the spread of drug use in Russia, and the impotence of law enforcement to stop it. They are also stirring concerns about President Vladimir Putin's perceived tolerance for extralegal actions against forces considered harmful to the regime or to public order.

Young Russia and a half dozen other pro-Kremlin youth groups were formed in the mid-2000s, analysts and opposition figures say, to prevent street protests similar to those that ushered pro-Western opposition forces into power in three ex-Soviet states: Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. Russian authorities are accused of encouraging violence, or the threat of violence, by youth gangs when dealing with what they see as threats to stability. The vigilantes' free hand indicates that the spice epidemic is seen as one of such threats.

The Interior Ministry, which controls Russia's police, declined comment to The Associated Press on the gangs. The head of Russia's anti-drugs agency, Viktor Ivanov, criticized the group's actions as illegal and "nothing but noise."

Spice consists of herbs coated in chemicals that mimic the effects of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. In recent years, millions here, mostly teenagers, have smoked various kinds of spice, attracted by its cheapness, availability and reputation for being harmless, officials and anti-drug campaigners say. Reliable figures on usage are not available because of the variety of kinds of spice on offer and the lack of official studies on the phenomenon.

Pushers sell bags of spice for less than $15, in schools or online, from bulletproof cars and shops with barred windows and metal doors. Their phone numbers are often scrawled on walls or sidewalks, or printed on business cards that carry messages such as "100 percent harmless smoking mix" and "Smoke and go to paradise." Some pushers never see their customers and text message the whereabouts of a spice stash after getting a money transfer.

Spice is mass produced in China and Southeast Asia and exported to Russia as bath salts, incense and slimming additives, often in mail packages.

Ivanov, who heads Russia's Federal Drug Control Agency, said fighting spice is nearly impossible, because banning one or more ingredients means manufacturers simply change the molecular structure of the chemicals or replace the herbs to skirt the law.

"There are 900 versions of it, and every week they come up with a new one," Ivanov told The Associated Press.

And that's where the masked men with hammers come in. The Anti-Drugs Special Forces, widely known by their Russian acronym, MAS, was formed last year and includes dozens of activists in Moscow, many of them with a background in martial arts. Leaders say the group gets funding from donors and small city-run construction projects that its volunteers work on.

And the group has its own formula for hunting down spice traders. They track down a pusher. One of them uses a hidden camera to videotape a "control purchase." And then a dozen or more attack, while one or two of them shoot video.

They sometimes face no resistance from lone pushers who beg to be released and swear never to sell spice anymore. Other times, they fail to break into their fortified shops, leaving after painting the doors and bullet-proof windows with graffiti saying: "Drugs are sold here" or "They kill your children with impunity." On rare occasions, pushers fight back or call their bosses ? burly men with guns and knives.

An Associated Press reporter observed the Moscow attacks on the two pushers who were doused with red paint in the snow.

Screaming obscenities and threats, more than a dozen vigilantes wearing masks and holding hammers surrounded a man with a baseball bat who had just jumped out of a parked car. The man moved backward, swinging his bat as several masked vigilantes closed in. The driver sat in the car, face convulsed with fear.

The attackers broke a window of the car and threw in a smoke candle, forcing the driver out. They punched and kicked him, tied his arms and legs with duct-tape and threw him to the snow, dousing his head with paint. From the car's front seat, they took a plastic bag with spice and set it afire. Seconds later, the first man was tied up and also soaked in paint. The assailants smashed the car with metal bars and hammers and turned it on its side.

The group admits that its methods are illegal.

"We're walking on the edge, but you have to understand that fighting drugs is a serious thing," said group leader Alexei Grunichev, fair-haired and gaunt, while showing raid videos on his laptop at the group's headquarters in several decrepit rooms. "We also understand our guilt for what we do, but I think that what we do is right and we will fight, keep fighting using these methods until law enforcement agencies, authorities can put everything under control."

The group claims to have conducted more than 300 raids over the past year in Moscow alone, and posts many raid videos online. These short clips are the backbone of the group's reputation and popular support ? despite the violence, obscenities and property damage they contain. They are available on YouTube, the website of their mother group, Young Russia, and on the group's page on vl.com, Russia's most popular social networking site.

Hundreds of Russians leave encouraging messages on the group's webpages, young rappers praise them in songs and Russian television networks run reports on the group's raids.

"People often say, 'You should just kill those pushers,' although that's not the way we work," says Arkady Grichishkin, an agitated 21-year-old martial arts student often seen on the group's videos as a leader of raids.

The Federal Drugs Control Agency said it does not condone the group's raids.

"We cannot welcome it," said Ivanov. "It lies beyond law ? first of all. And secondly, it makes nothing but noise." The vigilantes, however, appear to see Ivanov as an ally, posting his portrait on the walls of their headquarters.

Users say that the high they get is extremely intense and hallucinogenic. After several weeks of using spice, the drug causes sleep and weight loss, hypertension, seizures and can even lead to schizophrenia, according to officials, health experts and studies in Russia, EU and the U.S.

Users' parents also appear to be worried.

"Eighty per cent of phone calls our hot line gets are about spice," says Alexander Bysov of the Moscow-based Sodeistvie ? or Assistance ? anti-drugs fund that has a hotline for drug addicts and their parents and runs a rehab. "Parents are already crying SOS."

___

Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr. contributed to this report

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pro-kremlin-youth-hunt-down-spice-pushers-064422126.html

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Family tree Alpha - Free Family tree Download at Downloadplex.com

from Stefan Fl?ser

Create your own family tree with java.

Family tree is a lightweight application built in Java that you can use to create your family genealogical tree, save it to your computer or export it as an image file.

Family tree allows you to add all the family members and specify the relationship types. Based on the input data, the application automatically generates the family tree, enabling you to zoom in and out or set its dimensions.

System Requirements:

Java
Program Release Status: New Release
Program Install Support: Install and Uninstall

Source: http://www.downloadplex.com/Windows/Home-Hobby/Genealogy/family-tree_514778.html

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HTC: Injunction will not affect current One phones, new mic design in progress

HTC sets the record straight about the court actions in the Netherlands -- there is no injunction against HTC, there will be no recall of smart phones

HTC has released a statement today concerning the recent court hearings between ST Microelectronics and Nokia. In case you didn't catch it, Nokia sought an injunction over part of the microphone assembly used in the HTC One provided by ST Micro. The courts found in Nokia's favor, but agreed that HTC was "blameless" and no action was taken against them. 

In light of several misleading stories regarding a recent injunction obtained by Nokia against STM (a supplier of components to HTC in The Netherlands) HTC looks to clarify the following points:

• Nokia has NOT obtained an injunction in The Netherlands, or anywhere else, against the HTC One.
• The Dutch proceedings were brought by Nokia solely against STM.   HTC was not sued by Nokia in the Netherlands.
• The Dutch injunction prohibits STM from selling certain microphones to any company other than Nokia for a limited period.
• The judgment against STM states that HTC can continue to use microphones already purchased from STM in its products, because they were purchased in good-faith. Nokia's attempt to obtain a recall of microphones already sold to HTC failed.
• HTC will transition to improved microphone designs once its inventory of STM microphones is exhausted.

Most interesting is the "improved" microphone design they will be moving to. We'll keep an eye out for that one. 

The reception of the HTC One seems to have been very good, and this is good news for everyone who wants to pick one up.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/U8Dj6lK9XFo/story01.htm

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Boston attack's impact on immigration debate

Tamerlan Tsarnaev waits for a decision during the 2009 Golden Gloves National Tournament??The immigration status of the Boston bombings suspects may become a stumbling block for a new bill that seeks to legalize nearly 11 million immigrants and increase the number of legal immigrants to the United States.

Opponents of the bill?which was crafted by a bipartisan "Gang of Eight" in the Senate?and even some supporters, say the process of reforming the country's immigration system should be stalled until all the facts about the suspects' interactions with the immigration system are known.

Both Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombings, emigrated to the United States legally from Russia as refugees a decade ago when they were children. The Tsarnaev family, which is ethnically Chechen, was granted asylum because it feared persecution in its home country, according to media reports.

Tamerlan's application for citizenship was put on hold in 2012 by the government, because he had been questioned by the FBI at the request of the Russian government for possible ties to Chechen terrorism, the New York Times reported. Dzhokhar's citizenship application was approved, and he naturalized in 2012.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over the bill on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended immigration officials' handling of the Tsarnaevs, saying the process for granting asylum is rigorous.

"In the past four years we have increased both the number and the coverage of the vetting that goes on," Napolitano said. As things currently stand, she noted, those who seek asylum must go through multiple screening interviews and submit biometric data to be checked across government databases. If granted asylum and legal status, immigrants must go through two more interviews if they want to become citizens when they become eligible five years later.

(Asylum applicants must show that they face government-sanctioned persecution in their home country stemming from their race, religion, nationality, political views or membership in a particular social group.)

Napolitano argued that the immigration reform bill would make the country safer because the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country would be brought "out of the shadows" and screened. The bill requires immigrants to pass a background check before they are eligible for temporary legal status. They must pay fines and back taxes and enroll in English classes to gain permanent legal status.

Opponents of the immigration bill have argued that the Tsarnaevs' alleged crime suggests that the current immigration system is unable to weed out potential terrorists, and that the process of crafting the bill should be slowed down to address that. If the bill is stalled until next fall, opponents hope it will be close enough to the next election that on-the-fence lawmakers will withdraw their support, effectively killing the bill. President Barack Obama has said he hopes the bill will pass this summer.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, one of the most prominent opponents of legalizing immigrants, said at Monday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the legalization process in the bill could present a national security threat.

"The background checks in this bill are insufficient from preventing a terrorist from getting amnesty," Kobach said.

Supporters of the immigration reform bill say the argument is a specious excuse to delay the legislation.

"Unless we are able to design an immigration background check that can get into the minds of people and predict the future, then we won't be able to solve problems like this through immigration screening alone," said Lynn Tramonte of America's Voice, a pro-immigration advocacy group.

It's also unclear how the immigration system could have known what two children seeking asylum with their family would do 10 years later.

But even some lawmakers who have indicated their support for the bill have raised concern about the Boston suspects.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been a vocal supporter of immigration reform, wrote in a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid that the immigration reform process should stop until all the facts are known about the intersection between the immigration system and the Tsarnaev brothers.

"Why did the current system allow two individuals to immigrate to the United States from the Chechen Republic in Russia, an area known as a hotbed of Islamic extremism, who then committed acts of terrorism? Were there any safeguards? Could this have been prevented? Does the immigration reform before us address this?" Paul asked.

He said Congress should debate whether immigrants from "high-risk" nations should face more "scrutiny" and whether student visas for people from certain "high-risk" countries altogether should be discontinued.

Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said on ABC on Sunday that he hopes lawmakers will put the immigration debate "on hold" because of the bombing.

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, a group that opposes illegal immigration and wants to dramatically lower rates of legal immigration, said he thinks it's significant that Paul and Coats have called for slowing down the bill.

"The Boston bombing gives them a little more of a public reason to try to get this to slow down," Beck said.

If the bill is delayed until the fall, Republicans and red-state Democrats might think it is too close to election season to support it, Beck predicts.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/bombing-suspects-immigration-status-emerges-reform-bill-talks-160951186--election.html

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Coby MID1065

Coby's latest crop of Android tablets offer decent performance at rock-bottom prices. That's been the company's M.O. for years. The big news here is Google certification?a first for the company?which means the newest tablets have access to the Google Play app store. The MID1065 ($209.99 list) is one of the least expensive 10-inch tablets on the market, and aside from the predictably pedestrian performance, there's actually a lot to like here. You get a clean, albeit increasingly dated, version of Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich," microSD card expansion, mini HDMI out, and a relatively sharp IPS display. It's not going to match some other high-end Androids on performance and features, but it's a nice budget alternative to more-expensive tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire 8.9 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1).

Editors' Note: The Coby MID1065 is virtually identical to the MID7065?and MID8065 except for screen size and price, so we're sharing a lot of material between these three reviews. That said, we're testing each device separately?and comparing it with the competition in its size/price range.

Design and Features
The MID1065 closely resembles the aforementioned Galaxy Tab 2, but in a surprising twist, it outdoes Samsung's tablet with a sturdy metal back rather than flex-prone plastic. At 10.2 by 7.1 by 0.4 inches (HWD) and 1.3 pounds, the MID1065 is on the thick and heavy side of 10-inch tablets. Along the bottom panel are the power connector, mini HDMI out, and micro USB port for syncing, but not charging. The Power and Volume buttons sit along the top left edge, with a microSD card slot along the bottom left edge. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack along the top edge (opposite all the other ports), with dual speaker grilles and a rear-facing camera on the back of the tablet. It's a healthy selection of ports and adds value to the already-affordable tablet.?

The 1,280-by-800-pixel IPS LCD might not be full HD, but it's reasonably sharp at 149 ppi and offers a very wide viewing angle, which you don't always see on budget tablets, including Coby's own MID7065 and MID8065. The display is bright, text looks crisp, and colors appear accurate.

The MID1065 is a Wi-Fi only tablet that connects to 802.11b/g/n networks on the 2.4GHz frequency only. There's also Bluetooth 2.1, which is a nice bonus at this price. The MID1065 comes in a single 8GB-capacity model, but our 32 and 64GB SanDisk microSD cards worked fine.

Android and Performance
The MID1065 is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Amlogic Cortex A9 processor with 1GB RAM and a MALI 400 GPU. It's not the fastest setup, but it bested the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) with its dual-core 1GHz Cortex A9 processor in all of our benchmarks and matches the performance of the 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD. Unfortunately, benchmarks don't tell the whole story for the MID1065. While the tablet has a sharp display and more than capable components to run Android 4.0 smoothly, I experienced some choppiness with certain actions in my testing. Swiping through home screens and scrolling on websites introduced some frustrating stutters. The problem seems to be the touch-screen digitizer. It feels like there are virtual click-stops built in, which turns a smooth swipe across the display into a stuttering mess. That said, apps open reasonably quickly, and switching between multiple apps didn't cause much lag. Games that don't require touch input, like Riptide GP, played smoothly and without issue. A game that requires a lot of swiping and touch input, like Temple Run 2, was a bit more frustrating as touch input seemed delayed as well. On top of that, I noticed a delay between when the Power button is pressed and when the display actually wakes up.

Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" is now two versions behind the latest 4.2 "Jelly Bean" build, but Coby leaves the OS unskinned, which might make this tablet appealing to Android purists with tight budgets. Newcomers, however, might be better served by the more polished, easy-to-use custom Android skins like Samsung's TouchWiz or the heavily modified version of Android featured on Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets.

While previous Coby tablets were burdened with second-rate app stores like GetJar, the MID1065 offers up full access to Google Play with more than 800,000 apps and a healthy selection of books, videos, and music, as well as top-notch built-in Google apps like Gmail and Maps.?

For media support, the MID1065 handles Xvid, DivX, MPEG4, H.264, and AVI videos at up to 1080p resolution. For audio, you get MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and WMA support. Screen mirroring worked fine using a mini HDMI cable, and the tablet was able to output video at 720p or 1080p resolution. Like most tablets, the cameras are underwhelming: The 2-megapixel rear-facing camera takes dimly exposed, grainy pictures in low light, while good lighting conditions still produce waxy pictures that are sapped of fine detail. The front-facing 0.3-megapixel camera is suitable for Skype calls, but not much else. Video is limited to 640-by-480-pixel resolution and choppy frame rates that hover around 15 fps.

In our battery rundown test, which loops a video with screen brightness set to max and Wi-Fi on, the MID1065 lasted an unimpressive 4 hours, 37 minutes. To compare, the 10-inch Galaxy Tab 2 hit 6 hours, 17 minutes and the Asus Transformer Pad TF300 was able to last 7 hours and 53 minutes in the same test.?

Conclusions
Coby's latest line of MID tablets is a notable step forward for the company. The addition of Google certification and app store access brings the brand out of the cheap, generic drug-store tablet fray. And the MID1065 is the best of the bunch, with a surprisingly sturdy design, connections galore, and a sharp IPS display. Unfortunately, it's hampered by an imprecise touch screen that leads to frequent choppiness. Still, for $200 it's hard to beat the combination of features you get with the MID1065, and it's worth checking out as an alternative to more-expensive mainstream options like the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1) or even the Kindle Fire HD 8.9", if you're on a strict budget and need a tablet with a large screen.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/_vrgkYZz1F8/0,2817,2417880,00.asp

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?Potentially harmful substance? sent to U.S. military base

Authorities are investigating whether a poisonous substance was sent to a U.S. military base in Washington, D.C., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday.

Reid told reporters there was "an alleged ricin incident" at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, which serves the Navy and Air Force and is located in the southeastern part of the city.

A spokesman for the Defense Intelligence Agency confirmed that a mail screening detected a "potentially harmful substance" at the base.

"This morning, DIA security personnel detected a potentially harmful substance during routine screening of incoming mail," DIA spokesman Lt. Col. Thomas F. Veale told Yahoo News in an email. "Tests by experts called in to assist indicate possible biological toxins. Prudent screening methods and force protection measures were implemented to prevent personnel from being harmed. DIA has maintained normal operations, and will not comment further on this event until an investigation is complete."

The news comes just days after letters were mailed to the offices of Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, President Barack Obama and a Mississippi state judge that tested positive for ricin, which can be deadly if inhaled.

A suspect held in the investigations of the other ricin-laced letters, Paul Kevin Curtis, was released from custody earlier Tuesday. The investigation is still ongoing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/potentially-harmful-substance-sent-u-military-near-washington-194353907--politics.html

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Kerry seeks to boost Afghan, Pakistan ties

AAA??Apr. 24, 2013?11:04 AM ET
Kerry seeks to boost Afghan, Pakistan ties
By MATTHEW LEEBy MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press??

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, and Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asfhaq Parvez Kayani as they take a walk during a break in a meeting on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in Brussels, Belgium. The trilateral meeting is to discuss regional security issues, and the 2014 withdrawal of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, and Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asfhaq Parvez Kayani as they take a walk during a break in a meeting on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in Brussels, Belgium. The trilateral meeting is to discuss regional security issues, and the 2014 withdrawal of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, laughs as Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, and Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asfhaq Parvez Kayani shake hands after he made a statement after a meeting on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in Brussels, Belgium. The trilateral meeting is to discuss regional security issues, and the 2014 withdrawal of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, and Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asfhaq Parvez Kayani on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in Brussels, Belgium. The trilateral meeting is to discuss regional security issues, and the 2014 withdrawal of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a statement after a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Army Chief Gen. Asfhaq Parvez Kayani on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, in Brussels, Belgium. The trilateral meeting is to discuss regional security issues, and the 2014 withdrawal of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry brought senior Afghan and Pakistani officials together Wednesday for security talks aimed at improving relations between the two nations ahead of next year's withdrawal of NATO combat forces from Afghanistan.

Kerry met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani military chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani at Truman Hall, the secluded estate on the outskirts of Brussels that is home to the U.S. ambassador to NATO. Kerry said as he opened the meeting that the talks were important, as Afghanistan is currently in a "critical transformational period."

The meeting lasted about three hours and included lunch and a stroll around the estate's manicured gardens, but apparently did little to ease the tension between Afghanistan and Pakistan as all sides try to lure the Taliban to peace negotiations.

"It's fair to say that there is a good feeling among all of us that we made progress in this dialogue. But we have all agreed that results are what will tell the story, not statements at a press conference," Kerry told reporters after the meeting.

"We have a lot of homework to do. We are not going to raise expectations or make promises that can't be delivered," he said, noting it was better to "under-promise but deliver."

Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been strained over links between Pakistan's security apparatus and the Taliban. The U.S. supports Afghan-Taliban reconciliation but Karzai has said the effort must have Pakistan's backing to succeed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-24-EU-US-Afghanistan-Pakistan/id-199523d8c9534c499d75994825560881

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Sony PS4 share button the result of one first-party developer's eureka moment

To share or not to share was never a question for the creation of the PS4 -- it was always more about the how. Right from the start, Sony's upcoming, next-gen console had been planned with a social networking bent, but as Shuhei Yoshida, the company's head of Worldwide Studios, revealed to Edge, the decision to build a Share button into the DualShock 4 was the result of one first-party developer's eureka moment, not a cross-SCEI compromise. All credit is due Nathan Gary, creative director at Santa Monica Studio (best known for its God of War series), who successfully pitched the concept of a dedicated controller button to the PS4 team; an idea that was not only quickly met with unanimous praise, but also immediately implemented into the final product. It's yet further proof that Sony's learned from its past PS3 fumbling and has crafted a machine for developers, by developers.

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

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Source: Edge

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/23/sony-ps4-share-button/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Airline service improves but delays still possible

An American Airlines plane takes off at LAX International airport in Los Angeles Monday, April 22, 2013. Some fliers headed to Los Angeles International Airport were met with delays yesterday on the first day of staffing cuts for air traffic controllers because of government spending reductions. Budget cuts that kicked in last month forced the FAA to give controllers extra days off. Commercial airline flights moved smoothly throughout most of the country on Sunday, April 21, 2013, the first day air traffic controllers were subject to furloughs resulting from government spending cuts, though some delays appeared in the late evening in and around New York. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

An American Airlines plane takes off at LAX International airport in Los Angeles Monday, April 22, 2013. Some fliers headed to Los Angeles International Airport were met with delays yesterday on the first day of staffing cuts for air traffic controllers because of government spending reductions. Budget cuts that kicked in last month forced the FAA to give controllers extra days off. Commercial airline flights moved smoothly throughout most of the country on Sunday, April 21, 2013, the first day air traffic controllers were subject to furloughs resulting from government spending cuts, though some delays appeared in the late evening in and around New York. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Penny MacDonald was supposed to depart Tampa International Airport on Monday April 22, 2013 at 1:40, but her flight to Toronto had been delayed to 3:10. She passed the time by knitting at the gate. A combination of furloughs of FAA air controllers due to sequestration and bad weather in the northeast caused hiccups in the commercial airline system on Monday. (AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times, Edmund D. Fountain)

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas listens at left, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. speaks to reporters about Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spending cuts, Tuesday, April 23, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A day after flight delays plagued much of the nation, air travel was smoother Tuesday, but the government warned passengers that the situation could change by the hour as thousands of air-traffic controllers are forced to take furloughs because of budget cuts.

Meanwhile, airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to reduce spending. Airlines are worried about the long-term costs late flights will have on their budgets and on passengers.

"I just can't imagine this stays in place for an extended period of time. It's just such terrible policy," US Airways CEO Doug Parker said. "We can handle it for a little while, but it can't continue."

The delays are the most visible effect yet of Congress and the White House's failure to agree on a long-term deficit-reduction plan.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said no one should be surprised by the problem, noting that he warned about it two months ago.

His solution: Blame Congress for the larger budget cuts that affected all parts of government, including a $600 million hit to the Federal Aviation Administration.

"This has nothing to do with politics," LaHood said. "This is very bad policy that Congress passed, and they should fix it."

Critics of the FAA insist the agency could reduce its budget in other spots that would not inconvenience travelers.

Sens. John D. Rockefeller IV, a West Virginia Democrat, and John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, sent a letter to LaHood on Monday accusing the FAA of being "slow and disturbingly limited" in response to their questions. They suggested the FAA could divert money from other accounts, such as those devoted to research, commercial space transportation and modernization of the air-traffic control computers.

Others in Congress urged the Obama administration to postpone the furlough for at least 30 days.

In the past five years, the FAA's operating budget has grown by 10.4 percent while the number of domestic commercial flights has fallen 13 percent.

"There's no cause for this. It's a cheap political stunt," said Michael Boyd, an aviation consultant who does work for the major airlines.

The FAA says the numbers aren't so clear cut. In that time, the government has signed a new, more expensive contract with air traffic controllers, added 400 new aviation safety inspectors and beefed up its payroll to deploy a new air traffic-control computer system.

So given the budget cuts, FAA officials say they now have no choice but to furlough all 47,000 agency employees ? including nearly 15,000 controllers ? because salaries make up 70 percent of the agency's budget. Each employee will lose one day of work every two weeks.

Planes will have to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.

About 400 delays piled up Sunday and another 1,200 Monday that were linked to the furloughs. The FAA did not predict the number of delayed flights Tuesday but warned of possible problems in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Las Vegas.

Travel has not yet reached the levels the FAA warned about where some airports ? like those in Atlanta or New York or Chicago ? could see delays of more than three hours. Mother Nature has so far cooperated.

"Bad weather would make this much worse," Parker added.

There's also potential that passengers will be scared away by fears over delays. Many families are now planning summer vacations and might choose a driving trip instead.

If the FAA staffing shortage persists into the summer, airlines will also have less flexibility to ease passengers' pain.

For instance, Delta Air Lines canceled about 90 flights Monday because of worries about delays. Just about every passenger was rebooked on another Delta flight within a couple of hours, according to Ed Bastian, Delta's president.

In the busy summer travel months, the airline might not have enough empty seats to accommodate passengers from canceled flights.

Summer also brings thunderstorms, which are the biggest source of airline delays. Unlike snowstorms, which are forecast days in advance, thunderstorms can develop quickly and are unpredictable.

"This is just the beginning of what promises to be a huge economic disruption," the National Air Traffic Controllers Association warned in a statement Tuesday. "This is no way to run the world's safest, most efficient national airspace system. Controllers continue to do their best every day to keep the system running. It's time policymakers show the same amount of effort and dedication."

The federal budget cuts are also eating into the company's bottom line, with defense company employees cutting their flight budgets by 20 percent in the last month.

Unlike Delta, US Airways didn't cancel flights in advance.

"It's really difficult to do because we don't know where the issues are going to be until the issues are there," said the airline's president, Scott Kirby.

US Airways operates a hub at Washington National airport, and government business accounted for 3 percent of its revenue last year. Government revenue dropped 37 percent in March because of the spending cuts and the timing of Easter, Kirby said.

"As long as the sequester stays in place, I expect that government-related demand will continue to be depressed," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy and Jim Abrams in Washington, Tom Krisher in Detroit and Josh Freed in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

___

Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-23-FAA-Flight%20Delays/id-0f189b37f37b41dea325298d6d2cc104

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We want your UFC 159 picks

After months and months of build-up, UFC 159 is (almost) here. The light heavyweight championship is on the line, along with other fights that have some animosity behind them. We want your picks, but we're doing things a little differently this time.

Go to Cagewriter's Facebook page and vote for who you think will win. Click on the fight for the poll that bout:

Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen
Alan Belcher vs. Michael Bisping
Cheick Kongo vs. Roy Nelson
Phil Davis vs. Vinny Magalhaes
Pat Healy vs. Jim Miller

If you want your picks to show up on Cagewriter next to picks from Kevin Iole and me, write in the comments why you think your choice will win. On Friday, we'll run picks and results of the poll.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/want-ufc-159-picks-164853317--mma.html

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Olivia Newton-John's Sister Has Brain Cancer, Singer Delays Vegas ...

Olivia Newton-John is putting family first. The Australian singer and actress, 64, has postponed a Las Vegas concert series in order to support older sister Rona Newton-John, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer.

PHOTOS: Australian stars

Sharing "the very sad news" with Entertainment Tonight, the Grease star explained, "I have decided to postpone my forthcoming Las Vegas residency to spend time with her and our family." Olivia herself battled (and defeated) breast cancer 20 years ago, and adds: "As a cancer 'thriver' myself, as many people are, I am very aware of the importance of love, support and family during this journey she is about to begin."

PHOTOS: Stars who've battled cancer

The "Physical" singer had been preparing to perform multiple shows at the Flamingo Casino during Donny and Marie Osmond's break. "I want to thank everyone in advance for respecting our privacy during this difficult time," adds the star, who is expected to reschedule her Vegas dates at a later time.

PHOTOS Famous siblings

Like her sister, Rona Newton-John is also an actress, and was married to her sister's late Grease costar Jeff Conaway from 1980 to 1985. She and Conaway shared son, race-car driver Emerson.

?

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/olivia-newton-johns-sister-has-brain-cancer-singer-delays-vegas-shows-2013234

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First 'Star Trek Into Darkness' Clip Turns Up The Heat On Spock

The action-packed snippet from the J.J. Abrams sequel puts the entire crew at risk.
By Kevin P. Sullivan, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706145/star-trek-into-darkness-spock-clip.jhtml

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Ciara And Future Invite Fans To Their 'Sensual' 'Body Party'

'The mission is to take you back to that day when guys weren't too cool to dance in the club,' Ciara tells MTV News of her new brand-new video.
By Rob Markman

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706197/ciara-future-body-party.jhtml

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Y Combinator of Education, Imagine K12, Raises A ?Start Fund? Of Its Own, Brings Funding For Each Startup To $100K

According to Y Combinator's estimates, today, there are more than 100 startup accelerators in the U.S., which is almost awe-inspiring considering that there were only four as recently as 2007. While the number of accelerators and incubators continues to rise, popping up in nearly every vertical, Education has been slower to get the memo.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Nq_YuF2unQI/

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Flooding turns spotlight on insurance | Fox 59 News ? fox59.com

Families continue cleaning their homes after major flooding across the area.

State officials encourage people, who have damage due to severe weather and/or flooding, to report it. People can go online and report their damage. They can go to:?https://myoracle.in.gov/hs/damage/ia-public.do?method=active&incidentId=IA20130419121922.

It is unclear whether state officials will ask for federal assistance. State officials want to collect as much information from residents as possible. They want people to report damage sooner rather than later.

Steve Powell lives in Tipton. His master bedroom was flooded on Friday. He cleaned his home?over the weekend -like many of his neighbors. On Monday, people continued cleaning their homes and placing piles of furniture outside. Powell has flood insurance.

??I got (the) carpet. (The) bed (was) saved (and) all the clothing. I don?t know if we?re going to have to rip out the bathroom,? Powell said.

?Powell has spoken with his adjuster. He has?had a?number of dryers in his master bedroom since Saturday.

?Deana Montgomery was rescued from her home on Friday. She lives close to Powell.? She was one of about 33 people who were rescued from her home.

?Montgomery has flood insurance as well.

??It took me a good 24 hours to get my head wrapped around what we needed to do to get started,? Montgomery said.

??We?ve had a couple floods before, but nothing this drastic,? she said.

?The Indiana Department of Insurance said people should go online to www.floodsmart.gov?for more information about flood insurance.

?Laura?Wegmann is the communications director for the department. She said people should be prepared before and after it floods. Whether people live within a flood plain or not, she said, the website will inform people about getting?coverage based on their address.

Wegmann?said if people purchase a policy today, it would take 30 days before the person has coverage.

?It?s best to document very carefully all your damages (and to) make sure to take photos. (You should) write down the object serial number and make and model and that sort of thing,??Wegmann said.

Powell said that is what his adjuster told him to do.

?He sent (us) the paperwork to fill out and the task falls upon us to document everything and send (it to) him so he can file the report,? Powell said.

Wegmann said people need to know that homeowner?s insurance does not cover flood loss.

Source: http://fox59.com/2013/04/22/flooding-turns-spotlight-on-insurance/

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McGraw-Hill seeking dismissal of lawsuit over S&P

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The parent company of Standard & Poor's wants a federal judge to dismiss a U.S. government lawsuit that claims the ratings agency gave falsely high ratings to mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis.

Attorneys for McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc. delivered their arguments in documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court in California.

The motion asserts that the government's complaint against S&P is "a stretch," noting that other agencies issued ratings identical to S&P.

It also argues that the ratings firm's inability to predict the extent of the financial meltdown was a lack of prescience ? not fraud. It notes the crisis was something that the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury and Wall Street also failed to see coming.

The government filed the civil lawsuit against New York-based McGraw-Hill in February and aims to seek billions in damages.

The Justice Department claims S&P knowingly inflated its ratings because it wanted to earn more business from its lender clients whose investments it was hired to rate.

According to the lawsuit, S&P recognized in 2006 that home prices were sinking and that borrowers were having trouble repaying loans. Yet these facts weren't reflected in the safe ratings S&P gave to complex real-estate investments known as mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, the lawsuit alleges.

High ratings from S&P and the two other main credit rating agencies ? Fitch and Moody's ? made it possible for banks to sell trillions in risky investments. Some investors, including pension funds, can buy only securities that carry high credit ratings.

But in its filing Monday, McGraw-Hill argues that U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter should dismiss the case because the government failed to show S&P intended to defraud investors in CDOs.

In one example, the company contends that two of S&P's "supposed victims," Citibank and Bank of America, were creating and selling the CDOs that the S&P was rating.

"In other words, the complaint charges S&P with intending to defraud these financial institutions about the likely performance of their own products," the filing said.

McGraw-Hill also makes the point that it could not have been fraudulent for S&P to continue to rely on its ratings for residential mortgage-backed securities if the firm continued to update its ratings "in good faith."

The claim against S&P is the Obama administration's most aggressive action to date against those deemed responsible for contributing to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Its follows years of criticism that the government had failed to do enough.

Shares of McGraw-Hill ended regular trading up 15 cents at $52. The stock is down about 5 percent this year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mcgraw-hill-seeking-dismissal-lawsuit-003531529.html

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Genetics defines a distinct liver disease

Apr. 21, 2013 ? Large-scale genetic study defines relationship between primary sclerosing cholangitis and other autoimmune diseases.

Researchers have newly associated nine genetic regions with a rare autoimmune disease of the liver known as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). This brings the total number of genetic regions associated with the disease to 16.

Approximately 70 per cent of people who suffer from PSC also suffer from IBD. The team showed that only half of the newly associated genetic regions were shared with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). For the first time, this definitively proves that PSC, although genetically related to IBD, is a distinct disease.

PSC is a chronic, progressive disease of the bile ducts that channels bile from the liver into the intestines. It can cause inflammation of the bile ducts (cholangitis) and liver scarring that leads to liver cirrhosis and liver failure. There are no effective treatments available. Although PSC affects only one in 10,000 people, it is a leading cause of liver transplant surgery.

?Before our study, it was never quite clear whether PSC was a complication of IBD or a distinct disease in its own right,? says Dr Carl Anderson, lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. ?We have proven it to be a unique disease, and hope that our results will inform the development of more effective treatments, designed to target the biological pathways involved in causing the disease?.

The work involved an international group of scientists from the International PSC study group recruiting patients from 13 countries within Europe and North America. Without this large collaborative effort it would not have been possible to obtain the large number of patient DNA samples necessary for the study.

The team used DNA genotyping technology to survey more thoroughly regions of the genome known to underlie other immune-related diseases to discover if they also play a role in PSC susceptibility.

In addition to the nine genetic regions newly associated, they also saw strong signals at three regions of the genome previously associated with the disease. Of these twelve genetic regions, six are also associated with IBD, while the six other regions showed little to no association in a recent large study of IBD.

?Using the Immunochip genotyping chip, we can pull apart the genetic relationships between these autoimmune diseases and begin to see not only their genetic similarities, but also the differences,? says Jimmy Liu, PhD student and first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. ?As PSC is a rare disorder, sample collection is more difficult than for other, more common, autoimmune diseases. We hope that with more samples from patients, we?ll be able to link more genetic regions to the disease, and it will become easier to identify underlying pathways that could act as therapeutic targets.?

Three of the genetic regions associated with PSC fall within a single biological system that underlies variation in T cells, cells important to our immune response. One gene that controls this pathway, HDAC7, is known to be a key factor in immune tolerance and the new data strongly suggests exploring the possibility that drugs affecting HDAC7 function may serve as future therapeutics in PSC.

In an extended analysis, the team identified an additional 33 genetic regions that are also involved in several common immune-mediated conditions (celiac disease, Crohn?s disease, ulcerative colitis, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, sarcoidosis and psoriasis). This analysis shows that PSC shares many genetic risk loci with other immune-mediated diseases and opens up the possibility for testing drugs known to be effective in genetically similar diseases for efficacy in PSC.

The next step for the team is to do a high-powered search throughout the entire genomes of PSC patients to find specific regions associated with PSC outside of the regions included on the Immunochip genotyping chip.

?This study has uncovered more about the genetics underlying PSC than any before it, but this is only the first step? says Dr Tom Hemming Karlsen, lead author from Oslo University Hospital, Norway. ?We hope the ongoing scientific and clinical research being conducted through the International PSC study group will help improve the outlook for those currently suffering at the hands of this disease?

?Our study, which is the largest of its type for PSC, would not have been possible without the help of the patients with this rare disorder,? adds Dr Hemming Karlsen.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

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

---

Journal Reference:

1. Jimmy Z Liu, Johannes Roksund Hov, Trine Folseraas, Eva Ellinghaus, Simon M Rushbrook, Nadezhda T Doncheva, Ole A Andreassen, Rinse K Weersma, Tobias J Weism?ller, Bertus Eksteen, Pietro Invernizzi, Gideon M Hirschfield, Daniel Nils Gotthardt, Albert Pares, David Ellinghaus, Tejas Shah, Brian D Juran, Piotr Milkiewicz, Christian Rust, Christoph Schramm, Tobias M?ller, Brijesh Srivastava, Georgios Dalekos, Markus M N?then, Stefan Herms, Juliane Winkelmann, Mitja Mitrovic, Felix Braun, Cyriel Y Ponsioen, Peter J P Croucher, Martina Sterneck, Andreas Teufel, Andrew L Mason, Janna Saarela, Virpi Leppa, Ruslan Dorfman, Domenico Alvaro, Annarosa Floreani, Suna Onengut-Gumuscu, Stephen S Rich, Wesley K Thompson, Andrew J Schork, Sigrid N?ss, Ingo Thomsen, Gabriele Mayr, Inke R K?nig, Kristian Hveem, Isabelle Cleynen, Javier Gutierrez-Achury, Isis Rica?o-Ponce, David van Heel, Einar Bj?rnsson, Richard N Sandford, Peter R Durie, Espen Melum, Morten H Vatn, Mark S Silverberg, Richard H Duerr, Leonid Padyukov, Stephan Brand, Miquel Sans, Vito Annese, Jean-Paul Achkar, Kirsten Muri Boberg, Hanns-Ulrich Marschall, Olivier Chazouill?res, Christopher L Bowlus, Cisca Wijmenga, Erik Schrumpf, Severine Vermeire, Mario Albrecht, John D Rioux, Graeme Alexander, Annika Bergquist, Judy Cho, Stefan Schreiber, Michael P Manns, Martti F?rkkil?, Anders M Dale, Roger W Chapman, Konstantinos N Lazaridis, Andre Franke, Carl A Anderson, Tom H Karlsen. Dense genotyping of immune-related disease regions identifies nine new risk loci for primary sclerosing cholangitis. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2616

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Eq8ub1bLGf0/130421152410.htm

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Defense starts Monday in Philly abortion trial

FILE - In this undated photo provided by the Philadelphia District Attorney's office, Dr. Kermit Gosnell is shown. Eight former employees of a run-down West Philadelphia abortion clinic now face prison time for the work they did for Gosnell. Three have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. And Gosnell, 72, is on trial in the deaths of a patient and seven babies allegedly born alive. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department via Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, File)

FILE - In this undated photo provided by the Philadelphia District Attorney's office, Dr. Kermit Gosnell is shown. Eight former employees of a run-down West Philadelphia abortion clinic now face prison time for the work they did for Gosnell. Three have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. And Gosnell, 72, is on trial in the deaths of a patient and seven babies allegedly born alive. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department via Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, File)

This undated photo released by the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office shows Karnamaya Mongar, left, and her husband, Mr. Mongar, no first name given. Karnamaya Mongar survived 20 years in a refugee camp after fleeing war-torn Bhutan, but died months after arriving in the U.S. in 2009 and seeking an abortion. Mongar, 41, is the subject of one of eight murder counts in the ongoing Philadelphia trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell, an abortion provider, is also charged with killing seven babies allegedly born alive. (AP Photo/Philadelphia District Attorney)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? Over five weeks of testimony, Philadelphia prosecutors have painted Dr. Kermit Gosnell as an eccentric, detached boss who relied on untrained staff to perform abortions at his outdated, inner-city clinic.

But have they proven he murdered a woman and seven babies born alive? Or that the self-proclaimed do-gooder morphed into a greedy, criminally reckless businessman after returning to his downtrodden West Philadelphia neighborhood?

"There has been an incredible rush to judgment like I have never seen before," defense lawyer Jack McMahon told jurors in opening statements last month.

The defense begins its case Monday, and the most intriguing question is whether the 72-year-old Gosnell will testify.

He may want to give jurors a self-portrait similar to the one he gave the Philadelphia Daily News just after the 2010 FBI raid that shut down his 30-year practice.

"I wanted to be an effective, positive force in the minority community," Gosnell told the newspaper, explaining how he was an early supporter of therapeutic abortions and drug treatment in the late 1960s.

Trial witnesses have described an abortion clinic, and perhaps a man, growing increasingly chaotic over the years.

One staffer said Gosnell performed mostly first-trimester abortions when she arrived in 2000, and a few second-term procedures. But the breakdown started to flip, perhaps because first-trimester patients had other choices, while second-trimester patients did not.

The woman who died after a 2009 abortion had gone to several clinics near her Virginia home, starting when she was about 15 weeks pregnant. But each time, she was referred elsewhere, until she arrived at Gosnell's clinic in her 19th week. Bhutanese refugee Karnamaya Mongar, 41, died of a Demerol overdose the next day.

Gosnell's "nursing" staff included several women who were trained at a career school to be medical assistants, but were quickly shown how to perform ultrasounds and give anesthesia. To make the latter job easier, a 15-year-old worker used markers to draw up a color-coded chart that showed which drug cocktails should be given to which patients. Sometimes, it depended on how much they could pay, witnesses have said.

Prosecutors have filled the courtroom with Gosnell's office equipment, including a seemingly ancient ultrasound machine, a busted defibrillator and a ripped, aging examining table.

The 546 exhibits also include dozens of patient files, one of which was handled with latex gloves because of a still-odorous stain. And an FBI agent recalled Gosnell, on the night of the 2010 law enforcement raid, eating dinner while they interviewed him.

"He was still wearing his bloody latex gloves. They had some holes in them," Agent Jason Huff testified.

At the time of the raid, Gosnell had 47 fetuses stored in the freezer, authorities said, apparently because of a billing dispute with his medical waste company. The recovered bodies gave investigators a wealth of evidence to test, and prosecutors said in opening statements they could prove that at least seven babies were born alive.

Unlicensed doctor Stephen Massof and other staff members testified that Gosnell taught them to "snip" babies in the top of the spine after the abortion procedure.

"If you cut off the brain, the body will die. It's that simple," Massof testified.

Massof has pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree murder.

"I trusted him. I believed he knew what he was talking about," said Massof, a Caribbean medical school graduate who could not get a U.S. residency. "I should have Googled."

Medical assistant Kareema Cross said she saw babies move even after their spines were severed. McMahon disputed that account.

McMahon is also expected to challenge prosecutors' claims that the autopsies of two of the recovered fetuses show they had taken a breath. The Philadelphia medical examiner stopped short of confirming that when he testified.

And only two of the 47 were arguably past the 24-week limit for abortions in Pennsylvania, McMahon has noted, attacking charges that Gosnell routinely performed illegal, late abortions.

Eight clinic employees have pleaded guilty in the case. The only remaining co-defendant, medical school graduate Eileen O'Neill, is fighting racketeering and false-billing charges, for allegedly billing as a licensed doctor.

She is expected to call several character witnesses on Monday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-22-Abortion%20Clinic%20Deaths/id-7d7ad5e44ca24bb09976e1bd3725a3cf

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