Sunday, June 30, 2013

France's Hollande said to back away from reshuffle

By Elizabeth Pineau

PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande is unlikely to reshuffle his government before the summer break and will instead urge ministers to sharpen their focus on unemployment and other issues sapping their popularity, sources told Reuters.

Hollande, who had hinted in May that changes to his top team were in the works, has since backed away from the idea of a ministerial shake-up, an Elysee source said.

A reshuffle "is not currently envisaged and we don't think it's what voters expect", said the source, who asked not to be identified. "That's why ministers have to mobilize."

The rethink is likely to come as a relief for government members including Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici - whose departure had been considered likely in any changeover. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius fanned those flames last month by saying that the finance ministry "needs a boss".

Hollande's popularity ratings fell faster than any other elected president during his first year in office, largely due to his failure to tame rising unemployment. The jobless rate stands at a record high of 10.4 percent amid mounting discontent over weak spending power, compounded by a housing shortage.

"When times are tough, a strategy switch is about the last thing you should do," said a government minister close to the president. "You just have to hold on tight, whatever the cost."

(Writing by Laurence Frost; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/frances-hollande-said-back-away-reshuffle-170948472.html

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Source: http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20130630/LIVING/306300040/1004/rss

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Blast in Pakistani city of Quetta kills 20: police

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been married for eight years. When we married, we both drank and smoked. My husband quit smoking five years ago, and I have continued to smoke off and on. If he catches me with a cigarette it becomes an argument, and it's either I quit or we're done!I love my husband, but I find it difficult to be honest about this. I don't see the big deal if I smoke a cigarette. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blast-pakistani-city-quetta-kills-20-police-170739433.html

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

Student debt stalemate will hammer millions of undergrads

student-loans

58 minutes ago

Boston College students walk across the college campus in Boston, March 29, 2005.

CHITOSE SUZUKI / AP file

Boston College students walk across the college campus in Boston, March 29, 2005.

Time is running out for Congress to act. And low-income college students will pay a high price if a deal can't be reached by Monday's deadline.

Interest rates on many new subsidized Stafford loans will skyrocket?from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent?on Monday, unless the Senate reaches a compromise.

Read More: Senate Can't Save Student Loan Rates

More than 7 million undergraduates receive these loans, for which the federal government pays the interest while the students are enrolled in school.

But the nation's student debt crisis affects so many more.

More than 38 million Americans have student loan debt, totaling nearly $1 trillion, a staggering number that has quadrupled in 10 years and keeps rising. Student loan debt now surpasses credit card and auto loan debt in this country?and it's only expected to get worse before it gets better.

Most in Congress agree the loan rates should to stay lower than 6.8 percent, at least for the subsidized Stafford loans used by the country's lowest-income students. But they're stuck on how to get there.

Republicans want to let the rates fluctuate with the markets every year and use the proceeds for deficit reduction. Democrats say that's unreasonable and want to cap how fast rates can rise.

"I see the debate about interest rates as a distraction from the real problem, which is the amount of debt," said Mark Kantrowitz, founder of FinAid.org and senior vice president and publisher of Edvisors.com.

"Each year the average cost of graduation goes up by about $1,000 or more. And having less expensive debt is going not going to make much of a difference if the total amount owed keeps on going up."

A study done this spring by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the share of 25-year-olds with student debt has increased from just 25 percent in 2003 to 43 percent in 2012. The average student loan balance among those 25-year-olds with student debt grew by 91 percent over that time, from $10,649 in 2003 to $20,326 in 2012.

The amount of debt has risen as tuition, room, board, fees and other college expenses have soared. The cost of attending college has risen about 4 percent in the past year alone?and has far outpaced the rate of inflation in recent years.

Total charges for a full-time undergraduate at an in-state public college rose from $17,136 in 2011-2012 to $17,860 in 2012-2013, according to the College Board. Private college costs for one year totaled $39,518 in the past year, up from $37,971 the previous academic year.

"Grants are not keeping pace with the increases in college costs," Kantrowitz said. "When grants are relatively stagnant or even going down that causes students to borrow more."

But many families don't plan or try to calculate the total cost of attendance for a student's college and graduate studies?and that may be at the crux of the student debt crisis.

Sallie Mae CEO Jack Remondi said poor planning exacerbates a borrower's burden, regardless of the rate on the loan. Sallie Mae is the largest provider of private student loans.

"If you overborrow, whether the rate is 4 percent or 7 percent, you're still going to encounter difficulties," Remondi said. "A plan that takes into consideration what your income potential is going to be when you graduate and what that debt burden is going to be is critical."

Unfortunately, many students and parents have failed College Planning 101.

Less than a third of low-income parents said they knew how they would pay for their child's college education before they enrolled, according to a Sallie Mae study. Only 37 percent of middle-income families had a plan. Among high-income families, only slightly more than half said they had a plan to pay for college before their children enrolled.

Yet this critical lesson can significantly cut borrowing costs: As long as your total student debt at graduation is less than your annual income, you should be able to pay back your student loans in 10 years or less, Kantrowitz said.

Keeping that formula in mind when choosing a college, graduate school and course of study can help students significantly cut borrowing costs.

?By CNBC's Sharon Epperson. Follow her on Twitter @sharon_epperson.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2def8c16/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cstudent0Edebt0Estalemate0Ewill0Ehammer0Emillions0Eundergrads0E6C10A480A484/story01.htm

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Neighbor testifies about Martin-Zimmerman fight

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? Two neighbors and a police officer gave accounts Friday in George Zimmerman's murder trial that seemed to bolster the neighborhood watch volunteer's contention that he was on his back and being straddled by Trayvon Martin during their confrontation.

Neighbor Jonathan Good said it appeared the unarmed teen was straddling Zimmerman, while another neighbor, Jonathan Manalo, said Zimmerman seemed credible when he said immediately after the fight that he had shot Martin in self-defense. Officer Tim Smith testified that Zimmerman's backside was covered in grass and wetter than his front side.

All three were called as witnesses for prosecutors who are trying to convict him of second-degree murder.

Good, who had perhaps the best view of any witness, said he did not see anyone's head being slammed into the concrete sidewalk, as Zimmerman claims Martin did to him. Good initially testified that it appeared "there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," but during detailed questioning he said he saw only "downward" arm movements being made.

Zimmerman has claimed that he fatally shot 17-year-old Martin last year in self-defense as the Miami-area teen was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community.

Under prosecution questioning, Good said he never saw anyone being attacked that way during the fight between Zimmerman and Martin.

"I couldn't see that," Good said moments later while being cross-examined.

Good said he heard a noise behind his townhome in February 2012, and he saw what looked like a tussle when he stepped out onto his patio to see what was happening.

He said he yelled: "What's going on? Stop it."

Good testified he saw a person in black clothing on top of another person with "white or red" clothing. He said he couldn't see faces but it looked like the person on the bottom had lighter skin. Martin was black and was wearing a dark hoodie. Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic and was wearing a red jacket. Good was back inside calling 911 when he heard a gunshot.

"It looked like there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," Good said.

Later, under cross-examination, he said that it looked like the person on top was straddling the person on bottom in a mixed-martial arts move known as "ground and pound." When defense attorney Mark O'Mara asked him if the person on top was Martin, Good said, "Correct, that's what it looked like." Good also said the person on the bottom yelled for help.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

Manalo, whose wife had testified earlier in the week, was the first neighbor to step outside and see what happened with his flashlight after he heard a gunshot. He took cellphone photos of a bloodied Zimmerman and Martin's body, and those photos were shown to jurors on Friday. Manalo also described Martin's hands as being under his body.

Manalo said Zimmerman didn't appear shocked and acted calmly. After police officers arrived and handcuffed Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer asked Manalo to call his wife and tell her what happened.

Manalo started to tell Zimmerman's wife that her husband had been involved in a shooting and was being questioned by police when "he cut me off and said, 'Just tell her I shot someone,'" Manalo said.

Under cross-examination, Manalo said when he asked Zimmerman what happened, the neighborhood watch volunteer told him, "I was defending myself and I shot him."

"From what you could tell at that moment, that seemed completely true?" asked defense attorney Don West.

"Yes," Manalo said.

Smith, the police officer, testified that when he saw Zimmerman after the shooting, the neighborhood watch volunteer's backside was covered in grass and wetter than his front side, bolstering defense attorneys' contention that Martin was on top of Zimmerman.

As he walked to the squad car after he had been handcuffed, Zimmerman told the officer that "he was yelling for help and nobody would come help him," Smith said.

"It was almost a defeated ... a confused look on his face," Smith said.

Smith said Zimmerman described himself as "lightheaded" during the drive to Sanford Police Station but declined an offer to take him to a hospital.

The physician's assistant who treated Zimmerman the next day said that Zimmerman complained of feeling nauseated upon reflecting what had happened. But Lindzee Folgate attributed that to psychological factors rather than any physical condition. She also said it appeared his nose was broken, but it was impossible to say for sure since no X-rays were taken. She recommended he see an ear-and-nose doctor and a psychologist.

When O'Mara asked if abrasions on his head were consistent with someone who had his had slammed into concrete, Folgate said, "it could be consistent, yes."

She also testified that Zimmerman had written on a form reciting his medical history that he was exercising three times a week by doing mixed martial arts, a statement that prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda asked her to repeat.

Paramedic Stacy Livingston, who responded to the shooting scene, testified Zimmerman had a swollen, bleeding nose and two cuts on the back of his head an inch long. When O'Mara asked if Zimmerman should have been concerned with his medical well-being because of his injuries, Livingston said, "Possibly."

When photos of Martin's body were shown on a courtroom projector during Livingston's testimony, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, looked away and blinked back tears.

___

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/neighbor-testifies-martin-zimmerman-fight-142241374.html

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'First bionic eye' retinal chip for blind

June 29, 2013 ? University Hospitals (UH) Eye Institute will be one of the first medical centers in the United States to offer the Argus? II Retinal Prosthesis System ("Argus II").

The Argus II is the first and only "bionic eye" to be approved in countries throughout the world, including the U.S. It is used to treat patients with late stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Argus II was developed by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., located near Los Angeles.

In preparation for the launch of Argus II later this year, implanting centers, including UH, will soon begin to accept consultations for patients with RP. UH is one of a select number of medical centers in 12 major markets in the nation, and the only one in Cleveland and the state of Ohio, chosen by Second Sight to offer the Argus II, which received FDA approval earlier this year.

Argus II works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera, housed in the patient's glasses, into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. Patients then learn to interpret these visual patterns thereby regaining some visual function.

"This is a remarkable breakthrough," said Suber S. Huang, MD, MBA, Director, UH Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease, who also served as the Independent Medical Safety Monitor for clinical trials of the system and gave the summary closing to the FDA Ophthalmic devices panel.

"The system offers a profound benefit for people who are blind from RP and who currently have no therapy available to them. Argus II allows patients to reclaim their independence and improve their lives."

RP is a rare inherited, degenerative eye disease that often results in profound vision loss to the level of bare light perception or no light perception. It affects nearly 100,000 Americans. Noted Cleveland businessman and professional sports owner Gordon Gund is blind from this disease.

"We are thrilled that several of the nation's top hospitals will be the first to offer Argus II to patients in the U.S.," said Brian Mech, Vice President of Business Development, Second Sight. "After an intensive and difficult selection process, these sites were chosen for their cutting-edge approach to medicine and unparalleled commitment to patient care. We are confident that RP patients seeking treatment at these centers will benefit greatly from the best-in-class services these sites provide."

Argus II had more than 20 years of work in the field, three clinical trials, more than $100 million in public investment by the National Eye Institute, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, and an additional $100 million in private investment.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/Rl1fuNyJzyA/130629164628.htm

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Plaintiffs in Prop 8 case wed in SF, LA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The four plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot Friday, just hours after a federal appeals court freed gay couples to obtain marriage licenses in the state for the first time in 4 1/2 years.

Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the San Francisco City Hall wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier as hundreds of supporters looked on and cheered. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, who married at Los Angeles City Hall 90 minutes later with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presiding.

"By joining the case against Proposition 8, they represented thousands of couples like themselves in their fight for marriage equality," Harris said during Stier and Perry's brief ceremony. "Through the ups and downs, the struggles and the triumphs, they came out victorious."

Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, "spouses for life," but during their vows, the Berkeley couple took each other as "lawfully wedded wife." One of their twin sons served as ring-bearer.

Although the couples fought for the right to wed for years, their nuptials came together in a flurry when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving a stay it had imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging the ban advanced through the courts.

Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, also were caught off-guard and complained that the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit's swift action made it more difficult for them to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case, and Proposition 8's backers had not yet announced whether they would do so.

"The resumption of same-sex marriage this day has been obtained by illegitimate means. If our opponents rejoice in achieving their goal in a dishonorable fashion, they should be ashamed," said Andy Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups that sponsored the 2008 ballot measure.

"It remains to be seen whether the fight can go on, but either way, it is a disgraceful day for California," he said.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that Proposition 8's sponsors lacked standing in the case after Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown, both Democrats, refused to defend the ban in court.

The decision lets stand a trial judge's declaration that the ban violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.

The Supreme Court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 case "at least" until after the 25-day period, which ends July 21.

The appeals court was widely expected to wait until the Supreme Court's judgment was official. Ninth Circuit spokesman David Madden said Friday that the panel's decision to act sooner was "unusual, but not unprecedented," although he could not recall another time the appeals court acted before receiving an official judgment from the high court.

The panel ? Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was named to the 9th Circuit by President Jimmy Carter and has a reputation as the court's liberal lion; Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, an early appointee of President Bill Clinton; and Judge Randy Smith, the last 9th Circuit judge nominated by President George W. Bush ? decided on its own to lift the stay, Madden said.

Its order read simply, "The stay in the above matter is dissolved effective immediately."

Vikram Amar, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Davis, said the Supreme Court's 25-day waiting period to make its decisions final isn't binding on lower courts.

"Some people may think it was in poor form, But it's not illegal," Amar said. "The appeals court may have felt that this case has dragged on long enough."

The same panel of judges ruled 2-1 last year that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, but it kept same-sex marriages on hold while the case was appealed. But when the Supreme Court decided Proposition 8's backers couldn't defend the ban, it also wiped out the 9th Circuit's opinion.

Proposition 8 passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, 4 1/2 months after same-sex marriages commenced in California the first time. The Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California, Los Angeles, estimates 18,000 couples from around the country got married in the state during that window.

Shortly after the appeals court issued its order Friday, the governor directed California counties to resume performing same-sex marriages. A memo from the Department of Public Health said "same-sex marriage is again legal in California" and ordered county clerks to comply by making marriage licenses available to gay couples.

Given that word did not come down from the appeals court until mid-afternoon, most counties were not prepared to stay open late to accommodate potential crowds. The clerks in a few counties announced that they would stay open a few hours late Friday before reopening Monday.

A jubilant San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced that same-sex couples would be able to marry all weekend in his city, which is hosting its annual gay pride celebration.

___

Associated Press writers Jason Dearen, Paul Elias and Mihir Zaveri contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plaintiffs-gay-marriage-case-wed-sf-la-015212241.html

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Obama yet to have African legacy like predecessors

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, makes a toast during an official dinner with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the Presidential Palace on Thursday, June 27, 2013, in Dakar, Senegal. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, makes a toast during an official dinner with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the Presidential Palace on Thursday, June 27, 2013, in Dakar, Senegal. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama, center, takes a tour during a food security expo on Friday, June 28, 2013, in Dakar, Senegal. Obama met with farmers, innovators, and entrepreneurs whose new methods and technologies are improving the lives of smallholder farmers throughout West Africa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

USAID administrator Raj Shah, left, looks on as U.S. President Barack Obama, center, talks to Nimna Diayte, president of the Farmers Federation, front, during a food security expo on Friday, June 28, 2013, in Dakar, Senegal. Obama met with farmers, innovators, and entrepreneurs whose new methods and technologies are improving the lives of smallholder farmers throughout West Africa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama looks out to sea through the 'Door of No Return,' at the slave house on Goree Island, in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is calling his visit to a Senegalese island from which Africans were said to have been shipped across the Atlantic Ocean into slavery, a 'very powerful moment.' President Obama was in Dakar Thursday as part of a weeklong trip to Africa, a three-country visit aimed at overcoming disappointment on the continent over the first black U.S. president's lack of personal engagement during his first term. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

U.S. President Barack Obama looks at rice crops during a food security expo on Friday, June 28, 2013, in Dakar, Senegal. Obama met with farmers, innovators, and entrepreneurs whose new methods and technologies are improving the lives of smallholder farmers throughout West Africa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors.

Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush passed innovative Africa initiatives while in the White House and passionately continue their development work in the region in their presidential afterlife. Obama's efforts here have not been so ambitious, despite his personal ties to the continent.

His first major tour of Africa as president is coming just now, in his fifth year, while Bush and Clinton are frequent fliers to Africa. Bush even will be in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, next week at the same time as Obama, although they have no plans to meet. Instead, their wives plan to appear together at a summit on empowering African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute, with the former president in attendance.

For Obama, one potentially memorable aspect of this trip -- a meeting with former South African president and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela -- remained in doubt. Obama was en route from Dakar Senegal to Johannesburg, South Africa, Friday where Mandela was hospitalized in critical condition.

Obama, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, said it was uncertain whether he would get an opportunity to see the 94-year-old Mandela, a personal hero to the president.

"I don't need a photo-op, and the last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition," he said.

In French-speaking Senegal, Africa's westernmost country, spirited crowds greeted Obama on his visit, with revelers frequently breaking into song and dance at the sight of the first African-American president. However thrilled they were to see him, many said they wish his visits weren't so rare.

"Two visits in five years, it's not enough," said Faye Mbissine, a 30-year-old nanny who took an early morning bus to come see Obama on Thursday outside the presidential palace. "We hope that he can come more."

Manougou Nbodj, a 21-year-old student, said he hopes Obama will bring American resources like jobs and health care. "If Obama can work with Macky Sall the way that George Bush worked with Africa before him, then we will be happy," he said, referring to the Senegalese president.

One of Bush's chief foreign policy successes was his aid to Africa, including AIDS relief credited with saving millions of lives and grants to reward developing countries for good governance. Bush followed on momentum on African policy that began under Clinton, who allowed several dozen sub-Saharan countries to export to the U.S. duty-free.

Obama has continued the Bush and Clinton programs during tough economic times. But his signature Africa policy thus far has been food security, through less prominent programs designed to address hunger with policy reforms and private investment in agriculture.

On Friday, Obama toured displays in small thatched booths at his hotel grounds on a bluff overlooking the ocean, meeting with farmers and entrepreneurs who are using new methods and technologies to advance the cause of food security.

"This is a moral imperative," he said. "I believe that Africa is rising and it wants to partner with us not to be dependent but to be self-sufficient.

Witney Schneidman, former deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said Obama's efforts are not like Bush's AIDS initiative "where you put people on a medicine to save their lives ? very, extremely important. This is more of a structural change, and I think that's going to take time."

Under Clinton and Bush "you had this major funding, major attention, major initiatives going to Africa, and then President Obama came in, and there was a sense of stall, in a way," said Jennifer Cooke, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She said that's understandable as he grappled with wars and an economic crisis, and she gave Obama credit for working diplomatically with African governments in his first term.

But, she said, "they weren't big, splashy initiatives that got peoples' attention either in Africa or here at home, and no big money and no big ideas that really helped define what Obama was about in Africa."

That's a disappointed those who were expecting more from the first African-American president, especially after his speech during a brief stopover in Ghana his first summer in office, in which he spoke personally of his father's life in Kenya and declared "a new moment of great promise" in Africa. "I have the blood of Africa within me," Obama said.

Schneidman argued that Obama's personal connection may also have been an impediment to deeper engagement in his first term. "The whole birther movement here in the U.S. that was sort of questioning his place of birth to begin with ... I think it was a real constraint on dealing with Africa," Schneidman said.

Mwangi Kimenyi, a Kenyan who directs the Brookings Institutions' Africa Growth Initiative, said Obama may be a victim of misplaced sky-high expectations on the continent when he was first elected.

"Africans still consider Clinton their president," Kimenyi said. "If you go to Africa and mention Clinton ? I mean, he is a hero, even today. I don't think President Obama is going to approach the level of President Clinton at all, in terms of respect, in terms of what they feel, and it's partly because, as one whose family is from Africa, the expectations were rather high."

"There is not that feeling that, you know, we have our son there," Kimenyi said. "There's probably more reference of a prodigal son than a, you know, son."

Clinton first drew extensive attention to Africa in 1998 when he made the longest trip ever by a U.S. president, with stops in six countries that had never before been visited by any occupant of the Oval Office.

Bush's trip this week is his third in 19 months to promote his Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership to combat breast and cervical cancer in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. On this visit, he and his wife, Laura, plan to help renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment clinic in Zambia before heading to Tanzania for the African First Ladies Summit advocating investment in programs for women and girls.

"Frankly, Africa is a place that we had not yet been able to devote significant presidential time and attention to," Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes said. "And there's nothing that can make an impact more in terms of our foreign policy and our economic and security interests than the president of the United States coming and demonstrating the importance of our commitment to this region."

___

Associated Press writer Robbie Corey-Boulet contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-28-Obama/id-879424bfba264c4a9a84e5b732560308

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New cancer treatment beats chemotherapy without the toxic side ...

If a locked door must be opened, explosives can be used, but normally it is better to use a key. The conventional treatments for cancer, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, have a range of terrible side effects that resemble the use of explosives. Now a key has been found to treat various forms of leukemia and lymphoma with only very minor side effects. The drug ibrutinib has proven sufficiently safe and effective in early clinical tests by physicians at Ohio State University that it has been given breakthrough drug status by the FDA.

Both chemotherapy and radiation treatment protocols for cancer have one primary goal ? design a treatment that is slightly more lethal to the cancer than to the patient. Chemotherapy began nearly 100 years ago, when mustard gas derivatives were studied following World War I. From this early start, serious research on chemotherapy agents for cancers began around 1950. While chemotherapy is still one of the key weapons to use in fighting cancer, a good deal of pharmaceutical and medical research is presently going toward more targeted agents to minimize the enormous stress of cancer therapy on the patient.

Leukemia and lymphoma are cancers of the blood. Leukemia is the proliferation of immature white cells in the blood, which leads to impairment of the immune system, blood clotting issues, and red cell anemia. Lymphoma is a similar proliferation of lymphocytes, which has similar symptoms, but can also involve solid tumors of the lymph nodes. In both cancers, complete cure is unlikely, but the disease can be managed in most cases by triggering partial or complete periods of remission through chemotherapy and/or radiation treatment. As these treatments are still painful and debilitating, and sometimes ineffective, new forms of treatment are an active area of research.

Ibrutinib is a member of a new class of drugs for use against B-cell blood cancers. B-cells are a type of white blood cell that is active in the body's immune system. They have B-cell receptor (BCR) proteins on the cell surfaces, which binds to specific bodily invaders, thereby allowing the immune system to attack the invaders. B-cells also act as part of the memory function of the immune system, keeping a chemical record of past targets of the immune reaction. Malfunctioning B-cells can cause autoimmune diseases as well as becoming cancerous themselves.

In B-cells, an enzyme called Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is an important stage in the B-cell maturation and activation of the BCR proteins. Among other functions, this BCR signaling is thought to drive the growth and well-being of many types of B-cell cancers. In short, B-cell cancers have a very difficult time surviving in the absence of BTK.

Ibrutinib is a strong covalent inhibitor of BTK, and in inhibiting BTK triggers B-cells to undergo aptopsis, or cell death, effectively blocking cancer growth and metastasis. Ibrutinib also shows activity in treatment of autoimmune disease, by throttling back the action of the immune system.

A new clinical trial carried out by medical researchers at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center in cooperation with MD Anderson Cancer Center, investigated the effect of ibrutinib in two groups of patients, one having confirmed recurring or resistant cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and the other having confirmed recurring or resistant cases of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). Neither study involved a control group or healthy patients, as the object was to determine the toxicity and efficacy of the ibrutinib treatments.

The CLL trial involved 85 ambulatory patients, 51 of whom received ibrutinib at 420 mg/day, and 34 who received 840 mg/day. Ibrutinib can be absorbed by mouth, so the doses were given orally. The lower dose group included a third group, originally excluded from the study because of high-risk genetic factors, who showed no response to chemoimmunotherapy. The early results of the clinical study proved sufficiently positive that exclusion of the third group was judged to be inappropriate.

Treatment with ibrutinib proved to be very safe, with most participants only encountering annoying side effects that did not require stopping the treatment. Only six patients were forced to halt treatment, primarily due to diarrhea and the associated dehydration, and upper respiratory tract infections.

The treatment was also very effective at stopping progression of CLL, and in most cases (71 percent) causing at least a partial remission. The results were independent of the doses used, which argues toward using smaller doses. The response was somewhat better (85 percent) in patients lacking high-risk genetic mutations. Overall, the 26-month survival rate was 83 percent, with little dependence of age or stage of the cancer at the start of participation in the study.

The MCL trial included 111 ambulatory patients, all of whom received 560 mg/day of ibrutinib. Nearly all of the patients had previously received multiple rounds of chemotherapy, and 86 percent had intermediate or high-risk lymphoma.

The ibrutinib treatment proved quite effective, with 21 percent of the patients experiencing a complete remission of MCL, and another 47 percent having a partial remission. The estimated total rate of survival at 18 months was 58 percent. Again, a remarkable feature of the trial is that ibrutinib helped nearly all patients to one extent or another.

?This is remarkable because the last agent approved by the Food and Drug Administration for MCL had a 30 percent response rate,? says senior author Kristie Blum, MD, associate professor of medicine, and head of the OSUCCC ? James lymphoma program. ?This trial suggests that ibrutinib could significantly improve the landscape of therapy options for MCL.?

The level of response found to ibrutinib could only be approached through conventional chemotherapy by intensive, multiagent regimes of treatment associated with very high toxicity. Ibrutinib is clearly on the fast track to approval for treating a range of B-cell cancers. Hopefully it becomes a standard therapy option before any reader needs such treatment.

Source: Ohio State University

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/lymphoma-treatment-cancer-ibrutinib/28085/

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

EU agrees on bank-failure rules to avoid bailouts

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble speaks at a press conference about the German budget in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The government of Europe biggest economy finalized the budget for 2013 and the budget plan for 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble speaks at a press conference about the German budget in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. The government of Europe biggest economy finalized the budget for 2013 and the budget plan for 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, right, talks with Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen, during the EU finance ministers meeting, in Brussels, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. European Union finance ministers are making a fresh attempt to set up rules on how to distribute the cost of failing banks without letting taxpayers foot the bill. The EU's 27 finance ministers are set to gather for an emergency meeting in Brussels after they failed to reach an agreement on the legislation in 19 hours of negotiations last week. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos Jurado, left, talks with Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, during the EU finance ministers meeting, in Brussels, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. European Union finance ministers are making a fresh attempt to set up rules on how to distribute the cost of failing banks without letting taxpayers foot the bill. The EU's 27 finance ministers are set to gather for an emergency meeting in Brussels after they failed to reach an agreement on the legislation in 19 hours of negotiations last week. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos Jurado, left, talks with Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, center, and Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, during the EU finance ministers meeting, in Brussels, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. European Union finance ministers are making a fresh attempt to set up rules on how to distribute the cost of failing banks without letting taxpayers foot the bill. The EU's 27 finance ministers are set to gather for an emergency meeting in Brussels after they failed to reach an agreement on the legislation in 19 hours of negotiations last week. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

(AP) ? The European Union has struck a deal on rules establishing who will pay for bank bailouts in the future without taxpayers having to foot the bill.

The agreement reached by the EU's 27 finance ministers after seven hours of negotiations early Thursday is an important step toward establishing Europe's so-called banking union with the goal of restoring financial and economic stability to the recession-hit bloc.

The set of rules determines the order in which investors and creditors will have to take losses when a bank is restructured or shut down, with a taxpayer-funded bailout being only a limited last resort.

"That's a major shift from the public means, from the taxpayer if you will, back to the financial sector itself which will now become for a very, very large extent responsible for dealing with its own problems," said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

The ministers had failed to reach a deal in 19 hours of continuous talks last week, and their latest round of negotiations in Brussels came only hours before a summit of the EU's 27 heads of state and government. At the summit, the EU leaders are expected to take stock of the progress of the bloc's financial and economic policies.

Exactly a year ago, EU leaders pledged to tackle the eurozone's financial crisis by introducing a banking union, which aims to give the supervision and rescue of banks to European institutions rather than leaving weaker member states to fend for themselves.

Since its announcement the project has stalled on many fronts, not the least because richer countries fear they might have to pay for the banking woes of weaker countries. But Thursday's breakthrough gave the endeavor new credibility by establishing clear rules.

"The talks were lengthy, quite difficult and intense," German Finance Minister Schaeuble said. "This is an important step. We make progress step by step" toward completing the banking union, he added.

The EU governments will now start negotiating the legislation with the European Parliament.

Following the 2008-2009 financial crisis, countries like Ireland, Britain and Germany each had to pump dozens of billions of fresh capital into ailing banks to avoid the financial system from collapsing.

To avoid that happening again, finance ministers discussed who should contribute in which order and how much to a bank's rescue ? a so-called bail-in ? so that ordinary taxpayers aren't left with the bill.

"Bail-in is now the rule," stressed Ireland's Finance Minister Michael Noonan, adding the rules put an end to moral hazard by making it clear that banks will suffer before the government might come in to help, if at all. "This is a revolutionary change in the way banks are treated," he added.

The rules foresee for banks' creditors and shareholders to be the first to take losses. But if that isn't enough to prop up the lender, small companies and ordinary savers holding uninsured deposits worth more than 100,000 euros ($132,000) will also take a hit, officials said.

Those forced losses will go as high as 8 percent of a bank's total balance sheet, only then would national governments kick in and top it up with a bailout possibly worth another 5 percent of the balance sheet.

The negotiations were complicated because some nations feared being bound by overly rigid European rules. Others warned that too much flexibility would create new imbalances between the bloc's weaker and stronger economies and a lack of common rules would destroy certainty for investors and erode trust in the financial system.

But the rules will now apply equally for the 17 EU nations sharing the euro currency and the 10 member states like Britain that have their own currency, said the Netherlands' Dijsselbloem, who also chairs the meetings of eurozone finance ministers.

Europe has already had to deal with serious banking issues this year. Cyprus had to seek a rescue loan after it could no longer shoulder the cost of bailing out its banks.

An initial agreement with the island's European creditors and the International Monetary Fund sparked market fears since it exposed small savers with deposits under the 100,000 euro guarantee to losses.

The deal was rapidly overhauled, but holders of large deposits in some banks were forced to take harsh losses.

In the U.S., the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s rules specify that deposits larger than $250,000 might have to take losses in case of bank failures.

The EU's new rules also foresee the establishment of national bank restructuring funds, which would eventually be merged into a European resolution authority, one of the banking union's three pillars.

Another part of the banking union will be centralized oversight of big banks anchored at the European Central Bank that is due to be operational next year. But the discussion on the third section, a jointly guaranteed deposit insurance, is only in its early stages.

___

Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-26-Europe-Financial%20Crisis/id-87b05dad4f3740b48c03a31bd4528540

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Report: Yanks GM angry at A-Rod for Twitter update

NEW YORK (AP) ? Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees are not seeing eye to eye on his hip injury.

The star third baseman tweeted Tuesday night that his hip surgeon has cleared him to play in rehabilitation games, a move that angered Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, according to ESPN.com.

"You know what, when the Yankees want to announce something, (we will)," Cashman told the website.

"Alex should just shut ... up," the GM said, punctuating his comment with a profanity.

Cashman added that he planned to get in touch with Rodriguez right away.

The general manager did not respond to calls from The Associated Press.

Rodriguez had left hip surgery on Jan. 16 and has been working out since May at the Yankees' complex in Tampa, Fla. The three-time AL MVP took swings in a simulated-game situation for the first time on Monday.

On Tuesday night, he posted a message on Twitter: "Visit from Dr. Kelly over the weekend, who gave me the best news - the green light to play games again!" Rodriguez also posted a photo of himself and Dr. Brian Kelly, who performed the operation in New York.

Cashman recently said Yankees doctors have not yet cleared A-Rod for minor league rehab games.

"I don't tweet, and I really don't follow Twitter. So I probably don't really know much of what is going on. As far as I know he has not been cleared," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Tuesday night after his team's 4-3 victory over Texas.

"There's always a chain of command with injuries. There has to be and that's the process. It goes through our training staff, our doctors and our GM and then it goes to me. I'm down on the totem pole."

Before the game ? and Rodriguez's tweet ? Girardi said Rodriguez "is making progress, which is good."

"He's in sim games until they decide he's ready to go out on a rehab. It's not yet," the manager said.

New to the social media site Twitter, Rodriguez sent his first tweet on May 31. He is expected to return to the Yankees around the All-Star break, shortly before he turns 38.

Benched by the team as he slumped through last year's playoffs, A-Rod has been in the news a lot lately even though he has spent almost no time with the Yankees this season. He is among the 20 or so players who may be disciplined by Major League Baseball for their links to the now-closed Miami anti-aging clinic, Biogenesis of America. MLB could possibly seek a 100-game suspension.

Rodriguez admitted in 2009 that he used performance-enhancing drugs while with the Rangers from 2001-03. As baseball's highest-paid player with a $28 million salary this year, he would lose $7.65 million during a 50-game ban.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-yanks-gm-angry-rod-twitter-064201905.html

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O3b space constellation to launch

An innovative new space network goes into orbit on Monday.

O3b will put a series of satellites 8,000km above the Earth to provide communications to those parts of the world that have poor fibre optic infrastructure.

With backing from blue chip companies such as Google, O3b believes its novel system can change the broadband experience for millions of people.

The network's first four satellites will launch from French Guiana.

They will ride a Soyuz rocket from the Sinnamary spaceport, with lift-off scheduled for 15:53 local time (18:53 GMT).

It will take just over two hours for the Soyuz's Fregat upper-stage to raise the satellites to their operational altitude.

O3b will handle primarily voice and data traffic for mobile phone operators and internet service providers. It will pick up this traffic as the spacecraft pass overhead and then relay it to ground stations, or teleports, for onward connection to global networks.

Although other satellites routinely do this, O3b is taking a markedly different approach.

By flying in a Medium-Earth Orbit of 8,000km, its satellites will be a quarter of the distance from Earth than is the case with traditional geostationary (GEO) telecommunications spacecraft, which sit some 36,000km above the planet.

This should reduce substantially the delay, or latency, of the signal as the voice or data traffic is routed via space.

"The network was designed to avoid much of the difficulty that satellite connectivity provides today which is this delay," said O3b CEO Steve Collar.

"We've all been on a satellite call and you have that 600 milliseconds delay, which doesn't sound like much but it's enough to make that connection almost unusable. It's just as much of a problem on data networks. If you are on the internet and are searching for a site, it affects your behaviour if you get slow responses. You'll stop using the service. We wanted to fix those problems and the only way to fix them is to bring the satellites closer to Earth."

O3b is promising round-trip transmission time of a little more than 100 milliseconds.

The satellites will operate in the high-frequency Ka-band and have the capability to deliver 10 beams, at 1.2Gbps per beam, to each of O3b's seven operational regions.

The company expects to start services at the end of the year, once it gets eight spacecraft in orbit, but the intention is to put up perhaps as many as 20 eventually.

It has taken about six years to put the O3b project together. Important backers include not only Google but SES, one of the big players in the traditional satellite communications business.

O3b was born from founder Greg Wyler's frustration with the difficulty of connecting a modern teleco in Rwanda to the global fibre optic network, and the constraints that placed on performance.

O3b actually stands for "other three billion" - the number of people whose poor communications experience is expected to improve over the coming decade. O3b sees itself as an important agent of that change.

"There are two billion people in the world that are connected to the internet today; there are five billion who are not; and three billion who will be in the course of the next 10-15 years," said Mr Collar. "The other three billion is our target - that's who we're trying to reach, and that's where our name comes from."

The Jersey, Channel Islands-based outfit has raised more than $1bn to build its space and ground infrastructure.

O3b's largest debt facility, over $0.5bn, is provided by HSBC, ING, CA-CIB and Dexia, and is underwritten by the French export credit agency, Coface. The agency is supporting three new space constellations, all of them built by Thales Alenia Space.

The 700kg spacecraft that TAS is building for O3b are based on the 24 spacecraft it has just finished for the Globalstar satellite phone network.

One of the challenges of running the system is tracking platforms as they move across the sky.

"The constellation will be spread equally around the equator which means you have to pick the satellite up as it comes over the horizon and follow it to the other side; and as soon as it goes out of visibility there is already another satellite waiting to be picked up," explained Philippe Nabet, the TAS programme manager on the O3b project.

"There will be three antennas at the ground stations - two to track the satellites; the third is a spare."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23028083#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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Imgur's Android app distracts you with cute kittens on the go

DNP Imgur Android app

Imgur, a reservoir of viral photos, adorable kittens and vapid memes, is going mobile: it's releasing an official Android app today. Technically, the app has been floating around Google Play since April, albeit in beta form. The final build allows users to view and comment on photos, as well as to upload their own -- basically everything the service's full website offers. Read on for the company's full press release, or check out the source link below to fuel your mindless addiction.

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Source: Google Play

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/24/imgur-android-app/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Supreme Court punts on affirmative action

The Supreme Court has surprised legal experts by declining to strike down the University of Texas' use of race in undergraduate admissions. On Monday, the justices sent the case back to a lower court for a rehearing, dodging a decision on whether affirmative-action policies at public colleges around the country are unconstitutional.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative-leaning swing vote, wrote the opinion for Fisher v. University of Texas, which was decided 7-1. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court's liberal leader, dissented, arguing that the lower court's decision in favor of affirmative action should stand. Kennedy said the federal Fifth Circuit must rehear the case to decide whether UT "offered sufficient evidence to prove that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity." The court also requires the lower court to decide whether the college could use any "race neutral" means of creating a diverse campus before resorting to affirmative action.

"Strict scrutiny imposes on the university the ultimate burden of demonstrating, before turning to racial classifications, that available, workable race-neutral alternatives do not suffice," the justices wrote.

The decision comes as a surprise, since during oral arguments in the case in October, many of the conservative-leaning justices seemed poised to issue a broader ruling invalidating the use of race in admissions. Kennedy has also frequently expressed skepticism of affirmative-action programs.

"Affirmative action lives to see another day," Adam Winkler, a constitutional law expert at UCLA, told Yahoo News. "The Supreme Court seemed prepared to strike a real blow against affirmative action back in October. But the Fisher case reaffirms [previous] Supreme Court cases that allow universities to take race into account."

Abigail Noel Fisher brought suit against the University of Texas after she was denied admission in 2008. UT automatically admits Texans who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but fills its remaining seats by judging applicants on a combination of GPA, test scores, race and other factors. Fisher claimed she was discriminated against because she is white when she was denied admission. The college argued that Fisher's GPA and standardized test scores made her inadmissible regardless of her race and that using race as one factor in admission helps it maintain a diverse student body.

The Supreme Court established in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger that universities could use race as a factor in admissions as long as they did not use quotas (for example, that 10 percent of the class must be black). The justices said affirmative action was still necessary to counteract the effects of institutionalized racism that had prevented minorities from attending college in the past. The majority wrote that they believed that in 25 years, affirmative action would no longer be necessary and should be stopped. This "sunset" provision was skewered by the four dissenting justices.

The Fisher case was argued 10 months ago, and many legal experts were stumped as to why the justices were taking so long to release an opinion. The court has agreed to hear another case dealing with affirmative action next fall and may issue a broader decision then.

Justice Elena Kagan, a President Barack Obama appointee, recused herself from the case, most likely due to her work on it as solicitor general.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/supreme-court-punts-affirmative-action-case-141850745.html

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Monday, June 24, 2013

100 Greatest Open World Games ? GamingBolt.com: Video Game ...

Please use the back-next buttons to navigate through the gallery.

100. Simpsons Road Rage

Picture 1 of 100

Despite the similarities to Crazy Taxi, Road Rage does have the Simpsons likenesses and the world of Springfield to drive around. It?s a fun diversion ? by no means the best open world game but certainly better than Crazy Taxi 3.

When it comes to wide-open spaces, games these days offer so many options to just explore the environment around you; often you stumble upon a hidden treasure, or get ambushed by a roving gang of thieves or assassins. One moment you are riding your horse without caring about anything, the next minute you?re attacked by a fire-breathing dragon. So join us as we count down to the top 100 greatest open world games of all time.

Please note that we have included games that are yet to be released on the basis of hands on impressions or video previews.

Do you agree with our list? Do you have anything else to add? Let us know in the comments section below.

For more exciting features and top 10 lists, please click here. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.


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Source: http://gamingbolt.com/100-greatest-open-world-games

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Lovefilm bringing Star Trek, other CBS shows to the UK and Germany

Lovefilm bringing Star Trek, other CBS shows to the UK and Germany

CBS may have teamed up with Netflix in the US to satisfy those of us with an Enterprising bent, but the company has taken a different tack in the UK and Germany. Instead, the firm has signed a deal with Lovefilm to bring CBS and Showtime-owned shows to Amazon's streaming network. The press release promises that users will be able to watch classic Star Trek, Voyager, The Good Wife, Dexter and Californication instantly, although a brief check of the UK site reveals that you may need to wait a short while more before you can immerse yourself in the Delta quadrant / Hank Moody's psyche.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/jh-uldBe3qw/

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Rivers receding in Calgary, thousands return home

A flooded downtown Calgary, Alberta is seen from a aerial view of the city Saturday, June 22, 2013. The two rivers that converge on the western Canadian city of Calgary are receding Saturday after floods devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

A flooded downtown Calgary, Alberta is seen from a aerial view of the city Saturday, June 22, 2013. The two rivers that converge on the western Canadian city of Calgary are receding Saturday after floods devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

A flooded downtown Calgary, Alberta is seen from a aerial view of the city Saturday, June 22, 2013. The two rivers that converge on the western Canadian city of Calgary are receding Saturday after floods devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

A flooded downtown Calgary, Alberta is seen from a aerial view of the city Saturday, June 22, 2013. The two rivers that converge on the western Canadian city of Calgary are receding Saturday after floods devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

This photo shows a flooded Calgary Saddledome Saturday, June 22, 2013 in Calgary, Alberta. The Saddledome, home to the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames, was flooded up to the 10th row, leaving the dressing rooms submerged. The two rivers that converge on the western Canadian city of Calgary are receding Saturday, June 22, 2013 after floods devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jonathan Hayward)

This undated photo provided by the Calgary Flames shows the inside of the Calgary Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta. The Saddledome, home to the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames, was flooded up to the 10th row, leaving the dressing rooms submerged. The two rivers that converge on the western Canadian city of Calgary are receding Saturday, June 22, 2013 after floods devastated much of southern Alberta province, causing at least three deaths and forcing thousands to evacuate. (AP Photo/Calgary Flames)

(AP) ? About 65,000 residents of Calgary were being allowed to return to their homes Sunday to assess the damage from flooding that has left Alberta's largest city awash in debris and dirty water.

Some were returning to properties spared by flooding, but others were facing extensive repairs to homes and businesses.

About 75,000 people had to leave at the height of the crisis as the Elbow and Bow rivers surged over their banks Thursday night. Three bodies have been recovered since the flooding began in southern Alberta and a fourth person was still missing.

"We've turned a corner, but we are still in a state of emergency," Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said. "Our hearts and thought and prayers are with our colleagues downstream."

People in the eastern part of the province headed for higher ground as the flood threat remained. In Medicine Hat, Alberta, thousands of people have left their homes as water levels rose on the South Saskatchewan River. The river was not expected to crest until Monday, but by Sunday morning it was lapping over its banks in low-lying areas and people were busy laying down thousands of sandbags.

In Calgary, Nenshi said crews were working hard to restore services and he thanked residents for heeding the call to conserve drinking water.

He had already warned that recovery will be a matter of "weeks and months" and the damage costs will be "lots and lots."

While pockets of the city's core were drying out, other areas were still submerged. The mayor didn't anticipate that anyone could return to work downtown until at least the middle of the week. The downtown area was evacuated Friday.

The city's public schools were also to remain closed Monday.

Nathan MacBey and his wife found muddy water had risen to about kitchen counter level in their Calgary home at the peak of the flooding. His basement is still swamped and the main floor of the home is covered in wet mud.

"This is unprecedented," said the father of two, his voice cracking with emotion. "Not being able to give our kids a home, that's tough. ... We can survive, it's just the instability for the kids."

Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths said that 27 communities in Alberta were under states of emergency ? with some areas slowly starting to emerge from the watery onslaught and others still bracing for it

Griffiths said no place has been hit harder than the town of High River south of Calgary and it will be some time before residents there will be allowed back.

The waiting and worrying were causing tensions and emotions to run high, but Griffiths said virtually every home in the town of 18,000 would need to be inspected.

In High River, about 350 members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry from Edmonton have been assisting police in reaching homes that still haven't been checked. Armored vehicles have been churning through submerged streets and Zodiac watercraft have been used to reach the hardest-hit areas.

Back in Calgary, the water has taken a toll outside residential neighborhoods as well. The Saddledome hockey arena, home of the National Hockey League's Calgary Flames, was extensively damaged. The team said boards, dressing rooms, player equipment and several rows of seats were a total loss.

The rodeo and fair grounds of the world-famous Calgary Stampede were also swamped, although Nenshi was optimistic that things would be cleared up in time for the show to open July 5.

Nenshi said Sunday that all the major hotels in the downtown were closed and advised visitors to plan accordingly.

The federal Conservative party had planned to hold a policy convention in Calgary next weekend, but that's been postponed and a new date hasn't yet been set.

The mountain town of Canmore was one of the first communities hit when the flooding began on Thursday. Residents there have been allowed to return to 260 evacuated homes, but the Royal Canadian Mounted Police says 40 more are too damaged to allow people back.

In Saskatchewan, efforts are underway to move more than 2,000 people from their homes in a flood-prone part of the province's northeast.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-23-Canada-Alberta%20Flooding/id-9dac0f6a702c4a429f03b887f7a72065

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