Con Edison, union to resume talks Saturday as NYC broils

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/con-edison-union-resume-talks-saturday-nyc-broils-042539188--finance.html

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International donors pledging $16B in Afghan aid

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, not pictured, at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 7, 2012. Clinton announced that President Barack Obama had designated Afghanistan as a "major non-NATO ally" shortly after arriving in the country for talks with Karzai. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, not pictured, at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 7, 2012. Clinton announced that President Barack Obama had designated Afghanistan as a "major non-NATO ally" shortly after arriving in the country for talks with Karzai. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, walks with President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai to a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Kabul Saturday July 7, 2012. The Obama administration on Saturday declared Afghanistan the United States' newest "major non-NATO ally," an action designed to facilitate close defense cooperation after U.S. combat troops withdraw from the country in 2014 and as a political statement of support for Afghanistan's long-term stability. (AP Photo//Brendan Smialowski, Pool)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai listens during a joint press conference with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, unseen, at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, July 7, 2012. Clinton announced that President Barack Obama had designated Afghanistan as a major non-NATO ally shortly after arriving in the country for talks with Karzai. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

TOKYO (AP) ? International donors will pledge $16 billion in aid for Afghanistan over the next four years in hopes of stabilizing the country after most foreign combat troops return home, a U.S. diplomat said Sunday, but the money will come with conditions to ensure it doesn't fall victim to rampant Afghan corruption and mismanagement.

The announcement was expected later Sunday at a Tokyo conference attended by about 70 countries and organizations. The American official traveling with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke ahead of the event on condition of anonymity and said $4 billion per year would be promised from 2012 through 2015.

The U.S. portion is expected to be in the decade-long annual range of $1 billion to this year's $2.3 billion. Officials declined to outline the future annual U.S. allotments going forward, but the Obama administration has requested a similarly high figure for next year as it draws down American troops and hands over greater authority to Afghan forces.

The total amount of international civilian support represents a slight trailing off from the current annual level of around $5 billion, a number somewhat inflated by U.S. efforts to effect a "civilian surge" for Afghan reconstruction, mirroring President Barack Obama's decision in 2009 to ramp up military manpower in the hopes of routing the Taliban insurgency.

Still, it is a large sum of cash designed to allay fears that Afghanistan will be abandoned when NATO and other international soldiers leave the country.

It will come with conditions, as well, with the donors' meeting in Japan expected to establish a road map of accountability to ensure that Afghanistan does more to improve governance and finance management, and to safeguard the democratic process, rule of law and human rights ? especially those of women.

Foreign aid in the decade since the U.S. invasion in 2001 has led to better education and health care, with nearly 8 million children, including 3 million girls, enrolled in schools. That compares with 1 million children more than a decade ago, when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.

Improved health facilities have halved child mortality and expanded basic health services to nearly 60 percent of Afghanistan population of more than 25 million, compared with less than 10 percent in 2001.

But donors have become wary of corruption-busting pledges that have not always been delivered. Some highly placed Afghan officials have been investigated for corruption but seldom prosecuted, and some of the graft investigations have come close to the president himself.

The stakes for Afghan President Hamid Karzai are high as he faces international weariness with the war and frustration over his failure to crack down on corruption more than a decade after the U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban.

Afghanistan has received nearly $60 billion in such aid since 2002. The World Bank says foreign aid makes up nearly the equivalent of the country's gross domestic product.

Those funds, which are needed for basic services such as health care, education and infrastructure, are expected to sharply diminish after international troops withdraw even as the country faces continued threats from the Taliban and other Islamic militants.

The $4 billion in annual civilian aid for comes on top of $4.1 billion in yearly assistance pledged last May at a NATO conference in Chicago to fund the Afghan National Security Forces from 2015 to 2017.

Clinton, who briefly visited the Afghan capital on Saturday before heading to Tokyo, had breakfast with Karzai and acknowledged that corruption was a "major problem."

"We're working hard with our Afghan partners to address this problem here in Afghanistan, knowing that it's much broader than Afghanistan by promoting greater transparency, the rule of law, good governance, working hard to prevent fraud, waste and abuse," she told reporters.

"We're working with the Afghanistan ministries, governors, local leaders who are committed to delivering services to their people, improving their lives," Clinton added. "We take seriously any allegations of corruption that involve U.S. funds."

Clinton also declared Afghanistan as the newest "major non-NATO ally" of the United States, a gesture of political support for the country's long-term stability and aimed at solidifying close defense cooperation after American combat troops withdraw in 2014.

"We see this as a powerful commitment to Afghanistan's future," Clinton said. "We are not even imagining abandoning Afghanistan."

___

Associated Press writer Patrick Quinn in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-07-07-Afghanistan%20Aid/id-3d45549c3cfa4e8eb60869a2cb154a53

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Anticlotting Compounds Shown to Protect Mice from Radiation Poisoning

Radiation exposure is relatively easy to detect, but few treatment options exist for people who have already been exposed to high doses. Image: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg via Getty Images

From Nature magazine

Two anti-clotting compounds already approved for use in humans may have a surprising role in treating radiation sickness. The findings, reported online today in Nature Medicine, also reveal another avenue for understanding and treating the effects of radiation exposure.

Last year's nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, renewed anxiety over the lack of treatments for radiation poisoning. It was long thought that the effects of exposure to high doses of radiation were instantaneous and irreversible, leading to destruction of the gut and loss of bone marrow cells, which damages blood-cell production and the immune system. As a precaution against mass radiation poisoning, many governments stock a treatment called granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. This boosts bone marrow function, but it must be kept refrigerated, has occasional side effects, and must be taken as soon as possible after a disaster has occured.

Hartmut Geiger, a stem-cell biologist at the Cincinnati Children?s Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, and his colleagues have uncovered a therapeutic strategy that can be deployed up to 24 hours after radiation exposure. ?Most people think the game is over after you have the damage,? says Geiger. ?Now, we know you can modify that.?

The two compounds are thrombomodulin (Solulin/Recomodulin), currently approved in Japan to prevent thrombosis, and activated protein C (Xigris). Xigris, made by pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, Indiana, was a leading drug for treating inflammation from blood poisoning until it was pulled from the US market last October because of a lack of efficacy. In experiments by Geiger and his colleagues, treating mice with either drug led to an eightfold increase in key bone marrow cells needed for the production of white blood cells, and improved the survival rates of mice receiving lethal radiation doses by 40?80%.

Surprise synergy
The radiation study came about when two independent lines of research were united by a chance phone call. Geiger and his colleagues were screening for mutant mice that showed radiation resistance. They noticed that one mutant mouse was particularly resistant, with a mutation that meant it was producing an excess of thrombomodulin.

Meanwhile, a separate team, including physiologist Hartmut Weiler of the Blood Center of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, had been investigating how naturally occurring protein C in the gut would respond to radiation. A mutual colleague connected the two teams after recognizing the seeds of a potentially fruitful collaboration. Thrombomodulin, it turns out, activates protein C. ?We talked on the phone, and there was stunned silence after we listened to each other?s data,? says Weiler.

In one key experiment, the researchers exposed 48 mice to 9.5 grays of radiation (a measure of absorbed radiation dose). After 24 hours and 48 hours, 30 mice were injected with activated protein C. After 30 days, only 30% of the uninjected mice had survived, whereas 70% of the injected mice were still alive. Thrombomodulin also increases survival, but must be administered within 30 minutes of radiation exposure to be effective, the researchers found.

?It?s great that the reagents they are using have already been used in humans,? says Mark Whitnall, a radiation biologist at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He cautions that the researchers have not conducted the study at the full range of radiation doses as is standard in the field, but he says that it is a great ?first stab? and opens up new possibilities for potential drug targets.

The compounds add to a growing arsenal of anti-radiation drugs that are currently being investigated. Last year, researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, identified a potent combination of an antibiotic and a protein that could stave off radiation-induced infections. Whitnall says that two other compounds for treating radiation sickness are due to move forwards into human clinical trials, and that several others have shown promise in animal studies. ?It?s been an under-appreciated area,? he says.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on June 25, 2012.

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Smoking Linked To Skin Cancer Risk

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Dermatology
Also Included In: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 23 Jun 2012 - 0:00 PDT

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'Smoking Linked To Skin Cancer Risk'

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A meta-analysis published Online First in JAMA's Archives of Dermatology shows that smoking seems to be linked to a higher risk of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma skin cancer.

Around 97% of skin cancers originate in cell tissue in the skin (epithelial cancer) and are either basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) or squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), which are categorized as non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC). NMSC cases are increasing all over the world. It is estimated that there are 2 to 3 million new NMSC cases every year.

The researchers led by Jo Leonardi-Bee, Ph.D. from Nottingham University's UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies conducted a meta-analysis of 25 studies, stating:

"This systematic review and meta-analysis has shown a clear and consistent relationship between smoking and cutaneous SCC, with a 52 percent significant increase in odds. However, no clear association was noted between smoking and BCC or NMSC. The largest effect sizes for the association with cutaneous SCC were seen in current or ever smokers, with smaller effect sizes occurring in former smokers."

The team point out that their findings can be generalized due to the fact that the studies they reviewed included results from 11 countries on four continents and because all study cohorts involved middle-aged to elderly populations.

They conclude:

"This study highlights the importance for clinicians to actively survey high-risk patients, including current smokers, to identify early skin cancers, since early diagnosis can improve prognosis because early lesions are simpler to treat compared with larger or neglected lesions."

Written By Petra Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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Smoking - Environment

posted by catie on 23 Jun 2012 at 2:06 am

Nonsmokers get this cancer from arsenic exposure. Could the arsenic in cigarettes be responsible for squamous cell carcinoma in smokers?

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Turkey vows action against Syria for downing jet

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) ? Turkey will take retaliatory steps against Syria for the downing of a Turkish military jet, President Abdullah Gul said Saturday, even as he suggested that the aircraft may have unintentionally violated Syrian airspace.

It was not clear if Gul was suggesting military retaliation, increased sanctions against Syria or other possible steps, including demands for an apology, and his aide would not comment on his words. But Faruk Celik, Turkey's Labor and Social Security Minister, said Turkey would retaliate "either in the diplomatic field or give other types of response."

"Even if we assume that there was a violation of Syria's airspace ? though the situation is still not clear ? the Syrian response cannot be to bring down the plane," Celik told reporters.

"The incident is unacceptable," he said. "Turkey cannot endure it in silence."

Syria said Friday its forces had shot down a Turkish military plane that entered its air space. The plane, an unarmed F-4, went down in the Mediterranean Sea about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the Syrian town of Latakia, Turkey said.

The incident further escalated tensions between Syria and NATO-member Turkey. The two neighbors used to be allies before the Syrian revolt began in March 2011, but Turkey has become one of the strongest critics of the Syrian regime's brutal response to the country's uprising and is playing host to civilian and military Syrian opposition groups.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuoglu chaired a meeting Saturday with military officials during which they discussed possible steps and a search and rescue mission for the two missing pilots, the Foreign Ministry said.

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc insisted the plane was not a fighter jet but a reconnaissance plane and said Turkey was awaiting an explanation from Syria.

The president said Turkey was still trying to establish the exact circumstances of the incident, but said it was "routine" for jets flying in high-speeds to violate other countries' air spaces for short periods of time.

"These incidents are routine," Gul said. "They are incidents that are not ill-intentioned and happen because of the speeds (of the jets)."

"Was that the case, or did (the incident) occur in our own air space, these facts will emerge," he said. "No one should have any doubt that whatever (action) is necessary will be taken."

Gul did not elaborate. But Turkey said after an April border shooting incident ? in which two people inside a Turkish refugee camp died? that it would call on its NATO allies to intervene should it feel its security was being threatened.

Syrian coast guards joined Turkish coast guards in their search for the jet's two missing crew members for a second day Saturday, Arinc, the deputy prime minister said. Gul said earlier that some pieces of the wreckage had been found.

Late Friday, Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, said the military had spotted an "unidentified aerial target" flying at low altitude and high speed.

"The Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery, hitting it directly," SANA said. "The target turned out to be a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases."

Syria claimed the jet violated its air space over territorial waters, penetrating about 1 kilometer (0.62 mile). It said Syrian forces only realized that it was a Turkish jet after firing.

On Saturday, top-selling the banner headline of Turkish newspaper Hurriyet accused Syria of "Playing with Fire," while Vatan newspaper said Syria would "pay the price" for the attack.

Arinc and other government ministers however, urged restraint.

"We must remain calm and collected," he said. "We must not give premium to any provocative speeches and acts."

The leader of Turkey's main opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said the downing of the plane was unacceptable but also urged calm.

"All diplomatic channels must be kept open. We are expecting a coolheaded assessment of the incident," he added.

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Finding The Perfect Used Boat | Truck Insurance Quotes | Priamry ...

More than just locating a boat for sale is choosing the right boat. Really, its all about knowing what is truly important to you. Deciding on whether you?ll be using the boat for your private use, cruising, or fishing is what you need to do. Also consider the feelings and wishes of your family otherwise it could lead to less time on the water or disappointing experiences.

Typically, boats will fall into five categories which are fishing boats, power boats, sailboats, personal watercraft, and self powered boats. Take a look at the features that each one offers in order to find the perfect boat.

Varying quite a bit are the designs of fishing boats as well as the places you can use them. These boats are not meant for great lakes and deep seas but rather shallow waters and inland lakes. Even boats that serve no other purpose but fishing, there are many designs available.

Stowage, holders for bait, fishing poles, tackle, and tanks to hold live fish are what these types of boats normally have. An open platform where anglers can fight fish from all sides of the boat is a feature in some types of fishing boats.

The most popular boats sold are power boats. The designs on and of power boats are as varied as their uses. Bow riders are what you call boats with seating in the front and are mainly used for towing skiers or rafts. Most boats can also be used for fishing as well. If you want to do both, there are ski and fish combinations available.

Challenging and rewarding are two words to describe what it felt like when you first learned to pilot a sailboat. Unlike other types of boats, sailboats require more knowledge and skill to operate although they?re considered more rewarding once mastered.

The most popular design of sailboats is the single masted loop. Small and easily trailer able are catboats, daysailers, and dinghies.

Look at what each boat offers and how you plan to use it when you finally decide on the perfect boat for you. To find the perfect boat for you, find the one that matches your needs.

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Court: Heart of gay marriage law unconstitutional

BOSTON (AP) ? A federal appeals court Thursday declared that the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denies federal benefits to married gay couples, a groundbreaking ruling all but certain to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In its unanimous decision, the three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said the 1996 law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman deprives gay couples of the rights and privileges granted to heterosexual couples.

The court didn't rule on the law's more politically combustible provision, which said states without same-sex marriage cannot be forced to recognize gay unions performed in states where it's legal. It also wasn't asked to address whether gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.

The law was passed at a time when it appeared Hawaii would legalize gay marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, led by Massachusetts in 2004.

The court, the first federal appeals panel to deem the benefits section of the law unconstitutional, agreed with a lower level judge who ruled in 2010 that the law interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns.

The 1st Circuit said its ruling wouldn't be enforced until the U.S. Supreme Court decides the case, meaning that same-sex married couples will not be eligible to receive the economic benefits denied by DOMA until the high court rules.

That's because the ruling only applies to states within the circuit, including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Puerto Rico. Only the Supreme Court has the final say in deciding whether a law passed by Congress is unconstitutional.

Although most Americans live in states where the law still is that marriage can only be the union of a man and a woman, the power to define marriage had always been left to the individual states before Congress passed DOMA, the appeals court said in its ruling.

"One virtue of federalism is that it permits this diversity of governance based on local choice, but this applies as well to the states that have chosen to legalize same-sex marriage," Judge Michael Boudin wrote for the court. "Under current Supreme Court authority, Congress' denial of federal benefits to same-sex couples lawfully married in Massachusetts has not been adequately supported by any permissible federal interest."

During arguments before the court last month, a lawyer for gay married couples said the law amounts to "across-the-board disrespect." The couples argued that the power to define and regulate marriage had been left to the states for more than 200 years before Congress passed DOMA.

An attorney defending the law argued that Congress had a rational basis for passing it in 1996, when opponents worried that states would be forced to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. The group said Congress wanted to preserve a traditional and uniform definition of marriage and has the power to define terms used to federal statutes to distribute federal benefits.

Since DOMA was passed in 1996, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington state and the District of Columbia. Maryland and Washington's laws are not yet in effect and may be subject to referendums.

Last year, President Barack Obama announced the U.S. Department of Justice would no longer defend the constitutionality of the law. After that, House Speaker John Boehner convened the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend it. The legal group argued the case before the appeals court.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based legal group that brought one of the lawsuits on behalf of gay married couples, said the law takes one group of legally married people and treats them as "a different class" by making them ineligible for benefits given to other married couples.

"We've been working on this issue for so many years, and for the court to acknowledge that yes, same-sex couples are legally married, just as any other couple, is fantastic and extraordinary," said Lee Swislow, GLAD's executive director.

Two of the three judges who decided the case Thursday were Republican appointees, while the other was a Democratic appointee. Boudin was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, while Judge Juan Torruella was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Chief Judge Sandra Lynch is an appointee of President Bill Clinton.

Associated Press

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