GENEVA (Reuters) - World powers will press Iran on Wednesday for details of its proposal on resolving their decade-old nuclear dispute during a second day of talks in Geneva.
Western diplomats stress they want Tehran to back up its newly conciliatory language with concrete actions by scaling back its nuclear program and allaying their suspicions it is seeking the capability to make atomic bombs.
Both sides are trying to dampen expectations of any rapid breakthrough at the two-day meeting, the first to be held since President Hassan Rouhani took office, promising conciliation over confrontation in Iran's relations with the world.
"There is still an awful lot of work to be done," said a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who oversees diplomacy with Iran on behalf of the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.
"We have had a certain amount of information from the Iranian side and we will hope to get more detail from them tomorrow," spokesman Michael Mann said after the first day of talks on Tuesday.
His statement suggested Iran had yet to persuade Western nations it was willing to curb the nuclear work and assure them this was purely for peaceful energy production and medical purposes, as Tehran says. In the Tuesday session, negotiators had started discussing the "nitty-gritty" details of Iranian suggestions, Mann said.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said his side had presented a proposal capable of achieving a breakthrough. But he later added it was not possible to tell whether progress was being made. "It's too soon to judge," he told Reuters.
Rouhani's election in June raised hopes in the West that Iran is finally ready to strike a deal. Tehran is anxious to win relief from Western-led sanctions which have crippled its economy, cut its oil export revenues 60 percent and brought about a devaluation of its rial currency.
To achieve this, Iranian negotiators outlined their proposal on Tuesday, without giving any public indication of how far they would go to meet Western demands to curb uranium enrichment.
The White House also warned against expecting quick results from the talks, saying they were complex and technical and that economic pressure on Teheran would remain.
"We certainly want to make clear that no one, despite the positive signs that we've seen, no one should expect a breakthrough overnight," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
"Although we appreciate the recent change in tone from the Iranian government on this issue, we will be looking for specific steps that address core issues," he added.
QUESTIONING SANCTIONS
At the heart of the dispute are the Iranian efforts to enrich uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, an advance that would bring it close to producing weapons-grade fuel.
Iran has previously spurned Western demands that it abandon such work as an initial step in return for modest sanctions relief, and has repeatedly called for the most painful trade sanctions, such in the oil sector, to be lifted.
Western diplomats have said their demands on the 20-percent uranium must be addressed before progress can be made. But some diplomats acknowledged before the Geneva talks that the offer might be changed substantially depending on what concessions Iran offers.
A U.S. administration official said any possible reduction of sanctions would be "targeted, proportional to what Iran puts on the table".
Israel, Iran's arch-enemy and widely assumed to harbor the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has lobbied Western powers not to dilute sanctions before Iran has tackled core concerns - enrichment and lack of transparency - about its nuclear goals.
(additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau, Yeganeh Torbati and Stephanie Nebehay; editing by David Stamp)
Momentum is building for federal legislation protecting trade secrets, an intellectual property attorney said at a Silicon Valley seminar on Thursday.
Trade secrets, in which a company keeps vital information a secret rather than disclosing it for patent protection, can be vital to companies in fields such as information technology. Intel endured a $1 billion trade secrets case in 2008 that saw a departing employee sent to prison.
But protection of trade secrets via the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which was passed on a state-by-state basis, has been limited, said attorney L. Scott Oliver, of legal firm Morrison & Foerster. "The core of the problem is that the Uniform Trade Secrets Act is just not that uniform," Oliver said.
The act was only adopted in 46 states, one state is not bound by another state's decision, and there is a statute of limitations of two to five years, he explained. Texas and New York never adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, and provisions are decided differently state by state.
"All these issues create problems for multi-state companies, for national companies, and global companies," with companies having to develop separate trade secret plans for every jurisdiction, Oliver said. He also cited an example of multi-jurisdictional theft via computer, in which a computer in New York is hacked into by someone in Texas who passes secrets on to someone else in California. Questions arise over which state laws apply, Oliver noted. There also is no good remedy for international theft, he added.
But now federalization of trade secrets law appears to be on the horizon. Last year President Obama signed the Theft of Trade Secrets Clarification Act of 2012, which protects secrets used internally and not sold. The Foreign and Economic Penalty Enhancement Act of 2012 also was passed, which raises penalties. Meanwhile, a federal trade secret act that had failed to get passed in 2012 is expected to be re-introduced this fall, according to Oliver. Senate hearings on a bill to address foreign theft and foreign-sponsored theft also are anticipated.
Intel already has had to deal with the Biswamohan Pani case, which involved theft of $1 billion worth of trade secrets. "This gentleman unfortunately right now is sitting in a federal prison for three years," said Janet Craycroft, director of legal counseling at Intel.
The company, Craycroft said, strives to build a culture of information security with its employees, leveraging an information security policy and a code of conduct. Intel also pays attention to potentially disgruntled employees and is mindful of rumors.
"At the end of the day, we want our employees to feel personally responsible for protecting the company's trade secrets, and I think that's your best defense as an employer or as an attorney representing a client or a company."
Too "Big" for his britches? Actor Chris Noth admits he took his Sex and the City nickname too far in between the end of the series and filming the 2008 SATC movie.
The Good Wife star, 58, recently told HuffPost Live that he was asked to shed some weight to play Carrie Bradshaw's central love interest in the blockbuster.
"When we were doing the movie of Sex and the City, [director and creator] Michael Patrick King came up to me and said, 'Listen dude, we're not calling you Mr. Big because of the size of your stomach, so go lose that before we start,'" Noth joked.
Sex and the City came out with a sequel film in 2010, but after critics slammed it, Noth told Parade Magazine, “Well, it’s not really in my hands, but from what I can tell, I don’t see it happening. But what do I know? I’m always pleasantly surprised if they do one, and I’m not disappointed if they don’t.”
MTV already let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, with its promo video for the show, which featured host, Redfoo of dance music act LMFAO, trying to smuggle a scantily-clad Cyrus through customs at Amsterdam airport.
Other confirmed performers at this year's EMAs include Katy Perry and The Killers.
Ariana Grande will be the backstage host for the show, which will be broadcast live at 9 p.m. local time. Will Ferrell will be among the celebrity presenters at the awards, in character as his Anchorman 2 newsman Ron Burgundy.
The European Music Awards is one of MTV's largest live events and will air across more than 60 channels and reach 700 million households worldwide. Bruce Gillmer and Richard Godfrey will executive produce the 2013 show from the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam.
Set in London in the early 1930s, Dancing on the Edge is a five-part miniseries about a black jazz band trying to crack the dance halls and radio playlists. Made for BBC-2, the episodes will air starting Saturday night on the Starz cable network.
Starz
Set in London in the early 1930s, Dancing on the Edge is a five-part miniseries about a black jazz band trying to crack the dance halls and radio playlists. Made for BBC-2, the episodes will air starting Saturday night on the Starz cable network.
Starz
One of my most enjoyable parts of being a critic is steering people toward something so good, but so relatively obscure, that they might never have checked it out unless they'd been nudged in that direction. My personal best example of that, ever, was the imported BBC miniseries The Singing Detective, by Dennis Potter, about 25 years ago.
I'm not directly comparing this weekend's new British import, Dancing On the Edge, to that earlier masterpiece, but they have a lot in common. Both are period costume pieces. Both are centered on music and present very full, very unpredictable characters and some exceptionally intriguing performances. Both are about large themes as well as small moments. And one final link between the two — the writer and director of Dancing on the Edge, Stephen Poliakoff, has long been considered one of the modern artistic descendants of Potter.
Not a lot of Poliakoff's work has made it over here — but what has made the trip has been singularly impressive. His 2003 telemovie, The Lost Prince, was a fact-based drama about a member of the royal family locked away because of his epilepsy. And another TV drama from that same era, Friends & Crocodiles, gave Damian Lewis of Homeland an early leading role as a brilliant but unstable businessman.
Poliakoff's newest drama, a miniseries made for BBC-2, takes basic facts unearthed by him while researching The Lost Prince and reworks them, mixing historical figures with fictional ones. Dancing on the Edge is about a jazz band in the early '30s, made up of British citizens and American and Caribbean musicians on work visas, trying to crack the dance halls and radio playlists. One man in their corner is Stanley, a white reporter and columnist played by Matthew Goode. He writes for Music Express, a new music magazine similar to Britain's influential Melody Maker — and decides to help push the Louis Lester Jazz Band into the winner's circle. But they have to confront reluctant hotel ballroom bookers and, among some of the customers, obvious prejudice.
The rise of the Louis Lester Jazz band, in the face of such odds, would be the central spine of most dramas of this type. But Poliakoff is up to something bigger and grander. For one thing, he's fascinated by the way some members of the royal family were drawn to jazz music, and to black performers, with equal enthusiasm. For another, he's interested in what's happening politically between the two world wars. There's also a murder mystery or two, thrown into the mix as a very important ingredient.
The five episodes, beginning Saturday night on the Starz cable network, are brimming with twists, surprises, delightful set pieces — and some very unexpected performances. John Goodman plays a wealthy American who is very much a part of the British scene in the '30s — and Jacqueline Bisset, as a reclusive aristocrat, is absolutely wonderful. There are parts, too, for Anthony Head from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jenna-Louise Coleman from Doctor Who, and even Janet Montgomery, a British actress who was imported for, and wasted in, the recent CBS drama series Made in Jersey.
Dancing on the Edge will please TV fans who are eagerly awaiting the next round of Downton Abbey — and music fans as well. This isn't period music they're playing and singing in this miniseries — it's just made to sound that way, written by Adrian Johnston. It's a beautiful job. The music has to be good enough to make you root for the Louis Lester Jazz Band to make it big — and as the core of this new TV import, it works. Dancing on the Edge is as much fun to hear as it is to watch.
There are probably 50 or so network TV talent shows right now, so I can’t keep track of which one that Nicole Scherzinger is on, whether X Factor, American Idol, The Voice or Your Shitty Kids Need To Learn That Singing Isn’t a Job (this winter on TBS!). But Nicole and her ridiculous body showed up to a club in London last night and it reminded me that she should be a bigger star. After all, she’s the only one of the Pussycat Dolls that ended up doing anything. Does anyone even know what happened to the rest of those girls? They probably died in a bus fire. In fact, if anyone asks, just say that with a little confidence and I guarantee they’ll believe you.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Democrat Cory Booker has won a special election to represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate through next year, but the rising political star will have to return to the campaign trail almost immediately to run for a full term.
Booker, 44, defeated conservative Steve Lonegan on Wednesday after an aggressive two month race to finish the term of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died in office in June at age 89.
The Newark mayor takes to Washington a national profile — boosted by a strong social media presence, frequent television appearances and his status as an Obama surrogate during the president's 2012 re-election campaign — just as the federal government begins functioning again after a 16-day shutdown.
"That's why I'm going to Washington — to take back that sense of pride," Booker said in his victory speech. "Not to play shallow politics that's used to attack and divide but to engage in the kind of hard, humble service that reaches out to others."
Booker, a supporter of gay marriage in a state where the issue is the subject of a court and legislative battle, talked about needing to improve America's schools and making the Senate "more accessible to all of us."
"If you voted for me, I will make you proud," he said. "If you didn't vote for me I will work every single day to earn your trust."
Booker, who has begun raising money to run for a full six-year term, would be on the ballot again in November 2014.
Lonegan, 57, told The Associated Press he has no plans to run again or return to Americans for Prosperity, the conservative, anti-tax group he quit to enter the race. He said he intends to start a business.
A feisty campaigner who unsuccessfully challenged Chris Christie for the Republican nomination for governor in 2009, Lonegan brought this race closer than many expected in a state that leans Democratic.
With nearly all precincts reporting, Booker had 55 percent of the vote to Lonegan's 44 percent. The first reaction from the social-media savvy victor came, of course, on Twitter: "Thank you so much, New Jersey, I'm proud to be your Senator-elect."
Booker, who will soon be sworn in as the first black senator from New Jersey, will arrive in Washington from the state's largest city with an unusual political resume.
He was raised in suburban Harington Park as the son of two of the first black IBM executives, graduated from Stanford and law school at Yale with a stint in between as a Rhodes Scholar before moving to one of Newark's toughest neighborhoods with the intent of doing good.
He's been an unconventional politician, a vegetarian with a Twitter following of 1.4 million — or five times the population of the city he governs. With state funding dwindling, he has used private fundraising, including a $100 million pledge from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, to run programs in Newark, a strategy that has brought him both fame and criticism.
Former state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa had been appointed by Christie to temporarily replace Lautenberg. The governor scheduled the special election for just 20 days before Christie himself is on the ballot seeking re-election. Democrats said Christie was afraid of appearing on the same ballot as the popular Booker, but courts upheld the election schedule.
Before Lautenberg died, Booker passed up a chance to run against Christie this year, saying he was eyeing Lautenberg's seat in 2014, in part so he could complete a full term as mayor — something he won't do now.
Booker does not expect to be sworn in until close to the end of the month, an aide said, noting the results still need to be certified by the state. Newark's council will be able to appoint an interim mayor when he steps down.
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Delli Santi reported from Trenton. Associated Press reporters Geoff Mulvihill in Trenton and Bruce Shipkowski in Bridgewater contributed to this report.
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state has approved rules for its new legal marijuana industry.
After nearly a year of research, planning and public hearings, the three-member state Liquor Control Board adopted the rules Wednesday.
The regulations cover everything from the security and size of licensed marijuana gardens, to how many pot stores can open in cities across the state.
Washington and Colorado voted last year to legalize marijuana and allow its sale for recreational use at state-licensed stores. In Washington, supporters hope the sale of taxed pot to adults over 21 might bring the state tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
The proposed rules allow up to 334 pot stores to open in Washington. The stores are expected to open by next summer.
Colorado approved its marijuana industry rules last month.
This well-wrought, sensitive drama explores its incendiary topics with an uncommon subtlety.
Director
Jeremiah Birnbaum
Screenwriter
Michael Richter
Cast
Mahnoor Baloch, Dendrie Taylor, Faran Tahir, Sharon Washington, Patrick St. Esprit, John Heard
A potentially melodramatic plotline is handled with a refreshing subtlety in JeremiahBirnbaum’s quietly effective drama about the aftermath of a deadly shopping mall explosion. Depicting the burgeoning friendship between the mothers of two teenagers killed in the blast, both of whom are eventually suspected of the crime, Torn approaches its in incendiary topical issues with intelligent modesty.
After ten people are killed in a blast initially described as a gas main explosion, among the grieving survivors are Muslim, Pakistani-born Maryam (Mahnoor Baloch) and American single mother Lea (Dendrie Taylor). United by their shared grief, the two women turn to each other for emotional support. But their relationship eventually turns hostile when an investigation led by a police detective (JohnHeard) and an FBI agent (Sharon Washington) reveals that each of their sons is a suspect. Maryam’s son Walter, whose father Ali (Faran Tahir) was mistakenly arrested after 9/11, turns out to have been attending a local mosque. And Lea’s son Walter was the victim of school bullying who vowed revenge on his tormentors, several of whom were either killed or injured in the incident.
Michael Richter’s screenplay weaves together its various themes and such subplots as Lea’s tentatively resuming a relationship with her long estranged ex-husband (Patrick St. Esprit) with intelligence and sensitivity, not to mention an uncommon succinctness (the film runs a scant 80 min). The relationships between the complex characters are well drawn, and the ironic ending manages to touchingly upend our expectations.
Director Birnbaum has drawn well-nuanced performances from the ensemble, especially the two female leads who render their characters’ actions, such as Lea’s undisguised hostility to the authorities investigating the case, thoroughly believable.
Although it’s ultimately a bit too slight to make much of an impact, Torn effectively demonstrates that hot-button issues can be explored without resorting to excessive histrionics.
Opens Oct. 18 (Brainstorm Media/The Film Collective)
Production: Fog City Pictures, Objective 49, Precept Productions
Cast: Mahnoor Baloch, Dendrie Taylor, Faran Tahir, John Heard, Sharon Washington, Patrick St. Esprit
Director: Jeremiah Birnbaum
Screenwriter: Michael Richter
Producers: Michael Richter, James Burke, Jeremiah Birnbaum
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay backed down a bit after Broncos coach John Fox and former Colts general manager Bill Polian chided him for comments critical of Peyton Manning.
Fox used his weekly SiriusXM NFL Radio appearance Tuesday to criticize the Colts' owner for sounding ungrateful for all Manning did for his team and city, including winning a Super Bowl in 2007, and Polian used the same platform to say Irsay was wrong in both his facts and opinions.
After a series of tweets defending himself Tuesday night, Irsay took to Twitter on Wednesday to say he meant that if the Colts had given Manning better special teams and defense, they could have won more than one Super Bowl, instead of asking the quarterback to do too much.
He added that he found it hard to see how anyone could misinterpret his comments, but controversy sells, so he understands why people try to stir things up.
In a conference call with Denver media Wednesday, Colts coach Chuck Pagano said Irsay harbors no ill will toward Manning.
"I don't think there's anybody that Mr. Irsay respects and cares for more than Peyton," Pagano said. "What can't you say about Peyton? What he's done for this organization, what he's done for the city, our fans — what he's done for football — it's off the charts. And certainly all I know is that our owner has the utmost respect and love and passion for that guy and always will."
Irsay told USA Today in an interview Tuesday that the Colts turned to Andrew Luck two years ago and released Manning rather than pay him a $28 million roster bonus because they were looking for more playoff success.
"We've changed our model a little bit, because we wanted more than one of these," Irsay said, showing his Super Bowl ring. "(Tom) Brady never had consistent numbers, but he has three of these. Pittsburgh had two, the Giants had two, Baltimore had two and we had one.
"That leaves you frustrated. You make the playoffs 11 times, and you're out in the first round seven out of 11 times. You love to have the 'Star Wars' numbers from Peyton and Marvin (Harrison) and Reggie (Wayne). Mostly, you love this," Irsay added, showing his ring again, according to the newspaper.
Those comments were similar to the ones Irsay made in an interview with The Associated Press last summer, when the Colts owner said his only regrets about releasing Manning were that he wanted the star quarterback to throw his final pass as a Colt and he wished Manning had departed with more than one Super Bowl ring.
So, instead of relying on the high-charged offense Manning directed, Irsay said the team's future February celebrations would come more frequently if the Colts ran a more balanced offense and divided the budget more evenly between the offensive and defensive players.
Irsay's latest verbal barrage, coming as it did this week, created quite a buzz.
Fox normally isn't one to criticize anyone in public, but Irsay's comments clearly struck a nerve.
"I thought it was a bit of a cheap shot," Fox said on SiriusXM. "In my opinion, they were disappointing and inappropriate. You know, Peyton would never say anything because he's too classy to do that.
"They sounded a little ungrateful and unappreciative to me for a guy that's set a standard, won a Super Bowl, won division titles, won four MVP awards, and I'd be thankful for that one Super Bowl ring because a lot of people don't have one."
Polian fired back at his old boss, saying Irsay had it wrong.
"For one thing, I don't believe that Baltimore had two at the time that we were fired, all of us, Peyton, me and the rest of the staff, (coach) Jim Caldwell at the end of the '11 season," Polian said.
He said Irsay was "very upset" after the Colts lost to New Orleans in the 2010 Super Bowl, "and I think it's pretty telling that getting to the Super Bowl in his mind doesn't count. And for anyone who is in the game and who has to make that journey from training camp to the Super Bowl, you know that it's awfully difficult to get there.
"And as John Fox said ... if you have one, you count yourself lucky. I've had teams that have been to six Super Bowls and won one. I'm not ashamed of that record by any means, and I'm certainly not ashamed of what we did in Indianapolis."
Manning is 160-70 in the regular season — joining Brady as the only quarterbacks with 90 more wins than losses — but is just 9-11 in the playoffs with eight first-round exits.
The Broncos — who have won 19 of 23 games under Manning, but lost to Baltimore in the playoffs — visit the Colts on Sunday night in Manning's first return to Indianapolis since his teary-eyed goodbye news conference alongside Irsay in March 2012.
Manning's former coach, Tony Dungy, said on a conference call this week that he thinks Irsay wouldn't have let Manning go had he known Manning would bounce back as he has.
"I can almost guarantee you that if he knew that he was going to be healthy like this and playing this kind of football, in hindsight I don't think he would've done it," said Dungy, who's now an NBC football analyst. "But with everything the way it was at that time, with Andrew being there and being available, knowing the scouting report on Andrew and the percentages of Peyton coming back and playing well at that point, it was the right thing to do."
Irsay defended himself in a string of responses on Twitter on Tuesday night, when he quoted Manning as saying that both he and the owner wanted him to stay in Indianapolis but "circumstances forced our hand."
He finished with a joke, saying he hopes for old time's sake that Manning completes some passes to his old teammates such as safety Antoine Bethea.
Fox and Manning meet with the media following Wednesday afternoon's practice.
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AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org
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Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., walks to the Senate floor following lunch with fellow Democrats, at the Capitol on Tuesday.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., walks to the Senate floor following lunch with fellow Democrats, at the Capitol on Tuesday.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senate leaders were expressing optimism about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan agreement Wednesday — still hoping to avoid a default and restart the government after House Republicans failed to produce a plan of their own that could pass muster.
Updated At 10:55 a.m. ET. Report: Deal Reached On Senate Side
Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire tells The Associated Press that it's her understanding that Senate leaders have reached a deal and that a formal announcement was forthcoming.
"I understand they've come to an agreement but I'm going to let the leader announce that," Ayotte said.
Updated At 9:40 a.m. ET. Deal Reportedly 'Very Close'
Reuters, quoting a "senior Senate aide," says that Senate leaders are "very close" to announcing a deal on the debt limit extension and that the chamber would move "quickly" to pass it.
The news agency reports that the Senate leadership is "in talks with House leaders on ways to win fast passage" of a deal in both chambers.
A senior Republican U.S. Senate aide tells NPR's Tamara Keith "we're still working on things. Should know more later this morning."
Here we pick up our earlier post:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) were set to pick up the pieces following a fractious and fruitless night in the House that did little more than run down the clock.
"Given tonight's events, the Leaders have decided to work toward a solution that would reopen the government and prevent default," McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said in a statement. "They are optimistic an agreement can be reached."
Their effort to forge a deal acceptable to both parties to restart the government and renew its authority to borrow was given fresh urgency on Tuesday by a warning issued by Fitch Ratings, the third-largest credit rating agency, which said the debacle in Washington meant it was placing the country's long-term credit rating under review for a potential downgrade.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said that the government's ability to pay its bills cannot be guaranteed after midnight Wednesday, but the exact moment when that occurs might be days or even weeks later.
If you haven't been following every twist and turn, here are the latest events from each chamber:
In The House:
On Tuesday evening, House Republicans tried and failed to produce their own plan for ending the stalemate. In the end it wasn't Democrats who scuttled their efforts, but divisions among GOP lawmakers.
In the early evening, the House had crafted a plan to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling in exchange for some changes in the Affordable Care Act, which has been a key stumbling block throughout the weeks of negotiations. But when Heritage Action for America, a lobby group affiliated with the conservative Heritage Foundation weighed in against the plan, what little resolve that might have existed quickly evaporated.
"[Battered] from three years of intra-party battles, [he] was caught between at least three different GOP factions as he tried to craft a compromise agreement: Republicans who didn't want to slash government health care contributions for Capitol Hill aides, members who thought repealing the medical device tax was a giveaway to corporate America and conservatives, who thought Republican leaders were too soft on Obamacare.
"Boehner was unable to craft a deal that would satisfy all of the groups, forcing him to shelve his plan and show the world — again — just how hard it is for him to rule the raucous House Republican Conference.
"No amount of political gymnastics would help him reach the crucial 217 vote-level to send a bill to the Senate. GOP aides said that Boehner was — at a minimum — 20 to 30 votes short of the target."
Meanwhile, In The Senate:
Amid the disarray in the House, the Senate "quickly moved to pick up the pieces," as The Washington Post writes. Senators re-started talks of their own and were thought to be close to a deal before they adjourned just after 10 p.m.
Presumably the Senate plan would be close to a proposal outlined Tuesday that would fund the government through Jan. 15 and raise the ceiling until Feb. 7 in exchange for "substantive" discussions on entitlements and other Republican budget priorities.
The White House has hinted that it would agree to such a deal.
Even so, Politico, quoting unnamed sources, says that "the deal is essentially done."
"Reid and McConnell are expected to brief their respective caucuses Wednesday, hours before the country could fail to pay its bills for the first time in history. Cooperation will be needed from members of both parties in order to avoid default as well as to end the first government shutdown in 17 years. And a Senate plan will need to clear the House."
And passing the House is still the biggest question.
SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co said a body panel fell off of a 787 Dreamliner operated by Air India while the plane was in flight on Saturday, a new problem for the high-tech jet that has suffered a string of mishaps since its introduction two years ago.
Boeing said the loss of the fuselage panel posed no safety risk to passengers. It was not immediately known where the panel landed.
The jet was carrying 148 people, including crew, on a flight from Delhi to Bangalore, The Times of India newspaper reported. The pilots did not realize the eight-by-four-foot panel was missing until after the flight landed, the newspaper said, adding that India's aviation authorities are investigating.
Boeing said the missing panel fell from the underside of the plane on the right side. A photo on The Times of India website showed a large opening with components and aircraft structure visible inside.
"It was the mid-underwing-to-body fairing located on the belly of the airplane on the right side," Boeing spokesman Doug Alder said. The part "provides a more aerodynamic surface in flight."
He said Boeing is working to understand what caused the panel to fall and declined to say whether the plane was made at Boeing's South Carolina factory. A number of Air India jets have come from that assembly line.
The Times of India said the panel was replaced with one taken from a just-delivered 787 Dreamliner that was not yet ready for service. That plane is now awaiting a spare part, the paper said.
Problems that have afflicted the 787 include battery overheating that prompted regulators to ground the entire fleet in January. Flights resumed in April. Despite the problems, Boeing's stock has stayed near record levels. It closed Tuesday at $118.18, down $1.28.
(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
Photo junkies, brace yourselves for some very big news. Sony has finally announced its much-anticipated (and leaked) mirrorless camera, debuting not one, but two feature-packed models. The $1,700 Alpha 7, which is positioned as a step-up cam for APS-C interchangeable-lens camera owners, includes a ...
When Kurt Vonnegut dedicated his novel Slapstick to Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, he pinpointed the way an ideal team can transcend chemistry. Like Vonnegut's Wilbur and Eliza, the twins who became geniuses only in each other's presence, Laurel and Hardy united to become two halves of a single being. They bickered, they kicked each other's backsides, and were always mired in "another fine mess," but there was always the sense that they could not survive apart.
Much the same could be said of the Three Stooges, a comedy team with the flawless internal logic of a fine-tuned clock. There is Moe, the leader (by temperament if not acclamation), a tough-minded bruiser who gets things done and brings some semblance of organization. There is Curly, Moe's polar opposite — cheerful, energetic, optimistic, and totally incapable of seeing what is not in front of him (in A Plumbing We Will Go, he tries to fix a leak by attaching one pipe after another until he is trapped in a cage). And there is Larry, the middleman personified – he has no distinctive personality, but he's essential in the same way as ski poles.
If there were no Moe, the group would collapse into chaos (notice how Curly and Larry almost never talk to each other?). If there were no Larry, their films would be about a mean guy beating up a nice guy (Curly and Larry outnumber Moe, and could overpower him if they wanted to). And if there were no Curly ... well, I guess there would be Shemp, if you're into that sort of thing, but nobody wants to see just Moe and Larry. Why do these men stay together, despite the fact they don't seem to particularly like each other? Because apart, they could not function in the world.
Cartoon Stooges, as seen in the mid-'60s.
Madacy
Cartoon Stooges, as seen in the mid-'60s.
Madacy
Curly was long gone by the time of The New Three Stooges, a 1965-66 cartoon show new to DVD from Madacy, but if viewed with generosity, it offers some insight into the Stooges in winter.
The Stooges had enjoyed a career renaissance when their vintage shorts were syndicated to television in 1958, but with most of their audience now children, the team had eliminated malicious violence from their act — no more eye pokes, just light slapping. With portly vaudevillian "Curly Joe" DeRita filling the "third Stooge" slot (which suffered a mortality rate comparable to Spinal Tap drummers), the aging team offered a kindler, gentler brand of slapstick in personal appearances and films.
Each episode opens and closes with a live-action segment with the comedians engaged in some wheezy tomfoolery or other — they're bakers, they're painters, they're digging for treasure, etc. Production values are nonexistent: Each episode is filmed in a public park or no-frills soundstage (warehouse?), and the slapstick plays out in long, punishingly static medium-shots. Like the boys' 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures, these set pieces have little context — no need to know why the Stooges are at an airport or a barbershop, just that they're there.
In a freeze-frame from one of the live-action wraparounds, the Stooges are still at it, sort of.
Madacy
In a freeze-frame from one of the live-action wraparounds, the Stooges are still at it, sort of.
Madacy
Even if the Stooges hadn't downplayed violence, such measures might have been necessary: At 68 and 63, Moe and Larry look a little the worse for wear (Moe's hideous dye-job doesn't help matters). They are slower and saggier, less vicious but still ornery. Moe has evolved into an almost benevolent curmudgeon, and as for "Curly Joe," while surely one of the least-funny men who ever lived, he does offer a credible simulation of Jerome "Curly" Howard as an exhausted 56-year-old. Collectively, they have the same combination of coziness and prickliness as an old married couple.
The 156 cartoons are cheap and forgettable, and the 40 live-action wraparounds that repeat in order to surround them all are not very funny (and the sight of the boys cavorting in skin-tight swimsuits is not for the faint of heart). But for Stooge completists, they offer a strange sort of comfort. In the autumn of their years, the Stooges are still at it, once again starting some new business together, once again throwing pies in their weary faces, and still irretrievably locked in each other's orbit.
Rumors of an Amazon smartphone have circulated for well over a year now, but a new report out today says that the retail giant will use HTC to make its upcoming devices. Three different smartphones are said to be in development, according to The Financial Times article, but one of the HTC-made devices is said to be close to completion. One source warns the paper that while one of the devices is in the advanced stages of development, Amazon has pushed back its timetable before.
Earlier rumors pointed to two different Amazon smartphones, with one being offered for free or at a very low price. It's widely believed that Amazon would not release a smartphone this year — a 2014 launch date seems likely for at least one such device. During that last round of rumors, Amazon rejected claims that it would offer a phone for free, and it said it wasn't going to release a phone this year.
Both Amazon and HTC declined to comment on the rumors to The Financial Times, but chief of marketing Ben Ho told the paper that "We have been very focused on building our own brand, but we have also been very open to co-branding and collaborating with carriers and other technology brands.”
It's big news for Amazon, but it's most certainly more important for the struggling HTC. The Taiwanese company reported its first-ever quarterly loss earlier this month, an unfortunate watermark for a once-mighty device maker that's recently had difficultly finding a foothold against competition with Samsung's marketing muscle and Apple's iPhones.
In an effort to protect government whistleblowers from unprecedented levels of surveillance, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has launched SecureDrop, an anonymous submission tool for secure communications between sources and journalists. SecureDrop accepts encrypted documents and tips from sources and facilitates communication without putting journalists in jeopardy of having to reveal sources under the threat of imprisonment. The need for security is heightened given the Obama Administration’s aggressive prosecution of leakers under the Espionage act. Last Spring, for instance, the Justice Department seized the phone records of AP journalists involved in reporting a foiled bomb plot in Yemen. “One of the reasons that the Obama administration has prosecuted so many whistleblowers is that there’s an easy way to find digital trails of how journalists meet sources and talk to them,” said Freedom of the Press Foundation Executive Director, Trevor Timm. “We need to figure out a way for journalists to talk to sources without that fear.” SecureDrop was originally the project of fallen hacktivist, Aaron Swartz (then called DeadDrop). The project has since been updated to account for recent National Security Agency spying revelations, though the organization reminds reporters than nothing is 100% secure. The code base is open source and has been vetted by security experts from the University of Washington [PDF]. Freedom of the Press Foundation has even offered to help outlets install the rather complex encryption tool. Learn more about it here. [Image Credit: Flickr User Electronic Frontier Foundation]Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/05oKqp46YzI/ Category: Eminem Rap GodricinNina Davulurineil armstrongjeff bezos
Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, walks away from the microphone during a news conference after a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, with House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., right, walks to a meeting of House Republicans at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013, as a partial government shutdown enters its third week. It is not yet clear how Boehner and tea party members in the House majority will respond to the Senate's Democratic and Republican leaders closing in on a deal to avoid an economy-menacing Treasury default and end the partial government shutdown. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan walks to a House GOP meeting on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013 in Washington. The federal government remains partially shut down and faces a first-ever default between Oct. 17 and the end of the month. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
WASHINGTON (AP) — House GOP leaders Tuesday floated a plan to fellow Republicans to counter an emerging Senate deal to reopen the government and forestall an economy-rattling default on U.S. obligations. But the plan got mixed reviews from the rank and file and it was not clear whether it could pass the chamber.
The measure would suspend a new tax on medical devices for two years and take away the federal government's contributions to lawmakers' health care and top administration officials. It would also fund the government through Jan. 15 and give Treasury the ability to borrow normally through Feb. 7.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he's "trying to find a path forward" but that "there have been no decisions about exactly what we will do." He told a news conference, "There are a lot of opinions about what direction to go."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., involved in negotiations with Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, blasted the House plan as a blatant attack on bipartisanship.
"It can't pass the Senate and it won't pass the Senate," Reid said.
The move came as a partial shutdown entered its third week and less than two days before the Treasury Department says it will be unable to borrow and will rely on a this cash cushion to pay the country's bills.
The House GOP plan wouldn't win nearly as many concessions from President Barack Obama as Republicans had sought but it would set up another battle with the White House early next year.
"The jury is still out," said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas.
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said he was not sure he could vote for the plan because it did not address the debt. "I have to know a lot more than I know now," he said.
The House move comes after conservative lawmakers rebelled at the outlines of an emerging Senate plan by Reid and GOP leader McConnell. Those two hoped to seal an agreement on Tuesday, just two days before the Treasury Department says it will run out of borrowing capacity.
The White House and Democrats quickly came out against the Republican plan. Obama planned to meet with House Democratic leaders Tuesday afternoon as negotiations continue.
"The latest proposal from House Republicans does just that in a partisan attempt to appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage. "Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have been working in a bipartisan, good-faith effort .... With only a couple days remaining until the United States exhausts its borrowing authority, it's time for the House to do the same."
"GOP's latest plan is designed to torpedo the bipartisan Sen solution," tweeted Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. "Plan is not only reckless, it's tantamount to default."
Political pressure is building on Republicans to reopen the government and GOP leaders are clearly fearful of failing to act to avert a default on U.S. obligations.
Republicans are in a difficult spot, relinquishing many of their core demands as they take a beating in the polls. Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla., led GOP lawmakers in several verses of "Amazing Grace."
"We have to stick together now," said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas.
Like the House GOP bill, the emerging Senate measure — though not finalized — would reopen the government through Jan. 15 and permit the Treasury to borrow normally until early to mid-February, easing dual crises that have sapped confidence in the economy and taken a sledgehammer to the GOP's poll numbers.
"There are productive negotiations going on with the Republican leader," Reid said as he opened the Senate Tuesday. "I'm confident we'll be able to reach a comprehensive agreement this week in time to avert a catastrophic default."
On Wall Street, stocks were mixed early Tuesday, with investors somewhat optimistic over a potential deal.
"We're willing to get the government open. We want to get the government open," Scalise said. "Hopefully they get something done that addresses the spending issue."
The competing House and Senate plans are a far cry from the assault on "Obamacare" that tea party Republicans originally demanded as a condition for a short-term funding bill to keep the government fully operational. It lacks the budget cuts demanded by Republicans in exchange for increasing the government's $16.7 trillion borrowing cap.
Nor do either the House or Senate frameworks contain any of a secondary set of House GOP demands, like a one-year delay in the health law's mandate that individuals buy insurance.
Another difference between the Democrats and Republicans involves a Democratic move to repeal a $63 fee that companies must pay for each person they cover under the big health care overhaul beginning in 2014. Unions oppose the fee and Senate Democrats are pressing to repeal it, but House Republicans are positioning to block them and Senate Republicans are adamantly opposed as well.
Democrats were standing against a GOP-backed proposal to suspend a medical device tax that was enacted as part of the health care law, but might not be able to win a floor vote since many Democrats oppose the tax too.
Democratic and Republican aides described the outlines of the potential agreement on condition of anonymity because the discussions were ongoing.
But with GOP poll numbers plummeting and the country growing weary of a shutdown entering its third week, Senate Republicans in particular were eager to end the shutdown — and avoid an even greater crisis if the government were to default later this month.
Any legislation backed by both Reid and McConnell can be expected to sail through the Senate, though any individual senators could delay it.
But it's another story in the House. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, signaled that conservative members of the House were deeply skeptical. He said any bill had to have serious spending cuts for him to vote to raise the debt ceiling and said he thought Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had more flexibility than they had said publicly.
"No deal is better than a bad deal," Barton said.
In addition to approving legislation to fund the government until late this year and avert a possible debt crisis later this week or month, the potential pact would set up broader budget negotiations between the GOP-controlled House and Democratic-led Senate. One goal of those talks would be to ease automatic spending cuts that began in March and could deepen in January, when about $20 billion in further cuts are set to slam the Pentagon.
Democrats also were seeking to preserve the Treasury Department's ability to use extraordinary accounting measures to buy additional time after the government reaches any extended debt ceiling. Such measures have permitted Treasury to avert a default for almost five months since the government officially hit the debt limit in mid-May, but wouldn't buy anywhere near that kind of time next year, experts said.
The House GOP plan would repeal the extraordinary measures, which would make the Feb 7 date a hard deadline to revisit the fight.
___
Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, David Espo, Henry C. Jackson, Julie Pace and Alan Fram contributed to this report.
New York City (AFP) - The United Nations said Monday "the race is on" to make sure Syria keeps to deadlines to destroy its chemical weapons as a key treaty took effect for Damascus.
The Chemical Weapons Convention came into force for Syria on Monday.
That is one month after the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) accepted President Bashar al-Assad application, submitted in a bid to head off a Western military strike.
The OPCW and the United Nations have about 60 experts already working in Syria to eradicate the war-torn country's banned arms. This will eventually be increased to 100.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said Syria was providing "good cooperation," but the official backing of the convention was a key step.
"Of course there are very tight deadlines to be kept, but it is a very welcome development," Nesirky told reporters.
The inspectors' work is now being done in a legal framework, Nesirky said.
"The race is on really to make sure that those deadlines continue to be met."
The United States threatened a military strike after an August 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus in which hundreds died.
Under a disarmament plan that has been given legal force by a UN Security Council resolution, the government has until mid-2014 to get rid of its sarin, mustard and VX gas.
But UN leader Ban Ki-moon warned when he set out key steps in the disarmament plan that such an operation has "never been tried before."
Syria met deadlines to declare its chemical facilities, and the information is now being checked by the OPCW experts.
But the chemical watchdog says Syria's war is already holding up the work and has appealed for local truces to get access to weapons sites.
Syria must give the OPCW a plan for destroying its estimated stockpile of 1,000 tonnes of chemicals by October 27 -- one month after the Security Council resolution.
The plan lays down that Syria's arms production and chemical mixing facilities must be destroyed by November 1. But the OPCW inspectors have not yet visited all of Syria's chemical sites.
Then, by November 15, the OPCW will have to set out a detailed plan with a timetable for the destruction the actual chemicals by next year.
Russia and the United States, which drew up the disarmament plan, are still working with the OPCW on how to destroy them, diplomats said.
Russia has proposed building at least one furnace in Syria to burn the chemicals, diplomats said.
However, OPCW and UN experts have doubts about whether a furnace can be installed while the war, which has left more than 100,000 dead, rages on.
Nesirky said Syria's full membership of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention is "long overdue, and it is obviously welcome."
"There is a lot of hard work that needs to be done now with Syria inside that convention, various obligations that need to be lived up to," Nesirky said.
"We have seen good cooperation so far in the work that has been done there."
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president stepped up his challenge to the country's hard-line factions on Monday, calling for the lifting of restrictions on academic freedoms and for granting Iranian scholars more opportunity to take part in international conferences.
The message from Hassan Rouhani underscores the increasing friction between his moderate-leaning camp and entrenched forces such as hard-line student organizations that have questioned the scope of the new president's overtures to Washington.
Rouhani has pushed to break Iran's standoff with the international community over its contested nuclear program, the subject of renewed talks with world powers due to resume on Tuesday in Geneva.
Some Iranian hard-liners oppose any detente with the U.S., and on Monday made their voices heard by disrupting a speech by former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani with shouts of "death to the U.S.", semiofficial news agency Mehr reported. Days earlier the elder statesman had urged Iranians to stop using the popular chant at rallies in order to aid Rouhani's outreach.
Hardliners have vowed to organize a major anti-U.S. rally to mark the anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 by militant students on Nov. 4
Rouhani's Monday call, broadcast on state television, points to potential deeper political fissures. Iran's top policymaker, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has endorsed Rouhani's outreach to the U.S., but some of the forces coming under the president's criticism also are controlled by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.
Rouhani, who took office in August, has previously called for lifting curbs on social media access and urged police not to crack down on perceived violations of Islamic dress codes for women.
"This is a shame for an administration that its students and professors are not able to express their viewpoints," Rouhani told Tehran University students and professors. "This administration will not tolerate factional pressures on universities."
He also urged authorities not to block scholars from taking part in international gatherings, calling it "scientific diplomacy."
"I urge all security apparatuses, including the intelligence ministry, to open the way for this diplomacy. Trust the universities," said Rouhani.
In recent years, many professors and student activists at Iranian universities were expelled or went into forced retirement under pressure from hard-line groups.
Rouhani also reiterated his promises for greater outreach to the world.
"We should have solidarity and peaceful co-existence with all friendly countries or even with all the world's nations," he told the gathering.
The Tehran Jewish Association, in a statement made available to The Associated Press on Monday, supported Rouhani's international outreach and urged President Barack Obama and other Western leaders to use the "golden opportunity" to seek better relations with Iran.
Iran and the United States broke ties after the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"If the U.S. and global community do not use this golden opportunity, which may not be repeated, then they have helped pessimists and enemies of normalization of ties between U.S. and Iran," said the statement.
Iran's 30,000-member Jewish community is the biggest in the Middle East outside Israel.
Innovation, Energy and Mines Minister Dave Chomiak announced the official launch of Manitoba Rocks!, a new website featuring a wide variety of geoscience information designed to help young Manitobans learn more about Manitoba’s minerals and petroleum industry.
“Manitoba Rocks! is a dynamic online learning tool for kids, teens and anyone interested in exploring or expanding their knowledge about Manitoba’s rich minerals history and potential,” said Chomiak. “Visitors to this fun, interactive website will learn about Manitoba’s unique, diverse geological history and the role these resources play in our daily lives and our province’s future.”
The new website features:
Kids Rock! – a children’s Fun Zone with memory and word games, puzzles, colouring and activity books, and geo-mysteries. Younger students can learn about the rock cycle, examine a geological time chart, and explore facts and legends on topics ranging from nickels and arrowheads to chunks of gold, space rocks and fossils, as well as gain knowledge of the Aboriginal perspective about Mother Earth and Turtle Island.
Teens Rock! – offers teenage students a more in-depth look at the history of mining and exploration in Manitoba. Teens can take a video-guided geo-tour around the province, visit the Legends of Rock section to learn about some of the early explorers, geologists and prospectors whose spirit of adventure helped launch exciting discoveries around Manitoba and explore Opportunity Rocks, a web section devoted to information on mining-related careers.
As part of the website launch, Manitoba students from grades four to 12 will also be invited to test their rock and mineral knowledge in the Dig It! Quiz, with a chance to win Manitoba Rocks! prizes.
Chomiak thanked the many mining and mineral organizations whose geosciences information links form an integral part of the Manitoba Rocks! website. This includes Mining Matters, a national charitable organization dedicated to bringing knowledge and awareness about Canada’s geology and mineral resources to students, educators and the general public. The minister also acknowledged Oak Hammock Marsh, the Childrens’ Museum and the Manitoba Museum for participating in the website launch, and the Canadian Geoscience Education Network for promoting Manitoba Rocks! beyond Manitoba.
Manitoba’s mining and petroleum industries are experiencing continued growth and remain two of the province’s key economic drivers. In 2012, it is estimated mining and petroleum provided jobs for more than 5,700 people, with another 18,000 people employed in spinoff businesses. The same year, the value of mineral and petroleum production totalled more than $3.13 billion. In 2012, capital expenditures on mining and petroleum development totalled an estimated $1.3 billion and the industries accounted for approximately seven per cent of provincial GDP and about 8.7 per cent of total exports.
For more information, visit Manitoba Rocks! at www.ManitobaRocks.info.
Researchers discover innate virus-killing power in mammals
Public release date: 10-Oct-2013 [
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Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
Findings by UC Riverside's Shou-Wei Ding could help create vaccines against deadly infections, including SARS, West Nile, dengue, hepatitis C and influenza
RIVERSIDE, Calif. Scientists have a promising new approach to combating deadly human viruses thanks to an educated hunch by University of California, Riverside microbiology professor Shou-Wei Ding, and his 20 years of research on plants, fruit flies, nematodes and mice to prove his theory true.
Researchers led by Ding, who heads a lab in UC Riverside's Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, have discovered that, like plants and invertebrate animals, mammals use the RNA interference (RNAi) process to destroy viruses within their own cells.
Their findings will be published in the Oct. 11 issue of the journal Science.
Until now, scientists were unable to prove that mammals use RNAi for killing viruses, but ironically, it was Ding's earlier research into plants, nematodes and fruit flies that helped him find the key: viruses have been outwitting that innate protection in our cells by using proteins to suppress our virus-killing mechanism.
Remove the suppressor protein from the virus, Ding's research discovered, and the subject's body will quickly eliminate the virus using the RNAi process, which sends out small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to kill the disease.
In their research on young mice, for instance, all the subjects died when they were infected with the Nodamura virus, but when Ding's researchers removed the suppressor protein called B2 from the virus, the infected mice began producing huge armies of the virus-attacking siRNAs and lived, unaffected by the otherwise lethal infection.
"Many have tried to do this, that is, find the viral siRNAs in mammals, but they could not find the key," said Ding. "The key was our prior knowledge of the B2 protein in the Nodamura virus, a virus few people know about. Other scientists asked me, 'What is the Nodamura virus?' They have been studying the more well-known human viruses, but Nodamura virus infection of mice proves to be the best model."
How did Ding know where to look? The China native was partly acting on a hunch that started when he was a graduate student at the Australia National University in the late 1980s. There, during a lecture, he learned that the genomes of viruses infecting plants and animals are actually very similar, even though plants and animals are very different.
That, and further discussions with his mentor Adrian Gibbs, an expert on molecular evolution of viruses and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences, "made me think there must be a common anti-viral mechanism in plants and animals to keep their viruses similar," he said.
Ding produced the first evidence for that hypothesis while working with Bob Symons in the Waite Institute in South Australia, studying cucumber mosaic virus, a devastating, aphid-carried disease that infects more than 1,000 plant species, including many important crops.
Using computational analytical skills learned from Gibbs, Ding discovered a small gene in the virus other scientists had overlooked. He named the gene 2b and showed that it plays an essential role in helping the virus spread within the host plant. Based on his results, and published studies on the B2 protein of Flock house virus, an insect pathogen, Ding proposed in a 1995 paper that 2b and B2 proteins act by suppressing the host's antiviral defense.
Fueled by that idea, Ding moved to Singapore in 1996 to set up his own laboratory in the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology. There, in collaboration with a British group led by RNAi-expert David Baulcombe, Ding's group discovered that the 2b protein did indeed suppress the RNAi virus-fighting properties in plants. Further, the group found that the 2b proteins of the related viruses all have the suppressor activity even though they share limited sequence similarities.
Ding joined the faculty at UCR in December of 2000 to test the other half of his hypothesis: does the B2 protein of Flock house virus suppress RNAi in its animal host?
Although RNAi was known as a major antiviral mechanism in plants by that time, few believed it was also true in the animal kingdom, which was known to fight viral infections by many other well-defined mechanisms. Over the next five years, Ding used Flock house virus to discover that fruit flies and C. elegans nematodes have the same RNAi virus-killing properties as plants, but the B2 in the virus stop their RNAi defenses from working. Remove the B2, and the hosts produce massive amounts of siRNAs and rapidly destroy the virus.
The findings, which were featured in a Science cover story in 2002, showed that RNAi is a common antiviral defense in plants, insects and nematodes, and explained why viruses have to keep a protein to suppress that defense. It also took Ding deeper into his fundamental premise"If RNAi remains as an effective antiviral defense in plants, insects and nematodes after their independent evolution for hundred millions of years, why would it stop working with mammals?"
To answer this question, Ding decided to use a cousin of the Flock house virusNodamura virusthat is lethal to young mice. In collaboration with Ding, the lab of Olivier Voinnet at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich also reported in an accompanying paper the detection of viral siRNAs in cultured mouse embryonic stem cells infected by the Encephalomyocarditis virus. These findings have opened the door to new ways to combat dangerous human viruses.
Ding's next goal is to raise $5 million so he can spend about five years studying new vaccines for human pathogens such as dengue fever. He is carefully optimistic about the findings to come.
"Maybe this is what we have been missing in knowing how humans combat viral infections," he said. "There are many different antiviral mechanisms in our bodies, but maybe RNAi functions as the most important antiviral defense mechanism. Maybe this is the one that really matters."
###
Dings coauthors on the research paper are UCRs Yang Li, Jinfeng Lu, Yanhong Han and Xiaoxu Fan.
The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.
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Researchers discover innate virus-killing power in mammals
Public release date: 10-Oct-2013 [
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| Share
]
Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
Findings by UC Riverside's Shou-Wei Ding could help create vaccines against deadly infections, including SARS, West Nile, dengue, hepatitis C and influenza
RIVERSIDE, Calif. Scientists have a promising new approach to combating deadly human viruses thanks to an educated hunch by University of California, Riverside microbiology professor Shou-Wei Ding, and his 20 years of research on plants, fruit flies, nematodes and mice to prove his theory true.
Researchers led by Ding, who heads a lab in UC Riverside's Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, have discovered that, like plants and invertebrate animals, mammals use the RNA interference (RNAi) process to destroy viruses within their own cells.
Their findings will be published in the Oct. 11 issue of the journal Science.
Until now, scientists were unable to prove that mammals use RNAi for killing viruses, but ironically, it was Ding's earlier research into plants, nematodes and fruit flies that helped him find the key: viruses have been outwitting that innate protection in our cells by using proteins to suppress our virus-killing mechanism.
Remove the suppressor protein from the virus, Ding's research discovered, and the subject's body will quickly eliminate the virus using the RNAi process, which sends out small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) to kill the disease.
In their research on young mice, for instance, all the subjects died when they were infected with the Nodamura virus, but when Ding's researchers removed the suppressor protein called B2 from the virus, the infected mice began producing huge armies of the virus-attacking siRNAs and lived, unaffected by the otherwise lethal infection.
"Many have tried to do this, that is, find the viral siRNAs in mammals, but they could not find the key," said Ding. "The key was our prior knowledge of the B2 protein in the Nodamura virus, a virus few people know about. Other scientists asked me, 'What is the Nodamura virus?' They have been studying the more well-known human viruses, but Nodamura virus infection of mice proves to be the best model."
How did Ding know where to look? The China native was partly acting on a hunch that started when he was a graduate student at the Australia National University in the late 1980s. There, during a lecture, he learned that the genomes of viruses infecting plants and animals are actually very similar, even though plants and animals are very different.
That, and further discussions with his mentor Adrian Gibbs, an expert on molecular evolution of viruses and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Sciences, "made me think there must be a common anti-viral mechanism in plants and animals to keep their viruses similar," he said.
Ding produced the first evidence for that hypothesis while working with Bob Symons in the Waite Institute in South Australia, studying cucumber mosaic virus, a devastating, aphid-carried disease that infects more than 1,000 plant species, including many important crops.
Using computational analytical skills learned from Gibbs, Ding discovered a small gene in the virus other scientists had overlooked. He named the gene 2b and showed that it plays an essential role in helping the virus spread within the host plant. Based on his results, and published studies on the B2 protein of Flock house virus, an insect pathogen, Ding proposed in a 1995 paper that 2b and B2 proteins act by suppressing the host's antiviral defense.
Fueled by that idea, Ding moved to Singapore in 1996 to set up his own laboratory in the Institute of Molecular Agrobiology. There, in collaboration with a British group led by RNAi-expert David Baulcombe, Ding's group discovered that the 2b protein did indeed suppress the RNAi virus-fighting properties in plants. Further, the group found that the 2b proteins of the related viruses all have the suppressor activity even though they share limited sequence similarities.
Ding joined the faculty at UCR in December of 2000 to test the other half of his hypothesis: does the B2 protein of Flock house virus suppress RNAi in its animal host?
Although RNAi was known as a major antiviral mechanism in plants by that time, few believed it was also true in the animal kingdom, which was known to fight viral infections by many other well-defined mechanisms. Over the next five years, Ding used Flock house virus to discover that fruit flies and C. elegans nematodes have the same RNAi virus-killing properties as plants, but the B2 in the virus stop their RNAi defenses from working. Remove the B2, and the hosts produce massive amounts of siRNAs and rapidly destroy the virus.
The findings, which were featured in a Science cover story in 2002, showed that RNAi is a common antiviral defense in plants, insects and nematodes, and explained why viruses have to keep a protein to suppress that defense. It also took Ding deeper into his fundamental premise"If RNAi remains as an effective antiviral defense in plants, insects and nematodes after their independent evolution for hundred millions of years, why would it stop working with mammals?"
To answer this question, Ding decided to use a cousin of the Flock house virusNodamura virusthat is lethal to young mice. In collaboration with Ding, the lab of Olivier Voinnet at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich also reported in an accompanying paper the detection of viral siRNAs in cultured mouse embryonic stem cells infected by the Encephalomyocarditis virus. These findings have opened the door to new ways to combat dangerous human viruses.
Ding's next goal is to raise $5 million so he can spend about five years studying new vaccines for human pathogens such as dengue fever. He is carefully optimistic about the findings to come.
"Maybe this is what we have been missing in knowing how humans combat viral infections," he said. "There are many different antiviral mechanisms in our bodies, but maybe RNAi functions as the most important antiviral defense mechanism. Maybe this is the one that really matters."
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Dings coauthors on the research paper are UCRs Yang Li, Jinfeng Lu, Yanhong Han and Xiaoxu Fan.
The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.
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Photo junkies, brace yourselves for some very big news. Sony has finally announced its much-anticipated (and leaked) mirrorless camera, debuting not one, but two feature-packed models. The $1,700 Alpha 7, which is positioned as a step-up cam for APS-C interchangeable-lens camera owners, includes a ...
In an effort to protect government whistleblowers from unprecedented levels of surveillance, the Freedom of the Press Foundation has launched SecureDrop, an anonymous submission tool for secure communications between sources and journalists. SecureDrop accepts encrypted documents and tips from sources and facilitates communication without putting journalists in jeopardy of having to reveal sources under the threat of imprisonment. The need for security is heightened given the Obama Administration’s aggressive prosecution of leakers under the Espionage act. Last Spring, for instance, the Justice Department seized the phone records of AP journalists involved in reporting a foiled bomb plot in Yemen. “One of the reasons that the Obama administration has prosecuted so many whistleblowers is that there’s an easy way to find digital trails of how journalists meet sources and talk to them,” said Freedom of the Press Foundation Executive Director, Trevor Timm. “We need to figure out a way for journalists to talk to sources without that fear.” SecureDrop was originally the project of fallen hacktivist, Aaron Swartz (then called DeadDrop). The project has since been updated to account for recent National Security Agency spying revelations, though the organization reminds reporters than nothing is 100% secure. The code base is open source and has been vetted by security experts from the University of Washington [PDF]. Freedom of the Press Foundation has even offered to help outlets install the rather complex encryption tool. Learn more about it here. [Image Credit: Flickr User Electronic Frontier Foundation]Source: ![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
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