LONDON (AP) ? Helen Mirren is a favorite to reign at London's Olivier theater awards Sunday for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in "The Audience."
Mirren is a best-actress nominee for the awards, the British equivalent of Broadway's Tonys.
She stars in Peter Morgan's play about the private weekly meetings between the monarch and Britain's prime ministers over the six decades of her reign. Mirren is no stranger to royalty ? she won an Academy award in 2007 for the same role in "The Queen."
She's up against Hattie Morahan for "A Doll's House," Billie Piper for "The Effect" and Kristin Scott Thomas for "Old Times."
Male acting nominees are Rupert Everett for Oscar Wilde drama "The Judas Kiss"; James McAvoy for "Macbeth"; Mark Rylance for a cross-dressing turn in "Twelfth Night"; Rafe Spall for the relationship drama "Constellations"; and Luke Treadaway for "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."
The National Theatre's acclaimed production of "Curious Incident" ? based on Mark Haddon's novel about a mystery-solving boy with Asperger's syndrome ? leads the race with eight nominations, while the jaunty musical "Top Hat" has seven.
Nominees for musicals include Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton for "Sweeney Todd," Alex Bourne and Hannah Waddingham for "Kiss Me, Kate" and Heather Headley for "The Bodyguard."
Two political dramas ?"The Audience" and rough-and-tumble Parliamentary saga "This House" ? are up for best new play, alongside the love story "Constellations" and "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time."
The best new musical nominees are the geeks-made-good story "Loserville"; the Tina Turner tribute "Soul Sister"; the movie-inspired "The Bodyguard"; and the high-stepping "Top Hat."
Winners in most categories are chosen by a panel of theater professionals and members of the public. Nominees for the Audience Award, decided by public vote, are "Billy Elliot"; "Matilda: The Musical"; "The Phantom of the Opera"; and "Wicked."
The winners will be announced during a ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London hosted by stage star Sheridan Smith and "Downton Abbey" actor Hugh Bonneville.
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Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) ? The father of the two Boston bombing suspects says he is postponing a trip to the United States because of poor health.
Anzor Tsarnaev told The Associated Press on Sunday that he is "really sick" and his blood pressure had spiked.
Tsarnaev said last week that he planned to travel from Russia to the U.S. with the hope of seeing his younger son, who is under arrest, and burying his elder son, who was killed in a clash with police.
Tsarnaev confirmed that he is staying in Chechnya, a province in southern Russia, but did not specify whether he was hospitalized.
Until Friday, he and the suspects' mother had been living in the neighboring province of Dagestan.
Clarifying the effect of stem cell therapy on cancerPublic release date: 28-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hilary Glover hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com 44-020-319-22370 BioMed Central
Injection of human stem cells into mice with tumors slowed down tumor growth, finds research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), isolated from bone marrow, caused changes in blood vessels supplying the tumor, and it is this modification of blood supply which seems to impact tumor growth.
The use of stem cells in treating cancer has been controversial, with some studies finding that stem cells force tumors to enter programmed cell death. However other studies find that stem cells actually promote tumor growth by inducing infiltration of new blood vessels. In attempting to sort out this puzzle researchers from INSERM groups at Universit Joseph Fourier in collaboration with CHU de Grenoble investigated the impact of MSC on already established subcutaneous or lung metastasis in mice.
For both the subcutaneous and lung tumors, injection of MSC reduced cell division, consequently slowing the rate of tumor growth. Part of the mode of action of stem cells therefore appears to be due to with angiogenesis, but the mechanism behind this is still unclear.
Claire Rome who led this study explained, "We found that MSC altered vasculature inside the tumor - although new blood vessels were generated, overall they were longer and fewer than in untreated tumors. This could be restricting the oxygen and nutrients to the tumor, limiting cell division." She continued, "Our study confirms others which propose that stem cells, in particular MSC, might be one way forwards in treating cancer."
Commenting on this study Celia Gomes, from the University of Coimbra, said, "One of the interesting questions this study raises is when MSC promote tumor growth and when they restrict it. The answer seems to be timing this study looks at already established tumors, while others, which find that MSC increase growth, tend to be investigating new tumors. This is a first step in the path to identifying exactly which patients might benefit from stem cell therapy and who will not."
The dual effect of MSCs on tumour growth and tumour angiogenesis
Michelle Kramidas, Florence de Fraipont, Anastassia Karageorgis, Anack Moisan, Virginie Persoons, Marie-Jeanne Richard, Jean-Luc Coll and Claire Rome
Stem Cell Research & Therapy 2013, 4:41
Commentary
The dual role of mesenchymal stem cells in tumor progression
Clia MF Gomes
Stem Cell Research & Therapy 2013, 4:42
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
2. Stem Cell Research & Therapy is the major forum for translational research into stem cell therapies. An international peer-reviewed journal, it publishes high quality open access research articles with a special emphasis on basic, translational and clinical research into stem cell therapeutics and regenerative therapies, including animal models and clinical trials. The journal also provides reviews, viewpoints, commentaries and reports.
3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Clarifying the effect of stem cell therapy on cancerPublic release date: 28-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hilary Glover hilary.glover@biomedcentral.com 44-020-319-22370 BioMed Central
Injection of human stem cells into mice with tumors slowed down tumor growth, finds research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy. Human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), isolated from bone marrow, caused changes in blood vessels supplying the tumor, and it is this modification of blood supply which seems to impact tumor growth.
The use of stem cells in treating cancer has been controversial, with some studies finding that stem cells force tumors to enter programmed cell death. However other studies find that stem cells actually promote tumor growth by inducing infiltration of new blood vessels. In attempting to sort out this puzzle researchers from INSERM groups at Universit Joseph Fourier in collaboration with CHU de Grenoble investigated the impact of MSC on already established subcutaneous or lung metastasis in mice.
For both the subcutaneous and lung tumors, injection of MSC reduced cell division, consequently slowing the rate of tumor growth. Part of the mode of action of stem cells therefore appears to be due to with angiogenesis, but the mechanism behind this is still unclear.
Claire Rome who led this study explained, "We found that MSC altered vasculature inside the tumor - although new blood vessels were generated, overall they were longer and fewer than in untreated tumors. This could be restricting the oxygen and nutrients to the tumor, limiting cell division." She continued, "Our study confirms others which propose that stem cells, in particular MSC, might be one way forwards in treating cancer."
Commenting on this study Celia Gomes, from the University of Coimbra, said, "One of the interesting questions this study raises is when MSC promote tumor growth and when they restrict it. The answer seems to be timing this study looks at already established tumors, while others, which find that MSC increase growth, tend to be investigating new tumors. This is a first step in the path to identifying exactly which patients might benefit from stem cell therapy and who will not."
The dual effect of MSCs on tumour growth and tumour angiogenesis
Michelle Kramidas, Florence de Fraipont, Anastassia Karageorgis, Anack Moisan, Virginie Persoons, Marie-Jeanne Richard, Jean-Luc Coll and Claire Rome
Stem Cell Research & Therapy 2013, 4:41
Commentary
The dual role of mesenchymal stem cells in tumor progression
Clia MF Gomes
Stem Cell Research & Therapy 2013, 4:42
Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.
2. Stem Cell Research & Therapy is the major forum for translational research into stem cell therapies. An international peer-reviewed journal, it publishes high quality open access research articles with a special emphasis on basic, translational and clinical research into stem cell therapeutics and regenerative therapies, including animal models and clinical trials. The journal also provides reviews, viewpoints, commentaries and reports.
3. BioMed Central is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector. @BioMedCentral
[ | 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.
Bomb suspect Instagram account was deleted recently ? unlike Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's other social media accounts. The bomb suspect also 'liked' an Instagram photo linked to Chechen terrorism.? ?
By Mark Sappenfield,?Staff writer / April 28, 2013
This photo added on April 18, 2013, to the VK page of Dias Kadyrbayev shows (from l.) Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, from Kazakhstan, with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Times Square in New York. Tsarnaev used VK to stay connected to the global Chechen community.
VK/AP
Enlarge
So far the social media trail left behind by Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has offered only the barest hints that could connect him to a terrible act of terror. Indeed, his Twitter account ? which he continued using after the bombings ? is mostly notable for how ordinary it is.
Skip to next paragraph Mark Sappenfield
Staff writer
Mark is deputy national news editor for the Monitor.
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But authorities have now located an Instagram account connected to Mr. Tsarnaev that was deleted only recently, according to a CNN report.
Under the user name "jmaster1," Tsarnaev "liked" a photo of Shamil Basayev, a warlord in Chechnya who claimed to be the mastermind behind the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, in which 40 terrorists and 130 civilians were killed when Russian special forces pumped an unknown chemical agent into the building.
He also "liked" another pro-Chechnya image that included a string of hashtags: #FreeChechenia #Jihad #Jannah #ALLAH #Jesus and #God.
"If I were an investigator right now, obviously the platform he deleted matters the most," said Juliette Kayyem, a CNN terrorism analyst.
On one hand, such online activity is hardly damning. "Likes" don't make a terrorist.
Yet the deleted Instagram account adds to the impression that Tsarnaev used certain corners of the Internet to carve out a more Chechen persona for himself online than he did in daily life.
His Twitter account, @J_tsar, appeared to mirror his outward life most closely, with Tsarnaev engaging in the stream of random banter that drives the microblogging site. Though he did quote from an Islamic cleric and obliquely reference the Boston bombing on his Twitter feed, most tweets talk about homework, hip-hop music, or his favorite TV shows.?
It is on the Russian social networking site VKontakte that a slightly different Tsarnaev begins to emerge. For the most part, the portrait is still benign, with Tsarnaev spending the most time discussing his favorite soccer club, Chechnya's FC Terek Grozny. He even wrote some posts in the Chechen language and included a joke: ? 'A car goes by with a Chechen, a Dagestani and an Ingush inside. Question: who is driving?' Answer: 'The police.' ?
But through VK, Tsarnaev might have gained a somewhat warped view of Chechnya ? a place he had never been, writes Slate's Mike Walker.
"Whatever Chechnya Dzhokhar came to know through VK was not wholly representative of the region. The majority of ethnic Chechen youth of Dzhokhar?s generation will probably harbor anti-Russian views and have especially negative thoughts about United Russia, Vladimir Putin?s ruling party, which has taken a hard stance against Chechen independence.... However, Chechnya is a decently stable place today: Regular airline flights come and go, soccer matches are held, new construction is undertaken."
"Part of the anti-Russian views on the part of young Chechens are probably a combination of the legacy of war and simply being young and angry," he adds. "Those who grew up outside of the region, though, may be captivated by a romanticized extremism and maybe more inclined to actually carry something out."
Given what is already known about Tsarnaev's online habits, it seems unlikely that authorities will find a smoking gun on Instagram ? Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, who is also a suspect in the bombing case, posted much more radical content than did Dzhokhar.
Moreover, the Instagram website's terms of use suggest that it might not have much old content to share with authorities. "Given the volume of real-time content on Instagram, some information may only be stored for a short period of time."
But with Dzhokhar reportedly talking to authorities less now that he has been read his rights, and with Tamerlan dead, authorities will surely look everywhere for possible clues.
Bob Weir was helped offstage Thursday night after he was unable to finish his performance with Furthur at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.?The Grateful Dead?offshoot was closing out a?nine show residency?at the venue with their final set, but according to?Jambase, Weir was struggling throughout the night on both guitar and vocals.
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Weir's condition worsened during the band's second set of the night. As Weir played through "Unbroken Chain," he fell over and was helped back up by crew members.
Furthur Keep the Dead Alive at Historic New York Theater
He was given a chair to sit in, and the band left the stage after the song. They returned after a few minutes without Weir, and Phil Lesh told the crowd that Weir was suffering from a strained shoulder and that the set would go on without him.
Rolling Stone: Best large clubs in America
Further is set to play Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall Saturday, though there's been no word yet on the status of that show, or whether Weir will appear.
Musicians react to death of George Jones
The band also celebrated a special occasion last night ? before their set, it was announced that the Capitol Theatre's lobby bar would be named Garcia's in honor of Weir and Lesh's?Grateful Dead?compadre?Jerry Garcia, for whom the venue was a favorite.
In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)
In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)
In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? North Korea announced Saturday that an American detained for nearly six months is being tried in the Supreme Court on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, a crime that could draw the death penalty if he is convicted.
The case involving Kenneth Bae, who has been in North Korean custody since early November, further complicates already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington following weeks of heightened rhetoric and tensions.
The trial mirrors a similar situation in 2009, when the U.S. and North Korea were locked in a standoff over Pyongyang's decision to launch a long-range rocket and conduct an underground nuclear test. At the time, North Korea had custody of two American journalists, whose eventual release after being sentenced to 12 years of hard labor paved the way for diplomacy following months of tensions.
Bae was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, according to official state media. In North Korean dispatches, Bae, a Korean American, is called Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling of his Korean name.
The exact nature of his alleged crimes has not been revealed, but North Korea accuses Bae, described as a tour operator, of seeking to overthrow North Korea's leadership.
"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it," the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Saturday. "His crimes were proved by evidence. He will soon be taken to the Supreme Court of the DPRK to face judgment."
DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. No timing for the verdict issued at the austere Supreme Court in Pyongyang was given.
Friends and colleagues described Bae as a devout Christian from Washington state but based in the Chinese border city of Dalian who traveled frequently to North Korea to feed the country's orphans.
At least three other Americans detained in recent years also have been devout Christians. While North Korea's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the regime.
Under North Korea's criminal code, crimes against the state can draw life imprisonment or the death sentence.
In 2009, American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to hard labor for trespassing and unspecified hostile acts after being arrested near the border with China and held for four months.
They were freed later that year to former President Bill Clinton, who flew to Pyongyang to negotiate their release in a visit that then-leader Kim Jong Il treated as a diplomatic coup.
Including Ling and Lee, Bae is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released.
"For North Korea, Bae is a bargaining chip in dealing with the U.S.," said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean Studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. "The North will use him in a way that helps bring the U.S. to talks when the mood slowly turns toward dialogue."
As in 2009, Pyongyang is locked in a standoff with the Obama administration over North Korea's drive to build nuclear weapons.
Washington has led the campaign to punish Pyongyang for launching a long-range rocket in December and carrying out a nuclear test, its third, in February.
North Korea claims the need to build atomic weapons to defend itself against the United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea and over the past two months has been holding joint military drills with South Korea that have included nuclear-capable stealth bombers and fighter jets.
Diplomats from China, South Korea, the U.S., Japan and Russia have been conferring in recent weeks to try to bring down the rhetoric and find a way to rein in Pyongyang before a miscalculation in the region sparks real warfare.
South Korean defense officials said earlier in the month that North Korea had moved a medium-range missile designed to strike U.S. territory to its east coast.
The Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the three-year Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. Because Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations, the Swedish Embassy in North Korea represents the United States in legal proceedings.
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Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee in Pyongyang, and Sam Kim and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report. Follow Lee, AP's Korea bureau chief, at www.twitter.com/newsjean and Sam Kim at www.twitter.com/SamKim_AP.
Noted Blackmagic Design shooter John Brawley has released the first footage from the company's upcoming $995 Pocket Cinema Camera that might leave your DSLR green with envy. Though it's always tough to judge compressed web footage, to our eyes it looks completely untouched by the moire, aliasing and compression artifacts that tends to plague other digital cameras. While not specifying whether he used the compressed RAW setting or not, Brawley said he shot it using a Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 Micro Four Thirds lens with image stabilization turned on, meaning that feature's likely to be enabled on the camera when it arrives in late July. He also said he was "literally grabbing shots whilst I was shopping," which bodes well for serious filmmakers with a bit more time to spare. Head past the break to admire the video.
Ants play a variety of important roles in many ecosystems. As frequent visitors to flowers, they can benefit plants in their role as pollinators when they forage on sugar-rich nectar. However, a new study reveals that this mutualistic relationship may actually have some hidden costs. By transmitting sugar-eating yeasts to the nectar on which they feed, ants may be indirectly altering the nectar-chemistry and thus affecting subsequent pollinator visitations.
Many species of plants benefit from interacting with ants, and some even secrete special sugary substances to attract ants. Plants produce sugar, in the form of nectar, and in exchange ants provide services such as pollination or protection from herbivores.
The main components of nectar that attract pollinators include three dominant sugars?sucrose, fructose, and glucose?and amino acids (or proteins). The chemical composition of nectar differs among plant species and has been thought to be a conservative trait linked to pollinator type. For example, plants pollinated by hummingbirds tend to have nectar with high amounts of sucrose. In addition, nectar composition is thought to be regulated by the plant.
"When people think about how flowers are pollinated, they probably think about bees," notes Clara de Vega, a postdoctoral researcher at the Estaci?n Biol?gica de Do?ana, Spain. "But ants also pollinate flowers, and I am interested in the role ants play in pollination since it is still poorly understood."
De Vega joined forces with Carlos M. Herrera, an evolutionary ecologist at the Estaci?n Biol?gica de Do?ana, to investigate the relationship between ant pollinators and nectarivorous yeasts. Nectar-dwelling yeasts, which consume sugars, have recently been discovered in the flowers of many temperate and tropical plant species. De Vega and Herrera have already discovered that some ant species not only carry certain types of sugar-metabolizing yeasts on their bodies, but they also effectively transmit these yeasts to the nectar of flowers they visit.
In their most recent work, published in the American Journal of Botany, De Vega and Herrera investigated whether flowers visited by these ants differed from flowers that were not visited by ants in their sugar chemistry, and whether sugar-chemistry was correlated with the abundance of ant-transmitted yeasts found in the nectar.
By excluding ants from visiting inflorescences of a perennial, parasitic plant, Cytinus hypocistis, and comparing the nectar chemistry to inflorescences that were visited by ants, the authors tested these ideas experimentally.
When the authors compared the sugar content in the nectar of flowers visited by ants versus those enclosed in nylon mesh bags to exclude ants, they found that nectar of flowers exposed to ants had higher levels of fructose and glucose, but lower levels of sucrose compared with the ant-excluded flowers.
Interestingly, in flowers visited by ants, there was a high correlation between yeast cell density and sugar content. Nectar that had higher densities of yeast had more fructose and less sucrose, suggesting that the types of yeasts change the sugar content of the nectar. Flowers that were excluded from ants did not have any yeast in their nectar.
"Our study has revealed that ants can actually change the nectar characteristics of the flowers they are pollinating," says de Vega. "The microorganisms, specifically yeasts, that are present on the surface of ants change the composition of sugar in the flower?s nectar."
"This means that nectar composition is not completely controlled by the flower?it is something created in cooperation with the ants that visit the flower," she notes. "We also think that these ant-transported yeasts might have the potential to affect plant reproduction."
Indeed, if a plant cannot control the sugar content of its nectar, then it may lose some of its target pollinators, which would potentially affect overall seed set and plant fitness.
Moreover, if introducing these yeasts to nectar changes the chemistry of the very components that serve to attract pollinators, then perhaps ants are indirectly changing the foraging behavior of subsequent flower visitors and thereby affecting seed dispersal patterns.
This study has revealed an additional layer in the complex association between ants and flowering plants, as pollinating ants alter sugar-nectar chemistry in flowers via sugar-consuming yeasts. But the story does not end here. De Vega plans to continue researching the role that these nectarivorous yeasts play on the reproduction of plants.
"I plan to study the whole interaction of plants, yeasts, and pollinators?how are they interrelated and what mechanisms shape these relations?"
American Journal of Botany: http://www.amjbot.org/
Thanks to American Journal of Botany for this article.
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BASEL (Reuters) - Luxury watchmakers expect sales growth to slow this year as a recovery in the United States and buoyant Middle East demand fail to offset a China slump more deep-rooted than a temporary blip caused by anti-corruption moves.
The heads of Swatch Group's biggest brand Omega and LVMH flagship brand TAG Heuer as well as high-end independents Patek Philippe and Ulysse Nardin all said demand in Greater China had tumbled, particularly for high-end models.
A weaker gold price, which hit a two-year low this month after gaining 52 percent over the last three years, was no help as most manufacturers had hedged their purchases.
"I bought my gold a year in advance," Walter von Kaenel, head of Swatch's midrange brand Longines told Reuters at the Baselworld watch fair this week.
Omega chief Stephen Urquhart said a lower gold price also made gold watches less appealing, particularly for those consumers who were buying them as an investment.
Luxury watch makers have expanded at breakneck speed in recent years in Greater China, which includes Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as the mainland - and enjoyed double-digit sales growth rates there until last summer.
But their latest comments reinforce the view that the region, to which luxury group Richemont is the most exposed, is being hit by more than the government's crackdown on gifts for favours, which often involve watches, and is feeling the draught from a wider slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.
"All watches costing more than 1,800 francs are having difficulties in China at the moment," said TAG Heuer Chief Executive Jean-Christophe Babin, soon to be head of LVMH's jewelery brand Bulgari.
TAG Heuer's watches sell for an average price of 4,500 Swiss francs and Omega's and Patek's price tags are well above that.
"We have felt the impact of the anti-corruption campaign in China," Patek Philippe's Thierry Stern said in an interview.
He said Patek had introduced new models at lower prices in Asia to address the drop in demand for pricey items.
But the head of Omega, one of the most popular luxury watches in China, said he was confident sales to Chinese customers worldwide would grow in 2013 - albeit at a slower pace than in 2012 - as they still bought a lot of watches abroad.
One bright note, Urquhart said, was that consumer confidence in mainland China had picked up after this year's leadership transition, meaning single-digit growth should be possible.
Patrik Schwendimann, analylst at Zuercher Kantonalbank, said: "It's a positive surprise that Omega still expects sales growth in single digits in mainland China this year."
Longines's von Kaenel said the midrange price category -- Longines is leader in the 800-3,000 franc segment-- was not affected by China's current frugality and slower sales in mainland China were compensated by strong demand in Hong Kong.
Swiss watch exports to China fell by more than 25 percent in the first quarter of 2013. Sales to Hong Kong, the biggest market for Swiss watches where mainland Chinese buy timepieces to avoid high taxes, were down 9.1 percent.
"We believe China's new President Xi Jinping's tough stance on corruption practices and extravagant spending are likely to limit the recovery of the illegitimate component of luxury demand this year ("gifting")," Citi said in a note.
"This is perhaps likely to have a greater impact on high-end watches as compared to the mid-range segment."
Consultancy Bain & Co is confident about demand for watches costing over 10,000 Swiss francs, forecasting their exports to rise about 9 percent annually until 2015 but high inventories in Greater China may hold back exports this year.
"We did interviews in China with retailers and it seems that in 2012 the sell-out (sales to end customers) rates were growing more slowly than the exports rates from Switzerland," said Gyorgy Konda, a partner at Bain & Co in Milan.
Longines' von Kaenel said Chinese retailers had excessive stock levels for some brands, but not for Longines, whose more affordable watches were not targeted by the anti-corruption drive.
Omega, Longines and Hublot executives agreed a healthy recovery in the United States and buoyant growth in the Middle East, particularly Dubai, would generate single-digit growth this year, a marked slowdown versus 11 percent growth in 2012.
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Exaggeration over the extent of the malaria parasite's resistance to the 'wonder drugs' artemisinins could jeopardise the fight against the disease, according to a leading expert.
In an opinion article published on World Malaria Day today (25 April 2013) -- online in the journal Trends in Parasitology, Professor Sanjeev Krishna of St George's, University of London argues that much of the evidence of the malaria parasite's resistance to artemisinin has been misinterpreted. He says this has led to the extent of artemisinin resistance being overstated, and that fears of its demise as an effective treatment are premature.
The artemisinin class of drugs are the best anti-malarial treatments available, and are used most effectively with other drugs as artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Recent research has suggested that the malaria parasite is developing resistance to ACTs, particularly in Southeast Asia. Experts fear that if artemisinins became obsolete -- as previous anti-malarials have -- the effect could be devastating, as there are currently no other effective alternatives.
However, Professor Krishna argues that -- despite being accepted as dogma by the malaria research community -- most of the descriptions of artemisinin resistance do not meet the criteria by which resistance to other anti-malarials and drugs for other diseases have been measured.
For true resistance to exist, according to criteria used for other drugs, there needs to be: a significant failure in treatment (by not meeting the World Health Organization's target of a 95 per cent cure rate 28 days after treatment); a reduced sensitivity to the drug when the parasite is examined in the lab; and a visible delay in ridding the patient of parasites.
Currently, Professor Krishna says, it seems to be accepted that artemisinin treatment failure has occurred when a three-day course of ACT does not meet the target cure rate. This has been observed in a number of studies and has been used to try and understand 'artemisinin resistance.'
But other studies of seven-day courses of artemisinin monotherapies -- in which artemisinins are used alone, without partner drugs -- have shown up to 100 per cent cure rates after 28 days.
This, Professor Krishna, says, indicates proof of resistance to ACTs, but that there is no compelling evidence that artemisinins themselves are becoming less effective. He says this resistance will usually "be to a combination of an artemisinin with another drug against which there is usually a high background of resistance already."
"Contending that there is artemisinin resistance when cure of patients relies on the partner drug of an artemisinin is difficult to substantiate without additional studies," writes Professor Krishna. "It is more appropriate to describe the lack of observed efficacy as resistance to an artemisinin combination therapy rather than as being artemisinin resistance."
He adds that "crying wolf" and raising fears of artemisinin resistance when it is not yet proven "will itself have significant costs, so that when the wolf finally turns up, exhausted villagers no longer respond."
To ensure better understanding of when true artemisinin resistance occurs, and to learn how to fight it, Professor Krishna says there needs to be further research into the how the drugs work against the parasite. He also urges the development of molecular markers to predict the failure of the partner drugs used in ACTs, as well as further studies on artemisinin monotherapies.
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Faith in God positively influences treatment for individuals with psychiatric illnessPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott O'Brien sobrien12@partners.org 617-855-2110 McLean Hospital
Belmont, MA Belief in God may significantly improve the outcome of those receiving short-term treatment for psychiatric illness, according to a recent study conducted by McLean Hospital investigators.
In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, David H. Rosmarin, PhD, McLean Hospital clinician and instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, examined individuals at the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital program at McLean in an effort to investigate the relationship between patients' level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.
"Our work suggests that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without, regardless of their religious affiliation. Belief was associated with not only improved psychological wellbeing, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm," explained Rosmarin.
The study looked at 159 patients, recruited over a one-year period. Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome and emotion regulation, each on a five-point scale. Levels of depression, wellbeing, and self-harm were assessed at the beginning and end of their treatment program.
Of the patients sampled, more than 30 percent claimed no specific religious affiliation yet still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in a higher power was rated as moderately or very high. Patients with "no" or only "slight" belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment than patients with higher levels of belief.
The study concludes: " belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care. More centrally, our results suggest that belief in the credibility of psychiatric treatment and increased expectations to gain from treatment might be mechanisms by which belief in God can impact treatment outcomes."
Rosmarin commented, "Given the prevalence of religious belief in the United States over 90% of the population these findings are important in that they highlight the clinical implications of spiritual life. I hope that this work will lead to larger studies and increased funding in order to help as many people as possible."
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McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Partners HealthCare. For more information about McLean, visit http://www.mclean.harvard.edu or follow the hospital on Twitter @McLeanHospital.
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Faith in God positively influences treatment for individuals with psychiatric illnessPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Scott O'Brien sobrien12@partners.org 617-855-2110 McLean Hospital
Belmont, MA Belief in God may significantly improve the outcome of those receiving short-term treatment for psychiatric illness, according to a recent study conducted by McLean Hospital investigators.
In the study, published in the current issue of Journal of Affective Disorders, David H. Rosmarin, PhD, McLean Hospital clinician and instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, examined individuals at the Behavioral Health Partial Hospital program at McLean in an effort to investigate the relationship between patients' level of belief in God, expectations for treatment and actual treatment outcomes.
"Our work suggests that people with a moderate to high level of belief in a higher power do significantly better in short-term psychiatric treatment than those without, regardless of their religious affiliation. Belief was associated with not only improved psychological wellbeing, but decreases in depression and intention to self-harm," explained Rosmarin.
The study looked at 159 patients, recruited over a one-year period. Each participant was asked to gauge their belief in God as well as their expectations for treatment outcome and emotion regulation, each on a five-point scale. Levels of depression, wellbeing, and self-harm were assessed at the beginning and end of their treatment program.
Of the patients sampled, more than 30 percent claimed no specific religious affiliation yet still saw the same benefits in treatment if their belief in a higher power was rated as moderately or very high. Patients with "no" or only "slight" belief in God were twice as likely not to respond to treatment than patients with higher levels of belief.
The study concludes: " belief in God is associated with improved treatment outcomes in psychiatric care. More centrally, our results suggest that belief in the credibility of psychiatric treatment and increased expectations to gain from treatment might be mechanisms by which belief in God can impact treatment outcomes."
Rosmarin commented, "Given the prevalence of religious belief in the United States over 90% of the population these findings are important in that they highlight the clinical implications of spiritual life. I hope that this work will lead to larger studies and increased funding in order to help as many people as possible."
###
McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Partners HealthCare. For more information about McLean, visit http://www.mclean.harvard.edu or follow the hospital on Twitter @McLeanHospital.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
Apr. 24, 2013 ? As of April 2013, Bitcoin's market capitalization had soared to more than $1 billion, making it a frequent target of fraudsters. Bitcoins are encrypted virtual money created by computer programmers and not backed by any country or government.
A traceable form of cyber money, Bitcoins can be purchased and used much like hard currency to pay for goods and services, mostly over the Internet. Part of Bitcoins' attraction is its potential to reduce transaction fees for online purchases, as well as its mathematically-enforced protections against inflation.
Study authors Moore and Christin identified 40 Bitcoin exchanges worldwide that convert the cyber money into 33 hard currencies. Of those 40, 18 have gone out of business. Nine of the 40 experienced security breaches from hackers or other criminal activity, forcing five of them to subsequently close. Another 13 closed without any publicly announced breach, according to Moore and Christin.
From their study, the researchers found the failure rate of Bitcoin exchanges is 45 percent. The median lifetime of an exchange is just over one year, 381 days.
Of the 18 Bitcoin exchanges that closed, in 11 of those cases the authors were able to find evidence of whether or not the customers were reimbursed their money. Five exchanges didn't reimburse their customers. Six claim to have done so.
"The risk of losing funds stored at exchanges is real but uncertain," write Moore and Christin in "Beware the Middleman: Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin-Exchange Risk," which was invited for presentation at the 17th International Financial Cryptography and Data Security Conference held in Okinawa, Japan, April 1-5.
While various so-called crypto-currencies have been introduced in the past few years, Bitcoin is the first to be so widely adopted. Besides being open source, Bitcoin's attraction includes real-time peer-to-peer transactions, worldwide acceptance and low or no processing fees.
Crypto-currencies are intended to eliminate reliance on brick-and-mortar middlemen such as banks, exchanges, credit card conglomerates and other financial intermediaries. Despite that, and as a result of Bitcoin's booming popularity, a wide variety of middlemen have sprung up around the cyber currency. Those range from currency exchanges and online wallets to mining pools and legitimate or Ponzi scheme investment services, the authors said.
Moore and Christin focused their study on currency exchanges to examine the risk Bitcoin holders face from exchange failures.
Online exchanges that trade hard currency for the rapidly emerging cyber money known as Bitcoin have a 45 percent chance of failing -- often taking their customers' money with them.
The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.
Results showed also that currency exchanges that buy and sell a higher volume of Bitcoins are less likely to shut down, but more likely to suffer a security breach.
The study analyzed 40 exchanges that buy and sell the virtual Bitcoin to identify factors that trigger or stave off closure, said the study's authors, computer scientists Tyler W. Moore, in the Lyle School of Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.
Middlemen rise up in a system specifically meant to avoid middlemen
"Bitcoin is expressly designed to be completely decentralized with no single points of control," Moore said. "Yet currency exchanges have become de facto central authorities, and their success or failure drives Bitcoin's success or failure."
Recent wild fluctuations in the exchange rate of Bitcoins can be traced in part to the role of digital middlemen, he said, including the emergence of the currency exchanges that buy and sell Bitcoins.
Bitcoin's trading value at the start of the year was around $10 per Bitcoin. But its price soared as high as $260 earlier in April, then recently took a nosedive and is now hovering around $68, explained Moore.
"Much of that can be attributed to the Mt. Gox exchange temporarily shutting down because of heavy trading that overwhelmed the exchange," Moore said. "Studying why these exchanges fail helps us better understand the risks of Bitcoin."
Mt. Gox, based in Tokyo, is the most popular of the exchanges, with average daily transactions totaling more than 50,000 Bitcoins. Other high-volume exchanges include btc-e.com and Intersango.
Of the 40 exchanges Moore and Christin studied, the median for daily transactions carried out is 290. The mean is 1,716. Some 25 percent of exchanges process under 25 Bitcoins each day on average.
The findings of the study leave Bitcoin buyers in a dilemma: According to the study's empirical analysis, "Mt. Gox and Intersango are less likely to close than other exchanges" because of their high volume, the authors write.
But the study's logistic regression model yielded the result that the higher the transaction volume, the more likely a security breach by hackers. "More than 43,000 Bitcoins were stolen from the Bitcoinica trading platform in March 2012," the authors write, and "in September 2012, $250,000 worth of Bitcoins were pilfered from the Bitfloor currency exchange." Moreover, Mt. Gox has been breached multiple times.
Holding money at Bitcoin exchanges is risky
There are two ways to buy Bitcoins. Purchasers go online through an exchange such as Mt. Gox. They pay hard currency such as U.S. dollars at the market exchange rate, typically funded by a credit card. The exchange transfers the purchased Bitcoins to the buyer's Bitcoin address or the money remains in an online account maintained by the exchange.
"In the latter case, customers are at risk of losing their Bitcoins if the exchange suddenly closes," Moore said. "Believe it or not, many people -- if not most -- choose to leave the Bitcoins in the exchange account, thinking that their Bitcoins are better protected there and with faster access to convert back to hard currencies."
Bitcoins also can be purchased from local dealers. Buyers meet up with the dealer online or in person and pay cash for the Bitcoins, which are then transferred to the Bitcoin address provided.
Data for the study included daily trade volumes, average weighted daily price for conversions to other currencies, the lifetime of each exchange, whether investors were repaid following an exchange's closure, and whether the country where the exchange is based complies with the World Bank's regulations for Anti-Money-Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Southern Methodist University. The original article was written by Margaret Allen.
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Apr. 24, 2013 ? Who would have thought that two very different species, a small insect and a furry alpine mammal, would develop a shared food arrangement in the far North?
University of Alberta researchers were certainly surprised when they discovered the unusual response of pikas to patches of vegetation that had previously been grazed on by caterpillars from a species normally found in the high Arctic.
U of A biology researcher Isabel C. Barrio analyzed how two herbivores, caterpillars and pikas, competed for scarce vegetation in alpine areas of the southwest Yukon. The caterpillars come out of their winter cocoons and start consuming vegetation soon after the snow melts in June. Weeks later, the pika starts gathering and storing food in its winter den. For the experiment, Barrio altered the numbers of caterpillars grazing on small plots of land surrounding pika dens.
"What we found was that the pikas preferred the patches first grazed on by caterpillars," said Barrio. "We think the caterpillar's waste acted as a natural fertilizer, making the vegetation richer and more attractive to the pika."
U of A biology professor David Hik, who supervised the research, says the results are the opposite of what the team expected to find.
"Normally you'd expect that increased grazing by the caterpillars would have a negative effect on the pika," said Hik. "But the very territorial little pika actually preferred the vegetation first consumed by the caterpillars."
The researchers say it's highly unusual that two distant herbivore species -- an insect in its larval stage and a mammal -- react positively to one another when it comes to the all-consuming survival issue of finding food.
These caterpillars stay in their crawling larval stage for up to 14 years, sheltering in a cocoon during the long winters before finally becoming Arctic woolly bear moths for the final 24 hours of their lives.
The pika does not hibernate and gathers a food supply in its den. Its food-gathering territory surrounds the den and covers an area of around 700 square metres.
The researchers say they'll continue their work on the caterpillar-pika relationship to explore the long-term implications for increased insect populations and competition for scarce food resources in northern mountain environments.
Barrio was the lead author on the collaborative research project, which was published April 24 in the journal Biology Letters.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Alberta, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. The original article was written by Brian Murphy.
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Journal Reference:
I. C. Barrio, D. S. Hik, K. Peck, C. G. Bueno. After the frass: foraging pikas select patches previously grazed by caterpillars. Biology Letters, 2013; 9 (3): 20130090 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0090
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TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A car bomb in Tripoli wounded two French guards at France's embassy in Libya on Tuesday, bringing new violence to the capital, which has not seen attacks on diplomats like that which killed the U.S. ambassador in Benghazi last year. Since Muammar Gaddafi was toppled by Western-backed rebels in late 2011, Tripoli, like the rest of the sprawling desert state, has been awash with weapons and roving armed bands, but violence in the city has not targeted diplomats before in the way Western envoys have been shot at and bombed in the east of the country.
Iran offers to be West's "reliable partner" in Mideast
GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran said on Tuesday that it would be a "reliable partner" in the Middle East if Western countries would take a more cooperative approach in talks on its nuclear program. Western powers blame tension with Iran in part on its refusal to cooperate with United Nations calls for curbs on its nuclear activity to ensure it is for peaceful purposes only, and to open up to investigations by U.N. inspectors.
Palestinian prisoner ends fast after deal with Israel
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian prisoner whose hunger strike had stoked weeks of protests in the West Bank ended his eight-month on-off fast on Tuesday in exchange for early release by Israel, Palestinian officials said. Israeli and Palestinian officials had feared that had Samer al-Issawi, 32, died because of refusing food, it might have led to mass unrest.
Colombia, FARC start new round of talks in Cuba
HAVANA (Reuters) - Colombia and the Marxist FARC rebels launched their latest round of peace talks on Tuesday in Havana after a month-long break in a process aimed at ending half a century of bloody conflict in the South American nation. At the end of their last round on March 21, both sides cited progress toward an accord on the key issue of agrarian reform, which lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said needs to be settled soon so they can move on to other issues.
"Face the truth": Bosnian leader upbraids Serbian president
BELGRADE (Reuters) - Bosnian Muslim leader Bakir Izetbegovic publicly upbraided Serbia's nationalist president on Tuesday, saying he must face the truth of Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo before the region can move on. A disciple of the Greater Serbia ideology that fuelled the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, President Tomislav Nikolic's interpretations of what happened then have raised hackles in the Western Balkans since he took power almost a year ago.
Pakistan police say explosives found near Musharraf house
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police said on Tuesday they found 45 kg (100 lb) of explosives hidden in a car near the residence where former president Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest, television channels reported. Video footage showed a bomb disposal squad examining a car near the farmhouse on the edge of the capital Islamabad where the former army chief was detained last week over allegations he had overstepped his powers while in office.
French parliament approves same-sex marriage law
PARIS (Reuters) - French parliament approved a law allowing same-sex couples to marry and to adopt children on Tuesday, a flagship reform pledge by President Francois Hollande which sparked often violent street protests and a rise in homophobic attacks. Lawmakers in the lower house National Assembly, where Hollande's Socialists have an absolute majority, passed the bill by 331 votes for and 225 against, making France the 14th country in the world to allow same-sex couples to wed.
Compromise seen close on Western Sahara allowing U.N. mission extension
PARIS (Reuters) - Diplomats said on Tuesday the United States had dropped demands for human rights observers in Western Sahara, paving the way for a compromise that would allow the U.N. mission in the disputed territory to extend its mandate for another year. A U.S.-drafted resolution that proposed allowing United Nations peacekeepers to monitor human rights abuses had angered Morocco, and taken its traditional protector France by surprise.
Anger in Lebanese streets as Syria border fighting rages
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Stripped to the waist, his face heavily bruised and a rope around his neck, the grey-haired Syrian man was led by his captors on a humiliating parade through the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli. "I am an Alawite shabbiha," read slogans daubed on the bare chest of the man, referring to militias from a minority sect fighting for President Bashar al-Assad in neighboring Syria. Vigilantes led the man through Tripoli, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city, on Monday.
Two men linked to al Qaeda in Mali arrested in Spain
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has arrested two North Africans suspected of links to the North African branch of the militant Islamist network al Qaeda, the government said on Tuesday, following an investigation lasting more than a year. One man, an Algerian believed to have trained in a fighter camp in northern Mali run by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was arrested in the eastern province of Zaragoza, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The other, a Moroccan also alleged to have had contact with AQIM in Mali, was detained in the southern province of Murcia.
BOSTON (AP) ? From Boston and Washington to Russia, investigators pressed for answers Wednesday about the Muslim radicalism believed behind the Boston Marathon bombing, while more than 4,000 mourners paid tribute to an MIT police officer who authorities say was gunned down by the bombers.
Among the speakers at the memorial service in Cambridge was Vice President Joe Biden, who condemned the bombing suspects as "two twisted, perverted, cowardly, knockoff jihadis."
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was listed in fair condition as he recovered from wounds suffered during a getaway attempt. He could get the death penalty if convicted of plotting with his older brother, now dead, to set off the pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 260 on April 15. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a shootout with police.
The bombs were detonated by remote control, according to U.S. officials close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. It was not clear what the detonation device was, but the charges against Dzhokhar say he was using a cellphone moments before the blasts.
U.S. officials also said Dzhokhar has told interrogators he and his brother were angry about the U.S. wars in Muslim Afghanistan and Iraq.
After closed-door briefings on Capitol Hill with the FBI and other law enforcement officials, lawmakers said earlier this week that it appeared so far that the brothers were radicalized via the Internet instead of by direct contact with any terrorist groups, and that the older brother was the driving force in the bomb plot.
In Russia, U.S. investigators traveled to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan and were in contact with the brothers' parents, hoping to gain more information.
The parents, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, plan to fly to the U.S. on Thursday, the father was quoted as telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. The family has said it wants to bring Tamerlan's body back to Russia.
Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan, who spent six months in Russia's turbulent Caucasus region in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian forces in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya, but had lived in the U.S. for about a decade.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bagpipes wailed as students, faculty and staff members and throngs of law enforcement officials paid their respects to MIT police officer Sean Collier, who was ambushed in his cruiser three days after the bombing.
The line of mourners stretched for a half-mile. They had to make their way through tight security, including metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Boston native James Taylor sang "The Water is Wide" and led a sing-along of "Shower the People."
Biden told the Collier family that no child should die before his or her parents, but that, in time, the grief will lose some of its sting.
"The moment will come when the memory of Sean is triggered and you know it's going to be OK," Biden said. "When the first instinct is to get a smile on your lips before a tear to your eye."
The vice president also sounded a defiant note.
"The purpose of terror is to instill fear," he said. "You saw none of it here in Boston. Boston, you sent a powerful message to the world."
In another milestone in Boston's recovery, the area around the marathon finish line was reopened to the public, with fresh cement still drying on the repaired sidewalk. Delivery trucks made their way down Boylston Street under a heavy police presence, though some damaged stores were still closed.
"I don't think there's going to be a sense of normalcy for a while," Tom Champoux, who works nearby, said as he pointed to the boarded-up windows. "There are scars here that will be with us for a long time."
___
Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston, Lynn Berry in Moscow, and Kimberly Dozier, Adam Goldman, Eric Tucker, Matt Apuzzo, and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
Freeskier Grete Eliassen tops ESPN Best Female in Action Sports poll
American-Norwegian freeskier Grete Eliassen has received the most number of votes in ESPN?s Best Female in Action Sports poll.
Voting remained opened between March 19 and April11, during which action sports enthusiasts voted feverishly for their favourite action sports athletes with the intended motivation of making them the winner.
Among the many categories of polls and brackets set up by ESPN was the poll for the most notable female athletes in ESPN. The options included the likes of five-time Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Women?s World Champion Stephanie Gilmore, her
fellow surfer Coco Ho, skaters Mimi Knoop and Leticia Bufoni, snowboarder Jess Kimura.
The poll attracted 54,166 votes, 64 percent of which went to Eliassen, thus making her a winning by a comprehensive margin.
The freeskier was surprised at managing to finish well above the top athlete sports female athletes and made no effort to hide her surprise and excitement.
She said that once she was informed about being in a bracket by her brother and that she was losing, she took to social media and got her family, friends and fans involved.
?I was totally surprised. My brother told me I was in a bracket and I was losing, so I put some stuff on my social media sites and called my family and started some momentum. It just carried on through and I won. To be on the same level as Travis Rice is
pretty cool. I couldn't have done it without the fans. My Facebook followers don't feel like random strangers anymore. It feels like a team,? she admitted during an exclusive interview with ESPN.
Eliassen has gained prominence in action sports, especially after putting on a sensational performance to clinch bronze medal in Freeskiing Slopestyle at Winter X Games 2011 at Aspen, Colorado, losing the top two podium places to Kaya Turski and Keri Herman.
She tore her ACL last year and was unable to compete in the most recent season, but the Norwegian-American freeskier is all fired up to hit the slopes and halfpipe again.
With the Winter Olympics not too far away, she would surely be looking to build some momentum by participating in as many freestyle skiing competition as possible and trying to make a solid impact, if not win, in as many of them as possible.
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Public release date: 28-Apr-2013
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