VEGF may not be relevant biomarker for advanced prostate cancer

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
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Contact: Danielle Servetnick
danielle.servetnick@jefferson.edu
215-955-2238
Thomas Jefferson University

'This study confirms that VEGF is not a path forward to tackling this disease'

PHILADELPHIAThe well-studied protein VEGF does not appear to have any prognostic or predictive value for men with locally advanced prostate cancer, researchers from the Department of Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and other institutions found in a retrospective study published online April 25 in the journal BMC Radiation Oncology.

VEGF, or vascular endothelial growth factor, induces blood vessel growth, a process known as angiogenesis, which is a key element in solid tumor growth and metastasis. It is overexpressed, along with its receptors, in various cancers, including breast, renal cell carcinoma and gliomas, and has been shown to help predict response to certain drugs.

However, conflicting data in the literature has left the role of VEGF in prostate cancer as a useful biomarker unclear and controversial.

Here, in one of the largest studies of VEGF expression in prostate cancer, senior author Adam P. Dicker, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Jefferson, and colleagues retrospectively analyzed data from two groups of men with locally advanced prostate cancer: those who had only radiation therapy and those who had short-term neoadjuvant and concurrent androgen deprivation therapy and radiation therapy.

Data was collected using pathologic material of over 100 men from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 8610 phase III randomized control trial to explore VEGF's potential as a biomarker, one that could be used to improve the treatment of prostate cancer patients through better targeted therapies.

Based on the results, however, researchers posit that the VEGF protein may not be a relevant biomarker for this patient group. They found no statistically significant difference in pre-treatment characteristics among men with varying VEGF levels and no correlation between VEGF expression and overall survival, distant metastasis, local progression, disease-free survival, or biochemical failure.

What's more, there was no difference between the two treatment arms, those who had androgen therapy and radiation therapy and those who just had radiation. The median follow up time was for all surviving patients was 12.2 years.

"VEGF in this disease does not have a driver role," said Dr. Dicker. "The clinical trials using VEGF inhibitors did not have clinical benefit, so this study confirms that this is not a path forward to tacking this disease."

The results are not definitive statements about VEGF, the authors explain, but reporting on this well-characterized population with long-term follow is a significant contribution to the literature.

"This study is among the larger studies of VEGF expression in prostate cancer, and we urge the research community to avoid the misrepresentation of the literature with a lack of publication of even well-designed large negative studies, a publication bias against negative trials, as the current literature in this area appears to be predominated by only small exploratory positive trials, with a lack of subsequent confirmation with larger, longer prospectively designed trials," the authors write.

Other institutions included Prince Edward Island Cancer Treatment Centre, University of Pennsylvania, Abington Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, Melre M. Mahr Cancer Center, University of Miami, and the Intermountain Medical Center.

###

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (TJUH) are dedicated to excellence in patient care and education. It is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation's top hospitals. It has over 950 licensed acute care beds with major programs in a wide range of clinical specialties. TJUH is one of the few hospitals in the U.S. that is both a Level 1 Trauma Center and a federally-designated regional spinal cord injury center. TJUH patient care facilities include: Jefferson Hospital, Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, and Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia. Additional out-patient sites are located throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. TJUH is a part of Jefferson Health System and a partner of Thomas Jefferson University.

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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-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Danielle Servetnick
danielle.servetnick@jefferson.edu
215-955-2238
Thomas Jefferson University

'This study confirms that VEGF is not a path forward to tackling this disease'

PHILADELPHIAThe well-studied protein VEGF does not appear to have any prognostic or predictive value for men with locally advanced prostate cancer, researchers from the Department of Radiation Oncology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and other institutions found in a retrospective study published online April 25 in the journal BMC Radiation Oncology.

VEGF, or vascular endothelial growth factor, induces blood vessel growth, a process known as angiogenesis, which is a key element in solid tumor growth and metastasis. It is overexpressed, along with its receptors, in various cancers, including breast, renal cell carcinoma and gliomas, and has been shown to help predict response to certain drugs.

However, conflicting data in the literature has left the role of VEGF in prostate cancer as a useful biomarker unclear and controversial.

Here, in one of the largest studies of VEGF expression in prostate cancer, senior author Adam P. Dicker, MD, PhD, Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Jefferson, and colleagues retrospectively analyzed data from two groups of men with locally advanced prostate cancer: those who had only radiation therapy and those who had short-term neoadjuvant and concurrent androgen deprivation therapy and radiation therapy.

Data was collected using pathologic material of over 100 men from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group 8610 phase III randomized control trial to explore VEGF's potential as a biomarker, one that could be used to improve the treatment of prostate cancer patients through better targeted therapies.

Based on the results, however, researchers posit that the VEGF protein may not be a relevant biomarker for this patient group. They found no statistically significant difference in pre-treatment characteristics among men with varying VEGF levels and no correlation between VEGF expression and overall survival, distant metastasis, local progression, disease-free survival, or biochemical failure.

What's more, there was no difference between the two treatment arms, those who had androgen therapy and radiation therapy and those who just had radiation. The median follow up time was for all surviving patients was 12.2 years.

"VEGF in this disease does not have a driver role," said Dr. Dicker. "The clinical trials using VEGF inhibitors did not have clinical benefit, so this study confirms that this is not a path forward to tacking this disease."

The results are not definitive statements about VEGF, the authors explain, but reporting on this well-characterized population with long-term follow is a significant contribution to the literature.

"This study is among the larger studies of VEGF expression in prostate cancer, and we urge the research community to avoid the misrepresentation of the literature with a lack of publication of even well-designed large negative studies, a publication bias against negative trials, as the current literature in this area appears to be predominated by only small exploratory positive trials, with a lack of subsequent confirmation with larger, longer prospectively designed trials," the authors write.

Other institutions included Prince Edward Island Cancer Treatment Centre, University of Pennsylvania, Abington Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, Melre M. Mahr Cancer Center, University of Miami, and the Intermountain Medical Center.

###

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals (TJUH) are dedicated to excellence in patient care and education. It is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation's top hospitals. It has over 950 licensed acute care beds with major programs in a wide range of clinical specialties. TJUH is one of the few hospitals in the U.S. that is both a Level 1 Trauma Center and a federally-designated regional spinal cord injury center. TJUH patient care facilities include: Jefferson Hospital, Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, and Methodist Hospital in South Philadelphia. Additional out-patient sites are located throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey. TJUH is a part of Jefferson Health System and a partner of Thomas Jefferson University.

---

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/tju-vmn042913.php

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Sudanese protesters stone government convoy after rebel attack

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Residents of a provincial Sudanese city set government offices on fire and threw rocks at local officials on Sunday, accusing them of failing to protect them from a rebel attack the day before, witnesses said.

Insurgents from Sudan's Darfur region stormed Um Rawaba in North Kordofan state on Saturday, witnesses said. State media said late in the evening authorities had regained control of the city, located some 500 km (300 miles) from Khartoum.

On Sunday, 300 people gathered in the city center to protest at a visit by North Kordofan Governor Mutassim Mirghani Zaki Uddi to inspect damage from the fighting in the state's second-largest city.

An angry crowd set several government buildings on fire and threw stones at the cars of the governor and his entourage, three witnesses told Reuters.

"We don't want you here - where were you yesterday?" the crowd chanted, according to witnesses. Uddi's motorcade left without any reports of injury or serious damage. There was no immediate police comment.

The attack marked a major thrust by a rebel alliance that is seeking to topple President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Fighting had hitherto been limited mainly to Darfur and South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, which border South Sudan.

Local newspapers showed what they said were pictures taken during the rebel attack. Several burning buildings could be seen as well as the body of a person on the ground, according to the daily al-Intibaha.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), one of the biggest Darfur rebel groups, denied it had looted or destroyed any property in Um Rawaba.

The group was one of two main rebel forces that took up arms against the government in 2003, demanding better representation for Darfur and accusing Khartoum of neglecting its development.

In 2011, JEM teamed up with two other Darfuri groups and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) which took up arms in South Kordofan and Blue Nile around the time of South Sudan's secession, breaking up Africa's largest country.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sudanese-protesters-stone-government-convoy-rebel-attack-143642468.html

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Private Aircraft Charters Great Option - ArticleSnatch.com

By: Corporatecharters Private airplane charter offers you the freedom to talk things in full confidentiality with your closest crew. You could sketch out some of the top most secrets and share business secrets in complete privacy without the fear getting overheard. You could be ahead of your competition and be well ahead of time to the business spot, to take advantage of time. Early birds catch the prey. First come are first served. These are not some of the old adages that are said without fact contained in it.

There is a lot of meaning associated towards it. Business people in the present day scenario have started to use the air charter flights, big time. They find these kinds of air charter jets to be far more convenient enough to save a lot of time and efforts. The costs have come down now in the present day scenario, as there is number of corporate jet charters that are available as of today. The competition in the trade has brought down the costs towards the benefit of the end users.

Private plane charters are not costlier option in the present day scenario. Air charter jet, companies have grown in the recent past in huge numbers all over the world. The cost associated towards opening one such corporate jet charters, service, is not too much, while compared to opening up any big business unit.

Private plane charters, demand is increasing on a daily basis. The number of users of the air charter jet, among the private companies has increased dramatically over the past two years. Corporate jet charters are preferred by the conglomerates, rather than public flights, for their special top men to travel around. Private plane charters, give you a lot of liberty and advantage in time and money as well in some cases. Air charter jet, are being leased by companies as of today. Corporate jet charters, find a lot of gain in that way.

Jet air charter facilities are quite exceptional. You can enjoy the services which you cannot avail in a first class or business class in the public charter flight services. Although, you do have plenty of options. You do not have to go out there and stand in the long queues meant for boarding the public charter plane service that is common for all. You need to rely on the conventional airport for this purpose which has its own disadvantages of bomb hoax and other threats inclusive of traffic on the way.

---

About the Author:
Corporate Charters, LLC is specialized in arranging private jet airplane & private aircraft charters as we have been providing these charter flight services for more than last 25 years throughout the world.

Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com

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N. Korea: American tourist will face trial

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday a Korean-American tourist, who has been held in prison by the reclusive state since late last year, will face trial for "committing crimes" against the North, a move that could further stoke tensions with the United States.

Kenneth Bae, 44, was in a group of five tourists who visited the northeastern city of Rajin on a five-day trip last November and has been held by police since then.

KCNA, the North's official news agency, said Bae entered the North on November 3.

"In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it," the KCNA report said, using the North's official title of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"His crimes were proved by evidence," it said, adding he would soon be taken to the Supreme Court "to face judgment".

Former U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson delivered a letter regarding Bae to officials during a trip to North Korea in January, although he was unable to meet Bae.

Richardson has made numerous trips to North Korea that have included efforts to free detained Americans.

Tensions between North Korea and South Korea and Seoul's ally the United States have spiraled in recent weeks since the United Nations tightened sanctions after the North's third nuclear weapon test in February.

The toughening of those sanctions led to a dramatic intensification of North Korea's threats of nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States.

On Friday, Pyongyang rejected a call for formal talks to end a standoff that led operations at a joint industrial complex shared by the North and South to be halted.

South Korea in turn said it would pull out all its remaining workers from the Kaesong factory complex, which is just inside North Korea and is one of the North's few sources of ready cash.

(Reporting By Jane Chung; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-says-american-tourist-holding-face-trial-035954456.html

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From the Editor's Desk: So many awesome people, so little time

I'd say this behind-the-scenes picture just about sums up our week in New York City. Take a bunch of characters from Mobile Nations, toss them into a room with John P and Cali Lewis of GeekBeat.TV, and good things will happen. OK, a lot of craziness will happen, too. But also good things. 

While we haven't explicitly said what we were up to at #tm13 -- and don't worry, we'll take care of that fairly soon -- it also shouldn't be all that hard to figure out. It's been a few years since the last Smartphone Experts Round Robin (in fact, that was my first week on the job here in late 2009 after fleeing the newspaper business), and a follow-up was long overdue.

But a lot has changed since I first met the likes of Dieter Bohn, Kevin Michaluk, Rene Ritchie, Casey Chan, Matt Miller and Mickey Papillon and others for a week of smartphone nerdery in Orlando. (Lord, we looked so young.) Some of us have moved on to do other things. (I'm still proud to call each one of them a friend, though.) There's more parity among the platforms. Palm and webOS are no more. Nokia has ceded and switched (nearly exclusively) to Windows Phone. Microsoft's mobile OS has grown from awkward and clunky to attractive and graceful, if still underappreciated. Same could be same for Android, maybe. And BlackBerry is just beginning its second life. 

I can't spill the beans on everything we did in New York just yet. But it's safe to say that just as the mobile space has evolved a great deal in the past several years, so has our outlook of it as a whole. It's as much about getting the platforms to work together as it is any one of them "winning." I think that's what we all took into #tm13. And that's certainly what we got out of it.

We'll have an official announcement in the coming weeks, and you'll (hopefully) enjoy the fruits of our labor for a number of months the rest of the year. Those of us in this picture are just the front end. So many people have worked countless hours behind the scenes, and there's still a lot of work to be done. David Lundblad and Marcus Adolfsson and Rob Kao and the film crew and production folks. Our tech folks, whose work you see every day with little fanfare. And our husbands and wives and girlfriends and anyone else who support this ridiculously crazy and fun business and help us do what we do.

And to you folks reading this, too, for putting up with all the teasing. We really are excited about this. You'll be as much a part of it -- more, really -- than anyone else.

So thanks, everybody. Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ICb-wSkhW2M/story01.htm

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Watch Ellen DeGeneres Meet Her 'SNL' Impersonator

If you're a fan of Kate McKinnon's impression of Ellen DeGeneres on Saturday Night Live -- and boy, is it spot on! -- then you'll love this. On yesterday's Ellen, McKinnon gamely accepted DeGeneres' offer to impersonate her right there on the show. Watch below, as the jaunty pair squirm in their seats and dance through the audience together:

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/snl-star-kate-mckinnon-impersonates-ellen-degeneres-ellen-show/1-a-534328?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Asnl-star-kate-mckinnon-impersonates-ellen-degeneres-ellen-show-534328

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Sprint announces Q1 2013 results: 1.5 million iPhones sold

Sprint has announced their Q1 2013 financial results and in addition to a lot of other, sometimes weirdly acronym'd, numbers, out of 5 million smartphones sold, 1.5 million were iPhones.

Eighty-six percent of quarterly Sprint platform postpaid handset sales were smartphones, including more than 1.5 million iPhones sold during the quarter. Forty-three percent of iPhone sales were to new customers, a rate that continues to outperform larger competitors.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse:

This is a transformative year for Sprint and we?ve gotten off to a good start. Record Sprint platform service revenue and subscriber levels fueled our performance. We achieved significant Adjusted OIBDA* growth while investing heavily to improve our network, expanding our 4G LTE footprint and offering customers the best smartphones with truly unlimited data plans.

The iPhone representing 30% of smartphone sales isn't as dominating a number as we've seen from AT&T and Verizon, but then again, Sprint isn't AT&T or Verizon.

Now that T-Mobile is in the mix, it'll be interesting to see what, if anything, happens to Sprint's share of iPhones going forward.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/UeeBn0KKDUI/story01.htm

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Facebook interests could help predict, track and map obesity

Apr. 24, 2013 ? The higher the percentage of people in a city, town or neighborhood with Facebook interests suggesting a healthy, active lifestyle, the lower that area's obesity rate. At the same time, areas with a large percentage of Facebook users with television-related interests tend to have higher rates of obesity. Such are the conclusions of a study by Boston Children's Hospital researchers comparing geotagged Facebook user data with data from national and New York City-focused health surveys.

Together, the conclusions suggest that knowledge of people's online interests within geographic areas may help public health researchers predict, track and map obesity rates down to the neighborhood level, while offering an opportunity to design geotargeted online interventions aimed at reducing obesity rates.

The study team, led by Rumi Chunara, PhD, and John Brownstein, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital's Informatics Program (CHIP), published their findings on April 24 in PLOS ONE.

The amount of data available from social networks like Facebook makes it possible to efficiently carry out research in cohorts of a size that has until now been impractical. It also allows for deeper research into the impact of the societal environment on conditions like obesity, research that can be challenging because of cost, difficulties in gathering sufficient sample sizes and the slow pace of data analysis and reporting using traditional reporting and surveillance systems.

"Online social networks like Facebook represent a new high-value, low-cost data stream for looking at health at a population level," according to Brownstein, who runs the Computational Epidemiology Group within CHIP. "The tight correlation between Facebook users' interests and obesity data suggest that this kind of social network analysis could help generate real-time estimates of obesity levels in an area, help target public health campaigns that would promote healthy behavior change, and assess the success of those campaigns."

To connect the dots between Facebook interests and obesity, Chunara, Brownstein and their colleagues obtained aggregated Facebook user interest data -- what users post to their timeline, "like" and share with others on Facebook -- from users nationally and just within New York City. They then compared the percentages of users interested in healthy activities or television with data from two telephone-based health surveys: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System-Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends (BRFSS-SMART), and New York City's EpiQuery Community Health Survey (CHS). Both surveys record geotagged data on body mass index, a reliable measure of obesity.

The comparison revealed close geographic relationships between Facebook interests and obesity rates. For instance, the BRFSS-SMART obesity rates were 12 percent lower in the location in the United States where the highest percentage of Facebook users expressing activity-related interests (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) compared that in the location with the lowest percentage (Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.). Similarly, the obesity rate in the location with the highest percentage of users with television-related interests nationally (Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, S.C.) was 3.9 percent higher than the location with the lowest percentage (Eugene-Springfield, Ore.).

The same correlation was reflected in the New York City neighborhood data as well, showing that the approach can scale from national- to local-level data. The CHS-reported obesity rate on Coney Island, which had the highest percentage of activity-related interests in the city, was 7.2 percent lower than Southwest Queens, the neighborhood with the lowest percentage. At the same time, the obesity rate in Northeast Bronx, the neighborhood with the highest percentage of television-related interests, was 27.5 percent higher than that in the neighborhood with the lowest percentage (Greenpoint).

"The data show that in places where Facebook users have more activity-related interests, there is a lower prevalence of obesity and overweight," said Chunara, an instructor in Brownstein's group. "They reveal how social media data can augment public health surveillance by giving public health researchers access to population-level information that they can't otherwise get."

The study also bolsters the case for using social media as a means of delivering targeted interventions aimed at reducing rates of obesity and other chronic diseases, as applicable.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Boston Children's Hospital.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Rumi Chunara, Lindsay Bouton, John W. Ayers, John S. Brownstein. Assessing the Online Social Environment for Surveillance of Obesity Prevalence. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e61373 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061373

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/TNeEtWOw3jM/130424185209.htm

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Collapsed Bangladesh factories ignored evacuation

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? Deep cracks visible in the walls of a Bangladesh garment building had compelled police to order it evacuated a day before it collapsed, officials said Thursday. More than 200 people were killed when the eight-story building splintered into a pile of concrete because factories based there ignored the order and kept more than 2,000 people working.

Wednesday's disaster in the Dhaka suburb of Savar is the worst ever for Bangladesh's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire less than five months earlier that killed 112 people. Workers at both sites made clothes for major brands around the world; some of the companies in the building that fell say their customers include retail giants such as Wal-Mart.

Hundreds of rescuers, some crawling through the maze of rubble in search of survivors and corpses, worked through the night and into Thursday amid the cries of the trapped and the wails of workers' relatives gathered outside the building, called Rana Plaza. It housed numerous garment factories and a handful of other companies.

An Associated Press cameraman who went into the rubble with rescue workers spoke briefly to a garment worker pinned face down in the darkness between concrete slabs and next to two corpses. Mohammad Altab pleaded for help, but they were unable to free him.

"Save us, brother. I beg you, brother. I want to live," Altab moaned. "It's so painful here ... I have two little children."

Another survivor, whose voice could be heard from deep in the rubble, wept as he called for help.

"We want to live, brother. It's hard to remain alive here. It would have been better to die than enduring such pain to live on. We want to live. Please save us," the man cried.

After the cracks were reported in the walls of Rana Plaza on Tuesday, managers of a local bank that also had an office in the building evacuated their workers. The garment factories, though, kept working, ignoring the instructions of the local industrial police, said Mostafizur Rahman, a director of that paramilitary police force.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association had also asked the factories to suspend work starting Wednesday morning, hours before the collapse.

"After we got the crack reports, we asked them to suspend work until further examination, but they did not pay heed," said Atiqul Islam, the group's president.

On Thursday morning, the odor of rotting bodies wafted through holes cut into the building. Bangladesh's junior minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque, said that by late Thursday morning 2,000 people had been rescued from the wreckage.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, who is overseeing army rescue teams, said the death toll had climbed to 203 by Thursday afternoon.

Dozens of bodies, their faces covered, were laid outside a local school building so relatives could identify them. Thousands of workers' relatives gathered outside the building, waiting for news, and thousands of garment workers from nearby factories took to the streets across the industrial zone in protest.

Shikder said rescue operations were progressing slowly and carefully to save as many people as possible.

He said rescue teams were standing by with heavy equipment and would "start bulldozing the debris once we get closer to the end of the operation. But now we are careful."

He also said the huge crowd that remained at the collapse site Thursday was interfering with getting more rescuers to the scene.

"We are ready with about 1,000 soldiers and rescue workers from other departments. But a huge crowd is obstructing our effort," he said.

Thousands of workers from the hundreds of other garment factories in the Savar industrial zone took to the streets to protest the factory collapse and poor safety standards for the country's garment workers.

Television reports said that hundreds of protesting workers also clashed with police in Dhaka and the nearby industrial zone of Ashulia. It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries in those clashes.

The garment manufacturers' group said the factories in Rana Plaza employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were in the building when it collapsed.

Searchers worked through the night to probe the jumbled mass of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to people pinned inside.

"I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry," said fire official Abul Khayer late Wednesday, as he prepared to work late into the night.

Abdur Rahim, an employee who worked on the fifth floor, said he and his co-workers had gone inside Wednesday morning despite the cracks in the building, after a factory manager gave assurances that it was safe. About an hour later, the building collapsed. The next thing Rahim remembered was regaining consciousness outside.

Abdul Halim, an official with the engineering department in Savar, said the owner was originally allowed to construct a five-story building but added another three stories illegally.

On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and that "the culprits would be punished."

Local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzaman said police and the government's Capital Development Authority have filed separate cases of negligence against the building owner.

Habibur Rahman, police superintendent of the Dhaka district, identified the building owner as Mohammed Sohel Rana, a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. Rahman said police were also looking for the owners of the garment factories.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.

The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for major brands including North American retailers The Children's Place and Dress Barn, Britain's Primark, Spain's Mango and Italy's Benetton. Ether Tex said Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, was one of its customers.

Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.

Benetton said in an email to The Associated Press that people involved in the collapse were not Benetton suppliers. Wal-Mart said it was investigating and Mango said it had only discussed production of a test sample of clothing with one of the factories.

The November factory fire that killed 112 people drew international attention to working conditions in Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year textile industry, but Wednesday's collapse highlighted that workers still face danger. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers, and industry leaders hold great influence in the South Asian nation.

Bangladesh's garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy. It has grown rapidly over the past decade, a boom fueled by some of the lowest labor costs in the world. The national minimum wage, which was doubled in 2010, stands at $38 per month.

The Tazreen factory that caught fire in November lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/collapsed-bangladesh-factories-ignored-evacuation-101035209--finance.html

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US Airways CEO hoping for furlough resolution soon

By Karen Jacobs

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (Reuters) - US Airways Group Chairman and Chief Executive Doug Parker said he was hopeful government leaders would come to a solution that would halt the travel disruptions in wake of U.S. staff cuts of air traffic controllers.

"It's untenable as it is," Parker said in an interview on Wednesday in Scottsdale, Arizona, where US Airways held briefings with media.

"We can't do this for long without having major disruption to the flying public. And nobody wants that. We're highly hopeful something will get resolved soon."

U.S. air travelers have endured delays at some airports this week as furloughs of air traffic controllers started. Airlines have forecast hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue from the furloughs that have been imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA has outlined plans to idle 47,000 workers for up to 11 days through the end of September as part of its plan to meet required spending curbs. Nearly 13,000 of those staffers are air traffic controllers.

The airline industry has expressed concern that delays from the furloughs could depress travel as the critical summer season gets underway.

Parker said he spent a lot of his personal time in the past week calling government officials in his carrier's hub markets to stress the need to end the furloughs.

"Everyone understands the severity of the situation," Parker said. "Good-minded people are trying to figure out ways to stop it. We don't need finger-pointing, we need solutions."

US Airways plans to merge with American Airlines parent AMR Corp this year and form the world's biggest carrier. The company said on Wednesday it expected the combination to close by the end of September.

Parker will be chief executive of the new American Airlines once the merger closes. The $11 billion all-stock merger would finalize the consolidation of legacy U.S. airlines that has helped put the industry on more solid financial footing.

The tie-up would help US Airways and American better compete with United Continental Holdings and Delta Air Lines , both the products of mergers.

(Reporting by Karen Jacobs. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-airways-ceo-hoping-furlough-resolution-soon-214927540--finance.html

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AP Source: College Football Playoff to replace BCS

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2013, file photo, a member of the U.S. Army jumps into the stadium before the first half of the BCS National Championship college football game between Alabama and Notre Dame in Miami. The conference commissioners in charge of putting together the four-team playoff system that will start after the 2014 regular season will meet starting Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Pasadena, Calif. At the top of their agenda: Pick three more bowls to be used in the semifinal rotation and decide on a site for the first national championship game. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2013, file photo, a member of the U.S. Army jumps into the stadium before the first half of the BCS National Championship college football game between Alabama and Notre Dame in Miami. The conference commissioners in charge of putting together the four-team playoff system that will start after the 2014 regular season will meet starting Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Pasadena, Calif. At the top of their agenda: Pick three more bowls to be used in the semifinal rotation and decide on a site for the first national championship game. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ? The Bowl Championship Series will be replaced by the College Football Playoff.

A person familiar with the decision tells The Associated Press the new four-team playoff starting after the 2014 regular season will be called the College Football Playoff, and the conference commissioners will make it official with an announcement later Tuesday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the name was not to be released before then.

The major college football conference commissioners are holding three days of meetings in the Rose Bowl's backyard. They also will choose the remaining three sites for the six-bowl semifinal rotation in the new system, along with the site of the first championship game to be held Jan. 12, 2015.

ESPN.com first reported the new name.

The new postseason format will create two national semifinals to be played New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, with the winners advancing. The six bowls in the playoff rotation will host marquee, BCS-type games on New Year's Eve or New Year's day during the seasons they do not host a semifinal.

Three semifinal spots have already been decided: the Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls.

Four other bowls have bid for the other three spots. The clear front-runners are the Cotton, Chick-fil-A and Fiesta. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also put in a bid, but even its organizers have acknowledged they are a long shot at best to land the game.

Those decisions will be announced Wednesday.

The coaches on the Big 12's spring teleconference were already talking about it the Cotton Bowl having a spot in the rotation as if it was a done deal.

"I think it's really exciting for this region, for everybody, and I think all of the schools in this region, to have Dallas as one of those sites is great for everybody in this region, and exciting for everybody," Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. "Obviously everybody knows what a great and quality, what an awesome stadium it is, then the location for us is an advantage, or should be.

The first semifinals will be played at the Rose and Sugar bowls.

The site of the first national championship game in the new system will also be determined at these meetings and the finalists are Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the billion dollar home of the NFL team and the Cotton Bowl, and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the Buccaneers.

Arlington is the favorite to land that first championship game.

Also on the agenda this week for the commissioners will be the composition of the selection committee that will set the field for the playoff. They have said they would like the committee to be similar to the one that picks the teams for the NCAA basketball tournament, made up of both current and former conference commissioners and athletic directors.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-23-FBC-BCS-Changes/id-70474a8734cc4389b067b71e444088d5

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Boston bomb suspect charged; religious motive seen

BOSTON (AP) ? The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by a radical brand of Islam but do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, U.S. officials said Monday after interrogating and charging Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with crimes that could bring the death penalty.

Tsarnaev, 19, was charged in his hospital room, where he was in serious condition with a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries suffered during his attempted getaway. His older brother, Tamerlan, 26, died Friday after a fierce gunbattle with police.

The Massachusetts college student was charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. He was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 200 a week ago.

The brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the U.S. for about a decade, practiced Islam.

Two U.S. officials said preliminary evidence from the younger man's interrogation suggests the brothers were motivated by religious extremism but were apparently not involved with Islamic terrorist organizations.

Dzhokhar communicated with his interrogators in writing, precluding the type of back-and-forth exchanges often crucial to establishing key facts, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

They cautioned that they were still trying to verify what they were told by Tsarnaev and were looking at such things as his telephone and online communications and his associations with others.

In the criminal complaint outlining the allegations, investigators said Tsarnaev and his brother each placed a knapsack containing a bomb in the crowd near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race.

The FBI said surveillance-camera footage showed Dzhokhar manipulating his cellphone and lifting it to his ear just instants before the two blasts.

After the first blast, a block away from Dzhokhar, "virtually every head turns to the east ... and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm," the complaint says. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, "virtually alone of the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm."

He then quickly walked away, leaving a knapsack on the ground; about 10 seconds later, a bomb blew up at the spot where he had been standing, the FBI said.

The FBI did not say whether he was using his cellphone to detonate one or both of the bombs or whether he was talking to someone.

The criminal complaint shed no light on the motive for the attack.

The Obama administration said it had no choice but to prosecute Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the federal court system. Some politicians had suggested he be tried as an enemy combatant in front of a military tribunal, where defendants are denied some of the usual constitutional protections.

But Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and under U.S. law, American citizens cannot be tried by military tribunals, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Carney said that since 9/11, the federal court system has been used to convict and imprison hundreds of terrorists.

Also on Monday, Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying two foreign nationals arrested Saturday in the Boston area on immigration violations are from Kazakhstan and may have known the two Marathon bombing suspects.

The foreign ministry said U.S. authorities came across them while searching for "possible links and contacts" to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Their names have not been released.

Shortly after the charges against Tsarnaev were unveiled, Boston-area residents and many of their well-wishers ? including President Barack Obama at the White House ? observed a moment of silence at 2:49 p.m. ? the moment a week earlier when the bombs exploded.

Across Massachusetts, the silence was broken by the tolling of church bells.

"God bless the people of Massachusetts," said Gov. Deval Patrick at a ceremony outside the Statehouse. "Boston Strong."

The governor and Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean O'Malley were among the mourners at St. Joseph Church at the first funeral for one of the victims, Krystle Campbell. The 29-year-old restaurant manager had gone to watch a friend finish the race.

"She was always there for people. As long as Krystle was around, you were OK," said Marishi Charles, who attended the Mass. "These were the words her family wanted you to remember."

At a memorial service for Lu Lingzi, a 23-year-old graduate student at Boston University, friends and family vowed not to forget the light in their lives that was extinguished too soon.

"You need us to be strong and brave," Jing Li said of her roommate, killed as she watched the marathon a week ago. "We will keep running to finish the race for you and we will try to realize your unfinished dream."

Patrick also attended that service.

Amid a swirl of emotions in Boston, there was cause for some celebration: Doctors announced that everyone injured in the blasts who made it to a hospital alive now seems likely to survive.

That includes several people who arrived with legs attached by just a little skin, a 3-year-old boy with a head wound and bleeding on the brain, and a little girl riddled with nails.

"All I feel is joy," said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, referring to his hospital's 31 blast patients. "Whoever came in alive stayed alive."

As of Monday, 51 people remained hospitalized, three of them in critical condition. At least 14 people lost all or part of a limb; three of them lost more than one.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hands when he was captured hiding out in a boat in a backyard in the Boston suburb of Watertown, authorities said.

A probable cause hearing ? at which prosecutors will spell out the basics of their case ? was set for May 30. According to a clerk's notes of Monday's proceedings in the hospital, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler indicated she was satisfied that Tsarnaev was "alert and able to respond to the charges."

Tsarnaev did not speak during the proceeding, except to answer "no" when he was asked if he could afford his own lawyer, according to the notes. He nodded when asked if he was able to answer some questions and whether he understood his rights as explained to him by the judge.

Federal Public Defender Miriam Conrad, whose office has been assigned to represent Tsarnaev, declined to comment.

Tsarnaev could also face state charges in the slaying of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, who was shot in his cruiser Thursday night on the MIT campus in Cambridge.

News of the criminal charges pleased some of the people gathered at a makeshift memorial along the police barricades on Boylston Street, where the attack took place.

Amy McPate a Massachusetts native now living in Maine, said she usually opposes the death penalty, but thinks it should apply in this case.

"They were more than murderers. They're terrorists. They terrorized the city," she said. "The nation has been terrorized."

Kaitlynn Cates of Everett, who suffered a leg injury in the bombing, said from her hospital room: "He has what's coming to him."

Among the details in the FBI affidavit:

? One of the brothers ? it wasn't clear which one ? told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt, "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

?The FBI said it searched Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Sunday and found BBs as well as a white hat and dark jacket that look like those worn by one of the suspected bombers in the surveillance photos the FBI released a few days after the attack.

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Pete Yost in Washington and Steve Peoples, Allen Breed, Bridget Murphy, Jay Lindsay and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-bomb-suspect-charged-religious-motive-seen-003137288.html

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PSA: Twitter is down for some, as is iCloud and the iTunes Store

Nope, it's not your picture of "the best duck confit I've ever had" that's causing that Twitter post to error out -- the service is down for "some users," according to a Twitter status page update. It's unknown what's causing the issue (again, probably not your photweet), but we're assured "engineers are currently working on this issue." We're experiencing some snags ourselves, usually resulting in tweets timing out before publishing. Hang tight!

But maybe don't try to while away your time on the iTunes Store or by backing up your phone to iCloud, as those services are also experiencing some downtime issues this morning. An Apple support page lists both as seeing "some users affected;" we'll just have to assume engineers are also hard at work on fixing that. As always, we'll let you know when things get better.

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Source: Twitter, Apple

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/23/psa-twitter-icloud-itunes-issues/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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