aurilia strident: 2013

Monday, April 1, 2013

Bank Of Cyprus Big Depositors To Lose Up To 60 Percent In Bailout

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Big depositors at Cyprus' largest bank may be forced to accept losses of up to 60 percent, far more than initially estimated under the European rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy, officials said Saturday.

Deposits of more than 100,000 euros ($128,000) at the Bank of Cyprus will lose 37.5 percent in money that will be converted into bank shares, according to a central bank statement. In a second raid on these accounts, depositors also could lose up to 22.5 percent more, depending on what experts determine is needed to prop up the bank's reserves. The experts will have 90 days to figure that out.

The remaining 40 percent of big deposits at the Bank of Cyprus will be "temporarily frozen for liquidity reasons," but continue to accrue existing levels of interest plus another 10 percent, the central bank said.

The savings converted to bank shares would theoretically allow depositors to eventually recover their losses. But the shares now hold little value and it's uncertain when ? if ever ? the shares will regain a value equal to the depositors' losses.

Emergency laws passed last week empower Cypriot authorities to take these actions.

Cyprus' Finance Minister Michalis Sarris said the measures were taken to put the Bank of Cyprus on a solid footing.

"We suffered a serious blow without doubt ... but we now have a bank which is reformed and ready to assume its role in the Cypriot economy," the state-run Cyprus News Agency quoting him as saying.

Analysts said Saturday that imposing bigger losses on Bank of Cyprus customers could further squeeze already crippled businesses as Cyprus tries to rebuild its banking sector in exchange for the international rescue package.

Sofronis Clerides, an economics professor at the University of Cyprus, said: "Most of the damage will be done to businesses which had their money in the bank" to pay suppliers and employees. "There's quite a difference between a 30 percent loss and a 60 percent loss." With businesses shrinking, Cyprus could be dragged down into an even deeper recession, he said.

Clerides accused some of the 17 European countries that use the euro of wanting to see the end of Cyprus as an international financial services center and to send the message that European taxpayers will no longer shoulder the burden of bailing out problem banks.

But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble challenged that notion, insisting in an interview with the Bild daily published Saturday that "Cyprus is and remains a special, isolated case" and doesn't point the way for future European rescue programs.

Europe has demanded that big depositors in Cyprus' two largest banks ? Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank ? accept across-the-board losses in order to pay for the nation's 16 billion euro ($20.5 billion) bailout. All deposits of up to 100,000 are safe, meaning that a saver with 500,000 euros in the bank will only suffer losses on the remaining 400,000 euros.

Cypriot officials had previously said that large savers at Laiki ? which will be absorbed in to the Bank of Cyprus ? could lose as much as 80 percent. But they had said large accounts at the Bank of Cyprus would lose only 30 to 40 percent.

Asked about Saturday's announcement, University of Cyprus political scientist Antonis Ellinas predicted that unemployment, currently at 15 percent, will "probably go through the roof" over the next few years.

"It means that (people) ... have to accept a major haircut to their way of life and their standard of living. The social impact is yet to be realized, but they will be enormous in terms of social unrest and radical social phenomenon," Ellinas said.

There's also concern that large depositors ? including many wealthy Russians ? will take their money and run once capital restrictions that Cypriot authorities have imposed on bank transactions to prevent such a possibility are lifted in about a month.

Sarris, the finance minister, said that foreign branches of the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank in countries such as Britain, Russia, Ukraine and Romania will eventually be sold. He also said that Cypriots would seek out new markets like China and the Arab countries while maintaining good business relations with Russians, "despite their bitterness."

Cyprus agreed on Monday to make bank depositors with accounts over 100,000 euros contribute to the financial rescue in order to secure 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) in loans from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund. Cyprus needed to scrounge up 5.8 billion euros ($7.4 billion) on its own in order to clinch the larger package, and banks had remained shut for nearly two weeks until politicians hammered out a deal, opening again on Thursday.

But fearing that savers would rush to pull their money out in mass once banks reopened, Cypriot authorities imposed a raft of restrictions, including daily withdrawal limits of 300 euros ($384) for individuals and 5,000 euros for businesses ? the first so-called capital controls that any country has applied in the eurozone's 14-year history.

The rush didn't materialize as Cypriots appeared to take the measures in stride, lining up patiently to do their business and defying dire predictions of scenes of pandemonium.

Under the terms of the bailout deal, the country' second largest bank, Laiki ? which sustained the most damaged from bad Greek debt and loans ? is to be split up, with its nonperforming loans and toxic assets going into a "bad bank." The healthy side will be absorbed into the Bank of Cyprus.

On Saturday, economist Stelios Platis called the rescue plan "completely mistaken" and criticized Cyprus' euro partners for insisting on foisting Laiki's troubles on the Bank of Cyprus.

____

AP business correspondent Geir Moulson in Berlin and APTN reporter Adam Pemble in Nicosia contributed.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/31/bank-of-cyprus-big-depositors_n_2988648.html

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Fear Itself

Ira Katznelson has produced an exceptionally engaging and thoughtful account of the New Deal era.

By Terry Hartle,?Contributor / April 1, 2013

Fear Itself, by Ira Katznelson Liveright pp. 720

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Eighty years ago, with the nation mired in a deep economic slump, President Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated and immediately launched the New Deal.? Before long, the direction and velocity of American government had been permanently altered. Popular and scholarly interest in the events of that era has never diminished. Indeed, in light of the recent economic turmoil,?the nature and impact of the New Deal has, if anything, been a subject of even greater interest.? ???

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Columbia University historian Ira Katznelson brings a fresh and thoughtful perspective to this much studied topic in Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of our Time. Rather than focusing on President Roosevelt, the executive branch or the courts, Katznelson examines Congress and its role in shaping the New Deal.? He also uses a wider lens than most other writers ? rather than the conventional approach that considers the New Deal as something that took place largely between 1933 and 1937, Katznelson refers to ?the New Deal period? lasting from Roosevelt?s inauguration in 1933 to the start of the Eisenhower administration in 1952.?"Fear Itself" is insightful, authoritative, and convincing.? It is a well-written model of historical scholarship that draws upon the enormous research on the New Deal and synthesizes it into a careful, thoughtful argument.

Four separate themes are woven together in this impressive volume. The first is the pervasiveness of ?fear? throughout the 20 years under consideration. This included the fears surrounding the Great Depression; the rise of totalitarian dictators and the Second World War; and the emergence of the Cold War; and the possibility of economic annihilation.

The second is the extent to which the New Deal, with its expansions of public policies to benefit individuals, depended on the votes of southern Democrats, all of whom insisted on protecting racial segregation.? Another theme is the extent to which the New Deal and World War II dramatically and continually shifted the locus of government policy making from Congress to the Executive Branch. ?Finally, Katznelson underscores the rise of the national security state in the years immediately after the war ? a development that was largely complete when President Eisenhower took office.?

At the core of the book is the New Deal?s heavy reliance upon ?partnerships with discomforting individuals? ? mostly notably racist members of Congress from southern states.? When the New Deal began, Katznelson notes, the South was by far the poorest region of the country and southern Democrats were quite happy to vote for the economic benefits that Roosevelt sent their way.?

But they were unwilling to do anything that might undermine the pervasive racial segregation in their states.? So they made sure that New Deal legislation carved out exceptions.? In the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1937, for example, Southern support was obtained only after agricultural and domestic workers ? mostly African Americans ? were excluded from coverage.? Later, southern Democrats insisted on returning the US Employment Service (which had been housed in the US Department of Labor during World War II) to the states to permit the continuation of separate offices for black and white workers and to avoid any federally directed movement toward equal employment opportunities.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/uH5imeJ1LOs/Fear-Itself

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Nick Offerman Break Dancing: The Best Moment of the Month Online

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/nick-offerman-break-dancing-the-best-moment-of-the-month-online/

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Kenya's High Court to Rule Saturday on Presidential Election (Voice Of America)

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Renowned music administrators, Stuart Worthington and Keith ...

slide seminar2 Renowned music administrators, Stuart Worthington and Keith Harris hold music forum in Ghana A seminar on international artist, rights and music management has been held at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Center of Excellence in ICT in Accra. The seminar was a collaborative effort between the Musicians Union of Ghana, MUSIGA and the British Council of Ghana.

The seminar had two major speakers in the persons of Stuart Worthington and Keith Harris. Seated with them on the High table were lawyer Mike Ocquaye and DJ Amess, a radio presenter and Artist Manager.

The seminar focused mainly on giving an overview, updating and helping participants to understand today?s music industry, general artist management where skills, roles and responsibilities of artists and managers were discussed. The various existing and new ways of making revenue in the music business as well as teamwork and 3^rd?party relationships were also discussed.

Stuart Worthington, a provider of management consultancy, small business information, advice and guidance, professional training & development services for a range of clients and strategic partners and who has worked in most sectors of the cultural & creative / arts & entertainment / media industries spoke about a number of issues affecting musicians, managers and the entire complex situation of handling and sharing monies amongst the various players in the industry.

He entreated that all involved in the business of music should endeavor to gain knowledge and understanding of how money flows so the managers, artists and other stakeholders will know about the financial situations and their entitlement.

There were various issues concerning music sharing, copyright issues and talent management. Keith Harris, Director of Performer Affairs at PPL commented that on the issue of royalty payments, the only way Ghanaian artists can claim their royalties from other countries is when we have good enough systems in place to claim the royalties of artists of other countries.

He also spoke about artists creating good enough images of them and limiting their accessibility to their audience once they hit a certain level. There was a question on when an artist needs a manager to which Keith responded that in a situation where an artist is doing all the work, the very moment the business side of managing the talent begins to interfere with the creativity, someone has to be brought in to handle certain things and this person has to be a manager.

The issues that were disseminated at the seminar were infused with personal and professional experiences of the various speakers. At a point, Lawyer Mike Ocquaye entreated musicians to be serious about registering their music.

Source: http://www.ameyawdebrah.com/renowned-music-administrators-stuart-worthington-and-keith-harris-hold-music-forum-in-ghana/

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Sunday, March 31, 2013

U.S. B-2 bombers sent to Korea on rare mission: diplomacy not destruction

By Warren Strobel

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The stealthy, nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bomber is a veteran of wars in Iraq and Libya, but it isn't usually a tool of Washington's statecraft.

Yet on Thursday, the United States sent a pair of the bat-winged planes on a first-of-its-kind practice run over the skies of South Korea, conducting what U.S. officials say was a diplomatic sortie.

The aim, the officials said, was two-fold: to reassure U.S. allies South Korea and Japan in the face of a string of threats from North Korea, and to nudge Pyongyang back to nuclear talks.

But whether North Korea's young new leader, Kim Jong-un, interprets the message the way the White House hopes is anybody's guess. His first reaction, according to North Korean state media, was to order his country's missiles ready to strike the United States and South Korea.

A senior U.S. official said Kim's late father, Kim Jong-il, was at least more predictable: He would issue threats that got the world's attention without provoking open conflict, and then use them as leverage in subsequent diplomatic negotiations.

This time, U.S. intelligence analysts are divided over whether Kim Jong-un is pursuing the same strategy. "It's a little bit of an 'all bets are off' kind of moment," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,.

The official said the idea for the practice bombing run, part of annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises named Foal Eagle, emerged from government-wide discussions over how to signal to Seoul and Tokyo that Washington would back them in a crisis.

It is less clear whether Washington informed China, North Korea's neighbor and only major ally, in advance.

The plan was approved by the White House and coordinated with South Korea and Japan, the official said.

REASSURING ALLIES

While the 20-year-old B-2 often flies for long durations - 44 hours is the record - Thursday's flight of approximately 37-1/2 hours was the plane's first non-stop mission to the Korean peninsula and back from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, Air Force officials said.

With Pyongyang threatening missile strikes on the U.S. mainland, as well as U.S. bases in Hawaii and Guam, the flight seemed designed to demonstrate how easy it would be for the United States to strike back at North Korea.

It is far from clear that Pyongyang, which has had mixed success in its missile tests, can make good on its own threats.

"This is useful reminder to the South Koreans that the U.S. nuclear arm can reach out and touch North Korea from anywhere. We don't need to be sitting there at Osan Air Base," south of Seoul, said Ralph Cossa, president of the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum CSIS think tank.

"This also reminds the Chinese that North Korean actions have consequences. It tells them that the U.S. is taking North Korean threats seriously but we're not panicking," he added.

The senior U.S. official said that once the Foal Eagle exercises are concluded, the Obama administration hopes to pivot to a diplomatic approach to North Korea, and hopes Pyongyang will reciprocate.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to travel to East Asia in about two weeks, the first of a parade of senior Washington officials headed toward the region.

45-MINUTE NAPS

Thursday's drill was a rare moment in the limelight for the B-2 "Spirit" bomber, which began life with a slew of cost and development troubles for manufacturer Northrop Grumman Corp but has become a mainstay of U.S. nuclear deterrence.

Long-duration missions, in which the bomber is refueled in midair, are "a challenge on your body and mind, staying sharp," said an Air Force captain and B-2 pilot. Under the service's security rules, the pilot could only be identified by his radio call sign, "Flash."

The captain, who did not participate in Thursday's practice mission over South Korea, said flight doctors have devised special regimens to keep the plane's two-man crew sharp.

They include 45-minute naps, on a cot in the back of the plane, that end a half hour before "critical events" such as in-air refueling or dropping ordnance, he said.

All 20 of the United States' B-2 bombers are based at Whiteman, and they saw combat during the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the NATO mission that led to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow.

In the 1980s, the Pentagon had planned to buy 132 of the bombers, whose main mission was to penetrate the Soviet Union's airspace undetected. The program was drastically cut back after the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989.

So elite is the B-2 pilot corps that more people have been in outer space than have flown the aircraft, "Flash" said.

(Reporting by Warren Strobel; Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Paul Eckert; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-b-2-bombers-sent-korea-rare-mission-044010739.html

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Bank of Cyprus big savers to lose up to 60 percent

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) ? Big depositors at Cyprus' largest bank may be forced to accept losses of up to 60 percent, far more than initially estimated under the European rescue package to save the country from bankruptcy, officials said Saturday.

Emergency laws passed last week empower Cypriot authorities to take these actions.

The rush didn't materialize as Cypriots appeared to take the measures in stride, lining up patiently to do their business and defying dire predictions of scenes of pandemonium.

On Saturday, economist Stelios Platis called the rescue plan "completely mistaken" and criticized Cyprus' euro partners for insisting on foisting Laiki's troubles on the Bank of Cyprus.

____

AP business correspondent Geir Moulson in Berlin and APTN reporter Adam Pemble in Nicosia contributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bank-cyprus-big-savers-lose-60-percent-135608668--finance.html

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Taking a Sabbatical from Social Media ? Why it's a Bad Idea - Birds ...

Last week I let out a bit of a rant on social media sabbaticals. You might not have found it funny? you just might have seen yourself in the characters ? maybe you?ve had your own social media sabbatical.

You might have asked yourself, ?Why is Yolanda so mean and angry about social media sabbaticals?? angry cat

Well to be fair it?s not just social media sabbaticals?

But today I?m just going to talk about social media sabbaticals.

I see these happening all over the Internet. Sabbaticals from a website, from email, from twitter, etc. Here?s why I think it?s ridiculous? because most of the people taking these sabbaticals are online business owners. If you are primarily an online business then you get your customers from online sources.

If you go off-line how are you going to communicate with your customers? How are you going to get new customers? How are you going to engage? If you plan to spend the month going local that?s great but there?s still no reason to ignore your primary source of marketing leverage.

If you are taking a sabbatical because you just ?don?t have the time? well I?m here to tell you this ? get out of business now. If you don?t spend time marketing your business you won?t have a business. The reality is that most of what you should be doing in your business is talking about your business, engaging with potential customers and reaching out to existing customers. Businesses don?t operate in a bubble. If they did we?d never see another television ad for BMW? ever again.

Repetition works, getting your name and face out there works, that?s why it?s done.

If you feel like using social media is too overwhelming then you need to step back and assess.

Here are some questions you should be asking:

Why isn?t it working for me?
Why does it feel overwhelming?
Why does it take so much time?

And be specific and honest.

If you get ?stuck? sitting on Facebook then the problem isn?t Facebook. If you keep checking your RSS feed reader the problem isn?t the feed reader. If you stay on Twitter too long? it?s you not the media.

Now, how do you fix it?

Step one is to figure out the problem through assessment as we covered above.

Step two is to create a process for dealing with issues that come up in your assessment. For instance, if you are spending ?too much time? using social media then, for business purposes, you?re doing it wrong. The right way includes:

Carving out specific times that you will use the media and stick to those times.
Setting specific amounts of time to engage with the media. This could be getting on Twitter for 10 minutes two times a day. Or checking Facebook at lunch only.
Using apps to help you share faster. Buffer is the best thing out there for me. I read something share-worthy and I can instantly add it to Buffer and Buffer does the rest. PostRocket is another great share platform for Facebook.
Have a system and stick with it. My system involves doing my social media work first thing. As soon as I get to my desk I skim my email. During the evening before while scanning blogs on my iPad I send anything share-worthy to my email so in the morning I can quickly open the links and add them to Buffer, I?m done in less than 10 minutes. I try to share 3-5 items using that method. Then I spend 10 minutes skimming my ?favorites? feed in Tweetdeck, anything shareable I add to Buffer. Then I move to Facebook. I skim down the newsfeed and quickly ?like? things. Share-worthy stuff gets added to Buffer. Then I head over to PostRocket and add something for the day. I generally share only one item on my Facebook page per day. In about 30 minutes I?m done. Then when I have or need a quick 10-minute break during the day, like during lunch, I skim Twitter and Facebook, do some engaging and move on.

The key here is all about how you think about social media. Sure you can spend all day on it but why? If it?s for your business, who has that kind of time? If it?s just because you are avoiding work? then put systems in place to prevent that practice.

There are countless online timers and apps that block sites. If that?s what it?s going to take then do it.

The reality is that willpower is easily enhanced through deliberate practice. First, figure out why you are using the social media platforms you are using. Eliminate the ones that don?t make sense and keep the ones that do.

Beyond that practice makes perfect. Denial by using a sabbatical corrects nothing. When you come back to it you are exactly where you left it. And if you?ve taken more than a week off? you are going to be working twice as hard to re-engage your audience. If that audience is comprised of customers? you?re definitely going to need to step it up to keep them coming back for more.

Ignoring your customers, and that?s what you are doing when you ignore your sources of customer communication, is a recipe for disaster.

Growing your business means taking constant action towards marketing your business. You?ve got to talk to your people.

And that?s why I don?t like social media sabbaticals? but that?s just me.

Source: http://www.birdsontheblog.co.uk/taking-a-sabbatical-from-social-media-why-its-a-bad-idea/

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Judge: Ind. senators can't defend immigration law

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A federal judge on Friday rebuffed three Indiana lawmakers who asked to defend parts of the state's immigration law in court after the attorney general declined to do so.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker, who has barred the 2011 law from taking effect until she can rule on its constitutionality, said allowing the senators to intervene would violate the state Constitution's declaration that the attorney general's office is state government's sole legal representative.

"Allowing the three individual legislators to intervene here in their official capacities as State Senators not only would conflict with this well-settled state law, but would provide the legislators a trump card with respect to the Attorney General's statutorily derived discretion in this context," Barker wrote.

Republican Senators Mike Delph, Brent Steele and Phil Boots ? who authored the immigration law ? had asked Barker to let them defend parts of the law Attorney General Greg Zoeller would not.

Zoeller's office has said it would recommend Barker strike down most of the portions of Indiana's law that would allow police to make warrantless arrests based on certain common immigration documents. The office said last year's U .S. Supreme Court decision striking down similar sections of an Arizona law rendered those parts of Indiana's law invalid. However, the office said it would defend a provision allowing for local police to arrest immigrants for whom federal authorities have issued a 48-hour detention order.

The senators, who are represented by lawyers from the Immigration Reform Law Institute in Washington, had argued the warrantless arrest provisions in Indiana's and Arizona's laws are "vastly different," and that Indiana's law is consistent with the Supreme Court's decision. They also argued they have a right to intervene as defendants because the law won't be allowed to take effect if it isn't defended, which they say effectively robs them of the votes they made in the Legislature.

"I take my responsibility to defend the statutes the Legislature passes from legal challenge as an important role of the office I hold. The court recognized that the Office of the Attorney General has faithfully defended all provisions of this statute until the U.S. Supreme Court last June said that state-level warrantless arrest laws are preempted as unconstitutional," Zoeller said in a statement Friday. "We are pleased that Judge Barker's ruling has underscored and reiterated the responsibility of my office to defend state statutes as is our solemn obligation."

The three senators did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. A Reform Law Institute spokeswoman said the attorney who represented the senators was unavailable to comment.

Source: http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/judge-ind-senators-cant-defend-immigration-law

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

BlackBerry makes makes $94 million on revenue of $2.7 billion, ships 1 million BB10 devices in 2013 Q4

This isn't quite the BlackBerry earnings story you're waiting for -- after all, the US figures covering the success (or otherwise) of the Z10 won't arrive until the next quarter. Instead, we're looking at the company's results from the end of the financial year to March 2nd, which show that BlackBerry made $94 million in GAAP income on revenues of $2.7 billion -- in contrast to the $125 million net loss it made in the same quarter last year. More importantly, it shipped out almost one million BlackBerry 10 devices during the three weeks of the quarter that they were available. In addition, it managed to push five million of its older smartphones and 370,000 PlayBook tablets out of the door, but saw user numbers fall from 79 million last quarter to 76 million now.

It's important to notice that as revenues have remained relatively flat, the surge in profits is more than likely down to Thorsten Heins' cost-cutting measures, with the CEO remarking that "We have implemented numerous changes at BlackBerry over the past year and those changes have resulted in the Company returning to profitability in the fourth quarter."

At the same time, the company let slip that Mike Lazaridis will retire from his position as vice-chair and director of the company he helped found the better part of three decades ago. He'll exit the business on May 1st so that he can concentrate on his new enterprise, Quantum Valley Investments.

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Amazon to buy Goodreads for undisclosed sum

NEW YORK (AP) ? Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer that got its start in bookselling, is agreeing to buy book recommendations site Goodreads.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Amazon said Thursday that it "shares a passion for reinventing reading," with Goodreads.

In addition to recommending books to read based on what other books people have liked, Goodreads also serves as a social network for bookworms. It has 16 million members.

The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. says Goodreads headquarters will remain in San Francisco.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amazon-buy-goodreads-undisclosed-sum-211250545.html

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Salt Sugar Fat

Michael Moss explores how food companies market the title ingredients to the American public.

March 28, 2013

Salt Sugar Fat By Michael Moss Random House 480 pp.

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Reviewed by Barbara Spindel for Barnes & Noble Review

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The demise ? at least for now ? of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's large-soda ban captures the dilemmas involved in addressing our nation's obesity crisis. The measure, which was struck down by a state judge just as Michael Moss's Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us was published, would have prohibited the sale of sugary drinks in containers larger than sixteen ounces at restaurants, theaters, and stadiums. Bloomberg defended the ban, which was passed by the city's Board of Health, by arguing that soda and other sugary drinks are a leading cause of obesity. Meanwhile, beverage industry groups accused the government of trampling on consumers' rights, a view apparently shared by the slight majority of New Yorkers who, according to polls, oppose any limits on their prodigious soda habits. The judge, in blocking the measure, called it "arbitrary and capricious."

I wonder whether the judge might have been tempted to rule differently had he read "Salt Sugar Fat" first. (One of Moss's chapters covers soda, and it's framed by the remarkable story of Jeffrey Dunn, a former higher-up at Coca-Cola who is now "doing penance" by marketing baby carrots to kids.) The author's meticulous examination of the processed food industry is alarming, and it could have the potential to be galvanizing were there any clear way out of our salty, sugary, fatty mess. It's dispiriting to finish the book feeling that solutions are elusive, but Moss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times, does an excellent job of explaining how unhealthy processed food, originally "imagined as occasional fare," came to completely dominate the American diet.

Our family structures have changed, of course, with more women working outside of the home, more single-parent households, and, as a result, less time for home cooking. In the 1970s, market researchers began to find that for consumers, convenience was key, and executives at some of the food companies Moss spoke to still rationalize that they are giving the people what they want: inexpensive, easy sustenance. What's problematic is how dependent that sustenance is on the ingredients of Moss's title, from sugary breakfast cereals to Oscar Meyer's meat- and cheese-based Lunchables to frozen microwavable Hot Pockets, which contain more than 100 ingredients and close to a day's recommended limits of saturated fat and salt. Indeed, as the processed food industry has expanded, salt, sugar, and fat have become its three pillars, cheap components that serve many other functions beyond the obvious ones: adding bulk to food, stimulating overeating, and covering up the tastes of chemical additives, to name a few.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/fcmOSxCTDRg/Salt-Sugar-Fat

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Newtown school gunman had large weapons cache: court papers

By Mary Ellen Clark

MERIDEN, Connecticut (Reuters) - The gunman who attacked a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school in December had several additional firearms not used in the attack and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to court papers released on Thursday.

Connecticut officials released dozens of pages of court documents on their investigation into Adam Lanza, a 20-year old man who killed his mother, 20 first grade school children and six staff members before turning a gun on himself in the second deadliest school shooting on record in the United States.

A 90-day sealing order expired on the search warrants that were served on Lanza's home and property. The search also turned up certificates from the National Rifle Association gun-lobby group in the names of both Adam Lanza and his mother, Nancy Lanza.

The assault last December 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School prompted President Barack Obama to call it the worst day of his presidency and reignited a debate on gun violence in the United States. In response to the attack, the NRA called for armed guards to patrol every public school in the country.

The documents were released on the same day that a group of Newtown residents plan a protest at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, less than 3 miles from the school over the NRA's opposition to new gun control laws. Newtown residents were enraged after receiving a slew of robo-calls on behalf of the NRA bashing anti-gun laws.

(Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg, writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Grant McCool)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/documents-sandy-hook-gunman-set-release-thursday-125123242.html

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Darren Elkins nearly missed the call for his UFC on Fox 7 bout because of cell phone charges

For Americans visiting Canada, the cell phone charges can sometimes creep up on you. Your phone will work the same, but weeks later, you get a shocking cell phone bill. UFC featherweight Darren Elkins wasn't going to get hit with that massive phone bill during his trip to Montreal for UFC 158. He ignored phone calls.

[Also: Video blog shows the other side of UFC's Dana White]

Of course, that also meant he nearly missed his chance at filling in at UFC on Fox 7 after Clay Guida pulled out of his bout with Chad Mendes because of an injury.

"Up there (in Canada) I had my phone turned off," Elkins today told MMAjunkie.com Radio "You've got those ridiculous roaming charges and stuff."

His manager ran him down and broke the news of the potential fight. Elkins will face Mendes, the one-time featherweight contender, just a month after fighting Antonio Carvalho and winning with a controversial TKO. Elkins is on a five-fight win streak, so a win over Mendes could push him closer to a title shot.

It's the kind of fight that's definitely worth the roaming charges.

Memorable Moments from Yahoo! Sports:

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/darren-elkins-nearly-missed-call-ufc-fox-7-215721707--mma.html

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Sprial galaxy: Hidden depths of Messier 77 revealed

Mar. 28, 2013 ? Messier 77 is a galaxy in the constellation of Cetus, some 45 million light-years away from us. Also known as NGC 1068, it is one of the most famous and well-studied galaxies. It is a real star among galaxies, with more papers written about it than many other galaxies put together.

Despite its current fame and striking swirling appearance, the galaxy has been a victim of mistaken identity a couple of times; when it was initially discovered in 1780, the distinction between gas clouds and galaxies was not known, causing finder Pierre Mechain to miss its true nature and label it as a nebula. It was misclassified again when it was subsequently listed in the Messier Catalogue as a star cluster.

Now, however, it is firmly categorised as a barred spiral galaxy, with loosely wound arms and a relatively small central bulge. It is the closest and brightest example of a particular class of galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies -- galaxies that are full of hot, highly ionised gas that glows brightly, emitting intense radiation.

Strong radiation like this is known to come from the heart of Messier 77 -- caused by a very active black hole that is around 15 million times the mass of our Sun. Material is dragged towards this black hole and circles around it, heating up and glowing strongly. This region of a galaxy alone, although comparatively small, can be tens of thousands of times brighter than a typical galaxy.

Although no competition for the intense centre, Messier 77's spiral arms are also very bright regions. Dotted along each arm are knotty red clumps -- a signal that new stars are forming. These baby stars shine strongly, ionising nearby gas which then glows a deep red colour as seen in the image above. The dust lanes stretching across this image appear as a rusty, brown-red colour due to a phenomenon known as reddening; the dust absorbs more blue light than red light, enhancing its apparent redness.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/ecypzfdwMAw/130328125104.htm

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Producers fined in 'Lone Ranger' drowning death

Disney

Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in "The Lone Ranger."

By Natalie Finn, E! Online

A death on the set of "The Lone Ranger"?last year has led to a citation for workplace-safety violations for the Disney film's production company.

Silver Bullet Productions must pay $61,445 in fines after the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) determined that the company behind the Johnny Depp-starring film allowed for a hazardous situation that resulted in the Sept. 21 drowning death of a diver who was attempting to clean a large water tank being used by the production, according to legal documents obtained by E! News.?

Johnny Depp describes falling off a horse while shooting "The Lone Ranger"

Per Cal/OSHA's records, the 48-year-old diver was using scuba equipment to enhance water clarity for filming while cleaning the 100-foot-by-80-foot-by-25-foot tank -- located on a ranch in Acton, Calif. -- with a vacuum.

View the citation documents

The regulatory agency states that the diver's "dive buddy" was absent for 10 minutes and, when he returned, he noticed that no bubbles were coming to the surface of the water. OSHA determined the accident was primarily caused by the diver working alone and not being given a prior medical examination to determine his fitness to dive.

Injured stuntman sues over fatal explosion on "Expendables 2" set

For not having a designated "person in charge" at the dive location, failing to ensure that all divers were properly trained in CPR and other life-saving measures, not keeping up with the divers' required regular medical examinations and violating basic operational procedures--all deemed "serious" violations -- Silver Bullet was fined $45,000.

Celebrity deaths in 2013

The company was fined another $16,445 for six general violations: not providing documentation of safety and health training for all employees, not keeping records of each dive in the tank, not keeping proper records of all equipment maintenance, not maintaining a required Illness Prevention Program for hazard training, not developing a manual for diver safety and not properly maintaining the compressor for supplying air.

-- additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum?

More in TODAY Entertainment:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/03/27/17484551-producers-fined-in-lone-ranger-drowning-death?lite

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

In Russia, no love lost over late 'evil genius' Boris Berezovsky

Whatever British police may finally conclude about the manner of Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky's death Saturday at his home near London, most Russians say that they won't be grieving over him.

After all, most see him as the man who pioneered the brand of "bandit capitalism" that plunged Russia into mass poverty and social decline during the 1990s, while a handful of clever, Kremlin-connected schemers made off with the former Soviet economy's crown jewels.

Even many anti-Kremlin liberals whom Mr. Berezovsky courted, and often claimed to speak for, said they couldn't think of anything positive to say about him Monday. The opposition weekly Novaya Gazeta gave him his most dignified sendoff in the Russian press, saying in an editorial that "he viewed Russia as a chess board, but one on which only he would be allowed to move the pieces."

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

The rest of Russia's mass media, for whom Berezovsky has played the role of devil incarnate since he fell out with leader Vladimir Putin and fled to Britain about a dozen years ago, had a field day slamming him one last time in their obituaries.

The state-run Channel One TV network, which reaches the entire country, branded him an "evil genius" whose fraudulent business scams combined with sociopathic personal charisma corrupted the Kremlin and bled the country's economy dry in the 1990s. The Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda depicted him as a "clever, cunning, and resourceful" manipulator of powerful people and "a master of chaos." Moskovsky Komsomolets, a popular Moscow tabloid, described him as a "giant spider who managed to entangle so many top officials in his web."

Berezovsky, a successful Soviet-era mathematician-turned-entrepreneur, demonstrated a flair for turning a fortune from the twilight days of the Soviet Union, when he set up the first ever private automobile dealership, named Logovaz, in 1989. Logovaz, which purchased cars from the giant, failing Soviet automaker AvtoVaz at a fixed state price and flipped them to car-hungry Soviet consumers at high market prices, also demonstrated what was to become Berezovsky's trademark style.

THE MODEL CRIMINAL CAPITALIST

As Paul Klebnikov, the former editor of Forbes-Russia ? since assassinated by persons unknown ? described in his 2001 book "The Godfather of the Kremlin," Berezovsky was a pioneering Russian-style corporate raider. He mastered the use of political leverage to take control over troubled assets, which he milked for profits and then discarded. A 1996 Forbes profile of Berezovsky by Mr. Klebnikov outlines this record with chilling clarity.

That meticulously-reported story and the book that followed also suggest why some people continue to speculate that it might have been Berezovsky who ordered the journalist Klebnikov gunned down on a Moscow street in 2004.

"In the 1990s, Berezovsky was the architect, ideologist, and practitioner of the model of criminal capitalism ? the merger of power and wealth ? that is still very much with us," says Andrei Piontkovsky, a longtime liberal activist and political analyst.

"It's the kind of business activity that's only possible with the participation of top leaders to manipulate the playing field. Berezovsky did more than anyone to create and shape this system," he says.

While industries died and ordinary Russians went without wages for months at a time, Berezovsky and his fellow tycoons gave the world an image of the "New Russian" as a slash-and-grab businessman, steeped in criminality, who cares nothing for the sufferings of the majority or the degradation of his country but is always ready to squander money on any wild extravagance.

"Berezovsky lived what we might call the post-Soviet dream, though for most of us it more resembled a nightmare," says Sergei Strokan, a columnist with the pro-business Moscow daily Kommersant. "He was one of the first to figure out how to convert his skills, his intelligence, into power and money. And he conducted his affairs ruthlessly."

"At a time when many Russians were literally starving, and our country was falling apart, he was throwing lavish parties, handing out gold watches to friends as if they were candies, buying yachts and other baubles, and giving self-important interviews to foreign journalists filled with platitudes about democracy and the market economy," Mr. Strokan says. "But basically, he was a fraud. He stole everything he had, and built nothing. He was fishing in murky waters, and this is how he built his entire career. For me, he was not so much a person as a phenomenon."

'HE CREATED PUTIN'

Berezovsky was instrumental in convincing fledgling Russian business tycoons to rally around former President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, when he faced a strong electoral challenge from Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov. That election, which Mr. Yeltsin may not have actually won, pioneered all the dirty tricks that have featured in Russian polls ever since.

Following Yeltsin's return to the Kremlin, Berezovsky and several other "oligarchs" took high government posts, which they used to consolidate and advance their business interests. But as the regime of the ailing Yeltsin crumbled following a horrendous financial crash in 1998, Berezovsky is credited by many experts with conceiving and executing "operation naslednik (successor)," which identified, groomed, and promoted Mr. Putin to take Yeltsin's place.

"Berezovsky created Putin," says Mr. Piontkovsky, the political analyst.

"He was the main instigator of 'operation naslednik,' which made a national hero out of an obscure and mediocre bureaucrat. The main instrument used was war," he says.

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

After a series of still-unexplained apartment bombings that killed hundreds of people in Moscow and other cities in their sleep in the autumn of 1999, then-Prime Minister Putin ordered Russian forces to invade the rebel republic of Chechnya. The terror, which still haunts many Russians, followed by a long and brutal war in Chechnya, galvanized Russians behind the tough-talking former KGB agent, Putin. Yelsin stepped down on New Year's Eve 1999 and Putin became acting president. A few months later he was elected president.

But things did not work out for Berezovsky, who had apparently believed he could manipulate Putin as he had the aging and not-always-sober Yeltsin.

"Berezovsky's weak point was his fascination for power. He was sure he could control Putin, but that was a big mistake," says Edvard Radzinsky, a famous Russian playwright and biographer of many historical Russian leaders.

When Putin ordered the oligarchs to abstain from politics, Berezovsky defied him. He and another disobedient tycoon, media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky, were hounded into exile and stripped of their properties. Britain granted Berezovsky political asylum in 2001.

A USEFUL BOOGEYMAN

From his perch in exile, Berezovsky continued to fund Kremlin opponents and give speeches about the need to fight for democracy in his homeland.

"Berezovsky made a frightening impression on everyone, including me," says Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Kremlin insider and close adviser to Putin during his first two terms in office.

"I suppose his personal views were liberal-democratic, but he never actually acted as a democrat. Official propaganda learned a lot from Berezovsky ? shameless assertions, bullying, aggressiveness. Nobody will ever want their kids to be like him."

During his last years, Berezovsky was arguably more useful for the Kremlin as a political boogeyman than he was a threat. The Kremlin found ways to insinuate that Berezovsky was to blame for the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya as well as the radiation death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London the same year.

"Berezovsky was widely hated in Russia, so that made him a useful tool of Putin's propaganda. Any unsolved crime could be hung on Berezovsky. That's why I don't believe the rumors that Russian secret services might have killed him. He was too useful," says Piontkovsky.

Many Russians who knew Berezovsky say he leaves nothing but a bad taste.

"I worked with him. I know how he could employ his personal charisma to exploit people, to use them up and throw them away," says Alexei Mukhin, director of the independent Center for Political Information in Moscow.

"Now that he's gone, everybody can see the truth. No Berezovsky, no magic."

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

Autism rate rises to 1 in 50 kids | MNN - Mother Nature Network

The percentage of U.S. kids with autism continues to rise, with the latest estimate showing the highest numbers yet.

About 1 in 50 U.S. children (2 percent) ages 6 to 17 have an autism spectrum disorder, according to a new report based on a national survey of parents in 2011 and 2012. That's up from about 1 in 86 children (1.16 percent) reported to have autism in the 2007 survey.

Most of the rise is attributed to new autism cases diagnosed after 2008, the researchers said. In particular, there was an increase in cases of older children (ages 10 to 17) diagnosed with mild forms of autism.?

The reason for the rise is not known, and cannot be determined from the report. But the findings suggest that doctors and other healthcare professionals are getting better at identifying and diagnosing mild forms of autism, said study researcher Stephen Blumberg, of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, the organization the released the report.

Because the findings are based on parents' reports, and were not confirmed by a doctor or the patient's medical records, they might not be entirely accurate. However, previous estimates based on parental reports have generally matched those based on medical records, the researchers said.

The new findings are not directly comparable to a report released last year, which found that 1in 88 children U.S. children has autism. That report was based on information collected in 2008 from 8-year old children living in 14 areas in the United States.

The new study is based on phone surveys of 96,000 parents in 2011 and 2012. Parents were asked if a doctor or health care professional had ever diagnosed their child with an autism spectrum disorder.

One of the interesting findings of the new report is the large percentage of children that were diagnosed at age 7 or later, said Michael Rosanoff, associate director of Public Health Research & Scientific Review at Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy organization. About 30 percent of children ages 10 to 13, and 14 percent of children ages 14 to 17 were first diagnosed when they were 7 or older. The condition can reliably be diagnosed starting at age 3.

These children may have flown under the radar because they were mildly affected, Rosanoff said. But "even mildly affected children who are in general education settings can struggle without, and benefit from, appropriate ASD services," Rosanoff said, referring to autism spectrum disorder.

More rigorous studies are needed to determine the true rate of autism, which Rosanoff said he suspects is even higher.

Pass it on: About 1 in 50 children has autism, according to results from a national survey of parents.

Related on MyHealthNewsDaily and MNN:

Source: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/autism-rate-rises-to-1-in-50-kids

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Chamber President: State needs Panthers to stay in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV)- The Charlotte Chamber announced Friday that they are launching a public campaign to help keep the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte.

Chamber President Bob Morgan responded to questions from members of the NC General Assembly this week.

"How many times does a public official have the chance to secure a payroll of $2.8 billion for their state's economy? That's the question now facing members of North Carolina's General Assembly as they consider whether or not and how to participate in the effort to renovate Bank of America Stadium," Morgan said in his remarks.

The Panthers have asked the city and state for about $200 million in public funds to renovate and add upgrades to Bank of America Stadium.

The city of Charlotte has requested that the state legislature approve a one percent increase to the city's prepared food and beverage tax to help pay for the upgrades. That legislation has hardly advanced through one of the two chambers.

"If the State of North Carolina stands to receive nearly $300 million in tax revenues from the Panthers over the next 15 years, that's a solid business decision. Even if it means giving us the right to tax ourselves to keep the team here, we think legislators owe it to the state and the organization to seriously consider it," Morgan said.

Support for the plan eroded when a leaked financial report revealed that despite two losing seasons the Panthers have still taken in million of dollars in profits.

A statewide poll showed that nearly 88 percent of people polled said the Panthers should pay for the renovations with their own money.

"In Buffalo, a major renovation deal was just struck that includes the team putting up $35 million, the county $41 million and the state $54 million, all in return for a tether of only 10 years," Morgan said. "Buffalo and Atlanta have fought for their franchises. North Carolina needs to consider a deal and fight for its franchise as well."

Charlotte City Councilman James Mitchell, Panthers President Danny Morrison, Deputy City Manager Ron Kimble and City Attorney Bob Hageman were on a conference call with members of the Mecklenburg County legislative delegation Friday making a last ditch effort to try and get money approved for the Panthers' upgrades.

Legislative members said the money was just not there in the current political climate.

The rest of the call was spent trying to see if any grants could be won from the NC Department of Commerce to make up the rest of the requested money.

The Panthers are trying to secure the funding to begin the upgrades in January of 2014.

Source: http://southcharlotte.wbtv.com/news/news/83792-chamber-president-state-needs-panthers-stay-charlotte

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T-cell therapy eradicates an aggressive leukemia in two children

Mar. 25, 2013 ? Two children with an aggressive form of childhood leukemia had a complete remission of their disease -- showing no evidence of cancer cells in their bodies -- after treatment with a novel cell therapy that reprogrammed their immune cells to rapidly multiply and destroy leukemia cells.

A research team from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania published the case report of two pediatric patients Online First today in The New England Journal of Medicine. It will appear in the April 18 print issue.

One of the patients, 7-year-old Emily Whitehead, was featured in news stories in December 2012 after the experimental therapy led to her dramatic recovery after she relapsed following conventional treatment. Emily remains healthy and cancer-free, 11 months after receiving bioengineered T cells that zeroed in on a target found in this type of leukemia, called acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

The other patient, a 10-year-old girl, who also had a complete response to the same treatment, suffered a relapse two months later when other leukemia cells appeared that did not harbor the specific cell receptor targeted by the therapy.

"This study describes how these cells have a potent anticancer effect in children," said co-first author Stephan A. Grupp, M.D., Ph.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where both patients were treated in this clinical trial. "However, we also learned that in some patients with ALL, we will need to further modify the treatment to target other molecules on the surface of leukemia cells."

Grupp is the director of Translational Research for the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and a professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael Kalos, Ph.D., an adjunct associate professor in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn, is co-first author on the study.

The current study builds on Grupp's ongoing collaboration with Penn Medicine scientists who originally developed the modified T cells as a treatment for B-cell leukemias. The Penn team reported on early successful results of a trial using this cell therapy in three adult chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients in August of 2011. Two of those patients remain in remission more than 2? years following their treatment, and as the Penn researchers reported in December 2012 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, seven out of ten adult patients treated at that point responded to the therapy. The team is led by the current study's senior author, Carl H. June, M.D., the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Translational Research in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

"We're hopeful that our efforts to treat patients with these personalized cellular therapies will reduce or even replace the need for bone marrow transplants, which carry a high mortality risk and require long hospitalizations," June said. "In the long run, if the treatment is effective in these late-stage patients, we would like to explore using it up front, and perhaps arrive at a point where leukemia can be treated without chemotherapy."

The research team colleagues adapted the original CLL treatment to combat another B-cell leukemia: ALL, which is the most common childhood cancer. After decades of research, oncologists can currently cure 85 percent of children with ALL. Both children in the current study had a high-risk type of ALL that stubbornly resists conventional treatments.

The new study used a relatively new approach in cancer treatment: immunotherapy, which manipulates the immune system to increase its cancer-fighting capabilities. Here the researchers engineered T cells to selectively kill another type of immune cell called B cells, which had become cancerous.

T cells are the workhorses of the immune system, recognizing and attacking invading disease cells. However, cancer cells fly under the radar of immune surveillance, evading detection by T cells. The new approach custom-designs T cells to "see" and attack the cancer cells.

The researchers removed some of each patient's own T cells and modified them in the laboratory to create a type of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) cell called a CTL019 cell. These cells are designed to attack a protein called CD19 that occurs only on the surface of certain B cells.

By creating an antibody that recognizes CD19 and then connecting that antibody to T cells, the researchers created in CTL019 cells a sort of guided missile that locks in on and kills B cells, thereby attacking B-cell leukemia. After being returned to the patient's body, the CTL019 cells multiply a thousand times over and circulate throughout the body. Importantly, they persist for months afterward, guarding against a recurrence of this specific type of leukemia.

While the CTL019 cells eliminate leukemia, they also can generate an overactive immune response, called a cytokine release syndrome, involving dangerously high fever, low blood pressure, and other side effects. This complication was especially severe in Emily, and her hospital team needed to provide her with treatments that rapidly relieved the treatment-related symptoms by blunting the immune overresponse, while still preserving the modified T cells' anti-leukemia activity.

"The comprehensive testing plan that we have put in place to study patients' blood and bone marrow while they're undergoing this therapy is allowing us to be able to follow how the T cells are behaving in patients in real time, and guides us to be able to design more detailed and specific experiments to answer critical questions that come up from our studies," Kalos said.

The CTL019 therapy eliminates all B cells that carry the CD19 cell receptor: healthy cells as well as those with leukemia. Patients can live without B cells, although they require regular replacement infusions of immunoglobulin, which can be given at home, to perform the immune function normally provided by B cells.

The research team continues to refine their approach using this new technology and explore reasons why some patients may not respond to the therapy or may experience a recurrence of their disease. Grupp said the appearance of the CD19-negative leukemia cells in the second child may have resulted from her prior treatments. Unlike Emily, the second patient had received an umbilical cord cell transplant from a matched donor, so her engineered T cells were derived from her donor (transplanted) cells, with no additional side effects. Oncologists had previously treated her with blinatumomab, a monoclonal antibody, in hopes of fighting the cancer. The prior treatments may have selectively favored a population of CD19-negative T cells.

"The emergence of tumor cells that no longer contain the target protein suggests that in particular patients with high-risk ALL, we may need to broaden the treatment to include additional T cells that may go after additional targets," added Grupp. "However, the initial results with this immune-based approach are encouraging, and may later even be developed into treatments for other types of cancer."

Funding from the National Institutes of Health (grants 1RO1 CA165206, R01 CA102646 and R01 CA116660), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and the Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy supported this study.

In August 2012, the University of Pennsylvania and Novartis announced an exclusive global research and licensing agreement to further study and commercialize these novel cellular immunotherapies using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technologies. As part of the transaction, Novartis acquired exclusive rights from Penn to CART-19, the therapy that was the subject of this clinical trial and which is now known as CTL019.

"Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Modified T Cells for Acute Lymphoid Leukemia," New England Journal of Medicine, Online First, March 25, 2013. To appear in print April 18, 2013.

About The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country, ranking third in National Institutes of Health funding. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 516-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

About Penn Medicine: Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $4.3 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 16 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $398 million awarded in the 2012 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania -- recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report; Penn Presbyterian Medical Center; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Penn Medicine also includes additional patient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2012, Penn Medicine provided $827 million to benefit our community.

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Journal Reference:

Stephan A. Grupp, Michael Kalos, David Barrett, Richard Aplenc, David L. Porter, Susan R. Rheingold, David T. Teachey, Anne Chew, Bernd Hauck, J. Fraser Wright, Michael C. Milone, Bruce L. Levine, Carl H. June. Chimeric Antigen Receptor?Modified T Cells for Acute Lymphoid Leukemia. New England Journal of Medicine, 2013; : 130325090025003 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1215134

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/tsibEX9yxf8/130325124358.htm

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