Car bombs, shootings kill 23 across Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 23 people were killed in Iraq on Monday in a series of car bombs in Shi'ite Muslim areas and militant attacks, medics and police sources said, taking the week's death toll to nearly 200 as sectarian violence intensifies.

Clashes have increased as the civil war in Syria puts strain on fragile relations between Sunnis and Shi'ites. The tensions are at their highest in Iraq since U.S. troops pulled out more than a year ago.

The latest bout of blood-letting began when security forces raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk last week triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas including the western province of Anbar, which borders Syria and Jordan.

Iraq decided on Monday to close a border crossing with Jordan for two days starting on Tuesday due to "organizational issues", the interior minister said without giving any details.

It is the second time this year that authorities have ordered the closure of the Traibil border post in Anbar where Sunnis have been protesting against Iraq's Shi'ite-led government since December.

The demonstrations had eased in the past month, but this week's army raid on a protest camp in Hawija, near Kirkuk, 170 km north of Baghdad, angered Sunnis and appears to have given insurgents more momentum.

Early on Monday, at least nine people were killed and 40 wounded in two car bomb explosions in Amara, 300 km (185 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

The first of two blasts in Amara, ripped through a market where people were meeting to eat breakfast, and the second hit an area where day laborers were gathering to look for work.

Another car bomb was detonated in a market in Diwaniya, 150 km south of Baghdad, killing two people, police said.

"I was preparing to go to work when a big explosion shook my house and broke the glass in all the windows," said witness Widy Jasim. "I ran outside, the explosion was near my house and bodies were everywhere".

A bomb in a parked car went off near a busy market in Kerbala, killing at least three people. A further six people were killed in an explosion near a Shi'ite worship site in Mahmudiya, about 30 km south of Baghdad.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but car and suicide bombings are trademarks of the Islamic State of Iraq, the Iraqi wing of Sunni Islamist al Qaeda which seeks to provoke sectarian conflict.

Violence is still well below its height in 2006-07, but provisional figures from rights group Iraq Body Count indicate about 1,494 people have been killed so far in 2013.

In Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, gunmen clashed with the army early on Monday, killing two soldiers and wounding three others, military sources said.

A sniper shot dead a soldier and wounded another while they were on patrol in Madaen in eastern Baghdad, police said.

The speaker of parliament Osama al-Nujaifi, himself a Sunni, proposed an initiative to avoid "the ghost of civil war and sectarian strife", calling on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Shi'ite-led government to resign, dissolve parliament and prepare for an early parliamentary election.

Iraqi politics are deeply divided along sectarian lines, with Maliki's government mired in crisis over how to share power among Shi'ite Muslims, the largest group, Sunnis and ethnic Kurds who run their own autonomous region in the north.

(Reporting by Aref Mohammed in Basra, Kareem Raheem and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad and Emad al-Khuzaie in Diywaniya; Additional reporting by Ali al-Rubaie in Hilla and Ziad al-Sanjary in Mosul; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/car-bombs-shootings-kill-23-across-iraq-143130081.html

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Heat roll, and LeBron says they can play better

Miami Heat's LeBron James, top, goes to the basket as Milwaukee Bucks' Ersan Ilyasova (7) looks on during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Miami, Sunday April 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Miami Heat's LeBron James, top, goes to the basket as Milwaukee Bucks' Ersan Ilyasova (7) looks on during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Miami, Sunday April 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade (3) congratulates Chris Andersen (11) after Andersen scored against the Milwaukee Bucks during the second half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Miami, Sunday April 21, 2013. The Heat won 110-87. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade (3) shoots as Milwaukee Bucks' Monta Ellis (11) defends during the first half of Game 1 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series in Miami, Sunday April 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Milwaukee Bucks power forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute practices before Game 1 of their first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Miami Heat in Miami, Sunday, April 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Milwaukee Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings arrives at the American Airlines for Game 1 in the first round of the NBA basketball playoffs against the Miami Heat in Miami, Sunday April 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

MIAMI (AP) ? LeBron James looked at the stat sheet, then looked at the cameras and said words that were absolutely not what the Milwaukee Bucks wanted to hear.

They might have even seemed downright ominous.

"We know we can play a better game," James said.

His assessment came after the defending NBA champion Miami Heat pretty much did whatever they wanted in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

James scored 27 points on 9-for-11 shooting ? finishing two assists shy of a triple-double ? while Ray Allen scored 20 off the bench and the Heat picked up where they left off in last year's playoffs, never trailing on the way to beating the Bucks 110-87 on Sunday night.

James also had game-highs of 10 rebounds and eight assists. According to STATS LLC, in the last 27 years, only Anthony Mason had finished a game (albeit one of the regular-season variety) with at least 27 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists on 11 or fewer shots until the league's reigning MVP did it on Sunday.

"He's in playoff mode," Heat guard Dwyane Wade said.

Wade scored 16, Chris Bosh added 15 and Chris Andersen finished with 10 on 4-for-4 shooting for the Heat, who opened their title defense by holding Milwaukee to 42 percent shooting.

Brandon Jennings scored 26 points and Monta Ellis added 22 for the Bucks, who have not won the opening game of a playoff series since May 2001.

Game 2 is Tuesday in Miami.

"We've got nothing to lose," Jennings said. "Nobody should be scared or anything. Let's just hoop."

It might take more than that.

The Bucks lost by 23, and afterward, it was the Heat who seemed like the team more disappointed in its level of play.

Miami shot 7 of 23 from 3-point range, nearly 10 percent worse than its regular-season norm in that department. The Heat turned the ball over 19 times, five more than usual. They gave the Bucks 22 points off those miscues, which matched Miami's sixth-highest total of the season.

And yet they still outscored Milwaukee in every quarter, led by as many as 25 in the late going and outrebounded the Bucks 46-31 ? especially impressive considering the Bucks finished the regular season with the fifth-most rebounds per game in the league while Miami finished the year ranked last out of 30 teams.

"It's a great way to start the series," Bosh said. "They're a feisty team over there. We wanted to make sure that we played good on defense and keep doing what we've been doing."

James took a bit of a break at the end of the season while dealing with a strained right hamstring, was excused from the team for its final regular-season game to tend to personal matters and said he came back to Miami late last week rested, refreshed and ready to open the title defense.

It showed. He alternated between steady and showtime modes, either running the offense or getting to the rim for spectacular left-handed dunks.

"We love him in that mode," Wade said. "The time away was good and now he's focused on his goal and his goal is to dominate every game and help take this team to a championship."

James had taken only 11 shots in a playoff game twice before, and his postseason per-game average entering Sunday was just under 21 tries. But with the way he controlled the game Sunday, he didn't exactly need to shoot.

"All I care about is the win," James said. "I didn't even know my stats. I just knew that we were playing efficient offensively besides the turnovers. We want to try to keep that going."

That's probably not the best of signs for the Bucks.

"Obviously, incredibly efficient," Bucks coach Jim Boylan said. "When you have a game like that, what can you do?"

Milwaukee came into the series with Jennings predicting his team would oust the reigning champions in six games.

They'll have to win four of five now for that to happen. And with James playing like this, the odds would seem particularly slim.

"I think we played good basketball in stretches," said Ellis, whose team finished with 10 offensive rebounds, all in the first half. "They're a great team. They capitalized on our mistakes. I think they were more aggressive towards the end. In the third and fourth, they never looked back."

The Bucks said coming into Game 1 that they would brace for Miami to come out flying, and the Heat more than delivered on that expectation. Miami scored on its first five possessions and after back-to-back scores at the rim by James ? the first of those a vicious one-handed slam after Wade set him up on a 3-on-1 break ? the Heat were up 21-8 early.

Milwaukee settled down quickly, getting within 26-24 at the end of the first, with Jennings scoring 10 in the period. And the Bucks hung around for the remainder of the first half, with Miami leading just 52-45 going into intermission.

"I thought in the first half we played with some good energy, had some good ball movement, created some turnovers and took advantage of that," Boylan said. "In the third quarter they came out a little bit more focused ... with a little more purpose, I think."

Ellis opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer, getting the Bucks within four. Then came Miami's second big flurry of the night, and the Bucks had no more answers.

An 11-1 Heat run stretched the lead to 14, and Miami closed the quarter with seven straight points ? James started that burst with a left-handed slam, then set up Andersen for another dunk. Another dunk by Andersen, this time when he soared in for a two-handed flush of a missed 3-pointer by Shane Battier, sent the building into overdrive, with people in the "White Hot" crowd waving their giveaway T-shirts in unison.

NOTES: Both teams practice in Miami on Monday. ... Miami outrebounded Milwaukee 22-9 after halftime. ... Rihanna was in attendance. ... Miami's bench outscored Milwaukee's reserves 43-25.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-22-BKN-Bucks-Heat-Folo/id-afa988aa1d784d25bfcc1a26e6b7c726

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IMF chief says UK might need to rethink austerity now

(Adds quotes, team news for Villa game) By Sonia Oxley MANCHESTER, England, April 19 (Reuters) - Manchester United winger Ashley Young will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury, manager Alex Ferguson said on Friday. The England international picked up the problem in this month's 2-1 defeat by Manchester City and attended Wednesday's 2-2 draw at West Ham United on crutches. "Ashley is out for the season," Ferguson, whose side can secure the Premier League title on Monday if they beat Aston Villa and second-placed Manchester City lose at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, told MUTV. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/imf-chief-says-uk-might-rethink-austerity-now-181001299--business.html

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Scientific basis for cognitive complaints of breast cancer patients

Apr. 19, 2013 ? For many years, breast cancer patients have reported experiencing difficulties with memory, concentration and other cognitive functions following cancer treatment. Whether this mental "fogginess" is psychosomatic or reflects underlying changes in brain function has been a bone of contention among scientists and physicians.

Now, a new study led by Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, demonstrates a significant correlation between poorer performance on neuropsychological tests and memory complaints in post-treatment, early-stage breast cancer patients -- particularly those who have undergone combined chemotherapy and radiation.

"The study is one of the first to show that such patient-reported cognitive difficulties -- often referred to as 'chemo brain' in those who have had chemotherapy -- can be associated with neuropsychological test performance," said Ganz, who is also a professor of health policy and management at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health and a professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

The study was published April 18 in the online edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and will appear in an upcoming print edition of the journal.

Ganz and her colleagues looked at 189 breast cancer patients, who enrolled in the study about one month after completing their initial breast cancer treatments and before beginning endocrine hormone-replacement therapy (70 percent planned to undergo hormone therapy). Two-thirds of the women had had breast-conserving surgery, more than half had received chemotherapy, and three-quarters had undergone radiation therapy. The average age of study participants was 52.

Because cognitive complaints following cancer treatment have often been associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, limiting confidence that "chemo brain" and similar difficulties reflect a cancer treatment toxicity, the researchers excluded women with serious depressive symptoms. They also took careful account of the cancer treatments used and whether or not menopause and hormonal changes could be influencing the cognitive complaints. A sample of age-matched healthy women who did not have breast cancer was used as a control group.

The researchers provided a self-reporting questionnaire to the women and found that those with breast cancer reported, on the whole, more severe complaints than normal; 23.3 percent of these patients had higher complaints about their memory, and 19 percent reported higher complaints about higher-level cognition (problem-solving, reasoning, etc.). Significantly, those breast cancer patients who reported more severe memory and higher-level cognition problems were more likely to have undergone both chemotherapy and radiation.

While earlier studies had not identified a consistent association between cognitive complaints and neuropsychological testing abnormalities, the UCLA research team found that even when patients reported subtle changes in their memory and thinking, neuropsychological testing showed detectable differences.

In particular, they discovered that poorer performance on the neuropsychological test was associated both with higher levels of cognitive complaints and with combined radiation-and-chemotherapy treatment, as well as with symptoms related to depression.

"In the past, many researchers said that we can't rely on patients' self-reported complaints or that they are just depressed, because previous studies could not find this association between neuropsychological testing and cognitive complaints," Ganz said. "In this study, we were able to look at specific components of the cognitive complaints and found they were associated with relevant neuropsychological function test abnormalities."

The findings are part of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the extent to which hormone therapy contributes to memory and thinking problems in breast cancer survivors, and this pre-hormone therapy assessment was able to separate the effects of initial treatments on these problems. Earlier post-treatment studies of breast cancer patients were difficult to interpret, as they included women already taking hormone therapy.

"As we provide additional reports on the follow-up testing in these women, we will track their recovery from treatment, as well as determine whether hormone therapy contributes to worsening complaints over time," Ganz said.

This research was supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and by funding from the National Institutes of Health to the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Shaun Mason.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Patricia Ganz et al. Relating Neuropsychological Test Performance To Cognitive Complaints After Breast Cancer. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2013 DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djt112

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/F9Y_Zc2F4ek/130419132613.htm

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Janelle Arthur Speaks on American Idol Elimination, Laments Loss of More Cowboy Boots

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/janelle-arthur-speaks-on-american-idol-elimination-laments-loss/

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Russian sanctions author joins Magnitsky family

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The author of sanctions against Russians over human rights violations said Thursday there would be no need for punishment if Russia focused on holding people accountable for the death of Sergei Magnitsky.

"If Russia would stop wasting time prosecuting a dead person for doing what is right and instead hold those who are responsible accountable there would be no need for a list in the United States or any other country," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

Cardin, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was joined by Magnitsky's mother and wife, both named Natalya, and his young son Nikita. Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer who was arrested in 2008 for tax evasion after accusing Russian police officials of stealing $230 million in tax rebates. He died in prison the next year, allegedly after being beaten and denied medical treatment.

Cardin and other lawmakers pushed the law enacted last year that mandates the sanctions list. Last week, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against 18 Russians as a result of the law.

The list included Artem Kuznetsov and Pavel Karpov, two Russian Interior Ministry officers who put Magnitsky behind bars after he accused them of stealing $230 million from the state. Two tax officials the lawyer accused of approving the fraudulent tax refunds, and several other Interior Ministry officials accused of persecuting Magnitsky, were also on the list. Absent were senior officials from President Vladimir Putin's entourage whom some human rights advocates had hoped to see sanctioned.

"What was done in Russia cannot go unpunished," Cardin said.

The law, which was linked to legislation normalizing trade relations between the United States and Russia, angered Moscow, which accused Congress of interfering with its internal affairs. Within days, Russia announced that it was banning U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

"Sergei Magnitsky is an inspiration to human rights activists around the world. He offers a legacy of courage," Cardin said.

Magnitsky's mother, speaking through a translator, thanked lawmakers for ensuring the law was passed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russian-sanctions-author-joins-magnitsky-family-180614491--politics.html

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