EU regulators to approve $15.8 billion Liberty, Virgin deal: sources

By Foo Yun Chee and Kate Holton

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - John Malone's Liberty Global will get unconditional EU clearance for its $15.8 billion bid for Virgin Media, two people familiar with the matter said on Monday, in a move which pits the U.S. billionaire against rival Rupert Murdoch.

Liberty Global, Europe's No. 1 cable operator, unveiled the takeover offer for Britain's second-biggest pay-TV provider in February. The move underscores the growing rivalry between cable groups and traditional telecoms operators.

"The European Commission does not have any competition concerns about the deal," one of the sources said.

The European Union competition authority is set to announce its decision by April 15. Antoine Colombani, Commission spokesman for competition policy, and Virgin Media declined to comment. A spokesman for Liberty Global was not available for comment.

Malone, Liberty Global's controlling shareholder, clashed with Murdoch, owner of British satellite group BSkyB, a decade ago when they fought for control of U.S. satellite TV broadcaster DirecTV Group.

The Virgin Media deal will reinforce Liberty Global's challenge against BSkyB, Britain's top pay-TV provider.

The $15.8 billion value of the deal was the implied price on February 6, the day it was announced.

(Editing by Adrian Croft)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-regulators-approve-15-8-billion-liberty-virgin-104942508--finance.html

dr seuss mariah carey Macklemore History Channel The Bible alex smith alex smith The Bible History Channel

Trial begins over baby food lead warning

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? An expert witness testified Monday that average lead levels in baby foods fall below the threshold for warning labels mandated under a California reporting standard.

Barbara Petersen, a food safety scientist, was the first witness in the civil trial involving a lawsuit filed by an environmental group against the nation's largest baby food makers aimed at forcing the companies to alert consumers that some products contain low amounts of lead.

The trial will help determine if the products must carry warning labels in California.

Gerber Products Co., Del Monte Foods, Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. and many other makers of baby foods and juices are selling products containing lead at levels that require warning labels under California Proposition 65, the Environmental Law Foundation asserts in the suit filed in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland.

The plaintiffs countered that Petersen's analysis was misleading because it averaged the lead level in the entirety of the companies' products ? rather than looking at each individually.

"Under their argument you could consume the entire (legal limit) of lead in one day, so as long as you didn't eat any more of it over the rest of the month," Jim Wheaton, an attorney for the foundation, said after the proceedings ended for the day.

There is no jury in the trial. Instead, Judge Steven Brick will hear testimony from about a dozen lead and toxicology experts before issuing his ruling.

Lawyers for the food companies say the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tested products targeted in the lawsuit and decided levels were below the federal standards that require a warning.

FDA tests on products named in the lawsuit also found lead levels "below FDA's current tolerable intake levels for lead."

But both sides in the case agree on one fact: Baby foods containing carrots, peaches, pears and sweet potatoes have some lead. Also covered by the suit are grape juice and fruit cocktail.

Lead exposure can damage a child's developing brain and lead to a lower IQ. Overall, lead poisoning in the U.S. has declined significantly since it was removed from paints and gasoline formulas.

Still, more than 500,000 U.S. children are believed to have lead poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Old paint, contaminated drinking water and soil tainted by old leaded gasoline are primary sources of lead exposure for children in the U.S., the CDC reported. Some specialists describe children as having lead poisoning only when high levels of lead are present. Others use the term more broadly to describe any child with levels that can impact intelligence or cause other harm.

The companies also argue that the lead in fruit and vegetables used in the products is naturally occurring. If the trial judge finds that is true, it could exempt the companies from having to warn consumers.

"Despite the trace amounts of lead in the products at issue, the federal government has determined that Americans need to eat more ? not less ? of these nutritious foods," the companies' attorney, Michele Corash, wrote in court documents. "FDA recently reiterated its conclusion that the trace levels of lead in the products at issue in this case do not pose unacceptable health risks."

Corash would not comment on the first day's court testimony.

Christine Kuhinka, director of corporate communications for Gerber Products Co., which is owned by Nestle Nutrition U.S., said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

"We will, however, vigorously defend the allegations in this litigation," Kuhinka said in an email.

Wheaton said California law nonetheless requires food makers to warn consumers about a possible risk of certain toxins, including lead. He noted that Proposition 65 requires warning labels on foods that contain a toxin at 1/1000th of the levels considered dangerous to human health.

The plaintiffs also argue that no level of lead is considered safe, especially for newborns and pregnant women.

"Even when studying the low level of exposure that is typical in the dietary context, scientists have not been able to identify a level of exposure that is without any health risks," the plaintiffs wrote in court documents.

They hope public pressure or the judge will compel the companies to take steps to remove lead from their foods because a warning label would be devastating for business.

"Everyone assumes that a company selling foods for children will never offer a product for sale that carries a warning label," Wheaton said. "They will take the steps their competitors apparently already are taking to offer product with no lead or so low no warning is required."

___

Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/trial-begins-over-baby-food-lead-warning-081352466--finance.html

news 10 hillary rosen j.k. rowling j.k. rowling axl rose google earnings pat burrell

Facebook Apologized to a Mom After Accidentally Banning Her Twice for Posting Breastfeeding Pictures

Facebook doesn't like boobs (even when they're just elbows) so much that it banned a mother from the social network for posting pictures of her breastfeeding her children. What's interesting is that Kemp's photos weren't especially revealing (in the explicit sense of the word) and that Facebook actually allows photos of breastfeeding to be posted. What's horrible is that Facebook banned her not once but twice for it. What happened? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/mNWeorVZxw8/facebook-apologized-to-a-mom-after-accidentally-banning-her-twice-for-posting-a-breastfeeding-picture

matthew broderick tax refund calculator huntington disease west memphis three taxes game of thrones season 2 trailer sag award winners

Coloud Boom headphones giveaway!

Celebrate Spring with a new pair of headphones from Coloud. The Boom headphones are full size over-ear phones that are available in 10 vibrant colors. If you win, you can choose your fave color. These headphones feature an built-in microphone and a tangle free flat cable with a special lasso that you can use to [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/04/09/coloud-boom-headphones-giveaway/

robbie robertson the curious case of benjamin button secret service prostitute rich ross april 20 secret service prostitution 4 20

New light shed on ancient Egyptian port and ship graveyard

Apr. 7, 2013 ? New research into Thonis-Heracleion, a sunken port-city that served as the gateway to Egypt in the first millennium BC, will be discussed at an international conference at the University of Oxford (15-17 March).

This obligatory port of entry, known as 'Thonis' by the Egyptians and 'Heracleion' by the Greeks, was where seagoing ships probably unloaded their cargoes to have them assessed by temple officials and taxes extracted before transferring them to Egyptian ships that went upriver. Before the foundation of Alexandria, it was one of the biggest commercial hubs in the Mediterranean because of its geographical position at the mouth of the Nile. The conference will also explore the wider maritime trading economy during the Late Period (664 BC until 332 BC).

The first traces of Thonis-Heracleion were found 6.5 kilometres off today's coastline by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) under the direction of Franck Goddio in 2000. The Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford is collaborating on the project with IEASM in cooperation with Egypt's Ministry of State for Antiquities.

In the ports of the city, divers and researchers are currently examining 64 Egyptian ships, dating between the eighth and second centuries BC, many of which appear to have been deliberately sunk. The project researchers say the ships were found beautifully preserved, lying in the mud of the sea-bed. With 700 examples of different types of ancient anchor, the researchers believe this represents the largest nautical collection from the ancient world.

'The survey has revealed an enormous submerged landscape with the remains of at least two major ancient settlements within a part of the Nile delta that was crisscrossed with natural and artificial waterways,' said Dr Damian Robinson, Director of the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Dr Robinson, who is overseeing the excavation of one of the submerged ships known as Ship 43, will discuss his first findings about the Egyptians' unique shipbuilding style. He will also shed new light on why the boats appear to have been deliberately sunk.

'One of the key questions is why several ship graveyards were created close to the port. Ship 43 appears to be part of a large cluster of at least ten other vessels in a large ship graveyard about a mile from the mouth of the River Nile,' explained Dr Robinson. 'This might not have been simple abandonment, but a means of blocking enemy ships from gaining entrance to the port-city. Seductive as this interpretation is, however, we must also consider whether these boats were sunk simply to use them for land reclamation purposes.'

The port and its harbour basins also contain a collection of customs decrees, trading weights, and evidence of coin production. The material culture, for example, coin weights, will also be discussed at the conference, placing this into the wider narrative of how maritime trade worked in the ancient world.

Elsbeth van der Wilt, working on the project from the University of Oxford, said: 'Thonis-Heracleion played an important role in the network of long-distance trade in the Eastern Mediterranean, since the city would have been the first stop for foreign merchants at the Egyptian border. Excavations in the harbour basins yielded an interesting group of lead weights, likely to have been used by both temple officials and merchants in the payment of taxes and the purchasing of goods. Amongst these are an important group of Athenian weights. They are a significant archaeological find because it is the first time that weights like these have been identified during excavations in Egypt.'

Sanda Heinz from the University of Oxford will share her findings on over 300 statuettes and amulets from the Late and Ptolemaic Periods, including Egyptian and Greek subjects. The majority depict Egyptian deities such as Osiris, Isis, and their son Horus. She said: 'The statuettes and amulets were all found underwater, and are generally in excellent condition. The statuettes allow us to examine their belief system and at the same time have wider economic implications. These figures were mass-produced at a scale hitherto unmatched in previous periods. Our findings suggest they were made primarily for Egyptians; however, there is evidence to show that some foreigners also bought them and dedicated them in temples abroad.'

Franck Goddio, Director of the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology and Visiting Senior Lecturer in Maritime Archaeology at the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, commented: 'The discoveries we have made in Thonis-Heracleion since 2000 thanks to the work of a multidisciplinary team and the support of the Hilti Foundation are encouraging. Charts of the city's monuments, ports and channels are taking shape more clearly and further crucial information is gathered each year. The conference at Oxford University will present interesting results and might bring new clues and insights of the fascinating history of Thonis-Heracleion."

Franck Goddio will make a comprehensive presentation of the sacred topography of Thonis-Heracleion resulting from12 years of archaeological works on site.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Oxford.

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

---

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/rIiuuqPJuBg/130407150740.htm

Incumbent politico Tammy Baldwin house of representatives paul ryan michele bachmann donald trump

Shutting down DNA construction: How senescence halts growth of potential cancers

Friday, April 5, 2013

Researchers from The Wistar Institute explain a new molecular mechanism behind the phenomenon of oncogene-induced senescence. By depriving the cell of the ability to make new nucleotides?the building blocks of DNA molecules?cells can suppress cancer development by forcing a damaged cell into a senescent state, where the cell remains alive yet cannot reproduce.

According to the researchers, their findings may offer a new strategy to strengthen the effects of anti-cancer drugs and chemotherapies.

Their results, which appear in the April 25 issue of Cell Reports (available online now), show how a senescent cell may become cancerous if supplied with a new source of nucleotides. Their experiments were performed using nevi?the technical term for moles?and melanoma cells, but the underlying mechanism may apply to all human cells.

"Oncogene-induced senescence is an automatic mechanism that arrests the growth of normal cells when an oncogene or cancer-causing gene is activated to prevent the progression of these cells into cancer," said Rugang Zhang, Ph.D., associate professor in The Wistar Institute Cancer Center's Gene Expression and Regulation program. "We identified how an oncogene can set senescence into motion by suppressing RRM2, an enzyme necessary for producing nucleotides."

Without the nucleotide building blocks of DNA, Zhang says, the cell cannot multiply. When new sources of nucleotides are introduced, however, the cell goes into overdrive, becoming cancerous.

Zhang offers an analogy comparing senescence to a construction site, where workers continue to build as long as they have a steady supply of bricks. When an oncogene is activated, it is like hiring an excess of workers. A normal cell's typical defense mechanism is to cancel orders for new bricks. When all the excess workers quickly run through their supply of bricks, the construction site shuts down. This is essentially senescence. If you suddenly flood the site with new building materials, the workers go into overdrive, building wildly without supervision. In the case of cancer, this causes the cells to put DNA building into overdrive?starting the endless cycles of cell growth and division that are the hallmark of cancer.

Wistar's Katherine Aird discusses the Zhang Lab's findings on the mechanics of oncogene-induced senescence. In the April 25, 2013 issue of the journal Cell Reports, they demonstrate how DNA damage can cause a cell to become senescent, a state where growth is halted. (A mole on your skin is an example of a senescent cell you see every day.) They show how this happens as cells suppress the ability to generate nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA). When you supply the cell with new sources of nucleotides, the cell will go into a frenzy of multiplication -- a hallmark of cancer.

Credit: The Wistar Institute

To explore how oncogene-induced senescence works, Zhang and his colleagues compared human moles (essentially, pre-cancerous lesions in a senescent state) to cancerous melanoma cells. They found that stable, senescent cells experienced a dramatic decrease in the available number of nucleotides. This was linked to the suppression of RRM2, a gene whose protein is important for making nucleotides. Further, they linked this RRM2 suppression to mutations in BRAF or NRAS, proteins that control the cycle of growth and replication within cells that have been labeled "oncogenes" because their mutation is linked to melanoma and other cancers. Indeed, they report that melanoma patients with high levels of RRM2 fare worse, overall.

Since cells that lacked nucleotides became senescent, the researchers wondered what would happen if they resupplied the cell with nucleotides?in essence, providing eager workers more bricks. They found that, even in cells with an inactive RRM2 gene, the cell rapidly resumed growing and dividing. Such an event in moles, for example, could be what causes melanoma.

"Moles are probably the most visible example of the effect of oncogene-induced senescence in human cells," said Katherine M. Aird, Ph.D., lead author of the study and postdoctoral fellow in the Zhang laboratory at Wistar. "The cells within a mole may have arrested growth, but they are still alive, and may regain activity, even turning cancerous. That is why your dermatologist might tell you to keep an eye on a seemingly benign mole, as changes in its size, color or shape could indicate that it is no longer benign."

According to Aird, if you could stabilize senescence, perhaps by targeting RRM2, it could put the brakes on even drug-resistant cells.

"This mechanism also suggests a strategy for patient therapy," Aird explained. "If we can decrease RRM2 activity, it could force tumor cells into a stronger senescent state, perhaps improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy or targeted drugs."

###

The Wistar Institute: http://www.wistar.org

Thanks to The Wistar Institute for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 51 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127608/Shutting_down_DNA_construction__How_senescence_halts_growth_of_potential_cancers

sarah shahi rutgers dharun ravi george clooney arrested ravi leigh espn

500,000 Kids Have High Lead Levels

More than half a million children in the United States have elevated levels of lead in their blood, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Surveys done between 2007 and 2010 show that about 535,000 children ages 1 to 5, or 2.6 percent of kids in this age group, had blood lead levels equal to or above the recommended 5 micrograms per deciliter (mg/dl), the report says.

That's down from the 8.6 percent seen in earlier surveys done between 1999 and 2002, but disparities remain among minority groups and those from low-income families.

In earlier years, the CDC had used a higher threshold ?10 mg/dl or greater ? to identify kids with concerning blood lead levels. But last year, the recommendations changed to say that kids with levels at or above 5 mg/dl should identified, because these levels are higher than normal.

The idea behind the change is to identify kids with high levels earlier, so that action can be taken to reduce their lead exposure. Kids need medical treatment (called chelation therapy) for lead exposure if their blood lead levels reach 45 mg/dl, the CDC says.

Even low levels of lead in the blood have been linked with lower IQs and attention problems, and there is no safe level of lead exposure, the CDC says.

The higher blood lead levels seen among minority groups and low-income families can be attributed to differences in housing, nutrition and other environmental factors, the report says.?

Most homes made before 1978 have lead paint that can find its way into dust, and from there, into kids' mouths. While public health efforts, such as removing lead from paint, have dramatically reduced children's exposure to lead, continued efforts to increase awareness of lead hazards can further reduce exposures, the CDC says.

Increasing iron and calcium intake can also reduce the amount of lead absorbed by the body, the CDC says.

Pass it on: About half a million kids ages 1 to 5 have elevated blood lead levels.

Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily @MyHealth_MHND, Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 MyHealthNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/500-000-kids-high-lead-levels-162931069.html

buffalo chicken dip super bowl 2012 soul train nevada caucus ufc 143 what time does the super bowl start ben gazzara