By Kate Snow, Richard Esposito and Erin McClam, NBC News
Prosecutors are in talks with Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man accused of kidnapping three women and holding them captive for a decade, about a plea deal that could allow him to avoid the death penalty, sources told NBC News on Thursday.
The sources said an agreement was expected as early as Friday.
Such a deal would forestall a trial, a prospect that threatened to force the city of Cleveland, not to mention the three women, to relive tales of what prosecutors say was Castro?s horror house of torture and rape.
?They?re hopeful that it?s going to come to a speedy conclusion,? Kathryn Joseph, a lawyer for one of the women, said Thursday.
Earlier this month, prosecutors heaped hundreds more criminal charges on Castro, bringing the total number of counts he faced to 977. He pleaded not guilty July 17 at a hearing in which the judge had to ask him to keep his eyes open.
The charges included kidnapping, rape, assault and attempted murder. The attempted murder charge was filed because one of the women told investigators that Castro had impregnated her and forced her to miscarry.
The women ? Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight ? were kidnapped between 2002 and 2004, according to investigators. They were freed in May after Berry broke partway through a door and screamed for help while Castro was out of the house.
The women broke their silence in a three-minute video July 9. In it, Knight said: ?I may have been through hell and back, but I am strong enough to walk through hell with a smile on my face, and my head held high, and my feet firmly on the ground.?
The lead prosecutor in the case, Timothy McGinty of Cuyahoga County, never said whether he would seek the death penalty, only that he was considering it.
A trial was set to begin in August, and lawyers for the three women said that they wanted it wrapped up as soon as possible.
Castro is being held on $8 million bail.
This story was originally published on Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:05 PM EDT
MADISON, Miss. (AP) ? Woody Austin won the Sanderson Farms Classic on Sunday for his first PGA Tour victory since 2007, beating Cameron Beckman and Daniel Summerhays with an 8-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff.
The 49-year-old Austin is the eighth oldest winner in PGA Tour history and the oldest since Fred Funk won at 50 in 2007.
Austin came into the final round two shots behind Summerhays and Nicholas Thompson, but made up ground with a 5-under 67 to finish at 20-under 268. Beckman and Summerhays both birdied No. 18 to match Austin, and Beckman missed a 5-foot putt that would have forced a second playoff hole.
Beckman shot 67, and Summerhays had a 69.
Austin was making his fourth PGA Tour start of the year. He has four career victories.
Summerhays and Thompson started the day tied for the lead, two shots ahead the pack.
But Thompson fell out of contention quickly with a double bogey on No. 5 and a bogey on No. 8. He finished fourth at 18 under, two shots back after a 71. Summerhays moved into the lead with a birdie on No. 9, but made bogey on 14 and fell behind until making birdies on both Nos. 17 and 18.
It was the second straight week Summerhays failed to close a tournament after having at least a share of the lead on the final day. His drive on the playoff hole ? the 5,532-yard, par-5 18th ? found the bunker on the right side of the fairway and he hit into the water on his second shot.
He tied for fourth the week before at the John Deere, a stroke out of a playoff after bogeying the final hole.
Austin wasn't the only veteran making a move on the final day.
Beckman, a 43-year-old, recovered from a 72 in the opening round to post a 64, 65 and 67 in the final three rounds. He was tied for the lead at various times Sunday. He drilled an impressive 15-foot birdie putt to force the playoff, but his 5-foot putt on the playoff hole missed to the right.
Billy Andrade charged up the leaderboard with a 65 to tie for fifth at 17 under. The 49-year-old started the day seven shots off the lead but climbed quickly by shooting 7 under through his first 11 holes. He finished with seven straight pars.
It was the first day of the tournament that didn't involve a weather delay. But there was plenty of heat and humidity ? as well as some wind for the first time all week ? as players dealt with a soft course that received more than an inch of rain overnight.
____
Follow David Brandt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/davidbrandtAP
PORTLAND -- The eviction notices went up late Friday night telling camping protesters they must leave the sidewalks around City Hall, but the notices were ripped down by protesters faster than they went up.?
"If they raid us, we will raid them because there are a lot more kids that are crazier than cops think," said a young homeless protester who goes by Angel.?
"I decided to handcuff myself to this tree due to the fact that I believe in my First Amendment rights to protest," said Trevor Matney who has lived in front of City Hall for six months now.
Alvin Ronald Taylor is a pastor at the Union Gospel Mission.? He's concerned about the city's new plan to evict the homeless from City Hall.?
"It creates a domino effect and what happens is when people have no where to go, they're out on the street and the next step is crime," he said.
Dana Haynes with the Mayor's office said crime is what's behind the Mayor's move to evict.
"When police showed Mayor Hales there had been 113 calls to the block around City Hall over the past 180 days, Mayor Hales said enough is enough," said Haynes.?
He said the city changed the zoning around City Hall to a high-use pedestrian zone which they said makes it illegal to camp.
"Portland is in a dilemma," said homeless veteran Dwayne Owen, who first learned about Portland after his wife died of a stroke in Indiana and his alcohol abuse sent him to a homeless shelter in Indiana.? "I was told if you're going to be homeless then Portland, Oregon is the best place in the U.S. to be homeless."
Portland's reputation as a caring place could be seen at an annual downtown compassion event at the Veteran's Memorial Coliseum Saturday.? More than 400 volunteers provided food, health care, dental care, even haircuts to those in need.? More than 1,000 people were served in just a few hours.
Portland is performing a tough juggling act: In the air, compassion, the right to protest and public safety.? Which ball will fall first?
"None of us are leaving this sidewalk outside City Hall," said a young homeless protester.
Following the release of iOS 6.1.4, many users are searching for a jailbreak iPhone 4/5/4S/3Gs iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 6.1.4 and take advantage of some of the great new things it allows you to do, especially with the Notification Center. We are once again sitting right in the middle of that beautiful time period when updated jailbreaking tools are available, which allow us to free our iOS devices from their technical shackles. For those who have been sitting with an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad running Apple?s iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 firmware, you will no doubt be aware that after days of hard work and research, team has released an untethered jailbreak iPhone 4/5/4S/3GS iOS 6.1.3 by the name of TeamRa1n excluding the third-generation Apple TV.
To Jailbreak your iPhone 5/4/4S/3Gs iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1 Using Unlock-Jailbreak App visit the official website
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Unlock-Jailbreak App 2.0 can now Jailbreak all your ios Device on iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1 Including iPhone 5/4s,iPhone 5/4,iphone 3GS,ipad 2,ipad 2, New ipad 3, ipod touch 4G and ipod touch 3G, before Proceeding to jailbreak make Sure Your Device is on iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1, this Unlock-Jailbreak App 2.0 Work on iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1 and if you don?t have iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1 than Update your Device Right now.
As the demand for unlocking iPhone 5/4 4s and 3Gs running iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1 is more, the network operators have theoretically agreed to unlock iPhone on certain conditions. The carriers in the US don?t advertise about these unlocking methods because obviously, the operators don?t want to lose their subscribers. iPhone users who are interested in iPhone 5/4 unlocking are most likely to switch to a new carrier and it means that network operators can see a fall in the number of subscribers. In the modern world, traveling is a part of the job and it is very expensive to use locked iPhones in other countries. So, the network operators have come forward to unlock iPhones if they meet the eligibility criteria. These criteria differ with the operators and so, you should contact your carrier to know whether your iPhone can be unlocked.
So what is unlocking of iPhone 5/4 4S 3Gs iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1? If you unlock your iPhone, you will be able to use the SIM card from any network carrier of your choice. All you need to do is download Unlock-Jailbreak App and follow the few simple steps. Unlocking is even simpler than jailbreaking of iPhone. People who frequently travel abroad will find this extremely useful. Also, the official network carrier can prove to be expensive at times. Unlock-Jailbreak App is an excellent unlocking tool for the iPhone. There are some steps that need to be followed and you will be ready to use your iPhone 5/4/4S/3Gs iOS 6.1.3/6.1.4 and 6.1 on any network of your choice. Sometimes it is just good to have the options open.
Source: www.appszoom.com --- Thursday, July 18, 2013 by AAA Apps Portal 2 HD Wallpapers features hi definition wallpapers from Valve's hit game Portal 2! Each wallpaper in this Portal 2 HD Wallpapers is beautiful, crisp, and handpicked for excellent quality. Portal 2 HD Wallpapers is the wallpaper... FREE ...
Last season, Torrey Smith caught 49 passes from Joe Flacco for 855 yards and eight touchdowns.
Peter G. Aiken/Getty Images
Fantasy football draft season is fast approaching. Prep to win your league with SI.com's ongoing preview, including team-by-team breakdowns that examine each club's key fantasy storyline and much more.
Key fantasy storyline
The Ravens have shiny new Super Bowl rings and Joe Flacco has a shiny new contract, but what will they do for an encore? After a tough offseason of defections, there are some big holes to fill, and much of that will fall on Flacco's shoulder. And other than No. 1 receiver Torrey Smith, Flacco has no one else of significance in his receiving corps. Good luck.
The lack of depth sure makes Ray Rice, Smith and Dennis Pitta intriguing fantasy prospects relative to their draft position. Smith is primed for a breakout season as a third-year receiver. Rice will likely fall to the second half of the first round of fantasy drafts. Pitta has shoved himself into the conversation of the devoid elite tier of fantasy tight ends.
The latter point might be the most significant. With Rob Gronkowski (back, arm) a question mark coming off his surgeries, Aaron Hernandez no longer an NFL player and Tony Gonzalez barely hanging on to his career at age 37, Pitta warrants a spot up near Jimmy Graham at arguably the shakiest position in fantasy. The targets certainly will be there for Pitta, particularly if long-time return specialist Jacoby Jones doesn't prove to be worthy of a starting spot on a fantasy roster opposite Smith.
The Ravens will still center their offense on the running game with Rice and surging backup Bernard Pierce, but Flacco will still get his 3,500-plus yards and 20-plus touchdowns. Someone is going to have to reel them in. Smith and Pitta stand to rise to be among the most frequently-targeted players at their positions this season.
Schedule analysis
Baltimore Ravens' 2013 schedule
Including a look at how the Ravens' upcoming foes fared in fantasy last season
Week
Opponent
2012 Rank against QB
Against RB
Against WR
Against TE
1
@ Denver
9
2
5
30
2
vs. Cleveland
22
21
28
4
3
vs. Houston
18
1
22
29
4
@ Buffalo
24
31
14
15
5
@ Miami
15
10
13
17
6
vs. Green Bay
14
17
17
7
7
@ Pittsburgh
1
4
7
3
8
BYE
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
9
@ Cleveland
22
21
28
4
10
vs. Cincinnati
8
14
3
18
11
@ Chicago
4
5
10
12
12
vs. N.Y. Jets
5
25
1
21
13
vs. Pittsburgh
1
4
7
3
14
vs. Minnesota
28
9
24
20
15
@ Detroit
17
7
23
23
16
vs. New England
30
8
25
28
17
@ Cincinnati
8
14
3
18
When a team wins the championship in an league like the NFL that strives for competitive balance, that team is due to play a tough schedule the following season, so things should be tough on the Ravens. First, for those who own Rice, they play four of the five best teams against running backs defensively, and half of their schedule is against teams in last year's top 10 of fantasy rankings against running backs. Then, after what should be a productive start to the season for Flacco, the Ravens play a brutal stretch against stiff defenses in weeks 10-13: Bengals, Bears, Jets and Steelers, oh my.
If you don't deal Flacco after a Week 6 shootout against Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay, definitely deal him before that Week 10 stretch begins. He isn't going to be a true starting fantasy option during crunch time of the regular season, even if his fantasy postseason looks favorable against the suspect secondaries of the Vikings, Lions and Patriots.
Depth chart
QB: Joe Flacco, Tyrod Taylor
RB: Ray Rice, Bernard Pierce, Anthony Allen, Damien Berry
WR: Torrey Smith, Jacoby Jones, Tandon Doss, Tommy Streeter, Deonte Thompson, David Reed
TE: Dennis Pitta, Ed Dickson
K: Justin Tucker
Defensive analysis
Baltimore Ravens' 2012 defensive rankings
Ranking type
Total D
Rushing D
Passing D
Points allowed
NFL rank
17
20
17
12
Ranking type
Against QB
Against RB
Against WR
Against TE
Fantasy rank
6
18
16
1
On the surface, many will assume the Ravens will decline since losing future Hall of Famers LB Ray Lewis (retirement) and S Ed Reed (signed with Houston) in addition to S Bernard Pollard and LBs Dannell Ellerbe and Paul Kruger. However, Ravens are now younger, quicker and more athletic on defense, thanks to additions like OLB Elvis Dumervil, DL Chris Canty, S Matt Elam (draft) and S Michael Huff.
Also, Terrell Suggs is another year removed from Achilles' surgery, so he should be healthier and more potent on the edge, particularly with Dumervil drawing attention on the opposite side. You can question the two inside 'backers of their 3-4, but they remain strong and deep on the corner with Lardarius Webb, Corey Graham and Jimmy Smith. This stands to be a top-10 defensive unit again -- it was just 17th last year with those guys they "lost." There are a lot of IDP options here to like, particularly Suggs, Dumervil, Huff and the run-stuffing DT Haloti Ngata.
One of the most painful feelings in the entire world is when you accidentally step onto a Lego brick with your bare foot. AGH the shooting needle of plastic is a horrific reminder of how big a weakling your feet are. No worries though. For true Lego fanatics, they can turn to Lego brick house slippers.
Clemson's Darius Robinson is one of six current players to be added to a potential landmark NCAA suit.
Photo courtesy of Clemson Sports Information
Clemson CB No. 21 is now plaintiff No. 19 in a landmark lawsuit against the NCAA.
Thursday, six current college football players added their names to a group of 16 former college football and basketball players who have joined to sue the NCAA, video game maker EA Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Company. One of those current players was Clemson senior cornerback Darius Robinson, who sees a striking resemblance between himself and a certain senior cornerback at Clemson in the NCAA Football 14 game recently released by EA Sports.
"That's me all the way," Robinson said in an interview Thursday night after attorneys filed an amended complaint to the case, which is being tried in federal court in the Northern District of California. It's Robinson all right -- for better and for worse. "It's as close as it gets," he said. "Size, ratings. I don't have the best hands as a corner, so I always drop interceptions on the video game." And does he occasionally drop interceptions in real life? "Sometimes," Robinson said with a laugh. "I'm not going to lie."(There is one slight difference. Robinson, who wore No. 21 for three years, recently switched to No. 8. His Twitter handle remains @21FearGod.)
Now Robinson will join five other current players -- two from the Pac-12, two from the Big Ten and one from the SEC -- in the fight against the NCAA's model of amateurism, which holds that no matter how much revenue their teams bring in or how much that revenue increases over a period of years, athletes are entitled only to tuition, room and board as payment for their services. Robinson isn't ungrateful. He's thrilled to have a scholarship, but he has spent three years inside the machine, and he has learned a little about how the sausage is made for your Saturday enjoyment. "This is definitely something that I would love to get involved in," Robinson said, "because I really do believe in it."
Robinson's inspiration to join the suit came a few months ago when he learned the same lesson former Minnesota wrestler Joel Bauman learned earlier this year. When you're an athlete at an NCAA institution, your name and your face do not belong to you. Robinson wanted to get a job to earn extra money, but he couldn't work regular hours because of his commitment to the football team. So he sought work with more flexible hours. He hit upon 5LINX, a multilevel marketing company with a business model similar to Amway. While such companies certainly have their drawbacks, 5LINX does offer direct sales. In Robinson's case, he intended to sell mobile phones and phone plans.
MANDEL: Movement, but no ruling in classaction certification hearing
Someone in Clemson's compliance department noticed an uptick in business-related posts on Robinson's Facebook and Instagram accounts, and Robinson was called in to meet with compliance officials. "According to the NCAA, the rule is that a student-athlete can have his own business," Robinson said. "But they were saying that I couldn't have it because I couldn't detach my name from it. They were saying I couldn't promote it. ... I didn't see a reason for me having a business if I couldn't promote it." Basically, Robinson wasn't allowed to use his name or face in connection to his business. This rule exists so boosters can't shuttle extra money to players for bogus products or services, but it also stops athletes from earning legitimate income under their own names. (On the NCAA's own website, you can find the tale of a Northwestern swimmer forced to use a pseudonym before she could self-publish a book.)
Robinson was incredulous. He pointed out that if he had time, he could go to work at a retail store selling mobile phones -- using his real name -- and not run afoul of NCAA rules. Why couldn't he do the same thing independently? Compliance officials, who were just doing their jobs and protecting Robinson's eligibility, told him he shouldn't risk NCAA trouble. So he dropped his business plans.
The episode made Robinson more interested in the inner workings of college athletics. He had seen stories about the huge new television contracts signed by various conferences -- including the ACC, of which Clemson is a member -- but he hadn't paid much attention. Of course he and his teammates had noticed someone was making money off a video game featuring their likenesses, but he hadn't thought much about it. That all changed after Robinson's run-in with compliance. "We need to be more educated about the entire process," Robinson said. "We really just know nothing."
Robinson wanted to make one thing clear to Clemson fans, though. This quest will not harm the Tigers on the field. The College Park, Ga., native, who came back from a fractured ankle to rejoin the first-team defense this spring, said his participation in the suit will not distract him from his role with a Clemson team that should be very good this fall. "It's something that I really believe in," he said. "But at the same time, I'm still focused on this upcoming season."
Robinson got himself hooked up with the plaintiffs' attorneys, who are led by Washington-based Michael Hausfeld. Hausfeld's team also signed up Arizona linebacker Jake Fischer, Arizona kicker Jake Smith, Vanderbilt linebacker Chase Garnham, Minnesota tight end Moses Alipate and Minnesota linebacker Victor Keise. Patrick Vint of SBNation pointed out that while Fischer, Garnham, Smith and Robinson are readily identifiable in the NCAA Football 2014 video game, Alipate and Keise do not have avatars in the game. In the amended complaint, plaintiffs' attorneys point out Alipate and Keise signed "one or more release forms." So the inclusion of the two Minnesota players may serve to challenge the name and likeness release forms Big Ten athletes are required to sign. In an interview Thursday, Hausfeld declined to discuss specific strategies. "We wanted to show the diversity of commitment in the different conferences, the different schools," Hausfeld said. "This is an issue that has caught their attention."
It took guts for the players to stand up to the NCAA, just as it takes guts for anyone who stands up to the establishment and asks for a better deal. But the players have plenty of support. The plaintiffs have a huge legal team that has sunk millions into this case because the attorneys see the NCAA and the schools and conferences that run major college sports as a poor man's Big Tobacco. The players also have support on campus. Fischer and Smith, for example, discussed their participation at length with Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez and Wildcats athletic director Greg Byrne. "While we do not support the lawsuit, we support their right to be involved and express their opinion," Byrne said in a statement. "They are two fine young men and we are glad they are part of our program and university."
When the names of the players were released Thursday, the reaction was predictable. Critics on Twitter suggested they didn't buy the NCAA Football video game to play as Arizona's kicker or Vanderbilt's middle linebacker. But whether they realize it or not, they bought the game for the realism. There is a reason EA Sports employees spend valuable hours trying to match the size and speed attributes of backup tight ends on mid-tier Big 12 teams to their real-life counterparts. This is a business decision, an investment based on market research. The game sells better when it is as realistic as possible.
Another prong of the suit is television money. The rights to the games in which these athletes will play are sold for massive amounts. The Pac-12 has a 12-year, $3 billion deal with Fox and ESPN for select football and men's basketball games. Other games are broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks, which are sold to cable providers for a per-subscriber fee. All that money is redistributed to the schools, which will make millions more than they did a few years ago without giving a raise to the performers people are paying to see. The same is true of the SEC, which is in the middle of ESPN and CBS deals that will pay about $3 billion over 15 years. That figure will rise when the league and ESPN team to launch the SEC Network in 2014. The Big Ten, the Big 12 and the ACC also have big-money deals that dwarf what they made even 15 years ago.
Athletic directors, who have had no cap placed on their earnings as revenues have mushroomed, will argue that if the court forces more to players in the revenue sports (football and men's basketball), it will leave less money to support non-revenue sports such as volleyball, soccer and swimming. This is true, and a victory for the plaintiffs or a settlement might force schools to cut sports. This may sound insensitive, but what direct responsibility does a football player have to fund a swimmer's scholarship? None.
The players who joined the lawsuit Thursday will likely be long finished with their athletic careers by the time this case gets resolved. They're all seniors and they'll exhaust their eligibility before the scheduled trial date in 2014. If the case goes to trial, expect any verdict to be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. That will take years. The players probably won't get rich individually even if they win, and they'll have to turn the other cheek to criticism from people who think athletes should just shut up and play ball.
In June, when Hausfeld said the plaintiffs would add at least one current athlete, I wrote that whoever joined the suit could be remembered as the Curt Flood of college sports. Flood, if you'll recall, faced mostly scorn and never reaped a financial benefit from his decision to challenge Major League Baseball's reserve clause. But generations of future professional athletes benefited from Flood's willingness to fight for a more reasonable split of the revenue between management and the labor force. These players will face criticism as well. But they might be the ones who pave the way for future generations of college football and basketball players to receive a larger share of the bounty they help create.
It took 69 years, but at last we've seen the pitch drop. One of the world's longest-running experiments climaxed last week, when a finger-sized bulb of pitch (bitumen) separated from its parent bulk and dropped into a beaker. For the first time ever, this fleeting event has been recorded on video.
The pitch drop experiment was set up at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, in 1944. The original version of the experiment, at the University of Queensland in Australia, has been running since 1930, but various glitches have prevented that team from actually seeing a drop separate.
"No one has ever seen a drop fall anywhere in the world," says Trinity's Shane Bergin, whose webcam recorded the event on 11 July. "It's one of the oldest experiments ? an oddity, a curiosity."
Pitch shatters if hit with a hammer at room temperature. Physicist Thomas Parnell set up the Queensland experiment to illustrate that, although it appears solid, pitch is actually an incredibly viscous liquid. (Recent experiments showed that the same is true for "Gorilla Glass", used in smartphones and tablet screens.)
In 1927 Parnell heated a blob of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. After letting the material settle for three years, Parnell cut the stem to allow the pitch to drip out and fall. Gravity has since drawn out a gloopy drop about once a decade, and a ninth is expected to fall sometime this year. The long-running experiment has since been added to the Guinness Book of World Records and won an IgNobel prize in 2005.
Perfect pitch
Parnell died having never seen a drop separate, and John Mainstone, the current custodian of the Queensland experiment, has had no luck capturing such an event on camera.
No one recalls who set up the Trinity experiment, which sat on a shelf largely unwatched for years. Bergin recently rekindled excitement in the project and set up a webcam last year so that anyone around the world could join the vigil. The video shows that the drop actually fell in two stages, says Bergin. "There was one heavy fall, and then there was a tiny thread left that was still connected. That broke while I was there."
His colleagues Denis Weaire and Stefan Hutzler immediately started analysing the drop footage, measuring its development over time to figure out that their pitch is two million times more viscous than honey, and two billion times more viscous than water. Weaire has suggested that Trinity hold an annual party on 11 July to commemorate the pitch drop, and to check in on the next drip.
"We have great plans for the next drop and a decade to put them into action," says Bergin. "Within ten years, God knows what kind of technology will be available. We'll be keeping up with that to capture the next one in all its stunning beauty."
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Workers at Pine Ridge Ranch Camp had just 40 minutes to evacuate 179 people, most of them children as firefighters struggle to contain an early-season blaze; and, Caleb Medley was shot in the head in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting and was in a coma when his son was born four days later. Caleb's wife Katie believes their son, Hugo, has helped her husband heal.
New plan of attack in cancer fightPublic release date: 19-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Peter Reuell preuell@fas.harvard.edu 617-496-8070 Harvard University
Researchers demonstrate that a 2-drug combination, under certain circumstances, can eliminate disease
New research conducted by Harvard scientists is laying out a roadmap to one of the holy grails of modern medicine a cure for cancer.
As described paper recently published in eLife, Nowak, a professor of Mathematics and of Biology and director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, and co-author Ivana Bozic, a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics, show that, under certain conditions, using two drugs in a "targeted therapy" a treatment approach designed to interrupt cancer's ability to grow and spread nearly all cancers could be effectively cured.
Though not a cure for cancer, Nowak said the research does offer hope to researchers and patients alike by demonstrating that it may soon possibly sooner than many might think be beaten.
"In some sense this is like the mathematics that allows us to calculate how to send a rocket to the moon, but it doesn't tell you how to build a rocket that goes to the moon," Nowak said. "What we found is that if you have a single point mutation in the genome that can give rise to resistance to both drugs at the same time, the game is over. We need to have combinations such that there is zero overlap between the drugs."
Importantly, Nowak said, for the two-drug combination to work, both drugs must be given together an idea that runs counter to the way many clinicians treat cancer today.
"We actually have to work against the status quo somewhat," he said. "But we can show in our model that if you don't give the drugs simultaneously, it guarantees treatment failure."
In earlier studies, Nowak and colleagues showed the importance of using multiple drugs. Though temporarily effective, single-drug targeted therapy will always fail, they showed, because the disease eventually develops resistance to the treatment.
To determine if a two-drug combination would work, Nowak and Bozic turned to an expansive data set on how patients respond to single-drug therapy, supplied by clinicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering, to create computer models of how multi-drug treatments would work. Using that model, they then treated a series of "virtual patients," creating using data, collected by another contributor, on the number of cancer cells that had colonized recently-deceased patients.
"For a single-drug therapy, we know there are between 10 and 100 places in the genome that, if mutated, can give rise to resistance," Nowak explained. "So the first parameter we use when we make our calculations is that the first drug can be defeated by those possible mutations. The second drug can also be defeated by 10 to 100 mutations.
"If any of those mutations are the same, then it's a disaster," he continued. "If there's even a single mutation that can defeat both drugs, that is usually good enough for the cancer it will become resistant, and treatment will fail. What this means is we have to develop drugs such that the cancer needs to make two independent steps if we can do that we have a good chance to contain it."
How good a chance?
"You would expect to cure most patients with a two-drug combination," Bozic said. "In patients with a particularly large disease burden you might want to use a three-drug combination, but you would cure most with two drugs."
The trick now, Nowak and Bozic said, is to develop those drugs.
To avoid developing drugs that are not vulnerable to a single mutation, Bozic said, pharmaceutical companies have explored a number of strategies, including using different drugs to target different pathways in cancer's development.
"There are pharmaceutical companies here in Cambridge that are working to develop these drugs," Nowak said. "There may soon be as many as 100 therapies, which means there will be as many as 10,000 possible combinations, so we should have a good repertoire to choose from.
"I think we can be confident that, within 50 years, many cancer deaths will be prevented," Nowak added. "One hundred years ago, many people died from bacterial infections, and now they would be cured. Today, many people die from cancer, and we can't help them, but I think once we have these targeted therapies, we will be able to help many people maybe not everyone but many people."
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New plan of attack in cancer fightPublic release date: 19-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Peter Reuell preuell@fas.harvard.edu 617-496-8070 Harvard University
Researchers demonstrate that a 2-drug combination, under certain circumstances, can eliminate disease
New research conducted by Harvard scientists is laying out a roadmap to one of the holy grails of modern medicine a cure for cancer.
As described paper recently published in eLife, Nowak, a professor of Mathematics and of Biology and director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, and co-author Ivana Bozic, a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics, show that, under certain conditions, using two drugs in a "targeted therapy" a treatment approach designed to interrupt cancer's ability to grow and spread nearly all cancers could be effectively cured.
Though not a cure for cancer, Nowak said the research does offer hope to researchers and patients alike by demonstrating that it may soon possibly sooner than many might think be beaten.
"In some sense this is like the mathematics that allows us to calculate how to send a rocket to the moon, but it doesn't tell you how to build a rocket that goes to the moon," Nowak said. "What we found is that if you have a single point mutation in the genome that can give rise to resistance to both drugs at the same time, the game is over. We need to have combinations such that there is zero overlap between the drugs."
Importantly, Nowak said, for the two-drug combination to work, both drugs must be given together an idea that runs counter to the way many clinicians treat cancer today.
"We actually have to work against the status quo somewhat," he said. "But we can show in our model that if you don't give the drugs simultaneously, it guarantees treatment failure."
In earlier studies, Nowak and colleagues showed the importance of using multiple drugs. Though temporarily effective, single-drug targeted therapy will always fail, they showed, because the disease eventually develops resistance to the treatment.
To determine if a two-drug combination would work, Nowak and Bozic turned to an expansive data set on how patients respond to single-drug therapy, supplied by clinicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering, to create computer models of how multi-drug treatments would work. Using that model, they then treated a series of "virtual patients," creating using data, collected by another contributor, on the number of cancer cells that had colonized recently-deceased patients.
"For a single-drug therapy, we know there are between 10 and 100 places in the genome that, if mutated, can give rise to resistance," Nowak explained. "So the first parameter we use when we make our calculations is that the first drug can be defeated by those possible mutations. The second drug can also be defeated by 10 to 100 mutations.
"If any of those mutations are the same, then it's a disaster," he continued. "If there's even a single mutation that can defeat both drugs, that is usually good enough for the cancer it will become resistant, and treatment will fail. What this means is we have to develop drugs such that the cancer needs to make two independent steps if we can do that we have a good chance to contain it."
How good a chance?
"You would expect to cure most patients with a two-drug combination," Bozic said. "In patients with a particularly large disease burden you might want to use a three-drug combination, but you would cure most with two drugs."
The trick now, Nowak and Bozic said, is to develop those drugs.
To avoid developing drugs that are not vulnerable to a single mutation, Bozic said, pharmaceutical companies have explored a number of strategies, including using different drugs to target different pathways in cancer's development.
"There are pharmaceutical companies here in Cambridge that are working to develop these drugs," Nowak said. "There may soon be as many as 100 therapies, which means there will be as many as 10,000 possible combinations, so we should have a good repertoire to choose from.
"I think we can be confident that, within 50 years, many cancer deaths will be prevented," Nowak added. "One hundred years ago, many people died from bacterial infections, and now they would be cured. Today, many people die from cancer, and we can't help them, but I think once we have these targeted therapies, we will be able to help many people maybe not everyone but many people."
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The domestic benefits of the U.S. oil production boom are well documented ? everything?from the creation of high-paying jobs to sending less money to foreign oil producers.
Less well appreciated are the geopolitical benefits.?U.S. oil production has already paid foreign policy dividends in at least one vital area: It has paved the way for stronger sanctions on Iran by helping to keep the global oil market well-supplied and minimizing oil price volatility.
This development is timely and instructive.
By the first half of 2014, according to credible estimates, Iran is likely to be able to covertly produce enough highly enriched uranium for one nuclear device in as little as seven to 10 days ? before it could be detected by the international community. While it remains unclear how close Iran is to nuclear weapons capability, the consensus is that the window for preventing it from happening is closing.
The most effective?way to inflict economic pressure on Tehran, most analysts say, is to target the Iranian petroleum industry.?Crude oil exports account for between 60 percent and 70 percent of government revenue, more than $600 billion?over the past decade.?Yet for much of the history of the Iran sanctions program, simple steps that could have constricted or even eliminated this cash flow were not taken.
Across the globe, oil demand had been growing quickly, spare production capacity was low, and new supplies were harder to find. So the world market needed Iranian oil, and petroleum-dependent economies across the globe ? including the United States ? were afraid of the devastating price shocks that could have accompanied any effort to remove?barrels from the market.
This dynamic began changing dramatically?in 2012.?Most important, oil production surged in nations outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries ? particularly in the United States and Canada, where combined oil output grew by nearly 1.3 million barrels per day and outpaced global demand growth. Other factors were also key, notably Saudi Arabia?s decision not to cut crude production as Libyan output returned to the market following the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011.
At the same time, global oil demand growth had slowed substantially, with much of the euro zone facing an economic crisis and stagnant growth in the United States. By mid-2012, the market was facing the surprising prospect of a sizeable glut in oil supplies.
These developments were critical in allowing the United States to implement new, tougher?sanctions in early 2012 that drove year-over-year Iranian crude exports down by nearly 15 percent in the first quarter alone. A complete European embargo, effective July 1, 2012, had a more dramatic effect ? cutting Iranian crude exports by nearly 60 percent in the third quarter. All told, Iranian crude production in 2012 fell to its lowest level since 1989. For the first time, Western sanctions began to inflict real pain on Iran?s economy.
Despite the loss of up to a million barrels per day?of Iranian crude in 2012, global oil prices were not damagingly volatile. Over the last five months of 2012, when significant Iranian supplies were?coming off the market,?prices traded in a narrow band between $107 and $116 per barrel, and the average weekly price change was just 1.6 percent.
Even with production shortfalls due to instability in Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, and a handful of other key countries, the global oil market has remained balanced in 2013, and Iranian crude exports have continued to fall. The International Energy Agency now expects non-OPEC oil supplies to grow by 1.2 million barrels per day this year ? largely due to the United States. Meanwhile, global oil demand is expected to increase only by a relatively modest 930,000 barrels per day.
While it appears that negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program will recommence following the recent election of President Hassan Rohani, further economic pressure will likely be needed. If so, oil markets could manage it. Increased production in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States ? combined with the willingness to deploy U.S. and European strategic inventories if necessary ? would allow the market to absorb the loss of additional Iranian oil supplies, starving the regime of cash and crippling its economy.
Analysts disagree about how long oil markets can withstand the loss of Iranian oil supplies. Markets will inevitably tighten, perhaps as soon as mid-2014. Yet, time is running out on peaceful options to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.?Favorable oil market conditions, led by the surge in U.S. production, have opened a unique window to strengthen sanctions and maximize pressure on Tehran to abandon nuclear ambitions. Policymakers, who rightly seek to avoid being forced to choose between living with a nuclear Iran or going to war, should be prepared to seize this opportunity before it is too late.
PHOTO:?Roughneck Brian Waldner is covered in mud and oil while wrestling pipe on a True Company oil drilling rig outside Watford, North Dakota, October 20, 2012. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart?
Carpenters work on new homes at a residential construction site in the west side of the Las Vegas Valley in Las Vegas in April. Housing starts have fallen to a 10-month low.
WASHINGTON - Housing starts and permits for future home construction unexpectedly fell in June, but the decline in activity was likely to be short-lived against the backdrop of bullish sentiment among home builders.
The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that housing starts dropped 9.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 836,000 units. That was the lowest level since August last year.
Economists, who had expected groundbreaking to rise to a 959,000-unit rate, shrugged off the decline and said wet weather in many parts of the country had dampened activity. They noted that much of the drop was in the volatile multifamily segment.
"It looks like it's weather-related," said Sam Bullard, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, N.C. "On the surface it doesn't look good, but we are confident that starts activity is still going to climb higher in the months to come."
Permits to build homes fell 7.5 percent last month to a 911,000-unit pace. Economist had expected permits to rise to a 1-million unit pace.
Though it was the second straight month of declines in permits, they remained ahead of starts. Economists said this, together with upbeat homebuilder confidence, suggested groundbreaking activity will bounce back in July and through the remainder of this year.
Sentiment among single-family home builders hit a 7-1/2 year high in July, a report showed on Monday, amid optimism over current and future home sales.
Mortgage rates still low
There was little to suggest that a recent spike in mortgage rates was restraining home building activity, economists said, pointing to the improving builder confidence.
"New home supply and housing completions remain low, home prices are rising and, despite the recent rise, mortgage rates remain low," said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York. "To us, this all points to housing activity adding to growth in the second half of the year."
Housing's recovery is being aided by still-low mortgage rates engineered by the Federal Reserve's accommodative monetary policy and steady employment gains.
Mortgage rates increased in recent weeks after the Fed expressed its desire to start cutting back on its bond purchases later this year. The monthly $85 billion in bond purchases have been holding down interest rates.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the central bank still expected to start scaling back its massive asset purchase program later this year, but left open the option of changing that plan in either direction if the economic outlook shifted.
The U.S. stock market rose as Bernanke's comments led markets to believe the central bank's plans to pull its monetary stimulus were not set in stone. The U.S. dollar gained ground while Treasury securities prices slipped.
Bernanke offered an upbeat assessment of the housing market's prospects.
"Housing activity and prices seem likely to continue to recover, notwithstanding the recent increases in mortgage rates, but it will be important to monitor developments in this sector carefully," Bernanke told lawmakers.
Last month, groundbreaking for single-family homes, the largest segment of the market, slipped 0.8 percent to its lowest level since last November 2012. Starts for multi-family homes declined 26.2 percent to a 245,000-unit rate.
Starts were down in all four regions in June, with big declines in the Northeast, South and the Midwest.
Weak groundbreaking suggested a smaller boost to both second and third quarter gross domestic product from residential construction. Second-quarter GDP estimates are ranging between 0.5 percent and 1 percent.
The economy grew at a 1.8 percent annual pace in the first three months of the year.
Permits for multi-family homes fell 21.4 percent last month. But permits for single-family homes rose 0.6 percent to a their highest since May 2008.
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Americans continue to use more renewable energy sources, according to Lawrence Livermore analysisPublic release date: 18-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anne Stark stark8@llnl.gov 925-422-9799 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Americans used more natural gas, solar panels and wind turbines and less coal to generate electricity in 2012, according to the most recent U.S. energy charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Each year, the Laboratory releases energy flow charts that track the nation's consumption of energy resources.
Natural gas use is up particularly in the electricity generation sector, where it has basically substituted directly for coal, while sustained low natural gas prices have prompted a shift from coal to gas in the electricity generating sector, according to A.J. Simon, an LLNL energy systems analyst.
The rise in renewables is tied to both prices (the underlying cost of solar panels and wind turbines has gone down) and policy (government incentives to installers of equipment or renewable energy targets in various states), Simon said.
Overall, Americans used 2.2 quadrillion BTU, or quads, less in 2012 than the previous year. (BTU or British Thermal Unit is a unit of measurement for energy; 3,400 BTU is equivalent to about 1 kW-hr).
Once again, wind power saw the highest percentage gains in going from 1.17 quads produced in 2011 up to 1.36 quads in 2012. New wind farms continue to come on line with bigger, more efficient turbines that have been developed in response to government-sponsored incentives to invest in renewable energy.
Solar also jumped from 0.158 quads in 2011 to 0.235 quads in 2012. Extraordinary declines in prices of photovoltaic panels, due to global oversupply, drove this shift.
This is the first year in at least a decade where there has been a measurable decrease in nuclear energy.
"It is likely to be a permanent cut as four nuclear reactors recently went offline (two units at San Onofre in California as well as the power stations at Kewaunee in Wisconsin and Crystal River in Florida)," Simon said. "There are a couple of nuclear plants under construction, but they won't come on for another few years."
Coal and oil use dropped in 2012 while natural gas use jumped to 26 quads from 24.9 quads the previous year. There is a direct correlation between a drop in coal electricity generation and the jump in electricity production from natural gas.
The majority of energy use in 2012 was used for electricity generation (38.1 quads), followed by transportation, industrial, residential and consumption. However, energy use in the residential, commercial and transportation sectors decreased while industrial energy use increased slightly.
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Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (http://www.llnl.gov) provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
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Americans continue to use more renewable energy sources, according to Lawrence Livermore analysisPublic release date: 18-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Anne Stark stark8@llnl.gov 925-422-9799 DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Americans used more natural gas, solar panels and wind turbines and less coal to generate electricity in 2012, according to the most recent U.S. energy charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Each year, the Laboratory releases energy flow charts that track the nation's consumption of energy resources.
Natural gas use is up particularly in the electricity generation sector, where it has basically substituted directly for coal, while sustained low natural gas prices have prompted a shift from coal to gas in the electricity generating sector, according to A.J. Simon, an LLNL energy systems analyst.
The rise in renewables is tied to both prices (the underlying cost of solar panels and wind turbines has gone down) and policy (government incentives to installers of equipment or renewable energy targets in various states), Simon said.
Overall, Americans used 2.2 quadrillion BTU, or quads, less in 2012 than the previous year. (BTU or British Thermal Unit is a unit of measurement for energy; 3,400 BTU is equivalent to about 1 kW-hr).
Once again, wind power saw the highest percentage gains in going from 1.17 quads produced in 2011 up to 1.36 quads in 2012. New wind farms continue to come on line with bigger, more efficient turbines that have been developed in response to government-sponsored incentives to invest in renewable energy.
Solar also jumped from 0.158 quads in 2011 to 0.235 quads in 2012. Extraordinary declines in prices of photovoltaic panels, due to global oversupply, drove this shift.
This is the first year in at least a decade where there has been a measurable decrease in nuclear energy.
"It is likely to be a permanent cut as four nuclear reactors recently went offline (two units at San Onofre in California as well as the power stations at Kewaunee in Wisconsin and Crystal River in Florida)," Simon said. "There are a couple of nuclear plants under construction, but they won't come on for another few years."
Coal and oil use dropped in 2012 while natural gas use jumped to 26 quads from 24.9 quads the previous year. There is a direct correlation between a drop in coal electricity generation and the jump in electricity production from natural gas.
The majority of energy use in 2012 was used for electricity generation (38.1 quads), followed by transportation, industrial, residential and consumption. However, energy use in the residential, commercial and transportation sectors decreased while industrial energy use increased slightly.
###
Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (http://www.llnl.gov) provides solutions to our nation's most important national security challenges through innovative science, engineering and technology. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
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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.
PARIS (Reuters) - Irish rock star and anti-poverty activist Bono received France's highest cultural award on Tuesday for his contribution to music while being praised for using his fame to battle for humanitarian causes.
The frontman of the rock band U2 was presented with the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti in a ceremony in Paris.
"Beyond notes and beyond words, you committed yourself and dedicated your fame and career to wage some of the greatest wars of our time. Not for charity's sake but in the name of justice," Filippetti said in a statement.
Bono, whose real name is Paul Hewson, said the award was a huge honour but it belonged to the band.
"I've got the biggest mouth and the loudest voice but the music we make comes from each other," he said in a statement.
Previous recipients of the award that dates back to 1957 include David Bowie, Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Bob Dylan, Bruce Willis and Shakira.
Bono, 53, has received a list of awards for his music and campaigning since forming U2 about 37 years ago, including being a nominee several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2005 he was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year and in 2007 he received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Michael Roddy)
JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel condemned new guidelines by the European Union on Tuesday which ban EU funding and cooperation with Israeli institutions that operate in territory captured by the Jewish state in the 1967 Mideast war.
In order to obtain EU funding from 2014, Israeli projects will be required to sign on to a clause stipulating they operate within the country's pre-1967 borders and not in east Jerusalem, the West Bank or Golan Heights.
The clause is a powerful endorsement by the EU of the Palestinian demand that its future borders be based on the pre-1967 lines. The Palestinians are demanding that Israel stop building Jewish settlements in the West Bank as a condition for the resumption of peace talks which collapsed in 2008.
Israel says talks should restart without preconditions and that all core issues should be resolved through dialogue. It has frequently called on the Palestinians to resume peace talks.
Israel's deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin called the EU decision a "very significant and worrying move."
"It certainly doesn't add to the atmosphere of peace talks. On the contrary, it fuels the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiation table," he said Tuesday.
A senior Palestinian official, however, welcomed the EU move.
"This is the beginning of new era," said Hanan Ashrawi. "Israel should listen carefully and should understand that this occupation cannot continue without any kind of accountability."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is back in the region this week for consultations on his attempts to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He is not scheduled to visit Israel or the Palestinian territories but is set to meet with Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan Tuesday evening.
A spokesman for the European delegation in Tel Aviv said a "territorial applicability clause" will feature in agreements between Israel and the EU from 2014. "Israeli entities situated in the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem will not be eligible for EU funding," he said.
He emphasized that the guidelines would not affect Israel's private sector or companies but rather bodies like research centers or NGOs. He said centers seeking funding under the research and development agreement with the EU or NGO's conducting environment projects are examples of those who will be affected.
In a statement, the EU said the purpose of "these guidelines is to make a distinction between the state of Israel and the occupied territories when it comes to EU support."
Many Israelis object to withdrawing from the West Bank or parts of east Jerusalem because the areas carry deep religious significance for devout Jews who consider it their biblical homeland. Some Israelis also say that violent groups could fill the vacuum if Israel withdraws from areas under its control, as was the case in the Gaza Strip where the Islamic militant group Hamas took over after Israel pulled out in 2005.
Israel's minister for intelligence and strategic affairs, Yuval Steinitz, accused the EU of singling out Israel. "These are worrying steps which we view as double standards because we don't see the EU take similar steps in other territorial disputes," he said.
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Public release date: 19-Jul-2013
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The domestic benefits of the U.S. oil production boom are well documented ? everything?from the creation of high-paying jobs to sending less money to foreign oil producers.
