China kills market birds as flu found in pigeons

Workers in protective clothing chat during a culling operation as authorities detected the new bird flu strain in pigeons being sold for meat at a wholesale market in Shanghai on Friday April 5, 2013. China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities carried out the slaughter of all poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

Workers in protective clothing chat during a culling operation as authorities detected the new bird flu strain in pigeons being sold for meat at a wholesale market in Shanghai on Friday April 5, 2013. China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities carried out the slaughter of all poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

A Chinese policeman wears a mask as he guards an access to a wholesale market where authorities are culling poultry after the new bird flu strain was detected there in pigeons being sold for meat in Shanghai on Friday April 5, 2013. China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities carried out the slaughter of all poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

Workers in protective clothing move bags out from a wholesale market during a culling operation as authorities detected a new bird flu strain in pigeons being sold for meat at the market in Shanghai, China, Friday April 5, 2013. China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities carried out the slaughter of all poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

A vender waits for the customers at a poultry market in Shanghai, China on Friday, April 5, 2013. China announced Friday a sixth death from a new bird flu strain while authorities carried out the slaughter of all poultry at a Shanghai market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A worker catches a live chicken at a poultry market in Shanghai, China on Friday, April 5, 2013. China announced a sixth death from the new bird flu H7N9 strain Friday, while authorities in Shanghai halted the sale of live fowl and slaughtered all poultry at a market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat. The first cases were announced Sunday. (AP Photo)

BEIJING (AP) ? China announced a sixth death from a new bird flu strain Friday, while authorities in Shanghai halted the sale of live fowl and slaughtered all poultry at a market where the virus was detected in pigeons being sold for meat.

The mass bird killing is the first so far as the Chinese government responds to the H7N9 strain of bird flu, which has sickened 16 people, many critically, along the eastern seaboard in its first known infections of people. The first cases were announced Sunday, while two more were reported Friday, both retirees who were seriously ill.

Health officials believe people are contracting the virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there has been no evidence so far that the virus is spreading easily between people. However, scientists are watching closely to see if the flu poses a substantial risk to public health or could potentially spark a global pandemic.

The Agriculture Ministry confirmed late Thursday that the H7N9 virus had been detected in live pigeons on sale at a produce market in Shanghai. The killing of birds at the Huhuai market in Shanghai started Thursday night after the city's agricultural committee ordered it in a notice also posted on its website.

State media on Friday ran pictures of animal health officials in protective overalls and masks working through the night at the market, taking notes as they stood over piles of poultry carcasses in plastic bags. The area was guarded by police and cordoned off with plastic tape.

Experts urged Chinese health authorities to keep testing healthy birds, saying the H7N9 virus can infect birds without causing them to become ill, making it harder to detect than the H5N1 bird flu virus that is more familiar to Asian countries. H5N1 set off warnings when it began ravaging poultry across Asia in 2003 and has since killed 360 people worldwide, mostly after close contact with infected birds.

"In the past usually you would see chickens dying before any infections occurred in humans, but this time we've seen that many species of poultry actually have no apparent problems, so that makes it difficult because you lose this natural warning sign," said David Hui, an infectious diseases expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The city of Shanghai also announced a suspension of the sale of live poultry starting Saturday, city spokesman Xu Wei said at a news conference.

Pigeon is a common type of poultry in Chinese cuisine and the birds are sold live in markets around the country. Chinese also raise pigeons as pets, but those tend to be a different type.

Hui said the pigeons were probably infected by wild or migratory birds, whose droppings can carry viruses. He said they were likely not the only species of poultry to be carrying the virus.

While health officials caution that there are no indications the virus can be transmitted from one person to another, scientists who have studied its genetic sequence said this week that the virus may have recently mutated into a form that spreads more easily to other animals, potentially posing a bigger threat to humans.

The latest death from the virus confirmed by the government Friday was a 64-year-old farmer in the eastern city of Huzhou. Authorities said Thursday the virus also killed a 48-year-old man who transported poultry for a living and a 52-year-old woman, both in Shanghai. Several among the infected are believed to have had direct contact with fowl.

Guidelines issued Wednesday by the national health agency identify butchers, breeders and sellers of poultry, and those in the meat processing industry as at higher risk.

Experts identified the first cases on Sunday. Some of the 16 confirmed cases fell ill several weeks ago but only now are being classified as having H7N9. The official Xinhua News Agency said six cases have been confirmed in Shanghai, six in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui.

___

Associated Press researcher Fu Ting contributed to this report from Shanghai.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2013-04-05-China-Bird%20Flu/id-aeaa9e2b5fed42f1812d573415793791

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SEC gives companies OK to use social media

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Securities and Exchange Commission will allow public companies to make significant announcements on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites provided they alert investors which sites they intend to use.

The decision announced Tuesday allows companies to use social media in place of more formal websites.

The question arose after Netflix Inc. CEO Reed Hastings said on his Facebook page in July that subscribers together watched more than 1 billion hours of video for the first time during June, the agency said.

An SEC rule requires that all investors receive significant company information at the same time. By allowing businesses to use more informal channels to share news with investors, the SEC is acknowledging the shift in technology that has made social media indispensable for the largest and most powerful corporations.

One key requirement is that companies alert investors in press releases or regulatory filings as to where they plan to disseminate information that could potentially affect the price of the company's stock.

Although Hastings didn't provide any further details, the statistic implied that the usage of Netflix's Internet video library had increased significantly since the company had last provided viewership numbers six months earlier. Analysts interpreted the new viewership numbers as a sign that Netflix either hit the top end of its second-quarter goal for streaming subscribers or exceeded it.

Netflix stock jumped from $70.45 at the time of Hastings' Facebook post to $81.72 at the close of the next trading day.

Neither Hastings nor Netflix had previously used Facebook to announce company information and they hadn't notified investors that Facebook might be used for that purpose, the SEC said Tuesday. The agency's enforcement division opened an inquiry but took no action against Hastings or Netflix nor alleged any wrongdoing.

Rather, the SEC decided to issue the guidance for all companies, saying they should take care to disseminate information through social media in a way that all people will have access to it.

Netflix said in a statement Tuesday, "We appreciate the SEC's careful consideration and resolution of this matter."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-04-02-US-SEC-Social-Media-Companies/id-74308291ca504af1bd0b3a96a2484793

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Syrian rebels set their sights on strategic south

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian rebels captured a military base in the south on Wednesday and set their sights on seizing control of a strategically important region along the border with Jordan that would give them a critical gateway to attempt an attack on the capital, Damascus.

With foreign aid and training of rebels in Jordan ramping up, the opposition fighters have regained momentum in their fight to topple President Bashar Assad.

But while the fall of southern Syria would facilitate the rebel push for Damascus, it might also create dangerous complications, potentially drawing Syria's neighbors into the 2-year-old civil war. Besides abutting Jordan, the region includes territory that borders Syria's side of the Golan Heights, along a sensitive frontier with Israel.

"This is a very sensitive triangle we are talking about," said Hisham Jaber, a retired Lebanese army general who heads the Middle East Center for Studies and Political Research in Beirut. "The fall of Daraa, if it happens, may usher in strategic changes in the area."

For the rebels, control of the south is key to their advance toward Damascus. Dozens of fighting brigades have carved up footholds in areas to the east and south of the capital, where they fire off mortar shells on the heavily guarded city.

The significance of their gains in the south was on display Wednesday when the rebels stormed a military base after a five-day siege.

"Damascus will be liberated from here, from Daraa, from the south," declared an armed fighter, a rifle slung over his shoulder and a kaffiyeh tied around his face. Videos posted online by activists showed him and other unidentified rebels celebrating inside the Syrian army's 49th battalion in the village of Alma, on the outskirts of Daraa.

"We will march to the presidential palace from here," said another fighter, amid bursts of Allahu Akbar, or God is great. The videos showed rebels from the Suqour Houran, or Eagles of Houran brigade, driving a Russian-made armored personnel carrier inside the base. "These missiles are now under our control," said a fighter, standing before a missile loaded on a truck.

Another video, posted by the Fajr al-Islam brigade, showed the rebels walking around the base as the heavy thud of incoming artillery rounds fired by nearby regime forces was heard in the background. A destroyed rocket, army trucks and radars were seen on the ground.

The videos appeared consistent with Associated Press reporting from the area.

The capture of the base is the latest advance by opposition fighters near the strategic border with Jordan. Last month, opposition fighters seized Dael, one of the province's bigger towns, and overran another air defense base in the region.

Opposition fighters battling Assad's troops have been chipping away at the regime's hold on the southern part of the country in recent weeks with the help of an influx of foreign-funded weapons.

Their aim is to secure a corridor from the Jordanian border to Damascus in preparation for an eventual assault on the capital. And they have made major progress along the way. Activists say several towns and villages along the Daraa-Damascus route are now in rebel hands.

A Western diplomat who monitors Syria from his base in Jordan said the fall of Daraa appeared imminent, possibly in the next few days or weeks. His assessment was based on classified intelligence information, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order not to hamper his intelligence-gathering efforts.

Daraa's fall could unleash lawlessness on Jordan's northern border and send jitters across the kingdom, a key U.S. ally which fears Islamic extremist groups on its doorstep.

Also of grave concern are rebel advances in areas near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

"If Daraa falls, the rebels will come face-to-face with the Israeli army in the Golan," said Hilal Khashan, a political science professor at the American University of Beirut.

Daraa province separates Damascus from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967 and annexed in 1981. In recent weeks, Israel has seen Syrian mortar rounds and bullets land in Israeli territory and tanks enter a demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights. Israeli security officials believe the incidents have been inadvertent but have threatened to retaliate.

In addition to complications arising from rebels controlling the frontiers with Israel and Jordan, the fall of Daraa may drag in members of Syria's minority Druse community who live in the southern province of Sweida, Khashan said.

Like other minorities in Syria, they have so far remained largely on the sidelines of the uprising, but that could change if they feel threatened by the Islamic rebels.

The series of rebel gains coincided with what regional officials and military experts say is a sharp increase in weapons shipments to opposition fighters by Arab governments, in coordination with the U.S., in the hopes of readying a push into Damascus.

Thousands of fighters have entered Daraa in recent weeks, said Jaber, adding that rebels capitalizing on new weapons aim to use Daraa as a launch pad for reaching Damascus. Still, he and other analysts said the fall of Daraa would not change the balance of power unless the rebels acquire more advanced weapons.

More importantly, the rebels would also need to cut off the roads linking Damascus to the central province of Homs and from there to the Syrian coast.

Many observers believe Assad, as a last resort, would carve out a breakaway enclave for himself and his fellow Alawites in their historic heartland in towns and villages of Syria's mountainous coast, from which they would fight for survival against the Sunni majority battling to topple him.

The Syrian revolt started with peaceful protests but turned into a bloody conflict after some Syrians took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent. The fighting has taken increasingly sectarian overtones, with Sunni Muslims dominating the rebel ranks. The Assad regime is dominated by Alawites, an offshoot Shiite group to which the president and his family belong.

The uprising began from Daraa, a largely agricultural region predominantly populated by Sunnis, in March 2011. Although long considered a regime stronghold, small protests began calling for the release of teenagers after they were arrested for scrawling anti-regime graffiti on the walls.

The conflict has turned into a civil war that the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people.

The rebels control vast portions of northern Syria bordering Turkey. They've also captured areas in the east along the border with Iraq recently, but the strategic region between the southern outskirts of Damascus and Jordan ? known as the Houran plains ? is seen as a crucial gateway to the capital.

Both sides consider Damascus, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Jordanian border, the ultimate prize.

Millions of Syrians have fled the conflict, seeking refuge in neighboring Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, raising fears the civil war could spread across the region as the fighting occasionally spills over Syria's volatile borders.

In Lebanon, a Syrian jet fired a missile that slammed into a house on the outskirts of the border town of Arsal, causing material damage but no casualties, according to Lebanese state media. The Sunni Muslim town has backed opposition fighters in Syria, and arms smuggling is widespread in the area.

Lebanese gunmen supporting opposing sides of the conflict have frequently clashed, raising concerns the fighting could re-ignite Lebanon's explosive sectarian mix.

__

Associated Press writers Jamal Halaby in Amman, Bassem Mroue and Barbara Surk in Beirut and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-set-sights-strategic-south-210718856.html

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Jelly Bean now found on a quarter of Android devices ? sort of

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, who has done stints in rehab for problems with alcohol, has dropped out of the current leg of the band's tour for "personal issues," the band said on its website on Wednesday. "Due to personal issues, Richie Sambora will not be performing on this upcoming leg. All shows will go on as scheduled," the posting said, offering no other details or when Sambora might resume performing. Sambora, 53, spent time in rehab in 2007 and 2011, and the band did its 2011 North American and European tour without him. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jelly-bean-now-found-quarter-android-devices-sort-204118806.html

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It's official: Sanford facing Colbert Busch in SC

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford thanks his fiance Maria Belen Chapur as he addresses supporters in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, after winning the GOP nomination for the U.S. House seat he once held. Sanford is trying to make a comeback after his political career was derailed four years ago when he disappeared from the state only to return to admit the couple was having an affair. Sanford's wife, Jenny, later divorced him. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford thanks his fiance Maria Belen Chapur as he addresses supporters in Mount Pleasant, S.C., on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, after winning the GOP nomination for the U.S. House seat he once held. Sanford is trying to make a comeback after his political career was derailed four years ago when he disappeared from the state only to return to admit the couple was having an affair. Sanford's wife, Jenny, later divorced him. (AP Photo/Bruce Smith)

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (AP) ? The race for a vacant South Carolina congressional seat has turned into the big-name contest political junkies had hoped for.

Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican trying to make a comeback after his political career was derailed by his admission of an extramarital affair four years ago, faces Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch (KOHL'-buhrt), the sister of political satirist Stephen Colbert (kohl-BEHR'). The special election is May 7.

Sanford defeated former Charleston County Councilman Curtis Bostic in the GOP primary runoff Tuesday, clearing another hurdle in his quest for political redemption.

Colbert Busch, a businesswoman, has long aspired to political office. She says jobs is her top priority.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-03-1st%20District-South%20Carolina/id-069b23956c864b89a964eb067abda27b

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Obama: Colorado is 'a model of what's possible'

By Jeff Mason

DENVER (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought to rally public support for proposed background checks for all gun buyers, touting new gun control measures enacted in Colorado - the scene of two of the deadliest gun massacres in American history - as "a model of what's possible."

Obama is aiming to revive stalled momentum in Congress for several gun control measures, including universal background checks for gun buyers, that he called for after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut school in December. The Senate is set to take up gun control next week.

Speaking in a Western state that Obama noted has a strong tradition of gun ownership and hunting, the president said that taking action to reduce gun violence does not have to infringe on Americans' gun rights, enshrined in the Constitution's Second Amendment.

"There doesn't have to be a conflict between protecting our citizens and protecting our Second Amendment rights," Obama told a cheering crowd in Denver.

Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper last month signed into law legislation passed by Colorado legislators to require universal background checks for gun buyers and ban ammunition magazines with more than 15 rounds.

"I've come to Denver today in particular because Colorado is proving a model of what's possible," Obama said, adding that the state has shown that "practical progress" can be made.

Obama met privately with law enforcement and elected officials as well as relatives of victims of two Colorado mass shootings: at a movie theater last year in the Denver suburb of Aurora and at Columbine High School in 1999.

Obama devoted most of his speech at the Denver Police Academy to trying to build the case for expanding the existing background checks to cover all gun buyers. Loopholes in the law have exempted many gun buyers from such checks.

"Now understand, nobody is talking about creating an entirely new system. We are simply talking about plugging holes, sealing a porous system that isn't working as well as it should," Obama said.

"If you want to buy a gun, whether it's from a licensed dealer or a private seller, you should at least have to pass a background check to show you're not a criminal or someone legally prohibited from buying one. And that's just common sense," Obama added.

No major gun legislation has passed the U.S. Congress since 1994, but Obama has made gun control one of his top legislative priorities. Opinion polls show strong support for background checks and other gun control proposals, but gun rights advocates led by the National Rifle Association have lobbied fiercely against any new measures.

'THEATERS OF WAR'

In Denver, Obama mentioned some of his other gun control proposals - reinstating the ban on assault weapons and cracking down on high-capacity ammunition clips - that already appear to have little chance of passing the Democratic-led Senate, let alone the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

"I don't believe that weapons designed for theaters of war have a place in movie theaters. Most Americans agree with that," Obama said.

Obama urged Americans to call their senators and House members to ask where they stand and demand votes on his proposals. "There are already some senators back in Washington floating the idea that they might use obscure procedural stunts to prevent or delay any of these votes on reform," Obama said.

Obama drew applause when he pressed for the assault weapon ban despite its bleak prospects in the Senate. At least 15 of the 55-member Senate Democratic caucus are expected to join all the chamber's 45 Republicans to reject the measure.

Even a bipartisan measure to crack down on gun trafficking may be in trouble, according to congressional aides, because of a possible change being pushed by the NRA to weaken it.

The only provision that appears to have strong bipartisan support is a relatively minor one that would provide schools $40 million a year for 10 years to bolster security. This drew Republican backing only after Democrats slashed the proposed price by more than a half.

Obama met with two representatives of hunters' groups in Colorado. The president said he has received "stacks of letters" from gun owners who want gun violence stopped. Obama urged Americans on both sides of the gun debate to listen to each other and try to be more empathetic.

Obama plans to visit Connecticut next week to continue his push for action on reducing gun violence. Connecticut legislators were expected to vote on Wednesday on proposals to expand a state ban on assault weapons and require registration of high-capacity clips.

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Thomas Ferraro; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/colorado-law-shows-u-whats-possible-gun-control-201340568.html

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'HTC First' could be the rumored 'Facebook phone'

It has a screen and buttons

This Thursday we'll be live from Facebook HQ to meet the social network's "new home on Android," but today we're seeing what might be the "first" hardware to run the rumored Facebook-centric home screen.

The often-accurate @evleaks Twitter account has just published the image above, identifying it as the "HTC First." The timing of the leak and the (Facebook blue) typeface used strongly suggest that this could be the device codenamed "HTC Myst," reported in recent weeks to be the new HTC-built Facebook phone. (Update: @evleaks tells Android Central that this is indeed the rumored Facebook phone.)

There's not much else to say about the image in question -- we can see a 16:9 aspect ratio screen, a volume rocker and a power button, and that's about it. Its most interesting features are its capacitive buttons -- presumably back, home and menu -- though anything's possible in these heady days of Facebook-powered home screens.

If you've got any wild theories of your own, shout out in the comments!

Source: @evleaks

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Zg1sMwNbw5A/story01.htm

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