SF's Mexican Museum joins Smithsonian network (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? The Mexican Museum in San Francisco is joining the nation's largest museum network.

The San Francisco Chronicle ( http://bit.ly/ye7fAu) reports the museum of Latino art and culture on Tuesday becomes the city's first museum to join the Smithsonian Institution's Affiliations Program.

The partnership allows the Mexican Museum to borrow and lend pieces long-term within the 160-member network.

The museum's CEO Jonathan Yorba was previously a fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Founded in 1975 in San Francisco's Mission District, the Mexican Museum and its 14,000-item collection is now located at the Fort Mason Center.

The museum is planning to build a new facility near downtown San Francisco. Yorba hopes to break ground next year and open in 2016.

___

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_us/us_mexican_museum

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Heard and seen backstage and on red carpet at SAG (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? It was admiration at first sight when Viola Davis and Cicely Tyson met up on the red carpet at Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards, with Tyson approaching Davis from behind as she was being interviewed.

"I said, `That's my Viola.' I could tell her from the back," Tyson said after "The Help" co-stars embraced and posed for photos together.

Tyson said she was pleasantly surprised by the reaction she got to her small role in "The Help."

"I did not expect this reaction my character would have that put it, for me, on a whole other level," the 78-year-old former Oscar nominee said. "Oprah (Winfrey) said to me, `You blew me away.'"

Davis, an Oscar nominee for her role in the movie, described herself as "a little brown-skinned girl in an Afro who had a big dream."

She was living the dream Sunday, working the carpet with her husband, Julius Tennon.

"It's her show. I'm just here to support her and make her feel comfortable," Tennon said.

"I'm shy," Davis added.

___

Armie Hammer, nominated as supporting actor for his role in "J. Edgar," stopped on the SAG Awards red carpet long enough to make light of being on the wrong side of the law in West Texas after a drug-sniffing dog discovered marijuana in his car.

"Be more aware of your surroundings next time you're traveling with contraband," quipped Hammer, who played FBI director Hoover's friend and fellow lawman, Clyde Tolson, in the film.

The 25-year-old actor spent about a day in jail before paying a $1,000 bond after his Nov. 20 arrest in Sierra Blanca, Texas.

___

Christopher Plummer, the winner of this year's supporting actor SAG award, gave much of the credit for his win, not to mention his long life, to his "long-suffering wife Elaine who 43 years ago came to my rescue."

Plummer had a well-known fondness for drinking when he met Elaine Taylor, who eventually became his third wife.

"She said, `Listen, if you're serious about getting together in life, you've got to stop drinking,'" Plummer said backstage. "She was dead right and she was quite vicious about it. She did save my life because I was really going downhill."

Plummer won for his role in "Beginners," portraying an elderly dad who comes out as gay after his wife's death. If he repeats that triumph at this year's Academy Awards he would become the oldest actor to win an Oscar at age 82.

"I can't talk about that because it's miles down the road," he said.

Asked if he would like to win, Plummer said jokingly, "No, I think it's frightfully boring.

"We don't go into this business preoccupied by awards. If we did, we wouldn't last five minutes."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_en_ot/us_sag_awards_vignettes

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Incomes up strong 0.5 pct., consumer spending flat

In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, shoppers walk past a clearance sign at the New York & Company outlet store at the Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, shoppers walk past a clearance sign at the New York & Company outlet store at the Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, a shopper carries purchases while shopping at Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans' incomes rose last month by the most in nine months, a hopeful sign for the economy after a year of weak wage gains. But consumer spending was flat.

Incomes rose 0.5 percent, the Commerce Department said Monday. It was the strongest increase since a similar gain in March.

Consumer spending was unchanged. That followed weak gains of 0.1 percent in both October and November.

The report underscored the challenge facing the economy in 2012. Unless incomes grow more rapidly, consumers will be forced to cut back further on spending. That would slow growth and result in less hiring.

After-tax incomes adjusted for inflation rose 0.3 percent in December. For the year, inflation-adjusted incomes rose 0.9 percent, just half the modest 1.8 percent rise in 2010.

The government reported Friday that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent last year ? roughly half the growth of 2010. It was the weakest showing since the economy contracted 3.5 percent in 2009.

Consumer spending for the year rose a modest 2.2 percent, only slightly higher than the 2 percent gain in 2010. But Americans dipped into their savings last year to finance some of the growth in spending last year.

Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Unemployment stands at 8.5 percent ? its lowest level in nearly three years after a sixth straight month of solid hiring.

For the final three months of 2011, Americans spent more on vehicles, and companies restocked their supplies at a robust pace.

Still, overall growth last quarter ? and for all of last year ? was slowed by the sharpest cuts in annual government spending in four decades. Many people are reluctant to spend more or buy homes, and many employers remain hesitant to hire, even though job growth has strengthened.

The outlook for 2012 is slightly better. The Federal Reserve has estimated economic growth of roughly 2.5 percent for the year, despite abundant risk factors: federal spending cuts, weak pay increases, cautious consumers and the risk of a European recession.

Economists say the big question going forward is whether incomes will gain enough strength to support stronger spending, thus helping the economy to grow at a faster rate. Many analysts believe the economy will continue to muddle along with low growth in 2012.

Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight, said he expected the overall economy would grow 2 percent this year, only slightly better than 2011 with consumer spending rising 2 percent as well.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-30-Consumer%20Spending/id-b8a57e446e3b4b388b8795fd011f82f0

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Gingrich: Romney's Character Is "Very Serious Problem" (ABC News)

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RIM CEO eyes "significant" plans for BlackBerry (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Research in Motion's Thorsten Heins plans to waste no time in his new job. The BlackBerry maker's chief executive said he will present the board with his plan for company's future in just a matter of weeks.

The German-born executive, who took over from two longstanding co-CEOs on Saturday, said his plans for RIM would be "significant" though he did not divulge details in an interview with Reuters.

"I will have time with the board in two weeks to present my ideas and changes," Heins said.

But the executive, who was promoted from the role of chief operating officer, said he has already done groundwork to tackle his company's most pressing problem - persuading the U.S. market to covet the BlackBerry again.

While RIM is growing in other countries, Heins conceded that its U.S. business is in need of a major revival after losing out to rivals like Apple Inc's iPhone at U.S. service providers and corporations, where it once had a clear advantage among employees heavily dependent on its email service.

"In general I wouldn't consider RIM as a turnaround candidate. It is a turnaround candidate in the U.S.," he said. "We lost market share in this market quite substantially. That is something that we have to address."

While U.S. operators such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc have helped BlackBerry with heavy advertising and promotions in the past, these operators have been much more focused in the last few years on devices like iPhone and smartphones based on the Google Inc operating system.

Heins' quest to regain ground with these operators has been complicated by the fact that RIM had to announce in December that it is delaying the launch of phones based on BlackBerry 10 - its next-generation software - until the later part of 2012 as it is awaiting the availability of a high-powered chip.

The executive would not say when exactly these phones would hit the market but implied that they would arrive in time for the year-end holiday-shopping season in the fourth quarter.

So in the meantime, Heins will concentrate on getting the most current BlackBerrys into more consumers hands. He noted that only 20 percent of U.S. BlackBerry users have the company's latest phones, which he says are competitive with rival smartphones.

The rest of RIM's U.S. customers have devices with older RIM software, some of which are "two generations behind," he said.

To overcome this, RIM has devised a new upgrade plan with U.S. operators to promote phones with the BlackBerry 7 system, which was launched in August last year.

"All the plans are ready. The carrier agreements are all ready. Now we have to get off the starting grid. Now we need to execute that upgrade program," Heins said.

While he did not want to disclose specifics about the new agreements, Heins said RIM could look at new ways of bundling different devices together or offering carriers smartphones with a package of pre-loaded applications.

He is also betting on the company's PlayBook tablet to compete with the Apple iPad tablet. This spring, Heins said that RIM will launch a version of the Playbook, with a high-speed wireless connection based on LTE - a technology that the top three U.S. operators are building into their networks.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T are already promoting LTE devices including smartphones and tablets from RIM's rivals. RIM's first smartphones with LTE connections will be in the company's BlackBerry 10 line-up, Heins said.

MOMENT OF SURPRISE

In his first presentation to Wall Street as CEO earlier this week, Heins said he did not think the company needed drastic change, causing some analysts to worry that the executive would not do enough to reverse the company's fortunes.

But the executive said on Friday that he was merely telling Wall Street that he does not want to change the core of RIM.

"Is RIM up for sale, is RIM up for a split-up?" He rejected those possibilities as "a drastic, seismic change because it would tear the company apart."

Heins, who has been with RIM for four years after spending over two decades at German engineering group Siemens, was became COO responsible for software and products seven months ago.

He explained that RIM had succession plans for co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie in place for some time and that he had an inkling that he was being groomed to follow in their footsteps when he was named COO.

"The moment they tell you it's still a surprise," Heins said, smiling broadly and adding that he immediately said yes.

Lazaridis and Balsillie, who turned the BlackBerry maker into a global company and a household name, stepped down last week but will remain on the board.

Some analysts have worried whether these executives would have too much of a say in the future strategy of the company because of their position on the board.

Heins said, it would be an advantage to be able to tap into the experience and company knowledge of RIM founder Lazaridis, but he made it clear that he would be the one calling the shots.

"What I do with the company is my decision. The CEO runs the company."

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp and Peter Lauria; Editing by Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/tc_nm/us_researchinmotion_ceo_heins

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Scientists reveal how cholera bacterium gains a foothold in the gut

Saturday, January 28, 2012

A team of biologists at the University of York has made an important advance in our understanding of the way cholera attacks the body. The discovery could help scientists target treatments for the globally significant intestinal disease which kills more than 100,000 people every year.

The disease is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, which is able to colonise the intestine usually after consumption of contaminated water or food. Once infection is established, the bacterium secretes a toxin that causes watery diarrhoea and ultimately death if not treated rapidly. Colonisation of the intestine is difficult for incoming bacteria as they have to be highly competitive to gain a foothold among the trillions of other bacteria already in situ.

Scientists at York, led by Dr. Gavin Thomas in the University's Department of Biology, have investigated one of the important routes that V. cholerae uses to gain this foothold. To be able to grow in the intestine the bacterium harvests and then eats a sugar, called sialic acid, that is present on the surface of our gut cells.

Collaborators of the York group at the University of Delaware, USA, led by Professor Fidelma Boyd, had shown previously that eating sialic acid was important for the survival of V. cholerae in animal models, but the mechanism by which the bacteria recognise and take up the sialic was unknown.

The York research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), demonstrates that the pathogen uses a particular kind of transporter called a TRAP transporter to recognise sialic acid and take it up into the cell. The transporter has particular properties that are suited to scavenging the small amount of available sialic acid. The research also provided some important basic information about how TRAP transporters work in general.

The leader of the research in York, Dr. Gavin Thomas, said: "This work continues our discoveries of how bacteria that grow in our body exploit sialic acid for their survival and help us to take forward our efforts to design chemicals to inhibit these processes in different bacterial pathogens."

The research is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and was primarily the work of Dr Christopher Mulligan, a postdoctoral fellow in the Dr Thomas's laboratory.

###

University of York: http://www.york.ac.uk

Thanks to University of York for this article.

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Ethiopia: Journalists, politicians get jail time (AP)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia ? An Ethiopian judge on Thursday handed down prison sentences ranging from 14 years to life to three journalists and two politicians.

The five were arrested last year and charged last week under Ethiopia's controversial anti-terrorism laws. Ethiopian officials had said they were involved in planning attacks on infrastructure, telecommunications and power lines.

Judge Endeshaw Adane gave the verdicts Thursday.

Ethiopia's federal high court found Elias Kifle, editor-in-chief of a U.S.-based opposition website, guilty of terrorism. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Kifle was tried in absentia.

The judge gave prison sentences of 14 years for Wubshet Taye, deputy editor-in-chief of the recently closed-down weekly Awramba Times, and Reeyot Alemu, a columnist of independent weekly Feteh.

Opposition politician Zerihun Gebre Egziabher was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and the other opposition member, Hirut Kifle, was sentenced to 19 years.

After hearing his punishment Zerihun turned to the judge and said: "I am innocent and I will prove it."

Reeyot's lawyer, Molla Zegeye, said his client will appeal. He also said he had never expected the sentence to be this severe.

"She didn't commit a terrorism crime. She is a professional journalist," he said of Reeyot.

The maximum sentence for terrorism under Ethiopia's anti terrorism laws is capital punishment.

International rights groups have been calling for the release of the journalists.

Amnesty International's Ethiopia researcher, Claire Beston, said shortly after the sentencing that the five are jailed for political reasons and must be released "immediately and unconditionally."

"There is no evidence that they are guilty of any criminal wrongdoing," she said. "They are being imprisoned on the basis of their legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and involvement with calls for peaceful protest to take place."

Leslie Lefkow, Africa researcher for the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said: "This is a tragedy for these individuals, a miscarriage of justice and a dismal reflection of the state of the Ethiopian judiciary. It appears to be impossible to get a fair trial in a political case in Ethiopia today."

Ethiopia recently found two Swedish reporters guilty of supporting terrorism and sentenced them to eleven years imprisonment.

In a separate court case, blogger Eskinder Nega, who had called for peaceful protest, faces the maximum punishment, a death penalty sentence, after a judge on Jan. 23 found him guilty on terror charges.

"I'm innocent," he yelled at reporters outside the courtroom after the hearing.

Ethiopia has arrested close to 200 people, among them journalists and opposition politicians and members, under last year's anti-terrorism proclamation.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, more journalists have fled Ethiopia than any other country in the world.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_af/af_ethiopia_journalists

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Scientists: Haiti, DR may facing big quake period

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ? Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic could be in for a period of periodic powerful earthquakes, according to a scientific study released Thursday.

The study says Haiti's 7.0-magnitude earthquake two years ago is likely to be the first of several quakes of a similarly powerful magnitude.

The Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake caused widespread damage in the Haitian capital and surrounding cities. Officials say the disaster killed 314,000 people and toppled thousands of crudely built homes.

"The 2010 Haiti earthquake may mark the beginning of a new cycle of large earthquakes on the Enriquillo fault system after 240 years of seismic quiescence," lead author William Bakun of the U.S. Geological Survey wrote. "The entire Enriquillo fault system appears to be seismically active; Haiti and the Dominican Republic should prepare for future devastating earthquakes."

The authors document a series of four major earthquakes of magnitude 6.6 and higher that struck Hispaniola, the Caribbean island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The phase began in 1701, near the site of the 2010 quake, and ended in 1770.

There was no evidence of significant earthquake activity on the Enriquillo fault system in the 240 years from 1770 until the 2010 disaster, except for an earthquake in 1860 that likely occurred offshore, the study said.

The possibility that a newly active period has begun underscores the need for Haiti and the Dominican Republic to focus on building seismic-proof structures, Bakun said.

"Whatever information people have to guide reconstruction efforts in Haiti ... is certainly useful," Bakun said by telephone from Merlo Park, California.

The study appears in the February edition of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

Moderate quakes have struck the Dominican Republic in recent weeks but there were no reports of damage.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-01-26-CB-Haiti-Earthquake/id-f1e4aca5ffe3417ca5bffa3023a071cf

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Gronkowski to miss practice with ankle injury

Baltimore Ravens strong safety Bernard Pollard (31) pulls down New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) after a pass reception during the first half of the AFC Championship NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Baltimore Ravens strong safety Bernard Pollard (31) pulls down New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) after a pass reception during the first half of the AFC Championship NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is helped off the field after being injured during the second half of the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) ? New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski is being held out of practice with an injured left ankle.

Gronkowski, who set an NFL record for tight ends with 17 touchdown catches this season, limped off the field in the third quarter of Sunday's 23-20 win over Baltimore in the AFC championship game but returned about five minutes later. On Monday he was seen wearing a removable boot on his left foot.

Coach Bill Belichick said that Gronkowski would not take part Thursday in the team's first practice for the Super Bowl against the New York Giants on Feb. 5.

Asked how Gronkowski was progressing, Belichick said, "good, good."

He was noncommittal on how the Patriots would be affected if Gronkowski plays in the Super Bowl without practicing for it.

"We'll just have to see, you know," Belichick said. "He's not going to practice today, so take it day by day. I'm not going to try to forecast where things will be 10 days from now. We'll just take it day by day."

Gronkowski started all 16 regular-season games and two playoff games. Belichick said he believed Gronkowski took part in just about every practice this season.

Also on Thursday, the Patriots signed to the practice squad tight end Carson Butler, who spent most of the 2010 season on their practice squad and was released Sept. 2. The only other tight end on the roster is Aaron Hernandez. Another tight end, Garrett Mills, is on the practice squad.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-26-Patriots-Gronkowski%20Out/id-28ec3f1a5761428cb1559a7e4123152c

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Avastin May Be Helpful Before Breast Cancer Surgery (HealthDay)

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 25 (HealthDay News) -- The addition of the cancer-fighting medication Avastin to chemotherapy prior to breast cancer surgery increases the chance that all of the cancer will be removed, according to new research.

However, when looking at which patients might benefit the most from this therapy, two recent studies found conflicting results, and neither study was yet able to address whether or not the addition of Avastin (bevacizumab) early in the treatment process would improve survival rates.

Information on survival will be especially important for defining Avastin's role in early breast cancer treatment. That's because in November 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked Avastin's approval for the treatment of breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. With metastatic breast cancers, the agency felt the survival benefits were lacking, and the drug carries significant risks. Avastin is, however, still FDA-approved as a treatment for some metastatic colon, brain, kidney and lung cancers.

"The bevacizumab story is not done. The addition of Avastin to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in women with operable breast cancer increased the rate of women having the disappearance of their breast cancer at the time of surgery," said Dr. Harry Bear, lead author of one of the new studies.

"With more follow-up of these trials and several others, we may find that bevacizumab actually does increase the cure rate. But, it may not be for all breast cancers; it may just be for some," said Bear, a professor and chairman of the division of surgical oncology at Virginia Commonwealth University's Massey Cancer Center in Richmond.

Results of the studies are published in the Jan. 26 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Bear's study included more than 1,200 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. None of the women had yet had surgery to remove their tumors. All of the women had tumors that were at least 2 centimeters (about 0.8 inches) in diameter, and none had metastatic cancer.

The women received chemotherapy before surgery (neoadjuvant therapy). They were randomly assigned to treatment groups that included the chemotherapy drugs docetaxel, capecitabine and gemcitabine in various doses and combinations. They were also randomly assigned to receive Avastin or not during their first six cycles of chemotherapy.

The study found that adding capecitabine or gemcitabine to docetaxel therapy didn't improve response rates. But the addition of Avastin increased the rate of "pathological complete response" -- meaning the tumor disappeared before surgery -- from 28.2 percent to 34.5 percent, according to the study.

However, the addition of Avastin also increased the risk of serious side effects, such as high blood pressure and heart problems.

The second study, conducted in Germany, included almost 2,000 women with an average tumor size of 4 centimeters (about 1.6 inches). As in Bear's study, the women were randomly assigned to several neoadjuvant chemotherapy groups. In this study, however, treatment was with docetaxel, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide. They were also randomly assigned to receive Avastin or not.

Overall, the odds of pathological complete response were increased by 29 percent with the addition of Avastin. However, when the researchers looked at tumors by hormone receptor status, they found that it was primarily women with triple-negative cancers who showed a significant response to Avastin. Having a triple-negative breast cancer means that a cancer's growth isn't influenced by hormones such as estrogen or progesterone. If a tumor is called hormone receptor-positive, it means that hormones, such as estrogen, can help fuel that cancer's growth.

In Bear's study, the investigators found Avastin had an effect on both hormone receptor-positive and hormone receptor-negative cancers, but there appeared to be slightly more benefit for the hormone receptor-positive women.

Bear said a number of factors could explain these seemingly conflicting findings. The differences may have something to do with the women involved in each study, he said. Some of the women in the German study had more advanced cancers. And, the chemotherapy regimens weren't the same, he explained.

Commenting on the findings, Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said that "these studies suggest that for certain patients, there may be a benefit to using Avastin prior to surgery for breast cancer."

However, Lichtenfeld added, "what we don't know from these studies is which women would benefit the most, and we don't have the long-term follow-up on these women to see if the survival or the course of the disease is improved."

Both Lichtenfeld and Bear acknowledged that because Avastin isn't FDA-approved for the treatment of breast cancers, insurance companies may be reluctant to pay for these treatments outside of a clinical trial setting.

"There still remain significant questions about the benefits of using Avastin in breast cancer," Lichtenfeld pointed out. "There is an increased risk of side effects, and there's a cost to adding this treatment. Based on these two studies, it's difficult to say whether any particular women should consider this treatment. As with many similar research findings, it's important to talk to your own doctor to get a better understanding of your potential risks and benefits," he added.

More information

To learn more about Avastin, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/meds/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120126/hl_hsn/avastinmaybehelpfulbeforebreastcancersurgery

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Profile: Insider is surprise pick as new RIM CEO (Reuters)

FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? Insider Thorsten Heins, the new chief executive at BlackBerry maker RIM, is a surprise choice for those looking for a "transformational" leader from outside to turn around the Canadian group's fortunes.

Tall, soft-spoken and bespectacled, the Gifhorn-born Heins, 54, spent most of his working life at German engineering giant Siemens, where he oversaw a mobile telephone business which faced fierce pricing pressure and quality issues.

An avid fan of NBA basketball team the Miami Heat after having lived in Florida for four years, Heins rides a BMW motorbike when he is not road cycling or embarking on long-distance charity rides.

"We will take this to new heights," said Heins after taking over at Research in Motion from co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who finally bowed to investor pressure and resigned. "Innovation is endless, we will have a lot of fun."

Heins spent more than 20 years at Siemens, having joined straight from university in 1984 where he met his wife Petra, a mathematician and physicist. The couple have a 21-year-old son and a 23-year-old daughter.

Heins' German roots were evident when he was asked about his choice of motorcycle. "Of course it's a BMW, I'm German."

By the mid-2000s, he had worked his way up to the helm of Siemens's mobile phone business, so he was no stranger to mobiles when he joined RIM.

The business was sold to Taiwan's BenQ in 2005, after Heins was promoted to the management board of the new Communications business, which was dismantled a year later.

"Unfortunately, it was too late to turn mobile devices because this division was already in a difficult situation, and therefore missed its opportunity to accelerate and improve itself," said Thomas Ganswindt, who was Heins's boss on the Communications board.

Heins was a "very strong" leader and someone "able to recognize what is needed by an ailing business", he said.

In his career at Siemens, Heins worked in R&D, customer service, sales and product management, ending as chief technology officer. He joined RIM in December 2007.

BATTLING APPLE

By the end of a mid-2011 restructuring, Heins was one of two chief operating officers, responsible for sales and for both hardware and software product engineering. "He played key roles in the creation of RIM's product portfolio," the company said.

Activist investors have clamored in recent months for a new, "transformational" leader to compete with Apple's iPhone and iPad and the slew of large-screen and powerful devices from Samsung and others using Google's Android operating system.

RIM marked Heins's ascent to the top role with a seven-minute YouTube video in which the 6 foot 6 inches CEO gave his vision for success with a noticeable German accent.

"He is not very well known outside of the company. He has been working in both Balsillie's and Lazaridis' shadow," said Alexandre Peterc, analyst at Exane BNP Paribas.

"He does strike me as someone who knows the industry very well given his background at Siemens. On the plus side he is a veteran of the industry and he knows his stuff, but that said, his background is very much tech and process orientated as opposed to strategic vision orientated.

"You don't say 'this is the next Steve Jobs' because a Steve Jobs is hard to come by," Peterc said.

"In our view, a CEO with a strong consumer electronics and supply chain background would have been ideal," Shaw Wu, Senior Technology Analyst at Sterne Agee, said.

Most who knew him paid tribute to his leadership skills.

"It is not a job that many people would have taken," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

"Thorsten is highly respected in terms of his knowledge of the industry and given that this appears to be a rather sudden turn of events, they needed someone who can quickly takeover the helm," said CCS Insight's Ben Wood.

RIM has been at pains to underline the orderly nature of the handover.

However, one analyst, who asked not to be named because of his relationship with the group, said it was astounding that the COO at a company of this size should have been so invisible to the market and investor community.

He said he had heard previously from executives within RIM that Heins was very highly regarded and that he was very much on top of his brief. "His name came up repeatedly, with regards to people at RIM who really rate him."

As takeover talk swirled and the financial world pondered whether Heins had been appointed to lead a turnaround or prepare RIM for sale, he clearly now is going to have to communicate quickly, get to know investors and raise his public profile.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Additional reporting by Marilyn Gerlach, Nicola Leske, Kate Holton and Paul Sandle)

This story update corrects city of birth to Gifhorn, not Munich

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/tc_nm/us_rim_heins

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La Scala projects tough finances in 2012 (AP)

MILAN ? La Scala's general manager said Tuesday that he hopes Premier Mario Monti's government will avoid cutting spending for culture, noting that music and theater can help unite people.

Stephane Lissner told foreign reporters that La Scala will have a difficult time balancing the famed opera house's budget in 2012 due to expected drops in public and private contributions, even as the Milan opera house increases attendance and the number of performances.

"We are facing a very difficult movement," said Lissner, who has balanced La Scala's budget each of the seven years he has been at the opera house. The Frenchman, who was named general manager in May 2005, said the theater had an (EURO)8 million ($10.4 million) shortfall in 2004. Lissner's mandate expires in 2015.

Monti, Italy's new prime minister, has promised to shake up what he calls an over-regulated, underperforming economy, accelerate economic growth and reduce the country's debt burden, which is also 120 percent of its annual economic output. But he faces tough political opposition.

La Scala's budget for 2012 is (EURO)110 million ($150.8 million), down slightly from 2011. Of that, 40 percent comes from the state and 60 percent from private donors, ticket sales and sponsorships.

Lissner bemoaned the fact that La Scala's level of state support ? from the national, regional, provincial and city administrations combined ? is among the lowest in Europe for a public theater.

He compared it with the Paris Opera House, which he said received more than 60 percent state support, and Vienna Opera House, which is around 55 percent state funded.

"It is difficult, but it would be wrong to sacrifice culture," Lissner said, then adding: "There is not much more to sacrifice."

Lissner took it as "a strong signal of support" the fact that both the head of state, President Giorgio Napolitano, and the head of government, Premier Mario Monti, attended the gala premiere of La Scala on Dec. 7, the first time both of the nation's top officials attended La Scala's opening night in 15 years.

But he said he hoped that the government would also see that culture is as necessary "as health or research," and also something that can help people facing economic difficulties.

"The more things are difficult, and the more they go badly, the more the public wants to go to the cinema and to the theater," Lissner said. "They don't only need a distraction. They need above all to be together, under the same roof, in the same theater, to share something together."

Lissner said that despite Italy's financial crisis, the number of subscriptions to La Scala has risen by 7 percent, to some 17,400, which he saw as an encouraging sign. La Scala will stage 253 performances this year, including 21 on other stages, up from around 180 in 2004.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_en_ot/eu_italy_la_scala

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Golden Globes future to be determined in court (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and Dick Clark Productions (DCP) squared off in Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday morning to determine who controls the television rights to the Golden Globe Awards.

In a brief opening statement, Daniel Petrocelli, an attorney for the HFPA, argued that DCP negotiated a contract with NBC to air the show without its consent.

Marty Katz, an attorney for DCP, countered that thanks to a clause in its contract, the production company retains the rights to the broadcast every time it reaches a new deal with NBC.

The HFPA is the non-profit organization behind the popular awards show; DCP has produced the awards show for more than two decades. The legal feud between the two sides began more than a year ago, after DCP signed a new seven-year, $150 million pact with the network to broadcast the show.

Petrocelli said that DCP's decision to move forward independently on a contract with NBC was "inconsistent" with the way it has handled previous broadcast contracts.

The attorney said that DCP's negotiating style "defies common sense" and led to "an irrational, unconscionable and absurd result." He promised to prove that the HFPA has complete control over the broadcast.

Katz said that DCP was granted expansive rights to the show because it had played a pivotal role in rehabilitating the controversial awards show. The attorney said that broadcast networks turned away from the Golden Globes in the early '80s after allegations emerged that Pia Zadora's husband had bought his wife an award by giving the group's members gifts.

He said it took Dick Clark's extensive industry connections to help the group move out of the cable backwoods to NBC.

"That was the...pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," Katz told the court.

In return for securing the licensing bonanza, DCP amended its contract so that it included an "extensions clause" that renews the company's contract every time NBC extends its licensing pact and granted the company 50 percent of all broadcast fees.

To press their point that the production company has an overly generous interpretation of its contract, HFPA attorneys called former DCP executive Fran La Maina to the stand.

Petrocelli pressed La Maina on the negotiating particulars of past television contracts with the Turner cable network TBS and NBC. He tried to prove that in the past DCP executives had needed the approval of the group's membership before signing any new pacts.

La Maina said it could not recall if the company had needed the HFPA's approval.

He is expected to testify for two more days.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/tv_nm/us_goldenglobes

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Engadget Mobile Podcast 122 - 01.21.2012

This podcast is all about vision, which proves that the Engadget Mobile Podcasters were not completely blinded by the light of the Consumer Electronics Show. They got close, though (despite relentless Wookie attacks).

Hosts: Myriam Joire (tnkgrl), Brad Molen
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Tycho - Coastal Brake (Ghostly International)

00:01:37 - Huawei Honor review
00:31:05 - ZTE Tania arrives in the UK: a budget phone for budget buyers
00:32:00 - ZTE pays Microsoft around $27 for each Windows Phone made
00:44:36 - Editorial: Don't call it an ultrabook
01:01:36 - Google's Matias Duarte reveals design standards for Android 4.0 at CES 2012
01:16:48 - AT&T to adjust data plans January 22nd, offers more gigs for more money
01:27:38 - Virgin Mobile targets March 23rd to throttle data, take candy from children
01:28:45 - Samsung wasn't interested in buying RIM, still isn't interested in buying RIM
01:30:05 - Samsung's Bada - Tizen merger still looking pretty likely
01:31:24 - Verizon to sell $200 Droid RAZR, 16GB microSD card not included this time
01:36:05 - HTC EVO 3D: poof, no more Carrier IQ software
01:39:30 - Skype exec confirms that Windows Phone product is 'coming soon'
01:44:27 - KDDI and Kyocera create speaker-free smartphone, we go hands-on (video)
01:46:10 - Nokia Lumia 900 coming to retail on March 18?
01:46:25 - Texas Instruments demos first OMAP 5, Android 4.0-based reference design, promises it in laptops next year (video)
01:47:35 - SpareOne cellphone claims 15-year battery life, we go hands-on






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Engadget Mobile Podcast 122 - 01.21.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/oQopxOEMDs0/

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Kuwait: Envoy to US during Iraq invasion dies

KUWAIT CITY (AP) ? Sheik Saud Al Nasser Al Sabah, who served as Kuwait's ambassador to the U.S. during Iraq's 1990 invasion of the oil-rich country and the American-led war to oust Saddam Hussein's forces, has died, a government-backed newspaper reported Sunday. He was 68.

Al-Qabas said the former diplomat died Saturday. It gave no cause of death.

A member of Kuwait's royal family, Sheik Nasser was a leading voice calling for international help during Iraq's occupation. But he was forced to defend his tactics when it was revealed that his then-teenage daughter, Nayirah, told U.S. lawmakers in October 1990 that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers yank newborn babies from incubators. Several rights groups later questioned the account, which helped galvanize U.S. public opinion in favor of war.

A statement Sunday from former President George H. W. Bush called Sheik Nasser a "trusted partner" during the occupation and the U.S.-led war in 1991 that drove Saddam's military from Kuwait.

"Throughout that defining ordeal, he stood proudly with the United States as our coalition ejected Saddam's forces from Kuwaiti soil and upheld international law," said Bush's statement from Houston. "He was truly a good man, and a joy with whom to work."

Sheik Nasser served as Kuwait's envoy to Washington from 1981 to 1992. He later served in Kuwait's government as information minister and oil minister.

In the past decade, he played an elder statesmen's role with close ties to the White House and U.S. officials.

He also was a strong opponent of anti-Western views by Islamic hard-liners in Kuwait. In 2003, he joined other Kuwaiti leaders in endorsing the U.S. invasion of Iraq and called it the "beginning of the end" for Muslim extremists.

Al-Qabas newspaper said a funeral was scheduled for Sunday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-22-ML-Obit-Kuwait-Ambassador/id-34cc02ee3263446aa3f8b6767ede39a3

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Sandusky says Paterno's death is a sad day (AP)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ? Retired Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who faces child sex abuse charges in a case that led to the firing of Joe Paterno, says Paterno's death is a sad day.

Sandusky says no one did more for the university's academic reputation than Paterno, who died Sunday. He says the longtime coach "had the courage to practice what he preached" about toughness, hard work and clean competition. He also expresses sympathy to Paterno's family.

Sandusky is awaiting trial on 52 criminal counts for what prosecutors say was sexual abuse of 10 children over 15 years. He denies the allegations.

Sandusky was Paterno's top assistant for years until he retired in 1999. Sandusky says he remembers Paterno as a great man who met high standards in a difficult job.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_paterno_sandusky

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San Francisco's Top 10 Cupcake Spots (PHOTOS)

SF Weekly:

In a fickle landscape for food businesses, many cupcake shops have opened in recent years in San Francisco -- and, happily, they continue to stick around. While not every innovation regarding the dessert has worked out in practice (cupcake and wine pairings should be banned), there's still a clear demand.

SFoodie is a tough customer when it comes to cupcakes. We are not on a diet. We are not lured or fooled by a sky-high swirl of frosting. And we're not swayed by sprinkles, though we do have an appreciation for the occasional edible glitter. Attention must be paid to the cake itself, ideally with a not-too-dense crumb (how the inside looks, not what falls off it). You'd probably not be shocked to know how many places make that an afterthought.

Here are our 10 favorite current spots for cupcakes:

Read the whole story: SF Weekly

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/20/san-franciscos-top-10-cupcakes_n_1219411.html

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Paul says his campaign's momentum will continue (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Brushing off his poor last place finish in the South Carolina primary Saturday, Republican Ron Paul promised supporters the momentum around his libertarian-leaning campaign would continue.

"This is the beginning of a long, hard job," the Texas congressman told fans gathered at a sports bar in Columbia, the state capital.

Paul vowed to battle on in states holding caucuses over the next several weeks, saying the fight now is to amass delegates rather than to notch splashy wins.

"We will be promoting the whole idea of getting more delegates, because that's the name of the game," Paul said.

But the weak fourth-place finish was still a blow to Paul, who came in a respectable second to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in New Hampshire last week and placed third in Iowa behind Romney and Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania. And it raised anew the question of whether he was in the race to win or simply wanted his views to gain maximum influence within the party.

Paul's advisers had long since written off the contest in South Carolina, a socially conservative state with a large military population advisers knew would be skeptical of Paul's views. Paul opposes abortion rights but has not made it a centerpiece of his message. He's also called for deep cuts to military spending as a way to reduce the debt and balance the federal budget.

Nonetheless, Paul's team had hoped he would edge Santorum in the state. He did not.

Paul's performance in South Carolina underscored the limitations of his message with Republican voters, who share many of Paul's views on cutting taxes and spending but have yet to embrace his largely isolationist foreign policy positions. He came under fire in a debate this week from GOP rivals when he questioned the U.S. mission that killed Osama bin Laden.

Paul tried to cast his showing in positive terms Saturday, saying he was a constant in a race that had seen several sharp fluctuations among the other contenders.

"Ever notice how the other candidates go up and then down? I am proud of our efforts at steady growth," Paul told supporters. The group cheered, yelling "President Paul! President Paul!"

Paul was heading home to Texas from South Carolina for a day off before flying to Tampa, Fla., Monday for a nationally televised debate on NBC. Paul was also scheduled to appear in a CNN debate Thursday but was otherwise bypassing Florida, which holds its primary Jan. 31.

Advisers said Paul would probably head to Maine, whose caucuses begin Feb. 7, and then onto caucus states like Minnesota, Nevada and Colorado. His advisers have long promised to follow the model used by President Barack Obama's campaign in 2008, believing Paul's young, Internet-savvy army would turn out to caucus for him in large numbers.

___

Follow Beth Fouhy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/bfouhy

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_paul

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Pre-caffeine tech: Bad haircuts, big hacks!

By Helen A.S. Popkin

via BuzzFeed

Our pre-caffeine roundup is a collection of the hottest, strangest, and most amusing stories of the morning. Here's everything that you need to know before taking that first sip of coffee today.

Oh, it is so on that things have now become very much like Donkey Kong. Feds shut down Megaupload, one of the world's most popular file-sharing sites, and its founder and several company officials were accused of facilitating millions of illegal downloads of films, music and other content.?

In retaliation, hacker collective Anonymous knocked out the websites of the FBI, U.S. Department of Justice, and several entertainment industry sites, calling it?"the largest attack ever," with 5,635 participants involved in bringing down the sites.

Speaking of overstepping legalities, even Europe's Internet Czar is tweeting anti-SOPA sentiments, and the inventor of the World Wide Web says SOPA is a violation of human rights.

In less-interesting news, Apple announced iBooks 2, iBooks Author and new iTunes U.

Despite the tremendous success of the iPad in recent years, and despite the biggest partners in educational publishing, does the company have the ability to "reinventing the textbook?" Or is Apple ignoring some serious obstacles? Content providers and education experts are torn.

Speaking of Apple, Siri's role is about to get even more intelligent ... and creepy.

And what about the best new Android tablets: Do they stand a chance?

Meanwhile, Google's social network (Google+) climbed from 40 million users as of last October to 90 million; the news was posted on Google+?by Larry Page, Google's CEO. But is this the straight answer?

Here's what you need to know to manage the onslaught of new Facebook apps.

And here's 21 haircuts you should never ever get.?

?????compiled by Helen A.S. Popkin, who invites you to join her on Twitter and/or Facebook.?Also, Google+.??

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/20/10199131-pre-caffeine-tech-bad-haircuts-big-hacks

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Carbon dioxide is 'driving fish crazy'

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Rising human carbon dioxide emissions may be affecting the brains and central nervous system of sea fishes with serious consequences for their survival, an international scientific team has found.

Carbon dioxide concentrations predicted to occur in the ocean by the end of this century will interfere with fishes' ability to hear, smell, turn and evade predators, says Professor Phillip Munday of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

"For several years our team have been testing the performance of baby coral fishes in sea water containing higher levels of dissolved CO2 ? and it is now pretty clear that they sustain significant disruption to their central nervous system, which is likely to impair their chances of survival," Prof. Munday says.

In their latest paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Prof. Munday and colleagues report world-first evidence that high CO2 levels in sea water disrupts a key brain receptor in fish, causing marked changes in their behaviour and sensory ability.

"We've found that elevated CO2 in the oceans can directly interfere with fish neurotransmitter functions, which poses a direct and previously unknown threat to sea life," Prof. Munday says.

Prof. Munday and his colleagues began by studying how baby clown and damsel fishes performed alongside their predators in CO2-enriched water. They found that, while the predators were somewhat affected, the baby fish suffered much higher rates of attrition.

"Our early work showed that the sense of smell of baby fish was harmed by higher CO2 in the water ? meaning they found it harder to locate a reef to settle on or detect the warning smell of a predator fish. But we suspected there was much more to it than the loss of ability to smell."

The team then examined whether fishes' sense of hearing ? used to locate and home in on reefs at night, and avoid them during the day ? was affected. "The answer is, yes it was. They were confused and no longer avoided reef sounds during the day. Being attracted to reefs during daylight would make them easy meat for predators."

Other work showed the fish also tended to lose their natural instinct to turn left or right ? an important factor in schooling behaviour which also makes them more vulnerable, as lone fish are easily eaten by predators.

"All this led us to suspect it wasn't simply damage to their individual senses that was going on ? but rather, that higher levels of carbon dioxide were affecting their whole central nervous system."

The team's latest research shows that high CO2 directly stimulates a receptor in the fish brain called GABA-A, leading to a reversal in its normal function and over-excitement of certain nerve signals.

While most animals with brains have GABA-A receptors, the team considers the effects of elevated CO2 are likely to be most felt by those living in water, as they have lower blood CO2 levels normally. The main impact is likely to be felt by some crustaceans and by most fishes, especially those which use a lot of oxygen.

Prof. Munday said that around 2.3 billion tonnes of human CO2 emissions dissolve into the world's oceans every year, causing changes in the chemical environment of the water in which fish and other species live.

"We've now established it isn't simply the acidification of the oceans that is causing disruption ? as is the case with shellfish and plankton with chalky skeletons ? but the actual dissolved CO2 itself is damaging the fishes' nervous systems."

The work shows that fish with high oxygen consumption are likely to be most affected, suggesting the effects of high CO2 may impair some species worse than others ? possibly including important species targeted by the world's fishing industries.

###

ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies: http://www.coralcoe.org.au/

Thanks to ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies for this article.

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

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116913/Carbon_dioxide_is__driving_fish_crazy_

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