ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) ? Research involving scientists at The University of Nottingham has taken us a step closer to breeding hardier crops that can better adapt to different environmental conditions and fight off attack from parasites.
In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), the researchers have shown that they can alter root growth in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, or thale cress, by controlling an important regulatory protein.
Dr Ive De Smet, a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) David Phillips Fellow in the University's Division of Plant and Crop Science, said: "The world's population is increasing, and a new green revolution is even more pressing to deliver global food security. To achieve this, optimising the root system of plants is essential and these recent results will contribute significantly to our goal of improving crop growth and yield under varying environmental conditions."
The work was carried out by an international team of researchers. Led by scientists from the Plant Systems Biology Department in the life sciences research institute VIB in Flanders, Belgium, and Ghent University, the study also involved experts from Wake Forest University in the US and the Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences in Germany.
Plant root biology is essential for healthy plant growth and, while the so-called hidden half of the plant has often been overlooked, its importance is becoming increasingly recognised by scientists.
Despite this, particularly in view of the critical role plants play in global food security, improving plant growth by modulating the biological architecture of root systems is an area which is largely unexplored.
In this latest research, the scientists modulated levels of the protein, transcription factor WRKY23, in plants, analysed the effects on root development and used chemical profiling to demonstrate that this key factor controls the biosynthesis of important metabolites called flavonols.
Altered levels of flavonols affected the distribution of auxin, a plant hormone controlling many aspects of development, which resulted in impaired root growth.
The results of the research can now be used to produce new plant lines, such as crops which are economically valuable, which have an improved root system, making them better able to resist environmental changes which could lead to plant damage or poor yield.
In addition, WRKY23 was previously found to play a role in the way plants interact with types of nematode parasites, which could lead to further research into how to prevent attacks from the creatures during the early stages of plant growth.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Nottingham, via AlphaGalileo.
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Journal Reference:
W. Grunewald, I. De Smet, D. R. Lewis, C. Lofke, L. Jansen, G. Goeminne, R. Vanden Bossche, M. Karimi, B. De Rybel, B. Vanholme, T. Teichmann, W. Boerjan, M. C. E. Van Montagu, G. Gheysen, G. K. Muday, J. Friml, T. Beeckman. Transcription factor WRKY23 assists auxin distribution patterns during Arabidopsis root development through local control on flavonol biosynthesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1121134109
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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Entry point for hepatitis C infection identifiedPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeanne Galatzer-Levy jgala@uic.edu 312-996-1583 University of Illinois at Chicago
A molecule embedded in the membrane of human liver cells that aids in cholesterol absorption also allows the entry of hepatitis C virus, the first step in hepatitis C infection, according to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
The cholesterol receptor offers a promising new target for anti-viral therapy, for which an approved drug may already exist, say the researchers, whose findings were reported online in advance of publication in Nature Medicine.
An estimated 4.1 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C virus, or HCV, which attacks the liver and leads to inflammation, according to the National Institutes of Health. Most people have no symptoms initially and may not know they have the infection until liver damage shows up decades later during routine medical tests.
Previous studies showed that cholesterol was somehow involved in HCV infection. The UIC researchers suspected that a receptor called NPC1L1, known to help maintain cholesterol balance might also be transporting the virus into the cell.
The receptor is common in the gut of many species -- but is found on liver cells only in humans and chimpanzees, says Susan Uprichard, assistant professor in medicine and microbiology and immunology and principal investigator in the study. These primates, she said, are the only animals that can be infected by HCV.
Uprichard and her coworkers showed that knocking down or blocking access to the NPC1L1 receptor prevented the virus from entering and infecting cells.
Bruno Sainz, Jr., UIC postdoctoral research associate in medicine and first author of the paper, said because the receptor is involved in cholesterol metabolism it was already well-studied. A drug that "specifically and uniquely targets NPC1L1" already exists and is approved for use to lower cholesterol levels, he said.
The FDA-approved drug ezetimibe (sold under the trade-name Zetia) is readily available and perfectly targeted to the receptor, Sainz said, so the researchers had an ideal method for testing NPC1L1's involvement in HCV infection.
They used the drug to block the receptor before, during and after inoculation with the virus, in cell culture and in a small-animal model, to evaluate the receptor's role in infection and the drug's potential as an anti-hepatitis agent.
The researchers showed that ezetimibe inhibited HCV infection in cell culture and in mice transplanted with human liver cells. And, unlike any currently available drugs, ezetimibe was able to inhibit infection by all six types of HCV.
The study, Uprichard said, opens up a number of possibilities for therapeutics.
Hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplantation in the U.S., but infected patients have problems after transplant because the virus attacks the new liver, Uprichard said.
While current drugs are highly toxic and often cannot be tolerated by transplant patients taking immunosuppressant drugs, ezetimibe is quite safe and has been used long-term without harm by people to control their cholesterol, Uprichard said. Because it prevents entry of the virus into cells, ezetimibe may help protect the new liver from infection.
For patients with chronic hepatitis C, ezetimibe may be able to be used in combination with current drugs.
"We forsee future HCV therapy as a drug-cocktail approach, like that used against AIDS," Uprichard said. "Based on cell culture and mouse model data, we expect ezetimibe, an entry inhibitor, may have tremendous synergy with current anti-HCV drugs resulting in an improvement in the effectiveness of treatment."
###
The study was supported by NIH Public Health Service grants, the American Cancer Society Research Scholar grant, the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science NIH grant, the UIC Council to Support Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, and a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.
Naina Barretto, Danyelle Martin, Snawar Hussain, Katherine Marsh and Xuemei Yu, of UIC; Nobuhiko Hiraga, Michio Imamura and Kazuaki Chayama, of Hiroshima University in Japan; and Waddah Alrefai of UIC and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago also contributed to the study.
[Editor's Note: Images available at newsphoto.lib.uic.edu/v/uprichard/]
For more information about the University of Illinois Medical Center, visit www.uillinoismedcenter.org
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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.
Entry point for hepatitis C infection identifiedPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jeanne Galatzer-Levy jgala@uic.edu 312-996-1583 University of Illinois at Chicago
A molecule embedded in the membrane of human liver cells that aids in cholesterol absorption also allows the entry of hepatitis C virus, the first step in hepatitis C infection, according to research at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
The cholesterol receptor offers a promising new target for anti-viral therapy, for which an approved drug may already exist, say the researchers, whose findings were reported online in advance of publication in Nature Medicine.
An estimated 4.1 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C virus, or HCV, which attacks the liver and leads to inflammation, according to the National Institutes of Health. Most people have no symptoms initially and may not know they have the infection until liver damage shows up decades later during routine medical tests.
Previous studies showed that cholesterol was somehow involved in HCV infection. The UIC researchers suspected that a receptor called NPC1L1, known to help maintain cholesterol balance might also be transporting the virus into the cell.
The receptor is common in the gut of many species -- but is found on liver cells only in humans and chimpanzees, says Susan Uprichard, assistant professor in medicine and microbiology and immunology and principal investigator in the study. These primates, she said, are the only animals that can be infected by HCV.
Uprichard and her coworkers showed that knocking down or blocking access to the NPC1L1 receptor prevented the virus from entering and infecting cells.
Bruno Sainz, Jr., UIC postdoctoral research associate in medicine and first author of the paper, said because the receptor is involved in cholesterol metabolism it was already well-studied. A drug that "specifically and uniquely targets NPC1L1" already exists and is approved for use to lower cholesterol levels, he said.
The FDA-approved drug ezetimibe (sold under the trade-name Zetia) is readily available and perfectly targeted to the receptor, Sainz said, so the researchers had an ideal method for testing NPC1L1's involvement in HCV infection.
They used the drug to block the receptor before, during and after inoculation with the virus, in cell culture and in a small-animal model, to evaluate the receptor's role in infection and the drug's potential as an anti-hepatitis agent.
The researchers showed that ezetimibe inhibited HCV infection in cell culture and in mice transplanted with human liver cells. And, unlike any currently available drugs, ezetimibe was able to inhibit infection by all six types of HCV.
The study, Uprichard said, opens up a number of possibilities for therapeutics.
Hepatitis C is the leading cause for liver transplantation in the U.S., but infected patients have problems after transplant because the virus attacks the new liver, Uprichard said.
While current drugs are highly toxic and often cannot be tolerated by transplant patients taking immunosuppressant drugs, ezetimibe is quite safe and has been used long-term without harm by people to control their cholesterol, Uprichard said. Because it prevents entry of the virus into cells, ezetimibe may help protect the new liver from infection.
For patients with chronic hepatitis C, ezetimibe may be able to be used in combination with current drugs.
"We forsee future HCV therapy as a drug-cocktail approach, like that used against AIDS," Uprichard said. "Based on cell culture and mouse model data, we expect ezetimibe, an entry inhibitor, may have tremendous synergy with current anti-HCV drugs resulting in an improvement in the effectiveness of treatment."
###
The study was supported by NIH Public Health Service grants, the American Cancer Society Research Scholar grant, the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science NIH grant, the UIC Council to Support Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease, and a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.
Naina Barretto, Danyelle Martin, Snawar Hussain, Katherine Marsh and Xuemei Yu, of UIC; Nobuhiko Hiraga, Michio Imamura and Kazuaki Chayama, of Hiroshima University in Japan; and Waddah Alrefai of UIC and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago also contributed to the study.
[Editor's Note: Images available at newsphoto.lib.uic.edu/v/uprichard/]
For more information about the University of Illinois Medical Center, visit www.uillinoismedcenter.org
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Andrew Myers admyers@stanford.edu 650-736-2245 Stanford School of Engineering
Stanford University Unstructured is an open-source software package that gives advanced engineering students a crucial leg up on the time-consuming process of writing their own code to optimize aerospace designs
Each fall at technical universities across the world, a new crop of aeronautical and astronautical engineering graduate students settle in for the work that will consume them for the next several years. For many, their first experience in these early months is not with titanium or aluminum or advanced carbon-fiber materials that are the stuff of airplanes, but with computer code.
Thanks to a team of engineers in the Aerospace Design Lab at Stanford University, however, those days of coding may soon go the way of the biplane. At a recent demonstration, the Stanford team debuted "Stanford University Unstructured" (SU2), an open-source application that models the effects of fluids moving over aerodynamic surfaces such as fuselages, hulls, propellers, rotors, wings, rockets and re-entry vehicles.
Dubbed SU2 for short, the application incorporates everything engineers need to perform a complete design loop for optimizing the shapes of aerospace systems. While commercial programs offering similar capabilities are available, they can be prohibitively expensive. SU2, on the other hand, can be downloaded for free from the lab's website.
In engineering circles, the discipline is known as computational fluid dynamics, or CFD. Creating custom software applications to accurately model the interactions of an object in flight can take months, even years, to write and perfect. And yet, when the student graduates, the software is often forgotten.
"These are incredibly complex calculations involving innumerable variables," said Tom Taylor, a doctoral candidate who studies the dynamics of fluid flows beyond the sound barrier. "Essentially, every student has to create their own code for their specific designs, even though the equations at the core are virtually identical."
Brainchild
SU2 is the product of a team led by research associate Francisco Palacios, in the Aerospace Design Lab, who works on complex simulations of the propulsion systems in hypersonic vehicles.
Palacios witnessed all the coding the students around him were doing and, realizing that much of it was built upon a common foundation, decided to combine their work. Palacios, together with lab director Juan Alonso, then led a team of multi-disciplinary engineers in compiling, debugging and documenting the application that became SU2.
"The commercially available software is out of reach for most students," said Palacios, "and does not allow for modifications to the source code that are needed for doctoral-level research. It occurred to us that all this time and effort could be combined and packaged to allow students to focus more on their research problems and less on writing code."
Dynamic applications
Fluid dynamics applies to any three-dimensional structure moving through a medium, including air, water, chemicals and even blood.
"People can use this for everything from rockets to the design of more efficient wind turbines, and even boats, racecars and more," said PhD candidate Sean Copeland, who specializes in re-entry of space vehicles.
"Just plug in the geometry of your plane or wing or rotor, and tell the program to increase lift or reduce drag, for instance," said Tom Economon, a doctoral student working on efficient and quiet engine design. "SU2 goes to work, optimizing the shape for you in an automated way, showing you exactly where to alter your designs for maximum effect."
"I often work on modeling plasmas," said PhD candidate Amrita Lonkar, who studies flow control over wind turbines. "It was really easy so easy to modify the program for my research. For me, it reduced about a year's worth of work to just four months."
Open source, open possibilities
SU2 is a freely customizable software package. In true open-source fashion, developers, designers and engineers are encouraged to make the software their own, customizing the application to fit their needs.
"We welcome corrections, additions and improvements to our application," said Palacios. "They help everyone."
Of all SU2's many virtues, however, the most promising is perhaps its documentation, including a quick-start guide and in-depth tutorials. Absent or inadequate documentation is a problem that plagues many scientific computer codes.
"These materials are exhaustive and continually updated," said Taylor. "Students can hit the ground running."
Like the source code, the documentation and training are available via the website, which also includes a public forum where users and developers can seek advice and post support questions to a growing SU2 community.
"We are proud of SU2. We hope that students will use it to focus not on coding, but on their research creating better aerodynamic designs," said Palacios. "This is, after all, the real reason they came to school."
The Stanford Aerospace Design Lab is led by associate professor Juan J. Alonso and assistant professor (consulting) Karthik Duraisamy. Research associate Michael Colonno, post-doctoral researcher Jason Hicken and doctoral candidate Alejandro Campos also contributed to SU2.
###
This article was written by Andrew Myers the associate director of communications at the School of Engineering.
[ | 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.
Contact: Andrew Myers admyers@stanford.edu 650-736-2245 Stanford School of Engineering
Stanford University Unstructured is an open-source software package that gives advanced engineering students a crucial leg up on the time-consuming process of writing their own code to optimize aerospace designs
Each fall at technical universities across the world, a new crop of aeronautical and astronautical engineering graduate students settle in for the work that will consume them for the next several years. For many, their first experience in these early months is not with titanium or aluminum or advanced carbon-fiber materials that are the stuff of airplanes, but with computer code.
Thanks to a team of engineers in the Aerospace Design Lab at Stanford University, however, those days of coding may soon go the way of the biplane. At a recent demonstration, the Stanford team debuted "Stanford University Unstructured" (SU2), an open-source application that models the effects of fluids moving over aerodynamic surfaces such as fuselages, hulls, propellers, rotors, wings, rockets and re-entry vehicles.
Dubbed SU2 for short, the application incorporates everything engineers need to perform a complete design loop for optimizing the shapes of aerospace systems. While commercial programs offering similar capabilities are available, they can be prohibitively expensive. SU2, on the other hand, can be downloaded for free from the lab's website.
In engineering circles, the discipline is known as computational fluid dynamics, or CFD. Creating custom software applications to accurately model the interactions of an object in flight can take months, even years, to write and perfect. And yet, when the student graduates, the software is often forgotten.
"These are incredibly complex calculations involving innumerable variables," said Tom Taylor, a doctoral candidate who studies the dynamics of fluid flows beyond the sound barrier. "Essentially, every student has to create their own code for their specific designs, even though the equations at the core are virtually identical."
Brainchild
SU2 is the product of a team led by research associate Francisco Palacios, in the Aerospace Design Lab, who works on complex simulations of the propulsion systems in hypersonic vehicles.
Palacios witnessed all the coding the students around him were doing and, realizing that much of it was built upon a common foundation, decided to combine their work. Palacios, together with lab director Juan Alonso, then led a team of multi-disciplinary engineers in compiling, debugging and documenting the application that became SU2.
"The commercially available software is out of reach for most students," said Palacios, "and does not allow for modifications to the source code that are needed for doctoral-level research. It occurred to us that all this time and effort could be combined and packaged to allow students to focus more on their research problems and less on writing code."
Dynamic applications
Fluid dynamics applies to any three-dimensional structure moving through a medium, including air, water, chemicals and even blood.
"People can use this for everything from rockets to the design of more efficient wind turbines, and even boats, racecars and more," said PhD candidate Sean Copeland, who specializes in re-entry of space vehicles.
"Just plug in the geometry of your plane or wing or rotor, and tell the program to increase lift or reduce drag, for instance," said Tom Economon, a doctoral student working on efficient and quiet engine design. "SU2 goes to work, optimizing the shape for you in an automated way, showing you exactly where to alter your designs for maximum effect."
"I often work on modeling plasmas," said PhD candidate Amrita Lonkar, who studies flow control over wind turbines. "It was really easy so easy to modify the program for my research. For me, it reduced about a year's worth of work to just four months."
Open source, open possibilities
SU2 is a freely customizable software package. In true open-source fashion, developers, designers and engineers are encouraged to make the software their own, customizing the application to fit their needs.
"We welcome corrections, additions and improvements to our application," said Palacios. "They help everyone."
Of all SU2's many virtues, however, the most promising is perhaps its documentation, including a quick-start guide and in-depth tutorials. Absent or inadequate documentation is a problem that plagues many scientific computer codes.
"These materials are exhaustive and continually updated," said Taylor. "Students can hit the ground running."
Like the source code, the documentation and training are available via the website, which also includes a public forum where users and developers can seek advice and post support questions to a growing SU2 community.
"We are proud of SU2. We hope that students will use it to focus not on coding, but on their research creating better aerodynamic designs," said Palacios. "This is, after all, the real reason they came to school."
The Stanford Aerospace Design Lab is led by associate professor Juan J. Alonso and assistant professor (consulting) Karthik Duraisamy. Research associate Michael Colonno, post-doctoral researcher Jason Hicken and doctoral candidate Alejandro Campos also contributed to SU2.
###
This article was written by Andrew Myers the associate director of communications at the School of Engineering.
[ | 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.
This unusual blackbird is attracting bird watchers to a Nottinghamshire country park.
The bird is leucistic, which is a genetic mutation that prevents pigments from being deposited normally in its feathers.
It has been residing for the last four years in the woodland of Rufford Abbey Country Park.
Each year, observers say, it has steadily shed its black feathers for white feathers.
Continue reading the main story
Ghostly plumage
Leucism is often confused with the rarer condition albinism, a genetic condition that prevents the production of melanin in the body; in leucism, these colouring chemicals are present in the body, but are not deposited in feathers
Some colours in birds' plumage come from other pigments such as carotenoids, so birds can be albinistic and still have some colour
Leucistic birds may be completely white and still have melanin in their bodies; as for this blackbird, such animals will have dark eyes and white feathers
Albino birds and animals also have pink eyes, as the only colour in the eyes comes from the blood vessels behind the eyes
Park rangers took this picture of the blackbird - which is now completely white with no visible pigmented feathers - in the summer of 2011.
Leucistic birds are often very vulnerable to predators, because of their bright white plumage. So the park's managers are urging birdwatchers to keep an eye out for this unusual blackbird.
Site manager John Clegg said: "This bird has been steadily turning whiter over the years and last summer it was completely white.
"It has become quite a character at the park in recent years.
"It tends to appear in the warmer months and we have not seen it for a few months but hope it will return here soon."
Most leucistic birds have some spots or patches of colouration in their feathers from other pigments, so this is a particularly unusual specimen.
I unscrew the top of the small, clouded vial in front of me, and siphon a few drops of the smoky-smelling liquid inside into a dropper before dabbing them on my wrist. I lick, and the burning sensation strikes instantly. Just as I begin to think, "My god, what have I done?" it backs off, leaving only a subtle smolder. More »
We know you've got questions, and if you're brave enough to ask the world for answers, here's the outlet to do so. This week's Ask Engadget inquiry is from Nish, who needs to replace his voicemail to SMS/email system due to Ribbit Mobile's forthcoming closure. If you're looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.
"Hi there, I've been using Ribbit Mobile for the past few years for voicemail -- the voicemail to SMS/email function is brilliant. However, the beta trial is ending on the 31st January with no immediate plans to go live. Do you know of any UK-based alternatives for voicemail to SMS/email systems I can switch to? Thanks!"
So guys, come help out a brother from the motherland with your suggestions for digital telephony transcription, any Brits out there find Google Voice to be the answer? Is there something only a few of you know about that'll change the world? If you're in an animal home, sat down on your own, why not share your knowledge in the comments below.
Chinese dissident writer Yu Jie speaks to the media during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.on Wednesday.
By Ed Flanagan, NBC News
BEIJING ? Last week Chinese dissident author Yu Jie fled to the United States to avoid what he described as further ?inhumane treatment? by the government.
Now Yu, 38, is speaking out about his experience in detention during a sensitive time in China?s recent human rights history: the 2010 awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to his friend and fellow dissident, Liu Xiaobo.
Yu is a best-selling author who began producing literary works at age 13 and eventually rose to become vice president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center from 2005-2007. A devout Christian, Yu visited President George W. Bush in 2006 and was acknowledged for his work on behalf of underground Christian and Roman Catholic house church practitioners in China who worship in private out of fear or imprisonment by the authorities.
Besides religious freedom, Yu has also often publicly criticized the Communist party on other issues and was one of 10 prominent Chinese social activists whom we profiled in 2010 ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize.
During his years of activism, Yu was frequently detained for his writing ? most notably, his 2010 book ?China?s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao,? which was published in Hong Kong and took a negative view of the mainland?s prime minister. The book quickly drew the ire of officials and led to his temporary home detention in Beijing.
In October 2010, Yu was placed under house arrest again five days after Liu Xiaobo?s Nobel Prize win was announced. This time, his computer, phone and other communication devices were confiscated.
At a press conference Wednesday in Washington, Yu described the tight security around his house at the time as being ?like a dragnet.? He explained: ?Four plainclothes policemen watched the entrance to my home 24 hours a day, even pressing a table against the main door and installing six cameras and infrared detectors at the front and back of my house.?
In the weeks and days leading up to the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo, state security officers worked to quietly roundup social activists and dissidents who could potentially embarrass China. Yu was detained on Dec. 9, 2010, one day before the official Nobel ceremony in Oslo.???
The final moments after Yu was hauled from his home to a waiting police car were brutal, he says.? ?Over a dozen plainclothes officers and several cars were waiting there,? Yu recalled at the press conference in D.C. ?Immediately, two burly men charged at me, slapping the glasses from my face and covering my head with a black hood, and then forcing me into the back of a car.?
Yu was driven to an undisclosed location, where he says he was stripped naked and made to kneel while officers took turns delivering blows to his head and body and stomping him when he was on the ground.
?They forced me to kneel and slapped me over a hundred times in the face,? said Yu. ?They even forced me to slap myself. They would be satisfied only when they heard the slapping sound, and laughed madly.?
All the while, police hurled verbal abuse at Yu and continually called him a traitor for writing articles attacking the Communist Party. Yu also recalled police officers taking photos of him naked and periodically threatening to post them on the Internet to humiliate him.
When Yu finally collapsed unconscious, police took him to a hospital and were said to have told hospital staff that he was epileptic. He was eventually released after he promised state security that he would not talk to foreign journalists about his detention.
Government officials have not publicly commented on Yu?s account of events.
An ?exile at heart? Yu and his wife and young son were allowed to leave China last week, bringing to an end his near decade-long ban from publishing.
In a telephone interview with Reuters after his arrival last Friday, Yu did not say whether he formally sought asylum in the United States for himself or his family. He had visited the U.S. many times before and said authorities had warned him to keep quiet ahead of this latest trip.??
For their part, the U.S. State Department denied having an active role in bringing Yu here. In answer to a question about Yu?s arrival in country during a regular press briefing last week, the State Department responded: ?We are aware of reports of Mr. Yu?s arrival to the United States. We have not had any contact with Chinese officials about his reported arrival.?
Still, if Yu had been warned by the Chinese about being outspoken on his arrival here, he seems to have ignored them. During his prepared remarks in Washington. Yu looked back on what he sees as a deteriorating environment of free speech in China:?
?During the Jiang Zemin era [1989-2002], I had been able to publish some of my works in China ? there was still a certain space for free speech in China. After Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao took power in 2004, I was totally blocked. Since that time, no media in mainland China would print a single word by me, and articles by others which mentioned my name would be deleted. Though I was physically in China, I became an ?exile at heart? and a ?non-existent person? in the public space.?
The Chinese government?s refusal to publish anything about Yu Jie in state publications has manifested itself in the seeming indifference to his release by the general public. On Sina Weibo, China?s Twitter-like service, there were posts about Yu, underscoring again the effectiveness of China?s propaganda and censoring mechanisms.
Censoring discussion of Yu Jie?s next work though may prove to be more problematic: Yu is soon planning to release a biography about Liu Xiaobo that has been authorized by Liu?s wife.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? NASA's retired space shuttle Atlantis is a step closer to completing its final journey.
The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida broke ground Wednesday for the permanent home of Atlantis. The $100 million exhibit will open in summer 2013.
The astronaut who commanded Atlantis' final spaceflight, Christopher Ferguson, was among the more than 100 guests at the ceremony.
Shuttle Discovery will actually be the first to ship out to museums. In April, it will head to the National Air and Space Museum's display hangar outside Washington. Shuttle Endeavour will travel some months later to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.
NASA's 30-year shuttle program ended last July with the voyage of Atlantis.
France's President Nicola Sarkozy, center, gestures a he talks to workers as at a factory of the Groupe SEB, a leading worldwide manufacturer of small domestic appliances and cookware in Pont-Eveque, central France, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
France's President Nicola Sarkozy, center, gestures a he talks to workers as at a factory of the Groupe SEB, a leading worldwide manufacturer of small domestic appliances and cookware in Pont-Eveque, central France, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
PARIS (AP) ? An unpopular leader entangled in an unpopular war that he once staunchly defended, President Nicolas Sarkozy is suddenly considering a pullout of French troops from Afghanistan as another kind of campaign approaches: For his own re-election.
The killing Friday of four French troops by one of their Afghan trainees upended Sarkozy's counterterrorism strategy, leading him to immediately suspend France's training program and joint military patrols and raise the prospect of an accelerated pullout from Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is not at the center of France's presidential race, which culminates in a two-round vote in April and May. But for Sarkozy, the war looms as uncomfortable background noise amid wider French public concerns about swelling state debts and joblessness at its highest in over a decade.
On Afghanistan, he's been on the defensive: Francois Hollande, the Socialist nominee for the presidential election, wants a pullout soon ? a position supported by most French, according to polls.
Sarkozy has not formally announced whether he will run, but nearly all political observers expect he will. Polls show him trailing Hollande, and he has widely been seen as battling on all fronts to boost his lagging popularity.
A brash and impulsive leader, Sarkozy has had several successes in the international arena ? notably with French interventions in countries like Libya and Ivory Coast. But he has struggled to parlay them into political capital at a time when pocketbook issues are on the minds of most French.
Sarkozy, who took office in 2007, inherited France's participation in Afghanistan long after it began with the international coalition a decade ago, but repeatedly invoked it as important to helping keep France safe.
Time after time, as French soldiers fell in combat on Afghan land ? including 26 last year alone ? Sarkozy insisted France wouldn't walk away from the fight. He pegged the eventual French withdrawal from Afghanistan to President Barack Obama's planned pullout timetable for U.S. troops of 2014.
After Friday's shootings, France may now break ranks on that.
Speaking to French diplomats Friday, Sarkozy said that if security conditions for the country's troops in Afghanistan cannot be restored, "then the question of an early withdrawal of the French army would arise."
He said French troops were in Afghanistan to help Afghans fight terrorism and the Taliban, and "The French army is not in Afghanistan so that Afghan soldiers can shoot at them."
Parsing Sarkozy's comments, strategic affairs analyst Francois Heisbourg said: "I think it's pretty clear that this is a prelude to anticipated withdrawal, without waiting for 2014."
The killings ? one of the deadliest single days for French troops in Afghanistan ? was the second time in a month that they'd been killed by Afghan soldiers. It revived concerns of an increased Taliban infiltration of the Afghan police and army.
The killings led Sarkozy to quickly rethink his Afghan policy.
"My hunch is that he was reeling from the blow," said Heisbourg, who heads the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank in Paris. "It's not only four soldiers killed, a large number of guys were wounded. The whole 'business model' is being upset ? if we were talking in business terms."
Sarkozy, who prides himself as a man of action, immediately ordered his defense minister and military chief of staff to Afghanistan to investigate the killings and wounding of 15 other French troops ? eight of them seriously.
France's foreign minister sought to give his boss some political cover.
"In the face of such moving tragedies like the one we are experiencing today ... considerations about how it counts or not in the electoral campaign don't cross our minds," Alain Juppe told reporters.
The U.S. has praised France's role in Afghanistan ? Paris provides the fourth-largest contingent to the campaign. Many pundits said Obama, who is wildly popular in France, did Sarkozy a favor by appearing in a joint French TV interview after the G-20 summit in November and praising France's military roles in Libya, within the NATO structure, and Afghanistan.
Sarkozy, an unapologetic, longtime admirer of the U.S., said then: "when the Americans had troubles in Afghanistan, we needed to be at their sides ? because if not, we're not friends, we're not allies."
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney called France "an excellent and valued member" in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, but declined to address possible French decisions about their future role there.
Hollande, the Socialist nominee, wasted little time taking to French airwaves to reiterate his line on Afghanistan: That France has done its job, and needs to bring its troops home by year-end.
"It's time ? more than time ? to start our withdrawal that will be seen not as abandoning a mission launched in 2001, but an end to an intervention that has today reached its goal and has no reason to be extended," Hollande said. He pledged to coordinate a French pullout with NATO allies and Afghan authorities.
Earlier in the Afghan campaign, as the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush focused on using hard power to crush the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies, France took a different tack. It advocated a NATO focus on training for Afghan soldiers and police, and building up civil society.
Under Sarkozy, France reached its peak deployment in Afghanistan in 2010 ? about 4,000 troops. France has lost 82 soldiers in the country since 2001, more than one-third of them last year alone.
The main French role in the NATO mission has been to help ensure security in an area northeast of Kabul, the capital. About 3,600 French troops now take part in the NATO-led operations, down about 10 percent from late last year in sync with a gradual U.S. drawdown.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The top Democratic member of a congressional oversight panel turned up the heat on its Republican chairman on Tuesday to identify the four GOP lawmakers who got special treatment in the controversial "Friends of Angelo" mortgage program run by the now-defunct Countrywide Financial Corp.
Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter on Tuesday to the panel's chairman, Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, in which he pressed for disclosure of all four GOP congressmen's names. In the letter, Cummings took issue with how Issa has handled the investigation into the Countrywide VIP loan program.
"In response to your subpoena, the Committee obtained information about four previously unknown instances in which Members of Congress received VIP loans, including three current Republican House Members and one former Republican House Member. After discovering that all of these Members are Republicans, you sent a letter on December 16, 2011, referring their cases to the House Ethics Committee," Cummings wrote in the letter dated January 17th to Issa.
The "Friends of Angelo" program's name refers to Angelo Mozilo, the former chairman and CEO of Countrywide, the California-based lender that became a dominant player in the mortgage business during the housing boom. In October 2010, Mozilo agreed to pay $67.5 million in a combined penalty and "disgorgement of ill-gotten gains" to settle SEC charges of fraud and insider trading related to Countrywide's risky subprime mortgage lending practices. At the time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the $22.5 million fine was the largest ever paid in an SEC settlement by a senior executive of a publicly traded company.
Issa has waged a high-profile campaign for three years to obtain mortgage files of members of Congress who received special treatment from Countrywide.
POTENTIAL FOR A POLITICAL FIRESTORM
Disclosures about members of Congress getting discounted loans and other financial perks have the potential for a huge backlash in an election year.
Veteran GOP Representatives Howard McKeon and Elton Gallegly, both Republicans of California, have admitted their names are on a list of members of the U.S. House of Representatives who received discounted loans from Countrywide, according to the Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Cummings criticized Issa for reversing course during the investigation after previously saying he would disclose the names of any lawmakers who received VIP loans. Instead, after receiving information about four previously unknown instances of politicians winning favor from the mortgage lender last month, Issa sent the names to the House Ethics Committee.
"Since you failed to consult with me before taking these actions, I have several questions about how you want to proceed with the investigation," Cummings wrote.
The Maryland Democrat called on Issa to name the two remaining loan recipients. Cummings also wanted to know why Issa planned to interview Countrywide officials who were involved in the "Friends of Angelo" loan dealings.
"Rather than publicly identifying the four additional Members who received Countrywide loans or attempting to determine whether they took any official actions on behalf of Countrywide, you chose instead to refer their cases to the Ethics Committee," Cummings wrote.
"These sudden shifts raise key questions about how you plan to proceed with this investigation," he added.
Cummings also asked if Issa intends to schedule public hearings on the investigation and whether he will call on Mozilo to testify.
A spokesman for Issa was not immediately available for comment late on Tuesday.
After the housing bust and widespread defaults on subprime mortgages, the failing Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America in 2008.
(Reporting By Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Jan Paschal)
Liam Neeson appeared on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" on Monday night to discuss his new film "The Grey." Fallon opens the interview with a surprising glimpse back at Neeson's early career: an appearance on "Miami Vice." The 59-year-old actor also talks about the sequel to his 2008 film "Taken."
It's not easy to be a 13-year-old virtually carrying an entire film, particularly one bound for?Oscar consideration. But imagine doing that in what is essentially your first acting experience ever.
That was "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" star Thomas Horn's story: As the now 14-year-old told Jenna Bush Hager on TODAY Wednesday, he'd only appeared in a school play and, famously, on "Jeopardy!" kids' week before being cast in the role of Oskar Schell, a young, socially fearful boy whose father (played by Tom Hanks) dies at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2011.
"I would go into this little room the director had built for me off-set and I would think about how the character would feel," said Horn, a native of Oakland, Calif. "I would maybe do this for 15, 20, 30 minutes. Eventually I felt the character had entered my body and that I had left."
Hanks says Horn was a natural: "He's not a young man who has to be tricked into performing. He's very, very focused on the intentions he needs to communicate in each scene."
Still, Horn -- who has since won a Critics Choice Award for his performance -- was only 3 when the attacks took place, and needed to learn a bit more about the?events to make the role believable. He met with families who lost loved ones on 9/11, and said, "It really made a big impact on me.... In a way that's what made 9/11 real for me.... I don't remember the day, I don't really hear about it that much in my normal life, but meeting those people made me realize on an emotional level the tragedy so many have gone through."
LONDON (Reuters) ? Showbusiness reporters at Britain's Daily Mirror could have secretly engaged in phone-hacking in the past, the tabloid's editor and former showbiz editor Richard Wallace told a government-appointed inquiry on Monday.
Wallace, who took over in 2004 as editor of the Mirror, the main rival to Rupert Murdoch's Sun, told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards he was not aware of phone-hacking on the showbiz desk but did not always know the source of stories.
Asked whether phone-hacking could have been going on and hidden from him while he was showbiz editor of the Trinity Mirror-owned title from 1999-2000, Wallace replied: "It might well have been."
On the specific question of whether a 2002 story about an affair between then-England soccer manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and TV presenter Ulrika Jonsson could have come from phone-hacking, he answered: "It's possible, yes."
Wallace was head of news at the time.
The Leveson Inquiry was ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron last year at the height of a phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World that prompted Murdoch to shut down the formerly best-selling Sunday tabloid.
The focus of public outrage was at first limited to the Murdoch press but concerns have grown about other titles as the inquiry has heard details from celebrities and journalists of unsavory newsgathering practices elsewhere.
James Hipwell, who was a financial columnist for the Daily Mirror at the time, told the inquiry in December that phone-hacking had seemed to be "perfectly acceptable" to some of the senior editors.
Wallace took over as editor of the Daily Mirror after Piers Morgan, now host of a chat show in the United States, was dismissed for publishing hoax pictures that purported to show Iraqi prisoners being abused by British soldiers.
Morgan has denied phone-hacking but boasted in 2006 of having listened to a voicemail left by Beatle Paul McCartney for his future wife, Heather Mills.
Wallace said he had not heard the message nor had he heard any talk of it at the time.
Trinity Mirror has carried out a review of its editorial controls and procedures and obtained written confirmation from its senior editorial executives that they had not engaged in phone-hacking or bribery.
(Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; Editing by Steve Addison)
If you're still in the dark on SOPA, this is an excellent explainer video?from Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC?that will very quickly bring you up to speed.
Best of all, it includes a debate between?NBCUniversal Executive Vice President Richard Cotton and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian that starts about 5 minutes and 20 seconds in:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
BRUSSELS ? Inflation in the 17 countries that use the euro eased by more than expected during December, official figures showed Tuesday in a welcome development for a currency union struggling in the face of a raging debt crisis.
Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said inflation in the eurozone fell to 2.7 percent in the year to December from the previous month's 3 percent largely on the back of lower energy prices. The fall was bigger than the initial estimate of 2.8 percent.
Though inflation has been running above the European Central Bank's target of just below 2 percent, the bank cut interest rates in both November and December, taking the benchmark rate back to the joint record low of 1 percent.
The bank expects inflation to drop back further in the coming months as high unemployment keeps a lid on wage demands and last year's spike in energy and commodity prices drop out of the annual comparison.
Further cuts in the main euro interest rate, the refi rate, are widely predicted over the coming months as the eurozone economy appears to be heading back into recession in the face of a debt crisis that's dented economic confidence.
"We believe that, with the ECB feeling (relatively) at ease about inflation prospects over the medium term, it will cut the rate down to 0.50 percent," said Gustavo Bagattini, European economist at RBC Capital Markets.
WASHINGTON -- A quote inscribed in stone on the new Martin Luther King memorial will likely be changed after complaints it didn't accurately reflect the civil rights leader's words.
The King memorial opened in August with the quote: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness."
The phrase is modified from a speech King began by saying, "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice ... "
Poet Maya Angelou said the truncated version made King sound like "an arrogant twit."
MEXICO CITY ? Police have captured the man who allegedly ran the Zetas drug gang in three northern Mexican states and who is suspected in the killing of a U.S. immigration agent, authorities announced Friday.
Soldiers and local police captured Luis Jesus Sarabia in Garcia, a town in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, said Army spokesman Gen. Ricardo Trevilla.
Trevilla said Sarabia is a confidant of top Zeta leader Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and Miguel Angel Trevino and was in charge of operations in the states of Coahuila, Aguascalientes and San Luis Potosi, Trevilla said.
Gunmen in February attacked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila as they drove on a highway in San Luis Potosi. Zapata was killed and Avila injured.
Trevilla said Sarabia was captured on Wednesday without a shot fired. Sarabia, whose face was bruised and body shaking, was shown to the media Friday along with another man detained with him.
He is suspected in at least 50 killings, most involving members of a rival cartel.
Bieber tweets that he hit the studio with the Black Eyed Peas rapper for his 2012 album. By Jocelyn Vena
Justin Bieber Photo: WireImage
He's already teased that Drake and Kanye West may make appearances on his next album, and on Thursday, Justin Bieber confirmed that another music industry heavyweight will be assisting him on Believe.
Letting his fans know on Twitter that he's "gonna make that," the Black Eyed Peas frontman hyped up the collaboration further when he added, "let's make a hit tomorrow!! #collab. 'I gotta feeling this song is ganne be bigger than huge' #willpower."
The news comes as Bieber is deep in the studio working on his highly anticipated 2012 release. The team-up should make for an interesting track for the teen star. With Bieber hoping to recapture some of that Justin Timberlake/Timbaland magic from Timberlake's Future Sex/Love Sounds, will could bring some of that frenetic pop energy to Bieber's own work.
Last year, will made headlines when he worked with Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale song, "Big Fat Bass."
Earlier this week, Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun, teased that what he's heard of Believe has been "ridiculous." Bieber will turn 18 in March, and his team is hoping to bridge the gap between the boy we met on "Baby" and the man he's growing up to be.
"The only conversation we've had about Justin's album that we're about to do is it's really important that it's the proper transition, because we've seen him [with] 'Baby,' now we're watching him grow up," Bieber's longtime vocal producer, Kuk Harrell, told MTV News in November. "And we can't just throw him into the adult game right away. It has to be the proper transition. There's a record in between."
Are you excited for Justin Bieber's collabo with will.i.am? Let us know in the comments!
It's been quite a while since we've seen a new Classmate PC from the folks at CTL, but the company's now back at CES with a pair of new models. Those include the 2go Classmate PC NL3 convertible tablet (above), and the 2go Classmate PC E12, which takes on a more traditional laptop form-factor. Both models pack a 10.1-inch screen (with the NL3 employing a resistive touchscreen to accommodate a stylus), and each boast some relatively similar specs across the board, including a 1.6GHz Atom N2600 processor, 1GB of RAM, and your choice of either a standard hard drive or SSD for storage -- plus the same ruggedness found on the company's earlier Classmate PCs. Look for both to be available early next month, with the NL3 starting at $499 and the E12 coming in at $349. Videos of each are after the break.
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Public release date: 24-Jan-2012
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