BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei: The Philippines said Sunday that an increasing Chinese military and paramilitary presence in the disputed South China Sea was a threat to regional peace.
Philippine foreign affairs secretary Albert Del Rosario made the statement in a press release issued at a regional security forum attended by his counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and China.
"Del Rosario today expressed serious concern over the increasing militarization of the South China Sea," the statement said.
He said there was a "massive presence of Chinese military and paramilitary ships" at two groups of islets within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone called Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal.
Del Rosario described the Chinese military presence at these islets as "threats to efforts to maintain maritime peace and stability in the region".
Del Rosario said the Chinese actions violated a pact made in 2002 in which rival claimants to the sea pledged not to take any actions that may increase tensions.
The declaration on conduct signed by ASEAN nations and China also committed rival claimants to resolve their disputes "without resorting to the threat or use of force".
"We reiterate our continued advocacy for a peaceful and rules-based settlement of disputes in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law," Del Rosario said.
China claims nearly all of the strategically vital and potentially resource-rich South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of neighbouring countries.
Asean members the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia, as well as Taiwan, also have competing claims to parts of the sea.
The rivalries have for decades been a source of regional tension, with China and Vietnam fighting deadly battles for control of some islands in the sea.
Tensions have built in recent years with the Philippines, Vietnam and some other countries expressing concern at increasingly assertive Chinese military and diplomatic tactics to assert control of the sea.
Manila says China has effectively occupied Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground far closer to Philippine land than Chinese, for more than a year.
The Philippines says China has recently also deployed vessels to intimidate a tiny Philippine garrison on Second Thomas Shoal that has been stationed there since the mid 1990s.
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Diamond producer De Beers plans to cut costs and use machines more in place of labour as it strives to become leaner and more flexible in response to a tougher world economic environment, the company's chief executive said.
De Beers' owner Anglo American has just changed its own management and is in the middle of a three-month review, the outcome of which will likely include steps to improve the performance of the world's biggest diamond producer by value.
Philippe Mellier and another senior executive, Varda Shine, told Reuters that De Beers was working on a wide range of ideas including a new automatic grading machine, which would "get rid of the human element" in grading diamonds.
It also hopes to introduce a screening machine by the end of the year that can detect synthetic stones among small, or melee, diamonds.
"We currently have a big project that is looking at integrating the mining companies processes and systems together with the midstream sorting operations all the way to sales," Shine said in the interview in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
"(We need) to make sure that we are able to become leaner and more flexible because the world is much more volatile today."
Both executives shied away from saying whether that would add up to consolidation of some of the company's businesses or worker layoffs, but they did note that De Beers has four separate units and said the whole process could involve some capital outlays.
Mellier also said he could not comment on the ongoing review by Anglo.
Prices of diamonds slumped after the 2008 financial crash and have still to fully recover, hurting the margins of De Beers and its main competitor, Russia's Alrosa.
Some players have speculated the market may gain from investors in markets like China using dollar-denominated assets as a safe haven while the Federal Reserve reduces the flood of cheap dollars flowing into the world economy.
A more durable recovery of the U.S. economy may also help the jewelry market, but against that are signs of a slowdown in demand and economic stimulus in China, a key growth market for diamonds in recent years.
Mellier said on balance he believed global demand for diamond jewelry would rise a touch faster this year than last, outpacing supplies of the precious stones and clearing the way for more investment in the company's operations.
Production for De Beers in 2013, however, would stay in line with last year's rate of 27.9 million carats, he said.
"We think that the jewelry diamond market is going to grow a little bit more than last year," Mellier said.
PRICE SLUMP
Consumer demand for diamond jewelry rose 3 percent in 2012 but De Beers' total sales fell 16 percent to $6.1 billion in 2012 while core earnings dropped 39 percent to $1.08 billion. The company has forecast a single-digit increase in rough diamond prices this year, after a 12 percent fall in 2012.
"We actually see the supply-demand picture as being very positive, which is why we are so confident to continue investing," Shine said.
To help out clients known as sightholders, De Beers last year offered purchase deferrals until March 2013, but Mellier said it was a "one-shot" move that would not be extended.
Mellier also said two of its leading mines, Venetia in South Africa and Jwaneng in Botswana, had recovered respectively from a major flood and a slope failure.
"The two biggest events which were impacting production (at the) beginning of this year have now been cleared."
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A major Providence landmark that has sat vacant since 1999 would be redeveloped for shared use by Brown University and two public higher education institutions under a $200 million redevelopment plan announced Thursday.
Under the plan, about half of the Dynamo House would become home to a joint nursing education program operated by Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island. Brown would occupy the other half ? about 120,000 square feet ? with administrative offices.
The project at the former South Street Power Station on Eddy Street also calls for construction of student housing for nearly 300 graduate, medical and nursing students; a restaurant and other retail space; space for startups and small high-tech companies; and a 600-space parking area.
Members of the state Senate introduced a resolution Wednesday supporting a facility shared by the three schools that would be redeveloped by Commonwealth Ventures, based in Southport, Conn. It calls for the state to work with the developer to negotiate a long-term lease for the URI-RIC nursing center.
Commonwealth Ventures President Richard Galvin said the project would be financed by about $28 million in state tax credits, $26 million in federal historic tax credits, $137 million in private equity and debt and $16 million in city money for the parking structure. He said Commonwealth is forming a new venture with Baltimore-based Beatty Development, whose affiliates control the building.
He hopes construction can begin next spring.
"I think all systems are go," Galvin said in an interview. "We have a lot of work to do but I feel like we're going to get there."
Earlier ? and equally ambitious ? plans to redevelop the building as the Heritage Harbor Museum fell apart, leaving one of Providence's most visible and distinctive buildings empty.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee, who has promoted the development of the high-growth "meds and eds" industries as a way to boost the state's struggling economy, called the project promising.
"The proposal we put forward today is a perfect example of the job-generating potential of the meds and the eds," he said in a statement. "Our institutions of higher learning are partnering ? with state and city support ? with a private developer to breathe new life into a building, a neighborhood and our entire capital city."
Mayor Angel Taveras also expressed support for the project, saying the city has made it a high priority to find a new and productive use for the building.
"This project significantly advances our efforts to transform Providence's Jewelry District into a regional hub for health care, research and higher education," he said in a statement.
The Dynamo House is on the edge of downtown in an area that once was a jewelry manufacturing district but is beginning to be redeveloped into a so-called "Knowledge District."
Brown opened a new medical school building there in 2011. In a statement Thursday, university President Christina Paxson said Brown has invested $200 million in the district over the last decade.
"By pursuing this project and this partnership, we hope to further enliven the neighborhood, transforming this important but neglected facility into an enduring asset, adding value to a critical area of our city and state," she said.
Senate Finance Chairman Daniel DaPonte, D-East Providence, said the project has great potential but that he wants a cap on the rent charged to URI and RIC to ensure it's "reasonable and affordable."
DaPonte said leasing the space has an advantage in that the owner will be responsible for the upkeep of the property.
__
Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed to this article.
June 28, 2013 ? NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft launched Thursday at 7:27 p.m. PDT (10:27 p.m. EDT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The mission to study the solar atmosphere was placed in orbit by an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket.
"We are thrilled to add IRIS to the suite of NASA missions studying the sun," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "IRIS will help scientists understand the mysterious and energetic interface between the surface and corona of the sun."
IRIS is a NASA Explorer Mission to observe how solar material moves, gathers energy and heats up as it travels through a little-understood region in the sun's lower atmosphere. This interface region between the sun's photosphere and corona powers its dynamic million-degree atmosphere and drives the solar wind. The interface region also is where most of the sun's ultraviolet emission is generated. These emissions impact the near-Earth space environment and Earth's climate.
The Pegasus XL carrying IRIS was deployed from an Orbital L-1011 carrier aircraft over the Pacific Ocean at an altitude of 39,000 feet, off the central coast of California about 100 miles northwest of Vandenberg. The rocket placed IRIS into a sun-synchronous polar orbit that will allow it to make almost continuous solar observations during its two-year mission.
The L-1011 took off from Vandenberg at 6:30 p.m. PDT and flew to the drop point over the Pacific Ocean, where the aircraft released the Pegasus XL from beneath its belly. The first stage ignited five seconds later to carry IRIS into space. IRIS successfully separated from the third stage of the Pegasus rocket at 7:40 p.m. At 8:05 p.m., the IRIS team confirmed the spacecraft had successfully deployed its solar arrays, has power and has acquired the sun, indications that all systems are operating as expected.
"Congratulations to the entire team on the successful development and deployment of the IRIS mission," said IRIS project manager Gary Kushner of the Lockheed Martin Solar and Atmospheric Laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif. "Now that IRIS is in orbit, we can begin our 30-day engineering checkout followed by a 30-day science checkout and calibration period."
IRIS is expected to start science observations upon completion of its 60-day commissioning phase. During this phase the team will check image quality and perform calibrations and other tests to ensure a successful mission.
NASA's Explorer Program at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., provides overall management of the IRIS mission. The principal investigator institution is Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center. NASA's Ames Research Center will perform ground commanding and flight operations and receive science data and spacecraft telemetry.
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory designed the IRIS telescope. The Norwegian Space Centre and NASA's Near Earth Network provide the ground stations using antennas at Svalbard, Norway; Fairbanks, Alaska; McMurdo, Antarctica; and Wallops Island, Va. NASA's Launch Services Program at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for the launch service procurement, including managing the launch and countdown. Orbital Sciences Corporation provided the L-1011 aircraft and Pegasus XL launch system.
For more information about the IRIS mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/iris
A new decision from the nation?s medical research agency will send most of its chimps into retirement
By Dina Fine Maron
Retirement More chimpanzees will be living a life of retirement thanks to a new NIH decisionImage: Les_Stockton
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In a landmark decision, the National Institutes of Health announced today that it will drastically scale back its research on chimpanzees, humans? closest living relatives. The agency expects to retire about 310 chimps out of a population of 360 that it owns and has available for research.
The decision follows recommendations from an NIH advisory panel that said in January that the agency should curb research on chimps and instead ?emphasize the development and refinement of other approaches, especially alternative animal models,? and move all but approximately 50 of the chimps to sanctuaries. The NIH today accepted almost all of the recommendations from that independent panel after studying them along with more than 12,500 comments from the public. ?Chimpanzees have already taught us a great deal?but deserve special respect,? NIH Director Francis Collins says. The decision is a ?major milestone ushering in a new era, a compassionate era.?
The NIH has not funded new research involving chimps since December 2011, when the Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit that advises the government on health policy, issued a report establishing strict criteria for the use of chimps in biomedical and behavioral research. At the time, the IOM said, "...that research use of animals so closely related to humans should not proceed unless it offers insights not possible with other models and unless it is of sufficient scientific or health value to offset moral costs. We found very few cases that satisfy these criteria."
The IOM recommended that chimp research satisfy three principles: the knowledge gained would be necessary to advance the public?s health; there was no other research model available to obtain that information; and that the animals would be kept in their natural habitat or in environments that closely mimic it. The NIH today accepted those principles as the criteria for any future research on chimps that it owns or supports.
A number of medical breakthroughs have come about, thanks to chimp research, including vaccines against polio and hepatitis B. But recent developments, including computer modeling and the ability to experiment on isolated cells, have equipped scientists with viable alternatives to primate research. Under today?s decision, NIH will still keep up to 50 chimpanzees?drawing from the pool of those it owns and supports?for future research purposes. Those are expected to include prophylactic vaccines for hepatitis C as well as behavioral studies.
The remaining 50 chimps will not be bred in captivity, so over time the number of chimps available for research will dwindle. Observational or behavioral studies on chimps that occur in zoos or sanctuaries are considered noninvasive and will proceed. Current research that does not meet the IOM principles will be allowed to wind down, and the implementation of the decision will take place over several years. ?Everybody should understand this is not something that will happen quickly,? Collins says.
The challenge now will be trying to find money to pay for the maintenance and care of the chimps slated for retirement. Under the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (CHIMP) Act of 2000, a $30-million cap was put on spending for chimpanzees in sanctuaries. Collins today said that his agency is very close to hitting the $30-million limit and will probably hit it in the ?next few months.? The agency is asking Congress to amend the law to free up NIH funding so it will be able to support the more than 300 chimpanzees that are expected to eventually be placed into retirement. The NIH does not have an estimate for how much it will cost to maintain the chimps in sanctuaries or exact plans on where the chimps will retire. Existing sanctuaries can hold only 150 chimpanzees, according to the NIH. The agency will be taking care of the retirement of only those chimpanzees it owns.
NEW YORK (AP) ? CDW's stock climbed Thursday in the information technology company's first day of trading on the Nasdaq.
CDW rose $1.48, or 8.7 percent, to $18.48 in late morning trading Thursday after rising as high as $18.67 earlier.
The offering of about 23.3 million shares was priced at $17 per share. That was at the low end of its projected range of $17 to $18. CDW Corp. raised about $396 million from the IPO.
The underwriters have a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 3.5 million shares.
CDW said in a regulatory filing that it plans to use part of the net proceeds to redeem $156 million senior subordinated notes. It intends to use $24.4 million in proceeds for a one-time payment related to the termination of a management services agreement. The company also plans to use some of the proceeds to exercise its right under an equity clawback provision related to $175 million senior secured notes.
CDW reported 2012 net income of $119 million on revenue of $10.13 billion. In 2011, the Vernon Hills, Ill.-based company had net income of $17.1 million and revenue of $9.6 billion.
The shares are trading under the "CDW" ticker symbol.
Editor?s Note: In celebration of our group?s budding relationship with the New York Mets, we?d like to present this piece by NYC Dads Group member Jason Duncan about taking his baby (ahem, toddler) to Citi Field. KMcK.
A fellow stay-at-home dad/native of Cincinnati and I recently took our little girls into what we thought would be hostile territory to a watch a Reds/Mets game at New York?s Citi Field. It probably didn?t help our cause much with my wearing a Yankees cap.
However, everybody was very polite and nobody said anything. At least not to our faces.
Given that it was around naptime for the Little One when we got off the subway in Queens, I tried to stroller her into a nap. After 10 minutes, I succeeded. Since we could use the strollers in Citi Field (as opposed to having to check them at guest relations like you do at Yankee Stadium), my friend and I decided to push her right inside.
I pulled my diaper bag out of the bottom of the stroller in advance of the gate and unzipped it so the security personnel could inspect the innards to ensure that I wasn?t toting in C4 with my Burt?s Bees Diaper Ointment. With half a glance at the bag, the security guy then asked me to take my baby out of the stroller, please.
A sleeping baby (ahem, toddler).
Now, as everybody knows, you are asking for a huge world of hurt if you rouse a sleeping child. But what was I to do? My friend was already inside and to turn around at the security checkpoint to hang out in the parking lot until she woke up 35 minutes later likely would have only brought suspicion down on my head, which might have resulted in my not being allowed into the game at all, and then I would have come to Queens for no reason, and if you ever have to go to Queens, you really ought to have a reason for doing it.
So I pulled her out. She immediately woke up. Satisfied that there wasn?t a grenade strapped to the ass of my baby (ahem, toddler), the guard waved us through.
This is going to be a disaster, I thought. She was groggy, blurry eyed and cranky. She immediately started with her patented ?Go! Go!? that she uses when she doesn?t want to be someplace, and I knew I?d made a terrible mistake. I hated that security guard.
We settled into our seats, which were excellent, by the way: three rows back from the left field wall? where home run balls are a real concern when you?ve got a baby ? toddler ? on your lap. The seats, which had they been in Yankee Stadium would have gone for something like $350, cost only $19 on StubHub. Little One kept up with her ?Go! Go!? but then they started to turn into ?Yay! Yay!? and clapped her hands with everybody else.
She actually stayed in her seat and let me put on her hat (pink, Yankees ? sorry) and she let me put on her sunglasses (pink), apply sun block,and change her out of her pants and into her (pink) shorts when it got hot. She even tracked the home run ball that Cincinnati?s Joey Votto hit into the seats about fifteen feet from us (in the ESPN SportsCenter highlight of Votto?s blast later that night, she?s appeared as the light pink blur that doesn?t move while everybody else around her stands up and leans left).
She also learned from dear old dad that you never throw the ball back, you never toss the ball back on the field, no matter how many home fans around you are clamoring for you to do so because?
You might hit and injure a player who isn?t expecting a baseball to come from behind him, and
This will very likely never happen to you ever again.
You always keep the ball. No matter what. (The bozo kid who caught the ball in the next section over tossed it back, much to the delight of the 30,000 Mets fans on hand.)
She was great. In fact, both babies (toddlers, dammit!) were great. Much better than ever could have been hoped for. They even let us stay through the entire game (Reds won 7-4). Who could ask for more than that? A perfect game on a perfect day with the perfect effing offspring? Who could want more than that?
(Well, if Joey Votto had smacked that ball about fourteen or fifteen feet farther to the left and about three rows up, that would?ve been alright, too.)
+ + +
Jason Duncan (holding Little One in the photo above) is a full-time stay-at-home-dad, writer, blogger, fly fisher and terrier owner. His twice-weekly humor blog can be found at: www.myeffingoffspring.blogspot.com. In February, he boldly (yet incorrectly) predicted TIME magazine?s person of the year for our blog.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, reacts after she was called for a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, reacts after she was called for a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Hundreds line up to enter the Senate Chamber spills into multiple levels of the rotunda as Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filibusters in an effort to kill an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, left, votes against a motion to call for a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Tommy Williams holds up a finger to vote yes for giving Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, filibusters in an effort to kill an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Amid the deafening roar of abortion rights supporters, Texas Republicans huddled around the Senate podium to pass new abortion restrictions, but whether the vote was cast before or after midnight is in dispute.
Hundreds of protesters cheered, clapped and shouted for the last 15 minutes of the special legislative session in an attempt to run out the clock before senators could vote on the bill that is expected to close almost every abortion clinic in the nation's second most populous state.
While Democrats as well as assembled reporters watched clocks on their mobile phones tick past midnight, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said the voting began just before. The bill now goes to Gov. Rick Perry, who directed that the legislation be taken up in the special session and is expected to sign it into law.
Democrats immediately predicted a legal challenge.
"It's questionable to vote when no one can hear to even know if a vote is taken," said Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin.
One of the state's most conservative lawmakers, Houston Republican Sen. Dan Patrick, insisted the vote was valid.
"Had that not happened, everyone would have known what was happening," he said.
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, spent most of the day staging an old-fashioned filibuster, attracting wide support, including a mention from President Barack Obama's campaign Twitter account. Her Twitter following went from 1,200 in the morning to more than 20,000 by Tuesday night.
Davis' mission, however, was cut short.
Rules stipulated she remain standing, not lean on her desk or take any breaks ? even for meals or to use the bathroom. But she also was required to stay on topic, and Republicans pointed out a mistake and later protested again when another lawmaker helped her with a back brace.
Republican Sen. Donna Campbell called the third point of order because of her remarks about a previous law concerning sonograms. Under the rules, lawmakers can vote to end a filibuster after three sustained points of order.
After much back and forth, the GOP voted to end the filibuster minutes before midnight, sparking the raucous response from protesters.
If signed into law, the measures would close almost every abortion clinic in Texas, a state 773 miles wide and 790 miles long with 26 million people. A woman living along the Mexico border or in West Texas would have to drive hundreds of miles to obtain an abortion if the law passes. The law's provision that abortions be performed at surgical centers means only five of Texas' 42 abortion clinics are currently designated to remain in operation.
In her opening remarks, Davis said she was "rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of Texans" and called Republican efforts to pass the bill a "raw abuse of power."
Democrats chose Davis, of Fort Worth, to lead the effort because of her background as a woman who had her first child as a teenager and went on to graduate from Harvard Law School.
In the hallway outside the Senate chamber, hundreds of women stood in line, waiting for someone to relinquish a gallery seat. Women's rights supporters wore orange T-shirts to show their support for Davis.
The filibuster took down other measures. A proposal to fund major transportation projects as well as a bill to have Texas more closely conform with a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision banning mandatory sentences of life in prison without parole for offenders younger than 18 did not get votes. Current state law only allows a life sentence without parole for 17-year-olds convicted of capital murder.
Twice in the first six hours, anti-abortion lawmakers questioned Davis about the bill, presenting their arguments that it would protect women or that abortions were wrong. Davis answered their questions but did not give up control of the floor.
"This is really about women's health," said Sen. Bob Deuell, who introduced a requirement that all abortions take place in surgical centers. "Sometimes bad things can happen."
Davis questioned then why vasectomies and colonoscopies aren't also required to take place in such clinics. "Because I've been unable to have a simple question answered to help me understand how this would lead to better care for women, I must question the underlying motive for doing so," she said.
Davis read testimony from women and doctors who would be impacted by the changes, but who were denied the opportunity to speak in a Republican-controlled committee. During one heart-wrenching story describing a woman's difficult pregnancy, Davis choked up several times and wiped away tears.
The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and force many clinics that perform the procedure to upgrade their facilities and be classified as ambulatory surgical centers. Also, doctors would be required to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles ? a tall order in rural communities.
"If this passes, abortion would be virtually banned in the state of Texas, and many women could be forced to resort to dangerous and unsafe measures," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late former Texas governor Ann Richards.
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Senate Bill 5: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=831&Bill=SB5
___
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cltomlinson
This week the city of Los Angeles sent a cease-and-desist letter to ride-sharing app companies Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. The city and Los Angeles Yellow Cab claim that these services are "rogue taxis" that are "bypassing all safety regulations created to protect riders and drivers." But this isn't the first time that this town has gone after the unregulated four-wheeled menace. This crackdown on unlicensed taxis in the City of Angels is nearly identical to a battle that raged a century ago ? without all the iPhones and whatnot, of course.
Pokki, Zynga and Acer partner to offer arcade preloaded on new PCs
Despite the industry shift from desktop gaming to mobile platforms, Zynga is still trying to reach players on computer platforms. The social gaming company has begun a partnership with?SweetLabs, developers of free arcade platform Pokki and computer?manufacturer?Acer. The Pokki gaming platform will come preloaded on Acer PCs with all of Zynga?s desktop games available to download.
SweetLabs has a history of bringing popular mobile apps to desktop with versions of Angry Birds and Pandora. This Zynga partnership displays its prowess for bringing authentic tablet experiences to desktop games. The Pokki arcade also provides the opportunity to easily access and install games like on a mobile device.
By partnering with Pokki, Zynga is trying to use the relationship as another distribution channel for its games. With unimpressive stock price and falling revenue, the company is looking for more solutions to stop the bleeding. Since Zynga.com has not been an extension of Facebook since November 2012, adopting another arcade provides more chance for more users. New players on the Pokki platform are not going to save Zynga?s entire business, but more players by any means certainly will not hurt.
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June 25, 2013 ? Male twin Vietnam veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were more than twice as likely as those without PTSD to develop heart disease during a 13-year period, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health.
This is the first long-term study to measure the association between PTSD and heart disease using objective clinical diagnoses combined with cardiac imaging techniques.
"This study provides further evidence that PTSD may affect physical health," said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which partially funded the study. "Future research to clarify the mechanisms underlying the link between PTSD and heart disease in Vietnam veterans and other groups will help to guide the development of effective prevention and treatment strategies for people with these serious conditions."
The findings appear online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and in the September 10 print issue.
Researchers from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, along with colleagues from other institutions, assessed the presence of heart disease in 562 middle-aged twins (340 identical and 222 fraternal) from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. The incidence of heart disease was 22.6 percent in twins with PTSD (177 individuals) and 8.9 percent in those without PTSD (425 individuals). Heart disease was defined as having a heart attack, having an overnight hospitalization for heart-related symptoms, or having undergone a heart procedure. Nuclear scans, used to photograph blood flow to the heart, showed that individuals with PTSD had almost twice as many areas of reduced blood flow to the heart as individuals without PTSD.
The use of twins, identical and fraternal, allowed researchers to control for the influences of genes and environment on the development of heart disease and PTSD.
"This study suggests a link between PTSD and cardiovascular health," said lead researcher Viola Vaccarino, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the department of medicine at Emory University and chair of the department of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. "For example, repeated emotional triggers during everyday life in persons with PTSD could affect the heart by causing frequent increases in blood pressure, heart rate, and heartbeat rhythm abnormalities that in susceptible individuals could lead to a heart attack."
When researchers compared the 234 twins where one brother had PTSD and the other did not, the incidence of heart disease was almost double in those with PTSD compared to those without PTSD (22.2 percent vs. 12.8 percent).
The effects of PTSD on heart disease remained strong even after researchers accounted for lifestyle factors such as smoking, physical activity level, and drinking; and major depression and other psychiatric diagnoses. Researchers found no link between PTSD and well-documented heart disease risk factors such as a history of hypertension, diabetes or obesity, suggesting that the disease may be due to physiologic changes, not lifestyle factors.
Affecting nearly 7.7 million U.S. adults, PTSD is an anxiety disorder that develops in a minority of people after exposure to a severe psychological trauma such as a life-threatening and terrifying event. People with PTSD may have persistent frightening thoughts and memories of their trauma, may experience sleep problems, often feel detached or numb, and may be easily startled. According to a 2006 analysis of military records from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study, between 15 and 19 percent of Vietnam veterans experienced PTSD at some point after the war.
The study used state-of-the-art imaging scans with positron emission tomography, which measures blood flow to the heart muscle and identifies areas of reduced blood flow, at rest and following stress.
The study was supported by grants from NHLBI (K24HL077506), (R01 HL68630), and (R21HL093665), the National Institute on Aging (R01 AG026255), the National Institute of Mental Health (K24 MH076955), and by the American Heart Association. Support also was provided by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR000454) and the National Center for Research Resources (MO1-RR00039).
US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, U.N.'s special representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, from left to right, pose prior to a second meeting on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at the United Nations (UN) office in Geneva in a bid to organize the conference on Syria. (AP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini, Pool)
US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, U.N.'s special representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, from left to right, pose prior to a second meeting on Tuesday, June 25, 2013 at the United Nations (UN) office in Geneva in a bid to organize the conference on Syria. (AP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini, Pool)
BEIRUT (AP) ? A Syrian branch of al-Qaida on Tuesday claimed responsibility for what the group said were suicide attacks on security compounds in Damascus that killed at least five people, while troops fought rebels on the edge of the capital in the latest surge of violence in the Syrian capital.
The claim by Jabhat al-Nusra ? the first in months ? came as the U.N.'s special representative trying to end Syria's civil war said hopes for convening a peace conference next month are fading.
The Nusra Front has emerged as the most effective fighting force on the side of the opposition fighting to oust President Bashar Assad. The group has previously claimed car bombings and attacks on government soldiers and its fighters have been leading other rebels groups in battles for military bases in the north much of which is under control of the opposition.
The group's affiliation with al-Qaida, however, has significantly contributed to the reluctance of the opposition's Western backers to arm the rebels with heavier weapons.
More than 93,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. It started as peaceful protests against Assad's rule but turned into a civil war after some opposition members took up arms to fight the government's harsh crackdown on dissent. Since then, radical groups like the Nusra front have gained influence on the battlefield as opposition's political leadership struggles to unify its ranks.
The conflict has taken increasingly sectarian tones with Sunni Muslims dominating rebel groups fighting against Assad's regime, which is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.
Even the most modest international efforts to end the Syrian conflict have failed.
In Switzerland, U.N.'s special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, told reporters he still hopes a second round of international negotiations to find a political solution to the conflict can be convened in Geneva ? but not until later in the summer.
"Frankly now, I doubt whether the conference will take place in July," he said, noting that the Syrian opposition is not meeting until early July and probably would not be ready.
"Since our previous meeting here on the 5th of June, the situation on the ground in Syria has hardly improved. It is still relentless destruction, killing, more suffering, more injustice, and more uncertainty for the future of the Syrian people," Brahimi said.
Brahimi was mediating a meeting between the U.S. and Russia, which are at loggerheads over the conflict.
Russia supports the regime and Washington has backed the opposition, which insists Assad should relinquish power before any talks with Damascus can take place. Assad has repeatedly dismissed demands to leave power and said he has the right to run for another term in next year's presidential elections.
Jabhat al-Nusra claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks in Damascus in a statement posted on a militant website, warning Assad that his "criminal regime" should know that its fighters "do not fear any confrontation with the enemies."
The group said it had sent seven suicide bombers wearing Syrian military uniforms to break into a police station in northern Damascus and a security compound in a southern district of the capital. The group also posted several pictures claiming to show the attackers. Their faces blurred, the men are seen wearing military uniforms and holding Kalashnikovs as they sit on the ground with Jabhat al-Nusra black banner hanged behind them.
"The criminal and traitor regime should know that Sunni people stand on solid ground and brave men who do not fear any confrontation with the enemies...and they are ready to sacrifice their blood in order to protect the souls and honor of their people," the statement said.
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Nanoparticles that deliver short strands of RNA offer a way to treat cancer and other diseases by shutting off malfunctioning genes. Although this approach has shown some promise, scientists are still not sure exactly what happens to the nanoparticles once they get inside their target cells.
A new study from MIT sheds light on the nanoparticles' fate and suggests new ways to maximize delivery of the RNA strands they are carrying, known as short interfering RNA (siRNA).
"We've been able to develop nanoparticles that can deliver payloads into cells, but we didn't really understand how they do it," says Daniel Anderson, the Samuel Goldblith Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. "Once you know how it works, there's potential that you can tinker with the system and make it work better."
Anderson, a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, is the leader of a research team that set out to examine how the nanoparticles and their drug payloads are processed at a cellular and subcellular level. Their findings appear in the June 23 issue of Nature Biotechnology. Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, is also an author of the paper.
One RNA-delivery approach that has shown particular promise is packaging the strands with a lipidlike material; similar particles are now in clinical development for liver cancer and other diseases.
Through a process called RNA interference, siRNA targets messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries genetic instructions from a cell's DNA to the rest of the cell. When siRNA binds to mRNA, the message carried by that mRNA is destroyed. Exploiting that process could allow scientists to turn off genes that allow cancer cells to grow unchecked.
Scientists already knew that siRNA-carrying nanoparticles enter cells through a process, called endocytosis, by which cells engulf large molecules. The MIT team found that once the nanoparticles enter cells they become trapped in bubbles known as endocytic vesicles. This prevents most of the siRNA from reaching its target mRNA, which is located in the cell's cytosol (the main body of the cell).
This happens even with the most effective siRNA delivery materials, suggesting that there is a lot of room to improve the delivery rate, Anderson says.
"We believe that these particles can be made more efficient. They're already very efficient, to the point where micrograms of drug per kilogram of animal can work, but these types of studies give us clues as to how to improve performance," Anderson says.
Molecular traffic jam
The researchers found that once cells absorb the lipid-RNA nanoparticles, they are broken down within about an hour and excreted from the cells.
They also identified a protein called Niemann Pick type C1 (NPC1) as one of the major factors in the nanoparticle-recycling process. Without this protein, the particles could not be excreted from the cells, giving the siRNA more time to reach its targets. "In the absence of the NPC1, there's a traffic jam, and siRNA gets more time to escape from that traffic jam because there is a backlog," says Gaurav Sahay, an MIT postdoc and lead author of the Nature Biotechnology paper.
In studies of cells grown in the lab without NPC1, the researchers found that the level of gene silencing achieved with RNA interference was 10 to 15 times greater than that in normal cells.
Lack of NPC1 also causes a rare lysosomal storage disorder that is usually fatal in childhood. The findings suggest that patients with this disorder might benefit greatly from potential RNA interference therapy delivered by this type of nanoparticle, the researchers say. They are now planning to study the effects of knocking out the NPC1 gene on siRNA delivery in animals, with an eye toward testing possible siRNA treatments for the disorder.
The researchers are also looking for other factors involved in nanoparticle recycling that could make good targets for possibly slowing down or blocking the recycling process, which they believe could help make RNA interference drugs much more potent. Possible ways to do that could include giving a drug that interferes with nanoparticle recycling, or creating nanoparticle materials that can more effectively evade the recycling process.
###
The research was funded by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Written by: Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Sarah McDonnell s_mcd@mit.edu 617-253-8923 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Nanoparticles that deliver short strands of RNA offer a way to treat cancer and other diseases by shutting off malfunctioning genes. Although this approach has shown some promise, scientists are still not sure exactly what happens to the nanoparticles once they get inside their target cells.
A new study from MIT sheds light on the nanoparticles' fate and suggests new ways to maximize delivery of the RNA strands they are carrying, known as short interfering RNA (siRNA).
"We've been able to develop nanoparticles that can deliver payloads into cells, but we didn't really understand how they do it," says Daniel Anderson, the Samuel Goldblith Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. "Once you know how it works, there's potential that you can tinker with the system and make it work better."
Anderson, a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and MIT's Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, is the leader of a research team that set out to examine how the nanoparticles and their drug payloads are processed at a cellular and subcellular level. Their findings appear in the June 23 issue of Nature Biotechnology. Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT, is also an author of the paper.
One RNA-delivery approach that has shown particular promise is packaging the strands with a lipidlike material; similar particles are now in clinical development for liver cancer and other diseases.
Through a process called RNA interference, siRNA targets messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries genetic instructions from a cell's DNA to the rest of the cell. When siRNA binds to mRNA, the message carried by that mRNA is destroyed. Exploiting that process could allow scientists to turn off genes that allow cancer cells to grow unchecked.
Scientists already knew that siRNA-carrying nanoparticles enter cells through a process, called endocytosis, by which cells engulf large molecules. The MIT team found that once the nanoparticles enter cells they become trapped in bubbles known as endocytic vesicles. This prevents most of the siRNA from reaching its target mRNA, which is located in the cell's cytosol (the main body of the cell).
This happens even with the most effective siRNA delivery materials, suggesting that there is a lot of room to improve the delivery rate, Anderson says.
"We believe that these particles can be made more efficient. They're already very efficient, to the point where micrograms of drug per kilogram of animal can work, but these types of studies give us clues as to how to improve performance," Anderson says.
Molecular traffic jam
The researchers found that once cells absorb the lipid-RNA nanoparticles, they are broken down within about an hour and excreted from the cells.
They also identified a protein called Niemann Pick type C1 (NPC1) as one of the major factors in the nanoparticle-recycling process. Without this protein, the particles could not be excreted from the cells, giving the siRNA more time to reach its targets. "In the absence of the NPC1, there's a traffic jam, and siRNA gets more time to escape from that traffic jam because there is a backlog," says Gaurav Sahay, an MIT postdoc and lead author of the Nature Biotechnology paper.
In studies of cells grown in the lab without NPC1, the researchers found that the level of gene silencing achieved with RNA interference was 10 to 15 times greater than that in normal cells.
Lack of NPC1 also causes a rare lysosomal storage disorder that is usually fatal in childhood. The findings suggest that patients with this disorder might benefit greatly from potential RNA interference therapy delivered by this type of nanoparticle, the researchers say. They are now planning to study the effects of knocking out the NPC1 gene on siRNA delivery in animals, with an eye toward testing possible siRNA treatments for the disorder.
The researchers are also looking for other factors involved in nanoparticle recycling that could make good targets for possibly slowing down or blocking the recycling process, which they believe could help make RNA interference drugs much more potent. Possible ways to do that could include giving a drug that interferes with nanoparticle recycling, or creating nanoparticle materials that can more effectively evade the recycling process.
###
The research was funded by Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Written by: Anne Trafton, MIT News Office
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Gambling might be risky, but not if you know you're going to win. Then it's just free money. If that sounds up your alley, conman extraordinaire Richard Wiseman has yet another set of "bets" for you to try out on your friends. The ones that won't assault when they get wise to what you're up to, anyway.
British agency GCHQ's involvement in the NSA's global surveillance have some drawing parallels with the phone-hacking scandal that rocked the British media.
By Sara Miller Llana,?Staff writer / June 17, 2013
Rebekah Brooks (c.), former News International chief executive, leaves Southwark Crown Court in London where she appeared to face charges related to phone hacking earlier this month. Some are drawing parallels between the phone hacking scandal and the revelations of broad surveillance of phone calls and email by British spy agency GCHQ and its US counterpart, the NSA.
Sang Tan/AP
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The Guardian newspaper?s allegations that British intelligence agents spied on foreign diplomats at a G20 summit surely comes at an awkward moment in foreign policy circles: just as leaders gathered for the G8 in Northern Ireland.
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Sara Miller Llana?moved to Paris in April 2013 to become the Monitor's Europe Bureau?Chief. Previously she was the?paper's?Latin America Bureau Chief, based in Mexico City, from 2006 to 2013.
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But it also comes at a sensitive moment for Britain itself, still reeling from the phone hacking of British media giants that has brought privacy issues to the fore of the public debate.
?The issue of the ease with which organizations can both collect and then publicize information is transforming society?s understanding about what is and what is not confidential,? says?Martin Moore of the London-based Media Standards Trust, a charity advocating more ethical practices in the British press.
The most recent allegations, against the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), are based on documents provided by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward?Snowden. The British newspaper reported Sunday night that the agency?spied on the phone calls and emails of diplomats who were visiting London during a G20 summit in 2009. This included setting up and tapping an Internet?caf??and?hacking the communications of the South African foreign ministry and a Turkish delegation.
The revelation comes after Mr.?Snowden?provided documentation, also to the Guardian and The Washington Post, disclosing the surveillance of common citizens by the US government in its ongoing anti-terrorism fight ? a revelation that had dismayed Europe.
But the GCHQ?scandal raises questions that relate to the 2011 phone-hacking scandal in British media, says Mr. Moore. In the earlier scandal, information that public figures and newsmakers considered private was accessible by corporations, creating a "digital footprint" and the ?potential for misuse,? he says ? much like the GCHQ spying, just with the government, instead of media corporations, doing the hacking of the public's data.
This case will turn attention to the access that governments?have to information considered private. ?We?re going to see many more conversations about what the safeguards ought to be and whether there ought to be greater openness from governments as to what [information] they are collecting and how they are using it,? Moore says.
Just this month, Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, pleaded not guilty in court in London to charges including intercepting voice-mail messages in a scandal that eventually spread to officials and other news organizations.
?The phone-hacking scandal produced massive reaction," says James Curran, director of the media studies center at the University of London, and left a society sensitive to the powers of new technologies.?
?Powerful institutions in society are now enabled through new communications technology to probe private letters without sufficient public-interest justification,? he says. The discontent has spanned the political spectrum, with both the right and left condemning an erosion of privacy. ?My hunch is there will be enormous fuss, like a snowball that gets bigger and bigger.?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Admitted leaker Edward Snowden took flight Sunday in evasion of U.S. authorities, seeking asylum in Ecuador and leaving the Obama administration scrambling to determine its next step in what became a game of diplomatic cat-and-mouse.
The former National Security Agency contractor and CIA technician fled Hong Kong and arrived at the Moscow airport, where he planned to spend the night before boarding an Aeroflot flight to Cuba. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said his government received an asylum request from Snowden, and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said it would help him.
"He goes to the very countries that have, at best, very tense relationships with the United States," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., adding that she feared Snowden would trade more U.S. secrets for asylum. "This is not going to play out well for the national security interests of the United States."
The move left the U.S. with limited options as Snowden's itinerary took him on a tour of what many see as anti-American capitals. Ecuador in particular has rejected the United States' previous efforts at cooperation, and has been helping WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, avoid prosecution by allowing him to stay at its embassy in London.
Snowden helped The Guardian and The Washington Post disclose U.S. surveillance programs that collects vast amounts of phone records and online data in the name of foreign intelligence, but often sweeping up information on American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.
Snowden has been in hiding for several weeks in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws.
The Justice Department rejected that claim, saying its request met all of the requirements of the extradition treaty between the U.S. and Hong Kong.
During conversations last week, including a phone call Wednesday between Attorney General Eric Holder and Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen, Hong Kong officials never raised any issues regarding sufficiency of the U.S. request, a Justice spokesperson said.
A State Department official said the United States was in touch through diplomatic and law enforcement channels with countries that Snowden could travel through or to, reminding them that Snowden is wanted on criminal charges and reiterating Washington's position that Snowden should only be permitted to travel back to the U.S.
The Justice Department said it would "pursue relevant law enforcement cooperation with other countries where Mr. Snowden may be attempting to travel."
The White House would only say that President Barack Obama had been briefed on the developments by his national security advisers.
Russia's state ITAR-Tass news agency and Interfax cited an unnamed Aeroflot airline official as saying Snowden was on the plane that landed Sunday afternoon in Moscow.
Upon his arrival, Snowden did not leave Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. One explanation could be that he wasn't allowed; a U.S. official said Snowden's passport had been revoked, and special permission from Russian authorities would have been needed.
"It's almost hopeless unless we find some ways to lean on them," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.
The Russian media report said Snowden intended to fly to Cuba on Monday and then on to Caracas, Venezuela.
U.S. lawmakers scoffed. "The freedom trail is not exactly China-Russia-Cuba-Venezuela, so I hope we'll chase him to the ends of the earth, bring him to justice and let the Russians know there'll be consequences if they harbor this guy," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
With each suspected flight, efforts to secure Snowden's return to the United States appeared more complicated if not impossible. The United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, but does with Cuba, Venezuela and Ecuador. Even with an extradition agreement though, any country could give Snowden a political exemption.
The likelihood that any of these countries would stop Snowden from traveling on to Ecuador seemed unlikely. While diplomatic tensions have thawed in recent years, Cuba and the United States are hardly allies after a half century of distrust.
Venezuela, too, could prove difficult. Former President Hugo Chavez was a sworn enemy of the United States and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this year called Obama "grand chief of devils." The two countries do not exchange ambassadors.
U.S. pressure on Caracas also might be problematic given its energy exports. The U.S. Energy Information Agency reports Venezuela sent the United States 900,000 barrels of crude oil each day in 2012, making it the fourth-largest foreign source of U.S. oil.
"I think 10 percent of Snowden's issues are now legal, and 90 percent political," said Douglas McNabb, an expert in international extradition and a senior principal at international criminal defense firm McNabb Associates.
Assange's lawyer, Michael Ratner, said Snowden's options aren't numerous.
"You have to have a country that's going to stand up to the United States," Ratner said. "You're not talking about a huge range of countries here."
That is perhaps why Snowden first stopped in Russia, a nation with complicated relations with Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is "aiding and abetting Snowden's escape," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
"Allies are supposed to treat each other in decent ways, and Putin always seems almost eager to put a finger in the eye of the United States," Schumer said. "That's not how allies should treat one another, and I think it will have serious consequences for the United States-Russia relationship."
It also wasn't clear Snowden was finished with disclosing highly classified information.
"I am very worried about what else he has," said Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she had been told Snowden had perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents.
Ros-Lehtinen and King spoke with CNN. Graham spoke to "Fox News Sunday." Schumer was on CNN's "State of the Union." Sanchez appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." Feinstein was on CBS' "Face the Nation."
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Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace and Associated Press writers Matthew V. Lee and Frederic J. Frommer in Washington, Lynn Berry in Moscow, Kevin Chan in Hong Kong and Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.
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With three straight wins heading into Saturday?s matchup against the Colorado Rockies, the Nationals saw whatever momentum they had dissipate and quickly. As he has almost all season, starter Dan Haren immediately found trouble and left his team little chance at all in a 7-1 blowout.
Haren?s day was rough from the beginning with a solo home run by the Rockies? second batter, D.J. LaMahieu. Three innings and five more earned runs later for the 32-year-old Haren and his day was done. He walked off the mound after recording just ten outs with many in the crowd of 35,787 letting him hear it with boos.
For a pitcher with Haren?s resume, it?s not often he?s heard this type of reaction from a home crowd. But given his outing and season overall ? he?s now worst the majors with a 6.15 ERA - Haren feels it is deserved.
?No one wants to be booed. I'd probably boo myself, too,? Haren said. ?I'm not doing well and the fans have a right to express how they feel. I wish I could perform better for them.?
Another unfortunate start for Haren and he?s now allowed 20 earned runs in his last 18 1/3 innings pitched. It is the worst stretch Haren can remember going through as a major league pitcher.
?I've never gone through this stuff in my career,? he said. ?It's definitely a battle to stay confident. There's self-doubt that obviously creeps in for everybody whenever they're not doing well and obviously I've been struggling for a while now.?
Haren?s day was so ugly, it may force the Nationals to make a change. Manager Davey Johnson said he will have to talk with the veteran on Monday after his scheduled bullpen session, and that pulling him from his next start is an option, especially if something physical is discovered.
?I?m a little concerned about him,?Johnson said. ?I?m going to have a talk with him next time he throws and see if we can?t do something to make things better for him. I don?t want to speculate on what I?m thinking about right here, but we have some concerns.?
Haren gave up a total of seven hits, but walked none and struck out five Rockies batters. It has been the story of his season, he strikes guys out but sees his mistakes capitalized on consistently.
Fellow veteran Adam LaRoche has tried talking to Haren to offer any advice he can, but he himself is baffled.
?He?s not walking anybody. I don?t know. It seems like bad luck right now,? LaRoche said.
?You can be that good, still strike out a bunch of guys, and any time you miss it?s getting hit.? I talked to him a little bit about it. I know he?s trying to find ways to be more consistent too, so I don?t know what it is.?
To replace Haren in the fourth inning, Johnson called on right-hander Ross Ohlendorf who had a solid start on June 12 against the Rockies in Colorado. If this was any sort of audition to take Haren?s spot in the rotation, Ohlendorf did all he could. The 30-year-old tossed 4 2/3 innings with just four hits and an earned run allowed.?
But as Ohlendorf kept the Rockies off the board and the Nationals? other relievers on the bench, Washington?s bats continued to stay cold. They left a total of 11 men on base after recording six hits, their only run coming on a Ryan Zimmerman solo homer in the ninth inning.?
Rockies starter Jhoulys Chacin was unhittable for much of the day, throwing seven scoreless innings with just five hits and a walk. Johnson said getting behind early played a role in the Nats? scoring troubles.
?Us getting behind three runs in the first inning was a big part of it,? Johnson said. ?And then he just made a lot of good pitches, with both his fastball and his breaking stuff.?
After their three runs in the first, the Rockies added three more in the fourth inning. Wilin Rosario led off with a single and was pushed to third on a Corey Dickerson double. Rosario then scored on a wild pitch and Dickerson came home on a single by Chacin. Haren threw two wild pitches and also hit a batter.
The Nats will try and complete the series win on Sunday with Ross Detwiler (2-5, 3.34 ERA) on the mound. Pitching for the Rockies is fellow lefty Jorge De La Rosa (7-4, 3.21).
A police car sits stuck in a parking lot of an apartment building after heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)
A police car sits stuck in a parking lot of an apartment building after heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuation in Calgary, Alberta, Canada Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)
The Bow River overflows in Calgary, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. Heavy rains have caused flooding, closed roads, and forced evacuations in Calgary. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)
A search and rescue boat carries rescued passengers from a flooded industrial site near highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)
Firefighters monitor flood waters that spilled over a highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)
A search and rescue boat carries rescued passengers from a flooded industrial site near highway 543 north of High River, Alberta, Canada on Friday, June 21, 2013. The rescued passengers spent the night moored on a structure they built in the water. Calgary's mayor said Friday the flooding situation in his city is as under control as it can be, for now. Officials estimated 75,000 people have been displaced in the western Canadian city. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the Elbow River, one of two rivers that flow through the southern Alberta city, has peaked. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jordan Verlage)
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) ? At least three people were killed by floodwaters that devastated much of southern Alberta, leading authorities to evacuate the western Canadian city of Calgary's entire downtown. Inside the city's hockey arena, the waters reached as high as the 10th row.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday called the level of flooding "stunning" and said officials don't know yet if it will get worse, but said the water has peaked and stabilized and noted that the weather has gotten better.
Overflowing rivers washed out roads and bridges, soaked homes and turned streets into dirt-brown waterways around southern Alberta. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Patricia Neely told reporters three were dead and two bodies were recovered. The two bodies recovered are the two men who had been seen floating lifeless in the Highwood River near High River on Thursday, she said.
Harper, a Calgary resident, said he never imagined there would be a flood of this magnitude in this part of Canada.
"This is incredible. I've seen a little bit of flooding in Calgary before. I don't think any of us have seen anything like this before. The magnitude is just extraordinary," he said.
"We're all very concerned that if gets much more than this it could have real impact on infrastructure and other services longer term, so we're hoping things will subside a bit."
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the water levels have reached a peak, but have not declined.
"We've sat at the same level for many, many hours now," Nenshi said. "There is one scenario that would it go even higher than this, so you'll either see the Bow river continue at this level for many hours or you will see it grow even higher and we're prepared for that eventuality."
Twenty-five neighborhoods in the city, with an estimated 75,000 people, have already been evacuated due to floodwaters in Calgary, a city of more than a million people that hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics and serves as the center of Canada's oil industry.
Alberta Premier Alison Redford said Medicine Hat, east of Calgary, was under a mandatory evacuation order affecting 10,000 residents. The premier warned that communities downstream of Calgary had not yet felt the full force of the floodwaters.
About 350,000 people work in downtown Calgary on a typical day. However, officials said very few people need to be moved out, since many heeded warnings and did not go to work Friday.
A spokesman for Canada's defense minister said 1,300 soldiers from a base in Edmonton were being deployed to the flood zone.
Police were asking residents who were forced to leave the nearby High River area to register at evacuation shelter. The Town of High River remained under a mandatory evacuation order.
In downtown Calgary, water was inundating homes and businesses in the shadow of skyscrapers. Water has swamped cars and train tracks.
The city said the home rink of the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames flooded and the water inside was 10 rows deep. That would mean the dressing rooms are likely submerged as well.
"I think that really paints a very clear picture of what kinds of volumes of water we are dealing with," said Trevor Daroux, the city's deputy police chief.
At the grounds for the world-famous Calgary Stampede fair, water reached up to the roofs of the chuck wagon barns. The popular rodeo and festival is the city's signature event. Mayor Nenshi said it will occur no matter what.
About 1,500 have gone to emergency shelters while the rest have found shelter with family or friends, Nenshi said.
The flood was forcing emergency plans at the Calgary Zoo, which is situated on an island near where the Elbow and Bow rivers meet. Lions and tigers were being prepared for transfer, if necessary, to prisoner holding cells at the courthouse.
Schools and court trials were canceled Friday and residents urged to avoid downtown. Transit service in the core was shut down.
Residents were left to wander and wade through streets waist-deep in water.
Newlyweds Scott and Marilyn Crowson were ordered out of their central Calgary condominium late Friday as rising waters filled their parking garage and ruptured a nearby gas line. "That's just one building but every building is like this," he said. "For the most part, people are taking it in stride."
Crowson, a kayaker, estimated the Bow River, usually about four feet deep, is running at a depth of 15 feet (4.57 meters).
"It's moving very, very fast," he said of the normally placid stream spanned by now-closed bridges. "I've never seen it so big and so high."
It had been a rainy week throughout much of Alberta, but on Thursday the Bow River Basin was battered with up to four inches (100 millimeters) of rain. Environment Canada's forecast called for more rain in the area, but in much smaller amounts.
Calgary was not alone in its weather-related woes. Flashpoints of chaos spread from towns in the Rockies south to Lethbridge.
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Associated Press writer Rob Gillies contributed from Toronto and AP writer Jeremy Hainsworth contributed from Vancouver, British Columbia.
A fellow stay-at-home dad/native of Cincinnati and I recently took our little girls into what we thought would be hostile territory to a watch a Reds/Mets game at New York?s Citi Field. It probably didn?t help our cause much with my wearing a Yankees cap. 
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Public release date: 24-Jun-2013
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