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Sunday, March 3, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Syrian rebel chief says they need weapons to stop slaughter
BEIRUT (AP) ? The chief of Syrian rebel forces said Friday that his fighters are in "desperate" need of weapons and ammunition rather than the food supplies and bandages that the U.S. now plans to provide.
The Obama administration on Thursday announced it was giving an additional $60 million in assistance to the country's political opposition and said that it would, for the first time, provide non-lethal aid directly to rebels battling to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The move was announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at an international conference on Syria in Rome, and several European nations are expected in the coming days to take similar steps in working with the military wing of the opposition in order to ramp up pressure on Assad to step down and pave the way for a democratic transition.
A number of Syrian opposition figures and fighters on the ground, however, expressed disappointment with the limited assistance.
Gen. Salim Idris, chief of staff of the Syrian opposition's Supreme Military Council, said the modest package of aid to rebels ? consisting of an undetermined amount of food rations and medical supplies ? will not help them win against Assad's forces who have superior air power.
"We don't want food and drink and we don't want bandages. When we're wounded, we want to die. The only thing we want is weapons," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"We need anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to stop Bashar Assad's criminal, murderous regime from annihilating the Syrian people," he said. "The whole world knows what we need and yet they watch as the Syrian people are slaughtered."
Syria's main rebel units, known together as the Free Syrian Army, regrouped in December under a unified Western-backed rebel command called the Supreme Military Council, following promises of more military assistance once a central council was in place.
But the international community remains reluctant to send lethal weapons, fearing they may fall into the hands of extremists who have made inroads in some places in Syria.
Idris, who defected from the Syrian army and is seen as a secular-minded moderate, denied media reports that the rebels have recently received arms shipments.
Croation officials have also denied reports by local media and The New York Times that arms, including machine guns, rifles and anti-tank grenades used in the Balkan wars in the 1990s have recently been sent to the Syrian rebels.
"These reports are all untrue. Our fighters are suffering from a severe shortage in weapons and ammunition," Idris said.
"The only weapons we have are the ones we are getting from inside Syria and the weapons we are capturing from the Syrian military," he said.
Idris spoke from northern Syria where fierce clashes continued between government forces and rebels attacking a police academy near Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial hub.
Rebels backed by captured tanks have been trying to storm the police academy outside the city since launching a new offensive there last week. Activists say the academy, which has become a key front in the wider fight for Aleppo, has been turned into a military base used to shell rebel-held neighborhoods in the city and the surrounding countryside.
The Syrian state news agency said Friday that government troops defending the school had killed dozens of opposition fighters and destroyed five rebel vehicles.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group also reported heavy fighting Friday around the school, and said there were several rebel casualties without providing an exact figure.
The Observatory said clashes were still raging around Aleppo's landmark 12th century Umayyad Mosque in the walled Old City, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The mosque was heavily damaged in October 2012 just weeks after a fire gutted the old city's famed medieval market.
There were conflicting reports about whether the rebels had managed to sweep regime troops out of the mosque and take full control of the holy site.
Mohammed al-Khatib of the Aleppo Media Center activist group said the mosque was in rebel hands, although clashes were still raging in the area.
"The regime forces left lots of ammunition in it (the mosque) with guns and rocket-propelled grenades," he said via Skype.
Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said rebels have been in control of at least half of the mosque for days, but he could not confirm that they now had captured the entire grounds.
Near the capital, Damascus, activists said the bodies of 10 men ? most of them shot in the head ? were found dumped on the side of a road between the suburbs of Adra and Dumair.
Such incidents have become a frequent occurrence in Syria's conflict, which the U.N. says has killed nearly 70,000 people since March 2011.
Also on Friday, a spokesman for a Kurdish group in northern Syria said it had reached a deal with the leaders of the Syrian National Coalition to end infighting between rebels units in al-Hasaka province along Syria's border with Turkey.
The rebels seized control of large swathes of land in the area after they ousted government troops from military bases, border crossings and ethnically mixed villages and towns in the northeast.
The opposition's gains, however, have been marred by weeks of deadly infighting between Kurdish and other Syrian rebel groups over liberated territory.
Xebat Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish Popular Protection Units, or YPG, said a deal was reached late Thursday to end the infighting and unite behind a common goal, which is to oust Assad from power.
"From now on, the Syrian rebels will fight together with the YPG against the regime," Ibrahim told The Associated Press on Friday.
According to the agreement, the Syrian rebels will retreat from Kurdish areas in northern Syria. In return, Kurdish fighters are to battle alongside rebels units fighting the regime's troops anywhere in the Kurdish-dominated region of Syria, Ibrahim said.
___
Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas and Ben Hubbard in Beirut and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebel-chief-pleads-weapons-143853633.html
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Friday, March 1, 2013
New model could lead to improved treatment for early stage Alzheimer's
Feb. 28, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of Florida and The Johns Hopkins University have developed a line of genetically altered mice that model the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease. This model may help scientists identify new therapies to provide relief to patients who are beginning to experience symptoms.
The researchers report their findings in the current issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
"The development of this model could help scientists identify new ways to enhance brain function in patients in the early stages of the disease," said David Borchelt, UF professor of neuroscience in the Evelyn F. and William L. McKnight Brain Institute and director of the SantaFe HealthCare Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. "Such therapies could preserve brain function longer and delay the appearance of more severe symptoms that leave patients unable to care for themselves."
In the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, people struggle with and fail to learn new games, rules or technologies because their cognitive flexibility decreases. The degenerative disease continues with memory loss and the decline of other brain functions.
The researchers worked with mice that had specially designed gene fragments derived from bacteria and from humans that allowed the investigators to control the production of a small peptide. The peptide, called amyloid beta peptide, is a short chain of amino acids. Accumulations of this particular peptide in the brain as lesions called plaques occur early in the progression of Alzheimer's disease and seem to trigger the early memory problems.
The team regulated the expression of the peptide using antibiotics -- when the animals stopped taking the antibiotic, the peptide-producing gene turned on and caused the mice to develop the plaques found in Alzheimer's patients. After the mice had developed the Alzheimer pathology, the researchers turned the gene back off and observed that the mice showed persistent memory problems that resemble the early stages of the disease.
"This model may be useful to researchers to test drugs that could help with symptoms of early stage Alzheimer's disease," Borchelt said.This research is funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health, and the SantaFe HealthCare Alzheimer's Disease Research Center of the University of Florida.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Florida. The original article was written by Melissa Blouin.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- T. Melnikova, S. Fromholt, H. Kim, D. Lee, G. Xu, A. Price, B. D. Moore, T. E. Golde, K. M. Felsenstein, A. Savonenko, D. R. Borchelt. Reversible Pathologic and Cognitive Phenotypes in an Inducible Model of Alzheimer-Amyloidosis. Journal of Neuroscience, 2013; 33 (9): 3765 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4251-12.2013
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/tCFBv-uQMQw/130228171502.htm
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Benedict promises obedience to successor
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI promised his "unconditional reverence and obedience" to his successor on Thursday in a poignant and powerful fares well speech to cardinals delivered hours before he becomes the first pontiff in 600 years to resign.
In an unexpected address inside the Vatican's frescoed Clementine Hall, the pope appeared to be trying to defuse concerns about his future role and the possible conflicts arising from the peculiar situation of having both a reigning pope and a retired one.
Benedict also gave a final set of instructions to the "princes" of the church who will elect his successor, urging them to be united as they huddle to choose the 266th leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics.
"May the College of Cardinals work like an orchestra, where diversity ? an expression of the universal church ? always works toward a higher and harmonious agreement," he said.
It was seen as a clear reference to the deep internal divisions that have come to the fore in recent months following the leaks of sensitive Vatican documents that exposed power struggles and allegations of corruption inside the Vatican.
The moment inside the Apostolic Palace was as unique as Benedict's decision to quit, with the 85-year-old pope, wearing his crimson velvet cape and using a cane, bidding farewell to his closest advisers and the cardinals themselves bowing to kiss his fisherman's ring for the last time.
Some seemed to choke up at that moment, and a few lingered on to chat with the pope for as long as they could. But the scene seemed otherwise almost normal, with cardinals chatting on the sidelines waiting their turn to say goodbye.
It was Benedict's last formal audience inside the Vatican and came hours before he was due to depart Vatican City and fly by helicopter to the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo where at 8 p.m. his resignation becomes official.
Benedict said he would pray for the cardinals in coming days as they discuss the issues facing the church, the qualities needed in a new pope, and prepare to enter into the secret conclave to elect him.
"Among you is also the future pope, whom I today promise my unconditional reverence and obedience," Benedict told the cardinals.
Benedict's decision to live at the Vatican in retirement, be called "emeritus pope" and "Your Holiness" and wear the white cassock associated with the papacy has deepened concerns about the shadow he might cast over the next papacy.
But Benedict has tried to address those worries over the past two weeks, saying that once retired he would be "hidden from the world" and living a life of prayer.
In his final speech in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday, he said he wasn't returning to private life exactly, but rather to a new form of service to the church through prayer.
And on Thursday he went even further with his own public pledge of obedience to the new pontiff.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the pope's pledge was in keeping with this effort to "explain how he intends to live this unprecedented situation of an emeritus pope."
"He has no intention of interfering in the position or the decisions or the activity of his successor," Lombardi said. "But as every member of the church, he says fully that he recognizes the authority of the supreme pastor of the church who will be elected to succeed him."
The issue of papal obedience is important for Benedict. In his last legal document, he made new provisions for cardinals to make a formal, public pledge of obedience to the new pope at his installation Mass, in addition to the private one they traditionally make inside the Sistine Chapel immediately after he is elected.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday, Benedict will leave the palace for the last time as pontiff, head to the helipad at the top of the hill in the Vatican gardens and fly to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.
There, at 8 p.m. sharp, Benedict will become the first pontiff in 600 years to resign. The Swiss Guards standing at attention will go into the palazzo and shut the doors behind them and go off duty, their service protecting the head of the Catholic Church over ? for now.
Lombardi said the guards would change into civilian clothes and return to the Vatican barracks Thursday night. They will continue to guard the entrances of Vatican City and the pope's palace, "even if he's not there," said Cpl. Urs Breitenmoser, a Swiss Guard spokesman.
And on Monday, the cardinals are expected to begin meeting to set the date for the conclave.
Benedict's decision has been met for the most part with praise and understanding. Cardinals, Vatican officials and ordinary Catholics have rallied around him in acknowledgment of his frail state and the church's need for a strong leader.
But Sydney Cardinal George Pell has caused a stir by openly saying the resignation has been "slightly destabilizing" for the church.
In an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp., Pell noted that Benedict himself had acknowledged the shift in tradition; Benedict said Wednesday that he appreciated his decision was not only serious but "a novelty" for the church.
Pell also said the church was in sore need of a strong manager ? comments echoed by several cardinals who have noted the 30-year reign of two popes who paid scant attention to the internal governance of the church.
The Vatican tried to downplay Pell's comments, saying it wouldn't respond to individual cardinals and urging the media not to take advantage of churchmen who, he said, aren't necessarily media savvy.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/benedict-promises-obedience-successor-103211313.html
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Coroner to examine UK bid to keep Litvinenko details secret
LONDON (Reuters) - A British coroner said on Wednesday he would consider in secret sensitive information which the British government does not want made public about the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered in London in 2006.
Litvinenko, who had been granted British citizenship and had become a vocal critic of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, died after someone slipped polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope, into his cup of tea at a plush London hotel.
At a pre-inquest hearing on Tuesday, lawyers for the British government argued information it held should be subject to a public interest immunity certificate, preventing disclosure which they said would seriously harm national security.
The lawyer for Litvinenko's family argued Britain was trying to hide details of his work for its MI6 intelligence service, and material which showed Russia was behind his death, because London wanted to protect lucrative Russian trade deals.
The coroner, High Court judge Robert Owen, ruled he would go ahead with considering the government's request in private, but said he would only allow material to be kept secret where that served the public interest better than disclosure.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alison Williams)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/coroner-examine-uk-bid-keep-litvinenko-details-secret-105743381.html
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