-- As of Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, at least 2,047 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to an Associated Press count.
The AP count is one less than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Tuesday at 10 a.m. EST.
At least 1,707 military service members have died in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Outside of Afghanistan, the department reports at least 118 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, 11 were the result of hostile action.
The AP count of total OEF casualties outside of Afghanistan is five more than the department's tally.
The Defense Department also counts three military civilian deaths.
Since the start of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, 18,285 U.S. service members have been wounded in hostile action, according to the Defense Department.
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The latest identification reported by the military:
_ Staff Sgt. Jonathan D. Davis, 34, of Kayenta, Ariz., died Feb. 22 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan; assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 32nd Georgian Liaison Team, Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer Nick Lachey, a member of U.S. group 98 Degrees, has swapped his boy band heartthrob status to embrace fatherhood in a new album of lullabies dedicated to his baby son.
On the cover of "A Father's Lullaby," Lachey, 39, is pictured cuddling his son Camden, who was born in September 2012.
"When I first learned that I was going to be a father, I was inspired to create a special tribute to my son," Lachey said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Creating this album allowed me to further connect with Camden while also sharing the experience with families who are on a similar journey of welcoming a new life into their world," he added.
The 12-track album, released in partnership with toy brand Fisher-Price, includes four original songs by the singer, such as title track "Father's Lullaby" and "Sleepy Eyes."
"A Father's Lullaby" will be available to download on iTunes and Amazon from March 13, and in stores in April.
Camden is the first child for Lachey and wife Vanessa, who married in July 2011. Lachey was previously married to singer Jessica Simpson from 2002 until their divorce in 2005.
Lachey rose to fame in the 1990s with his brother Drew and members Justin Jeffre and Jeff Timmons in boy band 98 Degrees, who were known for top 40 pop chart hits including "True to Your Heart" and "Thank God I Found You."
The band went on a hiatus in 2002 and Lachey married Simpson. The couple appeared in their own MTV reality series "Newlyweds."
Lachey, who recorded two solo albums during the band's hiatus, reunited with his band mates last year and 98 Degrees announced a new album and tour.
Their upcoming fourth studio record "2.0" is set to be released in May. The band will be joining fellow 1990s boy bands New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men on a North American summer tour.
(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Eric Walsh)
Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@gru.edu 706-721-4421 Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University
AUGUSTA, Ga. Genetics and demographics likely put you at risk for salt-sensitive hypertension, and scientists are looking for a way to protect you.
The concept is that free radicals in the kidney prompt the organ to hold onto sodium rather than eliminate excess through urination. Excess sodium, in turn, increases free radical production, said Dr. Paul O'Connor, hypertension researcher in the Section of Experimental Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
Blocking the hydrogen transporter HVI best known for its role in helping immune cells produce large amounts of free radicals to kill bacteria may stop the unhealthy, vicious cycle.
"We think HVI overexpression in the kidney fuels the production of too many free radicals, which can activate the sodium transporters to hold onto more sodium, leading to hypertension and kidney damage," O'Connor said.
With the help of a New Investigator Award from the American Heart Association and a HV1 mutant rat, he plans to find out.
Sodium helps the kidneys regulate fluid volume and blood pressure. However being older, black and obese are risk factors for holding onto too much sodium. Nearly 40 percent of blacks and 30 percent of whites with healthy blood pressure have a tendency to hold onto salt and so-called salt sensitivity occurs in nearly 75 percent of blacks and more than half of whites with hypertension.
O'Connor has found HVI in the nephrons of the kidneys where decisions are made about how much sodium to retain. And, when looking at sodium transport inside renal tubule cells, he found a drug he was using inhibited free radical production and started putting the pieces together.
O'Connor and his collaborators developed the HV1 mutant of the Dahl salt-sensitive rat, which becomes hypertensive on a high-salt diet, to test the emerging hypothesis.
"We think if HV1 is not present, you will have reduced salt sensitivity, reduced oxidative stress and reduced renal injury when you feed these animals a high-salt diet," O'Connor said.
If he's correct, targeted treatment for salt-sensitive hypertension may emerge. "We think it might be an interesting target to help inhibit oxidative-stress related cardiovascular disease," O'Connor said.
Although free radicals are a known contributor to cardiovascular disease, antioxidants haven't proven effective therapy, said O'Connor, who would like to directly inhibit the source of free radicals rather than scavenge for them once they are formed. An estimated 1-in-50 patients in the United States develop treatment-resistant hypertension, which increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and other complications, according to studies published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
HV1 was discovered in 2006 in immune cells where is helps ensure the proper activity of the enzyme NADPH oxidase, which actually produces free radicals. It's now been found in a variety of cell types, and scientists are exploring its potential role in maladies such as ischemic stroke and cancer. O'Connor notes that his HIV mutant rats do not appear to have a compromised immune system.
O'Connor joined the MCG faculty in 2011.
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Contact: Toni Baker tbaker@gru.edu 706-721-4421 Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University
AUGUSTA, Ga. Genetics and demographics likely put you at risk for salt-sensitive hypertension, and scientists are looking for a way to protect you.
The concept is that free radicals in the kidney prompt the organ to hold onto sodium rather than eliminate excess through urination. Excess sodium, in turn, increases free radical production, said Dr. Paul O'Connor, hypertension researcher in the Section of Experimental Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.
Blocking the hydrogen transporter HVI best known for its role in helping immune cells produce large amounts of free radicals to kill bacteria may stop the unhealthy, vicious cycle.
"We think HVI overexpression in the kidney fuels the production of too many free radicals, which can activate the sodium transporters to hold onto more sodium, leading to hypertension and kidney damage," O'Connor said.
With the help of a New Investigator Award from the American Heart Association and a HV1 mutant rat, he plans to find out.
Sodium helps the kidneys regulate fluid volume and blood pressure. However being older, black and obese are risk factors for holding onto too much sodium. Nearly 40 percent of blacks and 30 percent of whites with healthy blood pressure have a tendency to hold onto salt and so-called salt sensitivity occurs in nearly 75 percent of blacks and more than half of whites with hypertension.
O'Connor has found HVI in the nephrons of the kidneys where decisions are made about how much sodium to retain. And, when looking at sodium transport inside renal tubule cells, he found a drug he was using inhibited free radical production and started putting the pieces together.
O'Connor and his collaborators developed the HV1 mutant of the Dahl salt-sensitive rat, which becomes hypertensive on a high-salt diet, to test the emerging hypothesis.
"We think if HV1 is not present, you will have reduced salt sensitivity, reduced oxidative stress and reduced renal injury when you feed these animals a high-salt diet," O'Connor said.
If he's correct, targeted treatment for salt-sensitive hypertension may emerge. "We think it might be an interesting target to help inhibit oxidative-stress related cardiovascular disease," O'Connor said.
Although free radicals are a known contributor to cardiovascular disease, antioxidants haven't proven effective therapy, said O'Connor, who would like to directly inhibit the source of free radicals rather than scavenge for them once they are formed. An estimated 1-in-50 patients in the United States develop treatment-resistant hypertension, which increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and other complications, according to studies published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.
HV1 was discovered in 2006 in immune cells where is helps ensure the proper activity of the enzyme NADPH oxidase, which actually produces free radicals. It's now been found in a variety of cell types, and scientists are exploring its potential role in maladies such as ischemic stroke and cancer. O'Connor notes that his HIV mutant rats do not appear to have a compromised immune system.
O'Connor joined the MCG faculty in 2011.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
No, it's not the world's most conspicuous surveillance van -- it's one of the first steps toward 5G data. NTT DoCoMo has just confirmed that the gear-laden vehicle above successfully conducted a 10Gbps wireless test in Ishigaki this December with the help of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The dry run relied on frequencies and bandwidth well outside of usual cellular service, in the 11GHz band with 400MHz of spectrum, but proved that it was possible to blow past the speeds of LTE and LTE-Advanced while moving outdoors; the test used 24 antennas to maintain the link. DoCoMo ultimately hopes for similar speed in frequencies over 5GHz, and it's not shy about hoping the technology will define mobile communication as it improves. Although we're not expecting this kind of breakneck performance in a phone for years, it's good to know that 4G isn't necessarily the end of the line.
Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp at an awards ceremony in Johannesburg in Nov. 4, 2012.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Oscar Pistorius was to hold a private memorial service Tuesday for the girlfriend he was charged with murdering.
Slain model Reeva Steenkamp was cremated and mourned at a family service last week while Pistorius was in custody during a weeklong hearing on whether he should be released on bail.
Now that the South African athlete is free on $112,000 bond, he "specifically requested the memorial service as he continues to grieve and remains in deep mourning for the loss of his partner," a statement from his representatives said.
Mike Sheehan /EPA file
Barry Steenkamp, father of Reeva Steenkamp, is embraced after her memorial service at the Victoria Park Crematorium in Port Elizabeth, South Africa on Feb. 19.
"Since it is such a sensitive issue," the statement said, "Oscar has asked for a private service with people who share his loss, including his family members who knew and loved Reeva as one of their own."
The service was to be held at the hilltop Pretoria home of his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, where he has been staying.
The sprinter known as "Blade Runner," who inspired millions when he became the first double-amputee to compete in the Olympics, has admitted he fatally shot Steenkamp, 29, his girlfriend of four months.
He said in a court statement that he heard what he thought was a prowler, grabbed his gun, rushed to the bathroom on his stumps and fired through a closed door.
Prosecutors contend that he knew Steenkamp was in the bathroom and that he meant to kill her after a Valentine's Day argument. They charged him with premeditated murder, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life.
Steenkamp's family did not attend the emotionally charged bail hearing, where Pistorius, 26, sobbed numerous times as prosecutors leveled accusations against him.
Her mother has said she wanted answers about what happened the night of the shooting. Her father said last week that if Pistorius was telling the truth, he might one day forgive him, but that if he was lying, "he will suffer."
Meanwhile, the judge who presided at the bail hearing confirmed Tuesday he was dealing with a personal tragedy: his first cousin is suspected of poisoning her 12-year-old and 17-year-old boys and then killing herself in Johannesburg over the weekend, the Associated Press reported.
The revelation was one of several twists in the Pistorius case. Last week, the chief investigator was tossed from the inquiry because attempted murder charges stemming from a police-involved shooting in 2011 had been reinstated. And Pistorius' brother is also facing a homicide charge in connection with a 2008 car accident that left a woman dead.
Cheryll Simpson of NBC News contributed to this report
A recombinant Newcastle disease virus kills all kinds of prostate cancer cells, including hormone resistant cells, but leaves normal cells unscathed, according to a paper published online ahead of print in the Journal of Virology. A treatment for prostate cancer based on this virus would avoid the adverse side effects typically associated with hormonal treatment for prostate cancer, as well as those associated with cancer chemotherapies generally, says corresponding author Subbiah Elankumaran of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg. The modified virus is now ready to be tested in preclinical animal models, and possibly in phase I human clinical trials.
Newcastle disease virus kills chickens, but does not harm humans. It is an oncolytic virus that hones in on tumors, and has shown promising results in a number of human clinical trials for various forms of cancer. However, successful treatments have required multiple injections of large quantities of virus, because in such trials the virus probably failed to reach solid tumors in sufficient quantities, and spread poorly within the tumors.
The researchers addressed this problem by modifying the virus's fusion protein. Fusion protein fuses the virus envelope to the cell membrane, enabling the virus to enter the host cell. These proteins are activated by being cleaved by any of a number of different cellular proteases. They modified the fusion protein in their construct such that it can be cleaved only by prostate specific antigen (which is a protease). That minimizes off-target losses, because these "retargeted" viruses interact only with prostate cancer cells, thus reducing the amount of virus needed for treatment.
Retargeted Newcastle disease virus has major potential advantages over other cancer therapies, says Elankumaran. First, its specificity for prostate cancer cells means it would not attack normal cells, thereby avoiding the various unpleasant side effects of conventional chemotherapies. In previous clinical trials, even with extremely large doses of naturally occurring strains, "only mild flu-like symptoms were seen in cancer patients," says Elankumaran. Second, it would provide a new treatment for hormone-refractory patients, without the side effects of testosterone suppression that result from hormonal treatments.
About one man in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and one in 36 will die of this disease. Men whose prostate cancer becomes refractory to hormone treatment have a median survival of about 40 months if they have bone metastases, and 68 months if they do not have bone metastases.
American Society for Microbiology: http://www.asm.org
Thanks to American Society for Microbiology for this article.
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Despite years of research, the genetic factors behind many human diseases and characteristics remain unknown. The inability to find the complete genetic causes of family traits such as height or the risk of type 2 diabetes has been called the "missing heritability" problem.
A new study by Princeton University researchers, however, suggests that missing heritability may not be missing after all ? at least not in yeast cells, which the researchers used as a model for studying the problem. Published in the journalNature, the results suggest that heritability in humans may be hidden due only to the limitations of modern research tools, but could be discovered if scientists know where (and how) to look.
"The message of our study is that if you look hard enough you will find the missing heritability," said the senior researcher, Leonid Kruglyak, Princeton's William R. Harman '63 and Mary-Love Harman Professor in Genomics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Kruglyak worked with first author Joshua Bloom, a Princeton graduate student; Wesley Loo, a 2010 Princeton graduate now a graduate student at Harvard University; Thuy-Lan Lite, Class of 2012, who is working at the National Institutes of Health for a year before starting graduate school; and Ian Ehrenreich, a past Princeton postdoctoral researcher now at the University of Southern California.
"We don't think there is some fundamental limitation ? such as that there are things we don't understand about how genes behave ? that is holding us back," Kruglyak said. "Instead, we should be able to detect the heritability in humans if we use the right tools."
Passed down from parent to child, genes determine not only eye color and other physical characteristics but also the risk of diseases. Some inherited diseases are caused by a mutation in a single gene. These single-gene disorders have well-defined patterns of inheritance that can be used to predict the chances that an individual will inherit the disease.
However, many diseases and physical traits arise due to multiple genes, multiple locations within genes, and even the regions of DNA between genes. Across the genome ? which is an individual's total genetic content ? small variations in DNA code can, when added together, increase or decrease the likelihood that a person will develop a disease or characteristic.
Height, for example, results from variations in DNA at multiple locations on the genome. Researchers have detected about 180 locations in the human genome where small alterations in the DNA code can have an influence on how tall or short a person is. Nonetheless, these locations account for only 13 percent of the expected contribution genetic code has on a person's height.
Type 2 diabetes also has missing heritability: About 40 identified genome locations are associated with the risk of developing the condition, but those account for only 10 percent of the estimated genetic influence. Finding the missing heritability for diseases like type 2 diabetes, Crohn's disease and schizophrenia could help inform prevention and treatment strategies.
In the present study, the researchers scanned the genomes of yeast cells for DNA variations ? which can be thought of as spelling errors in the four-letter DNA code ? and then matched those variations with qualities or characteristics inherited from the cells' parents. This type of study, known as a genome-wide association study (GWAS), is a common tool for searching for diseases and traits associated with variations in the genome. The researchers detected numerous DNA variations that, when added together, accounted for almost all of the offsprings' inherited characteristics, indicating that there was very little missing heritability in yeast.
Although the search for heritability was successful in yeast, finding missing heritability in humans is far more complicated, Kruglyak said. For example, interactions between genes can contribute to heritable traits, but such interactions are difficult to detect with genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which are the primary means by which geneticists look for DNA variations associated with diseases or traits. In addition, environmental factors such as nutrition also can influence gene activity, and these influences can be elusive to the genome-wide study. GWAS also may be inadequate at detecting common DNA spelling errors that have only small effects, or it may fail to find DNA variations that have a large effect but are rare.
The study sheds light on the role of nature (genetic factors) versus nurture (environmental factors) in determining traits and disease risk, according to Bert Vogelstein, director of the Ludwig Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
"The nature versus nurture argument has been brewing for decades, both among scientists and the lay public, and 'missing heritability' has been problematic for the 'nature' component," said Vogelstein, who was not involved in the Princeton study.
"This beautiful study demonstrates that the genetic basis for heritability (nature) can be precisely defined if extensive, well-controlled experiments can be performed," Vogelstein said. "Though the results were obtained in a model organism, I would be surprised if they didn't apply, at least in part, to higher organisms, including humans."
Kruglyak said that one approach to finding the missing heritability in humans might be to apply genome-wide scans to large families, rather than focusing on large populations as is currently done. Family studies take advantage of the fact that the same genetic variations will be more common in families ? and thus easier to detect. However, the disadvantage of family studies is that the detected genetic variations may not be widespread in the population.
For the study in yeast, the team examined the offspring of two yeast cells, one that is commonly used in laboratory studies and the other in wine making. Although yeast usually reproduce asexually, under certain conditions, such as lack of food, two yeast cells will mate and produce offspring that, like human children, receive roughly half their genetic material from each parent. "Our study involves thousands of 'kids' from a single set of parents," Kruglyak said.
The team first sequenced the genomes of the two parent cells and then conducted scans for DNA variations in the genomes of 1,008 offspring. Yeast do not inherit height or disease risk from their parents, but they can inherit the ability to survive in adverse conditions. The researchers tested the parents and their offspring for the ability to grow under various conditions, including different temperatures, acidity levels, food sources, antibiotics, metal compounds, and in drugs such as caffeine.
The researchers then looked for associations between the DNA variations inherited from the parents and growth ability, and determined that the DNA variations accounted for nearly all of the resilience noted in the offspring.
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Princeton University: http://www.princeton.edu
Thanks to Princeton University 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.
With the release of the latest Chrome Beta today (version 26), Google is rolling out?a new spell checker inside its browser and on Google Docs. The new version features support for three additional languages (Korean, Tamil and Albanian) and a number of other improvements. The most important new feature, however, is that users who sync their Chrome settings between devices can now also sync their custom dictionaries across all of their machines, so "you won?t need to teach that new Chromebook how to spell your name" (or remind it that the hot startup you're writing about really doesn't have any vowels in its name).
Feb. 25, 2013 ? In a study published February 24 in Nature Climate Change researchers used the latest emissions scenarios and climate models to show how varying levels of carbon emissions are likely to result in more frequent and severe coral bleaching events.
Large-scale 'mass' bleaching events on coral reefs are caused by higher-than-normal sea temperatures. High temperatures make light toxic to the algae that reside within the corals. The algae, called 'zooxanthellae', provide food and give corals their bright colors. When the algae are expelled or retained but in low densities, the corals can starve and eventually die. Bleaching events caused a reported 16 percent loss of the world's coral reefs in 1998 according to the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
If carbon emissions stay on the current path most of the world's coral reefs (74 percent) are projected to experience coral bleaching conditions annually by 2045, results of the study show. The study used climate model ensembles from the upcoming Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Around a quarter of coral reefs are likely to experience bleaching events annually five or more years earlier than the median year, and these reefs in northwestern Australia, Papau New Guinea, and some equatorial Pacific islands like Tokelau, may require urgent attention, researchers warn.
"Coral reefs in parts of the western Indian Ocean, French Polynesia and the southern Great Barrier Reef, have been identified as temporary refugia from rising sea surface temperatures," said Ruben van Hooidonk, Ph.D., from the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) at the University of Miami and NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. "These locations are not projected to experience bleaching events annually until five or more years later than the median year of 2040, with one reef location in the Austral Islands of French Polynesia protected from the onset of annual coral bleaching conditions until 2056."
The findings emphasize that without significant reductions in emissions most coral reefs are at risk, according to the study. A reduction of carbon emissions would delay annual bleaching events more than two decades in nearly a quarter (23 percent) of the world's reef areas, the research shows.
"Our projections indicate that nearly all coral reef locations would experience annual bleaching later than 2040 under scenarios with lower greenhouse gas emissions." said Jeffrey Maynard, Ph.D., from the Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l'Environnement (CRIOBE) in Moorea, French Polynesia. "For 394 reef locations (of 1707 used in the study) this amounts to at least two more decades in which some reefs might conceivably be able to improve their capacity to adapt to the projected changes."
"More so than any result to date, this highlights and quantifies the potential benefits for reefs of reducing emissions in terms of reduced exposure to stressful reef temperatures."
"This study represents the most up-to-date understanding of spatial variability in the effects of rising temperatures on coral reefs on a global scale," said researcher Serge Planes, Ph.D., also from the French research institute CRIOBE in French Polynesia.
The researchers involved in the study all concur that projections that combine the threats posed to reefs by increases in sea temperature and ocean acidification will further resolve where temporary refugia may exist.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
R. van Hooidonk, J. A. Maynard, S. Planes. Temporary refugia for coral reefs in a warming world. Nature Climate Change, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1829
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BlackBerry has Balance, and no more than a month after the company once known as Research in Motion debuted its first BB 10 handset, Samsung has a dual-workspace solution of its own: SAFE with Knox. Unlike SAFE, which stands for Samsung for Enterprise, Knox, which was named for the Army outpost where America stores much of its gold, was not crafted into an acronym (though we imagine marketers dedicated at least one meeting to the cause). It's appropriately named, given the company's plans to dominate the enterprise industry with what's soon to be "the most comprehensive mobile security solution."
So what will you find within the Fort Knox of the smartphone world? It's an IT manager's pipe dream, of sorts. A comprehensive collection of features that include Security Enhanced (SE) Android, secure boot, TrustZone-based Integrity Monitoring (TIMA) for protecting the kernel, Single Sign On (SSO) and that application container concept made famous by BlackBerry, just to name a few. Best of all, Knox will ship preinstalled on select devices, all sold as one SKU -- in other words, consumers and enterprise customers alike will be taking home identical handsets, simplifying the process significantly for BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) businesses. We'll explain in a bit more detail in our hands-on video after the break.
ROME (Reuters) - The centre left is strongly leading in Italy's election, raising the chances of a stable pro-reform government in the euro zone's third largest economy, according to two telephone polls published after voting ended.
The polls on Sky and Rai television after voting ended at 3 p.m. (1400 GMT/9 a.m. ET) showed the centre left of Pier Luigi Bersani 5-6 points ahead of the centre right of former premier Silvio Berlusconi, with the anti-establishment movement of Genoese comedian Beppe Grillo taking third place.
The early polls cheered markets worried that the election could produce a weak, unstable government. Italian shares extended an earlier rally and bonds gained.
The poll for Sky television showed the centre left ahead by 5.5 points in the lower house and by six points in the Senate although the result there will depend on key battleground regions. In the most important, Lombardy, Sky said the centre left was tied with Berlusconi.
Sky had Bersani on 34.5 percent in the lower house, Berlusconi on 29 percent, Grillo on 19 percent and the centrist group of outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti slumping to 9.5 percent after a lackluster campaign that deeply disappointed his backers among foreign governments and investors.
The RAI poll showed a similar line-up, with the centre left six points ahead of Berlusconi in the lower house.
The spread between Italy's benchmark 10-year bonds and the German equivalent narrowed to less than 260 basis points after the poll results, in a sign of investor optimism that the centre left will be able to form a stable, pro-reform government.
The picture could change after computer projections of the result in both houses, expected shortly.
Italy's electoral laws guarantee a strong majority in the lower house to the party or coalition that wins the biggest share of the national vote.
However the Senate, elected on a region-by-region basis, is more complicated and the result could turn on a handful of regions, including Lombardy in the rich industrial north - which the polls showed was tied - and the southern island of Sicily.
Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, is pivotal to stability in the region as a whole. The period of maximum peril for the currency was when Rome's borrowing costs were spiraling out of control at the end of 2011.
BITTER CAMPAIGN
A bitter campaign, fought largely over economic issues, has been closely watched by financial markets, anxious about the risk of a return of the kind of debt crisis that took the whole euro zone close to disaster and brought the technocrat Monti to office, replacing the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, in 2011.
Monti helped save Italy from a debt crisis, but the polls suggested few Italians see him as the savior of the country, in its longest recession for 20 years.
A surge in protest votes supporting Grillo's 5-Star Movement had raised uncertainty about the chances of a strong, stable government that could fend off the danger of a renewed euro zone crisis.
Grillo's movement rode a huge wave of voter anger about both the pain of Monti's tough austerity program and a string of political and corporate scandals. It had particular appeal for a frustrated younger generation shut out of full-time jobs.
"I'm sick of the scandals and the stealing," said Paolo Gentile, a 49-year-old Rome lawyer who voted for 5-Star.
"We need some young, new people in parliament, not the old parties that are totally discredited."
Bad weather, including heavy snow in some areas, was thought to have hampered the turnout in Italy's first post-war election to be held in winter. This could have favored the centre left, whose voters tend to be more committed than those on the right, which has strong support among older people.
The 76-year-old Berlusconi, a billionaire media tycoon, pledged sweeping tax cuts and accused Monti of being a puppet of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a media blitz that halved the lead of the centre left since the start of the year.
But many voters said they were sick of his broken promises and his campaign faltered at the end, with Grillo stealing some of his votes. The election could mark the end of a flamboyant two-decade career at the centre of the political stage.
Whatever government emerges will inherit an economy that has been stagnant for much of the past two decades and problems ranging from record youth unemployment to a dysfunctional justice system and a bloated public sector.
(Additional reporting by Stefano Bernabei, Steve Scherer, James Mackenzie and Giuseppe Fonte in Rome, Lisa Jucca in Milan and; Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Playing off his?pre-Oscars prediction?that everyone would hate him at the Oscars, Seth MacFarlane spent the first 19 minutes of the Academy Awards on Sunday making sure everyone would, in fact, hate him.?After some real stinkers, the main conceit was William Shatner descending on a screen as Captain Kirk, from the future, to tell MacFarlane to do a better job of hosting, in a kind of alternate-reality bit that turned pretty sordid?and pretty fast. ...
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) ? Danica Patrick made more history at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.
She became the first woman to lead a lap and was the highest female finisher in the famed Daytona 500. She led five laps and finished eighth. Janet Guthrie had the previous best finish for a woman in the Daytona 500 ? 11th in 1980.
"You spend a lot of time thinking about what to do when the time comes," Patrick said. "I kept asking up above what was working. You needed a hole, you needed people to help you out. I had a little bit of help today here and there, but I felt like if I was going to dive low, I had a feeling I was going to get freight-trained. ... At the end of the day, it was a solid day."
Patrick, the former IndyCar star and current Sprint Cup rookie, was in position to make a run at winner Jimmie Johnson in the final laps. But Patrick faded, dropping from third to eighth as more experienced drivers passed her.
"We stayed basically in the top 10 all day long," she said. "You can't really complain about that. It was nice."
Patrick stayed out of trouble in a 200-lap race that saw several top contenders knocked out early.
Patrick started the "Great American Race" on the pole after becoming the first woman to qualify in the top spot. She failed to lead the first lap, though, falling behind three-time race winner Jeff Gordon.
Nonetheless, it was a big moment for NASCAR and Patrick.
But Patrick got her chance to be out front near the midway point. Fans were on their feet as Patrick beat Michael Waltrip to the front of the field on a restart. She led laps 90 and 91 and three more later before making a pit stop.
Patrick also made history as an IndyCar driver. She led 19 laps as a rookie in the 2005 Indianapolis 500, becoming the first woman to lead open-wheel racing's premier event. She finished fourth.
It began as a seemingly awkward Jack Nicholson introduction of the very long list on nominees, but the Best Picture denouement?at a very long Oscars ceremony on Sunday turned into a surprise appearance by Michelle Obama, via satellite from the Governors' Ball in Washington, D.C.?where earlier she had sat next to Chris Christie?to introduce and announce the winner,?Argo.?
Hacks have been popping up all over the place recently. Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, variousnewsorganizations. And off-shore oil rigs aren't to be left out. According to the Houston Chronicle, more than one of the things have been "incapacitated" by malware that can be traced back to the Internet's most common vices: pirated music and porn. More »
In its 25th year celebration, and fresh from a major overhaul that saw the?RSVP and Nexus Awards renamed as the NZ
Direct Marketing Awards, justONE, Colenso and Barnes, Catmur & Friends stood out.?
The ceremony took place at The Langham in Auckland last Friday, with sports personality Clint Brown tasked with entertaining New
Zealand?s marketing industry professionals and keeping them quiet at the same time.
justONE once again celebrated victory after being awarded the Grand Prix trophy with Subway for its Subway: Providing the Retail Edge entry, following on from the?Grand Prix with Subway four years ago (and lots of golds for Subway in Nexus and RSVP, plus multiple golds for Farmers and ADT over the last few years).?The Grand Prix panel said ?It rated top
honours for both its depth and breadth, including a very clever digital
solution that has greatly enhanced the way in which Subway engages with its key
target audience, generating fantastic and measurable ROI, and which has far
exceeded their objectives.??
justONE managed to pick up four gold awards,
six silvers, three bronzes and win the Best Data Strategy Craft category, with
their clients Farmers, Farmlands Trading Society, Subway Restaurants, Bank of
New Zealand and Ziera Shoes.
Barnes, Catmur & Friends' The Chosen One campaign for Boundary Road Brewery ensured that pretty much everyone at the brewery's table went home with an award.
Frucor Beverages
and Colenso BBDO/Proximity New Zealand won the
Nexus Supreme award for the?V Motion project along with winning two gold Nexus Awards, an industry and a channel gold, and Best Digital Creative category.?The Nexus Supreme
panel of judges said ?this entry showed a deep understanding of how to access
and engage the channels being utilised by their target audience.? They used superb technology to create V
Motion, with ground breaking integration and a master-class in the use of media
and channels. This is the future of direct marketing."?
The newly introduced Keith Norris Award for NZ Direct Marketing Organisation
of the Year, named in honour of the former (and long-time) chief exec, was presented to EziBuy.?
The judges were
genuinely inspired by their entry, saying ?EziBuy is a truly world-class
organisation that embraces modern direct marketing at its best. An industry
leader driven by a strong culture of innovation and success, EziBuy is
aggressively pursuing growth in a unique kiwi way. They have demonstrated
best-practice direct marketing throughout the organisation in Australasia, and
as a consequence have built strong and positive relationships with famed
world-class brands. As a company they are continually transforming their
business, building a strong and enduring direct marketing environment?.
Adding Subway's haul, Jo Reynolds, director of marketing and technology at IPCA (a Subway franchisee-owned
purchasing company covering the APAC region), was honoured as the Direct
Marketer of the Year.
AUT students Alex
Bygrave and Kimberley Torrie took out the New Zealand Post Student Marketer of
the Year Award with their innovative ?Lost & Found? campaign for Bonus
Bonds.
The full list of
2012 winners and their stories can be found on the NZDM Awards website.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? LeBron James had 16 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds for his 35th career triple-double and the Miami Heat cruised to their 10th straight win, 114-90 over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.
Dwyane Wade had 33 points, Mario Chalmers scored 14 and Chris Bosh added 13 to help the defending NBA champions improve to 39-14.
The Heat have a comfortable 5 1/2-game lead over Indiana in the Eastern Conference. They?ve won four in a row on the road, including impressive wins over Oklahoma City before the All-Star break and at Chicago on Thursday.
Jrue Holiday scored 21 points and Nick Young had 19 for Philadelphia, which continues to fall further behind in the playoff chase. The Sixers entered 3 1/2 games behind Milwaukee for the No. 8 spot in the East.
NUGGETS 113, BOBCATS 99 CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? JaVale McGee had 17 points, including seven dunks, and Denver snapped a four-game road losing streak with a victory over Charlotte.
The Nuggets hadn?t won on the road since Jan. 23.
Ty Lawson had nine of his 20 points in the final quarter and handed out five assists as the Nuggets broke open a close game early in the fourth with a flurry of fast-break points. Kenneth Faried finished with 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting, Corey Brewer had 14 points and Andre Iguodala chipped in with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Kemba Walker had 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting for the Bobcats.
HAWKS 103, BUCKS 102 MILWAUKEE (AP) ? Al Horford?s hook shot with 5.9 seconds remaining lifted Atlanta a victory over Milwaukee in a game that was close throughout.
Horford?s shot came after a driving layup by Monta Ellis had given the Bucks a 102-101 lead with 10.8 seconds left.
Horford had 23 points and 11 rebounds, Jeff Teague also scored 23 and added nine assists, and Devin Harris contributed 21 points for Atlanta, which rallied from a late seven-point deficit.
Ersan Ilyasova had 19 points and newly-acquired J.J. Redick added 16 points and seven assists for Milwaukee. Larry Sanders had 12 points and 19 rebounds, one off his career high.
CAVALIERS 118, MAGIC 94 ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) ? Marreese Speights scored 18 points, Alonzo Gee added 17 and Cleveland used a big fourth quarter to run past Orlando.
Kyrie Irving chipped in with 12 points and nine assists for the Cavaliers, who have won two straight overall and snapped a six-game losing streak in Orlando.
Arron Afflalo scored 16 points for the Magic in their first home game since a trade deadline deal last week that saw the departure of four players. Two of their three new additions, Tobias Harris and Beno Udrih, finished in double figures with 14 and 10 points, respectively.
Orlando has lost five consecutive games and 28 of its last 31.
WIZARDS 105, ROCKET 103 WASHINGTON (AP) ? Emeka Okafor had 17 points, 11 rebounds and made the go-ahead free throw with 5.2 seconds remaining to help Washington overcome a 3-point barrage for a win over Houston.
Bradley Beal scored 21 points, Trevor Ariza added 18, and John Wall had 12 points and 11 assists for the Wizards, who came back from a 17-point deficit for their second straight win. Washington scored 54 points in the paint and has won 10 of its 12 home games.
James Harden scored 27 points and Chandler Parsons had 24 for the Rockets, including five of Houston?s 19 3-pointers. Houston attempted 46 3-pointers, the most in the NBA this season. The Rockets made 13 from beyond the arc in the first half, one off the NBA record.
If you're a betting sort, you'd be better off steering clear of a lot of Academy Awards action this weekend. Find another place to wager -- maybe April's NFL draft or the weekend box-office numbers. While some Oscar categories seem like total locks, there's enough last-minute murmuring among film fans that a few shake-ups are almost guaranteed.
Warner Bros., DreamWorks
"Argo" and "Lincoln" are still favorites for the best-picture Oscar in what remains a wide-open race.
Start with your sure things. You're good to go if you pick Adele's "Skyfall," the James Bond theme song, to take home the best original song honor. Daniel Day-Lewis is unlikely to be toppled as the best actor front-runner, and Anne Hathaway is dreaming a very good dream as she scoops up award after award for her role as Fantine in "Les Miserables" -- she'll likely claim the best supporting actress Oscar too.
But in category after category, all bets are off. Best picture looked like a lock for "Lincoln," but a snub in the best director category for Ben Affleck threw the spotlight on "Argo." Sure, he won't be competing with Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee for the director's Oscar, but his being ignored may have helped his film gain attention -- and maybe a statuette.
Best actress? Jessica Chastain was an early favorite for her role as CIA agent Maya in "Zero Dark Thirty." Her star has fallen as young upstart Jennifer Lawrence of "Silver Linings Playbook" earned more and more attention. Lawrence, just 22, claimed the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild honor for her role. And as Oscar night looms, the oldest contender of all is starting to claim some buzz. French actress Emmanuelle Riva, nominated for her role in "Amour," is 85 -- and she'd be the oldest best actress winner ever if she receives the trophy. (There's also a young contender in Quvenzhane Wallis, who is just 9, but it'd be a shock if she pulled it off.)
The winners aside, the ceremony itself is also full of unanswered questions. "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane will host for the first time, and his edgy humor isn't the style the Oscars usually go for. He could neuter his jokes for a presumably more traditional Oscar audience, or he could go all-out with innuendo and insults, which could either earn him criticism or praise for pushing the envelope.
Warner Bros., DreamWorks, Univer
Though the Oscar show lineup isn't clear, plenty of rumors are out there about what will happen when. Some major stars will be presenting awards, including Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.
There's expected to be a segment honoring 50 years of James Bond, though early hopes that all of the Bond actors would reunite seem to have been dashed. A tribute to movie musicals, pegged to the best-picture nomination for "Les Miserables," is expected to highlight recent musicals such as "Chicago" and "Dreamgirls."
Many eyes will be on the annual In Memoriam tribute. Every year, viewers watch for inclusion of their favorite movie stars, directors and others in the industry who passed away the previous year. And every year, the montage leaves one or more major names out, and Twitter lights up with complainers. This year, it will be especially tough for the Academy to please everyone. 2012 saw dozens of deaths from all aspects of moviedom, from Whitney Houston to Jack Klugman, Ernest Borgnine to Nora Ephron.
And those who remember Academy Awards telecasts past, where the orchestra rushes to play off winners whose blather on in their speeches, know that the three-hour show always has trouble keeping to its timetable. Which makes a recent Academy decision seem odd, or perhaps welcome: Instead of ending the show with the night's biggest award --?best picture --?the Academy has announced it will end with a musical number by host MacFarlane and Broadway and Hollywood star Kristin Chenoweth. Makes sense if you consider that this means the final speeches won't be cut short. But will viewers stick around for a musical number once they've already seen the show's last big award? Like so many questions about this year's Oscars, we won't know until the end of the show.
The Oscars air Sunday at 8:30 p.m. ET?on ABC.
Who do you pick to win? Vote in our poll, and tell us on Facebook.
Sports, Cricket News ? South Africa crushed Pakistan by an innings and 18 runs and completed the clean sweep on day three of the third test at Centurion on Sunday.
Pakistan could make 235 runs in the second innings.
Starting the day on 14 for one, Pakistan showed some fighting spirit losing only Younus Khan (11), who played a thick edge off Dale Steyn to Graeme Smith at first slip, in the morning session.
Azhar Ali (27) and Imran Farhat put on 54 for the third wicket before the former ran himself out in calamitous fashion.
Farhat worked the ball to fine leg and after running one, Ali turned for a second at the wicketkeeper?s end. He was always struggling against the bullet throw of Steyn from the boundary and in the end was well short. Pakistan lost two more wickets with the score on 107 as they began to implode.
Kyle Abbott picked up his eighth wicket of the match when Farhat (43) slashed at a wide delivery and was caught by wicketkeeper AB de Villiers.
Captain Misbah-ul-Haq (5) then became Rory Kleinveldt?s first wicket of the game when he got a thin edge to a ball. Kleinveldt soon took a second when Asad Shafiq (6) scooped a delivery to Vernon Philander at mid-off.
South Africa made 409 in their first innings.
They won the first test in Johannesburg by 211 runs followed by a four-wicket victory in Cape Town. Agencies
There my be the times when online business owners or the website owners may face difficulty in promoting their work through internet marketing. This happens mostly because of their inability to appear on the first pages of some of the top search engines. However, one of the best ways to overcome this problem of difficult online visibility is through search engine optimization. This is extremely essential for start-up firms and also for the websites which are struggling to stand out in the field of online business. Availing link building services can just make the matter even smoother. Some of the most effective way of enjoying the best web presence are mentioned below:
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Author Bio:? Grace Smith is a professional freelance writer that focuses mainly on Internet marketing for different businesses. She is also a blog marketing expert and is really into social media networking as well as white label seo . She enjoys helping people as a copywriter and marketer and is always excited about learning about a different niche industry.
Can't make it to Barcelona for this year's Mobile World Congress? Don't worry -- we've got you covered. We'll be typing and snapping away quite a bit over the next few days, beginning with Huawei's event tomorrow morning. Then, we'll be heading to Mozilla to learn more about Firefox OS, and on Monday, we'll hear from Nokia, ASUS, and ZTE, just to name a few. We'll be checking out plenty of other events, too, along with countless booths at MWC's brand new venue, Fira Gran Via, located just outside the Barcelona city limits. We don't want you to miss any of the action -- jump past the break for a liveblog breakdown, along with links to each event.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Maybe these new-look Golden State Warriors are winners after all.
Jarrett Jack had 30 points and 10 assists, David Lee added 25 points and 22 rebounds and the short-sleeve-wearing Warriors rallied past the San Antonio Spurs 107-101 in overtime Friday night to snap a staggering 16-game losing streak in the series.
"We're not going anywhere," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. "We will not go anywhere. So get used to seeing these beautiful yellow jerseys."
The tight-fitted uniforms with pinstriped shorts became the talk of Twitter and also sparked chatter in the stands. Even point guard Stephen Curry said some Spurs laughed at the Warriors when they took off their practice shirts ? only to sport similar yellow-sleeved uniforms underneath.
It was certainly a fashion statement, but not nearly as dramatic as the statement made by the Warriors with their play.
Curry finished with 18 points and six assists to carry Golden State from 13 points down in the fourth quarter. The game featured 20 lead changes, 17 ties and countless late highlights.
Golden State had dropped six in a row until winning against Phoenix on Wednesday. The Warriors, also playing without center Andrew Bogut, hadn't won against San Antonio since another overtime game at home ? all the way back on Jan. 7, 2008.
"Had it been that long?" Curry asked. "Dang. Good win."
Danny Green scored 20 points and Tim Duncan had 19 points and 18 rebounds for the NBA-leading Spurs, who had won five straight and 16 of 17 overall. San Antonio fell to 6-2 on its rodeo trip, which ends Sunday at Phoenix.
"I think we got a little bit stubborn at different periods of the game and didn't move the ball really well," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "But they did a great job defensively and that's what allowed them to have an opportunity to win the basketball game. They did a really fine job in that regard."
The Spurs seemed to take control between the third and fourth quarters, breaking away from a tie game with 13 straight points behind Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Both finished with 18 points, but both disappeared late.
The teams traded baskets for the final 6 minutes of regulation and most of overtime.
Lee's driving layup put the Warriors ahead 90-89 with a little more than a minute to play in the fourth. That lead lasted only a few seconds, with Green banking a floater off the glass.
Curry came out of a timeout slashing through the lane and tossed a midair pass out to Jack through a crowd of defenders. Jack swished the 3-pointer with 7.3 seconds to play, pumping his right hand and flexing his muscles around midcourt after giving Golden State a 93-91 lead.
The rest of his celebration would have to wait.
Duncan took the inbounds pass on the other end from Ginobili, who knifed through the lane for a quick give-and-go and a tying layup. Jack missed a desperation shot, sending the game to overtime.
The energy remained rampant in the extra period, and so did the highlights. Curry's long bounce pass just skipped past Ginobili and into the hands of Jack, whose reverse layup gave Golden State a 100-98 lead.
Jack followed with another long jumper, freezing Parker off the dribble to put the Warriors ahead by four with 56.5 seconds left. Green hit a 3-pointer before Parker missed a potential go-ahead layup. Lee grabbed the rebound and tossed the ball to Curry, whose two free throws put the Warriors ahead 104-101.
Duncan's errant pass was stolen on the next possession to seal San Antonio's loss. Jack hit a trio of free throws, and the Warriors finally came out on top against the Spurs.
Jack became the first NBA reserve to finish with at least 30 points and 10 assists since Lakers great Magic Johnson on Feb. 16, 1996, according to the Warriors. The Sixth Man of the Year contender only cared about the result, with Golden State outshooting San Antonio 41.5 to 38.9 percent and winning the rebounding battle 48 to 40.
"By far our best defensive effort in a really, really long time," Jack said.
And it came without Bogut, who is out indefinitely with back spasms. The 7-foot center has missed 43 of 55 games this season, most recovering from surgery on his left ankle.
The Warriors still put to rest a staggering 16 straight losses against San Antonio.
The first half played out in less mesmerizing fashion than the uniforms, with San Antonio setting its typical plodding pace. Both teams took seven-point leads during the first half, and each struggled to create separation.
"They were packing in everybody in the paint. They did a good job tonight," said Parker, who shot 7 of 18 from the floor.
The intensity finally picked up late in the third quarter when the home team delighted the crowd announced at 19,596 ? Golden State's 16th straight sellout ? with some daring and dazzling efforts, starting with Curry's bank shot after getting knocked down by Duncan to begin a three-point play.
Ginobili twisted his way through the lane for a layup and a jumper as the Spurs scored 13 straight, including the first 12 points of the fourth. They went ahead 80-67 on Green's 3-pointer with 8:55 to play.
Golden State answered with its own 13-0 run capped by a 3-pointer from Curry, whose swish came mere feet in front of jubilant owner Joe Lacob sitting courtside. Both waived to the fans roaring to their feet, setting the stage for the frantic finish.
NOTES: Spurs swingman Stephen Jackson dressed but did not play for undisclosed reasons. He played at the Clippers a night earlier, his first game back since his wife had a miscarriage. Jackson had left the team in Chicago on Feb. 11. ... The Warriors are also planning to wear the sleeved jerseys for home games against Houston on March 8 and Chicago on March 15. ... The Spurs have won 28 in a row against the Warriors in San Antonio.
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Public release date: 26-Feb-2013
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