WASHINGTON (AP) ? Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.
In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.
The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.
As it was, Russian authorities told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. With no additional information, the FBI conducted a limited inquiry and closed the case in June 2011.
Two years later, authorities say Tamerlan and his brother, Dzhohkar, detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260. Tamerlan was killed in a police shootout and Dzhohkar is under arrest.
In the past week, Russian authorities turned over to the United States information it had on Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.
Even had the FBI received the information from the Russian wiretaps earlier, it's not clear that the government could have prevented the attack.
In early 2011, the Russian FSB internal security service intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother vaguely discussing jihad, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.
The two discussed the possibility of Tamerlan going to Palestine, but he told his mother he didn't speak the language there, according to the officials, who reviewed the information Russia shared with the U.S.
In a second call, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva spoke with a man in the Caucasus region of Russia who was under FBI investigation. Jacqueline Maguire, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, where that investigation was based, declined to comment.
There was no information in the conversation that suggested a plot inside the United States, officials said.
It was not immediately clear why Russian authorities didn't share more information at the time. It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to be cagey with foreign authorities about what intelligence is being collected.
Nobody was available to discuss the matter early Sunday at FSB offices in Moscow.
Jim Treacy, the FBI's legal attache in Moscow between 2007 and 2009, said the Russians long asked for U.S. assistance regarding Chechen activity in the United States that might be related to terrorism.
"On any given day, you can get some very good cooperation," Treacy said. "The next you might find yourself totally shut out."
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has denied that she or her sons were involved in terrorism. She has said she believed her sons have been framed by U.S. authorities.
But Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers and Zubeidat's former brother-in-law, said Saturday he believes the mother had a "big-time influence" as her older son increasingly embraced his Muslim faith and decided to quit boxing and school.
After receiving the narrow tip from Russia in March 2011, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Tamerlan and his mother. But the scope was extremely limited under the FBI's internal procedures.
After a few months, they found no evidence Tamerlan or his mother were involved in terrorism.
The FBI asked Russia for more information. After hearing nothing, it closed the case in June 2011.
In the fall of 2011, the FSB contacted the CIA with the same information. Again the FBI asked Russia for more details and never heard back.
At that time, however, the CIA asked that Tamerlan's and his mother's name be entered into a massive U.S. terrorism database.
The CIA declined to comment Saturday.
Authorities have said they've seen no connection between the brothers and a foreign terrorist group. Dzhohkar told FBI interrogators that he and his brother were angry over wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths of Muslim civilians there.
Family members have said Tamerlan was religiously apathetic until 2008 or 2009, when he met a conservative Muslim convert known only to the family as Misha. Misha, they said, steered Tamerlan toward a stricter version of Islam.
Two U.S. officials say investigators believe they have identified Misha. While it was not clear whether the FBI had spoken to him, the officials said they have not found a connection between Misha and the Boston attack or terrorism in general.
___
Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in Washington and Michael Kunzelman in Boston contributed to this report.
AYER, Mass. (AP) ? The Boston Marathon bombing suspect is being held in a small cell with a steel door at a federal medical detention center about 40 miles outside the city, a federal official said Saturday.
Federal Medical Center Devens spokesman John Collauti described the conditions under which 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was being held in the Ayer facility after being moved there from a hospital Friday.
Tsarnaev was injured during a police chase Thursday in which his brother, also a suspect in the bombing, was fatally wounded.
Collauti said in a telephone interview that Tsarnaev is in secure housing where authorities can monitor him. His cell has a solid steel door with an observation window and a slot for passing food and medication.
Collauti wouldn't discuss specific details related to Tsarnaev, but said that typically medical workers making rounds each shift monitor the inmates. He said guards also keep an eye on some cells with video cameras.
Also, inmates in the more restrictive section do not have access to TVs or radios, but can read books and other materials, he said.
"Really this type of facility is fully capable of handling him and it's not that much of an inconvenience because it's more or less business as usual," Collauti said.
Tsarnaev's mother said the bombing allegations against her son are lies.
Police said Saturday they were investigating what a Muslim advocacy group described as an act of vandalism against an Oklahoma City mosque that may have been part of a backlash after the Boston Marathon bombings.
Words were spray-painted on the mosque before dawn Saturday, said Lt. Arthur Gregory, a spokesman for Oklahoma City police. He said he did not know the nature of the words.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement that the words were obscenities. It wants the matter investigated as a hate crime and wants state and federal law enforcement to determine whether the vandalism was a reaction to the bombings.
The surviving suspect in the marathon attack, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has told investigators that he and his brother set off the bombs to defend Islam after the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The council said that the same mosque was targeted by paintballs last year, and said there have been other acts of violence against American Muslims since the marathon bombings.
In Malden, Mass., two days after the blasts, a Muslim woman wearing traditional Islamic hijab told police and The Boston Globe that she was punched on the street by a man who cursed at her and shouted, ?You are terrorists.?
This story was originally published on Sat Apr 27, 2013 9:31 PM EDT
Mark Zuckerberg showed he's more than just a social butterfly earlier this month, forming the tech-focused political lobby group FWD.us alongside some other big names in the industry. Now, according to AllThingsD, a few more heavy-hitters have signed up to offer their expertise, including Sean Parker (Napster co-founder) and Microsoft's Bill Gates,Steve Ballmer and Brad Smith. Not a bad crew to have on your side when technology issues are up for discussion, especially Ballmer -- he's notoriously good at getting his point across.
Update: This post has been corrected to reflect that the Brad Smith involved is General Counsel and EVP at Microsoft, and not Intuit CEO Brad Smith.
Apr. 26, 2013 ? During fetal development of the mammalian brain, the cerebral cortex undergoes a marked expansion in surface area in some species, which is accommodated by folding of the tissue in species with most expanded neuron numbers and surface area. Researchers have now identified a key regulator of this crucial process.
Different regions of the mammalian brain are devoted to the performance of specific tasks. This in turn imposes particular demands on their development and structural organization. In the vertebrate forebrain, for instance, the cerebral cortex -- which is responsible for cognitive functions -- is remarkably expanded and extensively folded exclusively in mammalian species. The greater the degree of folding and the more furrows present, the larger is the surface area available for reception and processing of neural information. In humans, the exterior of the developing brain remains smooth until about the sixth month of gestation. Only then do superficial folds begin to appear and ultimately dominate the entire brain in humans. Conversely mice, for example, have a much smaller and smooth cerebral cortex.
"The mechanisms that control the expansion and folding of the brain during fetal development have so far been mysterious," says Professor Magdalena G?tz, a professor at the Institute of Physiology at LMU and Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Center Munich. G?tz and her team have now pinpointed a major player involved in the molecular process that drives cortical expansion in the mouse. They were able to show that a novel nuclear protein called Trnp1 triggers the enormous increase in the numbers of nerve cells which forces the cortex to undergo a complex series of folds. Indeed, although the normal mouse brain has a smooth appearance, dynamic regulation of Trnp1 results in activating all necessary processes for the formation of a much enlarged and folded cerebral cortex.
Levels of Trnp1 control expansion and folding
"Trnp1 is critical for the expansion and folding of the cerebral cortex, and its expression level is dynamically controlled during development," says G?tz. In the early embryo, Trnp1 is locally expressed in high concentrations. This promotes the proliferation of self-renewing multipotent neural stem cells and supports tangential expansion of the cerebral cortex. The subsequent fall in levels of Trnp1 is associated with an increase in the numbers of various intermediate progenitors and basal radial glial cells. This results in the ordered formation and migration of a much enlarged number of neurons forming folds in the growing cortex.
The findings are particularly striking because they imply that the same molecule -- Trnp1 -- controls both the expansion and the folding of the cerebral cortex and is even sufficient to induce folding in a normally smooth cerebral cortex. Trnp1 therefore serves as an ideal starting point from which to dissect the complex network of cellular and molecular interactions that underpin the whole process. G?tz and her colleagues are now embarking on the next step in this exciting journey -- determination of the molecular function of this novel nuclear protein Trnp1 and how it is regulated.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t M?nchen.
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Journal Reference:
Ronny Stahl, Tessa Walcher, Camino De?Juan?Romero, Gregor?Alexander Pilz, Silvia Cappello, Martin Irmler, Jos??Miguel Sanz-Aquela, Johannes Beckers, Robert Blum, V?ctor Borrell, Magdalena G?tz. Trnp1 Regulates Expansion and Folding of the Mammalian Cerebral Cortex by Control of Radial Glial Fate. Cell, 2013; 153 (3): 535 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.027
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.
Yoga has long been praised for helping people improve their flexibility and core strength. But one Florida yoga instructor believes that the popular practice can also be used to help women conceive.
Sherry Longbottom, a registered nurse and yoga instructor, has developed fertility yoga.? In her classes she is careful to avoid yoga poses that could strain the body; instead, she favors simple gentle poses that help lessen anxiety.
?Our goal is to get blood flow in the pelvic area,? said Longbottom. ?I?m very excited to be helping these women, it?s so rewarding?
While practicing fertility yoga is not exactly as beneficial as in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments or hormone therapy, Longbottom said yoga can help women trying to conceive by helping them take a moment to relax and calm down.
?We live in fight or flight mode,? said Longbottom. ?That kind of life goes completely against what we?re trying to look for in creating a fertile environment.?
Many of the women attending Longbottom?s class started after they were recommended by the Reproductive Medicine Group in Tampa, Fla., to help them cope. ?She estimates about half of the attendees are receiving some kind of fertility treatment.
?[Yoga] still can?t correct a tubal issue or necessarily correct an egg issue,? Dr. Betsy McCormick of the Reproductive Medicine Group told ABCNews.com affiliate WFTS-TV. ?But what they can do is help someone get through that process.?
Dr. James Goldfarb, the director of infertility and in-vitro fertilization at University Hospital Cleveland, said he approves of patients trying safe alternative therapies such as yoga or acupuncture as long as the patient feels better after a session.
?The bottom line I always tell patients is, it certainly can?t hurt,? said Goldfarb. ?We?re very encouraging [that they] try whatever they find relief through.?
While fertility treatments such as IVF have helped millions of women conceive, Goldfarb said these women often have a tremendous amount of anxiety at the same time.
?To say someone is going through IVF is going to be stressed is like saying someone is going to hit their thumb with their hammer and it?s going to hurt,? said Goldfarb. ?It?s incredibly stressful.?
Longbottom said that the ability of yoga to help with a person?s mental health in addition to their physical health was one reason she wanted to start the fertility yoga class.
?Mind, body and spirit are all tied together; once you address those areas, you?re taking care of your whole body,? said Longbottom.
BOSTON (AP) ? The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects had been added to a federal terrorism database about 18 months before the attack, government officials said Thursday.
Two government officials said the CIA had Zubeidat Tsarnaeva's name added along with that of her son Tamerlan Tsarnaev after Russia contacted the agency in 2011 with concerns that the two were religious militants about to travel to Russia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.
Being in the classified TIDE database does not automatically mean a person is suspected by the U.S. of terrorist activity and does not automatically subject someone to surveillance, security screening or travel restrictions. But the disclosure could fuel more questions about whether the Obama administration missed an opportunity to thwart the deadly bombing.
The news came as the surviving bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was moved overnight from a hospital to a federal prison medical center, and as FBI agents searched for evidence in a landfill near the college he was attending.
Tsarnaev, 19, was taken from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where he was recovering from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during a getaway attempt, and transferred to the Federal Medical Center Devens, about 40 miles from Boston, the U.S. Marshals Service said. The facility at the former Fort Devens Army base treats federal prisoners.
FBI agents picked through a landfill Friday near the campus of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where Tsarnaev was a student. FBI spokesman Jim Martin would not say what investigators were looking for.
Tsarnaev is charged with joining with his older brother, now dead, in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 260 at the marathon finish line April 15.
The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the U.S. about a decade ago with their parents. Investigators have said it appears that the brothers were angry about the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and had been radicalized via Islamic jihadi material on the Internet instead of any direct contact with terrorist organizations, but they warned it is still not certain.
A team of investigators from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow has questioned both parents in Makhachkala, Russia, this week, spending many hours with the mother in particular over two days. The suspects' father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said the questions were mostly about their sons' activities and interests.
The father said on Thursday that he is leaving Russia soon for the United States to visit one son and lay the other to rest. The suspects' mother, who was charged with shoplifting in the U.S. last summer, said she has been assured by lawyers that she would not be arrested, but said she was still deciding whether to go.
At a news conference in Russia, Tsarnaeva bitterly said she now regrets moving her family to the U.S. and believes they would have been better off in a village in her native Dagestan.
"You know, my kids would be with us, and we would be, like, fine," she said. "So, yes, I would prefer not to live in America now! Why did I even go there? Why? I thought America is going to, like, protect us, our kids, it's going to be safe."
Also on Thursday, officials said that three days after the Boston attack, the Tsarnaev brothers planned to drive to New York and bomb Times Square in a spur-of-the-moment scheme that fell apart almost immediately when they realized the SUV they had hijacked was low on gas. They had five pipe bombs and a pressure-cooker explosive in the vehicle, police said.
"We don't know if we would have been able to stop the terrorists had they arrived here from Boston," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "We're just thankful that we didn't have to find out that answer."
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators from his hospital bed that he and his brother decided the night of April 18 to launch an attempt in New York. But when the Tsarnaev brothers stopped at a gas station on the outskirts of Boston, the carjacking victim they were holding hostage escaped and called police, Kelly said.
Later that night, police intercepted the brothers in a gunbattle that left 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead.
The word of a short-lived plan to bomb Times Square made some New Yorkers shudder at the thought of another terrorist attack on the city.
Outside Penn Station, Wayne Harris, a schoolteacher from Queens, said: "We don't know when a terrorist attack will happen next in New York, but it will happen. It didn't happen this time, by the grace of God. God protected us this time."
___
Associated Press writer Colleen Long in New York and Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this story.
Submission contributed by Veronica Connors, past Promotions Coordinator for Adaptive Sports at Sun Peaks. See the abbreviated version in Volume 11, Issue 5 of ?SPIN.
The focus of Adaptive Sports at Sun Peaks is to provide opportunities for people with a wide range of disabilities to participate in adaptive snow sports and recreation programs at Sun Peaks Resort. The team at Adaptive Sports at Sun Peaks (ASSP) certainly did that this season. Over 200 lessons were given by volunteer instructors whose numbers tripled since last winter. In addition to providing lessons, ASSP held a successful local Sun Peaks Adaptive Festival highlighting the work of the many?volunteers, students and their families. The presence of the instructors on the hill in their red jackets significantly raised awareness, advocacy and outreach again this season.
ASSP invited senior instructors from other resorts to train together this season. This networking of expertise ensured excellent lesson quality for the many guests with disabilities attracted to Sun Peaks. ASSP continued to work with the Sun Peaks sports school with their growing numbers of out of town guests again this season, sharing the passion for all. Promotion of the work done here was captured by Local CFJC TV and CBC Francophone Radio network?generating significant interest in adaptive lessons offered at Sun Peaks.
The resort was showcased at the recent Canadian Association of Disabled Skiing (CADS)?National Festival and Para-Alpine Championships?with?ASSP?acting as host committee, supporting students and athletes, their coaches and instructors, from all over Canada. During?this week-long festival,?ASSP?hosted the Warren Miller/Robert Redford movie fundraiser, The Movement, and a toonie slalom race as well.
A most significant highlight was in ASSP instructor Gerry Tremblay receiving the National CADS Instructor of the Year award. Gerry takes leave from his job in Vancouver each season to teach students here all winter. This is a well deserved award of national recognition.
ASSP gained charitable status this season and continues to fundraise to purchase adaptive equipment, provide scholarships and comprehensive instructor training. The charity?s next plan is to buy a building to house their equipment, stage their students, and run their training courses.
The Adaptive Sports program continues to grow in its student and instructor base and enjoys the reputation of a successful program for skiers and snowboarders with a disability. This is due to a very dedicated group of volunteers who work hard both on the snow and behind the scenes on behalf of the students, as well as the continuing support of the Sun Peaks Resort Corporation management and staff.
Adaptive Sports at Sun Peaks thanks all those who continue to ensure this mountain is for all.
For information contact adaptivesportsatsunpeaks@gmail.com or visit?adaptivesportsatsunpeaks.org
Here's a relatively useless yet undoubtedly impressive trick you can pull the next time you go to the beach: make a sand castle that's so unbelievably sturdy that it can hold up an entire person. Seriously. What's it take? Unfortunately, a wee bit more than just wet sand. More »
BANGKOK (AP) ? An increase in new U.S. home sales and strong corporate earnings across a range of industries lifted investment sentiment in Asia, where most stock markets rose Wednesday.
Luxury handbag maker Coach, Lockheed Martin and DuPont reported results that were better than analysts expected. Netflix, which streams TV shows and movies over the Internet, announced profits that delighted investors. Meanwhile, the U.S. government reported that sales of new homes rose 1.5 percent in March, adding to evidence of a sustained housing recovery.
That offset results of a survey into manufacturing conditions among the 17 European Union countries that use the euro. The monthly purchasing managers' index fell to a 3-month low in April.
"Sentiment was upbeat yesterday as solid US earnings and new home sales data helped equities shrug off disappointing PMI data earlier in the day," Gary Yau at Credit Agricole CIB said in a commentary.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.3 percent to 13,703.62. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1 percent to 22,014.90. South Korea's Kospi rose 0.8 percent to 1,933.83. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.4 percent to 5,087.90.
On Wall Street, corporate earnings propelled all three major indexes higher. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 1.1 percent, to close at 14,719.46. The S&P 500 index rose 1 percent to 1,578.78. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.1 percent to 3,269.33.
Later Wednesday in the U.S., consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, drug maker Eli Lilly and Boeing will release earnings. United Parcel Service, Exxon Mobil and Amazon are among the corporations that will do so on Thursday.
Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 20 cents to $89.38 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 1 cent to close at $89.18 a barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currencies, the euro rose slightly to $1.2993 from $1.2991 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 99.30 yen from 99.44 yen.
Angie Bailey is a Minnesota writer, cat fancier, word game junkie, creative-project dabbler, music lover, food enthusiast, wife, and mother to two humans and three cats.?She is also the co-creator, co-writer, and performer in a sketch comedy web series called 82 South St.?http://www.82southst.com/.?She spends most of her days enjoying her family, scribbling for her cat humor blog,Catladyland, playing Scrabble, laughing at her cats? shenanigans, and finding the silliness in most everything.
MIAMI (AP) ? Everyone in the Miami huddle was bracing for a grind to the finish. On the other end, the sense around the Milwaukee bench was that an upset was there for the taking.
Then the Heat landed a swift knockout punch.
Dwyane Wade scored 21 points, LeBron James finished with 19 and the Heat used a frantic start to the fourth quarter to pull away and beat the Bucks 98-86 in Game 2 of the teams' Eastern Conference first-round series on Tuesday night.
It was 68-65 entering the fourth. With James and four backups on the court, the Heat needed only 2 minutes, 22 seconds to outscore Milwaukee 12-0 and stretch the lead to 80-65 ? ensuring the reigning NBA champions would take a 2-0 series lead into Game 3 on Thursday night.
"We held court," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We protected it for two games. We did what we're supposed to do. And that's it."
Chris Bosh, Shane Battier and Chris Andersen all scored 10 points for the Heat. James' postseason streaks of 22 straight games with at least 20 points, and 16 straight games of at least 25 points, both came to an end.
Ultimately, none of that mattered.
"We didn't get into our game like we wanted to in that third quarter," James said. "But we went into the fourth with a (three-point) lead and we were able to jump on them."
Ersan Ilyasova scored 21 points for Milwaukee, which got 16 from Mike Dunleavy and 14 from Larry Sanders. The Bucks' starting guards, Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis, combined for only 15 points ? after teaming up to score 48 in Game 1.
"It's a series," said Sanders, who had a sore right ankle after he collided with Battier in the fourth quarter. "We made progress this game."
They'll need to make more, and do it quickly. James has never lost in 10 previous series where his team takes a 2-0 lead, and Wade is 8-0 in that same situation.
"In the playoffs you've got to find different ways to win," Wade said. "No matter what everybody says on the outside, (Milwaukee) is a good team. They played us very well."
For about 46 minutes, the Bucks played them even.
It was that 12-0 run that was the difference ? in what finished as a 12-point game.
Andersen started it with a three-point play, James had a layup not long afterward and the Heat were starting to roll. Another basket by Andersen off a pass from Ray Allen made it 77-65, and James found Norris Cole for a 3-pointer that capped the flurry and made it 80-65.
Just like that, it was over, even to Miami's surprise.
"They were doing some things that had us spinning around a little bit defensively, got us on our heels, and offensively we never got into a rhythm," Spoelstra said. "So we figured we were just going to have to find a way to grind in the fourth quarter, figuring it was going to be a close game."
The Heat have raved about their depth all season, so they had no qualms about sending James out to start the fourth with Cole, Andersen, Battier and Ray Allen.
By the time starters like Wade and Bosh got back onto the court, the task was merely protecting the lead, which the Heat did with relative ease.
"We felt pretty good about the position we were in, giving ourselves an opportunity on the road with 12 minutes to go," Bucks coach Jim Boylan said. "You feel good about that. Then they come out, go on a 12-0 run and it changes the complexion of the game. Playing catch-up is very hard to do against a high-quality team like Miami."
Jennings and Ellis combined for 48 points in Game 1, and the Bucks got blown out. So in the first half of Game 2, they combined for one point, were held to five shots that all missed ... and the Bucks were within 47-43 at halftime.
Chances are, very few would have seen that coming.
But play was sloppy from the outset, with the teams combining for eight turnovers in the first 6 minutes to set the tone for a clumsy first half. Wade, James and Chalmers shot 15 for 19 combined in the first half for Miami ? and the rest of the Heat were 3 for 17. For Milwaukee, Ilyasova had 12 points in the first 10 minutes, then two points the rest of the half.
So much like in Game 1, Milwaukee came out for the second half with a chance of stealing home-court advantage.
And for the entirety of the third quarter, the Bucks hung around, though the Heat showed some signs of getting things going. Bosh had a dunk for a six-point lead, then made a jumper ? on a play that James started by running down a loose ball and flicking it between his legs for a save along the sideline ? for a 68-60 lead, what was then the biggest Heat margin of the night.
The Bucks got within 68-65 to end the third, but then came the run that Miami had been waiting for all evening.
Jennings said Milwaukee would win in six games before the series began, and his confidence didn't waver even now with his club in an 0-2 hole.
"We showed a lot of improvement tonight," said Jennings, who shot 3 for 15. "Aside of making that run in the fourth I think we should have won this game."
Both teams got a big scare with 6:59 left. Battier drove for a layup from the right wing, and Sanders rushed down the middle of the lane to attempt a block. A collision ensued and both players hit the court awkwardly, Battier hitting his head on the hardwood and Sanders ? who fell over Battier ? grabbing at his right leg.
Battier made two free throws, then departed for the Heat locker room to get stitches on his chin.
NOTES: It's the 11th time the Heat have gone up 2-0 in a playoff series. They're 10-0 in the previous instances. ... Milwaukee has lost 21 of its last 29 playoff games. ... Sanders was third in the NBA's Most Improved Player voting, behind Indiana's Paul George and New Orleans' Greivis Vasquez. "Look where he was last year and where he is today. The improvement is very obvious," said Boylan, who thought Sanders should have won. ... Jennings was held without a first-half basket for only the fifth time all season.
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian National Railway Co took a big winter weather hit, the country's largest rail operator said on Monday, as extreme cold and heavy snow in Western Canada slowed operations and nipped into profits.
CN said it has since turned the corner, returning to more efficient operations, but will bump up its capital spending plan by C$100 million ($97.39 million), to C$2 billion, to make its network more resilient and productive.
The company performed relatively well during brutal winter weather, but more encouraging is their prospect for growth in the burgeoning crude-by-rail market, said Raymond James analyst Steve Hansen.
"They're tracking at a 60,000 carload run rate now on the crude-by-rail side - that's up quite significantly from the 30,000 carloads they did last year. And they're just getting going on unit train volumes now," he said.
Unit trains, those which have the same origin and destination, are more efficient.
CRUDE-BY-RAIL GROWTH
CN executives said during a conference call with analysts that its crude-by-rail revenue was up 300 percent during the quarter with about C$75 million of its book business directly in crude.
"The organic growth prospects for crude-by-rail at CN are very significant. We also expect solid demand from the buoyant North American energy sector," said Executive Vice-President and Chief Marketing Officer Jean-Jacques Ruest.
The company said it was in discussions with larger-scale refineries and integrated producers that are looking at building capabilities to unload at their refineries.
CN said it hopes major terminals will be built in Alberta and announced that new terminals will be opening both in the U.S. Gulf and Western Canada in the coming months.
CN also said it sees continued growth in its inter modal market, which handles shipping containers, driven by growth from West Coast ports. A recovering U.S. housing market is also expected to power growth in lumber and panel demand.
The company said both offshore and domestic demand for potash remains strong and it sees robust petroleum coke shipments.
Net income for the period ended March 31 fell to C$555 million, from C$775 million, CN said, while adjusted earnings per share rose to C$1.22, from C$1.18 in the same period last year.
Revenue was up 5 percent at C$2.47 billion, while car loadings increased 2 percent, the Montreal-based company said.
On average, analysts were expecting adjusted earnings of C$1.21 a share on revenue of C$2.49 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
For its first quarter, CN said revenue growth largely reflected freight rate increases and higher freight volumes, partly offset by the impact of winter weather on operations and volumes.
Shares of CN closed down 0.85 percent at C$97.64 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock, already down, dipped further after the results, which were inadvertently released before markets closed due to a time zone error, the company said.
A lower tax rate gave CN results a 7 Canadian cent per share lift, which helped mask a weak quarter, RBC Capital Markets analyst Walter Spracklin said in a note to clients.
CN's operating ratio, a core measure of railway productivity, deteriorated by 2.2 points to 68.4 percent in the quarter. A lower ratio, which measures operating costs as a percentage of revenue, indicates greater efficiency.
"At the end of it all, service was not where it needed to be, and we are going to be working hard to recover," Chief Executive Claude Mongeau said during the call.
"The outlier impact this year is something we don't want to repeat in the future, and so we are preparing ourselves to have stronger service into next year."
AFFIRMS OUTLOOK
CN maintained its 2013 forecast for earnings per share to grow in the high-single digits on a percentage basis from C$5.61 in 2012. That would mark a big slowdown from last year's 16 percent gain.
It still sees modest economic growth in North America, with carloads increasing by 3 to 4 percent, and targets free cash flow in the range of C$800-C$900 million.
CN shares have climbed about 8 percent year-to-date on broad investor support for the sector, but dramatically lagged the 24 percent increase of smaller rival Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd over the same period.
CP is expected to report its financial results on Wednesday morning.
(With additional reporting by Solarina Ho; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson, Marguerita Choy and Phil Berlowitz)
Geologists narrow window on time of the Chinese river?s origin
By Erin Wayman
Web edition: April 22, 2013
Enlarge
The Yangtze River formed by at least 23 million years ago but not before 36.5 million years ago, a new study finds.
Credit: Tan Wei Liang Byorn/Wikipedia
The world?s third longest river has a new age: The Yangtze River was in place by at least 23 million years ago, geologists report April 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Yangtze stretches for 6,300 kilometers across China, from the Tibetan Plateau to the East China Sea. Geologists have debated the river?s age for more than a century, with estimates ranging from 2 million to 45 million years old. ?
A team led by Hongbo Zheng of Nanjing Normal University in China investigated the Yangtze?s antiquity by studying rocks in the Jianghan Basin, which the river flows through downstream of the Three Gorges Dam. The researchers found rocks there that appear similar to the river?s modern sediments and dated them to roughly 23 million years ago. Older sediments ? which can?t form in the presence of flowing water ? put an upper limit on the Yangtze?s age of 36.5 million years.
The researchers say the timing of the Yangtze?s birth corresponds with changes in China?s topography caused by the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. Asia?s summer monsoon rains also intensified around that time, which would have fed the fledgling river.?
Suggested Reading
A. Maxmen. Tibetan Plateau history gets a lift. Science News. Vol. 173, April 5, 2008, p. 222. [Go to]
S. Perkins. Three Gorges Dam is affecting ocean life. Science News. Vol. 169, May 20, 2006, p. 318. [Go to]
ASUNCION (Reuters) - Paraguayans began voting on Sunday in a presidential election that could return the center-right Colorado Party to power less than a year after the nation's first leftist leader was impeached.
Millionaire businessman Horacio Cartes, 56, is the Colorado Party candidate and front-runner in the race, most polls show. A political novice, he vows to reform his party, which was tainted by corruption during its 60-year reign through 2008.
His main rival is Efrain Alegre, 50, a lawyer and career politician in the ruling center-right Liberal Party, which took over the presidency after withdrawing support for President Fernando Lugo and clearing the way for his impeachment in June.
Congress ousted Lugo, a leftist and former Roman Catholic bishop, after finding him guilty of mishandling a botched land eviction that killed 17 police officers and peasant farmers. Some of Paraguay's neighbors likened the two-day trial to a coup and imposed diplomatic sanctions on the South American nation.
"They're all the same to me, the Colorados, the Liberals, Lugo's people. I used to have faith in politicians but I don't anymore. What we need is jobs and they promise that but never deliver," said Evelia Benitez, a 38-year-old street vendor in the capital Asuncion.
Nearly 40 percent of Paraguay's 6.6 million people are poor. The landlocked country relies on soybean and beef exports, but is also notorious for contraband trade and illicit financing.
One of Paraguay's wealthiest men, Cartes primarily made his fortune in the financial and tobacco industries. Rivals have tried to link him to drug running and money laundering, but he has never been convicted of a crime and denies any wrongdoing.
"The accusations made during this campaign have no truth to them, and personally I am very serene," Cartes told reporters early on Sunday.
Brash and outspoken, Cartes won support for his candidacy even though he never voted before joining the Colorado Party four years ago.
Alegre, a more somber politician, led corruption probes in Congress. But his reputation as an honest administrator has been undermined by an investigation into whether he misappropriated state funds while serving as Lugo's public works minister.
"My leadership model is different from the traditional one. My project represents a 'decent Paraguay' versus the 'Paraguay of the mafias,'" Alegre told Reuters in a recent interview.
BUCKING THE TREND
Polls opened at 7 a.m. (1100 GMT). There is no second round of balloting so the candidate who captures the most votes wins. Voters also will elect local officials and members of Congress, with the left expected to gain seats in the divided legislature.
Paraguay's current president, Federico Franco, is barred by the constitution from running for re-election even though he is just serving out what remained of Lugo's five-year term. He will hand over the presidency in August.
Political instability has plagued Paraguay in the past and fears often arise that the election results could be disputed.
"I hope there's not much trouble and that democracy truly reigns today. I hope we don't fight each other because we have to vote in democracy and whoever gets the most votes should win," Diana Ayala told Reuters Television as she went to vote.
Paraguay will have a center-right government regardless of whether the Colorados or Liberals win, bucking the trend in South America where leftists have made steady gains in recent years. Only Colombia and Chile are ruled by conservatives.
The leftist bloc is especially strong in the Mercosur trade group, whose members include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela. Mercosur suspended Paraguay after Lugo's impeachment and brought in socialist Venezuela, even though its inclusion was never approved by Paraguay's Congress.
Both Cartes and Alegre have said they would push for Paraguay's full return to Mercosur.
The country's economy hinges largely on crop weather. It is seen growing 13 percent this year after a severe drought caused a contraction in 2012, according to central bank forecasts.
Land conflicts have intensified in recent years and clashes occasionally break out between squatters and big landowners, including Brazilian soy farmers who live in Paraguay.
Cartes and Alegre promise to carry out agrarian reform, and they want to attract up to $2.7 billion in private capital to refurbish Paraguay's airports and build new highways.
They also have vowed to improve operations at state-run companies and modernize the bloated state bureaucracy, which employs about 10 percent of all workers.
(Additional reporting by Mariel Cristaldo and Miguel Lobianco; Editing by Paul Simao and Doina Chiacu)
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in serious condition at the heavily-guarded Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the FBI said early Sunday.
The update on Tsarnaev's condition comes as federal authorities are waiting to question the 19-year-old, who is accused of helping carry out the attack that killed three people and wounded 180 others, many of them critically, near the finish line of Monday's race.
According to a federal official, Tsarnaev is sedated and unable to speak.
He was brought by ambulance to the facility after he was captured in Watertown, Mass., on Friday, following an intense manhunt that included at least two shootouts with police and ended with the bloodied suspect taken into custody from a tarp-covered boat he had been hiding in. He apparently suffered gunshot wounds to the neck and leg.
Tsarnaev's 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, the other suspect wanted by the FBI, was killed during a late-night firefight with police in Watertown. Tsarnaev managed to escape on foot, prompting a citywide lockdown as police conducted a house-by-house search for the alleged killer.
The Tsarnaev brothers, who were born in the former Russian territory known as Kyrgyzstan and are of Chechen descent, lived in Cambridge, Mass., for several years. Dzhokhar became a naturalized American citizen last year.
Under U.S. law, authorities have 72 hours after Tsarnaev's arrest to file a criminal complaint against him. When they do, Tsarnaev is expected to face terror charges that could bring the death penalty.
"I hope that the U.S. attorney, Carmen Ortiz, takes him on the federal side and throws the book at him," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday.
"We don't know if we'll ever be able to question the individual," Menino added.
Richard Roper, a former U.S. District Attorney in the Northern District of Texas, told Yahoo News Dzhokhar could be charged in his hospital room.
?Then when he?s better, he can make an appearance in court,? Roper said.
Hours after the FBI made a public plea to help identify the suspects from video and photos at the marathon, the brothers allegedly shot and killed an MIT police officer and wounded a transit cop. Authorities said the pair launched explosives during a dramatic high-speed chase in residential Watertown early Friday.
No motive has been revealed for Monday?s attack.
Immediately after Dzhokhar?s capture, federal prosecutors stirred controversy in legal circles by refusing to grant Dzhokhar his Miranda rights against self-incrimination, citing public safety concerns.
"He is not going to be read the Miranda warnings," ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas said Sunday. "They are going to use the Public Safety Exception, and dive in without advising him of his right to remain silent. They are taking this extraordinary step because there could be an imminent threat still out there. ... There's deep, deep concern about the amount of ammunition, guns and working bombs these men had."
Boston Police commissioner Ed Davis told "Fox News Sunday" that the amount of explosives police found suggested that the brothers may have been planning another attack.
"We are hoping, for a host of reasons, that the suspect survives," Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Saturday. "Because we have a million questions, and those questions need to be answered."
We have to get over it right up front. This stool costs about $780, which is stupid a lot. But now that it's out in the open we can move on and admire how cool it is, right? Riiight? More »
Cutting back on sleep harms blood vessel function and breathing controlPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Donna Krupa dkrupa@the-aps.org American Physiological Society
Findings could help explain why sleep deprivation associated with cardiovascular disease
BOSTONWith work and entertainment operating around the clock in our modern society, sleep is often a casualty. A bevy of research has shown a link between sleep deprivation and cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and obesity. However, it's been unclear why sleep loss might lead to these effects. Several studies have tested the effects of total sleep deprivation, but this model isn't a good fit for the way most people lose sleep, with a few hours here and there. In a new study by Keith Pugh, Shahrad Taheri, and George Balanos, all of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, researchers test the effects of partial sleep deprivation on blood vessels and breathing control. They find that reducing sleep length over two consecutive nights leads to less healthy vascular function and impaired breathing control.
The team will discuss the abstract of their study entitled, "The Effects of Sleep Restriction on the Respiratory and Vascular Control," at the Experimental Biology 2013 meeting, being held April 20-24, 2013 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Boston, Mass. The poster presentation is sponsored by the American Physiological Society (APS), a co-sponsor of the event. As the findings are being presented at a scientific conference, they should be considered preliminary, as they have not undergone the peer review process that is conducted prior to the data being published in a scientific journal.
Cutting Sleep in Half
The researchers have worked with eight healthy adult volunteers between the ages of 20 to 35 to date. For the first two nights of the study, the researchers had these volunteers sleep a normal night of eight hours. Then, rather than restrict their sleep completely, the researchers instead had them sleep only four hours during each of three consecutive nights.
Each of these volunteers underwent tests to see how well their blood vessels accommodate an increase in blood flow, a test of healthy blood vessel, or vascular, function. Following the first two nights of restricted sleep, the researchers found a significant reduction in vascular function compared to following the nights of normal sleep. However, after the third night of sleep restriction, vascular function returned to baseline, possibly an adaptive response to acute sleep loss, study leader Pugh explains.
In other tests, the researchers exposed subjects to moderately high levels of carbon dioxide, which normally increases the depth and rate of breathing. However, breathing control was substantially reduced after the volunteers lost sleep.
The researchers later had these volunteers sleep 10 hours a night for five nights. After completing the same tests, results showed that vascular function and breathing control had improved.
A Mechanism for Cardiovascular Harm
Pugh notes that the results could suggest a mechanism behind the connection between sleep loss and cardiovascular disease. "If acute sleep loss occurs repetitively over a long period of time, then vascular health could be compromised further and eventually mediate the development of cardiovascular disease," he explains.
Similarly, the loss of breathing control that the researchers observed could play a role in the development of sleep apnea, which has also been linked with cardiovascular disease.
Pugh adds that some populations who tend to report sleeping shorter periods, such as the elderly, could be at an even higher risk of these adverse health effects.
He and his colleagues plan to continue studying these effects in more subjects to strengthen their results. Eventually, Pugh says, they hope to discover a mechanism to explain why restricting sleep harms vascular function and breathing control.
###
About Experimental Biology 2013
Six scientific societies will hold their joint scientific sessions and annual meetings, known as Experimental Biology, from April 20-24, 2013, in Boston. This meeting brings together the leading researchers from a broad array of life science disciplines. The societies include the American Association of Anatomists (AAA), American Physiological Society (APS), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), American Society for Nutrition (ASN), and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Additional information about the meeting is online at http://bit.ly/ymb7av.
About the American Physiological Society (APS)
The American Physiological Society (APS) is a nonprofit organization devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences. The Society was founded in 1887 and today represents more than 11,000 members and publishes 14 peer-reviewed journals.
NOTE TO EDITORS: To receive a copy of the abstract or schedule an interview with a member of the research team, please contact Donna Krupa at DKrupa@the-aps.org, 301.634.7209 (office) or 703.967.2751 (cell) or @Phyziochick on Twitter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
Cutting back on sleep harms blood vessel function and breathing controlPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Donna Krupa dkrupa@the-aps.org American Physiological Society
Findings could help explain why sleep deprivation associated with cardiovascular disease
BOSTONWith work and entertainment operating around the clock in our modern society, sleep is often a casualty. A bevy of research has shown a link between sleep deprivation and cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and obesity. However, it's been unclear why sleep loss might lead to these effects. Several studies have tested the effects of total sleep deprivation, but this model isn't a good fit for the way most people lose sleep, with a few hours here and there. In a new study by Keith Pugh, Shahrad Taheri, and George Balanos, all of the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, researchers test the effects of partial sleep deprivation on blood vessels and breathing control. They find that reducing sleep length over two consecutive nights leads to less healthy vascular function and impaired breathing control.
The team will discuss the abstract of their study entitled, "The Effects of Sleep Restriction on the Respiratory and Vascular Control," at the Experimental Biology 2013 meeting, being held April 20-24, 2013 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Boston, Mass. The poster presentation is sponsored by the American Physiological Society (APS), a co-sponsor of the event. As the findings are being presented at a scientific conference, they should be considered preliminary, as they have not undergone the peer review process that is conducted prior to the data being published in a scientific journal.
Cutting Sleep in Half
The researchers have worked with eight healthy adult volunteers between the ages of 20 to 35 to date. For the first two nights of the study, the researchers had these volunteers sleep a normal night of eight hours. Then, rather than restrict their sleep completely, the researchers instead had them sleep only four hours during each of three consecutive nights.
Each of these volunteers underwent tests to see how well their blood vessels accommodate an increase in blood flow, a test of healthy blood vessel, or vascular, function. Following the first two nights of restricted sleep, the researchers found a significant reduction in vascular function compared to following the nights of normal sleep. However, after the third night of sleep restriction, vascular function returned to baseline, possibly an adaptive response to acute sleep loss, study leader Pugh explains.
In other tests, the researchers exposed subjects to moderately high levels of carbon dioxide, which normally increases the depth and rate of breathing. However, breathing control was substantially reduced after the volunteers lost sleep.
The researchers later had these volunteers sleep 10 hours a night for five nights. After completing the same tests, results showed that vascular function and breathing control had improved.
A Mechanism for Cardiovascular Harm
Pugh notes that the results could suggest a mechanism behind the connection between sleep loss and cardiovascular disease. "If acute sleep loss occurs repetitively over a long period of time, then vascular health could be compromised further and eventually mediate the development of cardiovascular disease," he explains.
Similarly, the loss of breathing control that the researchers observed could play a role in the development of sleep apnea, which has also been linked with cardiovascular disease.
Pugh adds that some populations who tend to report sleeping shorter periods, such as the elderly, could be at an even higher risk of these adverse health effects.
He and his colleagues plan to continue studying these effects in more subjects to strengthen their results. Eventually, Pugh says, they hope to discover a mechanism to explain why restricting sleep harms vascular function and breathing control.
###
About Experimental Biology 2013
Six scientific societies will hold their joint scientific sessions and annual meetings, known as Experimental Biology, from April 20-24, 2013, in Boston. This meeting brings together the leading researchers from a broad array of life science disciplines. The societies include the American Association of Anatomists (AAA), American Physiological Society (APS), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), American Society for Nutrition (ASN), and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). Additional information about the meeting is online at http://bit.ly/ymb7av.
About the American Physiological Society (APS)
The American Physiological Society (APS) is a nonprofit organization devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences. The Society was founded in 1887 and today represents more than 11,000 members and publishes 14 peer-reviewed journals.
NOTE TO EDITORS: To receive a copy of the abstract or schedule an interview with a member of the research team, please contact Donna Krupa at DKrupa@the-aps.org, 301.634.7209 (office) or 703.967.2751 (cell) or @Phyziochick on Twitter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.