Peterson, Vikings top Pack 37-34 to make playoffs

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? Adrian Peterson picked up the Minnesota Vikings and gave them a thrilling ride to the playoffs, where the next stop on this improbable journey is, yes, Green Bay.

This game was so full of action, intrigue and tension they're going to stage it again next weekend.

Peterson finished 9 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record, but he still powered the Vikings past the Packers 37-34 Sunday with 199 yards to set up a rematch at Lambeau Field in a first-round playoff game.

"I told myself to come into this game focused on one thing, and that's winning," Peterson said.

Peterson rumbled around the left side of the line for a 27-yard gain in the closing seconds, his career-high 34th carry exactly one year after reconstructive surgery on his left knee. That set up Blair Walsh's 29-yard field goal as time expired and put the Vikings (10-6) in the postseason after consecutive last-place finishes.

"For our guys to be as resilient as they were, it has you swelling with pride," coach Leslie Frazier said.

The division champion Packers (11-5) dropped to the NFC's No. 3 seed. Their five-game winning streak against the Vikings ended.

"I had a feeling that we had the game in the bag the whole game," Vikings cornerback Chris Cook said. "It was just a vibe that I had on the sideline, in how we were carrying ourselves."

Aaron Rodgers completed 28 of 40 passes for 365 yards and four touchdowns and no interceptions, connecting with Jordy Nelson from 2 yards to tie the game with 2:54 remaining. But Christian Ponder threw for three scores, including one to Peterson.

Ponder went 16 for 28 for 234 yards, including a 65-yard zinger in stride to Jarius Wright midway through the fourth quarter that set up Ponder's third touchdown toss.

"It's disappointing. A lot of us wanted that extra week," Rodgers said.

Peterson finished with 2,097 yards, becoming the seventh player in NFL history to reach the 2,000 mark. He had to work for it, pulling out all the cutbacks, stutter-steps and spins he could find in his exceptional skill set. His longest run was only 28 yards against a defense geared to slow him down, and the first contact often came at, near or behind the line of scrimmage.

"It wasn't meant to happen, or it would've happened. Not to say it doesn't hurt, because it does," Peterson said of Dickerson's 28-year-old record. "But we came in here tonight and accomplished the ultimate goal, and that was getting a win and punching our ticket to the playoffs."

The Packers cut the lead to 27-24 late in the third quarter on a touchdown reception by James Jones. The on-field ruling was a fumble at the goal line, triggering an automatic review. Because the Packers threw the challenge flag after the replay process began, however, they were only penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct, not prevented from benefiting from the overturned call. That's what happened to Detroit infamously on Thanksgiving, when a disputed score by Houston was prevented from review.

After posting a 9-23 record over the last two years, the Vikings made so many strides in 2012 that the season was already a success. But no NFL team would ever be satisfied by finishing in defeat against a division rival, and the emotion and energy behind the quest was palpable all afternoon.

"It took us a little while to adjust to the crowd noise, and we didn't get going," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "That usually happens up here. This is a tough place to play, no doubt. We anticipated this being the loudest environment of the year. They pumped it in here pretty good today."

The NFC North was sewn up by the Packers two weeks earlier. Even though the bye remained in the balance the top seed didn't do the Packers any good last season. They went 15-1 and lost their opener at home to the eventual champion Giants.

Rodgers played without injured leading receiver Randall Cobb, so Greg Jennings was the main guy, grabbing eight passes for 120 yards and two touchdowns. But the Vikings sacked Rodgers five times, recovering a fumble on one of them at midfield to set up a third-quarter touchdown.

Rodgers has 24 touchdowns, only four interceptions and a 70 percent completion rate over 10 career starts against the Vikings. His poise, arm strength and savvy came through clear against them as much as any other team. Plus, cornerback Antoine Winfield's aggravated hand injury kept him on the sideline for most of the game.

Just as Ponder capably complemented Peterson, DuJuan Harris came out of nowhere to provide Rodgers some help. Green Bay has been proving lately it's not a one-sided offense, either, and Harris rushed 14 times for 70 yards

But this was Peterson's show. Second-and-27? He surged off right tackle and bounced outside for 28 yards on a drive that ended with his second touchdown, a 2-yard reception that pushed the lead to 27-17 in the third quarter. The "MVP" chants from the crowd rang out in earnest after that.

NOTES: Cobb's absence meant the Packers went without a 1,000-yard receiver for the first time since 2003. Cobb finished with 954 yards. ... Vikings WR Jerome Simpson was woozy after an end-zone collision in the third quarter, falling back down after trying to get up the first time. He passed concussion tests and returned to the game.

___

Follow Dave Campbell on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/DaveCampbellAP

___

Online: http://pro32.ap.org/poll and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/peterson-vikings-top-pack-37-34-playoffs-005455789--spt.html

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PFT: Bills, Jets end bad years; changes will come

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As you take a breath following a riveting regular-season finale between the Packers and Vikings and wait for what necessarily will be the first game of the 2012 postseason, take a look at this item from Judy Battista of the New York Times regarding the manner in which the NFL planned the final course of a 17-week meal.

The seeds were planted several years ago, when the NFL decided to go with intra-division games for the last week of the season.? More recently, the NFL began to pay attention to the scheduling of the games played on the final Sunday of the season.

That Cowboys-Redskins game, with the winner capturing the NFC East and the loser heading home, nearly couldn?t have happened because the NFL and NBC considered placing the Week 16 game between the Saints and Cowboys on NBC.? Doing so would have maxed out the Cowboys? national-TV allotment for the year, preventing the Cowboys from appearing in prime time in Week 17.

In all, 10 of the 16 games from the final week of the season had playoff implications, and the NFL deliberately selected games like the Packers and Vikings for a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff and not for prime time because there?s no guarantee that the outcome would have changed playoff scenarios.? The Packers could have sewn up the No. 2 seed before 8:30 p.m. ET, and the Vikings could have nailed down a playoff berth before playing their final game of the year.

And so the NFL chose to go with Cowboys-Redskins, even though FOX didn?t want to give up that game.

?FOX wasn?t thrilled, but we have constant dialogue with them,? Howard Katz, NFL senior V.P. of broadcasting and media operations told Battista.? ?They let us know they?d like to keep the Dallas game if at all possible. It could have been Green Bay going for the 1 seed, Minnesota having to win to get the 6 seed and Adrian Peterson going for the rushing record. But in the end, there were things that could have negated it all. We had to go with the sure thing.?

The only sure thing was Cowboys at Redskins, which became even more of a sure thing once the Bears won, preventing the Redskins from backing in to the postseason with a loss.

The message is that, while the Week 17 slate already featured plenty of compelling games with playoff implications, the NFL specifically configured the day to maximize the drama inherent to the effort both to qualify for the playoffs and to capture the highest possible seed.

For Sunday night, the drama will be high.? Cowboys vs. Redskins, in the biggest installment of the rivalry since they squared off in the 1982 NFC title game.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/30/bills-paste-jets-to-close-out-season/related/

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Video: Girl suspended for Sandy Hook poem

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Mike Hussey to retire from Test cricket | The Roar

Mike Hussey reacts after being dismissed first ball during first innings of Boxing Day Test between Australia and India at the MCG in Melbourne, Monday, Dec 26, 2011.(AAP Image/Julian Smith).

Mike Hussey is quitting international cricket at the end of the summer and says the final straw was the realisation that a long Test tour of India no longer excited him.

The 37-year-old father-of-four is turning his back on next year?s Ashes tour and says next week?s third Test against Sri Lanka will be his final match in the baggy green.

He?ll play out the rest of the summer in national colours in one-dayers and Twenty20 clashes with Sri Lanka and West Indies before going back to state level with Western Australia.

Hussey made the shock announcement to Test captain Michael Clarke and national coach Mickey Arthur before they sprayed beer all over each other at the MCG on Friday night to celebrate taking a 2-0 lead in the three-match series against Sri Lanka.

In 78 Tests, Hussey has scored 6183 runs ? the 12th most by an Australian ? at an average of 51.52.

The scorer of 19 Test hundreds spent his Saturday contacting Test teammates by phone to tell them of the news before publicly revealing his decision.

Hussey?s recent form has been excellent and he?s averaging 180.00 after two Tests in the current series against Sri Lanka.

Hussey says he felt at the start of this summer that closing time was rapidly approaching.

?I know I?m making the right decision,? Hussey told AAP.

?I?m quite lucky to go out on my terms. Not too many people get to do that.

?The clincher for me was when when I started looking ahead to the Indian and Ashes series ? I didn?t have the excitement and buzz about facing the challenges of those two tours that I felt like I should have.

?So for me that meant that I was making the right decision. They?re two tough tours where you?re away from home a long time.

?You need to be really a hundred per cent committed to the challenges.

?The last two away trips have been pretty brutal. One was for three-and-a-half months and we found that really tough at both ends.

?The last trip was about two-and-a-half months and we found that extremely tough as well.

?The next one I think I would?ve been away for seven months of the year, it?s just too much. It?s not something I really want to do at all.?

Hussey said his wife Amy had been amazingly supportive throughout his cricket journey.

He said a fairytale Ashes finale would have been nice.

?But if you don?t quite have that heart to want to do it, then I think I?d only be selling myself and the team short,? he said.

Dubbed `Mr Cricket?, Hussey said he felt he could approach the Sydney Test without any pressure and just enjoy the experience.

His retirement will follow the departure last month of ex-skipper Ricky Ponting, Australia?s all-time leading runscorer.

Age: 37

Born: Perth, Western Australia

Left-hand middle-order batsman, right-arm medium-pace bowler

MIKE HUSSEY ? TEST RECORD:
Matches: 78
Runs: 6183 runs (12th highest for Australia)
Average: 51.52
Hundreds: 19
Fifties: 29
Wickets: 7 @ 42.71
Test debut: Australia v West Indies at Brisbane, November 3-6, 2005

? AAP 2012

Daisy works the door in Kings Cross. She loves her job, but watch what happens as Daisy's shift continues and she sees a change in atmosphere of the Cross crowd.

Source: http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/12/29/mike-hussey-to-retire-from-test-cricket/

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UFC 155 Tweet of the Day: Alistair Overeem makes fun of Junior Dos Santos following loss to Cain Velasquez

Top heavyweight contender, Alistair Overeem poked fun at Junior Dos Santos during his UFC 155 bout against Cain Velasquez.

During the UFC 155 main event bout between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez, heavyweight star, Alistair Overeem was intently watching the fight. The Dutch fighter, who could possibly earn the next shot at the belt, went to twitter and took a slight dig at JDS as he was losing the bout:

After making a slight joke about Dos Santos, Alistair did give them both props though on his following tweets, saying it was a "great fight" and a "great performance by Cain."

Overeem is currently scheduled to face Antonio Silva at UFC 156 on Super Bowl weekend, a card headlined by the super-fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar. If he earns a quality victory over 'Bigfoot', he can very well be next in line against the re-crowned champion in Cain Velasquez.

As always, check out more of our UFC 155 coverage here.

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Faulty brakes may be to blame in Russian plane crash

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Faulty brakes may be to blame for a Russian airliner sliding off the runway and smashing onto a highway near Moscow, killing five people, a member of the crash investigation team said on Sunday.

Investigators said they were examining the black boxes to try to determine the cause of Saturday's crash, which cracked the wings off the Tupolev-204 plane and split the fuselage clean into three pieces.

If they find bad brakes were at fault, it would match a warning issued to the state-owned Tupolev by Russia's aviation authority to fix problems with the brakes that may have caused a Tu-204 with 70 people onboard to go off a Siberian runway on December 21.

Any sign that the catastrophe during peak holiday travel could have been avoided will worsen concerns over the country's poor air-safety record, despite President Vladimir Putin's calls to improve controls.

"After landing the pilot uses all the available brake systems on the plane, but for some reason the machine did not stop," a member of the investigation team told the Interfax new agency. "Most likely it was faulty reverse engines or brakes."

A fifth crew member of the Red Wing plane, which was traveling without passengers, died of her injuries in hospital on Sunday, the company said.

Despite icy weather conditions, the plane had been piloted by an experienced crew with many hours of flying under their belt, according to Russia's aviation safety body.

Television footage showed the jet with smoke billowing from the tail end and the cockpit broken clean off after the crash.

A photo showed a crew member, still strapped to a seat, sprawled on the pavement after apparently being hurled far from the plane during its impact with the highway barrier.

Red Wings, whose fleet includes nine of the Soviet-designed Tu-204 jets, said on Sunday it would not retire them from use.

The Russian-built Tu-204, which is comparable in size to a Boeing 757 or Airbus A321, was produced in the mid-1990s but is no longer being made.

Russia and other former Soviet republics had some of the world's worst air-traffic safety records last year, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, the International Air Transport Association said.

(Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/faulty-brakes-may-blame-russian-plane-crash-151759368.html

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Merkel's rival Steinbrueck says euro zone austerity too severe

BERLIN (Reuters) - Former German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who is running against Chancellor Angela Merkel in next year's election, said austerity measures being imposed on struggling euro zone countries were too severe.

In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS), Steinbrueck said austerity measures were pushing some countries to do too much too soon. He said there would be massive protests in Germany if such a heavy dose of austerity were to be imposed so quickly.

"The savings measures are too severe, they're leading to depression," said Steinbrueck, 65, a Social Democrat (SPD) who was finance minister from 2005 to 2009 in Merkel's right-centre grand coalition government.

"Some societies are being forced to their knees. Budget consolidation is in some ways like medicine. The right amount can save lives while too much can be lethal."

Steinbrueck noted that some countries were being forced to make spending cuts that amounted to five percent of their gross domestic product (GDP).

"In Germany that would amount to 150 billion euros (of spending to be cut)," Steinbrueck said. "You can imagine what the protests would be like on German streets with that."

Steinbrueck said he and the centre-left SPD were clearly in favor of efforts to stabilize the euro zone - due partly to German national interests and also due to Germany's responsibility to the European Union.

"My advice to the SPD is that we shouldn't treat the European issue in the election campaign as a minor topic or without being courageous," Steinbrueck said, referring to fears in the SPD that talking about the euro zone rescue efforts would benefit Merkel more than the SPD.

"Europe has to be stabilized out of our national interests and out of our responsibility to Europe."

(Reporting By Erik Kirschbaum. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/merkels-rival-steinbrueck-says-euro-zone-austerity-too-145657669--finance.html

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Haiti travel warning issued by US due to violent crimes

By The Associated Press

The State Department has issued a revised Haiti travel advisory, warning Americans planning to travel to the Caribbean island nation about robbery, lawlessness, infectious disease and poor medical facilities.

"U.S. citizens have been victims of violent crime, including murder and kidnapping, predominantly in the Port-au-Prince area. No one is safe from kidnapping, regardless of occupation, nationality, race, gender, or age," the department said.

The new travel warning was released Friday to replace a less strongly worded advisory issued in June.

---

In recent months, travelers arriving in Port-au-Prince, the capital and largest city, on flights from the United States have been attacked and robbed after leaving the airport. This year, at least two U.S. citizens were shot and killed in robbery and kidnapping incidents, the State Department said.

"Haitian authorities have limited capacity to deter or investigate such violent acts, or prosecute perpetrators," the department said.

The State Department also noted that while the incidents of cholera have declined, the disease persists in many areas of Haiti. Medical facilities, including ambulance services, are particularly weak.

"Thousands of U.S. citizens safely visit Haiti each year, but the poor state of Haiti's emergency response network should be carefully considered when planning travel. Travelers to Haiti are encouraged to use organizations that have solid infrastructure, evacuation, and medical support options in place," the department said.

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2012: The Year in TV Moments

Nick and Jess Brody in Homeland.

Showtime, Dec. 9, 10:45 p.m.

Season 2 of?Homeland?was packed with tense, startling moments, many of them in motor vehicles that crashed, surveilled, went rogue, or screeched irresponsibly off. The show itself is not unlike a freeway. Subplots speed past each other until they collide; you are constantly fastening your seatbelt (terrorist Abu Nazir has landed in the U.S.!) or flipping off a reckless driver (Carrie, for the 5-millionth time,?wait for backup!). So it?s probably fitting that one of the finest scenes in the series takes place in an SUV. What is maybe more surprising is that the SUV is parked?with nary a gun, bomb, or urgently vibrating phone in sight.

But that could also be why the penultimate episode?s exchange between Jess and Nick Brody (Morena Baccarin and Damian Lewis), in a darkened car, is such a beauty. Suddenly the show hits the brakes, creating a breathing space for its characters? emotions. A SWAT team has just shot Abu Nazir after a nerve-racking chase through a mesh of underground tunnels; now we?re presented with resolution in a quieter register. And it?s this return to the human actors behind all the gunsmoke that reminds us why we watch this maddening, preposterous show in the first place.?

Because as much as?Homeland?is a counterpoint of terrorist and counterterrorist plots, it is also about a marriage coming apart. Jess and Nick earn our sympathy?they both want to make things work. But their stagnating relationship proves just as frustrating as the vice president?s politics or the CIA?s backbiting?as frustrating, actually, as the warped logic behind the Iraq war, since their inability to connect highlights the painful situation of returning U.S. soldiers.

Anyway, in this scene, the darkened car scene, teenage sweethearts Nick and Jess Brody try one last time to understand each other. They fail, of course: Jess can?t bring herself to hear what happened to Brody in the aftermath of Iraq?and they realize their relationship is over. Watching the last bits of the marriage fall away is a relief, though sad. It means Nick can move forward with Carrie and Jess can reunite with Mike. Nick absolves Jess of not being ?big enough? to support him in the wake of his tour and capture. (?There was nothing anyone could have done,? he says.) Jess accepts that Carrie knows her husband in a way she can?t and forgives him for loving her. The point, overall, is generosity: With malice toward none and charity for all, the writers supply the loveliest ending to a spent relationship we could have hoped for.

The break-up happens right after the Brodys are released from their crazy-making CIA safe house. In this quiet scene, the show allows us to see Nick and Jess exploring what it really means to be free.

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auto insurance-45640 | My WordPress Website

auto insurance 45640 We see more cars on the road each year. As this number increases, the possibility of accidents also increases. If you get in a car wreck, the auto insurance you own can make a large difference in the experience you have. But why do you need insurance and just how much do you need? Car accidents can result in many different expenses, which your insurance can pay for based on the insurance policy you own. No matter where you are living, you are required to buy some variety of auto insurance. By not purchasing insurance, you risk having to pay the total cost of the harm or injury you cause others or of repairing or replacing your vehicle if it is damaged or stolen. Liability: This kind of insurance coverage will pay for the damage that you are responsible for. These damages might include personal injury, and property damage. It also covers your legal fees if you are sued. State laws typically mandate standard amounts of liability insurance, but larger amounts are available and extremely helpful. Personal Injury Protection: This type of insurance pays for the medical treatment for you and your passengers, regardless of who was responsible for the accident. It is required in some states and optional in others. The minimum amount of personal injury protection is usually set by local government. Medical Payments: This coverage can be purchased in non-no-fault states; it pays regardless of who may be responsible. It pays for an insured person?s reasonable and necessary medical and funeral expenses resulting from a crash. Collision: Pays for damage to your vehicle caused by a collision. Comprehensive: Protect your vehicle from damages from other sources by purchasing this type of insurance. This includes protection from theft, vandalism, and fire or flood damage. Uninsured Motorist: Many drivers are breaking the law by driving a car without having the right amount of auto insurance. This insurance will cover you if you are in an accident with one of these irresponsible drivers. Under-Insured Motorist: Similar to uninsured motorist protection, this kind of insurance covers you from people driving without sufficient insurance coverage. Other kinds of coverage, like car rental, are also available. Your auto insurance payments vary by company and will depend on multiple factors, including: * Which policies you select * The make and model of the vehicle you drive * Whether or not you have been in an accident * Your age, sex and marital status * Where you live Don?t wait around to buy auto insurance; you shouldn?t drive a car without it. Review your needs, do your research , and with the help of your insurance agent, choose the option that fits you best.

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Last-minute deal averts East Coast port strike

5 hrs.

Patrick Rizzo , NBC News

A strike that could have crippled 15 major ports on the East Coast and the Gulf and put a crimp in the nation's commerce?has been avoided after dock workers, port operators?and shippers agreed to a deal that extends the workers' contract, a federal mediator said Friday.

The parties settled on a 30-day extension of the contract after a meeting Thursday with Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director George H. Cohen, the FMCS said in a statement.

The parties had faced a Saturday deadline for resolving the labor dispute. The International?Longshoremen's Association, which represented the dock workers, had threatened to strike a day later.

The strike would have shut down major ports, including the port of New York and New Jersey, the largest on the East Coast and the second-largest port in the U.S. to handle manufactured goods from China.

Earlier Friday, The White House had urged the parties to resolve their differences. The dispute centered on a cap to payments to dock workers based on the weight of the container cargo, known as "container royalties."

The new contract does not eliminate the royalty payments, according to Benny Holland, an executive vice president for the ILA.

"The royalty will stay intact. We have worked out a formula for it," he said in an interview.

Established in 1960, the royalty payments to ILA workers are based on the tons of container cargo that move through a port. That tonnage has risen from 50 million tons in 1996 to 110 million last year, according to the alliance. Total payments last year were $211 million, according to the USMX, or an average of $15,500 per worker.

The original idea was to protect longshoremen from wage losses expected as a result of "containerization," in which more and more goods are packed in the now-familiar 20- and 40-foot long boxes. Those take less manpower to off-load than the less-standardized containers they replaced.

Both sides also fought over the guaranteed eight-hour workday in the current contract and the seven-man "lashing gang." Lashing crews, or gangs, secure the cargo containers to the vessel using metal lashing rods to keep them from moving while the vessel is at sea. The maritime alliance wanted to eliminate each.

?The container royalty payment issue has been agreed upon in principle by the parties, subject to?achieving an overall collective bargaining agreement. The parties have further agreed to an?additional extension of 30 days (i.e., until midnight, January 28, 2013) during which time the?parties shall negotiate all remaining outstanding Master Agreement issues, including those?relating to New York and New Jersey," the federal mediator's statement said.

CNBC and?Reuters?contributed to this report.

?

?

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/east-coast-port-strike-averted-parties-agree-last-minute-deal-1C7753896

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Functional Techniques Throughout Web Design ? The Fundamentals

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Source: http://mtararat.org/blog/2012/12/28/functional-techniques-throughout-web-design-the-fundamentals/

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Fiscal deal still eludes both sides as deadline nears; debt ceiling rises in the horizon (Star Tribune)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/273360083?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Ability to metabolize tamoxifen affects breast cancer outcomes ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- For nearly a decade, breast cancer researchers studying the hormone therapy tamoxifen have been divided as to whether genetic differences in a liver enzyme affect the drug's effectiveness and the likelihood breast cancer will recur. A new study by researchers from the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group provides evidence that genetic differences in the enzyme CYP2D6 play a key role in how well tamoxifen works.

"Our findings confirm that, in early breast cancer treated with tamoxifen, genetic alterations in CYP2D6 lead to a higher likelihood of recurrence and death," says Mayo Clinic oncologist Matthew Goetz, M.D., lead author of the study in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

In the clinical trial, Dr. Goetz and his colleagues studied the rates of cancer recurrence and death in two groups: postmenopausal women with primary estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer who received tamoxifen for five years and those who received tamoxifen for two years followed by the aromatase inhibitor anastrozole for three years. Anastrozole is a breast cancer drug whose metabolism does not require the CYP2D6 enzyme.

The study showed that women who were born with genetic alterations of CYP2D6 that abolish the enzyme's critical metabolizing activity and who took tamoxifen for five years had recurrence of breast cancer, or died at a rate 2.5 times higher than women with normal CYP2D6 enzyme activity. Women with intermediate levels of the CYP2D6 enzyme had rates of recurrence or death 1.7 times higher than women with normal CYP2D6 activity. Importantly, Dr. Goetz notes, that genetic alterations in CYP2D6 did not affect the likelihood of recurrence or death in women who switched to anastrozole after two years of tamoxifen.

"Switching from tamoxifen to an aromatase inhibitor may be one reason for the discrepant studies surrounding CYP2D6 and tamoxifen -- as information about whether a patient took an aromatase inhibitor after tamoxifen was not available in most of the prior studies," says senior author James Ingle, M.D., of Mayo Clinic, an expert on hormone therapies for breast cancer.

A blood test can determine whether a woman has alterations in CYP2D6 and predict how efficiently her body will convert tamoxifen to endoxifen. Approximately 5 to 7 percent of European and North American populations are considered poor metabolizers of tamoxifen.

"The results of this successful high-level international research collaboration are an important step forward in our quest to individualize breast cancer treatment and provide tailored care to women with breast cancer," says Michael Gnant, M.D., professor of surgery at the Medical University of Vienna and president of the Austrian study group.

So what should a woman do if she is unable to effectively metabolize tamoxifen into its most active form? Dr. Goetz believes that the current recommendation of switching from tamoxifen to an aromatase inhibitor is likely to result in the greatest benefit in women with decreased CYP2D6 metabolism. For CYP2D6 poor metabolizers, avoiding tamoxifen altogether and starting out with an aromatase inhibitor may be the best approach, he says.

Dr. Goetz's group is working with the National Cancer Institute to develop endoxifen as an alternative to tamoxifen. If women can be given endoxifen, the active part of tamoxifen, it won't matter how tamoxifen gets metabolized, he says.

Source: http://www.sciencecodex.com/ability_to_metabolize_tamoxifen_affects_breast_cancer_outcomes_mayo_clinicled_study_confirms-104436

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Putin says he will sign anti-US adoptions bill

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the final Cabinet meeting of the year in the government headquarters in Moscow, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Government Press Service)

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the final Cabinet meeting of the year in the government headquarters in Moscow, Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Dmitry Astakhov, Government Press Service)

MOSCOW (AP) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday he will sign a controversial bill barring Americans from adopting Russian children, while the Kremlin's children's rights advocate recommended extending the ban to the rest of the world.

The bill is part of the country's increasingly confrontational stance with the West and has angered some Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point.

The law would block dozens of Russian children now in the process of being adopted by American families from leaving the country and cut off a major route out of often-dismal orphanages. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children ? more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.

"I still don't see any reasons why I should not sign it," Putin said at a televised meeting. He went on to say that he "intends" to do so.

UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia, while only 18,000 Russians are now waiting to adopt a child. Russian officials say they want to encourage more Russians to adopt Russian orphans.

Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov on Thursday petitioned the president to extend the ban to other countries.

"There is huge money and questionable people involved in the semi-legal schemes of exporting children," he tweeted.

Kremlin critics say Astakhov is trying to extend the ban only to get more publicity and win more favors with Putin. A graduate of the KGB law school and a celebrity lawyer, Astakhov was a pro-Putin activist before becoming children's rights ombudsman and is now seen as the Kremlin's voice on adoption issues.

"This is cynicism beyond limits," opposition leader Ilya Yashin tweeted. "The children rights ombudsman is depriving children of a future."

The bill is retaliation for an American law that calls for sanctions against Russian officials deemed to be human rights violators.

The U.S. law, called the Magnitsky Act, stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who died in jail after being arrested by police officers whom he accused of a $230 million tax fraud. The law prohibits officials allegedly involved in his death from entering the U.S.

Kremlin critics say that means Russian officials who own property in the West and send their children to Western schools would lose access to their assets and families.

Putin said U.S. authorities routinely let Americans suspected of violence toward Russian adoptees go unpunished ? a clear reference to Dima Yakovlev, a Russian toddler for whom the adoption bill is named. The child was adopted by Americans and then died in 2008 after his father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours. The father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

The U.S. State Department says it regrets the Russian Parliament's decision to pass the bill, saying it would prevent many children from growing up in families.

Astakhov said Wednesday that 46 children who were about to be adopted in the U.S. would remain in Russia if the bill comes into effect.

The passage of the bill follows weeks of a hysterical media campaign on Kremlin-controlled television that lambasts American adoptive parents and adoption agencies that allegedly bribe their way into getting Russian children.

A few lawmakers claimed that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants and become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army. A spokesman with Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that the children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not "enter God's kingdom."

Critics of the bill have left dozens of stuffed toys and candles outside the parliament's lower and upper houses to express solidarity with Russian orphans.

___

Mansur Mirovalev contributed to this report

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-27-Russia-US-Adoptions/id-6778b377300f45a08ec37f0fbcc691c2

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Iran starts navy drills in Strait of Hormuz -IRNA

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran started on Friday six days of naval drills in the Strait of Hormuz, the official IRNA news agency reported, maneuvers aimed at showcasing its military capabilities in what is a vital oil and gas shipping route.

Naval commander Habibollah Sayyari said the "Velayat 91" drills would last until Wednesday across an area of about 1 million square kilometers in the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf of Oman and northern parts of the Indian Ocean, IRNA said.

Sayyari said the goal of the maneuvers were to show "the armed forces' military capabilities" in defending Iran's borders as well as sending a message of peace and friendship to neighboring countries.

Iranian officials have often said Iran could block the strait - through which 40 percent of the world's sea-borne oil exports pass - if it came under military attack over its disputed nuclear program.

Iran held a similar 10-day drill last December and sent a submarine and a destroyer into the Gulf four months ago just as U.S. and allied navies were conducting exercises in the same waters to practice keeping oil shipping lanes open.

Sayyari was quoted as saying on Tuesday that the new drill would test the navy's missile systems, combat ships, submarines and patrol and reconnaissance methods.

A heavy Western naval presence in the Gulf is meant to deter any attempt to block the waterway.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian; editing by Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-starts-navy-drills-strait-hormuz-irna-062354925.html

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Starbucks cups to come with a political message

NEW YORK (AP) ? Starbucks is using its coffee cups to jump into the political fray in Washington.

The world's biggest coffee chain is asking employees at cafes in the Washington, D.C., area to scribble the words "Come Together" on cups for drink orders on Thursday and Friday. CEO Howard Schultz says the words are intended as a message to lawmakers about the damage being caused by the divisive negotiations over the "fiscal cliff."

It's the first time employees at Starbucks cafes are being asked to write anything other than customers' names on cups.

While companies generally steer clear of politics to avoid alienating customers, the plea to "Come Together" is a sentiment unlikely to cause controversy. If anything, Starbucks could score points with customers and burnish its image as a socially conscious company.

This isn't the first time the coffee chain is using its platform to send a political message. In the summer of 2011, Schultz also asked other CEOs and the public to stop making campaign contributions until politicians found a way to deal with a crisis over the debt ceiling that led to a downgrade in the country's credit rating.

For the latest push, Starbucks is taking out an ad in the Washington Post on Thursday showing a cup with the words "Come Together" on it.

The "fiscal cliff" refers to the steep tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1, unless the White House and Congress reach an agreement to avoid them.

As for whether customers will be confused by the "Come Together" message or understand that it's related to the fiscal cliff, Schultz said in an interview that there's wide public awareness about the negotiations and that Starbucks will use social media to explain the effort. The Seattle-based company says test runs at select stores showed operations wouldn't be slowed.

Schultz says the message is a way to underscore the damage being done to the "consumer psyche and behavior" by the talks. Although he says Starbucks sales haven't been affected, he points out that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Mike Duke warned that fears over the fiscal cliff could cause Americans to pull back on holiday spending. Early figures have shown a relatively weak shopping season.

As for the negotiations, Schultz isn't taking any sides on the issues of tax increases or spending cuts.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-26-Starbucks-Cups/id-bd5dab04ad714078a8d2e504a550363c

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New class of malaria drugs using essential calcium enzyme developed

Dec. 27, 2012 ? Calpain, a calcium-regulated enzyme, is essential to a host of cellular processes, but can cause severe problems in its overactivated state. It has been implicated as a factor in muscular dystrophy, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and cancer. As such, finding and exploiting calpain inhibitors is an important area of research.

A team from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the University of California at San Francisco and the Department of Biochemistry and Protein Function Discovery at Queen's University, has developed a unique approach to calpain inhibition by mimicking a natural reaction with a synthesized molecule. The work was published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

One of calpain's less beneficial functions is that it eases the ability for cellular invaders such as the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, which is responsible for malaria, to exit their hosts and infect other cells. It is this property that caught the attention of Doron Greenbaum, PhD, assistant professor in of Pharmacology, whose laboratory studies how malaria spreads.

"We have an interest in this protein because it's important for Plasmodium development," he explains. "We initially found that calpain played a role in parasites being able to get out of their host cell, so we became interested in inhibitor development for human calpains."

Greenbaum and his collaborators examined the crystal structure of calpastatin, a natural calpain inhibitor, for clues. "We decided to take a different tack on inhibitor development, which has traditionally been designing small peptide-like inhibitors that fit across an enzyme's active site," Greenbaum says. Studying the configuration of how calpastatin bound to the active site of the calpain complex, "we found that there was a small alpha-helix that fit into the active site of the calpain enzyme."

Researchers have never before used an alpha-helix structure to inhibit a protease. "Traditionally people thought that alpha-helices normally make horrible inhibitors because it was thought that proteases don't like to bind to them preferring to bind motifs called a beta-sheet," Greenbaum notes. The research team created a peptide with an alpha-helical shape that would fit into the active site of the calpain protease.

The team set out to find a way to stabilize the helix by modifying it with a cross-linking peptide. They screened twenty-four commercially available crosslinkers, identifying five that succeeded in stabilizing the helix. They selected one in particular -- dibromo-m-xylene c15 -- and used it to mimic a protein-protein interaction between calpain and calpastatin. By binding to the active site and thus blocking it, the synthesized molecule inhibits the calpain enzyme from binding with other molecules that permit it to wreak its damaging effects.

"It's the first example of an alpha-helical inhibitor of any protease," Greenbaum says. "Previously no one's ever tried using an alpha-helical motif. It opens up a new way of inhibiting proteases." Aside from being a good inhibitor, the stabilized alpha-helical molecule is also highly specific for calpains, while ignoring other, similar-shaped proteases, thus hopefully downplaying potential side effects if used in humans.

Greenbaum and his collaborators are building upon this initial success to expand the basic concept to a wide range of protease molecules. "The next step is to show how this concept can be generalized to multiple classes of proteases, many of which are pharmaceutically of great interest," he explains. "It's not a single-hit wonder."

The extension of the technique to stabilize the alpha-helix shape in enzymes to other proteins could eventually lead to practical drug therapies for a wide range of diseases, predict the researchers.

This work was supported by funding from the Penn Genome Frontiers Institute; the National Institutes of Health (1R01AI09727301A1; 5T32GM071339; and GM54616); the Canadian Institutes for Health Research; and an R.J. Wilson Fellowship.

Co-authors are Hyunil Jo, Nataline Meinhardt, Yibing Wu, Swapnil Kulkarni, Xiaozhen Hu, Kristin E. Low, Peter L. Davies, and William F. DeGrado.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Hyunil Jo, Nataline Meinhardt, Yibing Wu, Swapnil Kulkarni, Xiaozhen Hu, Kristin E. Low, Peter L. Davies, William F. DeGrado, Doron C. Greenbaum. Development of ?-Helical Calpain Probes by Mimicking a Natural Protein?Protein Interaction. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2012; 134 (42): 17704 DOI: 10.1021/ja307599z

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/USYm4lfCvzQ/121227142953.htm

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No ethics breaches found in Countrywide VIP loans

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The House Ethics Committee said Thursday it found no violations among House members whose mortgage loans went through the VIP section of the former Countrywide Financial Corp., the company whose subprime loans helped cause the foreclosure crisis.

The committee said nearly all the allegations of favored treatment involved loans that were granted so long ago that they fell outside the panel's jurisdiction. The committee added, however, that participation in the VIP program did not necessarily mean borrowers received the best loan deal available ? and most lawmakers were not even aware they were placed in a VIP unit.

The actions of unnamed House staff members were harshly criticized. Emails indicated they reached out to Countrywide lobbyists for assistance with their personal loans, but those actions also were too old to remain in the committee's jurisdiction. The panel said that if the incidents had been more recent, the staff members could have faced discipline.

Countrywide was taken over by Bank of America in 2008. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reported in July that Countrywide made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

The Oversight report named six current and former members of Congress who received what Countrywide referred to as discounts. All of their names had surfaced previously.

The committee has no jurisdiction over actions that occurred more than six years prior to the current Congress ? which began in January 2011.

But even if the statute of limitations had not run out, the committee said, inclusion in the VIP program was not by itself a violation of House rules or laws. The panel said it found that Countrywide's "discounts" applied to standard loan rates that were commercially available elsewhere.

"They are not the kind of 'gift' which would be, in and of itself, outside the realm of reasonable market rates for commercially available loans," said the statement issued by Ethics Committee Chairman Jo Bonner, R-Ala., and ranking Democrat Linda Sanchez of California.

Even so, the committee said, members must take steps to ensure they are being treated no differently than a member of the public who is similarly situated.

The committee statement added, "Of greatest concern...was email evidence regarding the specific conduct of some employees...who may have reached out to lobbyists or other government affairs officials at Countrywide for assistance with their personal loans."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-27-US-Ethics-Countrywide/id-c93a3fc564cd4ba8a92801314bcc420c

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The 25 Breakout Stars of 2012

QUVENZHAN? WALLIS Every once in a while there arrives a child performance so stunning it's hard to imagine what magic conjured it. Pint-sized Quvenzhan? Wallis' acting debut in Beasts of the Southern Wild is that very thing. As Hushpuppy, a six-year-old girl facing down floodwaters, mythical beasts and her father's ailing health, Wallis is the burning bright light that galvanizes Behn Zeitlin's strange confection of realism and imagination.

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Submitted By: RT Staff

Date: Dec 20, 2012

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1926564/news/1926564/

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Christmas shopping totals a disappointment for retailers | NOLA.com

WASHINGTON -- U.S. shoppers spent cautiously this holiday season, a disappointment for retailers who slashed prices to lure people into stores and now must hope for a post-Christmas burst of spending.

Sales of electronics, clothing, jewelry and home goods in the two months before Christmas increased 0.7 percent compared with last year, according to the MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse report.

That was below the healthy 3 to 4 percent growth that analysts had expected -- and it was the worst year-over-year performance since 2008, when spending shrank sharply during the Great Recession. In 2011, retail sales climbed 4 to 5 percent during November and December, according to ShopperTrak.

This year's shopping season was marred by bad weather and rising uncertainty about the economy in the face of possible tax hikes and spending cuts early next year. Some analysts say the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., earlier this month may also have chipped away at shoppers' enthusiasm.

Retailers still have time to make up lost ground. The final week of December accounts for about 15 percent of the month's sales, said Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse.

Still, this season's weak sales could have repercussions for 2013, McNamara said. Retailers will make fewer orders to restock their shelves, and discounts will hurt their profitability. Wholesalers will buy fewer goods and orders to factories will likely drop in the coming months.

Steep discounts weren't enough to get people into stores, said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst at the market research firm NPD Inc.

"A lot of the Christmas spirit was left behind way back in Black Friday weekend," Cohen said, referring to the traditional retail rush the day after Thanksgiving. "We had one reason after another for consumers to say, 'I'm going to stick to my list and not go beyond it.'"

Holiday sales are a crucial indicator of the economy's strength. November and December account for up to 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers. If those sales don't materialize, stores are forced to offer steeper discounts. That's a boon for shoppers, but it cuts into stores' profits.

Spending by consumers accounts for 70 percent of overall economic activity, so the eight-week period encompassed by the SpendingPulse data is seen as a critical time not just for retailers but for manufacturers, wholesalers and companies at every other point along the supply chain.

The SpendingPulse data released Tuesday, which captures sales from Oct. 28 through Dec. 24 across all payment methods, is the first major snapshot of holiday retail sales. A clearer picture will emerge next week as retailers like Macy's and Target report revenue from stores open for at least a year. That sales measure is widely watched in the retail industry because it excludes revenue from stores that recently opened or closed, which can be volatile.

In the run-up to Christmas, analysts blamed bad weather for putting a damper on shopping. In late October, Superstorm Sandy battered the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, which account for 24 percent of U.S. retail sales.

Shopping picked up in the second half of November, but then the threat of the country falling off a "fiscal cliff" gained strength, throwing consumers off track once again.

Lawmakers have yet to reach a deal that would prevent tax increases and government spending cuts set to take effect at the beginning of 2013. If the cuts and tax hikes kick in and stay in place for months, the Congressional Budget Office says the nation could fall back into recession.

Shopping over the past two months was weakest in areas affected by Sandy and a more recent winter storm in the Midwest. Sales declined by 3.9 percent in the mid-Atlantic and 1.4 percent in the Northeast compared with last year. They rose 0.9 percent in the north central part of the country.

The West and South posted gains of between 2 percent and 3 percent, still weaker than the 3 percent to 4 percent increases expected by many retail analysts.

Online sales, typically a bright spot, grew only 8.4 percent from Oct. 28 through Saturday, according to SpendingPulse. That's a dramatic slowdown from the online sales growth of 15 to 17 percent seen in the prior 18-month period, according to the data service.

Online sales did enjoy a modest boost after the recent snowstorm that hit the Midwest, McNamara said. Online sales make up about 10 percent of total holiday business.

Source: http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2012/12/christmas_shopping_totals_a_di.html

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Amazon deforestation brings loss of microbial communities

Dec. 24, 2012 ? An international team of microbiologists led by Klaus N?sslein of the University of Massachusetts Amherst has found that a troubling net loss in diversity among the microbial organisms responsible for a functioning ecosystem is accompanying deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

N?sslein, an expert in tropical rain forest microbial soil communities, says, "We found that after rainforest conversion to agricultural pastures, bacterial communities were significantly different from those of forest soils. Not only did the pasture soils show increased species numbers, these species were also less related to one another than in rainforest soil. This is important because the combination of lost forest species and the homogenization of pasture communities together signal that this ecosystem is now a lot less capable of dealing with additional outside stress."

He and colleagues studied a large farm site over the past four years at the frontier where farmers drive agriculture into pristine rainforest in Rondonia, Brazil, to convert rainforest to agricultural use. Findings in part validated previous research showing that bacteria in the soil became more diverse after conversion to pasture. However, in its fourth year, their study overcame limitations of earlier investigations to show that changes in microbial diversity occurred over larger geographic scales. Results appear in the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to N?sslein at UMass Amherst, the research group includes first author Jorge Rodrigues at the University of Texas at Arlington with Brendan Bohannan at the University of Oregon, James Tiedje at Michigan State University, and others at the University of Sao Paulo. Lead investigators N?sslein and Rodrigues emphasize that the study is an equal collaboration among the four research groups.

Findings do not support earlier study conclusions, instead they show that the loss of restricted ranges for different bacteria communities results in a biotic homogenization and net loss of diversity overall. Scientists worry that the loss of genetic variation in bacteria across a converted forest could reduce ecosystem resilience. The researchers hope their work will provide valuable data to those making decisions about the future of the Amazon rainforest.

Biologist and first author Jorge Rodrigues of the University of Texas at Arlington adds, "We have known for a long time that conversion of rainforest land in the Amazon for agriculture results in a loss of biodiversity in plants and animals. Now we know that microbial communities which are so important to the ecosystem also suffer significant losses."

As N?sslein and colleagues point out, the Amazon represents half of the world's rainforest and is home to one-third of Earth's species, yet the Amazon has one of the highest rates of deforestation. Agriculture is one of the largest and most dynamic parts of Brazil's economy, so dealing with standing rainforests in the tropics will be tricky, but nevertheless, it is vital that the issue is tackled."

Rodrigues says he and colleagues are currently compiling findings about the potential for recovery of the microbial diversity after pastureland is abandoned and returned to "secondary forest." At the same time, N?sslein and colleagues are leading an effort to investigate how the redundancy of functions provided by soil microbes provides resilience to the effects of agricultural land use change to support a stressed ecosystem to recover stability.

"Whether bacterial diversity will completely recover from ecosystem conversion will depend in part on whether the taxa lost due to conversion are truly locally extinct or whether they are present in the pasture sites but of such low abundance that they are undetectable in our study," the authors write.

This work was supported by grants from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Research Support Foundation of the State of S?o Paulo.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/bNOdEgsL0s4/121226080908.htm

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Gulf Arabs decry Iran "interference" in region

MANAMA (Reuters) - Six U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states demanded on Tuesday that Iran end what they called interference in the region, reiterating a long-held mistrust of their main rival.

The Islamic Republic denies trying to subvert Saudi Arabia and its wealthy Gulf neighbors.

A communique issued at the end of a two-day summit of the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) also urged action to halt mass killings and violations of international law in Syria.

The oil-producing GCC states wield influence out of proportion to their sparse populations due in part to global energy and investment links, generous international aid and Saudi Arabia's role as home to Islam's two holiest sites.

"The council expressed its rejection and condemnation of the continuing Iranian interference in the affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council's states and called on Iran to stop these policies," the communique said.

On the conflict in Syria, the statement, read out by GCC Secretary-General Abdulatif al-Zayani, added: "We ask the international community for serious and swift moves to stop these massacres and these severe attacks".

Kuwait said it would host an international humanitarian donor conference for Syria in late January, amid concern for millions of Syrians suffering war, homelessness and winter cold.

"LOTS OF MEDDLING"

Gulf Arab leaders have long called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, and in November the GCC recognized a newly-formed opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

The communique did not elaborate on Iran, but the most common Gulf Arab complaint about alleged Iranian meddling in the region relates to Bahrain, which has repeatedly accused Tehran of interference in its internal politics.

Iran sees the Gulf as its own backyard and believes it has a legitimate interest in expanding its influence there.

Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa told reporters Iran posed a "very serious threat".

"Politically, (there is) lots of meddling in the affairs of GCC states; an environmental threat to our region from the technology used inside nuclear facilities; and there is of course the looming nuclear program," he said, referring to Iran's disputed atomic work.

"So the threat level is quite high, but we are ready if faced with circumstances that require action."

While not racked by disturbances on the scale of Syria or Egypt, Bahrain has been volatile since pro-democracy protests led by its Shi'ite Muslim majority erupted last year.

Scattered smoke plumes rose from Bahrain's Sitra and Sanabis districts on Tuesday, apparently caused by youths burning tires, but no major demonstrations were reported by activists.

Bahrain's Sunni Muslim rulers brought in Saudi and United Arab Emirates forces last year to help quell the protests, and Shi'ite power Iran condemned the move, saying it could lead to regional instability. Bahrain has accused Iran of being behind the unrest. Tehran denies this.

GCC FORCE LONG SEEN AS INEFFECTIVE

Bahrain's Shi'ites say they are marginalized politically and economically, a charge the government denies. It has rejected the protesters' main demand for an elected government.

The summit statement said the GCC would set up a unified military command to tighten defense cooperation but offered few details of a project long prey to sensitivities about sovereignty. Security in the waterway, through which 40 percent of the world's seaborne oil exports passes, has been dominated for decades by the United States.

But uprisings against long-standing governments across the Middle East and rivalry with Iran over the conflict in Syria have stirred calls among Gulf Arabs to speed up long-stymied efforts to integrate their own foreign and security policies.

The GCC said it had "supported the creation of a unified military command that organizes and plans and leads the ground, naval and air forces."

The communique did not elaborate. But Mustafa Alani, a security analyst, told Reuters that he understood the idea was to have a standing command rather than a functioning one, and that it would only operate in times of crisis.

The GCC already has a pan-GCC military force -- the 9,000-strong Peninsula Shield, created in 1986 and based in Saudi Arabia. It took part in the 1991 Gulf war and was deployed in Kuwait during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But the Saudi-based force is widely seen as ineffective. Gulf Arab states have faced a host of obstacles to military integration, including a lack of common equipment, their own reliance on their U.S. ally and concern among some states about potential Saudi dominance of any joint military effort.

(Reporting by Asma Alsharif; Writing by William Maclean; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gulf-arabs-demand-end-iran-interference-105611871.html

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