Russia delivers aid for Syria refugees in Lebanon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Russian plane carrying 36 tonnes of humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees in Lebanon landed in Beirut on Wednesday, the first such shipment by Moscow which has supported President Bashar al-Assad throughout the two-year-old conflict.

Russia's ambassador to Beirut Alexander Zasypkin said the Ilyushin transport plane brought blankets, food supplies and generators to Lebanon, where the United Nations says 398,000 Syrians are seeking refuge from the conflict in their country.

Moscow has supported Assad throughout the revolt by refusing to consider sanctions on Damascus, vetoing three resolutions condemning his crackdown on opposition groups and supplying weapons to the Syrian army.

The wave of refugees is threatening to overwhelm authorities in a country of only four million people, whose prime minister Najib Mikati resigned last month over disputes in cabinet which have been inflamed by the Syrian civil war.

Mikati, still serving in a caretaker capacity, and President Michel Suleiman have appealed for international help to cope with the flood of refugees escaping a civil war between Assad's forces and rebels.

Zasypkin told reporters at the airport that Moscow would send another shipment of aid next week and two more later this month.

(Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-delivers-aid-syria-refugees-lebanon-133959797.html

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Scientists: China bird virus likely silent threat

BEIJING (AP) ? Scientists taking a first look at the genetics of a bird flu strain that has killed three people in China said Wednesday that the virus could be harder to track than its better-known cousin H5N1 because it might be able to spread among poultry without showing any signs.

The scientists, at several research institutes around the world, urged Chinese veterinary authorities to widely test animals and birds in affected regions to quickly detect and eliminate the H7N9 virus before it becomes widespread.

They said the virus is troubling because it can infect poultry without producing any symptoms, while seriously sickening humans. The virus, previously known to have infected only birds, appears to have mutated, enabling it to more easily infect other animals, including pigs, which could serve as hosts and spread the virus more widely among humans, they said.

The findings are preliminary and need further testing.

China over the weekend reported two deaths in Shanghai in the strain's first known infections of humans. On Wednesday it announced an additional fatality ? a 38-year-old cook working in Jiangsu province, where other cases also have been reported.

The cook went home to Hangzhou in Zhejiang province for treatment after falling ill in early March, and died March 27.

One other person in Hangzhou, a 67-year-old retiree, was in critical condition, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, bringing the number of seriously ill H7N9 patients in three eastern provinces to six. Those regions stepped up measures this week to guard against the spread of the disease, calling on hospitals to report severe pneumonia cases with unknown causes and schools to monitor for fevers.

In the wake of the outbreak, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention shared the genetic sequence of the new virus with the global health community. The data allow scientists to make preliminary interpretations of how the virus might behave in different animals and situations. Such hypotheses, while not conclusive, can help provide important early warnings to authorities dealing with the disease.

The scientists said that based on information from the genetic data and Chinese lab testing, the H7N9 virus appears to infect some birds without causing any noticeable symptoms. Without obvious outbreaks of dying chickens or birds to focus efforts on, authorities could face a challenge in trying to trace the source of the infection and stop the spread.

"We speculate that when this virus is maintained in poultry the disease will not appear, and similar in pigs, if they are infected, so nobody recognizes the infection in animals around them, then the transmission from animal to human may occur," said Dr. Masato Tashiro, director of the World Health Organization's influenza research center in Tokyo and one of the specialists who studied the genetic data. "In terms of this phenomenon, it's more problematic."

This behavior is unlike the virus's more established relative, the virulent H5N1 strain, which set off warnings when it began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003. H5N1 has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.

"In that sense, if this continues to spread throughout China and beyond China, it would be an even bigger problem than with H5N1 in some sense, because with H5N1 you can see evidence of poultry dying, but here you can see this would be more or less a silent virus in poultry species that will occasionally infect humans," said University of Hong Kong microbiologist Malik Peiris, who also examined the information.

Scientists closely monitor bird flu viruses, fearing they may change and become easier to spread among humans, possibly sparking a pandemic. There's no evidence of that happening in China.

Peiris praised Chinese health authorities for being forthcoming with data and information, but said animal health agencies needed to act quickly. He urged China to widely test healthy birds in live animal markets in the parts of the country where the human infections have been reported to find out what bird species might be hosting the virus and stop the spread.

"If you don't stamp it out earlier now, there won't be any chance of stamping it out in the future," Peiris said. "It already may be too late, but this is the small window of opportunity that really one has to grasp, as quickly as possible."

The Agriculture Ministry's propaganda office could not be reached by phone and did not immediately respond to a faxed list of questions.

Other information gleaned from the genetic data was that the H7N9 virus was what scientists call a "gene re-assortant" ? in which three bird viruses swapped genes among themselves ? undergoing changes that allowed it to adapt more easily, though not fully, to human hosts, WHO's Tashiro said. One change has allowed it to lodge on the surfaces of cells of mammals, making it easier to infect humans.

"The tentative assessment of this virus is that it may cause human infection or epidemic. It is still not yet adapted to humans completely, but important factors have already changed," Tashiro said.

In China, the public is highly sensitized to news of infectious disease outbreaks, with many still recalling the SARS pneumonia scare a decade ago, when the government stayed silent while rumors circulated for weeks of an unidentified disease in southern Guangdong province. The cover-up contributed to the spread of the virus to many parts of China and to two dozen other countries, killing hundreds of people.

While many foreign health experts say China is being far more forthcoming this time than during the SARS scare, the government still faces credibility questions at home as it tries to juggle the need to respond to calls by the public for more information and the need to prevent unnecessary panic.

"The H7N9 bird flu is currently approaching. Ten years ago, the lesson learned in fighting SARS was: The greatest enemy is not the virus, but covering up the truth; the best medicine is not steroids, but transparency and trust," Yang Yu, a commentator with state broadcaster CCTV, said in a post on his microblog. "No matter what H7N9 is, now, the time to test the progress of Chinese society over the past 10 years has come."

___

Associated Press researcher Flora Ji contributed to this report.

___

Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at twitter.com/gillianwong

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-china-bird-virus-likely-silent-threat-095703617.html

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Thicke's video with nude models gets YouTube ban

NEW YORK (AP) ? Robin Thicke's new music video is too hot for YouTube.

A representative for the R&B crooner said Monday that his unrated video for "Blurred Lines" was banned from the website. The clip features nude models prowling around Thicke and rappers T.I. and Pharrell.

A rep for YouTube didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The video is still playing on the music video website Vevo.

Thicke's unrated clip was released last week and garnered more than 1 million views in days. It became a water cooler topic on the blogs and entertainment websites. The original video was released a week before and has 1.3 million views.

Thicke said in an interview last week that he had sought the approval of his wife, actress Paula Patton, to shoot with nude models.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thickes-video-nude-models-gets-youtube-ban-201952024.html

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Guillermo del Toro Talks Justice League Dark

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927152/news/1927152/

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Questions in China on how H7N9 flu strain killed 2

A vendor waits for customers near chicken cages at a market in Fuyang city, in central China's Anhui province, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Two Shanghai men have died from a lesser-known type of bird flu in the first known human deaths from the strain, and Chinese authorities said Sunday that it wasn't clear how they were infected, but that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. A third person, a woman in the nearby province of Anhui, also contracted the H7N9 strain of bird flu and was in critical condition, China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a report on its website. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

A vendor waits for customers near chicken cages at a market in Fuyang city, in central China's Anhui province, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Two Shanghai men have died from a lesser-known type of bird flu in the first known human deaths from the strain, and Chinese authorities said Sunday that it wasn't clear how they were infected, but that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. A third person, a woman in the nearby province of Anhui, also contracted the H7N9 strain of bird flu and was in critical condition, China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a report on its website. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

A dove rests on a tree near a Chinese sign read as "China" at a park on Monday, April 1, 2013 in Shanghai, China. Two Shanghai men have died from a lesser-known type of bird flu in the first known human deaths from the strain, and Chinese authorities said Sunday it wasn't clear how they were infected but there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

World Health Organization?s China representative Michael O'Leary attends a press conference in Beijing Monday, April 1, 2013. Health officials said they still don?t understand how a lesser-known bird flu virus was able to kill two men and seriously sicken a woman in China, but that it?s unlikely that it can spread easily among humans. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)

BEIJING (AP) ? Health officials say they still don't understand how a lesser-known bird flu virus was able to kill two men and seriously sicken a woman in China, but that it's unlikely that it can spread easily among humans.

Two men in Shanghai became the first known human fatalities from the H7N9 bird flu virus after contracting it in February. A woman in the eastern city of Chuzhou remains in serious condition, China's National Health and Family Planning Commission said.

It was unclear how the three patients became infected, the health agency said. It sought to calm fears about the virus but provided few details about each case. Authorities have not described the patients' occupations or said whether they had come into contact with birds or other animals.

The health authority noted, however, that two sons of one of the Shanghai men also suffered from acute pneumonia, one of whom died, and the source of their infection is still unknown. Other people who were in close contact with the victims have not become sick, indicating that the virus is not easily transmitted between humans.

"We don't know yet the causes of illness in the two sons, but naturally, if three people in one family acquire severe pneumonia in a short period of time, it raises a lot of concern," the World Health Organization's China representative, Michael O'Leary, said at a briefing in Beijing late Monday.

Many epidemiologists regard densely populated parts of China and Southeast Asia, where farmers often live in close quarters with pigs and poultry, as regions where conditions are ideal for nurturing infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans. An earlier deadly outbreak of SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, was linked to wild animals that infected animals, which in turn infected people in that region.

Other strains of the H7 family of bird flu viruses have caused mostly mild human infections in the past, said University of Hong Kong microbiologist Malik Peiris, with cases reported in the Netherlands, Canada, the U.S. and Britain ? mostly following outbreaks in poultry.

Experts say the deaths in China might indicate that the H7N9 strain has morphed to become more lethal to humans, although it's not possible to make any conclusions yet about its mortality rate because many mild cases may go undetected. A thorough tracing of the virus is critical.

"I would guess that given the severity of the human disease it is likely that these particular viruses have undergone the change to become highly pathogenic but obviously that remains to be ascertained," Peiris said. "The crucial question is the source of this virus, where is it."

Scientists have long feared that another bird flu strain, H5N1, might mutate to spread more easily. But while it has decimated poultry stocks mostly in Southeast Asia, it has only occasionally sickened people ? mostly after close contact with infected poultry. It can be deadly when it does infect humans, though, killing about 60 percent of the time.

"At the moment, there has been not much evidence of human-to-human transmission (of H7N9) so to that extent it is similar to the H5N1 situation, but it is early days and so there's a lot more to be understood," Peiris said.

More than 16,000 pig carcasses were fished out of the river system that supplies some of Shanghai's water supply in March, apparently dumped by farmers after they were sickened, and some observers have wondered whether there might be a link between the sickened pigs and the bird flu deaths. Virologists also study pigs because they can serve as hosts for bird viruses and human viruses to mix and mutate.

Shanghai's animal disease prevention bureau Monday tested 34 samples taken from the dead pigs but did not find any bird flu viruses, state media reported.

Scientists classify flus based on the proteins on the surface of the virus: There are 17 varieties of hemagluttinin, the H in a flu's name, and 10 varieties of neuraminidase, the N component. Any combination of those Hs and Ns could crop up and potentially mutate into a form that's spread easily from person to person, making it dangerous enough to produce a pandemic.

Health authorities are monitoring 88 people who came into contact with the H7N9 patients and have not found any additional infections so far, China's health agency said. Experts say that indicates that the chance of human-to-human transmission is low.

"It is very unlikely, because the virus has to break the species barrier and this is usually quite a difficult event. There has to be a lot of significant mutation," said David Hui, an infectious disease expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

One of the male victims of H7N9, who was 87, became ill on Feb. 19 and died on Feb 27. The other man, 27, became ill on Feb. 27 and died on March 4, the Chinese health commission said. A 35-year-old woman in the Anhui city of Chuzhou became ill on March 9.

WHO's O'Leary said it was difficult to predict the lethality of the virus but such emerging viruses tended to be more severe in humans and authorities were always on the lookout for a virus that might cause a severe pandemic.

"This may be a dead-end ... there's a few sporadic cases, it's hard to transmit to humans and doesn't transmit from human to human," he said. "But what we want to watch out for is whether it is a virus that is both serious for humans and easily transmitted."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-04-01-China-Bird%20Flu/id-988744516acf43739c6bc4c39f887477

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Louisville beats Duke 85-63 to reach Final Four

Louisville players celebrate following their 85-63 win over Duke in the Midwest Regional final in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Louisville players celebrate following their 85-63 win over Duke in the Midwest Regional final in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Louisville guard Peyton Siva celebrates after Louisville's 85-63 win over Duke in Midwest Regional final in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Louisville's Peyton Siva, left, and Chane Behanan, celebrate following their 85-63 win over Duke in the Midwest Regional final in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Indianapolis. Behanan was wearing the jersey of teammate Kevin Ware (5) who was injured during the game. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Louisville's Chane Behanan leaps in the air as he wears the jersey of injured teammate Kevin Ware as he and teammates celebrate their 85-63 win over Duke in the Midwest Regional final in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Louisville players celebrate following their 85-63 win over Duke in the Midwest Regional final in the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 31, 2013, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? Writhing on the ground, his leg splintered, Kevin Ware had only one thing to say to his heartsick Louisville teammates.

"Just go win the game."

The Cardinals did, exploding for a 13-2 run early in the second half that sealed their 85-63 victory over Duke. Now they're headed for Atlanta with their eyes on the national title and Ware's words echoing in their heads.

Top-seeded Louisville ? the only No. 1 left ? will play Wichita State in the national semifinals next Saturday. In Ware's hometown, no less.

"We want to do this for him," Peyton Siva said. "We know how much it means to him."

Louisville (33-5) was devastated by Ware's injury, which occurred with 6:33 still left in the first half. The sophomore had jumped to try and block Tyler Thornton's 3-point shot but, and as he landed, his right leg snapped midway between his ankle and knee, the bone skewing almost at a right angle. Ware dropped to the floor right in front of the Louisville bench and, almost in unison, his teammates turned away in horror. Thornton grimaced, putting his hand to his mouth as he turned around.

"He stumbled a bit for a second and fell, and his leg wasn't where it should be," Luke Hancock said.

Ware had surgery later Sunday night, and Pitino said he and his son Richard, who recruited Ware, and an equipment manager would spend the night in Indy, along with the team's doctors.

School officials said doctors reset the bone and inserted a rod into the tibia during the two-hour procedure.

Coach Rick Pitino went to help Ware up when he went down ? and then saw the player's bone poking through the skin.

"I literally almost threw up," Pitino said, his voice catching. "Then I just wanted to get a towel to get it over that. But all the players came over and saw it."

Louisville forward Wayne Blackshear fell to the floor and Chane Behanan, Ware's closest friend on the team, looked as if he was going to be sick on the court, kneeling on his hands and feet. Hancock patted Ware's chest as doctors worked on the sophomore and Russ Smith walked away, pulling his jersey over his eyes. The arena was silent, and several fans wept and bowed their heads.

Pitino had tears in his eyes as he tried to console his players. Dieng draped an arm around the shoulders of Smith, who repeatedly wiped at his eyes and shook his head.

"It was really hard for me to pull myself together," Smith said. "I didn't ever think in a million years I would ever see something like that. And that it happened, especially, to a guy like Kevin Ware, I was completely devastated."

As the Cardinals (33-5) gathered at halfcourt to try and regroup before play resumed, Pitino called them over to the sideline, saying Ware wanted to talk to them before he left.

"He told us countless times: 'Just go win this game for me. Just go win this game. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Just go win this game.' I don't know how he did it. I don't know how he got strength to do it, but he told us to go out there and win."

The injury was so gruesome CBS stopped showing replays of it. Many who saw it were reminded of the horrific broken leg that ended Joe Theismann's NFL career, and the former quarterback was among the many who took to Twitter to wish Ware well, saying, "Watching Duke/ Louisville my heart goes out to Kevin Ware."

Pitino wiped away tears as Ware, whom Smith described as the Cardinals' "little brother" was wheeled off the court. Surgeons reset his leg and inserted a rod in his right tibia during a 2-hour operation at Methodist Hospital. Ware is expected to remain in Indianapolis until at least Tuesday, but the Cardinals hope he can join them in Atlanta, where he moved before he started high school.

"He was groggy, in good spirits," Pitino said when he returned to his hotel late Sunday night after visiting Ware. "He saw us win the trophy and was crying and said it was all worthwhile."

But when play resumed, it was clear the Cardinals' minds were elsewhere. They missed four of their next five shots along with two free throws, and were uncharacteristically sloppy.

"Honestly, we were in shock," Hancock said. "I don't think we did re-group for the rest of the half. I think we were still in such shock. I mean, you could imagine how a team would feel if one of your brothers had this happen to them."

When they went into the locker room, Pitino's message was simple.

"Don't lose the game for Kevin Ware," Smith said. "That's it, really."

The Cardinals had finished the first half on a 12-6 run, and Smith padded that by making all of his free throws when he was fouled on a 3-point attempt. But just as he did against Michigan State, Duke star Seth Curry got hot after halftime, making two 3s in the first three minutes. Mason Plumlee dunked, and the game was tied at 42.

That, however, was all Louisville needed. Clawing for every rebound, diving on the floor for loose balls and cranking the intensity up even higher on their ferocious defense, the Cardinals were not going to lose.

And everyone, Duke included, knew it.

"These guys really came to play," Siva said. "Everybody on the team just wanted to step up for him."

Smith converted a three-point play and Siva followed with a silky-smooth jumper from the top of the key. Just like that, Louisville was off.

Siva had six points during the run, which was only halted by a timeout. But Dieng kept it rolling with a jumper and a tip-in. After Plumlee made a pair of free throws, Hancock made a 3 and Lucas Oil Stadium shook from the thunderous cheers of the Louisville fans.

The Blue Devils were never close again.

Smith finished with 23 points and earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the Midwest Region. Siva added 16 while Dieng had 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

Plumlee had 17 points and 12 rebounds for Duke. But the Blue Devils (30-6) couldn't overcome a poor start by Curry, who scored all 12 of his points in the second half.

This was only the second time the Blue Devils have reached the regional finals and failed to make it to the Final Four. The only other time? In 1998, when the Blue Devils lost to eventual national champion Kentucky.

"I thought we had a chance there, and then, boom," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That's what they do to teams. They can boom you."

This was the first time Pitino and Krzyzewski had met in the regional finals since that 1992 classic that ended with Christian Laettner's improbable buzzer-beater, a game now considered one of the best in NCAA tournament history.

This game will be remembered, too, but for very different reasons.

As the final seconds ticked down, Behanan, put on Ware's No. 5 jersey and stood at the end of the bench, screaming and waving a towel in triumph.

"I don't think we could have gathered ourselves - I know I couldn't have ? if Kevin didn't say over and over again, 'Just go win the game,'" Pitino said. "I don't think we could have gone in the locker room with a loss after seeing that. We had to gather ourselves. We couldn't lose this game for him.

"We just couldn't."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-01-BKC-NCAA-Duke-Louisville-Folo/id-d89edad741354210abc997545d5f5a24

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Ariz. won't change tune on gay marriage, despite his gay son

A Republican congressman from Arizona told a local news staton that his son's sexual orientation hasn't changed his view that same-sex couples should not be allowed to marry.

Rep. Matt Salmon, from Arizona's 5th congressional district, told 3TV that he loves his son and does not believe he chose to be gay, but that he has not "evolved" to the position that his son should be allowed to marry someone of the same sex.

"I don't support the gay marriage," Salmon says in the clip. "My son is by far one of the most important people in my life. I love him more than I can say. I'm just not there as far as believing in my heart that we should change 2,000 years of social policy in favor of a redefinition of the family. I'm not there.

"It doesn't mean that I don't have respect," he continued. "It doesn't mean that I don't symphathize with some of the issues. It just means I haven't evolved to that station."

Last week, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio became the most prominent Republican politician to announce his support for same-sex marriage. He wrote in an op-ed that he changed his strong stance against gay marriage after his son came out as gay when he was a college freshman two years ago to Portman and his wife. "Knowing that my son is gay prompted me to consider the issue from another perspective: that of a dad who wants all three of his kids to lead happy, meaningful lives with the people they love, a blessing Jane and I have shared for 26 years," he wrote.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases last week that could pave the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage in California and other states. Their decisions aren't expected until June.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/arizona-congressman-gay-son-doesn-t-change-position-191347768--election.html

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