WTO: China unfairly limits export of raw materials

GENEVA (AP) ? The World Trade Organization ruled Monday that China unfairly limited exports of nine raw materials to protect domestic manufacturers.

A WTO appeals body rejected China's appeal of an earlier ruling in July that concluded the Asian economic powerhouse had violated international trade rules. The appeals body largely sided with the United States, European and Mexico, which had taken issue with Chinese restrictions on its exports of nine materials used widely in the steel, aluminum and chemical industries.

They had complained that China drives up prices on overseas shipments of the materials by setting export duties, quotas and licensing requirements on them, giving the country's manufacturers an unfair edge over competitors. But China had argued that its export limits were needed to protect the environment.

The ruling affects China's exports of certain forms of bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon carbide, silicon metal, yellow phosphorous and zinc. In it, the WTO appeals body says China must now "bring its export duty and export quota measures into conformity with its WTO obligations."

The issue has sparked tension with some of China's major trading partners. In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk called the ruling "a tremendous victory for the United States ? particularly its manufacturers and workers."

He called it a decision that "ensures that core manufacturing industries in this country can get the materials they need to produce and compete on a level playing field."

The European Commission said in a statement that while the case requires China to comply, the EU "continues to be deeply troubled by China's use of export restrictions" for other rare earth and industrial raw materials.

China's WTO mission in Geneva said it "deeply regrets" that the appeals body upheld major parts of the earlier panel's conclusions, but noted that some other aspects were reversed. It vowed to abide by the WTO findings.

But it explained that Chinese government had in recent years "reinforced its administration on certain resource products, especially the 'high-pollution, high-energy-consuming and resource-dependent' products" to protect the environment and conserve natural resources.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-30-EU-WTO-China-Trade/id-a2648c2f534b49f296c326336146b754

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WATCH: Ferris Bueller Returns in New Super Bowl Ad

Honda is shaking it up (baby now!) with its 2012 Super Bowl ad: an homage to the 1986 classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off. After releasing a brief teaser last week, the auto company has unleashed a two-and-a-half-minute version, which showcases Matthew Broderick semi-reprising his role as slacking superstar Ferris. Watch it below!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/matthew-broderick-revives-ferris-bueller-super-bowl-ad/1-a-423312?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Amatthew-broderick-revives-ferris-bueller-super-bowl-ad-423312

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Genetics study reveals how bacteria behind serious childhood disease evolve to evade vaccines

Public release date: 29-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Craig Brierley
c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
44-207-611-7329
Wellcome Trust

Genetics has provided surprising insights into why vaccines used in both the UK and US to combat serious childhood infections can eventually fail. The study, published today in Nature Genetics, which investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade the vaccines, has implications for how future vaccines can be made more effective.

Pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) causes potentially life-threatening diseases including pneumonia and meningitis. Pneumococcal infections are thought to kill around a million young children worldwide each year, though the success of vaccination programmes has led to a dramatic fall in the number of cases in countries such as the UK and US. These vaccines recognise the bacteria by its polysaccharide, the material found on the outside of the bacterial cell. There are over ninety different kinds or 'serotypes' of the bacteria, each with a different polysaccharide coating.

In 2000, the US introduced a pneumococcal vaccine which targeted seven of the ninety serotypes. This '7-valent' vaccine was extremely effective and had a dramatic effect on reducing disease amongst the age groups targeted. Remarkably, the vaccine has also prevented transmission from young children to adults, resulting in tens of thousands fewer cases of pneumococcal disease each year. The same vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2006 and was similarly successful.

In spite of the success of the vaccine programmes, some pneumococcal strains managed to continue to cause disease by camouflaging themselves from the vaccine. In research funded by the Wellcome Trust, scientists at the University of Oxford and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta studied what happened after the introduction of this vaccine in the US. They used the latest genomic techniques combined with epidemiology to understand how different serotypes of the pneumococcus bacteria evolve to replace those targeted by the initial vaccine.

The researchers found bacteria that had evaded the vaccine by swapping the region of the genome responsible for making the polysaccharide coating with the same region from a different serotype, not targeted by the vaccine. This effectively disguised the bacteria, making it invisible to the vaccine. This exchange of genome regions occurred during a process known as recombination, whereby one of the bacteria replaces a piece of its own DNA with a piece from another bacterial type.

Dr Rory Bowden, from the University of Oxford, explains: "Imagine that each strain of the pneumococcus bacteria is a class of schoolchildren, all wearing the school uniform. If a boy steals from his corner shop, a policeman in this case the vaccine can easily identify which school he belongs to by looking at his uniform. But if the boy swaps his sweater with a friend from another school, the policemen will no longer be able to recognise him and he can escape. This is how the pneumococcus bacteria evade detection by the vaccine."

Dr Bowden and colleagues identified a number of recombined serotypes that had managed to evade the vaccine. One in particular grew in frequency and spread across the US from east to west over several years. They also showed that during recombination, the bacteria also traded a number of other parts of the genome at the same time, a phenomenon never before observed in natural populations of pneumococcus. This is of particular concern as recombination involving multiple fragments of DNA allows rapid simultaneous exchange of key regions of the genome within the bug, potentially allowing it to quickly develop antibiotic resistance.

The original 7-valent vaccine in the US has now been replaced by a 13-valent vaccine, which targets thirteen different serotypes, including the particular type which had escaped the original vaccine. In the UK, the 7-valent vaccine resulted in a substantial drop in disease overall. This overall effect was a mixture of a large drop in frequency of the serotypes targeted by the vaccine with some growth in serotypes not targeted by the vaccine. The 13-valent vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2010.

Derrick Crook, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Oxford and Infection Control Doctor at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, adds: "Childhood vaccines are very effective at reducing disease and death at a stage in our lives when we are susceptible to serious infections. Understanding what makes a vaccine successful and what can cause it to fail is important. We should now be able to understand better what happens when a pneumococcal vaccine is introduced into a new population. Our work suggests that current strategies for developing new vaccines are largely effective but may not have long term effects that are as successful as hoped."

Dr Bernard Beall, a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commented: "The current vaccine strategy of targeting predominant pneumococcal serotypes is extremely effective, however our observations indicate that the organism will continue to adapt to this strategy with some measurable success."

The Wellcome Trust, which part-funded this research, views combating infectious disease and maximising the health benefits of genetic research as two of its strategic priorities. Dr Michael Dunn, Head of Molecular and Physiological Sciences at the Wellcome Trust commented: "New technologies allow us to rapidly sequence disease-causing organisms and see how they evolve. Coupled with collaborations with epidemiologists, we can then track how they spread and monitor the potential impact this will have on vaccine efficiency. This will provide useful lessons for vaccine implementation strategies."

###

---

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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.

Public release date: 29-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Craig Brierley
c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
44-207-611-7329
Wellcome Trust

Genetics has provided surprising insights into why vaccines used in both the UK and US to combat serious childhood infections can eventually fail. The study, published today in Nature Genetics, which investigates how bacteria change their disguise to evade the vaccines, has implications for how future vaccines can be made more effective.

Pneumococcus (Streptococcus pneumoniae) causes potentially life-threatening diseases including pneumonia and meningitis. Pneumococcal infections are thought to kill around a million young children worldwide each year, though the success of vaccination programmes has led to a dramatic fall in the number of cases in countries such as the UK and US. These vaccines recognise the bacteria by its polysaccharide, the material found on the outside of the bacterial cell. There are over ninety different kinds or 'serotypes' of the bacteria, each with a different polysaccharide coating.

In 2000, the US introduced a pneumococcal vaccine which targeted seven of the ninety serotypes. This '7-valent' vaccine was extremely effective and had a dramatic effect on reducing disease amongst the age groups targeted. Remarkably, the vaccine has also prevented transmission from young children to adults, resulting in tens of thousands fewer cases of pneumococcal disease each year. The same vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2006 and was similarly successful.

In spite of the success of the vaccine programmes, some pneumococcal strains managed to continue to cause disease by camouflaging themselves from the vaccine. In research funded by the Wellcome Trust, scientists at the University of Oxford and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta studied what happened after the introduction of this vaccine in the US. They used the latest genomic techniques combined with epidemiology to understand how different serotypes of the pneumococcus bacteria evolve to replace those targeted by the initial vaccine.

The researchers found bacteria that had evaded the vaccine by swapping the region of the genome responsible for making the polysaccharide coating with the same region from a different serotype, not targeted by the vaccine. This effectively disguised the bacteria, making it invisible to the vaccine. This exchange of genome regions occurred during a process known as recombination, whereby one of the bacteria replaces a piece of its own DNA with a piece from another bacterial type.

Dr Rory Bowden, from the University of Oxford, explains: "Imagine that each strain of the pneumococcus bacteria is a class of schoolchildren, all wearing the school uniform. If a boy steals from his corner shop, a policeman in this case the vaccine can easily identify which school he belongs to by looking at his uniform. But if the boy swaps his sweater with a friend from another school, the policemen will no longer be able to recognise him and he can escape. This is how the pneumococcus bacteria evade detection by the vaccine."

Dr Bowden and colleagues identified a number of recombined serotypes that had managed to evade the vaccine. One in particular grew in frequency and spread across the US from east to west over several years. They also showed that during recombination, the bacteria also traded a number of other parts of the genome at the same time, a phenomenon never before observed in natural populations of pneumococcus. This is of particular concern as recombination involving multiple fragments of DNA allows rapid simultaneous exchange of key regions of the genome within the bug, potentially allowing it to quickly develop antibiotic resistance.

The original 7-valent vaccine in the US has now been replaced by a 13-valent vaccine, which targets thirteen different serotypes, including the particular type which had escaped the original vaccine. In the UK, the 7-valent vaccine resulted in a substantial drop in disease overall. This overall effect was a mixture of a large drop in frequency of the serotypes targeted by the vaccine with some growth in serotypes not targeted by the vaccine. The 13-valent vaccine was introduced in the UK in 2010.

Derrick Crook, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Oxford and Infection Control Doctor at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, adds: "Childhood vaccines are very effective at reducing disease and death at a stage in our lives when we are susceptible to serious infections. Understanding what makes a vaccine successful and what can cause it to fail is important. We should now be able to understand better what happens when a pneumococcal vaccine is introduced into a new population. Our work suggests that current strategies for developing new vaccines are largely effective but may not have long term effects that are as successful as hoped."

Dr Bernard Beall, a scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention commented: "The current vaccine strategy of targeting predominant pneumococcal serotypes is extremely effective, however our observations indicate that the organism will continue to adapt to this strategy with some measurable success."

The Wellcome Trust, which part-funded this research, views combating infectious disease and maximising the health benefits of genetic research as two of its strategic priorities. Dr Michael Dunn, Head of Molecular and Physiological Sciences at the Wellcome Trust commented: "New technologies allow us to rapidly sequence disease-causing organisms and see how they evolve. Coupled with collaborations with epidemiologists, we can then track how they spread and monitor the potential impact this will have on vaccine efficiency. This will provide useful lessons for vaccine implementation strategies."

###

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/wt-gsr012612.php

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[OOC] Good ending?

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Good ending? Any thing we need to work on for next time, and KKpigs, I know I need to work on my gramer.

austyn101

Member for 1 years

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Private investors near deal on Greek debt

Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leaves Maximos Mansion after a meeting with Greek Prime minister Lucas Papademos, Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, left, and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos leave Maximos Mansion after a meeting Charles Dallara and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Charles Dallara, left and Jean Lemiere from the Institute of International Finance leave Maximos Mansion after meeting Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

Charles Dallara managing director of the Institute of International Finance arrives at Maximos Mansion for a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos in Athens on Saturday Jan. 28 2012. Talks between Greece and private creditors on halving the country's privately held debt load have ended and a deal is very close, according to the creditors' representatives. (AP Photo)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece and its private investors are close to a deal that will significantly reduce the country's debt and pave the way for it to receive a much-needed ?130 billion bailout.

Negotiators for the investors announced the tentative agreement Saturday and said it could become final next week.

Under the agreement, the investors would take a hit of more than 60 percent on the ?206 billion of Greek debt they own.

Here's how it would work: private investors would receive new bonds whose face value is half of the existing bonds. The new bonds would have a longer maturity and pay an average interest rate of slightly less than 4 percent (compared with an estimated 5 percent on the existing bonds).

Without the deal, which would reduce Greece's debt load by at least ?120 billion, the private investors' bonds would likely become worthless. Many of these investors also hold debt from other eurozone countries, which could also lose value in the event of a Greek default.

The agreement taking shape is a key step before Greece can get a second, ?130 billion bailout from its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund, although there are other issues involved before Greece can get that aid. This would be Greece's second bailout. The EU and the IMF signed off on a ?110 billion aid package for Greece in May 2010, most of which has already been disbursed.

Greece faces a ?14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, which it cannot afford without additional help.

Private investors hold roughly two-thirds of Greece's debt, which has reached an unsustainable level ? nearly 200 percent of the country's economic output. By restructuring the debt held by private investors, Greece and its EU partners are hoping to bring that ratio closer to 120 percent by the end of this decade.

In return for the first bailout, Greece's public creditors ? the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank ? have unprecedented powers over Greek spending. However, austerity alone will not fix Greece's problem. The country must also find ways boost its economic output, which at the moment is shrinking.

If no debt-exchange deal is reached with private creditors and Greece is forced to default, it would very likely spook Europe's ? and possibly the world's ? financial markets. It could even lead Greece to withdraw from the euro.

The banks, insurance companies and other private holders of Greek bonds are being represented by Charles Dallara, managing director of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, and Jean Lemierre, senior adviser to the chairman of the French bank BNP Paribas.

The main creditor negotiators will leave Greece on Sunday and will remain in close consultation with Greek and other authorities.

___

Elena Becatoros in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-28-Greece-Financial%20Crisis/id-434fcb5e2a774955b10933732c5aab47

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More than 50 killed in 2 days of turmoil in Syria (AP)

BEIRUT ? Two days of bloody turmoil in Syria killed more than 50 people as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad shelled residential buildings, fired on crowds and left bleeding corpses in the streets in a dramatic escalation of violence, activists said Friday.

Much of the violence was focused in Homs, where heavy gunfire hammered the city Friday in a second day of chaos. A day earlier, the city saw a flare-up of sectarian kidnappings and killings between its Sunni and Alawite communities, and pro-regime forces blasted residential buildings with mortars and gunfire, according to activists who said an entire family was killed.

Video posted online by activists showed the bodies of five small children, five women of varying ages and a man, all bloodied and piled on beds in what appeared to be an apartment after a building was hit in the Karm el-Zaytoun neighborhood of the city. A narrator said an entire family had been "slaughtered."

The video could not be independently verified.

Activists said at least 30 people were killed in Homs on Thursday and another 21 people were killed across the country Friday.

In an attempt to stop the bloodshed in Syria, the U.N. Security Council was to hold a closed-door meeting Friday to discuss the crisis, a step toward a possible resolution against the Damascus regime, diplomats said.

The Syrian uprising, which began nearly 11 months ago with mostly peaceful protests, has become increasingly violent in recent months as army defectors clash with government forces and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves. The violence has enflamed the potentially explosive sectarian divide in the country, where the Alawite minority dominates the regime despite a Sunni Muslim majority. The U.N. estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed since March.

The head of Arab League observers in Syria said in a statement that violence in the country has spiked over the past few days. Sudanese Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi said the cities of Homs, Hama and Idlib have all witnessed a "very high escalation" in violence since Tuesday.

A "fierce military campaign" was also under way in the Hamadiyeh district of Hama since the early hours of Friday, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activists. They said the sound of heavy machine-gun fire and loud explosions reverberated across the area.

Some activists reported seeing uncollected bodies in the streets of Hama.

Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded Friday at a checkpoint outside the northern city of Idlib, the Observatory said, citing witnesses on the ground. The number of casualties was not immediately clear.

Details of Thursday's wave of killings in Homs were emerging from an array of residents and activists on Friday, though they said they were having difficulty because of continuing gunfire.

"There has been a terrifying massacre," Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AP on Friday, calling for an independent investigation.

Thursday started with a spate of sectarian kidnappings and killings between the city's population of Sunnis and Alawites, a Shiite sect to which Assad belongs as well as most of his security and military leadership, said Mohammad Saleh, a centrist opposition figure and resident of Homs.

There was also a string of attacks by gunmen on army checkpoints, Saleh said. Checkpoints are a frequent target of dissident troops who have joined the opposition.

The violence culminated with the evening killing of the family, Saleh said, adding that the full details of what happened were not yet clear.

The Observatory said at least 11 people, including eight children, died when a building came under heavy mortar and machine gun fire. Some residents spoke of another massacre that took place when shabiha ? armed regime loyalists ? stormed the district, slaughtering residents in an apartment, including children.

"It's racial cleansing," said one Sunni resident of Karm el-Zaytoun, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. "They are killing people because of their sect," he said.

Some residents said kidnappers were holding Alawites in the building hit by mortars and gunfire, but the reports could not be confirmed.

Thursday's death toll in Homs was at least 35, said the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists. Both groups cite a network of activists on the ground in Syria for their death tolls. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Syria tightly controls access to trouble spots and generally allows journalists to report only on escorted trips, which slows the flow of information.

The Syrian uprising began last March with largely peaceful anti-government protests, but it has grown increasingly violent in recent months.

Also Friday, Iran's official IRNA news agency said gunmen in Syria have kidnapped 11 Iranian pilgrims traveling by road from Turkey to Damascus.

Iranian pilgrims routinely visit Syria ? Iran's closest ally in the Arab world ? to pay homage to Shiite holy shrines. Last month, 7 Iranian engineers building a power plant in central Syria were kidnapped. They have not yet been released.

The Free Syrian Army ? a group of army defectors ? released a video on its Facebook page claiming responsibility for the kidnapping and saying the Iranians were taking part in the suppression of the Syrian people. The leader of the group could not be reached for comment.

Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Council, said the group is working to help the army defectors to link them up and supply them with everything from communications equipment to clothes. Speaking in Paris, she said defectors are increasingly swelling the ranks of the Free Syrian Army and it is becoming a critical force in the uprising.

In Cairo, around 200 opposition Syrians protested outside the Syrian Embassy, trying to break into the building. They threw stones and bricks at the building, but were kept back by a line of police and soldiers.

Assad's regime claims terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy are behind the uprising, not protesters seeking change, and that thousands of security forces have been killed.

International pressure on Damascus to end the bloodshed so far has produced few results.

The Arab League has sent observers to the country, but the mission has been widely criticized for failing to stop the violence. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the Security Council to intervene because the Syrian government has not halted its crackdown.

The U.N. Security Council has been unable to agree on a resolution since violence began in March because of strong opposition from Russia and China.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Friday that Moscow will oppose a new draft U.N. resolution on Syria worked out by the West and some Arab states because it does not exclude the possibility of outside military interference.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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Nintendo sees first annual loss, cuts 3DS forecast (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Nintendo Co Ltd posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple's iPhone.

The creator of the Super Mario franchise dominated the video games industry for years with its DS handheld players and Wii home consoles, but is now struggling to keep up as more versatile smartphone and tablet sales boom.

"To say that (the days of consoles) are over is likely an overstatement, but social network and Internet delivered games are growing and structurally changing the future of the industry, which is a strong wind against Nintendo," said Shigeo Sugawara, senior investment manager at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management.

Nintendo now expects an annual operating loss of 45 billion yen ($575 million), dwarfing expectations of a 4.2 billion yen loss, based on the average of 21 analyst forecasts.

"Their time of growth (from consoles) is over, and, while I don't think the company will cease to exist, if they don't move into new categories, they will no doubt lose the great scale they've amassed," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management in Tokyo.

Nintendo cut its forecast for annual sales of its ageing Wii console to 10 million devices from 12 million, and for the 3DS handheld games device to 14 million from 16 million.

"We had higher expectations for the year-end season, but failed to meet them," President Satoru Iwata told reporters in Osaka.

Poor sales forced Nintendo to slash the price of its much-anticipated 3DS handheld games device in August, just six months after its launch.

The move halted its record of making profits on games hardware as well as software, a business model that took operating income to a high of 555 billion yen in 2008/09.

Nintendo also faces tougher competition in the home console market from Sony Corp's Move and Microsoft Corp's Kinect, and Iwata said consumers were more eager than ever to seek out bargains in the harsh economic environment.

The company plans to launch the Wii's successor, the Wii U, in Japan, the United States, Europe and Australia in the year-end season, Iwata told reporters.

But with cloud-based gaming emerging as a potential threat, Nintendo may have trouble generating excitement about its new product, some analysts say. Google is taking steps into gaming with Google TV, while Apple is thought to be preparing a new iPad and possibly a smart TV that could be game-changers for the industry.

"We think we need to consider the possibility that home consoles could become a thing of the past," Citigroup analyst Soichiro Fukuda wrote in a recent report.

"We think the direction taken by marketing trendsetter Apple will be very important and we will be watching the company's announcements at future events with interest."

PROFIT FALLS

Nintendo's profit slumped to 40.9 billion yen for the traditionally strong October-December period, compared with a consensus estimate for 52 billion yen, based on a survey of three analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The results came a day after Apple blew away Wall Street's expectations with its own quarterly earnings.

Shares in Nintendo have halved to below 11,000 yen since the beginning of the financial year in April, hit by weak 3DS sales and market disappointment with the Wii U next-generation home console, unveiled at the E3 games show in June and set to go on sale late this year. At their peak, in late 2007, the shares traded at 73,200 yen.

Last week, the stock dipped to 10,020 yen, the lowest since April 2004, before either the DS or Wii were launched.

($1 = 77.58)

(Reporting by Yoshiyuki Osada in OSAKA and Isabel Reynolds in TOKYO; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Ian Geoghegan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/ts_nm/us_nintendo_results

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Immunological mechanisms of oncolytic adenoviral therapy

Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Wang Shengdian
sdwang@moon.ibp.ac.cn
0086-106-488-8493
Science in China Press

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death in humans. The conventional cancer therapies include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeting therapies, which are intended to directly destroy and eliminate tumor cells. These treatments often fail, resulting in tumor metastasis and recurrence. Therefore, there is a critical need for novel cancer therapies. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have revealed that immune responses play a critical role in conventional cancer therapies. Replication-selective oncolytic viruses are a rapidly expanding therapeutic platform for cancer. Professor Wang Shengdian and his group from the Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have studied tumor immunity for several years, with a team focusing on oncolytic adenovirus. In this work, entitled "CD8+ T cell response mediates the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus in an immunocompetent mouse model", published in Chinese Science Bulletin 2012, Vol. 57(1), this team has demonstrated that the host anti-tumor immune responses, especially the CD8+ T cell responses, play a critical role in the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus. These studies might shed light on novel cancer therapies.

Researchers have identified several oncolytic viruses such as poliovirus, adenovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus, reovirus, and vaccinia virus, which can selectively infect or replicate in cancer cells, but spare normal cells. Among these, adenovirus has been the most commonly used oncolytic virus in the last decade, because of its efficacy, safety, and ease of manipulation. When administered to tumors, oncolytic adenovirus infects and kills cancer cells as a result of the normal viral life cycle, by replicating in cells and releasing progeny viruses. However, adenoviral infection is immunogenic and can induce strong anti-viral immune responses, which accelerate the clearance of virus and limit the therapeutic effects on cancer. Some studies have shown that suppressing the immune system could enhance the efficacy of oncolytic vectors. On the other hand, recent preclinical and clinical studies have suggested that the immune response plays an important role in mediating the antitumor efficacy. Therefore, the influence of immune responses on oncolytic therapy is complex. Because of the species specificity of adenoviral replication, it was widely assumed that adenoviral replication would not occur in mouse tumors. Consequently, oncolytic adenoviral vectors have been commonly evaluated in immunodeficient mouse-human tumor xenograft models, which do not accurately reflect what happens in humans treated with oncolytic adenovirus. A team led by Professor Yaohe Wang from the Center for Molecular Oncology, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, previously screened a panel of mouse tumor cell lines and identified two cell linesCMT 93 (a murine rectal cancer cell line) and CMT64 (a murine non-small-cell lung cancer cell line) with significant permissibility for adenoviral gene expression, cytopathic effects, and/or replication.

In this work, the team lead by Professor Wang Shengdian evaluated the roles of immune components in oncolytic adenoviral therapy with a murine tumor by subcutaneously inoculating CMT 93 cells into syngeneic C57BL/6 mice. They found that CD8+ T cells, but not CD4+ T cells or natural killer cells, are critical mediators of the antitumor efficacy of oncolytic adenovirus by deletion of the corresponding cell subsets with specific antibodies. Intratumoral injection of adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) could induce intensive infiltration of CD8+ T cells into the tumor, and increase tumor-specific interferon-? production and cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity. The anti-tumor T cell responses induced by Ad5 therapy produced long-term tumor-specific memory immune responses that protected the cured mice well from tumor rechallenge. This anti-tumor immune memory is thought to play a major role in preventing tumor relapse. For larger tumors, Ad5 therapy alone controls tumor growth only transiently. However, Ad5 therapy followed by treatment with agonistic anti-4-1BB (cluster differentiation 137, CD137) antibody, a potent enhancer of the specific CD8+ T cell response, resulted in complete rejection of all transplanted tumors, demonstrating that promotion of T cell responses against tumors could enhance the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus.

In summary, this study provides insight into the antitumor mechanisms of oncolytic adenovirus, in addition to their direct oncolytic effect. Meanwhile, this study proposes a new and more effective therapeutic regime for cancer treatment using a combination therapy of oncolytic adenovirus and immunotherapy.

###

See the article: YANG Y J, LI X Z, WANG Y H, WANG S D. CD8+ T cell response mediates the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus in an immunocompetent mouse model. Chinese Science Bulletin 2012 Vol. 57(1): 48-53.

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 27-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Wang Shengdian
sdwang@moon.ibp.ac.cn
0086-106-488-8493
Science in China Press

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death in humans. The conventional cancer therapies include surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeting therapies, which are intended to directly destroy and eliminate tumor cells. These treatments often fail, resulting in tumor metastasis and recurrence. Therefore, there is a critical need for novel cancer therapies. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have revealed that immune responses play a critical role in conventional cancer therapies. Replication-selective oncolytic viruses are a rapidly expanding therapeutic platform for cancer. Professor Wang Shengdian and his group from the Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have studied tumor immunity for several years, with a team focusing on oncolytic adenovirus. In this work, entitled "CD8+ T cell response mediates the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus in an immunocompetent mouse model", published in Chinese Science Bulletin 2012, Vol. 57(1), this team has demonstrated that the host anti-tumor immune responses, especially the CD8+ T cell responses, play a critical role in the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus. These studies might shed light on novel cancer therapies.

Researchers have identified several oncolytic viruses such as poliovirus, adenovirus, vesicular stomatitis virus, reovirus, and vaccinia virus, which can selectively infect or replicate in cancer cells, but spare normal cells. Among these, adenovirus has been the most commonly used oncolytic virus in the last decade, because of its efficacy, safety, and ease of manipulation. When administered to tumors, oncolytic adenovirus infects and kills cancer cells as a result of the normal viral life cycle, by replicating in cells and releasing progeny viruses. However, adenoviral infection is immunogenic and can induce strong anti-viral immune responses, which accelerate the clearance of virus and limit the therapeutic effects on cancer. Some studies have shown that suppressing the immune system could enhance the efficacy of oncolytic vectors. On the other hand, recent preclinical and clinical studies have suggested that the immune response plays an important role in mediating the antitumor efficacy. Therefore, the influence of immune responses on oncolytic therapy is complex. Because of the species specificity of adenoviral replication, it was widely assumed that adenoviral replication would not occur in mouse tumors. Consequently, oncolytic adenoviral vectors have been commonly evaluated in immunodeficient mouse-human tumor xenograft models, which do not accurately reflect what happens in humans treated with oncolytic adenovirus. A team led by Professor Yaohe Wang from the Center for Molecular Oncology, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, previously screened a panel of mouse tumor cell lines and identified two cell linesCMT 93 (a murine rectal cancer cell line) and CMT64 (a murine non-small-cell lung cancer cell line) with significant permissibility for adenoviral gene expression, cytopathic effects, and/or replication.

In this work, the team lead by Professor Wang Shengdian evaluated the roles of immune components in oncolytic adenoviral therapy with a murine tumor by subcutaneously inoculating CMT 93 cells into syngeneic C57BL/6 mice. They found that CD8+ T cells, but not CD4+ T cells or natural killer cells, are critical mediators of the antitumor efficacy of oncolytic adenovirus by deletion of the corresponding cell subsets with specific antibodies. Intratumoral injection of adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) could induce intensive infiltration of CD8+ T cells into the tumor, and increase tumor-specific interferon-? production and cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity. The anti-tumor T cell responses induced by Ad5 therapy produced long-term tumor-specific memory immune responses that protected the cured mice well from tumor rechallenge. This anti-tumor immune memory is thought to play a major role in preventing tumor relapse. For larger tumors, Ad5 therapy alone controls tumor growth only transiently. However, Ad5 therapy followed by treatment with agonistic anti-4-1BB (cluster differentiation 137, CD137) antibody, a potent enhancer of the specific CD8+ T cell response, resulted in complete rejection of all transplanted tumors, demonstrating that promotion of T cell responses against tumors could enhance the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus.

In summary, this study provides insight into the antitumor mechanisms of oncolytic adenovirus, in addition to their direct oncolytic effect. Meanwhile, this study proposes a new and more effective therapeutic regime for cancer treatment using a combination therapy of oncolytic adenovirus and immunotherapy.

###

See the article: YANG Y J, LI X Z, WANG Y H, WANG S D. CD8+ T cell response mediates the therapeutic effects of oncolytic adenovirus in an immunocompetent mouse model. Chinese Science Bulletin 2012 Vol. 57(1): 48-53.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/sicp-imo011712.php

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'Legal'sounds illegally selling OC ReMix albums and more ...

It's a good thing the government shut down Megaupload. With those crooks out of business, content creators can finally earn money for their hard work. People should be paying for their digital goods on a site like Legalsounds, a music repository where, for some small change, you can legally acquire songs from all your favorite artists.

But what's this? Legalsounds is selling various OverClocked ReMix albums? And according to the OC ReMix Terms of Use, no profit is to be made from the site's content? And Legalsounds didn't request permission to distribute OC ReMix music? Why, that sounds WRONG!

And this doesn't just apply to OC ReMix either. Potentially, every single song on Legalsounds is being sold illegally without the express permission of the content creators, despite the site's claim that it pays license fees for all materials. Then again, the fact that this is an English-language site running on Russian servers should have been a big clue that something was fishy to begin with.

Many musicians in the game music arrangement community are already having their works sold on Legalsounds. Search the site to check if yours or other people's stuff is being hosted, then demand to have it removed. And if you find similar sites like Legalsounds, spread the word for their takedown.

(il)legalsounds Selling OCR Albums [OC ReMix Forums]

Source: http://www.destructoid.com/-legal-sounds-illegally-selling-oc-remix-albums-and-more-220322.phtml

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Japan posts first annual trade deficit since 1980

A man strolls outside a container terminal in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Japan marked its first trade deficit since 1980, a 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) shortfall for 2011 caused in part by last year's tsunami and the rising value of the yen, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

A man strolls outside a container terminal in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Japan marked its first trade deficit since 1980, a 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) shortfall for 2011 caused in part by last year's tsunami and the rising value of the yen, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

A worker rides a motorbike at a container terminal in Tokyo Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Japan marked its first trade deficit since 1980, a 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) shortfall for 2011 caused in part by last year's tsunami and the rising value of the yen, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

A container ship leaves a container terminal in Tokyo Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Japan marked its first trade deficit since 1980, a 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) shortfall for 2011 caused in part by last year's tsunami and the rising value of the yen, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

A driver closes a back door of a container at a container terminal in Tokyo Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Japan marked its first trade deficit since 1980, a 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) shortfall for 2011 caused in part by last year's tsunami and the rising value of the yen, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

A security person pedals a bicycle at a container terminal in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Japan reported its first annual trade deficit since 1980 as it imported expensive energy to offset shortfalls caused by the devastating tsunami and manufacturers shifted production overseas to avoid the damage inflicted by the strong yen. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)

TOKYO (AP) ? The devastating March tsunami and shift of manufacturing overseas plunged Japan's trade account into the red for the first time since 1980. Experts said the years of Japan running massive trade surpluses are likely over.

The 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) deficit for 2011 reflected a surge in energy imports to cover shortfalls caused by the disaster. and a 2.7 percent decline in the value of Japan's exports to 65.55 trillion yen ($843 billion), according to the Ministry of Finance figures released Wednesday.

Manufacturers have moved some production overseas to avoid the damage inflicted by the strong yen, a trend that has accelerated in recent years. Some economists say the trade balance will be in the black again within two years, but the era of very large surpluses that allowed Japan to build a huge pile of foreign reserves has ended.

"It reflects fundamental changes in Japan's economy, particularly among manufacturers," said Hideki Matsumura, senior economist at Japan Research Institute. "Japan is losing its competitiveness to produce domestically."

"It's gotten difficult for manufacturers to export, so they're they've moved production abroad so that products sold outside the country are made outside the country," he said.

The yen's surge to record levels against the dollar and euro has made Japanese exports more expensive and also erodes the value of foreign earned income when brought home. Recently, manufacturers such as Nissan Motor Co. and Panasonic Corp. have shifted some of their output to factories abroad. At the same time, Japan is facing intense competition from South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, where labor and production costs are cheaper.

Japanese manufacturers have been battered by a host of negatives in the past year. The tsunami temporarily disrupted the production of automobile makers and other manufacturers. Weakness in the U.S. economy and Europe's debt problems and recent flooding in Thailand, where many Japanese automakers have assembly lines, also contributed to export declines.

"The impact of the supply chain problem and the temporary effect of the earthquake will fade. We may see Japan's trade balance recover to a small trade surplus, but it won't return to the pre-crisis level," said Masayuki Kichikawa, chief Japan economist at B of A Merrill Lynch in Tokyo.

"The big surpluses are gone. Japan's trade balance should be almost balanced or at best a small surplus."

Another major factor behind the deficit was the impact of the expensive energy imports Japan turned to after the March disaster touched off a nuclear crisis and led the country to shut down, or not restart, a large portion of its reactors, said Martin Schulz, senior economist with the Fujitsu Research Institute.

He said pressure to import energy will continue to weigh heavily on Japan for the next year, but will subside as the country pursues greater efficiency measures.

Much of Japan's oil and natural gas is imported from the Middle East, with which Japan had a 10.88 trillion yen trade deficit last year, up 33 percent, figures showed.

Japan still has a trade surplus with the U.S., although that is shrinking. For 2011, exports exceeded imports by 4.10 trillion yen ($52.6 billion), down 8.2 percent from a year earlier. Exports to the U.S. declined 2.8 percent to 10.02 trillion yen during the year, while imports inched up 0.2 percent to 5.9 trillion.

Japan had a 1.57 trillion yen trade surplus with China for the year. A breakdown of figures showed a trade deficit with mainland China, but a big surplus with Hong Kong.

Trade with Germany was fairly balanced last year as imports grew nearly 10 percent to 1.86 trillion yen. Exports came to 1.87 trillion yen, giving Japan a relatively small trade surplus of 16 billion yen.

The turmoil in Europe and the U.S. has driven up the yen as global investors flock to the currency as a relative safe haven. The yen hit multiple historic highs against the dollar, and touched a record against the euro earlier this month as well.

The yen is trading at around 78 to the dollar recently, a level that is extremely painful for exporters. Five years ago, the dollar was trading above 120 yen.

Matsumura believes that Japan will likely log another trade deficit this year amid prospects for high energy prices and a persistently strong yen, but that renewed strength in the global and Asian regional economies could put Japan back into the black in 2013.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-25-AS-Japan-Trade/id-f800d4d1a86642a29db155a7136b5bbc

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New federal map for what to plant reflects warming

In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Manager Jerry Holub looks at seed packages on display at the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The USDA announced Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 new maps for plant hardiness zones, a key to determine which plants can survive in what parts of the country. The government's official guide of colorful planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Manager Jerry Holub looks at seed packages on display at the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The USDA announced Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 new maps for plant hardiness zones, a key to determine which plants can survive in what parts of the country. The government's official guide of colorful planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Map shows the USDA's new plant zone map

This Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo shows a tag on a tree on display at the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The USDA announced Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 new maps for plant hardiness zones, a key to determine which plants can survive in what parts of the country. The government's official guide of colorful planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012 photo, Manager Jerry Holub looks at trees on display at the Earl May Nursery and Garden Center in Des Moines, Iowa. The USDA announced Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 new maps for plant hardiness zones, a key to determine which plants can survive in what parts of the country. The government's official guide of colorful planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The government's colorful map of planting zones is being updated for a warmer 21st century.

The official guide for 80 million gardeners and a staple on seed packets reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be. So some plants that once seemed too vulnerable to cold can now survive farther north.

It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated the map and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.

The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology.

"It truly does reflect state of the art," said USDA chief scientist Catherine Woteki.

Gardeners can register their zip code into the online map and their zone will pop up. It shows the exact average coldest temperature for each of the 26 zones, even though zones are based on five degree increments.

For example, Des Moines, Iowa, used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Now it's 5b, which has a coldest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero.

"People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the winter time," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."

He uses the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard as an example.

"People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now," he said.

An earlier effort to update the planting map caused a bit of an uproar when the USDA in 2003 decided not to use a map it commissioned that reflected warmer weather. The Arbor Day Foundation later issued its own hardiness guide that had the toastier climate zones. The new federal map is very similar to the one the private plant group adopted six years ago, said Arbor Day Foundation Vice President Woodrow Nelson.

In Des Moines, Jerry Holub, a manager for the Earl May Nursery chain, doesn't think the warmer zone will have much of an impact on gardeners. But he said this may mean residents can even try passion flowers.

"Now you can put them in safely, when you couldn't before," he said.

___

AP Writer Michael J. Crumb contributed to this report from Des Moines.

___

Online:

Plant map: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-01-25-Planting%20Zone%20Map/id-224a385175e24e8c8fdecfb6fdfc21d0

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McDonald's shares off on profit concerns (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) reported stronger-than-expected December sales, but its shares fell on investor concerns that quarterly profit may have beat expectations only because of income that was not related to its operations.

Chief Financial Officer Pete Bensen said investors remain cautious about consumer spending. He added that as a percentage of sales, margins declined 30 basis points to 18.7 percent during the fourth quarter as higher costs for food and other items offset sales strength.

He also said that ongoing austerity measures in Europe have not hurt sales there and that "we're really seeing no change in customer behavior."

Shares of the world's biggest hamburger chain were down 1.4 percent to $99.48 in morning trading on Tuesday.

McDonald's reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.38 billion, or $1.33 per share, up from $1.24 billion, or $1.16 a share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected $1.30 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said results from the latest quarter were helped by 3 cents per share of non-operating income.

"So it really it appears they met consensus," he said.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $6.82 billion, edging above the average analyst estimate of $6.81 billion.

Sales at stores open at least a year rose 9.6 percent in December, with a 9.8 percent increase in the United States and a 10.8 percent rise in its top revenue market of Europe.

Analysts on average forecast a 5.9 percent increase overall, with the a 5.4 percent increase in the United States and a 6.4 percent increase in Europe, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The results, which were helped by new menu items, restaurant renovations and effective marketing, defied a global economic slowdown, said Rikky Shoker, co-manager of the Credo Best Ideas Portfolio at Credo Group Ltd in London.

"This shows that McDonald's is a truly unique business and able to grow sales regardless of economic conditions," Shoker said.

McDonald's and its franchisees have been pouring money into their restaurants at a time when smaller and financially strapped chains are slashing costs.

The company also has broadened its appeal beyond the young men who account for the biggest share of sales at most other fast-food chains by adding low-cost Dollar Menu items and introducing high-margin beverages such as coffee and fruit smoothies.

Menu standouts during the quarter included bagel sandwiches in France and Big Mac's and chicken products in the United States, the company said.

(Reporting by Brad Dorfman in Chicago, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/bs_nm/us_mcdonalds

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Romney, Gingrich Tout Commercial Spaceflight in Republican Debate (SPACE.com)

The top two contenders for the Republican presidential nomination pushed for further privatization of spaceflight during Monday's (Jan. 23) debate in Florida.

Both Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich stressed the importance of space exploration for the United States, saying a strong space program helps develop key technologies and inspires young people to study science and engineering.

But during the debate, held at the University of South Florida in Tampa, neither candidate said giving NASA more money was the right way forward.

Romney criticized President Obama for failing to give NASA a mission or a vision. Romney advocated creating a coalition ? including the president and leaders from the military, academia and the business community ? that would set NASA's course. [Vote Now! The Best Spaceships of All Time]

"Bring them together, discuss a wide range of options for NASA, and then have NASA not just funded by the federal government but also by commercial enterprises," the former Massachusetts governor said, responding to a question from a moderator about whether space exploration should be a priority.

"Let's have a collaborative effort, with business, with government, with the military as well as with our educational institutions," Romney added. "Have a mission, once again excite our young people about the potential of space, and the commercial potential will pay for itself down the road."

Gingrich was then asked whether he, as president, would put more federal money toward the goal of sending astronauts to Mars as soon as possible. The former Speaker of the House said he would use federal money to greater effect ? instituting, for example, a series of prizes to encourage space exploration.

"Most of the great breakthroughs in aviation in the '20s and '30s were the result of prizes. Lindbergh flew to Paris for a $25,000 prize," Gingrich said. "I would like to see vastly more of the money spent encouraging the private sector into very aggressive experimentation."

Some of those prizes, he added, might reward getting humans back to the moon, sending them to Mars, building space stations and developing the commercial spaceflight industry.

"There are a whole series of things you can do that could be dynamic that are more than just better government bureaucracy," Gingrich said. "They're fundamentally leapfrogging into a world where you're incentivizing people who are visionaries, and people in the private sector to invest very large amounts of money in finding very romantic and exciting futures."

Gingrich also implied he would trim NASA's budget, which currently represents roughly 0.5 percent of the federal budget.

"I'd like to see a leaner NASA," he said. "I don't think building a bigger bureaucracy and having a greater number of people sit in rooms and talk gets you there."

Texas congressman Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum also participated in the debate, but neither one was given time to address the two space-related questions.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120124/sc_space/romneygingrichtoutcommercialspaceflightinrepublicandebate

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3 killed in Arkansas, including Huckabee relative (AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ? Three people, including a distant cousin of former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, have died in a homicide and kidnapping case in Arkansas, police said Monday.

Arkadelphia Police dispatcher Dusty Welch told The Associated Press that Donald Hux killed his ex-wife, Amy Huckabee, before he was fatally shot by law enforcement officers in the southern part of the state. Amy Huckabee's current husband, Sandy Huckabee, was found dead Sunday at the couple's home in Arkadelphia, which is about 70 miles southwest of Little Rock.

Sandy Huckabee's father was the first cousin of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's father.

Authorities said Hux, 36, abducted Amy Huckabee and their three children in Arkadelphia and then drove about 80 miles to El Dorado in Union County. He dropped the children off somewhere there, and they weren't hurt, according to the local sheriff's office.

Meanwhile, police in Arkadelphia learned about the situation and went to the Huckabee home to do a welfare check. They found Sandy Huckabee's body inside and issued a warrant for Hux's arrest on capital murder, kidnapping and other charges.

About 9 p.m. on Sunday, Hux's father, Marvin Hux, called authorities and said his Buick Rendezvous had been stolen, Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said. Shortly after that call, the missing SUV turned up on a rural road outside El Dorado.

"There was an exchange of gunfire between local law enforcement with Donald Hux," Sadler said.

He said Amy Huckabee was there, but he wouldn't say how she or Hux died. He specifically would not confirm Arkadelphia police's statement that Hux killed his ex-wife, saying that investigators were working to figure out who died first.

Hux was released Thursday from a jail in Louisiana, where he had been serving time for a solicitation of prostitution charge in Caddo Parish.

A man who answered a phone number listed for Hux said, "There's no comment to be made right now."

___

Follow Jeannie Nuss at http://twitter.com/jeannienuss

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_us/us_huckabee_relative_killed

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