A Sign Of The Extreme Hunger For Risk Right ... - Business Insider

One of our themes of 2012 so far has been the "Dash For Trash" -- the aggressive buying of the badly beaten down assets from last year, whether they be banks, junior gold miners, Italian bonds, or Egyptian stocks. All have been getting bought up like wild.

What does it mean?

SocGen makes an interesting observation about the surge of the high-beta names (not technically the same thing as the dash-for-trash, but close)

?The spread between high and low beta equities has also been very wide. When measured using deciles, we find a spread of around 15% in the US, and a remarkable 20% gap in Europe. Over the last 22 years we have only recorded such a wide spread in Europe on two other occasions ? in October 2002 and in March/April 2009.

This isn't necessarily bullish, however.

While the strong performance of high beta names may indicate a potential bottoming out of equity markets, we have seen numerous occasions in the US where the spread has been wider than the current 15% and where the equity market continued to trend lower. Notably almost all these bear market beta rallies coincided with an interest rate cut from the Fed. ?

Meanwhile, this is an interesting chart from Nomura, showing the decline in implied volatility (red line) vs. the a basket of "high-risk" stocks (grey line, inverted). As you can see, the grey line hasn't caught up to the red line, suggesting more strong performance for the risk basket.

Nomura

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-sign-of-the-extreme-hunger-for-risk-right-now-2012-1

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Have Your Cake And Eat Its Package

60-Second Science | More Science

Materials scientists are developing edible packaging for processed foods. Cynthia Graber reports.

January 30, 2012

More 60-Second Science

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Picture an orange. It?s encased in a biodegradable shell?the peel?s even somewhat edible, as marmalade fans can attest. But we humans often package food in plastic, with its environmental and disposal challenges.

So Harvard scientist David Edwards and colleagues thought, why not take advantage of advances in materials science to mimic nature? The call their result WikiCells. Edwards recently described the development in a talk at Harvard?s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. [WikiCells: Bottles That We Eat]

Taking note of nature's clever packaging, Edwards and his team created a membrane made of charged particles of edible substances bound by electrostatic forces. The membrane surrounds a liquid, foam or solid food. Then that membrane is surrounded by an edible or biodegradable hard shell.

The researchers are testing WikiCells at Harvard?s partner Le Laboratoire in Paris, where people are munching on containers of ice cream and soup. The technology is currently a bit of a novelty. But the scientists are working on shelf stability and taste to create a variety of consumer products. Maybe in the future you?ll be able to sip some juice, and eat the package. Of course, clam chowder served in bread bowls is already available in the Harvard area.

?Cynthia Graber

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]
?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=484558660c8a5e7dad2b524ff93fb18b

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OSF Finance Request4Funds Forms Nov-Dec2011 (LINKS ...

Below you will find the LINKS to ALL the Request4Funds(R4Fs) Forms OSF Finance has in their possession.
I digitized the actual paper forms that have been submitted and created PDFs (4 of them) in order to comply with the upload file size limit this WordPress blog stipulates. From these forms & through dialogue during our Finance meetings, a list of CommonlyApprovedRequests (CARs) is being compiled. That list should be ready for publication sometime next week.

Thanks for your patience.
OSF Finance

R4Fs #6-28
R4Fs #29-62
R4Fs #63-103
R4fs #103a-112

Source: http://occupysf.org/2012/01/28/osf-finance-request4funds-forms-nov-dec2011-links/

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St. Louis hosting 1st big parade on Iraq War's end (AP)

ST. LOUIS ? Looking around at the tens of thousands of people waving American flags and cheering, Army Maj. Rich Radford was moved that so many braved a cold January wind Saturday in St. Louis to honor people like him: Iraq War veterans.

The parade, borne out of a simple conversation between two St. Louis friends a month ago, was the nation's first big welcome-home for veterans of the war since the last troops were withdrawn from Iraq in December.

"It's not necessarily overdue, it's just the right thing," said Radford, a 23-year Army veteran who walked in the parade alongside his 8-year-old daughter, Aimee, and 12-year-old son, Warren.

Radford was among about 600 veterans, many dressed in camouflage, who walked along downtown streets lined with rows of people clapping and holding signs with messages including "Welcome Home" and "Thanks to our Service Men and Women." Some of the war-tested troops wiped away tears as they acknowledged the support from a crowd that organizers estimated reached 100,000 people.

Fire trucks with aerial ladders hoisted huge American flags in three different places along the route, with politicians, marching bands ? even the Budweiser Clydesdales ? joining in. But the large crowd was clearly there to salute men and women in the military, and people cheered wildly as groups of veterans walked by.

That was the hope of organizers Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum. Neither man has served in the military but came up with the idea after noticing there had been little fanfare for returning Iraq War veterans aside from gatherings at airports and military bases. No ticker-tape parades or large public celebrations.

Appelbaum, an attorney, and Schneider, a school district technical coordinator, decided something needed to be done. So they sought donations, launched a Facebook page, met with the mayor and mapped a route. The grassroots effort resulted in a huge turnout despite raising only about $35,000 and limited marketing.

That marketing included using a photo of Radford being welcomed home from his second tour in Iraq by his then-6-year-old daughter. The girl had reached up, grabbed his hand and said, "I missed you, daddy." Radford's sister caught the moment with her cellphone camera, and the image graced T-shirts and posters for the parade.

Veterans came from around the country, and more than 100 entries ? including marching bands, motorcycle groups and military units ? signed up ahead of the event, Appelbaum said.

Schneider said he was amazed how everyone, from city officials to military organizations to the media, embraced the parade.

"It was an idea that nobody said no to," he said. "America was ready for this."

All that effort by her hometown was especially touching for Gayla Gibson, a 38-year-old Air Force master sergeant who said she spent four months in Iraq ? seeing "amputations, broken bones, severe burns from IEDs" ? as a medical technician in 2003.

"I think it's great when people come out to support those who gave their lives and put their lives on the line for this country," Gibson said.

With 91,000 troops still fighting in Afghanistan, many Iraq veterans could be redeployed ? suggesting to some that it's premature to celebrate their homecoming. In New York, for example, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently said there would be no city parade for Iraq War veterans in the foreseeable future because of objections voiced by military officials.

But in St. Louis, there was clearly a mood to thank the troops with something big, even among those opposed to the war.

"Most of us were not in favor of the war in Iraq, but the soldiers who fought did the right thing and we support them," said 72-year-old Susan Cunningham, who attended the parade with the Missouri Progressive Action Group. "I'm glad the war is over and I'm glad they're home."

Don Lange, 60, of nearby Sullivan, held his granddaughter along the parade route. His daughter was a military interrogator in Iraq.

"This is something everyplace should do," Lange said as he watched the parade.

Several veterans of the Vietnam War turned out to show support for the younger troops. Among them was Don Jackson, 63, of Edwardsville, Ill., who said he was thrilled to see the parade honoring Iraq War veterans like his son, Kevin, who joined him at the parade. The 33-year-old Air Force staff sergeant said he'd lost track of how many times he had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a flying mechanic.

"I hope this snowballs," he said of the parade. "I hope it goes all across the country. I only wish my friends who I served with were here to see this."

Looking at all the people around him in camouflage, 29-year-old veteran Matt Wood said he felt honored. He served a year in Iraq with the Illinois National Guard.

"It's extremely humbling, it's amazing, to be part of something like this with all of these people who served their country with such honor," he said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_us/us_iraq_war_parade

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Police use tear gas on Occupy Oakland protesters (AP)

OAKLAND, Calif. ? Oakland police used tear gas and "flash" grenades Saturday to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and tearing down fencing.

Three officers were hurt and 19 people were arrested, the Oakland Police Department said. No details on the officers' injuries were released.

The protest continued into Saturday evening; a large police contingent monitored the situation, but there were no additional clashes.

Police said the group started assembling at a downtown plaza Saturday morning, with demonstrators threatening to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center. The group then marched through the streets, disrupting traffic.

The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

The protesters walked to the vacant convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., police said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

Most of the arrests were made when protesters ignored orders to leave and assaulted officers, police said. By 4 p.m., the bulk of the crowd had left the convention center and headed back downtown.

The demonstration comes after Occupy protesters said earlier this week that they planned to move into a vacant building and turn it into a social center and political hub. They also threatened to try to shut down the port, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

In a statement Friday, Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana said the city would not be "bullied by threats of violence or illegal activity."

Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.

Oakland officials said Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was Mayor Jean Quan, who said she wasn't briefed on the department's plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_us/us_occupy_oakland

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If Round 1 is the war of words, Phil Davis leads 10-8 over Rashad Evans

CHICAGO -- In most interviews Phil Davis comes off as a reserved young man. He's not out to ruffle any feathers, but those of us who've had a chance to speak to him repeatedly always knew there was a potential media darling behind that conservative facade.

In the lead-up to Saturday's UFC on Fox 2 card, Rashad Evans has brought out the beast in Davis and the former UFC light heavyweight hasn't reacted too well.

It started last week when Evans flipped out on Davis calling him a "boy." Yesterday during the UFC on Fox 2 prefight press conference, Evans shook his head, appeared annoyed and even looked flustered on several occasions.

As the banter began, Evans tried to play it cool.

"For the most part, I've got nothing against Phil, but you we've got a fight so I've got a lot against him right now. It's personal, but not really PERSONAL personal," said Evans, who had heated prefight words with previous opponents like Tito Ortiz and Quinton Jackson.

Evans got irked when the issue of college wrestling came up. Phil Davis, a more accomplished NCAA star at Penn State than Evans was at Michigan State, laughed when someone asked if his opponent could beat him in a straight wrestling match. Evans kept saying "your technique is trash."

Then Davis was asked about missing the opportunity to face Evans back in August in Philadelphia. Davis quickly pointed out that he didn't get to fight in front of his friends and family from nearby Harrisburg, Pa. Evans took issue with the fact that Davis didn't say he was sad to lose out on the opportunity to fight him. Davis fired back, "Nobody heard me say that!"

Evans snapped again when Davis explained his understanding of what the result of a win could be, a possible title shot against Jon Jones.

"The winner of this fight will fight for the title, but in the event that I hit him too hard and break my hand ... it might lead to somebody else getting the title shot first," said Davis.

"You don't punch nobody hard. Phil can't hit. Phil punches with his hands open and everything," Evans said. "He couldn't bust a grape. You look like Arsenio Hall."

Davis laughed.

"Give him a hand y'all. Give him a hand," said Davis.

That opened the door for a female fan to ask Davis whether he looked more like Hall or NBA star Dwight Howard? Davis handled it gracefully as he done throughout the lead-up to Saturday's tilt. We'll see if his poise remains intact in the fight. Either way, this week showed he'll be a valuable asset on main cards for years to come in the UFC.

Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Cole: Giants chasing history instead of imploding
? Video: Shaq shows off his underwear on TV
? Video: Teams on the NCAA Tournament bubble watch

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/round-1-war-words-phil-davis-10-8-154948395.html

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Nintendo chief promises to do Wii U launch right (AP)

TOKYO ? Nintendo's chief is determined to get right the launch of its next game machine, Wii U, set for this year's holiday shopping season, and acknowledged Friday some mistakes with selling its 3DS handheld.

But Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata warned earnings for the fiscal year set to begin April will be the toughest ever for the Japanese manufacturer behind the Super Mario and Pokemon games.

Iwata's remarks come a day after it lowered its annual earnings forecast to a 65 billion yen ($844 million) loss, much larger than the 20 billion yen ($260 million) loss projected earlier. It posted a 77.62 billion yen profit the previous fiscal year.

Iwata blamed the strong yen, which erases overseas earnings, as well as the arrival of smartphones and other devices that offer gaming.

The higher yen slashed nearly 54 billion yen ($701 million) from the company's operating profit for the April-December period.

"I can see how the red ink may be perceived as abnormal," Iwata told analysts and reporters at a Tokyo hotel. "The environment has changed."

The failure of the 3DS handheld, which offers three-dimensional imagery, to take off with enough momentum during the last quarter of 2011 was one of the main reasons for the dismal results, according to Iwata.

The 3DS has gradually started to sell better, but it took a price cut in August. It still lacks a strong lineup of attractive software games, a key factor for a machine to succeed in a big way.

Iwata vowed the company will be better prepared when it introduces the Wii U home console during the 2012 year-end shopping season for a strong comeback.

He declined to give details such as pricing or what the software games available at that time might be.

But he said the Wii U will come with a strong game lineup at the launch as well as secure and safe Internet services that will offer players individual accounts.

The Wii U will come with new ways of playing that will almost make the term "home console" obsolete, Iwata said. It will also offer mobile gaming. The machine has a touch-panel controller.

Nintendo has long competed against rival game makers, such as Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. These days, all face the threat from hit devices like the iPad and iPhone from Apple Inc. that also offer games.

Iwata's comments also showed Nintendo is growing less cautious about the Internet, which in the past it had brushed off as mainly for hard-core gamers.

Kyoto-based Nintendo has built its reputation on making games fun to play for casual and newcomer players.

"We are going to put to use our bitter experience with the 3DS," said Iwata.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_on_hi_te/as_japan_nintendo

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[OOC] The Enemy of My Enemy

Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.

Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Enemy of My Enemy?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

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Can I resurve the male muscle?

Tonks

Member for 0 years

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Could I snag the female theft?

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
?I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.?
?I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things. The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.?

Lux_Disraeli

Member for 1 years

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Is the Actress Character open? If so, may I please reserve her?

Edit Nevermind (:

Some say the world will end in Fire,
Some say in Ice,
From what I've tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor Fire,
But if I had to Perish twice,
I think I know enough of Hate,
To say for Destruction Ice is also Great,
And would Suffice.
- Robert Frost.

Gir Loves You :3

Sugarcake101

Member for 1 years

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Post a reply

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Want To Make A Giant Telescope Mirror? Here's How

Enlarge Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

Temperatures inside this giant oven will reach 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Large blocks of glass inside the oven will melt as the whole oven spins around at a rate of five times per second, creating a curved and smooth telescope mirror.

Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

Temperatures inside this giant oven will reach 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. Large blocks of glass inside the oven will melt as the whole oven spins around at a rate of five times per second, creating a curved and smooth telescope mirror.

The world's largest mirrors for the world's largest telescopes are made under the football stadium at the University of Arizona.

Why there? Why not?

"We wanted some space, and it was just used for parking some cars, and this seemed like a good use," says Roger Angel.

Angel is the master of making big mirrors for telescopes. For 30 years he has been using a method called spin casting to make the largest solid telescope mirrors in the world.

At the moment, he's making the second of seven mirrors, each 27 feet across, that will go into the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), which will be sited on a peak in the Andes Mountains in Chile.

In the old days, you made mirrors by ladling molten glass into a mold. With spin casting, "we just put these chunks of solid glass, lay them over the mold while they're cold," says Angel.

Then they heat the furnace to 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit. At that temperature the glass chunks melt, turning into a clear, syrupy liquid that oozes into the mold. Having the furnace spin while this is happening encourages the glass to flow into the parabolic shape it will eventually become. It will stay in the oven for two-and-a-half months while it slowly cools down to room temperature.

Enlarge Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

The pieces of glass that technicians are arranging inside the rotating oven will melt down into the curved surface of the telescope mirror. Each piece of glass is hand-inspected.

Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

The pieces of glass that technicians are arranging inside the rotating oven will melt down into the curved surface of the telescope mirror. Each piece of glass is hand-inspected.

A Hard Shape To Tackle

The first GMT mirror is getting its final polishing in a cavernous hall next door.

Enlarge Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

After the mirror is cast, it moves to the Large Polishing Machine, where the mirror's shape is refined and perfected ? down to the millionth of an inch.

Ray Bertram/Steward Observatory

After the mirror is cast, it moves to the Large Polishing Machine, where the mirror's shape is refined and perfected ? down to the millionth of an inch.

Angel has made several mirrors as large as these. "But the shape of this mirror is more challenging by about a factor of 10 than the previous ones that we've made," he says.

That's because the shape is aspherical. Instead of being a shallow symmetrical bowl, one side of the mirror is higher than the other. It's a shape dictated by where the mirror will focus starlight once it's set in the telescope.

Not only is it devilishly hard to grind and then polish an aspherical mirror, it's hard to know when you've done it right. The mirror is 27 feet across, but the differences in height across the surface are smaller than a millionth of an inch.

Imaging The Skies

To see the earliest objects in the universe, astronomers need really big telescopes. That's because the light from these objects is very dim, and you need a big "light bucket" to capture the light they give off. Telescopes now use adaptive optics to correct for the blurring of the atmosphere, so large ground-based telescopes can do even better than the Hubble Space Telescope in resolving small objects, such as planets orbiting stars. Here's a look at some next-generation telescopes in the works:

Angel and his colleagues have developed three separate tests to convince themselves they've polished their mirror properly. No one wants a repeat of the experience of the Hubble Space Telescope. It also has an aspherical mirror, and it wasn't until the telescope reached orbit that astronomers discovered the mirror wasn't shaped exactly right. Luckily, the space shuttle astronauts were able to install corrective lenses that fixed the problem.

'Opportunity For New Discovery'

The giant mirrors will give astronomers two things they really want in a telescope: high sensitivity so they can see really, really dim objects; and high resolution so they can see fine details.

Wendy Freedman, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science and chair of the GMT board of directors, says to get a sense of GMT's resolving power, imagine you're looking at the face of the dime. "And you were to take that dime, and put it 200 miles away. Then with GMT, you could resolve the face of that dime. It's quite spectacular."

Freedman says the resolution of the new telescope should let astronomers see planets around other stars, and its sensitivity should let them see some of the earliest objects to form in the universe. Freedman says astronomers can only imagine what they'll learn when GMT starts operating.

"The opportunity for new discovery in astronomy usually follows when we make a big leap in sensitivity or resolution like this," she says.

But those discoveries are a ways off. It will be a while before the giant mirrors are shipped to Chile and assembled into a telescope. Under the rosiest scenario, the telescope won't achieve "first light," as it is known, until 2020.

Still, Freedman and Angel are convinced it will be worth the wait.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/26/145837380/want-to-make-a-giant-telescope-mirror-heres-how?ft=1&f=1007

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Tim Gunn: I Haven't Had Sex in 29 Years (omg!)

Former Project Runway host Tim Gunn got extremely candid about his sex life (or lack thereof) on his new daytime talk show The Revolution.

When the co-hosts began discussing a statistic that "15 to 20 percent of people are in no-sex or low-sex relationships" on Tuesday's program, Gunn said: "I haven't had sex in 29 years. Do I feel like less of a person for it? No. Not even remotely."

More info about The Revolution

See why Gunn says he's remained celibate in this clip below:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_tim_gunn_havent_had_sex29_years_172300884/44302133/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/tim-gunn-havent-had-sex-29-years-172300884.html

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Irishman makes "billion-euro home" of shredded notes (Reuters)

DUBLIN (Reuters) ? An unemployed Irish artist has built a home from the shredded remains of 1.4 billion euros ($1.82 billion), a monument to the "madness" he says has been wrought on Ireland by the single currency, from a spectacular construction boom to a wrenching bust.

Frank Buckley built the apartment in the lobby of a Dublin office building that has lain vacant since its completion four years ago at the peak of an ill-fated construction boom, using bricks of shredded euro notes he borrowed from Ireland's national mint.

"It's a reflection of the whole madness that gripped us," Buckley said of what he calls his "billion-euro home."

"People were pouring billions into buildings now worth nothing," he said. "I wanted to create something from nothing."

A wave of cheap credit flowed into Ireland in the early 2000s after Ireland joined the currency zone fuelling a huge property bubble that transformed the country.

The bubble's collapse since 2007 plunged Ireland into the deepest recession in the industrialized world, forcing the former "Celtic Tiger" to accept a humiliating bailout from the EU and the IMF.

Buckley was given a 100 percent mortgage at the peak of the boom to buy a 365,000 euro home on the far reaches of Dublin's commuter belt, despite the fact he had no steady income.

He has separated from his wife who lives in the home, which has since lost at least one-third of its value.

Living in his "billion euro home" since the start of December, Buckley is working on adding a kitchen to the living room and hall.

The walls and floor are covered in euro shreddings and the house is so warm Buckley sleeps without a blanket.

Pictures made from notes and coins decorate the walls, including one of a house, made from Irish 5 pence pieces.

"There are houses in Ireland worth less than that," Buckley quips.

Buckley said he wants Europe's politicians to solve the eurozone debt crisis without destroying its currency. But if the currency ultimately fails, he will happily use the euro zone's defunct notes as fodder for future projects.

"Whatever you say about the euro, it's a great insulator."

($1 = 0.7704 euros)

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; editing by Carmel Crimmins and Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/en_nm/us_ireland_art_euro

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Video: The Bathtub Mystery, Part 7

Dateline NBC

'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/46105202#46105202

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Chinese forces break up Tibetan protest with tear gas: group (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? Chinese security forces fired tear gas to break up a protest by Tibetans in the southwest province of Sichuan, an advocacy group said, the latest flare-up of volatile unrest in the region.

On Tuesday, the official Xinhua News Agency also confirmed a separate clash in Luhuo, a township in the heavily Tibetan western highlands of Sichuan, and said one protester was killed. Both confrontations erupted on Monday.

Free Tibet, a London-based organization that campaigns for Tibetan self-determination, said in an email that troops fired the tear gas at Tibetan protesters in Meruma township, Aba County, called Ngaba County by Tibetans.

"Tibetans had gathered to protest Chinese oppression on the occasion of Chinese New Year, having decided that they would not celebrate the lunar New Year because of the current repression in Tibet," Free Tibet said.

"Additional security forces have been deployed in the area and roads connecting Ngaba to the surrounding counties have been closed by the authorities."

Although the two clashes appeared to peter out by Tuesday, they laid bare the brittleness of Chinese control in the traditionally rebellious Tibetan highlands of Sichuan.

This year, the main Tibetan traditional new year celebrations begin on February 22; the Han Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations began on Sunday.

In 2009, protesting Tibetans and their supporters abroad also called for a boycott of the celebrations to show anger after deadly unrest a year earlier.

Chinese security forces have been on edge after 16 incidents in which Tibetans set themselves on fire over the last year in response to growing resentment of Beijing's controls on religion.

Most of the incidents occurred in Sichuan. Some of the protesters have called for the return of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist leader revered by many Tibetans.

RIVAL ACCOUNTS OF DEADLY CLASH

The confrontation in Aba came on the same day that, according to two advocacy groups, Chinese troops in another part of Sichuan's mountainous western edge fired on thousands of Tibetan protesters, killing at least one and wounding more.

Xinhua, citing local authorities, said dozens of people were involved and had clashed with police after rumors spread that three monks would set themselves on fire in protest.

"The crowd, some wielding knives and hurling stones, attacked a police station. They smashed two police vehicles, two fire engines and stormed into nearby shops and a bank, damaging the bank's cash dispenser," Xinhua said.

One protester died in the clash and others were injured, as were five police officers, said the report, which added that the violence ended on Monday evening.

The Free Tibet group said the deadly shooting happened after protesting Tibetans gathered in Luhuo, about 590 km (370 miles) west of Sichuan's capital of Chengdu, and marched on government offices, where security forces opened fire.

An exiled Tibetan source, who said he had spoken to a contact in Luhuo, told Reuters that the protesters were partly roused to action by a leaflet spreading in the area.

"The leaflet stated in first person 'I am going to self immolate on 1st day of the Tibetan new year, I have two different purposes for the self-immolation: one is to show my solidarity with people who have self-immolated since 2009, and the second is, that I have the same resentment that the people who immolated themselves had'," said the source, who requested anonymity to protect his contact.

One resident -- a 49-year-old Tibetan man called Yonten -- was shot dead by government forces and another 30 or so residents were injured, said Free Tibet.

Another advocacy group, the International Campaign for Tibet, said three people were killed and about nine injured when police fired into the crowd in Luhuo, which is called Drango or Draggo by Tibetans.

A Tibetan resident of a village close to Luhuo told Reuters that he had not seen the clash, but had heard that 30 or more people were injured, and possibly three or four died.

"Today seems calm so far, but I don't know whether there'll be big problems later," said the resident, who asked that his name not be used out of fear of reprisals.

An official from the propaganda office of Luhuo, however, denied that anything abnormal had happened there.

"There's nothing like that here," she told Reuters.

"Everything is normal. We're all just enjoying the holiday," said the official, who hung up without giving her name.

After protests in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa mutated into deadly attacks on ethnic Chinese residents in 2008, unrest spread across many ethnic Tibetan areas, and western Sichuan was among the most volatile areas.

China's Foreign Ministry has branded the self-immolators "terrorists" and has said the Dalai Lama, whom it condemns a supporter of violent separatism, should take the blame.

(Additional reporting by Sabrina Mao and Chen Aizhu in Beijing and Abhishek Madhukar in Dharamshala, India; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/wl_nm/us_china_tibet

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Report: Russia to deliver combat jets to Syria (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia has signed a contract to sell combat jets to Syria, a newspaper reported Monday, in apparent support for President Bashar Assad and open defiance of international condemnation of his regime's bloody crackdown.

The respected business daily Kommersant, citing an unidentified source close to Russia's Rosoboronexport state arms trader, said the $550-million deal envisions the delivery of 36 Yak-130 aircraft. A spokesman for Rosoboronexport refused to comment on the report.

If confirmed, the deal would cement Russian opposition to international efforts to put pressure on Assad's regime over its attempts to snuff out the country's uprising. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have died over 10 months. The report of the sale comes the same day that Human Rights Watch called Russia's backing of the Syrian regime "immoral."

The Yak-130 is a twin-engined combat trainer jet that can also be used to attack ground targets. The Russian air force has recently placed an order for 55 such jets.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Moscow doesn't consider it necessary to offer an explanation or excuses over suspicions that a Russian ship had delivered munitions to Syria despite an EU arms embargo.

Russia was acting in full respect of international law and wouldn't be guided by unilateral sanctions imposed by other nations, he said.

Lavrov also accused the West of turning a blind eye to attacks by opposition militants and supplies of weapons to the Syrian opposition from abroad and warned that Russia will block any attempt by the West to secure United Nations support for the use of force against Syria.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that if the report is accurate "it would be quite concerning" and would be raised by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, who is currently in Moscow.

"As we've been saying for months, you know, our firm belief is that any country that is still trading in weapons and armaments with Syria really needs to think twice because they are on the wrong side of history, and those weapons can be used against innocents and have been," Nuland said.

Russia has been a strong ally of Syria since Soviet times when the country was led by the president's father Hafez Assad. It has supplied Syria with aircraft, missiles, tanks and other modern weapons.

Igor Korotchenko, head of the Center of Analysis of the Global Arms trade, an independent think-tank, said the jet deal apparently reflected Moscow's belief that Assad would stay at the helm.

"With this contract, Russia is expressing confidence that President Assad would manage to retain control of the situation, because such deals aren't signed with a government whose hold on power raises doubts," Korotchenko was quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying. "It's another gesture by Moscow underlining its confidence that Damascus will remain its strategic partner and ally in the Middle East."

Another Moscow-based military analyst, Ruslan Pukhov, said, however, that Russia might be too optimistic about Assad's prospects.

"This contract carries a very high degree of risk," Pukhov told Kommersant. "Assad's regime may fall and that would lead to financial losses for Russia and also hurt its image."

Human Rights Watch warned Russia that by supporting Assad it is repeating the mistakes of some Western governments during the Arab Spring, saying they were too slow to recognize the popular desire for democratic change in places like Egypt and Bahrain.

"Armed elements shooting at government soldiers is materially different from government representatives shooting deliberately at unarmend civilians," Carroll Bogert, the group's deputy executive director, said at a news conference in Moscow that followed the release of HRW's annual report.

She added that the overwhelming number of victims in Syria is on the side of the demonstrators.

"The continued support of this regime is immoral and not permissible," Bogert said. "The West has already made serious mistakes with the support of Arab regimes. Russia's repetition of those mistakes will lead to tragic consequences."

____

Sofia Javed in Moscow and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_syria

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The King?s Comeuppance

First, let?s talk about Burger King. What will we remember from Crispin?s long run with the brand? Well, there was the exhumation of BK?s old King character?which, in Crispin?s 2004 update, became embodied by a man wearing a creepy plastic mask. The ginger-bearded King would show up in various contexts, look scary, say nothing, and generally propagate disquietude. Or perhaps you recall the Subservient Chicken. This viral sensation involved a giant chicken in black lingerie, practicing ritual submission in front of a webcam in a seedy room.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=60b203305b87c9fe90058ed836c63761

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Jennifer Lopez on Idol Contestants, ?They?re Little Pop Stars in a Box!?

At the most recent American Idol press conference, judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and newly engaged Steven Tyler weighed in on their latest crop of Idol hopefuls. Jennifer thinks this year?s round of contestants is better than ever. ?I think the stakes each year get better and better. There?s so many amazingly talented artists this year.?

While Randy told In Touch to expect ?a lot of soulful [contestants]. A lot of Adele?s?, Steven gave some insight as to why she?s become such a popular singer for the contestants. ?Adele is a good example of singing from the heart. It?s from the heart, it?s from the spirit. That?s why that sold. She?s so soulful and the kids today that have these vocal gymnastics, it?s just astounding, and the ones that we have this year are just over the top.?

Even Jennifer thinks this year they?ve found the total package. ?Not only the voices, but they also seem to have the whole package, they understand that there?s a performance that needs to be there, they?re gonna have to dress a certain way. They?re like little pop stars in a box!?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InTouchWeekly/~3/Xdi2c51mmX4/jennifer_lopez_on_idol_contest.php

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Arab League extends Syria mission 1 more month

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

Syrian army defectors gather at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

An anti-Syrian regime protester flashes victory sign as he marches during a demonstration at the mountain resort town of Zabadani, Syria, near the Lebanese border, on Friday Jan. 20, 2012. President Bashar Assad's forces attacked Zabadani, some 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of the capital, for six days, sparking fierce fighting that involved heavy bombardments and clashes with army defectors. On Wednesday, government tanks and armored vehicles pulled back, leaving the opposition in control of the town. Buoyed by the opposition's control of a town near the Syrian capital, thousands of people held anti-government protests Friday, chanting for the downfall of the regime. At least eight people were killed by security forces across the country, activists said. (AP Photo)

BEIRUT (AP) ? A clash between Syrian forces and army defectors erupted Sunday in a suburb of the tightly held capital of Damascus, adding urgency just as the Arab League was extending an observers' mission that so far has failed to end long months of bloody violence.

The two events outlined how an uprising against President Bashar Assad that started with mass popular protests is moving now toward an armed conflict that could draw international intervention ? an outcome the Arab League is trying to avoid.

Arab League foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo, extended the much-criticized observers mission for another month, officials from the 22-member organization said.

The League decided to add more observers and provide them with additional resources, the officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to reporters, said the U.N. would train the observers.

The observer mission is supposed to be the first step toward implementing an Arab League plan to end the Syria crisis. Other points are pulling heavy Syrian weapons out of cities, stopping attacks on protesters, opening talks with the opposition and allowing foreign human rights workers and journalists in.

"There is partial progress in the implementation of the promises," Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said in Cairo about Syria's implementation of the plan. Syria "did not carry out all its promises, although there are some implementation of pledges."

He added that the use of "extreme force" by Syrian forces have led to a reaction by the opposition "in what could lead to civil war."

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told reporters that his country will pull out its observers because "the Syrian government did not implement the Arab plan." He urged Muslim countries, China, Russia, Europe and the U.S. to put pressure on Assad's government to stop the violence.

Saudi Arabia has been one of the harshest Arab critics of the crackdown, It recalled its ambassador from Damascus last year in protest.

So far the observer mission has not gone well. Though some credit it with tamping down violence in some places, the Local Coordination Committees activist group said Sunday that 976 people, including 54 children and 28 women, have been killed since the observers began their mission last month.

The U.N. estimates some 5,400 have been killed since it began in March.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Arab League to "maximize" the effectiveness of the mission of the observers in Syria "to stop the killings."

"The deployment of the observers, has been disappointing ... Assad played games with observers," by moving around forces instead of removing them from cities, while the killing continues, Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

The Arab League faced three options Sunday: ending the mission and giving up its initiative, extending it, or turning the crisis over to the U.N. Security Council, as some opposition groups have urged. There, however, it would face a possible stalemate because of disagreements among permanent members over how far to go in forcing Assad's hand.

The mission's one-month mandate technically expired on Thursday.

The pullout of Assad's security forces from the Damascus suburb of Douma marked the second time in a week that troops have redeployed from an area near the tightly-controlled Syrian capital, an indication that Assad might be losing some control.

Diplomacy has taken on urgency as opponents of Assad's regime and soldiers who switched sides increasingly take up arms and fight back against government forces.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' head Rami Abdul-Rahman said government troops had pulled back early Sunday to a provincial headquarters and a security agency building in the Damascus suburb of Douma after hours of clashes, although they still controlled the entrances. The clashes broke out after Syrian troops opened fire at a funeral on Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, the battles resumed between the defectors and troops loyal to Assad, according to the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group. The LCC said that heavy machine gun fire was used in the clashes, and five people were killed.

Abdul-Rahman had no information on casualties from the clashes but said security forces at an entrance checkpoint shot dead one man who was passing by on Sunday. He added that one person was shot dead in a nearby town of Rankous as well as another person in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The LCC said 12 people were killed in Syria Sunday. The LCC and the Observatory reported intense gunfire in the central city of Homs that left at least one person dead.

State-run news agency SANA said gunmen opened fire at the car of an army brigadier general, killing him and another army officers who was in the vehicle.

Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso confirmed that security forces had abandoned Douma.

A video posted by activists on social media showed five masked gunmen, one of them in uniform, who read a statement saying, "the city of Douma has been liberated from Assad's gangs." He warned Syrian troops not to try enter Douma or defectors would "fire rockets at the presidential palace" in Damascus and execute five prisoners they are holding.

The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the video.

Also Sunday, state-run SANA, said an estimated 5,255 Syrian prisoners have been released over the past week under an amnesty, raising the total freed since November to more than 9,000. Opposition groups say thousands are still being held.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Syria as the bloodshed escalates. The U.S. has long called for Assad to step down, and officials say his regime's demise is inevitable.

Two U.S. Senators plan to introduce a bill to stiffen the sanctions.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York would require President Barack Obama to identify violators of human rights in Syria, call for reform and offer protection to pro-democracy demonstrators. It would also block financial aid and property transactions in the United States involving Syrian leaders involved in the crackdown.

___

Al-Shalchi reported from Cairo.

Bassem Mroue can be reached on http://twitter.com/bmroue

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-22-ML-Syria/id-597a3c044c624c77a29467b9694a8834

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Nanni Moretti to head jury at Cannes Film Fest (AP)

PARIS ? Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival have chosen satirical Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti to head the jury at this year's festival.

The veteran actor and director of 2001 Palme d'Or winner "The Son's Room" will head the jury for the May 16-27 festival on the French Riviera.

Festival organizers said Friday that Moretti's films "are the incarnation of all the best in cinema over the past thirty years."

Moretti, 58, directed and acted in last year's Palme contender "Habemus Papam" ? Latin for "We Have a Pope" ? a surprisingly gentle comedy about a cardinal who suffers stage fright when he is chosen as the next pontiff.

Robert De Niro headed last year's nine-member jury, which chose Terrence Malick's drama "The Tree of Life" for the festival's top honor.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_en_mo/eu_cannes_film_festival

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Spain Targets Regions' Debt

BY JONATHAN HOUSE

MADRID?Spain's government on Tuesday moved forward with its plans to institute new controls on spending by its powerful regions, an essential part of its effort to slash one of Europe's largest budget deficits.

Budget Minister Crist?bal Montoro said the country's 17 regions have agreed to surrender some autonomy and submit to new legislation that will set penalties for failure to comply with budget targets, two weeks after the new government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced a much-higher-than-expected 2011 budget deficit of 8% of gross domestic product.

The agreement represents a big reversal for Spanish regions, which have a long ...

BY JONATHAN HOUSE

MADRID?Spain's government on Tuesday moved forward with its plans to institute new controls on spending by its powerful regions, an essential part of its effort to slash one of Europe's largest budget deficits.

Budget Minister Crist?bal Montoro said the country's 17 regions have agreed to surrender some autonomy and submit to new legislation that will set penalties for failure to comply with budget targets, two weeks after the new government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced a much-higher-than-expected 2011 budget deficit of 8% of gross domestic product.

The agreement represents a big reversal for Spanish regions, which have a long ...

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203735304577167091842144700.html?mod=rss_europe_whats_news

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Intel results exceed Street, capex jumps (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) ? Intel Corp's quarterly results modestly beat Wall Street's expectations as it faces a tough PC market, and the chipmaker said it was sharply increasing its capital expenditures in an apparent bid to speed up its entry into tablets and smartphones.

Intel warned last month that the damage wrought by flooding in Thailand - the world's largest producer of computer drives - would curtail December-quarter earnings in a PC market already hit by a weak economy.

Adding to its troubles, Intel has failed to find a foothold in smartphones and tablets, where processors based on ARM Holdings' power efficient chip designs are widely used.

Rushing to speed up its development of competitive chips for smartphones and tablets, Intel said it would boost capital expenditures in 2012 to $12.5 billion, plus or minus $400 million. Last year its capital expenditures were $10.7 billion.

"The biggest surprise is the capex for the new year," said Evercore Partners analyst Patrick Wang. "They're investing to catch up and not only be at parity but exceed where the handset incumbents are."

Lenovo and Motorola Mobility have agreed to use Intel's new Medfield chip in upcoming smartphones, and investors are keen to see how the new devices do with consumers.

Intel's main PC client group raised its revenue 17 percent in the December quarter to $9 billion. Its revenues from selling server chips for data centers rose 8 percent.

After flooding in Thailand ruined factories and sensitive machinery, shortages of the components are expected to persist through the first half of 2012 and disrupt PC production.

"Last quarter they underestimated the flood impact. I am wondering if they are still underestimating the Thailand flood impact, and the market's ability to ramp back up to get to these numbers," said RBC analyst Doug Freedman.

Upbeat earnings forecasts by Linear Technology, Xilinx and TSMC this week have made investors cautiously optimistic that a drawdown of inventories in the broader chip industry, including semiconductores used in automobiles, communications and factories, may be ending, clearing the way for higher sales.

SKINNY LAPTOPS

Hoping to safeguard its position in PCs, Intel this year will kick off its largest marketing campaign since 2003, with "Ultrabooks" - instant-on super-thin laptops it hopes can stand up to the likes of Apple's Macbook Air, while giving off some of the technological chic the iPad and other tablets exude.

Fears of falling PC sales hurt the shares of Microsoft, Dell Inc and Intel for much of 2011. Intel's stock has recovered over the past three months, partly due to the chipmaker's relatively high 3.3 percent dividend yield.

Still trading at a modest 10.8 times expected earnings, the shares recently hit a 52-week high.

Intel said revenue in the current quarter would be $12.8 billion, plus or minus $500 million. Analysts on average had expected current-quarter revenue of $12.770 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The world's leading chipmaker said revenue in the fourth quarter was $13.9 billion, up 21 percent and slightly higher than the $13.718 billion expected.

GAAP net income in the fourth quarter was $3.4 billion, up 6 percent. GAAP earnings per share were 64 cents. Analysts had expected 61 cents.

Intel had a gross margin of 64 percent in the fourth quarter, with a non-GAAP gross margin of 65 percent. Analysts on average expected 64.6 percent.

Shares of Intel were unchanged after its earnings report from a close of $25.63, up 0.95 percent on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich,; Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Gary Hill)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/semiconductor/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/bs_nm/us_intel

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Video: Is Romney unstoppable?

Wahlberg says he'd have fought 9/11 hijackers

??"If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn't have went down like it did," the action star says. "There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, 'OK, we're going to land somewhere safely, don't worry.'"

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46016886#46016886

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Combining 2 anti-HER2 drugs may provide better preoperative breast cancer treatment

Public release date: 16-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katie Marquedant
kmarquedant@partners.org
617-314-3986
Massachusetts General Hospital

Using two drugs that inhibit the growth factor HER2 for preoperative treatment of early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer appears to have better results than treatment with a single agent. In a report in the January 17 issue of The Lancet, an international research team reports that a protocol adding lapatinib (Tykerb) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) was more effective than single-drug treatment with either drug in eliminating microscopic signs of cancer at the time the tumors were surgically removed.

"This is the first demonstration that adding a second anti-HER2 therapy, lapatinib, to trastuzumab is superior to trastuzumab alone in patients with early breast cancer," says Jos Baselga, MD, PhD, chief of Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, who led the study. "It opens up the concept of dual HER2 blockade as a better approach for patients with early, non-metastatic, HER2 breast cancer."

Approximately 20 to 30 percent of breast cancers are driven by overexpression of HER2, and such tumors are particularly aggressive. Both trastuzumab and lapatinib are agents that target HER2 and have been shown to improve the outcome of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. Trastuzumab is currently approved in the U.S. for postoperative treatment and in Europe for both pre- and postoperative therapy; lapatinib is used in combination with chemotherapy for patients whose tumors have stopped responding to trastuzumab. Since the two drugs have different mechanisms of action, combination therapy is being investigated to reduce the development of treatment-resistant disease.

The current investigation the NeoAdjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization (NeoALTTO) study enrolled 455 patients in 23 countries. Participants had early-stage, nonmetastatic HER2-positive breast tumors that had not yet been treated and were randomized to one of three treatment arms: anti-HER2 treatment with either intravenous trastuzumab, oral lapatinib or both for 6 weeks. For all participants the same anti-HER2 therapy was continued for another 12 weeks, with the addition of a weekly dose of paclitaxel (Taxol). Tumors were removed surgically within 4 weeks of the last paclitaxel dose. At the completion of surgery, patients received additional chemotherapy and then continued to receive the same anti-HER2 therapy, for a total of one year of anti-HER2 treatment.

More than half the participants receiving combined anti-HER2 therapy achieved a pathological complete response, which means is they had no visible cancer cells in pathologic samples of the removed tissue, a standard measure of the success of preoperative also called neoadjuvant therapy. Similar results were seen in less than a third of those receiving a single anti-HER2 agent. The impact of these protocols on patients' postsurgical survival will be reported in a future study. The authors conclude that, compared to the standard trastuzumab treatment, the combined approach statistically improved the rate of complete remissions.

"We are also conducting a companion study, comparing dual HER2 blockade to single-drug therapy in adjuvant [postoperative] treatment of 8,000 patients," Baselga says. "If that study's results confirm our current findings, the implications could be profound for the way we design clinical trials, suggesting that we could answer important questions with much smaller trials." Baselga is a professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The study was supported by GlaxoSmithKline, which manufactures lapatinib.

###

Massachusetts General Hospital (www.massgeneral.org), founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $750 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 16-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Katie Marquedant
kmarquedant@partners.org
617-314-3986
Massachusetts General Hospital

Using two drugs that inhibit the growth factor HER2 for preoperative treatment of early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer appears to have better results than treatment with a single agent. In a report in the January 17 issue of The Lancet, an international research team reports that a protocol adding lapatinib (Tykerb) to trastuzumab (Herceptin) was more effective than single-drug treatment with either drug in eliminating microscopic signs of cancer at the time the tumors were surgically removed.

"This is the first demonstration that adding a second anti-HER2 therapy, lapatinib, to trastuzumab is superior to trastuzumab alone in patients with early breast cancer," says Jos Baselga, MD, PhD, chief of Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, who led the study. "It opens up the concept of dual HER2 blockade as a better approach for patients with early, non-metastatic, HER2 breast cancer."

Approximately 20 to 30 percent of breast cancers are driven by overexpression of HER2, and such tumors are particularly aggressive. Both trastuzumab and lapatinib are agents that target HER2 and have been shown to improve the outcome of patients with HER2-positive breast cancer. Trastuzumab is currently approved in the U.S. for postoperative treatment and in Europe for both pre- and postoperative therapy; lapatinib is used in combination with chemotherapy for patients whose tumors have stopped responding to trastuzumab. Since the two drugs have different mechanisms of action, combination therapy is being investigated to reduce the development of treatment-resistant disease.

The current investigation the NeoAdjuvant Lapatinib and/or Trastuzumab Treatment Optimization (NeoALTTO) study enrolled 455 patients in 23 countries. Participants had early-stage, nonmetastatic HER2-positive breast tumors that had not yet been treated and were randomized to one of three treatment arms: anti-HER2 treatment with either intravenous trastuzumab, oral lapatinib or both for 6 weeks. For all participants the same anti-HER2 therapy was continued for another 12 weeks, with the addition of a weekly dose of paclitaxel (Taxol). Tumors were removed surgically within 4 weeks of the last paclitaxel dose. At the completion of surgery, patients received additional chemotherapy and then continued to receive the same anti-HER2 therapy, for a total of one year of anti-HER2 treatment.

More than half the participants receiving combined anti-HER2 therapy achieved a pathological complete response, which means is they had no visible cancer cells in pathologic samples of the removed tissue, a standard measure of the success of preoperative also called neoadjuvant therapy. Similar results were seen in less than a third of those receiving a single anti-HER2 agent. The impact of these protocols on patients' postsurgical survival will be reported in a future study. The authors conclude that, compared to the standard trastuzumab treatment, the combined approach statistically improved the rate of complete remissions.

"We are also conducting a companion study, comparing dual HER2 blockade to single-drug therapy in adjuvant [postoperative] treatment of 8,000 patients," Baselga says. "If that study's results confirm our current findings, the implications could be profound for the way we design clinical trials, suggesting that we could answer important questions with much smaller trials." Baselga is a professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The study was supported by GlaxoSmithKline, which manufactures lapatinib.

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Massachusetts General Hospital (www.massgeneral.org), founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of more than $750 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, computational and integrative biology, cutaneous biology, human genetics, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, regenerative medicine, reproductive biology, systems biology, transplantation biology and photomedicine.

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/mgh-cta011212.php

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