HTV Whos DWTS Stud Maksim Chmerkovskiy Involved With?

Erin Andrews gives the plate on her "Dancing with the Stars" partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy"s regretful situation

First, HTV asks the "Dancing with the Stars" cast: Who"s going home first? "I only goal it"s not me," Erin says with a high-pitched plea. "I don"t know how assured I feel, but we had a fun night. It was a great time," she adds about her opening last night.

When the questions spin to a regretful nature, Erin doesn"t miss a beat. "I think Maks is romantically concerned with himself, don"t we all know that?" she laughs.

Before removing in to her car, she introduces the paps to her sister -- a hip-hop dancer who Erin says will be in "Step Up 3."

Watch the video for some-more with the expel of "Dancing with the Stars."

Haiti assist bid injured by delayed U.N. reply

Tom Brown PORT-AU-PRINCE Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:13pm EST Related News Haiti preserve puncture as sleet turns camps to mudThu, Feb eighteen 2010U.N. assist arch chides agencies on Haiti reliefThu, Feb eighteen 2010Sarkozy visits Haiti, unveils vital assist packageWed, Feb seventeen 2010Tarps, toilets are priorities for quake-hit Haiti: U.N.Mon, Feb fifteen 2010One month after quake, Haitians stick on to weep deadFri, Feb twelve 2010 < 1 / 7 >

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Clutching involuntary attack rifles, truckloads of U.N. infantry patrolled the streets of Haiti"s cracked collateral on the day after the trembler strike last month, clearly preoccupied to the wretchedness around them.

World&&&&Natural Disasters

Cries for assistance from people digging for survivors in collapsed buildings were drowned out by the bark of heavy-duty engines as the infantry plowed by Port-au-Prince but interlude to stick on rescue efforts, majority less lead them.

A usual steer since they were deployed in 2004, the U.N. infantry huddled in the shade of their canopied vehicles.

There were about 9,000 uniformed U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Haiti when the upheaval struck on Jan twelve and they were the judicious "first responders" to the mess in the bankrupt Caribbean country, whose notoriously diseased executive supervision was impressed by the scale of the tragedy.

Initially, however, nothing of the peacekeepers appeared to be concerned in hands-on charitable service in what puncture healing experts report as the vicious initial 72 hours after a harmful trembler strikes.

Their reply to the abominable pang was singular to you do security and seeking for looters after the bulk 7.0 upheaval intended majority of the collateral and took what Haitian President Rene Preval says could be as majority as 300,000 lives.

There was looting in the capital, but it paled in some-more aged with the astringency of the charitable crisis.

Horribly-injured patients flooded overstretched hospitals, forcing healing staff to confirm that patients to yield and that were already as well far left to try saving.

"Doctors played God," pronounced Tyler Marshall, a maestro former Los Angeles Times match operative with an general assist organisation that helped out in a tent city erected at the tallness of the destruction on the drift of Port-au-Prince"s University Hospital, the country"s largest.

Scores of U.N. crew died in the quake, together with Hedi Annabi, head of the U.N. mission that was set up in 2004. That helps insist what majority have criticized as a glacially delayed kickoff of service operations after one of history"s misfortune healthy disasters.

But in the days and weeks that followed it mostly seemed that lessons from alternative disasters were abandoned in Haiti as fears of rioting or anarchy overshadowed concerns about removing assist out quickly.

The U.N."s tip charitable assist official, John Holmes, is between those who have chided service agencies, together with the United Nations itself, for you do as well small to assistance Haiti.

"We cannot ... wait for for for the subsequent puncture for these lessons to be learned," Holmes wrote in a trusted email initial published on the website of the biography Foreign Policy.

"There is an obligatory need to progress significantly genius on the ground, to urge coordination, vital formulation and sustenance of aid," pronounced Holmes.

Edmond Mulet, behaving head of the U.N. mission, concurred in an talk that it played a singular charitable purpose in the initial couple of days after the trembler since the operations were effectively decapitated.

"At the unequivocally commencement it was unequivocally formidable since all the domicile was utterly broken and all the care of the mission was killed," Mulet told Reuters.

"CRIMINALS AND BANDITS"

Mulet gained prominence for wielding an iron fist during a prior army as head of the U.N. mission when he led mostly Brazilian "blue helmet" infantry in a successful crackdown on Haiti"s heavily armed gangs.

And he has finished no tip about sophistry the competing needs of service operations with law enforcement, in his bid to lane down the some-more than 3,000 inmates who took value of the trembler to shun from the main prison.

"We are here additionally to yield security," he pronounced when asked about the mess of convoys of rifle-wielding U.N. infantry to poke for people trapped in the rubble of the busted capital.

"I still have to patrol, I still have to go after all these criminals and bandits that transient from the inhabitant penitentiary, the squad leaders, the criminals, the killers, the kidnappers. I cannot unequivocally confuse myself from you do that."

The service mission shifted in to higher rigging after U.S. infantry deployed in large numbers and set up a supply sequence to get food and disinfectant in to areas great out for aid.

But there were still majority bottlenecks and setbacks, mostly involving U.N.-linked food distributions hobbled by unsound organization, reserve and throng control.

Unfortunately, U.N. infantry in Haiti have over the years gained a repute for toughness and abuse some-more than for easing pang in the lowest nation in the Americas.

"The usually time I"ve seen one of these U.N. infantry burst out of the behind of a lorry was to kick up on somebody or take a shot at them," pronounced a piece of the U.S. Army"s 82nd Airborne Division, as he worked security during a new assist handout.

"These guys have since all of us in unvaried a bad repute here," he said, asking not to be identified.

Haiti"s wrecked infrastructure and bad ride links finished it formidable to get assist out and keep it flowing, but that frequency finished the incident opposite from that in alternative new disasters around the globe.

"POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE"

"The lowest and the majority exposed people lend towards to live in the regions that are strike the majority by healthy disasters," pronounced Solomon Kuah, an puncture healing medicine formed in New York who outlayed 4 weeks in Port-au-Prince after the quake.

There are no arguable estimates for the series of survivors who died from injuries due to unsound healing supplies.

But Henriette Chamouillet, the World Health Organization"s deputy in Haiti, pronounced all from staff shortages to bureaucracy and a miss of make-up lists embroiled the smoothness of containers full of medicines from Port-au-Prince"s airfield to doctors on the ground.

Port-au-Prince sits usually 700 miles off the seashore of Miami, that is home to a large Haitian-American community, and it seemed ludicrous that so couple of the U.S. infantry rushed there spoke French or were accompanied by translators.

One retaining picture of pell-mell food distributions came when U.S. helicopters offloaded boxes of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at a site in the capital. Many Haitians non-stop them up usually to toss them afar in offend since no French or Creole-language instructions were enclosed with the assumingly invalid packets of dust, explaining that they indispensable to be churned with H2O as piece of their preparation.

Rajiv Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has touted the Haiti service mission as "the largest and majority successful general poke and rescue bid ever fabricated in history."

But some-more than 6 weeks after the upheaval hit, the mission is still mostly in an puncture reply mode. The U.N."s World Food Program is tying the food rations to 55-pound (25 kg) bags of rice and the Haitian supervision estimates that a million upheaval survivors are still vital in the streets in temporary encampments with no using H2O or toilets.

Doctors are roughly finished traffic with dire injuries but reconstruction for a little 40,000 amputees and rebuilding Haiti"s health infrastructure are between long-term challenges.

"This is unequivocally a mess of Biblical proportions," pronounced Lewis Lucke, who was the USAID executive in Iraq prior to entrance to Haiti as U.S. ambassador.

U.N. and alternative officials have pronounced the tellurian reply to Haiti"s upheaval was quicker and some-more in effect than in alternative new disasters, together with the Asian tsunami that killed 226,000 people in thirteen countries in Dec 2004.

But experts contend the United Nations has a lot to sense from smaller, some-more nimble healing groups similar to International Medical Corps, or IMC, and Paris-based Medicins Sans Frontieres, along with charities some-more experienced in distributing aid, such as CARE and Catholic Relief Services.

Kuah, who concurrent service efforts for IMC, a California-based organisation that had rarely learned doctors treating patients in Haiti twenty-three hours after the trembler struck, stressed the "need for speed" when it comes to saving lives.

"When you ask yourself if there were ways you could have prevented some-more mortalities or discontinued additional mortality, with earthquakes, in particular, it"s some-more timing than anything else," pronounced Kuah.

(Additional stating by Catherine Bremer, Jackie Frank, Patricia Zengerle, Mica Rosenberg and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray)

World Natural Disasters

Attorney General says you do full examination of Comcast/NBC

WASHINGTON Wed April 14, 2010 11:49am EDT Related News UPDATE 1-COO Burke was top paid Comcast exec in 2009Fri, April 9 2010COO Burke was top paid Comcast exec in 2009Fri, April 9 2010UPDATE 2-Comcast wins Web trade quarrel opposite U.S. FCCTue, April 6 2010Comcast says committed to open Internet principlesTue, April 6 2010RPT-US justice vacates FCC statute on Comcast Web trafficTue, April 6 2010 Stocks & &

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department is conducting a full examine of Comcast Corp"s (CMCSA.O) plan to take a determining interest in NBC Universal (GE.N) in a $30 billion corner venture, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder pronounced on Wednesday.

Deals

"I can assure you the dialect is conducting a consummate review of that transaction," Holder told Democratic Senator Al Franken during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. He declined to plead specifics about the case.

Holder pronounced some-more generally, but privately addressing the Comcast/NBC deal, that the dialect could retard or levy enforceable conditions on a contract if deemed necessary.

"I"m endangered since I see the intensity here for converging of media in a approach that is really frightening," Franken said.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, modifying by Lisa Von Ahn)

Deals lampshade for acne to phone help this mulls

Harsh winter forces birds to shun panorama for civic gardens

Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor & ,}

Thousands of inspired birds left the panorama in the oppressive winter to find food and regard in civic gardens. The move enclosed class such as the redwing and fieldfare, roughly different outward farming areas.

The predicament of farmland birds emerged in the ultimate consult of bird populations from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, expelled today.

The redwing has a conspicuous ribbon over the eye and a red peep on the flanks, whilst fieldfare has a grey head, a organic underbelly and a particular dim rope on the tail.

Graham Madge, the societys spokesman, said: For most civic birdwatchers the steer of these distinguished class would have been a genuine treat. Many people will never have seen them before.

Related LinksBiggest inlet haven in Britain: your gardenScarecrow breeze farms put singular birds to moody How Britains wildlife fared during the year

Frozen belligerent prevented them from removing food in the panorama and they have been saved from starvation in towns.

He pronounced that seductiveness generated by surprising sightings was gradual by the dolour felt at the pang of small grassed area birds such as robins and wrens. They are receptive to cold and contingency eat roughly invariably to stay alive. Data from people who took piece in the societys Big Garden Birdwatch, recording sightings in 280,000 gardens during the last week end of January, with goldcrests down 75 per cent, the long-tailed tit down twenty-seven per cent and the spark tit down twenty per cent. The investigate highlighted the need for food to be left out for birds during winter.

The redwing and fieldfare are comparatively different outward the eastern piece of the country. The investigate confirms, however, that they changed westwards to warmer tools of Britain and most for the initial time have reached Cornwall, the Channel Islands and Isles of Scilly. The series of redwing sightings was up 185 per cent and fieldfare up 73 per cent. Yellowhammer in civic gardens rose 68 per cent.

The bullfinch has additionally struggled this winter. Mr Madge said: They have a really large check and similar to to crack open large seeds and kernels in orchards and hedgerows but gardens have been improved for them this year and sightings are up 54 per cent.

Another warn grassed area caller this year was the blackcap. This robin-sized, silver-grey bird was singular in Britain 50 years ago, but augmenting numbers arrive each year from Germany and Austria

Lampard hits 4 as Chelsea vanquish Villa

Frank Lampard struck 4 as Chelsea signalled their pretension intentions in fantastic character with a abrasive 7-1 win over Aston Villa whilst Arsenal suffered an injury-time calamity at St Andrew"s.

Carlo Ancelotti lifted eyebrows by withdrawal Didier Drogba on the dais but the outcome was the greatest win of his sides deteriorate and one that took them at the back of to the Barclays Premier League summit.

And Chelseas means was serve increased when Arsene Wengers men blew 3 hard-earned points opposite Birmingham, with Kevin Phillips cancelling out Samir Nasris opener at the death.

Lampard non-stop the scoring for Chelsea in the 15th notation but nerves were clear in the approach the home side authorised Villa to strike at the back of and turn when John Carew converted Ashley Youngs cranky in the 29th minute.

Lampards chastisement nudged his side at the back of in front usually prior to the mangle afterwards Chelsea ran demonstration with a prop for Florent Malouda, one for Salomon Kalou and dual some-more for Lampard, who notched his fifth career hat-trick in the process.

It was a opposite story for Arsenal who had to conflict by each notation of their strife with Alex McLeishs men but looked to have clinched it when surrogate Nasri rocketed home a right-foot shot 9 mins from time.

Home screw Joe Hart had been in great form to repudiate Theo Walcott in the initial half but Birmingham additionally had their chances and Scott Dann longed for a elementary miscarry after Roger Johnsons flick-on had strike the crossbar.

Wengers key of Nasri and Andrei Arshavin in the 69th notation breathed new hold up in to the Gunners and looked to have paid off handsomely with Nasri and Cesc Fabregas entrance close to adding a second.

But the visitors" pretension pull suffered a vital blow in the initial notation of combined time when an attempted clearway in the box struck Phillips and the round proceeded to double at the back of behind over Manuel Almunia in to the net.

Tottenham took a firmer hold on the last Champions League place with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth at White Hart Lane with Pompey old boys Peter Crouch and Niko Kranjcar grabbing the goals.

Crouch headed home a Gareth Bale cranky in the 27th notation and Spurs dominated with Michael Dawson crashing a long-range shot far-reaching and Crouch and Tom Huddlestone both attack the woodwork.

Kranjcar converted a Kyle Walker cranky after 40 mins and things got worse for cursed Pompey in the second half with both Hermann Hreidarsson and Danny Webber stretchered off.

Gianfranco Zolas West Ham sunk deeper in to the relegation fen after a gloomy 1-0 home better to Stoke and their means was not helped by associate strugglers Hulls 2-0 win over Fulham.

Zolas formidable week finished on a new low note with Ricardo Fuller grabbing the usually idea of the diversion at Upton Park, violence 3 Hammers defenders prior to banishment the leader in the 69th minute.

Iain Dowies men are right away at the back of the Hammers on idea disproportion usually after cruising to feat over Fulham with a 16th-minute chastisement from Jimmy Bullard and Craig Fagans 48th-minute header.

Wolves edged closer to reserve after unresolved on for a goalless pull at home to Everton, for whom Leighton Baines and Leon Osman came close whilst Ronald Zubar shot usually over the crossbar for Mick McCarthys men.

Plant-focused diet might quell breast cancer risk

Rachael Myers Lowe Thu March 4, 2010 5:22pm EST Related News Survey finds states slicing behind on mammogramsMon, Feb twenty-two 2010Aspirin cuts genocide risk after breast cancer: U.S. studyTue, Feb sixteen 2010Few high-risk women in U.S. take breast cancer drugMon, Feb 8 2010Men who eat soy competence have reduce lung cancer riskMon, Feb 8 2010Study links sweetened soft drinks to pancreas cancerMon, Feb 8 2010

A Kolkata unfeeling marketplace is seen in this Feb 25, 2010 record photo.

Credit: Reuters/Parth Sanyal

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Diets high in vegetables, fruits and soy competence cut the risk of building breast cancer by thirty percent, new investigate suggests.

Health

In a study, Dr. Lesley M. Butler, of Colorado State University and colleagues, beheld a direction of "decreasing breast cancer risk with augmenting money coming in of a vegetable-fruit-soy dietary pattern" in the 34,000 Chinese women studied.

Even though the researchers identified and analyzed dietary patterns in in in between Chinese women from Singapore, Butler believes the commentary are applicable for American women.

The diets "aren"t that opposite from patterns seen in US populations," the lead questioner told Reuters Health.

"There"s customarily a bad food settlement of beef and lots of starch and jam-packed fat. And afterwards there"s the great settlement -- a advantageous settlement in the box -- the vegetable-fruit-soy pattern," she said.

For their study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Butler and her colleagues used interpretation picked up in in in between 1993 and 1995 from 63,257 men and women in the Singapore Chinese Health Study (SCHS).

The large health investigate used in-person interviews to accumulate report about diet, weight, education, smoking and practice habits, and hormone use.

Previous investigate focusing on particular dishes or nutrients has been inconsistent, the authors note.

The SCHS data, however, authorised Butler"s organisation to brand dual dietary patterns: the meat-starch-saturated-fat formed "meat-dim sum" settlement and the "vegetable-fruit-soy" settlement characterized by lots of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, and bok choy.

Based on their self-reported money coming in of 165 foods, participants were reserved a measure for the vegetable-fruit-soy and the meat-dim total dietary patterns.

Butler"s organisation identified 34,028 women with no story of breast cancer in the data. All women were in in in between the ages of 45 and 74. For the majority part, they were thin, they exercised, had left by menopause, and couple of smoked or used hormone deputy therapy.

By the finish of 2005, 10 years after the the number enrolled interviews, 629 breast cancer cases had been identified in the Singapore Cancer Registry in in in between investigate participants.

After analyzing the data, the investigate authors found that the larger the money coming in of vegetables, fruits and soy, the reduce the breast cancer risk in in in between post-menopausal women.

The researchers did not find an organisation in in in between higher meat-dim total expenditure and increasing breast cancer risk, as referred to in alternative studies. Butler cautioned, however, that Americans shouldn"t review as well most in to this anticipating since the inequality could be explained by the approach beef is prepared.

Stir-fried meats don"t enclose as most Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs) that outcome from in progress flesh meats at high temperatures. Researchers have identified seventeen HCAs that competence be compared with increasing cancer risk. "The charred barbeque beef that we love contains a lot of these carcinogens," Butler said.

Despite the informative differences, Butler believes American women can sense from these investigate findings. "Eating a different diet that can be characterized as carrying a lot of fruits and vegetables, and presumably adding soy also, would be beneficial," she said.

SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Feb 2010.

Health

Howzat ITV secures rights understanding to show IPL Twenty20 cricket

The razzmatazz of Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket is entrance to a radio set nearby you subsequent week, after ITV picked up the rights out of the remains of the fall of Setanta Sports.

ITV voiced yesterday it had cumulative the UK report rights to this years IPL Twenty20 cricket competition, that gets underway in a week. It will showcase a little of the sports greatest stars, together with Kevin Pietersen, Shane Warne and Sachin Tendulkar.

The understanding outlines the initial time ITV has had the rights to shade cricket for "a series of decades", according to a association spokesman, nonetheless the expect date of the last cricketing promote on the channel seems hidden in mystery. "ITV is a really opposite association from the 1970s," the orator said. "It is not easy to find out."

This is the third deteriorate of the IPL, with the prior dual seasons promote in the UK to one side on Setanta. After the pay-TV sports broadcaster was forced to breeze up the operations in Britain last June, the rights were once some-more up for grabs.

Yesterdays proclamation comes after multiform weeks of negotiations in between ITV and Lalit Modi, the authority of the IPL. Neither side would exhibit either ITV paid less than Setanta for the rights, that are for one-year currently, with an choice to be extended.

ITV will show 59 live games over the 45-day tournament, that starts subsequent Friday, on the ITV4 channel, as well as the website, ITV.com. Zai Bennett, executive of digital channels and acquisitions at ITV, pronounced it was an "exciting merger for one of the UKs fastest-growing digital channels".

ITV4 is accessible to 90 per cent of the nation and has formerly shown competition together with FA Cup matches, Europa League football, Tour de France cycling and Guinness Premiership rugby. Rival free-to-air broadcaster Five deliberate bidding, but couldnt transparent the schedule, whilst BSkyB, Eurosport and ESPN were additionally meddlesome in a deal.

Mr Modi pronounced he had been penetrating to interest to a wider assembly than those offering by the pay-TV channels. "Lots of people were interested, they had listened of the IPL but usually had singular experience of examination it. Now the complete UK can see the games," he said.

The proclamation comes after Google-owned video-sharing website YouTube voiced it had sealed a understanding to show IPL matches around the universe in January. The website has set up a dedicated channel to show the matches, that will run somewhat at the back of the promote on ITV.

Mr Modi pronounced that matches being shown on YouTube would not be a complaint for ITV. "People wish to watch competition live," he said. "I dont think there will be any issues."

Patients at risk for complications after coronary blood vessel infection closure

A coronary red red blood vessel infection is an aberrant tie in between a coronary red red blood vessel and a cover of the heart or vessel. The coronary sinus is the finish apportionment of a large capillary at the behind of the heart that receives red red blood from the heartveins and empties in to the right atrium.

The investigate found that procedures to close a CAF were compared with increasing long-term risks of angina, coronary thrombosis (a clot in one of the heartblood vessels), heart disaster and heart attack.

To establish that patients are majority at risk for these complications after closure, researchers reviewed the healing annals of 76 patients diagnosed with inborn coronary red red blood vessel fistula. Sixty-four patients underwent transcatheter closure or surgical correct of the fistula.

The researchers found that fifteen percent of patients had vital complications following closure, together with heart attack, angina with coronary thrombosis, or symptomatic cardiomyopathy (heart failure). The usually angiographic anticipating compared with vital complications was drainage of the coronary red red blood vessel infection in to the coronary sinus.

Other predictors compared with inauspicious outcomes enclosed comparison age at diagnosis, tobacco use, diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia (or high cholesterol).

Physicians should cruise shortening atherosclerotic risk factors and long-term make use of red red blood thinning medications after coronary red red blood vessel infection closure, generally for patients with infection that empty in to the coronary sinus, the researchers said.

Multifunctional polymer neutralizes both biological and containing alkali weapons



PITTSBURGH, Mar eighteen -- In an ongoing bid to counterpart the capability of biological tissues to reply fast and reasonably to becoming opposite environments, scientists from the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine have synthesized a single, multifunctional polymer element that can fumigate both biological and containing alkali toxins. They described the commentary not long ago in Biomaterials.

"Our lab relates biological beliefs to emanate materials that can do most things, usually similar to the skin protects us from both sleet and sun," pronounced comparison questioner Alan Russell, Ph.D., University Professor of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and director, McGowan Institute, a corner bid of the university and UPMC. "Typically, labs operative products that are written to offer usually one slight function."

Those required approaches competence not yield the most appropriate responses for weapons of mass destruction, that could be biological, such as smallpox virus, or chemical, such as the haughtiness representative sarin, he noted. Terrorists aren"t going to make known what kind of hazard they unleash in an attack.

"That doubt calls for a singular broad-spectrum decontamination element that can fast vacate both kinds of threats and is simply delivered or administered, and it contingency not repairs the sourroundings where it is applied," Dr. Russell said. "Much work has left in to building ways to frustrate possibly virus or containing alkali weapons, and right away we"re mixing a little of them in to one countermeasure."

He and his group have devised a enamel necessary element filigree containing enzymes that lead to the prolongation of bromine or iodine, that kill bacteria, as well as chemicals that beget compounds that detoxify organophosphate haughtiness agents.

"This filigree could be grown in to sponges, coatings or liquid sprays, and it could be used internally or as a wound sauce that is able of murdering bacteria, viruses and spores," pronounced lead questioner Gabi Amitai, Ph.D., of the McGowan Institute and the Israel Institute for Biological Research. "The antibacterial and medicine activities do not meddle with each other, and essentially can work synergistically."

In their experiments, the element fended off Staph aureus and E. coli, that paint opposite classes of bacteria. After twenty-four hours, it easy 70 percent of the wake up of acetylcholinesterase, an containing alkali substance that is indifferent by haughtiness agents heading to deadly dysfunction of an necessary neurotransmitter.

The researchers go on to rise swap decontamination strategies to residence containing alkali and biologic weapons.

Co-authors of the paper embody Hironobu Murata, Ph.D., and comparison investigate technician Jill Andersen, both of the McGowan Institute; and Richard Koepsel, Ph.D., of the McGowan Institute and the Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The investigate was saved by a accede to from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

About the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine

The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine was determined by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the clinical partner, UPMC, to comprehend the immeasurable intensity of tissue engineering and alternative techniques directed at repair shop-worn or infirm tissues and organs. The McGowan Institute serves as a singular bottom of operations for the university"s heading scientists and clinical expertise operative to rise tissue engineering, cellular therapies, biosurgery and synthetic and biohybrid organ devices.

&

http://www.upmc.com/communications/newsbureau

Bit Defender

FEATURE-Food dependency is misery trap for quake-hit Haiti

Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:25am EDT

* Farming sector crushed by cheaper rice, sugar imports

Currencies

* Calls for farm investment to boost post-quake recovery

* Lone working sugar mill hamstrung by shortage of cane

By Pascal Fletcher

LEOGANE, Haiti, March 26 (Reuters) - Laborers at Haiti"sonly working sugar mill, the Jean Leopold Dominique deDarbonne, chew on sugar cane stalks to sustain themselves asthey prepare the factory for another grinding season.

But it is foreign imported sugar and rice, besidesdirt-poor subsistence farming, that sustains Haiti"s nearly 10million population -- an underdevelopment dilemma that has beenhighlighted as the Caribbean nation struggles to rebuild afterthe devastating earthquake in January.

More than two centuries ago, Haiti was Saint Domingue,France"s Caribbean jewel built on sugar and slavery, and therichest colony in the world. A bloody slave revolt wonindependence from France in 1804.

But the Haiti that was bludgeoned by the Jan. 12 earthquakehad the unenviable identity of being the poorest state in theWestern Hemisphere, unable to feed itself and spending astaggering 80 percent of its revenues to pay for food imports.

Since the disaster, which Haiti"s government believes mayhave killed more than 300,000 people, foreign relief groupshave brought in vast quantities of food aid to feed more than 1million people left homeless by the quake.

But as the government and foreign experts prepare for adonors" conference to be held in New York on March 31, they arecalling for a complete reform of Haiti"s decrepit farm sectorto break the crippling dependency on food imports and aid.

"We won independence 200 years ago but ... not really,because we"re begging consistently," Regine Barjon of theHaitian-American Chamber of Commerce, who is pressing forprivate investment in Haiti"s agriculture, told Reuters.

She said foreign donors, multilateral lenders and aidgroups must concentrate on making Haiti economicallyself-sustainable, especially in food, after the quake, if thecountry can ever hope to escape from its poverty trap.

Barjon said imports of rice, sugar and poultry, largelyfrom the United States, were $550 million a year. "If Haiti wasable to produce all these things, and it can ... we wouldreduce our annual trade deficit by 50 percent," she said.

"The mills and plants for sugar, rice and poultry arethere. What they need are investments to restart."

One example is the Darbonne sugar mill, located southwestof the capital Port-au-Prince outside Leogane, a town near thequake epicenter which was devastated. Most of its inhabitantslive in tent camps situated between the ruins of their homes.

LACK OF SUGAR CANE

Built in the early 1980s with Italian cooperation, the millwas closed after two years because it could not compete withcheaper imports of sugar. Left prey to neglect and vandalism,it was restarted with Cuban help in 2001 following a request toCuban leader Fidel Castro by Haitian President Rene Preval.

But the factory has been producing well below its fullcapacity, even though a team of Cuban technicians has kept itoperational for nearly a decade.

It produced 2,607 tonnes of sugar in 2005, its best yearsince restarting, but made no sugar in 2009, insteadmanufacturing syrup for alcohol distillers.

This meager output compares to the 250,000 tonnes of sugarthat Haiti imports each year, from the United States, theneighboring Dominican Republic and other sugar producers.

Experts now acknowledge that the influx over the past twodecades of subsidized cheaper farm imports, ushered in by WorldBank and International Monetary Fund free-trade policies thatobliged Haiti to open its markets, delivered a virtual deathblow to Haitian agriculture from which it has never recovered.

"Haiti should be producing its own sugar," said DominiqueVolcin, the Darbonne mill"s technical director since 2003.

"We need to modernize, because agriculture is the economicbase of our country," he added, saying the sugar sector neededa combination of determined state support and privateinvestment to allow it to replace the cheaper imports.

The Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce"s Barjon is alsothe CEO of BioTek Solutions Inc, a U.S.-based company that isproposing a public-private partnership for the Darbonne mill.

The team of Cuban technicians who maintain the factory sayit is technically sound but the main obstacle to increasedoutput is the lack of sufficient sugar cane.

The factory sustained only minor damage in the earthquakeand was to open the 2010 grinding season on Friday.

"We think the biggest problem is the supply of cane," saidone of the Cubans, Jorge Luis Perez.

Most of the cane growers in the surrounding area of Leoganeand Gressier are peasant farmers working tiny half-hectareplots with poor resources. This means they cannot produce thesufficient quantities of high-yielding cane the mill needs.

"WRONG-HEADED" PAST GLOBAL POLICY

On a visit to quake-stricken Haiti this week, former U.S.President Bill Clinton recognized that the United States andinternational financial institutions like the World Bank,albeit well-intentioned, had been wrong to push developingstates into opening their markets to cheap subsidized imports.

During his presidency from 1993 to 2001, he said he hadsigned legislation that had effectively increased thepenetration of American rice into Haiti, which decimated thatcountry"s own rice production.

"I think it was a mistake, I think it was part of a globaltrend that was wrong-headed," Clinton told reporters, adding hewas now looking to boost Haitian farm output by providing seedsand fertilizer through his own charitable foundation.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), incollaboration with the Haitian government, has prepared a $721million investment blueprint for the agricultural sector aimedat developing rural areas and production and boostingdistribution channels and agricultural services.

But achieving the food self-sufficiency goal will clearlytake time and political will, and also involve loosening thegrip of past alliances between powerful importing impresariosand the country"s political rulers.

"So as to not import, you have to produce enough to feedeveryone, and if you don"t produce enough, you have to buy itfrom somewhere else ... that"s life," said Volcin. (Editing by Vicki Allen)

Currencies

States sue EPA to stop hothouse gas manners

Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON Fri Mar 19, 2010 5:42pm EDT Related News NJ latest U.S. state to raid carbon auction fundsWed, Mar 17 2010US East carbon prices inch up in quarterly auctionFri, Mar 12 2010EPA chief slams attempted delays on climateMon, Mar 8 2010US EPA chief backs some offshore drilling in billMon, Mar 8 2010US EPA: delaying on climate would hurt economyMon, Mar 8 2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 15 U.S. states have sued the Environmental Protection Agency seeking to stop it from issuing rules controlling greenhouse gas emissions until it reexamines whether the pollution harms human health.

Green Business

Florida, Indiana, South Carolina and at least nine other states filed the petitions in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, states said.

They joined petitions filed last month by Virginia, Texas and Alabama.

The Obama administration has long said it would attack greenhouse gas emissions with EPA regulation if Congress failed to pass a climate bill.

The EPA is set to issue regulations later this month that would require autos and light trucks to increase energy efficiency. That would trigger rules on large emitters like power plants requiring them to get permits showing they are using the best technology available to reduce emissions.

The state petitions call for the EPA to reopen hearings on the so-called "endangerment finding" the agency issued last year declaring the emissions dangerous to people.

"If EPA doesn"t reopen the hearings we will move forward to try to stop them from regulating greenhouse gases," said Brian Gottstein, an assistant to Virginia"s Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli.

The states have complained that the EPA relied too heavily from reports by the U.N."s climate science panel which included information that exaggerated the melting of Himalayan glaciers.

The EPA said it was confident it would withstand legal challenges on the issue. "The question of the science is settled," spokeswoman Adora Andy said. The science "came from an array of highly respected, peer-reviewed sources from both within the United States and across the globe, and took into consideration hundreds of thousands of comments from members of the public, which were addressed in the finding," she said.

Allison Wood, a lawyer at Hunton Williams, said the suits could push some lawmakers to support the climate bill if they oppose EPA regulation and the legislation preempts the agency from taking action.

About the same number of states support the EPA. In January, 16 states including New York and California asked the court for permission to support the EPA in industry lawsuits seeking to stop the agency from regulating the gases from stationary sources like power plants and factories.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)

Green Business

Boozy chimp sent to rehab

MOSCOW Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:23am EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up, a popular daily reported on Friday. An ex-performer, Zhora became aggressive at his circus and was transferred to a zoo in the southern Russian city of Rostov, where he fathered several baby chimps, learned to draw with markers and picked up his two vices.

Oddly Enough

"The beer and cigarettes were ruining him. He would pester passers-by for booze," the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said.

It added he has now been transferred to the city of Kazan, about 500 miles east of Moscow, for rehabilitation treatment.

(Reporting by Tanya Ustinova, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)

Oddly Enough