Mandela faces more tests in hospital after "good night's rest"

PRETORIA (Reuters) - Nelson Mandela, the 94-year-old former South African president and revered anti-apartheid leader, is to undergo more tests in hospital on Monday after having a good rest on his second night in the facility, the government said.

A statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma, who visited the Nobel Peace laureate on Sunday, gave no details other than to say, "President Mandela had a good night's rest" and was "in good hands". It also thanked members of the public for their messages of support.

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula told reporters after paying Mandela a visit in Pretoria's "1 Military" hospital that he was doing "very, very well". The military is responsible for the health of sitting and former South African presidents.

Mandela, South Africa's first black president and a global symbol of resistance to racism and injustice, spent 27 years in apartheid prisons, including 18 years on the windswept Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town.

He was released in 1990 and went on to be elected president in the historic all-race elections in 1994 that ended white-minority rule in Africa's most important economy.

He used his unparalleled prestige to push for reconciliation between whites and blacks, setting up a commission to probe crimes committed by both sides in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Mandela's African National Congress has continued to govern since his retirement from politics in 1999, but has been criticized for perceived corruption and slowness in addressing apartheid-era inequalities in housing, education and healthcare.

When Mandela was admitted on Saturday, officials stressed there was no cause for concern although domestic media reports suggested senior members of the government and people close to him had been caught unawares.

The City Press newspaper said both the Nelson Mandela Foundation and his ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, had not known about his transfer to the capital from his home in the remote village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape province.

"I wish Mr Mandela a quick recovery from his sickness so we can be with him all the time. He was a good president, a good leader, so he must be with us," said John Sekiti, a petrol station attendant in Pretoria.

Mandela remains a hero to many of South Africa's 52 million people and two brief stretches in hospital in the last two years made front page news.

He spent time in a Johannesburg hospital in 2011 with a respiratory condition, and again in February this year because of abdominal pains. He was released the following day after a keyhole examination showed there was nothing serious.

He has since spent most of his time in Qunu.

His fragile health prevents him from making any public appearances in South Africa, although he has continued to receive high-profile domestic and international visitors, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton in July.

(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mandela-faces-more-tests-hospital-good-nights-rest-135615494.html

st louis news utah jazz lawrence of arabia denver nuggets correspondents dinner i am legend san antonio spurs

Maine gas prices continue downward trend

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Maine gas prices continue to trickle down, but aren't falling as fast as they are nationally.

Price-monitoring website MaineGasPrices.com reports Monday that the average retail cost of a gallon of gas in Maine dropped by a little more than three cents in the past week, to an average of $3.53.

Nationally, prices dropped by more than a nickel in the past week to an average of $3.34 per gallon.

Maine prices are now six cents lower than a month ago, yet remain 15 cents higher than at the same time last year.

A company analyst says he's expecting prices to continue to fall.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/maine-gas-prices-continue-downward-162501300.html

shades of grey pittsburgh penguins record store day jennie garth space needle nashville predators king arthur

Nanaimo Sports | Recreation | Travelling Squares Christmas Dance ...

add to outlook add to google calendar remind me

Tweet

Share

-->

Saturday, December 8th, 2012
7:30 PM to 10:30 PM

Travelling Squares caller Garry Dodds and cuer Pat Zeeman will provide a lively evening of dancing to seasonal music. At 7:30 there will be a plus workshop and at 8:00 we begin the program of mainstream dancing and rounds. We will have a collection box for non-perishable goods for the Loaves and Fishes. Santa is going to drop in to dance with us. Visiting square dancers are always welcome. Merry Christmas!

Source: http://www.harbourliving.ca/event/travelling-squares-christmas-dance/2012-12-08/

mega millions lottery jackpot winning numbers mega millions megamillions drawing olbermann mega millions march 30 lucky numbers

Source: http://essre802.blogspot.com/2012/12/nanaimo-sports-recreation-travelling.html

the situation tim tebow jets katy perry part of me video photoshop cs6 beta cate blanchett nfl news tebow

Source: http://eefpoofyy.posterous.com/nanaimo-sports-recreation-travelling-squares

sheryl sandberg superbowl recipes super bowl kick off chili recipes carlos condit diaz vs condit super bowl 2012 kickoff time

GOP 'incapable' of beating Hillary Clinton in 2016?

If Hillary Rodham Clinton decides to run for president in 2016, would she be unbeatable? That?s the pronouncement of former GOP Speaker and onetime presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

On NBC?s ?Meet the Press? Sunday, Mr. Gingrich flatly proclaimed his party ?incapable? of beating Mrs. Clinton in a potential 2016 matchup.

?[I]f their competitor in ?16 is going to be Hillary Clinton ? supported by Bill Clinton and presumably a still-relatively-popular President Barack Obama ? trying to win that will be truly the Superbowl,? Gingrich said. ?And the Republican Party today is incapable of competing at that level.?

RECOMMENDED: Hillary Clinton for president? Eight Democrats who might run next time.

Wow. We realize Gingrich has been rehabilitating himself as a Republican wise man of sorts ? and for partisan pundits, provocative critiques of one?s own party are always a great way to generate attention (we?re writing about it, aren?t we?). But to blithely write off the chances of the entire 2016 GOP field a full four years in advance is eyebrow-raising, even for a politician as prone to ?grandiose? (as he once put it) statements as Gingrich.

We agree that Clinton would, indeed, be a formidable candidate, but we?re not sure she?d be as impossible to beat as Gingrich suggests.

True, she?s currently more popular than every other candidate considering a run. Clinton holds a 60 percent favorability rating ? higher than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (39 percent), Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (33 percent), Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (47 percent) and Vice President Joe Biden (46 percent), according to a new George Washington University/Politico Battleground poll.

And she?d probably be unstoppable in a Democratic primary. As Democratic strategist and Clintonite James Carville said on ABC?s "This Week" Sunday, ?Every Democrat I know says, ?God, I hope she runs. We don't need a primary. Let's just go to post with this thing.? ?

Frankly, the argument being made by some that Clinton was just as much a heavyweight front-runner in 2008 and still wound up losing the nomination ignores the fact that Barack Obama was at that point already an acknowledged political superstar. He didn?t have Clinton?s network or name recognition, but most insiders saw him as a once-in-a-generation kind of orator. He was clearly a real threat.

This time around, there?s no one like that on the Democratic horizon to challenge Clinton. To put it bluntly, Maryland Gov. Martin O?Malley is no Barack Obama. Neither is New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. If Clinton wants the nomination, there's a good chance it will be hers for the taking.

But whether she?d have as easy a time in the general election is another matter. It?s not hard for us to envision Governor Bush or Senator Rubio or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie giving Clinton a real run for her money. Yes, the party has some fundamentals to work out. It needs to improve its image on immigration and women?s issues. It needs to raise its turnout game. But many of those eyeing 2016 runs know that ? and they?re already working to do it.

Clinton's current popularity, as we've written before, is in part a reflection of the nonpartisan role she's taken as secretary of State, as well as the nostalgia surrounding her husband's now-well-in-the-past White House years. If she were to become an official candidate ? coming under attack from rivals, subjected to much harsher scrutiny in the press ? it probably wouldn't take long for much of that warmth to fade.

The real question may be whether Clinton ultimately decides to run at all. As The New York Times? Jodi Kantor wrote over the weekend: ?For her last presidential run, Mrs. Clinton declared her candidacy nearly two years before Election Day ? but the timing did not feel right to her, because it made the race endless, say former aides who hint she would wait much longer if she made a bid again.?

That means we?ve got two-plus years left of this kind of speculation. If, in the end, she winds up deciding not to take the plunge, Democrats would really have to scramble to find a new candidate to rally behind.

RECOMMENDED: Hillary Clinton for president? Eight Democrats who might run next time.

Related stories

Read this story at csmonitor.com

Become a part of the Monitor community

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-really-incapable-beating-hillary-clinton-2016-175906563.html

sarah burke death etta james funeral erin brockovich dodgeball 2012 pro bowl

Drug combination acts against aggressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Dec. 10, 2012 ? A two-prong approach combining ibrutinib and rituximab (Rituxin?) to treat aggressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) produced profound responses with minor side effects in a Phase 2 clinical trial at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Researchers presented the results at the 54th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

"This is a patient population with a great need for more targeted therapies," said Jan Burger, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in MD Anderson's Department of Leukemia. Burger was lead author of the study.

"Many CLL patients, especially those with indolent or non-aggressive disease, do well on the standard treatment of chemotherapy and antibodies," he said. "But for a certain subset of high-risk patients, treatment often fails, and remissions, if they are achieved, are short."

According to the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database, CLL is the most common type of adult leukemia in the United States. An estimated 16,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year, and about 4,600 people will die because of the disease. Median age of diagnosis is 72, and it is more common in men than women.

Although chemotherapy combinations have improved the cure rate for CLL, side effects often are severe. A sizeable number of CLL deaths are from secondary cancers caused by treatment.

Early studies showed potential

Ibrutinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that thwarts B-cell receptor signaling, is a promising new targeted therapy for mature B-cell malignancies, including certain types of myeloma and lymphoma. It has been shown to be especially effective in CLL.

Over the past two years, Phase 1/2 trials at MD Anderson and other sites showed high-risk CLL patients responded as well as low-risk patients to ibrutinib. However, the response often is lessened because of persistent lymphocytosis, an increase in leukemia cells in the blood due to release of CLL cells from the tissues (lymph glands) into the blood stream. Rituximab, a well-established antibody, was added to capture the CLL cells in the blood and thereby accelerate and improve response.

"When we looked at how well the high-risk patients were doing on ibrutinib -- even though it was a small number -- we saw a great opportunity to find out if combining the two drugs would have a positive impact on these patients," Burger said.

Combination tolerated well

Forty patients with high-risk CLL were enrolled in the study earlier this year. They received:

* Daily oral doses of 420 mg ibrutinib throughout treatment

* Weekly infusions of rituximab (375 mg/m2) weeks one through four

* Monthly rituximab infusions for the next five months

At a median follow up of four months, 38 patients remained on ibrutinib therapy without disease progression. One patient died from an unrelated infectious complication, and one patient discontinued therapy due to oral ulcers.

Preliminary results: 85 percent response rate

Of 20 patients evaluated for early response at three months, 17 achieved partial remission for an overall response rate of 85%. Three achieved partial remission with persistent lymphocytosis.

Interestingly, lymphocytosis peaked earlier and the duration was shorter than with ibrutinib alone.

Treatment was well tolerated, with 13 cases of grade 3 or grade 4 toxicities, including neutropenia, fatigue, pneumonia, insomnia and bone aches. Most side effects were unrelated and transient. Many patients reported improved overall health and quality of life after three cycles of treatment.

"Although this study has a short follow-up time, we are encouraged by the fact that the vast majority of patients are responding and are able to continue on treatment, Burger said.

Development of ibrutinib for CLL crucial

Researchers said these data, together with the previous Phase 1/2 studies, emphasize the need for rapid further development of ibrutinib for high-risk CLL patients.

Pharmacyclics, the company that is developing ibrutinib, is proceeding with a Phase 3 multi-center clinical trial, in which MD Anderson will participate. Additionally, MD Anderson researchers will conduct a follow-up study on their research in high-risk CLL patients.

Other research team members from MD Anderson's Department of Leukemia included Michael Keating, M.D.; William Wierda, M.D., Ph.D.; Julia Hoellenriegel, M.S.; Alessandra Ferrajoli, M.D.; Stefan Faderl, M.D.; Susan Lerner, M.S.; Gracy Zacharian; Hagop Kantarjian, M.D.; and Susan O'Brien, M.D. Also participating were Xuelin Huang, Ph.D., of the Department of Biostatistics at MD Anderson; and Danelle James, M.D. and Joseph Buggy, Ph.D., of Pharmacyclics, Inc, Sunnyvale, CA.

Support for the study was provided by Pharmacyclics and CLL Global Research Foundation.

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 Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

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: 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/~3/9SigYjRYJU0/121210163432.htm

trisomy 18 ozzie guillen ozzie guillen buster posey eric holder eric holder carole king

Files on accused LA priests could soon be public

(AP) ? Secret files kept for decades by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on priests accused of sexually abusing children could soon become public as a five-year legal battle over their release reaches its endgame.

A judge will hear final objections Monday from accused priests and is also expected to begin hashing out a timeline for the release of thousands of pages of top-secret church documents on abusive clerics. Plaintiff attorneys have been trying to gain access to the files since a $660 million settlement in 2007 called for their disclosure.

Earlier this year, the California Supreme Court declined to intervene after a lower court ordered the release of some of the files, setting the stage for a larger disclosure.

Both attorneys for the church and the plaintiffs said they expected the documents would be made public within a month and no later than February after Monday's critical hearing. Private files on Franciscan friars accused of abuse were released earlier this year after a similar legal fight.

"There are explosive documents that are going to be coming out," said lead plaintiff attorney Ray Boucher, who has seen some of the material while reviewing it with archdiocese attorneys in preparation for the release.

"I don't think there's any question but that the information that will be forthcoming ... is beyond anything the public has seen so far."

The files contain letters between church leaders, including the recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, letters to and from the priests themselves, notes and memos about reports of suspected abuse, medical and psychological records and ? in some cases ? paperwork petitioning for a particular priest's defrocking by the Vatican.

Michael Hennigan, an archdiocese attorney, said the church is committed to releasing the documents but wants to make sure the privacy rights of priests are protected.

Plaintiffs in particular want to see if ? and when ? archdiocese officials were warned about their alleged abusers or if the church avoided civil and criminal action by not reporting to police or shuffling accused clerics from parish to parish or diocese to diocese.

The archbishop has apologized for his handling of the sex abuse scandal and has acknowledged missteps in how he handled several highly publicized cases, including that of former priest Michael Baker.

Baker told Mahony at a retreat in 1986 that he had molested two young boys but the archbishop has said he didn't alert anyone because the priest told him the children were illegal immigrants who had returned to Mexico.

That case seriously tarnished Mahony's reputation and prompted a criminal grand jury probe that never resulted in charges.

When the Los Angeles archdiocese settled its abuse cases in 2007, lead plaintiff attorney Boucher estimated that Baker's conduct accounted for $40 million of the total.

The former priest was arrested in 2006 as he returned from a vacation in Thailand and ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison for molestation.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-12-10-California%20Church%20Abuse/id-b8557d053a064540b109f054d121ec5b

discovery shuttle allure jane goodall saturday night fever glamping forgetting sarah marshall taraji p. henson

Egypt's oldest carvings of pharaoh found

The oldest-known representations of a pharaoh are carved on rocks near the Nile River in southern Egypt, researchers report.

The carvings were first observed and recorded in the 1890s, but only rediscovered in 2008. In them, a white-crowned figure travels in ceremonial processions and on sickle-shaped boats, perhaps representing an early tax-collecting tour of Egypt.

The scenes place the age of the carvings between 3200 B.C. and 3100 B.C., researchers report in the December issue of the journal Antiquity. During that time, Egypt was transitioning into the dynastic rule of the pharaohs.

"It's really the end of prehistory and the beginning of history," in Egypt, study researcher Maria Gatto told LiveScience.

Scenes of a ruler
Gatto, a Yale University researcher, led the archaeologists who rediscovered the site in 2008. Archaeologist Archibald Sayce first sketched the carvings, found at the village Nag el-Hamdulab, in the 1890s, but the only record of Sayce's discovery was a partial illustration published in a book. [ See Images of the Egypt Carvings ]

The site was then forgotten until the 1960s, when Egyptian archaeologist Labib Habachi took photographs of the carvings, which he never published. It wasn't until one of these photos resurfaced in 2008 that Gatto and her team started searching for the site, which many people assumed had been destroyed in the interim.

Some of the carvings have indeed been vandalized since the 1960s, but Gatto and her team found the etched rocks in a natural amphitheater west of Nag el-Hamdulab. They then compared the carvings to Habachi's 1960s photographs.

There are seven carvings scattered throughout the area, and many are tableaus of boats flanked by prisoners. One of the most extensive carvings shows five boats, one of which houses the white-crowned pharaoh, his fan-bearer and two standard-bearers. Falcon and bull insignia on the pharaoh's boat symbolize royalty, further emphasized by the four men with ropes standing alongside that boat, likely towing it along the Nile.

A hieroglyph labels this scene a "nautical following," a likely reference to the following of Horus, Gatto said. In this periodic royal jaunt across Egypt, the pharaoh cemented power and collected taxes. Thus, not only do the carvings represent the oldest known vision of a pharaoh, they may also show the oldest Egyptian tax campaign.

  1. Science news from NBCNews.com

    1. Long-extinct lizard named after Obama

      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs also did in lots of lizards ? including a newly identified creature that's been named Obamadon gracilis in honor of President Barack Obama.

    2. Zombie movie rises up from LHC's backyard
    3. Space calendar takes the Science Geek prize
    4. No snow for America's first Christmas

Other carvings include a scene of people and dogs herding cattle and a cluster of animals, two of them apparently some mythical part-lion beasts. The other animals are familiar native African species, including two ostriches, an ibex and a bull. Another scene shows the brewing and drinking of beer, perhaps a reference to a festival.

First king?
The style of the carvings and hieroglyphics place the creation of the images around 3200 B.C. to 3100 B.C., Gatto said. This would have been the reign of Narmer, the first pharaoh to unify Upper and Lower Egypt.

Based on the symbols of power and control in the carvings, Gatto and her colleagues believe the artwork came from the first part of Narmer's reign, before he unified both parts of Egypt.

"It seems that for Narmer it was important first to settle the situation in the South, to control the South, and then apparently move to the North, and at that time he unified Egypt and we have the first dynasty," Gatto said.

The next step for researchers, Gatto said, is to protect the site. That presents a challenge, not only because of the carvings' outdoor location, but also because of recent political upheaval in Egypt.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas or LiveScience @livescience. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/50148362/ns/technology_and_science-science/

mega millions Cyber Monday Deals 2012 Colin Kaepernick Sasha McHale Boy Meets World chicago bears elizabeth taylor

98% Chasing Ice

All Critics (41) | Top Critics (19) | Fresh (40) | Rotten (1)

The most important documentary of the year.

"Chasing Ice" is a grand adventure, a visual amazement and a powerful warning.

If you're looking for eye-popping evidence that the world's glaciers are melting, don't miss the small-scale but spectacular documentary, Chasing Ice.

The rapid disappearance of ice mountains, filmed over a period of years, is compressed through time-lapse technology into minutes and seconds. The speeded-up effect is harrowing and also, disturbingly, eerily beautiful.

The movie might have given us a bit less of Balog and a bit more of the startling sequences he produced.

Though the filmmaker's point of view on the matter seems quite clear, Orlowski does smartly acknowledge counterarguments against climate change without dwelling on them.

This is a well made Documentary that becomes very involving because it's just as much about Balog's journey as it is about global warming.

Makes a convincing case that the story of climate change is best told by pictures, not words.

Despite its dire message about rising carbon dioxide levels polluting the Earth, Chasing Ice is a beautiful film, with stunning visits to snowy realms with deep blue water.

Pictures, of course, say more than a thousand flowcharts or Al Gore's PowerPoint presentations. The images here are as glorious as those in any nature documentary ever made.

"Chasing Ice" is that movie that every environmentally conscious person has been waiting for, if only to show their right-wing relatives who parrot the standard oil-industry-funded line that "the science is still uncertain."

Perhaps most eloquent of all -- the most frightening and heartbreaking proof that something is wrong -- lies in the documentary's incredible imagery.

Uses time-lapse photography to show just how drastically fast ice sheets up yonder are turning to water, raising sea levels.

Beautiful photography, chilling conclusions.

Visually spectacular montages of ice floes receding that will make you gasp and move you to tears.

Postpones the inevitable conclusion long enough to tell a good story

So long as filmmaker Jeff Orlowski keeps his focus on the findings from (James) Balog's Extreme Ice Survey (EIS)..."Chasing Ice" is gripping.

[VIDEO ESSAY] ...renders absolute proof of global warming a.k.a. climate change.

The reality of destructive climate change is graphically illustrated by National Geographic shooter James Balog in this documentary, filled with 'insanely, ridiculously beautiful' studies of the 'limitless universe of forms' found in glacier ice.

No quotes approved yet for Chasing Ice. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Submit A Quote

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chasing_ice_2012/

julio cesar chavez jr Topless Kate university of texas UT Austin Lizzie Velasquez NFL Network att

Education To Employment: Why Global Employers Can't Find Skilled Workers While 75 Million Youth Remain Jobless (VIDEO WEBCAST)

Around the world, governments and businesses face a conundrum: high levels of youth unemployment and a shortage of job seekers with critical skills.

Couple that with research findings that 34 percent of young Americans don't believe that education matters for their future, and 40 percent of those "too cool" for school are unemployed. Another 33 percent are in "interim" positions, according to a recent report by McKinsey, a consulting firm.

And those "cool kids," New York City's Shawn Brody told The Huffington Post last week, are the same ones who are upset about their lack of employment opportunities. Brody himself is a high school dropout, and now crashes with his dad in Brooklyn and switches between construction and farm jobs, sometimes cleaning up after animals on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

"We're so caught up in other s***," he said of his millennial peers. "They just want everything for nothing."

How can a country successfully move its young people from education to employment? What are the challenges? Which interventions work? How can these be scaled up? Watch the webcast below to follow a discussion led by experts tackling those very questions.

Also on HuffPost:

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/education-to-employment-w_n_2269135.html

London 2012 shot put London 2012 Track And Field Jordyn Wieber michael phelps Kerri Strug Ledecky Nadia Comaneci