Pakistani militants kill 10 tourists,

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? At least a dozen Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death overnight a Pakistani and 10 foreign tourists who were visiting one of the world's highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said Sunday.

The shooting was one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in recent years and is likely to damage the country's already struggling tourism industry. Pakistan's mountainous north ? considered until now relatively safe ? is one of the main attractions in a country beset with insurgency and other political instability.

The local branch of the Taliban took responsibility for the killings, saying it was to avenge the death of a leader killed in a recent U.S. drone strike.

The 10 foreigners who were killed included two Chinese, one Chinese-American and one Nepalese, said Attaur Rehman, home secretary in the Gilgit-Baltistan area where the attack took place. The other six have not been identified. One Pakistani was also killed, Rehman said.

Matt Boland, the acting spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that a U.S. citizen was among the dead, but could not say whether it was a dual Chinese national.

"The U.S. Embassy Islamabad expresses its deepest condolences to the family and friends of the U.S. citizen and the other innocent tourists who were killed in the Northern Areas of Pakistan," Boland said in a statement sent to reporters.

Pakistan's interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, said earlier that nine foreigners and one Pakistani were killed. He said the dead included five Ukrainians, three Chinese and one Russian. One Chinese tourist was wounded in the attack and was rescued, said Khan.

It's unclear what caused the discrepancy between the two accounts.

The attack took place at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet). Nanga Parbat is notoriously difficult to climb and is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past. It's unclear if the tourists were planning to climb the mountain or were just visiting the base camp, which is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan.

The gunmen were wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scouts, a paramilitary police force that patrols the area, said the interior minister. The attackers abducted two local guides to find their way to the remote base camp. One of the guides was killed in the shooting, and the other has been detained and is being questioned, said Khan.

"The purpose of this attack was to give a message to the world that Pakistan is unsafe for travel," said the interior minister in a speech in the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the incident. "The government will take all measures to ensure the safety of foreign tourists."

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa group carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.

"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

At least a dozen gunmen were involved in the attack, local police officer Jahangir Khan said.

The attackers beat up the Pakistanis who were accompanying the tourists, took their money and tied them up, said a senior local government official. They checked the identities of the Pakistanis and shot to death one of them, possibly because he was a minority Shiite Muslim, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Although Gilgit-Baltistan is a relatively peaceful area, it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on Shiites in recent years.

The attackers took the money and passports from the foreigners and then gunned them down, said the official. It's unclear how the Chinese tourist who was rescued managed to avoid being killed. The base camp has basic wooden huts, but most tourists choose to sleep in their own tents.

Local police chief Barkat Ali said they first learned of the attack when one of the local guides called the police station around 1 a.m. on Sunday. The military airlifted the bodies to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, Sunday afternoon.

"We hope Pakistani authorities will do their best to find the culprits of this crime," the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, Volodymyr Lakomov, told reporters outside the hospital where the bodies were taken.

The Pakistani government condemned the "brutal act of terrorism" in a statement sent to reporters.

"Those who have committed this heinous crime seem to be attempting to disrupt the growing relations of Pakistan with China and other friendly countries," said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.

Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is sensitive to any issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.

Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the perceived danger of visiting a country that is home to a large number of Islamic militant groups, such as the Taliban and al-Qaida, which mostly reside in the northwest near the Afghan border. A relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the peaks of the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second highest mountain in the world.

Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, condemned the attack and expressed fear that it would seriously damage the region's tourism industry.

"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Shah. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."

The area has been cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers, and a military helicopter was searching the area, said Shah.

"God willing we will find the perpetrators of this tragic incident," said Shah.

The government suspended the chief secretary and top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.

___

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistani-militants-kill-10-tourists-184329733.html

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U.S. files criminal charges against Snowden over leaks: sources

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government has filed sealed criminal charges against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who admitted leaking secrets about classified U.S. surveillance programs, U.S. sources said on Friday.

A U.S. Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a criminal complaint had been filed against Snowden, who disclosed documents detailing U.S. telephone and internet surveillance efforts.

Another U.S. source, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was preparing to seek Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong, where he is believed to be in hiding.

Earlier, the Washington Post reported that U.S. prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint charging Snowden with espionage, theft and conversion of government property. The Post also reported that the United States has asked Hong Kong to detain Snowden on a provisional arrest warrant.

The criminal complaint was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Snowden's former employer, Booz Allen Hamilton, is located, the Post reported.

Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that U.S. security services had monitored data about phone calls from Verizon and Internet data from large companies such as Google and Facebook as part of counterterrorism efforts.

U.S. federal prosecutors, by filing a criminal complaint, lay claim to a legal basis to make the request of the authorities in Hong Kong, the Post reported. The prosecutors now have 60 days to file an indictment and can then take steps to secure Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong for a criminal trial in the United States, the newspaper reported.

Snowden would be able to challenge the U.S. request for his extradition in court in Hong Kong, the Post reported.

The newspaper noted the U.S. extradition treaty with Hong Kong has an exception for political offenses, and that espionage has been viewed as a political offense.

An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.

Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Jim Loney and Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-files-criminal-complaint-against-snowden-over-leaks-223839407.html

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Stephanie Mott: 'Are You a Boy?'

A 4-year-old boy asked me once, "Are you a boy, or are you a girl?"

I responded, "That's a good question," buying myself a few moments to think about how to answer. I didn't look very much like a woman at the time, and I didn't exactly look like a man either. It was an awkward time in my transition, when questions like this one were just beginning to become an expected part of my day, although seldom as innocent and honest as was the question on this day. After a few seconds, I stopped and turned to the boy and asked, "What do you think?"

He stopped and looked at me and said, "I think you are a girl because you have a purse and you are wearing a necklace."

I said, "That's a good answer." And from that moment on, I was a girl in this young man's mind. The question had been asked and answered. That was that. No need to spend any more time trying to figure out what it all meant, or if it was right or wrong. It just was.

It was during this same time in my transition that I went with some friends to a local restaurant for lunch. As I sat down at the table with my friends, I noticed some other patrons staring at me. Soon after, they caught the attention of their server and were quickly shuffled off to another table, where they wouldn't have to look at me.

Those were the days, my friend. Every moment of every day contained the possibility that anything could happen. Anything good, and anything bad. "You are so courageous to be who you are," some people would say to me. I would respond as politely as I knew how, but I would be thinking how courageous it would be to go back to not being who I am.

Those were frightening times, but at least they contained the possibility that something good could happen. Before, that possibility didn't exist. All that existed was the certainty that each and every day would contain thoughts of suicide. The certainty that eventually I would die, and that would be the day the pain stopped. Going back to that life would have been truly courageous, indeed.

It was during this time in my transition that I was able to start my day in front of the makeup mirror. To choose the day's clothing by how it matched my soul and told the truth, rather than by how it reminded me of the daily lie of pretending to be a man.

It was a time when I walked out the door of my home in sweet, perfect honesty. A time when my closet became a place for clothing -- which was a good thing, because I was about to need the space.

It was a time of hope. Living in a time of hope is far less courageous than living in a time of no hope. It was a time when dreams began to become dares, and dares began to become life. It was a time when I would begin to surround myself with people who didn't need to ask if I was a boy or girl. They knew.

I began to discover myself within the framework of who I was. To discover my woman self within a newly discovered freedom to be my woman self. And watch her come to life. And see me come to life with her. As her.

Little did I know of the amazing journey that could only begin when I asked myself the same question that was asked by the 4-year-old boy. Am I a boy, or am I a girl? Little did I know that there would still be otherwise knowledgeable adults, seven years later, still asking the same question.

I haven't found it necessary to ask myself the same question in a really long time. I still have a purse and wear a necklace. It is both far more complicated than that, and just as simple as that. Because who I am is who I say I am.

And from that moment on, I was a girl in this young man's mind. The question had been asked and answered. That was that. No need to spend any more time trying to figure out what it all meant, or if it was right or wrong. It just was.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

?

Follow Stephanie Mott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TransInTopeka

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephanie-mott/are-you-a-boy_b_3478851.html

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Microsoft further builds up Iowa's tech cred - Northwest - The ...

By DAVID PITT | Associated Press ? Published June 21, 2013 Modified June 21, 2013

By DAVID PITT The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Microsoft announced plans Friday to build another massive data center in Iowa, which has attracted some of the biggest names in computer technology by exempting crucial ingredients for processing and storage from sales taxes as well as offering cheap electricity.

The Iowa Economic Development Authority approved $20 million in job creation tax incentives for Microsoft, which plans on spending more than $677 million to build the first phase a project in West Des Moines, near its existing data center. Additional phases could be added later. The company plans on hiring 29 workers.

It's the third major information technology company to invest more than $1 billion in Iowa in recent years. Facebook and Google also have chosen Iowa for data centers - large buildings that house thousands of refrigerator-sized racks of computer servers, processors, hard drives, and other equipment.

The developments are being spurred by a 2009 law specifically covering data centers exempts electricity, computers and other equipment from sales taxes, and another law from the same year that exempts computers and other equipment - cooling systems, cooling towers and equipment related to electricity distribution or management - from property taxes.

Typically, cities and counties also offer property tax breaks in addition to building streets to the sites.

"Right now we're seeing data centers at this level continuing to scale up across the globe," said Iowa Economic Development Director Debi Durham. "Legislation Iowa put in place many years ago is creating this business climate."

Sales tax breaks are important for these companies because they equip data centers with costly computer servers and other equipment that must be replaced every three years, said Mark Bramfitt, an industry consultant who focuses on data center energy use. A server can cost $2,000 and a data center can have 20,000 or 30,000 of them - sometimes more.

Microsoft has spent about $200 million on its existing data center on 40 acres in West Des Moines, which opened last year and employs about 50 workers. Construction on the new one nearby will begin late this year and is expected to be finished by the end of 2015.

Microsoft's total spending is expected to reach about $1.2 billion when finished, Durham said. Elsewhere in the state, Google has a $600 million data center in Council Bluffs and recently committed to a second $700 million center. And Facebook is building a $300 million center near Altoona but says it could triple the size of the project to exceed $1 billion.

Each company received additional state tax breaks for creating jobs, including $20 million for Microsoft's latest project.

Far from threats of earthquakes and hurricanes, Iowa is also considered a prime location because the state can offer abundant electricity at a reasonable cost, Bramfitt said. The large data centers being built today demand between 20 megawatts and 40 megawatts of electricity, enough to power between 15,000 and 30,000 homes.

"They're tremendous energy users," Bramfitt said. "They require the juice of a small town."

The average retail industrial price for power in Iowa was 5.21 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2011, the latest year for which comparable data was available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The only states with lower rates were Idaho and Utah, both at 5.10 cents per kilowatt-hour. The surrounding states of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Nebraska all had rates exceeding 6 cents a kilowatt-hour.

Iowa also leads the nation in percentage of power generated from wind energy - 25 percent from more than 2,800 wind turbines - which is important to companies such as Microsoft, Facebook and Google. Microsoft said it will buy renewable energy credits to offset carbon emissions from its new data center. Google in 2010 entered into a long-term agreement to buy wind energy from a central Iowa wind farm, and last year, it invested $75 million in another one.

Data centers are important to companies such as Microsoft because of the increased use of cloud computing. Cloud computing allows the companies to provide massive computer processing and storage of photos, music and other data for customers using smartphones and tablet computers. Microsoft, for example, says it offers 200 services over the Internet, including its search engine Bing and Microsoft Office 365. The company also says it will require significant expansion of data center servers for its Xbox Live video game system.

Other companies that are heavily investing in data centers around the country include Apple, Amazon and eBay.

Source: http://www.theolympian.com/2013/06/21/2594015/microsoft-seeks-to-build-another.html

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Martin jurors asked about presumption of innocence

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? George Zimmerman's defense attorney is probing a pool of 40 potential jurors about their views on the concept that a defendant is presumed innocent.

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara asked the jury candidates Thursday about their views that a person charged with a crime is innocent until prosecutors prove the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

It was the first chance for Zimmerman's attorney to question jurors who have made it to the second round of jury selection.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. He is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/martin-jurors-asked-presumption-innocence-135605890.html

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Alzheimer's disease protein controls movement in mice

June 21, 2013 ? Researchers in Berlin and Munich, Germany and Oxford, United Kingdom, have revealed that a protein well known for its role in Alzheimer's disease controls spindle development in muscle and leads to impaired movement in mice when the protein is absent or treated with inhibitors. The results, which are published in The EMBO Journal, suggest that drugs under development to target the beta-secretase-1 protein, which may be potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease, might produce unwanted side effects related to defective movement.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia found in older adults. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 18 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease. The number of people affected by the disease may increase to 34 million by 2025. Scientists know that the protein beta-secretase-1 or Bace1, a protease enzyme that breaks down proteins into smaller molecules, is involved in Alzheimer's disease. Bace1 cleaves the amyloid precursor protein and generates the damaging Abeta peptides that accumulate as plaques in the brain leading to disease. Now scientists have revealed in more detail how Bace1 works.

"Our results show that mice that lack Bace1 proteins or are treated with inhibitors of the enzyme have difficulties in coordination and walking and also show reduced muscle strength," remarked Carmen Birchmeier, one of the authors of the paper, Professor at the Max-Delbr?ck-Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany, and an EMBO Member. "In addition, we were able to show that the combined activities of Bace1 and another protein, neuregulin-1 or Nrg1, are needed to sustain the muscle spindles in mice and to maintain motor coordination."

Muscle spindles are sensory organs that are found throughout the muscles of vertebrates. They are able to detect how muscles stretch and convey the perception of body position to the brain. The researchers used genetic analyses, biochemical studies and interference with pharmacological inhibitors to investigate how Bace1 works in mice. "If the signal strength of a specific form of neuregulin-1 known as IgNrg1 is gradually reduced, increasingly severe defects in the formation and maturation of muscle spindles are observed in mice. Furthermore, it appears that Bace1 is required for full IgNrg1 activity. The graded loss of IgNrg1 activity results in the animals having increasing difficulties with movement and coordination," says Cyril Cheret, the first author of the work.

Drug developers are interested in stopping the Bace1 protein in its tracks because it represents a promising route to treat Alzheimer's disease. If the protein were inhibited, it would interfere with the generation of the smaller damaging proteins that accumulate in the brain as amyloid plaques and would therefore provide some level of protection from the effects of the disease. "Our data indicate that one unwanted side effect of the long-term inhibition of Bace1 might be the disruption of muscle spindle formation and impairment of movement. This finding is relevant to scientists looking for ways to develop drugs that target the Bace1 protein and should be considered," says Birchmeier. Several Bace1 inhibitors are currently being tested in phase II and phase III clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by European Molecular Biology Organization, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Cyril Cheret, Michael Willem, Florence R Fricker, Hagen Wende, Annika Wulf-Goldenberg, Sabina Tahirovic, Klaus-Armin Nave, Paul Saftig, Christian Haass, Alistair N Garratt, David L Bennett, Carmen Birchmeier. Bace1 and Neuregulin-1 cooperate to control formation and maintenance of muscle spindles. The EMBO Journal, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/emboj.2013.146

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/sHLWL8aBr_0/130621132645.htm

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FDA expands "morning after" pill approval after court order

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded its approval of the so-called "morning after" contraceptive pill to include all women of child-bearing age to comply with an order from a U.S. District court.

The FDA said the Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive, which is sold by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, would be made available as an over-the-counter (OTC) product without age or point-of-sale restrictions.

Plan B One-Step is a single dose pill intended to reduce the chance of pregnancy following unprotected sex or suspected contraceptive failure, such as a broken condom.

"Over-the-counter access to emergency contraceptive products has the potential to further decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States," Janet Woodcock, long-time director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

The FDA initially objected to, and appealed, a court decision ordering it to remove age restrictions on the pill.

Earlier this month, the agency notified a U.S. District Court judge in New York of its intent to comply with the court's April 5, order instructing it to make the emergency contraceptives available OTC without restrictions on age or point is sale, such as forcing women to ask pharmacists for the product.

The "morning after" pill was originally approved in 2009 without a prescription for women age 17 and older and as a prescription-only option for women younger than 17.

In April of this year, it was approved for nonprescription use for women as young as 15, but the court ordered age restrictions be removed for all women able to bear children.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fda-expands-morning-pill-approval-court-order-224635824.html

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