Pope makes Easter pleas for Mideast peace

Pope Francis, holding the pastoral staff, celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis, holding the pastoral staff, celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis, holding the pastoral staff, walks past the closed icon of Jesus as he celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis, holding the pastoral staff, celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis celebrates the Easter mass in St. Peter's Square at the the Vatican Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful hold a heart shaped banner reading in Italian "Pope Francis we love you. Happy Easter" in St. Peter's square at the Vatican on the occasion of the celebration of the Easter mass Sunday, March 31, 2013. "Our daily problems and worries can wrap us up in ourselves, in sadness and bitterness, and that is where death is," he said. "Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life!" said Pope Francis during the Easter vigil. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis delivered a plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message to the world, decrying the seemingly endless conflicts in the Middle East and on the Korean peninsula after celebrating Mass along with more than 250,000 faithful.

After the Mass in St. Peter's Square, Francis shared in the crowd's exuberance as they celebrated the belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead following crucifixion. Aboard an open-topped popemobile, Francis took a lighthearted spin through the joyous gatherers, kissing babies and patting children on the head.

One admirer of the pope and the pope's favorite soccer team, Argentina's Saints of San Lorenzo, insisted that Francis take a team jersey he was waving at the pontiff. A delighted Francis obliged, briefly holding up the shirt.

Since the start of his papacy on March 13, Francis has repeatedly put his concern for the poor and suffering at the center of his messages, and the Easter speech he delivered from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica reflected his push for peace and social justice.

He said he wished a "Happy Easter" greeting could reach "every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons." Francis prayed that Christ would help people "change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace."

As popes before him have, he urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks and end a conflict that "has lasted all too long." And, in reflecting on the two-year-old Syrian crisis, Francis asked, "How much suffering must there still be before a political solution" can be found?

The pope also expressed desire for a "spirit of reconciliation" on the Korean peninsula, where North Korea says it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea. He also decried warfare and terrorism in Africa, as well as what he called the 21st century's most extensive form of slavery: human trafficking.

Francis, the first pope from Latin America and a member of the Jesuit order, lamented that the world is "still divided by greed looking for easy gain." He wished for an end to violence linked to drug trafficking and the dangers stemming from the reckless exploitation of natural resources.

Earlier, wearing cream-colored vestments, Francis celebrated Mass on the esplanade in front of the basilica at an altar set up under a white canopy.

The sun competed with clouds in the sky Sunday, but the square was a riot of floral color in Rome, where chilly winter has postponed the blossoming of many flowers. Yellow forsythia and white lilies shone, along with bursts of lavender and pink, from potted azalea, rhododendron, wisteria and other plants.

Francis thanked florists from the Netherlands for donating the flowers. He also advised people to let love transform their lives, or as he put it, "let those desert places in our hearts bloom."

The Vatican had prepared a list of brief, Easter greetings in 65 languages, but Francis didn't read them. The Vatican didn't say why not, but has said that the new pope, at least for now, feels at ease using Italian, the everyday language of the Holy See.

Francis also has stressed his role as a pastor to his flock, and, as Bishop of Rome, Italian would be his language.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-31-Vatican-Easter/id-0d4718bf371e449984dac905db3c01c2

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So, it's Easter: Is Hillary Clinton Running for President Yet?

The New York Times decided it was time for their bi-monthly check-in with Clinton aides to see how close the former Secretary of State is to running for the nation's highest office. Come on, shouldn't she know by now?

RELATED: Hillary Clinton Drops Out of the 2016 Presidential Race

It is pretty rude for her to keep us waiting for so long. It hasn't even been six months since the November election and we still don't know what her plans are for 2016. People are always saying she's totally going to run for President, OK? But people are also always saying she's totally not going to run for President, OK? (And of those two posts, which do you think got more traffic? Exactly.) But Hillary is also supporting gay marriage and her former staff set up a Super PAC in her name, which some think lends some credence to at least asking the question.

RELATED: Don't Say Hillary Clinton Is Running for President

And, everyone,?guess what?! She still doesn't know! Her aides seem pretty sick of having to answer this question. When it's for the Times' Jim Rutenberg they can let their hair down a little and say how tired they are of answering the question, though. Take a cue from one of Clinton's closest confidantes,?Phillip Raines:?

?There?s this kind of, ?I?m telling you a secret that she told me secretly,? but there?s no secret to tell,? said Mrs. Clinton?s longtime communications aide, Philippe Reines. ?Everyone?s gotten way ahead of themselves, and most importantly, they have gotten way ahead of her.?

Venting the frustration of all veterans of Clinton politics and the intrigue that constantly surrounds them, he added, ?What?s that acronym, WYSIWYG? What you see is what you get.?

So did we all catch that? Hillary still doesn't know and we should all probably stop asking or tea leaf reading until she tells us, because she'll tell us, when she knows for sure. Until then everyone should probably cool their jets a little. This is all a little ludicrous. As Rutenberg points out, the Iowa caucuses are 33 months away. That's more than two and a half years, to put it more plainly. People are driving the Hillary 2016 mobile in fourth or fifth gear when it should be in second or first gear. Shift down, y'all.

RELATED: Hillary Has Better Things to Do Than Attend the Democratic Convention

But if Hillary does enter the race, she will have more money than she could possibly imagine, according to one of her former campaign advisers. "I?ve talked to a number of donors who are willing to write whatever they?re permitted to write to a presidential campaign, and certainly to write very big money to any sort of 'super PAC'?that would be supportive of her," Harold M. Ickes, a former Clinton campaign adviser and Obama Super Pac moneyman, told Rutenberg. "They?re just saying to me, 'Whenever she?s ready, we?re ready.'"

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/easter-hillary-clinton-running-president-yet-141027340.html

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Five family members killed in Nevada car accident

An 18-year-old California driver, who police say may have been driving drunk, hit a van on Saturday near Las Vegas, killing five members of a California family and hospitalizing two.?

By Ian Simpson,?Reuters / March 31, 2013

Jean Soriano, 18, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center after he was treated and released at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. Soriano has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in a southern Nevada crash that killed five members of a California family and injured the suspect and three other people.

Nevada Highway Patrol/AP

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Five members of a?California?family were killed in?Nevada?when their van was struck from behind by a teenage driver who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, authorities said on Sunday.

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Those killed were among seven family members in the van when it was hit early on Saturday, authorities said. The other two - a 15-year-old boy and the 40-year-old female driver - were hospitalized in?Las Vegas, said?Nevada Highway Patrol?spokesman Sergeant?Kevin Honea?said.

The 18-year-old?California?driver who struck the van was treated and released at?University Medical Center in Las Vegas, the spokesman said. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on suspicion of driving under the influence.

The crash happened on Interstate 15 about 80 miles northeast of?Las Vegas. The 18-year-old's?Dodge Durango?struck the van from behind and both vehicles spun off the road and rolled.

Five of the occupants of the van were ejected. A 23-year-old passenger in the Durango was treated at the hospital and released.

Those killed were three men ages 49, 45 and 41, a teenage girl and an adult woman.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/QWnjELxl6kE/Five-family-members-killed-in-Nevada-car-accident

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93% Lore

All Critics (87) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (81) | Rotten (6)

It's a harrowing walk through the heart of darkness.

Saskia Rosendahl gives an impressively poised performance as the beautiful teenager, whose determination to protect her remaining family coincides with her growing revulsion toward her parents.

"Lore" is not a pretty story, but it is a good and sadly believable one.

"Lore" is not a love story, nor the story of a friendship. Rather, it's a story of healing and of how breaking, sometimes painfully, is often necessary before that process can begin.

A fiercely poetic portrait of a young woman staggering beyond innocence and denial, it's about the wars that rage within after the wars outside are lost.

Full of surprises, the movie draws a thin line between pity and revulsion - how would you feel if you had discovered your whole life had been based on lies?

Texture and detail embellish a provocative story

Child of Nazi parents faces an uncertain future

[Director Cate] Shortland directs with an almost hypnotic focus, favoring Lore's immediate experience over the big picture.

Rosendahl's performance is raw and compelling, as Lore fights for her siblings' survival and grows up in a hurry.

Lore and her siblings make a harrowing journey across Germany

Worthwhile, but so subtle that it's frustrating.

The Australian-German co-production takes an unconventional tale and turns it into a challenging, visually stunning and emotionally turbulent film experience.

Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go. Except this ain't no fairy tale... unless it is, perhaps, a hint of the beginnings of a new mythology of ... scary childhood and even scarier adolescence...

With a child's perspective on war, "Lore" deserves comparisons with "Empire of the Sun" and "Hope and Glory," and with a feisty female protagonist it stands virtually alone.

Rosendahl...provides both narrative and emotional continuity to a film whose deliberate pace and fragmented presentation of reality might otherwise prove exasperating.

A burning portrait of consciousness and endurance, gracefully acted and strikingly realized, producing an honest sense of emotional disruption, while concluding on a powerful note of cultural and familial rejection.

Although there are moments that push the story a bit beyond credulity, Shortland has created something remarkable by forcing us to find within ourselves sympathy for this would-be Aryan princess.

Stunning, admirable and indelible - truthfully chronicling the triumph of the human spirit - in a class with Michael Haneke's 'The White Ribbon.'

Can we spare some sympathy or hope for the children of villains, even if they too show signs of their parents' evil? Lore provides no easy answers.

The portrait is miniature and yet indelible, a ghostly reminder of the 20th century.

No quotes approved yet for Lore. Logged in users can submit quotes.

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

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Judge: Ind. senators can't defend immigration law

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A federal judge on Friday rebuffed three Indiana lawmakers who asked to defend parts of the state's immigration law in court after the attorney general declined to do so.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker, who has barred the 2011 law from taking effect until she can rule on its constitutionality, said allowing the senators to intervene would violate the state Constitution's declaration that the attorney general's office is state government's sole legal representative.

"Allowing the three individual legislators to intervene here in their official capacities as State Senators not only would conflict with this well-settled state law, but would provide the legislators a trump card with respect to the Attorney General's statutorily derived discretion in this context," Barker wrote.

Republican Senators Mike Delph, Brent Steele and Phil Boots ? who authored the immigration law ? had asked Barker to let them defend parts of the law Attorney General Greg Zoeller would not.

Zoeller's office has said it would recommend Barker strike down most of the portions of Indiana's law that would allow police to make warrantless arrests based on certain common immigration documents. The office said last year's U .S. Supreme Court decision striking down similar sections of an Arizona law rendered those parts of Indiana's law invalid. However, the office said it would defend a provision allowing for local police to arrest immigrants for whom federal authorities have issued a 48-hour detention order.

The senators, who are represented by lawyers from the Immigration Reform Law Institute in Washington, had argued the warrantless arrest provisions in Indiana's and Arizona's laws are "vastly different," and that Indiana's law is consistent with the Supreme Court's decision. They also argued they have a right to intervene as defendants because the law won't be allowed to take effect if it isn't defended, which they say effectively robs them of the votes they made in the Legislature.

"I take my responsibility to defend the statutes the Legislature passes from legal challenge as an important role of the office I hold. The court recognized that the Office of the Attorney General has faithfully defended all provisions of this statute until the U.S. Supreme Court last June said that state-level warrantless arrest laws are preempted as unconstitutional," Zoeller said in a statement Friday. "We are pleased that Judge Barker's ruling has underscored and reiterated the responsibility of my office to defend state statutes as is our solemn obligation."

The three senators did not immediately return phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment. A Reform Law Institute spokeswoman said the attorney who represented the senators was unavailable to comment.

Source: http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/judge-ind-senators-cant-defend-immigration-law

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CDC: 24 E. coli illnesses linked to frozen foods

NEW YORK (AP) ? Health officials say at least 24 people have become sick from an outbreak of E. coli infections linked to frozen snack foods marketed to children.

No one has died, but eight people, mostly kids or teens, were hospitalized.

An investigation detected E. coli in an open package of Farm Rich brand frozen chicken quesadillas at an ill person's home.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported illnesses in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The Buffalo, N.Y.-based Rich Products Corp. has recalled quesadillas, mozzarella bites and other frozen products made in November.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/2013/O121-03-13/index.html

Company: http://www.farmrich.com/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-24-e-coli-illnesses-linked-frozen-foods-220930365--finance.html

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Definitive Proof that Obamacare Raises Costs and Kills Jobs (Powerlineblog)

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Scientists propose revolutionary laser system to produce the next LHC

Friday, March 29, 2013

An international team of physicists has proposed a revolutionary laser system, inspired by the telecommunications technology, to produce the next generation of particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN) sets out a new laser system composed of massive arrays of thousands of fibre lasers, for both fundamental research at laboratories such as CERN and more applied tasks such as proton therapy and nuclear transmutation.

The results of this study are published today in Nature Photonics.

Lasers can provide, in a very short time measured in femtoseconds, bursts of energy of great power counted in petawatts or a thousand times the power of all the power plants in the world.

Compact accelerators are also of great societal importance for applied tasks in medicine, such as a unique way to democratise proton therapy for cancer treatment, or the environment where it offers the prospect to reduce the lifetime of dangerous nuclear waste by, in some cases, from 100 thousand years to tens of years or even less.

However, there are two major hurdles that prevent the high-intensity laser from becoming a viable and widely used technology in the future. First, a high-intensity laser often only operates at a rate of one laser pulse per second, when for practical applications it would need to operate tens of thousands of times per second. The second is ultra-intense lasers are notorious for being very inefficient, producing output powers that are a fraction of a percent of the input power. As practical applications would require output powers in the range of tens of kilowatts to megawatts, it is economically not feasible to produce this power with such a poor efficiency.

To bridge this technology divide, the ICAN consortium, an EU-funded project initiated and coordinated by the ?cole polytechnique and composed of the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre, Jena and CERN, as well as 12 other prestigious laboratories around the world, aims to harness the efficiency, controllability, and high average power capability of fibre lasers to produce high energy, high repetition rate pulse sources.

The aim is to replace the conventional single monolithic rod amplifier that typically equips lasers with a network of fibre amplifiers and telecommunication components.

G?rard Mourou of ?cole polytechnique who leads the consortium says: "One important application demonstrated today has been the possibility to accelerate particles to high energy over very short distances measured in centimetres rather than kilometres as it is the case today with conventional technology. This feature is of paramount importance when we know that today high energy physics is limited by the prohibitive size of accelerators, of the size of tens of kilometres, and cost billions of euros. Reducing the size and cost by a large amount is of critical importance for the future of high energy physics."

Dr Bill Brocklesby from the ORC adds: "A typical CAN laser for high-energy physics may use thousands of fibres, each carrying a small amount of laser energy. It offers the advantage of relying on well tested telecommunication elements, such as fibre lasers and other components. The fibre laser offers an excellent efficiency due to laser diode pumping. It also provides a much larger surface cooling area and therefore makes possible high repetition rate operation.

"The most stringent difficulty is to phase the lasers within a fraction of a wavelength. This difficulty seemed insurmountable but a major roadblock has in fact been solved: preliminary proof of concept suggests that thousands of fibres can be controlled to provide a laser output powerful enough to accelerate electrons to energies of several GeV at 10 kHz repetition rate - an improvement of at least ten thousand times over today's state of the art lasers."

Such a combined fibre-laser system should provide the necessary power and efficiency that could make economical the production of a large flux of relativistic protons over millimetre lengths as opposed to a few hundred metres.

One important societal application of such a source is to transmute the waste products of nuclear reactors, which at present have half-lives of hundreds of thousands of years, into materials with much shorter lives, on the scale of tens of years, thus transforming dramatically the problem of nuclear waste management.

CAN technology could also find important applications in areas of medicine, such as proton therapy, where reliability and robustness of fibre technology could be decisive features.

###

University of Southampton: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/

Thanks to University of Southampton for this article.

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

This press release has been viewed 56 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127518/Scientists_propose_revolutionary_laser_system_to_produce_the_next_LHC

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PST: Ex-French star calls Beckham 'unprofessional'

At this point, if we don?t all know what Brand Beckham is all about, then the joke is on us.

Apparently, former France international Bixente Lizarazu was not paying attention over the last few years as David Beckham frequently treated the LA Galaxy as his little side gig, clearly second fiddle to building and maintaining the iconic brand.

Lizarazu ? if the guy is still in soccer, I can?t find evidence of it ? found someone interested in what he has to say. So he took the opportunity to beat on Beckham a little for jet-setting over to China before next week?s huge Champions League clash; Beckham?s Paris Saint-Germain faces Barcelona in the marquee UEFA semifinal.

What Lizarazu told TF1:

I am sorry, but travelling to China to promote football only 10 days before the most important game of the season is simply not the right way to prepare. No other club would allow one of their players to go on a trip like this. It?s unprofessional.?

Uh, well, actually we know that one club did exactly that. The Galaxy generally acquiesced when Beckham wanted to go to his next royal wedding, modeling gig, Olympic event, etc.

PSG manager Carlo Ancelotti, by the way, wasn?t too worked up about it. He said Beckham returned on Wednesday and missed just one training session.

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/29/former-french-international-calls-david-beckham-unprofessional/related/

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Protective prion keeps yeast cells from going it alone

Friday, March 29, 2013

Most commonly associated with such maladies as "mad cow disease" and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prions are increasingly recognized for their ability to induce potentially beneficial traits in a variety of organisms, yeast chief among them.

Now a team of scientists has added markedly to the job description of prions as agents of change, identifying a prion capable of triggering a transition in yeast from its conventional single-celled form to a cooperative, multicellular structure. This change, which appears to improve yeast's chances for survival in the face of hostile environmental conditions, is an epigenetic phenomenon?a heritable alteration brought about without any change to the organism's underlying genome.

This latest finding, reported in the March 28 issue of the journal Cell, has its origins in work begun several years ago in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Susan Lindquist. In 2009, Randal Halfmann, then a graduate student in Lindquist's lab, identified dozens of proteins in yeast that have the ability to form prions. That research greatly expanded the known universe of prion elements in yeast, but it failed to answer a key question: What function, if any, do these prions actually have?

In search of an answer, Halfmann, now a fellow the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and colleagues in the Lindquist lab attempted to exploit the fact that several of the prion-forming proteins they had identified acted to modify transcription of yeast genes. It stood to reason that if they could identify which genes were being regulated, they might be able to determine the prions' function.

"We looked at the five transcriptional regulators that are known to be prions in yeast, and we found that in fact, only one gene in the entire yeast genome was regulated by all five transcription factors," says Halfmann.

That gene, as it turns out, was FLO11, a key player in multicellularity in yeast. Indeed changes in FLO11 expression have been shown to act as a toggle, switching yeast from spherical to filamentous form. Halfmann notes that FLO11, which has been shown to be regulated by epigenetic elements, is also highly responsive to environmental stress. Knowing that the prion form of a protein is essentially a misfolded form of that protein, and that stressful conditions increase the frequency of protein misfolding and prion formation, the scientists began to consider the possibility that the prions themselves might be among the epigenetic switches influencing the activity of FLO11.

The group focused on one transcription factor known as mot3, finding that yeast cells containing the prion form of this factor, [MOT3+], acquired a variety of multicellular growth forms known to require FLO11 expression. This was a clear indication that prion formation was causing the differentiation of the cells and their subsequent cooperation. But what about the stress aspect of the hypothesis?

By testing yeast cells against a variety of stressors, the scientists discovered that exposure to a concentration of ethanol akin to that occurring naturally during fermentation increased [MOT3+] formation by a factor of 10.They also found that as the cells exposed to ethanol shifted their metabolism to burn surrounding oxygen through respiration, the prions reverted to their non-prion conformation, [mot3-], and the yeast returned to the unicellular state. In essence, prion formation drove a shift to multicellularity, helping the yeast to ride out the ethanol storm.

"What we have in the end is two sequential environmental changes that are turning on a heritable epigenetic element and then turning it off," says Halfmann. "And between those two changes, the prion is causing the cells to acquire a multicellular growth form that we think is actually important for their survival."

Lindquist, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has long argued that prions have played a vital role in yeast evolution and has amassed a body of strong supporting evidence.

"We see them as part of a bet-hedging strategy that allows the yeast to alter their biological properties quickly when their environments turn unfavorable," Lindquist says. She also theorizes that prions may play such roles beyond yeast, and her lab intends to take similar approaches in the hunt for prions and prion-like mechanisms that are potentially beneficial in other organisms.

For Lindquist lab postdoctoral scientist Alex Lancaster, who is also an author of the new Cell paper, these latest findings hint at a potentially novel approach to understanding basic mechanisms underlying the complexities of human diseases, including cancer, whose hallmarks include protein misfolding, epigenetic alterations, metabolic aberrations, and myriad changes in cell state, type, and function. Lancaster likens the opportunity to that of opening a black box.

"It's exciting to think that this could become another tool in the toolbox in the study of multicellularity," Lancaster says. "We know that some tumors are a heterogeneous population of cells and we know that tumor cells can evolve within in their environments to help ensure their own survival. This system could help us further understand the role of epigenetic inheritance within tumors and how it might be influencing cell-cell interactions and even affecting the effectiveness of drug therapies."

###

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: http://www.wi.mit.edu/index.html

Thanks to Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research for this article.

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

This press release has been viewed 22 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127516/Protective_prion_keeps_yeast_cells_from_going_it_alone

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'Harry Potter' actor Richard Griffiths dies at 65

LONDON (AP) ? Richard Griffiths was one of the great British stage actors of his generation, a heavy man with a light touch, whether in Shakespeare or Neil Simon. But for millions of movie fans, he will always be grumpy Uncle Vernon, the least magical of characters in the fantastical "Harry Potter" movies.

Griffiths died Thursday at University Hospital in Coventry, central England, from complications following heart surgery, his agent, Simon Beresford, said. He was 65.

"Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe paid tribute to the actor Friday, saying that "any room he walked into was made twice as funny and twice as clever just by his presence."

"I am proud to say I knew him," Radcliffe said.

Griffiths won a Tony Award for "The History Boys" and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows. But he will be most widely remembered as a pair of contrasting uncles ? Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon Dursley and Uncle Monty in cult film "Withnail and I."

Griffiths was among a huge roster of British acting talent to appear in the "Harry Potter" series of films released between 2001 and 2011.

His role, as the grudging, magic-fearing guardian of orphaned wizard Harry, was small but pivotal. Griffiths once said he liked playing Uncle Vernon "because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids."

But Radcliffe recalled Griffiths' kindness to the young star.

"Richard was by my side during two of the most important moments of my career," said Radcliffe, who in 2007 starred with Griffiths in a London and Broadway production of "Equus."

"In August 2000, before official production had even begun on 'Potter,' we filmed a shot outside the Dursleys', which was my first ever shot as Harry. I was nervous, and he made me feel at ease.

"Seven years later, we embarked on 'Equus' together. It was my first time doing a play, but, terrified as I was, his encouragement, tutelage and humor made it a joy."

Earlier, Griffiths was the louche, lecherous Uncle Monty to Richard E. Grant's character Withnail in "Withnail and I," a low-budget British comedy about two out-of-work actors that has become a cult classic. Years after its 1987 release, Griffiths said people would regularly shout Monty's most famous lines at him in the street.

"My beloved 'Uncle Monty' Richard Griffiths died last night," Grant tweeted Friday. "Chin-Chin my dear friend."

A huge stage presence with a grace rendered all the more striking by his physical bulk, Griffiths created roles including the charismatic teacher Hector at the emotional heart of Alan Bennett's school drama "The History Boys." He won an Olivier Award for the part in London and a Tony for the Broadway run, and repeated his performance in the 2006 film adaptation.

National Theatre artistic director Nicholas Hytner, who directed "The History Boys," called Griffiths' performance in that play "a masterpiece of wit, delicacy, mischief and desolation, often simultaneously."

Griffiths also played poet W.H. Auden in Bennett's "The Habit of Art," a hugely persuasive performance despite the lack of physical resemblance between the two men.

Griffiths was born in northeast England's Thornaby-on-Tees in 1947 to parents who were deaf and mute ? an experience he and his directors felt contributed to his exceptional ability to listen and to communicate physically.

"The first language he learned was sign. And therefore his ability to listen to people with his eyes as well as his ears is incredible," Thea Sharrock, who directed "Equus," told The Associated Press in 2008.

Griffiths left school at 15 but later studied drama and spent a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Company, making a specialty of comic parts such as the buffoonish knight Falstaff.

On television, he played a crime-solving chef in 1990s' British TV series "Pie in the Sky," and he had parts in movies ranging from historical dramas "Chariots of Fire" and "Gandhi" to slapstick farce "The Naked Gun 2 ?."

Known for his sense of humor, large store of rambling theatrical anecdotes and occasional bursts of temper, Griffiths was renowned for shaming audience members whose cell phones rang during plays by stopping the performance and ordering the offender to leave.

Griffiths' last major stage role was in a West End production of Neil Simon's comedy "The Sunshine Boys" last year opposite Danny DeVito. The pair had been due to reprise their roles in Los Angeles later this year.

Theater director Trevor Nunn, who as head of the Royal Shakespeare Company was one of the first to spot Griffiths' talent, said he was "an actor of rare emotional and indeed tragic power."

"Richard inspired great love and spread much happiness, and as the Shakespeare he loved put it, 'There's a great spirit gone,'" Nunn said.

Griffiths is survived by his wife, Heather Gibson.

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/harry-potter-actor-richard-griffiths-dies-65-102210345.html

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N. Ireland struggles to confront Catholic Church?s enslavement of 1000s of women (Americablog)

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93% The Sapphires

All Critics (98) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (91) | Rotten (7)

Let's trivialize a legacy of cruelty and denigration, in a country where indigenous people suffered from centuries of human rights abuse! And let's make the carnage of Vietnam look like a paintball game!

[A] genial, entertaining, clich?-ridden showbiz story from Australia.

"The Sapphires" illustrates how the same old story - in this case, the one about a 1960s girl group and its struggles - can be freshened up through the novelties of place and characterization.

A very conventional story of a '60s Australian girl group gains extra power from its context and setting in this fact-based story set to the beat of Motown soul.

The performers improve it, or save it, depending on your viewpoint.

"The Sapphires" is a bit like a puppy you're trying to house break. It may have its bad cinematic moments but it's just so darn appealing that you have to love it.

If you love the music of Motown and enjoy a feel good success flick, then "The Sapphires" fits the bill.

Delirious surprises crowd out the clich?s in this thoroughly disarming movie.

Mauboy has one hell of a voice, and the Sapphires' vocal performances speak to the endless power of great soul songs.

Irresistibly feel good, sound good movie, wears hearts and social relevance on its sparkly sleeve. . .Fun and racial tolerance amidst war [with] sterling aborigine talent.

The most affable, innocuous outing ever set in a war zone.

With O'Dowd in the lead, and a hit-soundtrack-ready selection of tunes from the Stax and Motown catalogs and more, The Sapphires is popcorn entertainment, with some earned laughs and a genuine heart.

It helps that the leading actors are so skillful and appealing, beginning with Chris O'Dowd as a roguish Irishman who becomes the girls' manager...

You've seen this type of tale many times before...but the inspired-by-a-true-story Aboriginal slant adds interest, the actresses create unique characters and Chris O'Dowd really shines.

This familiar but supremely well-told and produced tale of the unlikely rise of an Aboriginal female pop group in the Vietnam War-era is feel-good entertainment at its best. Performances, solid script and great music all hit the high notes.

It sidesteps the usual cliches. Fame and fortune matter less than the human connections that are fostered and repaired on this unlikely journey.

Melodramatic and clich?d to a fault, The Sapphires is however elevated by winsome performances, particularly O'Dowd, and plentiful musically-driven charm.

Not even sweet soul music can turn Vietnam circa 1968 into a feel-good trip, but "The Sapphires" tries its darnedest.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_sapphires_2012/

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Argentina offers to pay debts with cash, bonds

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? Argentina proposed a creative way out of its debt showdown Friday night, describing a mix of cash and bonds that it suggested would amount to a huge profit, but not a gargantuan one, for the investors it calls "vulture funds."

The government's lawyers gave an appellate panel in New York a proposed payment plan that could take many more years to cancel $1.44 billion in defaulted bonds, interest and penalties left unpaid since the country's world-record 2001 default.

"Argentina's proposal accounts for past-due amounts to bring the debt current, provides for a fair return going forward, and also gives an upside in the form of annual payments if Argentina's economy grows," the Cleary, Gottlieb lawyers said.

The money directly at stake in this case is just a fraction of Argentina's remaining defaulted debt, which adds up to more than $11 billion in capital and interest. This plan would also enable those creditors to get paid as well, over time, providing an equitable solution, the lawyers argued.

And to be truly fair to all, they said the new bonds would also be made available to the vast majority of investors who accepted pennies on the dollar in 2005 and 2010 for their defaulted debt.

Argentina is arguing that to do otherwise would violate the principle the court aims to uphold ? the "pari passu" clause in the original bond contracts, which means the sovereign debt issuer must treat all bondholders equally.

"This proposal would provide plaintiffs with significant compensation, and ? unlike the '100 cents on the dollar immediately' formula adopted by the court below ? is consistent with the pari passu clause, longstanding principles of equity, and the Republic's capacity to pay," Argentina argued.

Just who owns these bonds and at what price they were originally bought for is impossible to say. Even defaulted bonds are constantly traded, and the plaintiffs include huge hedge fund investors like billionaire Paul Singer as well as Argentine retirees who saw their much more humble life savings melt away in Argentina's economic crisis.

Under this deal, Argentina said the mom-and-pop investors would get immediate cash for the interest that has built up since 2003, plus Par bonds and GDP bonds that would eventually make them whole.

Institutional investors would be offered a different mix, mostly discount bonds, which Argentina said would reward them handsomely.

It cited as an example nearly $50 million in defaulted debt that the lead plaintiffs, NML Capital Ltd., reportedly purchased in 2008. Accepting the mix of new bonds in exchange for these bad debts would eventually provide an aggregate profit of 284 percent, but not an unfair gain of 1,380 percent, the lawyers argued.

President Cristina Fernandez personally reviewed the proposal just before it was filed, the state news agency Telam reported.

Fernandez and her economic team are proud of sharply reducing the country's foreign debt burden from 166 percent of GDP in 2002 to just 46 percent recently, and never failing to meet payments on the new bonds her government issued in exchange for the defaulted debt.

Argentina can pay $1.44 billion, but there are many more creditors seeking the same kind of judgment that NML Capital Ltd. won from U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa last year. If upheld, it would force the country to pay out an economy-destroying $43 billion in cash, the government said.

But the payment plan it proposed Friday night includes some bonds that wouldn't come fully due for 25 years, and that could be a non-starter with the appellate judges in New York, whose rulings in bond litigation are almost never second-guessed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the court agrees to Argentina's payment proposal, Fernandez expects a willing congress to promptly enact it, and voluntary exchanges of defaulted debt for new bonds would then eliminate most of the remaining mess, whether or not Singer's hedge fund accepts the deal, the filing said.

But if the judges don't agree and Argentina loses in court, it could be "suicide" for the South American nation's economy, says financial analyst Josh Rosner, managing director of Graham Fisher & Co. in New York.

"The court was looking for something simple, like: we're not going to pay them in a lump sum, but we're going to make a quarterly payment of the full $1.4 billion over three years. They weren't looking for creative financing where Argentina demands or forces a new bond," Rosner said. "What if somebody took that new bond, and the Argentine government defaulted the next day?"

Refusing to pay the holdouts anything better than what the exchange bondholders got is a politically popular position among Argentines, but Rosner says that's irrelevant when it comes to the markets.

"Monday morning is going to be a disaster," Rosner predicted.

Argentina's economy is being strangled by punishingly high borrowing costs because the Fernandez government hasn't fully settled its debts to bondholders, other governments and the many companies that have won judgments against it, Rosner said.

Instead, the government borrows from its own people, fueling inflation, and tries to centrally manage the increasingly isolated economy by frequently changing the rules for exchanging currency, importing and exporting goods, setting prices and paying taxes.

Increasingly, Argentines are feeling trapped by the government controls, and foreign companies are being scared off.

"This economic starvation ends up, by necessity, with the ultimate cutting of those services ? education, police, energy subsidies, transportation subsidies to the provinces, which is going to increase social unrest," Rosner said. "It's a human tragedy. I'm not understanding why they're fighting this."

.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/argentina-offers-pay-debts-cash-bonds-040817493--finance.html

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A beginner's guide to collecting art | Little Village

If you truly love art, collecting it will be like owning a gigantic block of soap you whittle constantly into shapes.

This business of art is a universe of beautiful chaos wherein it is difficult to mount a supernova on your wall. Where does art start and stop, and what?s more, when can it become something defined by ownership or possession?

There?s found art, stripped of contexts and reupholstered in newer, shiner thematic bows; there?s pricy gallery store art from local or established national artists trying to make it as movers of meaning and memory. There?s everything in between. And if you want it, how can you get it without being a monocle-wearing walking-money-bag hustling to auctions where they probably have little numbered signs and the auctioneer snootily says your number followed by naming off some huge sum? ?Sold, for a thousand, skrillion dollars to number one,? this irksome human wealth-stain might say.

Why do you want to collect art?

Is it for cache? For riches? It should be for cache. Do you love art and need to be surrounded with it the way one might surround oneself with kindly stacks of books or particularly tolerable people? Do you love a certain aesthetic and want to maximize it with art, or conversely bend your apartment?s design around an artist or art style? The more you feel it, the better.

For collecting art to someday resell it and be rich is a costly gamble that will probably leave you with a gaping hole. In most cases, wealthy art collectors buy established artists? pieces and if they resell them at all, they do so for comparable value.

For some, art collection is an economic game. For others, it?s a lifestyle veneer covering other lifestyles. Do you love art? Do you like art staring back at you? Do you like being watched sometimes? Consider being a collector.

If you truly love art, collecting it will be like owning a gigantic block of soap you whittle constantly into shapes.

It?s not marble?marble is too hard to put back together. When you get soap wet, you can sort of mush it back into one form. So it is with art collection?by immersing yourself in artwork, you will ebb and flow with stylistic interests like the artists themselves. Do you prefer minimal work? Loud sculpture? Animal prints? Ugly, smeared portraiture? Photography of all colors or subjects? You will whittle this figurative giant soap block into shapes that interest and intrigue you.

Framing is an absolutely ridiculous business.

When it comes to paintings or prints, most frame stores will give you price quotes that vastly out-cost the artwork itself, and they will somehow do it with a human expression on their faces, as if they were living, breathing people who felt empathy (and other emotions) as we do. Yet you must never ever sacrifice work for the frame itself.

You will hate yourself for having clipped or folded or bent work that you just know wasn?t meant to be that way. Always measure the art upon acquisition.

I have a couple of more affordable framing options to offer you. One is to make a pilgrimage to Ikea and buy some of their really awesome frames that are totally affordable. Going to Ikea is like a trip to a very well-organized space station, anyway, and maybe you will get some of those horsemeat meatballs that have been in the news lately!

My second suggestion is to go thrift shopping for frames. This one amazes me to this day?expensive, high quality frames are often used to house posters or prints that you can simply remove. They have myriad frames, and while you might be shaking thinking about unmatched frames across your living space, consider the different juxtaposition each might have against the ?gallery walls? of each room ? and ask yourself one more time if it?s about aesthetic, obsession, both or neither.

Collecting art will teach you that there are many ways to invest in people.

Hanging work by friends and family is another example of just how art can function. It?s not just about challenging yourself with images, but about giving shout outs to your loved ones. Art makes a home out of a house. Art makes a town into a community. In fact, there is an art school here in Iowa City. Why not familiarize yourself with the University?s art buildings and show fliers?

They operate out of a once-was-Menards, but it?s an overwhelmingly expansive gallery with endless emerging talent. An almost factory-like art producing studio pumping out the shock of the new at a pace like it does is in many ways utopian. We do not know the directions the art world will take. We cannot map or measure that which is at its core wildly seeking abstraction and subversion.

The best you can do is observe. Consider using Facebook (or whatever bigger-fish social networking site ends up eating Facebook) to learn about emerging local artists, THEIR artist friends and THEIR artist etceteras!

When you meet artists, ask questions.

There?s a troublesome phenomenon I see a lot at readings; I will hear people whispering their questions to one another about the work or know them personally and know they have things they?d like to speak to the writer about, usually about process of esotery of the work. But when a Q and A happens, the energy becomes so pointedly focused that they don?t want to risk impaling themselves in front of everyone by talking.

What makes art openings special is that you can approach the artist often in confidence?imagine if YOU were that artist. Wouldn?t you love people expressing interest in your work? No matter how cool and aloof they look, that?s what they?re feeling. Asking is learning.

Know your limits.

When I lived in Brooklyn, my ex-girlfriend and I came across an armless, legless sculpture in the trash. It was what looked like a stone Greek sculpture with a few colorful paint splatters?a real found treasure! I had to have it. But carrying it home for no charge came with a price tag: My back will always click a few more times than it normally would when I get up in the morning.

Do you have the room for your art? There?s nothing sadder than an impotent art collection languishing in butcher paper or cardboard piles unhung and unappreciated.

Collecting art needs to be like a weird umbrella that opens slowly, largely, colorfully and begins to draw attention from wet streetwalkers. Lots of artists like Helvetica-font-and-tons-of-white-space-Tumblr websites. Seek them out. Where you live can be the art community you never realized you were seeking all along.

Russell Jaffe is the editor of Strange Cage.

Source: http://littlevillagemag.com/a-beginners-guide-to-collecting-art/

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N. Korea vows 'to settle accounts' with U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned Friday that his rocket forces were ready "to settle accounts with the U.S.," unleashing a new round of bellicose rhetoric after U.S. nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions in joint military drills with South Korea.

Kim's warning, and the litany of threats that have preceded it, don't indicate an imminent war. In fact, they're most likely meant to coerce South Korea into softening its policies, win direct talks and aid from Washington, and strengthen the young leader's credentials and image at home.

But the threats from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test do raise worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.

Kim "convened an urgent operation meeting" of senior generals just after midnight, signed a rocket preparation plan and ordered his forces on standby to strike the U.S. mainland, South Korea, Guam and Hawaii, state media reported.

Kim said "the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation," according to a report by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Later Friday at the main square in Pyongyang, tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for a 90-minute mass rally in support of Kim's call to arms. Men and women, many of them in olive drab uniforms, stood in arrow-straight lines, fists raised as they chanted, "Death to the U.S. imperialists." Placards in the plaza bore harsh words for South Korea as well, including, "Let's rip the puppet traitors to death!"

Small North Korean warships, including patrol boats, conducted maritime drills off both coasts of North Korea near the border with South Korea on Thursday, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a briefing Friday. He didn't provide more details.

The spokesman said that South Korea's military was mindful of the possibility that North Korean drills could lead to an actual provocation. He also said that the South Korean and U.S. militaries are watching closely for any signs of missile launch preparations in North Korea. He didn't elaborate.

North Korea, which says it considers the U.S.-South Korean military drills preparations for invasion, has pumped out a string of threats in state media. In the most dramatic case, Pyongyang made the highly improbable vow to nuke the United States.

On Friday, state media released a photo of Kim and his senior generals huddled in front of a map showing routes for envisioned strikes against cities on both American coasts. The map bore the title "U.S. Mainland Strike Plan."

Portions of the photo appeared to be manipulated, though an intriguing detail ? a bandage on Kim's left arm ? appeared to be real.

Experts believe the country is years away from developing nuclear-tipped missiles that could strike the United States. Many say they've also seen no evidence that Pyongyang has long-range missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland.

Still, there are fears of a localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three times since 1999. There's also the danger that such a clash could escalate. Seoul has vowed to hit back hard the next time it is attacked.

North Korea's threats are also worrisome because of its arsenal of short- and mid-range missiles that can hit targets in South Korea and Japan. Seoul is only a short drive from the heavily armed border separating the Koreas.

"The North can fire 500,000 rounds of artillery on Seoul in the first hour of a conflict," analysts Victor Cha and David Kang wrote recently for Foreign Policy magazine. They also note that North Korea has a history of testing new South Korean leaders; President Park Geun-hye took office late last month. "Since 1992, the North has welcomed these five new leaders by disturbing the peace," they wrote.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters Thursday that the decision to send B-2 bombers to join the military drills was part of normal exercises and not intended to provoke North Korea. Hagel acknowledged, however, that North Korea's belligerent tones and actions in recent weeks have ratcheted up the danger in the region, "and we have to understand that reality."

U.S. Forces Korea said the B-2 stealth bombers flew from a U.S. air base in Missouri and dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island range on Thursday before returning home. The Pentagon said this was the first time a B-2 had dropped dummy munitions over South Korea, and later added that it was unclear whether there had ever been any B-2 flights there at all.

The statement follows an earlier U.S. announcement that nuclear-capable B-52 bombers participated in the joint military drills.

Pyongyang uses the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a justification for its own push for nuclear weapons. It claims that U.S. nuclear firepower is a threat to its existence and provocation.

The two Missouri-based stealth bombers used in the South Korean drills probably weren't nuclear-armed, but experts say they're the aircraft that would likely be sent if Washington ever decides it does want to drop nuclear bombs on North Korea. The United States doesn't forward-deploy nuclear weapons in South Korea, Okinawa, Guam or Hawaii.

"The B-2 can reach targets from North Korea to Iran directly from Missouri, which is what the United States did in the early stages of operations against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq," analyst Jeffrey Lewis wrote in a post on ArmsControlWonk.com earlier this month.

___

AP writers Jon Chol Jin in Pyongyang, North Korea, Sam Kim in Seoul and Eric Talmadge in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-orders-rocket-prep-us-b-2-drill-000429063.html

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US consumer spending, income jump in February

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Consumers earned more and spent more in February, helped by a stronger job market that has offset some of the drag from higher taxes.

The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending rose 0.7 percent in February from January. It was the biggest gain in five months and followed a revised 0.4 percent rise in January, which was double the initial estimate.

Americans were able to spend more because their income rose 1.1 percent last month. That followed January's 3.7 percent plunge and December's 2.6 percent surge. The huge swings reflected a rush to pay bonuses and dividends in December before taxes increased.

After-tax income increased 1.1 percent last month.

The jump in income allowed consumers to put a little more away in February. The saving rate increased to 2.6 percent of after-tax income, up from 2.2 percent in January.

Consumers spent more at the start of the year even after paying higher taxes. An increase in Social Security taxes has reduced take-home pay for nearly all Americans receiving a paycheck. And income taxes have risen on the highest earners. The tax increases both took effect on Jan. 1.

The jump in spending and income suggests economic growth strengthened at the start of the year after nearly stalling at the end of last year. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Most economists predict the economy is growing at an annual rate of roughly 2.5 percent in the January-March quarter. That would be a vast improvement from the 0.4 percent growth rate in the October-December quarter, which was held back by slower company stockpiling and the sharpest defense cuts in 40 years.

Inflation, as measured by a gauge tied to consumer spending, increased 1.3 percent in February compared with a year ago. That's well below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, giving the central bank room to keep stimulating the economy without having to worry about price pressures.

One reason the tax increases haven't slowed the economy is companies have accelerated hiring and are slowly but steadily increasing wages.

Employers have added an average of 200,000 jobs a month since November. That helped lowered the unemployment rate in February to a four-year low of 7.7 percent. Economists expect similar strong job gains in March.

Most other signs point to an economy that is gaining momentum. Businesses are investing more in equipment and machinery, which has given factories a lift after a disappointing 2012.

And the housing recovery appears to be strengthening. In February, sales of previously occupied homes rose to the highest level in more than three years. The gains have helped lift home prices, which have made Americans feel wealthier.

Stock prices have also surged. On Thursday, the Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a record high of 1,569. That surpassed the previous record of 1,565 set in October 2007, a year before the peak of the financial crisis.

Markets are closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-consumer-spending-income-jump-february-123455179--finance.html

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Iran, North Korea, Syria block U.N. arms trade treaty

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran, Syria and North Korea on Friday prevented the adoption of the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, complaining that it was flawed and failed to ban weapons sales to rebel groups.

To get around the blockade, British U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant sent the draft treaty to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him on behalf of Mexico, Australia and a number of others to put it to a swift vote in the General Assembly.

U.N. diplomats said the 193-nation General Assembly could put the draft treaty to a vote as early as Tuesday.

"A good, strong treaty has been blocked," said Britain's chief delegate, Joanne Adamson. "Most people in the world want regulation and those are the voices that need to be heard."

"This is success deferred," she added.

The head of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman, told a group of reporters, "We look forward to this treaty being adopted very soon by the United Nations General Assembly." He declined to predict the result of a vote but said it would be a "substantial majority" in favor.

U.N. member states began meeting last week in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

Arms control activists and human rights groups say a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition that they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

Delegates to the treaty-drafting conference said on Wednesday they were close to a deal to approve the treaty, but cautioned that Iran and other countries might attempt to block it. Iran, Syria and North Korea did just that, blocking the required consensus for it to pass.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had told Iran's Press TV that Tehran supported the arms trade treaty. But Iranian U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee told the conference that he could not accept the treaty in its current form.

"The achievement of such a treaty has been rendered out of reach due to many legal flaws and loopholes," he said. "It is a matter of deep regret that genuine efforts of many countries for a robust, balanced and non-discriminatory treaty were ignored."

One of those flaws was its failure to ban sales of weapons to groups that commit "acts of aggression," ostensibly referring to rebel groups, he said. The current draft does not ban transfers to armed groups but says all arms transfers should be subjected to rigorous risk and human rights assessments first.

'HELD HOSTAGE'

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari echoed the Iranian concerns, saying he also objected to the fact that it does not prohibit weapons transfers to rebel groups.

"Unfortunately our national concerns were not taken into consideration," he said. "It can't be accepted by my country."

North Korea's delegate voiced similar complaints, suggesting it was a discriminatory treaty: "This (treaty) is not balanced."

Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats said. Syria is in a two-year-old civil war and hopes Russian and Iranian arms keep flowing in, they added.

North Korea is also under a U.N. arms embargo due to its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Russia and China made clear they would not have blocked it but voiced serious reservations about the text and its failure to get consensus. A Russian delegate told the conference that Moscow would have to think hard about signing it if it were approved. India, Pakistan and others complained that the treaty favors exporters and creates disadvantages for arms importers.

If adopted by the General Assembly, the pact will need to be signed and ratified by at least 50 states to enter into force.

Several diplomats and human rights groups that have lobbied hard in favor of the treaty complained that the requirement of consensus for the pact to pass was something that the United States insisted on years ago. That rule gave every U.N. member state the ability to veto the draft treaty.

"The world has been held hostage by three states," said Anna Macdonald, an arms control expert at humanitarian agency Oxfam. "We have known all along that the consensus process was deeply flawed and today we see it is actually dysfunctional."

"Countries such as Iran, Syria and DPRK (North Korea) should not be allowed to dictate to the rest of the world how the sale of weapons should be regulated," she added.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

The main reason the arms trade talks took place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.

Washington demanded that the conference be run on the basis of consensus because it wanted to be able to block any treaty that undermined the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms, a sensitive political issue in the United States. Countryman said the draft treaty did not undermine U.S. rights.

The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Will Dunham, Lisa Shumaker and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-north-korea-syria-block-u-n-arms-002525001.html

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