Supreme Court justice denies bid to stop California gay marriages

By Casey Sullivan

(Reuters) - A U.S. Supreme Court justice on Sunday rejected a long-shot bid to halt same-sex marriages in California, days after the high court let stand a trial judge's order declaring the ban unconstitutional.

Justice Anthony Kennedy denied the application verbally, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg told Reuters.

Supporters of the gay marriage ban known as Proposition 8, which California voters approved in 2008, asked the high court on Saturday to overrule a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order that lifted an injunction barring same-sex unions.

"I think it's time for proponents of Prop 8 to stop trying to stop people from getting married and turn their attention to something else," said Ted Boutrous, a lawyer for the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which sponsored the federal court challenge to Prop 8.

Marriage ceremonies of gay and lesbian couples went ahead since a panel of the appeals court in San Francisco removed its stay on Proposition 8 on Friday.

The stay had been in force while the decision striking down the so-called Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2008, was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Political supporters of the measure were left to appeal the case because state elected officials declined to defend it.

But the justices on Wednesday ruled Prop 8 proponents lacked legal standing to defend the ban, a decision that left the trial judge's ruling intact and cleared the way for gay marriage in the state to resume.

The Supreme Court had said its ruling would not go into effect for at least 25 days, the amount of time normally given the losing party, in this case, Prop 8 backers, to seek a rehearing of the matter.

But California Attorney General Kamala Harris publicly urged the appeals court to lift its stay sooner than that, and on Friday the 9th Circuit did so in a surprise move that prompted a flurry of hastily arranged same-sex weddings up and down the state.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-justice-denies-bid-stop-california-gay-170036934.html

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Obama calls on neighbors to stop fuelling Congo conflict

By Drazen Jorgic and Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday called on states around the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern region to stop fuelling conflict there and implement a peace deal.

After 11 nations signed the peace agreement, the United Nations started deploying an intervention force, MONUSCO, to neutralize armed groups in the mineral-rich area that has been racked by conflict for years and is desperately underdeveloped.

But a U.N. experts report seen by Reuters last week said military officers from Rwanda and Congo were fuelling violence in the region by supporting rival groups, despite the U.N.-brokered deal signed in February.

Rwanda has repeatedly denied meddling. Earlier accusations that it was backing rebels prompted a halt in some Western aid.

"The countries surrounding the Congo, they've got to make a commitment to stop funding armed groups that are encroaching on territorial integrity and sovereignty of Congo," Obama told a news conference in Tanzania, the last leg of an Africa tour.

"They've signed on a piece of paper, now the question is whether they follow through," he said. "Countries surrounding Congo should recognize that if the Congo stabilizes, that will improve the prospects for their goals and their prosperity."

The U.N. report said the M23 rebels continued to recruit fighters in Rwanda, helped by sympathetic Rwandan officers.

It said elements of Congo's military had cooperated with a Rwandan Hutu rebel group against the M23, a Tutsi-dominated rebellion of former Congolese soldiers that has demanded political concessions from President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa.

Obama said he had discussed with President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, which has contributed to the U.N. intervention force, "how we can encourage all the parties concerned to follow through on commitments they've made".

"That means, for example, President Kabila inside Congo, he has to do more and better when it comes to dealing with the DRC's capacity on security issues and delivery of services," the U.S. president said at the joint news conference with Kikwete.

"We are prepared to work with the United Nations, regional organizations and others to help him build capacity," he said, adding that ultimately it was in the "self-interest" of regional countries to act to end the conflict.

"We can't force a solution on to the region. The people's of the region have to stand up and say that enough, it's time to move forward in a different way," Obama added.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Mark Felsenthal; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by George Obulutsa and Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-calls-neighbors-stop-fuelling-congo-conflict-180822273.html

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Source: http://www.bgky.org/calendar/eventdetail.php?id=5176

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Report: U.S. taps 500M German phone, Internet links in month

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States taps half a billion phone calls, emails and text messages in Germany in a typical month and has classed its biggest European ally as a target similar to China, according to secret U.S. documents quoted by a German newsmagazine.

The revelations of alleged U.S. surveillance programs based on documents taken by fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have raised a political furor in the United States and abroad over the balance between privacy rights and national security.

Exposing the latest details in a string of reputed spying programs, Der Spiegel quoted from an internal NSA document which it said its reporters had seen.

The document Spiegel cited showed that the United States categorized Germany as a "third-class" partner and that surveillance there was stronger than in any other EU country, similar in extent to China, Iraq or Saudi-Arabia.

"We can attack the signals of most foreign third-class partners, and we do it too," Der Spiegel quoted a passage in the NSA document as saying.

It said the document showed that the NSA monitored phone calls, text messages, emails and internet chat contributions and has saved the metadata - that is, the connections, not the content - at its headquarters.

On an average day, the NSA monitored about 20 million German phone connections and 10 million internet data sets, rising to 60 million phone connections on busy days, the report said.

While it had been known from disclosures by Snowden that the United States tapped data in Germany, the extent was previously unclear.

News of the U.S. cyber-espionage program Prism and the British equivalent Tempora have outraged Germans, who are highly sensitive to government monitoring having lived through the Stasi secret police in the former communist East Germany and with lingering memories of the Gestapo of Hitler's Nazi regime.

A Spiegel report on Saturday that the NSA had spied on European Union offices caused outrage among EU policymakers, with some even calling for a suspension to talks for a free trade agreement between Washington and the EU.

In France, Der Spiegel reported, the United States taps about 2 million connection data a day. Only Canada, Australia, Britain and New Zealand were explicitly exempted from spy attacks.

Snowden, a U.S. citizen, fled the United States to Hong Kong in May, a few weeks before the publication in the Guardian and the Washington Post of details he provided about secret U.S. government surveillance of internet and phone traffic.

He has been holed up in a Moscow airport transit area for a week after U.S. authorities revoked his passport. The leftist government of Ecuador is reviewing his request for asylum.

(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-taps-half-billion-german-phone-internet-links-093938180.html

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White Makes First Cut For World University Games

Incoming Iowa junior Aaron White was named one of 16 finalists for the U.S.A. World Men?s World University Games roster.

Tryouts continue for the 12-member squad through June 30. The team leaves for Kazan, Russia on July 1 with competition held July 7-16. Iowa guard Devyn Marble, who also tried out for the team, was not named a finalist.

White, a 6-foot-8 forward, was named third-team all-Big Ten and led Iowa in rebounding (6.2), the first Hawkeye to lead the team in rebounding as a freshman and sophomore since Michael Payne in 1981-82. He ranked second on the team in scoring (12.8) and steals (41). White made (193) and attempted (258) the most free throws of any sophomore in Iowahistory. In two seasons, White has scored 877 career points.

Four Big Ten players are listed as finalists: White, Adreian Payne (Michigan State), Yogi Ferrell (Indiana) and Will Sheehey (Indiana). Marble, Andre Hollins (Minnesota) and A.J. Hammons (Purdue) were not selected as finalists.

Other finalists include: Spencer Dinwiddie (Colorado); Davante Gardner (Marquette); Treveon Graham (Virginia Commonwealth); Jerian Grant(Notre Dame); Luke Hancock (Louisville); Tyler Haws (BYU); Rodney Hood (Duke); Cory Jefferson (Baylor); Sean Kilpatrick (Cincinnati); Alex Kirk (New Mexico); Doug McDermott (Creighton); Chasson Randle (Stanford).

Source: http://www.kcrg.com/sports/hawkeyes/White-Makes-First-Cut-For-World-University-Games-213258201.html

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Biomarker predicts risk of breast cancer recurrence after tamoxifen treatment

June 29, 2013 ? A biomarker reflecting expression levels of two genes in tumor tissue may be able to predict which women treated for estrogen-receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer should receive a second estrogen-blocking medication after completing tamoxifen treatment. In their report being published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center investigators describe finding that the HOXB13/IL17BR ratio can indicate which women are at risk for cancer recurrence after tamoxifen and which are most likely to benefit from continuing treatment with the aromatase inhibitor letrozole (Femara).

"Most patients with early-stage, ER-positive breast cancer remain cancer-free after five years of tamoxifen treatment, but they remain at risk of recurrence for 15 years or longer after their initial treatment," says Dennis Sgroi, MD, of the MGH Cancer Center and Department of Pathology, lead and corresponding author of the report. "Our biomarker identifies the subgroup of patients who continue to be at risk of recurrence after tamoxifen treatment and who will benefit from extended therapy with letrozole, which should allow many women to avoid unnecessary extended treatment."

Previous research by Sgroi's team, in collaboration with investigators from bioTheranostics Inc., discovered that the ratio between levels of expression of two genes -- HOXB13 and IL17BR -- in tumor tissue predicted the risk of recurrence of ER-positive, lymph-node-negative breast cancer, whether or not the patient was treated with tamoxifen. The current study of patients from MA.17, the highly successful clinical trial of letrozole, was designed to evaluate the usefulness of the HOXB13/IL17BR ratio for both prognosis -- predicting which tamoxifen-treated remained patients at risk of recurrence -- and for identifying who could benefit from continued treatment with letrozole.

To answer those questions the investigators analyzed primary tumor samples and patient data from the placebo-controlled MA.17 trial, which confirmed the ability of extended letrozole therapy to improve survival after the completion of tamoxifen treatment. Tissue samples were available from 83 patients whose tumors recurred during the study period -- 31 who had received letrozole and 52 in the placebo group -- and 166 patients with no recurrence, 91 of whom had received letrozole, with 75 getting the placebo. Analysis of the tumor samples revealed that a high HOXB13/IL17BR ratio -- meaning the expression level of HOXB13 is greater than that of IL17BR -- predicts an increased risk for tumor recurrence after tamoxifen therapy, but that elevated risk drops significantly if a patient receives letrozole

Paul E. Goss, MD, PhD, director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at the MGH Cancer Center and a co-author of the report, explains, "This discovery means that about 60 percent of women with the most common kind of breast cancer can be spared unnecessary treatment with the concommitant side effects and costs. But more importantly, the 40 percent of patients who are at risk of recurrence can now be identified as needing continued therapy with letrozole, and many will be spared death from breast cancer." He and Sgroi note that their findings need to be validated by additional studies before they can be put into clinical practice.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/kFmW4R0U9Fo/130629164733.htm

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NASA Space Shuttle Runway Gets New Life as Commercial Spaceport

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? The famous?seaside?space shuttle runway here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center may have a second life soon as a launch and landing spot for a whole new type of space mission: tourist flights.

The 15,000-foot-long (4,600 meters)?Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) has been unused for spaceflights since the 30-year space shuttle program retired in 2011. But now NASA is handing over operation of the facility to Space Florida, the aerospace economic development agency for the state of Florida, to put the runway to new uses.

"Space Florida will take over operation of SLF as a combined airport and spaceport," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said here at a press conference today (June 28). "This will continue to expand Kennedy's viability as a multiuser spaceport. We look forward to working with Space Florida over the coming months." [Photos: NASA's Last Shuttle Landing in History]

Space Florida hopes to recruit commercial space companies to perform launches and landings from the Shuttle Landing Facility. The organization has reached out to suborbital launch company XCOR Aerospace, as well as orbital spaceship builders Sierra Nevada Space Systems, Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), and has high hopes many of these companies will establish operations at Kennedy Space Center.

"It's our job to make it a commercial entity ?we're excited for the challenge," Jim Kuzma, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Space Florida, told SPACE.com.

NASA itself may prove to be a customer of the facility when it starts launching its new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System, and Orion spacecraft, in coming years. Under the new arrangement, NASA is no longer shouldering the everyday cost of running the Shuttle Landing Facility ? Florida is ? so if NASA uses the facility it will have to pay for it like any other customer.

"It's exciting for Florida," Kuzma said. "We think the work force is here, the understanding of the needs of the space industry is here."

Andrew Nelson, chief operating officer of XCOR Aerospace, which hopes to begin launching tourists to the edge of space on its Lynx vehicle soon, agreed.

"The workforce is incredible here," he said. "There's just something in the DNA here."

XCOR said it was attracted to the idea of launching flights out of Kennedy Space Center in part because the Space Coast lures so many tourists ? it's about an hour's drive from the tourist Mecca of Orlando.

"There are 30 million tourist visitors a year here," Nelson told SPACE.com. "A few are going to want to fly to space."

Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter?and Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-space-shuttle-runway-gets-life-commercial-spaceport-115756289.html

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