APNewsBreak: Ark. teen charged in sister's death (AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ? Prosecutors filed a formal murder charge Wednesday against a 15-year-old Arkansas boy who authorities say confessed to killing his older sister.

The formal paperwork charging Colton Harvey with first-degree murder in the death of his 16-year-old sister, Candace, was filed more than a week after authorities said he showed up at the Franklin County Sheriff's office and told investigators he shot his sister at their family's home near Ozark.

The court filings obtained by The Associated Press also order Harvey not to communicate or be around his parents unless they initiate the conversation. His family didn't return a phone message left at their home in rural western Arkansas on Wednesday.

A judge appointed a public defender to represent Harvey, but no lawyer was listed in the court papers. A public defender responsible for appointing attorneys didn't immediately return a phone message, and prosecutor David Gibbons said he didn't know who would be representing Harvey.

Gibbons has said he planned to charge the boy as an adult "because of the nature of the crime."

Sheriff Anthony Boen said Harvey showed up at his office the morning of Jan. 15 with tears in his eyes and confessed to killing his sister in their home near Ozark, a town of about 3,600 residents roughly 120 miles northwest of Little Rock.

"He just said that he had just shot and killed his sister," Boen said. "... He didn't give a motive."

Investigators believe Harvey killed his sister between 8 a.m., when their parents left to go grocery shopping about 40 miles away, and 9:30 a.m., when he turned himself in at the sheriff's department, Boen said.

Authorities confiscated multiple guns from the family's home and vehicle, and were trying to determine which weapon had been used. The sheriff said the boy and his father were avid hunters.

___

Follow Jeannie Nuss at http://twitter.com/jeannienuss

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_re_us/us_teen_sister_shot

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Researchers report fundamental malaria discovery

Monday, January 23, 2012

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly disease.

The researchers show how parasites target proteins to the surface of the red blood cell that enables sticking to and blocking blood vessels. Strategies that prevent this host-targeting process will block disease.

The research findings appear in the Jan. 20 edition of the journal Cell, the leading journal in the life sciences. The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Malaria is a blood disease that kills nearly 1 million people each year. It is caused by a parasite that infects red cells in the blood. Once inside the cell, the parasite exports proteins beyond its own plasma membrane border into the blood cell. These proteins function as adhesins that help the infected red blood cells stick to the walls of blood vessels in the brain and cause cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the disease that kills over half a million children each year.

In all cells, proteins are made in a specialized cell compartment called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) from where they are delivered to other parts of the cell. Haldar and Bhattacharjee and collaborators Robert Stahelin at the Indiana University School of Medicine- South Bend (who also is an adjunct faculty member in Notre Dame's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry), and David and Kaye Speicher at the University of Pennsylvania's Wistar Institute discovered that for host-targeted malaria proteins the very first step is binding to the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate, PI(3)P, in the ER.

This was surprising for two reasons. Previous studies suggested an enzyme called Plasmepsin V that released the proteins into the ER was also the export mechanism. However, Haldar, Bhattacharjee and colleagues discovered that binding to PI(3)P lipid which occurs first is the gate keeper to control export and that export can occur without Plasmepsin V action. Further, in higher eukaryotic cells (such as in humans), the lipid PI(3)P is not usually found within the ER membrane but rather is exposed to the cellular cytoplasm.

Haldar and Bhattacharjee are experts in malaria parasite biology and pathogenesis. Stahelin is an expert in PI(3)P lipid biology, and David and Kaye Speicher are experts in proteomics and a method called mass spectrometry.

###

University of Notre Dame: http://www.nd.edu

Thanks to University of Notre Dame for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116919/Researchers_report_fundamental_malaria_discovery

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French parliament passes Armenian 'genocide' bill

Turkish citizens from France and other European countries demonstrate in Paris Saturday Jan. 21, 2012, to protest against a law that would make it a crime to deny "genocide" in Armenia. Thousands of Turks have marched through Paris denouncing a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide. Turks waving their country's red flag marched on Saturday to the Senate, where the bill will be debated on Monday after passage in December in the lower house.(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

Turkish citizens from France and other European countries demonstrate in Paris Saturday Jan. 21, 2012, to protest against a law that would make it a crime to deny "genocide" in Armenia. Thousands of Turks have marched through Paris denouncing a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide. Turks waving their country's red flag marched on Saturday to the Senate, where the bill will be debated on Monday after passage in December in the lower house.(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

Turkish citizens from France and other European countries demonstrate in Paris Saturday Jan. 21, 2012, to protest against a law that would make it a crime to deny "genocide" in Armenia. Thousands of Turks have marched through Paris denouncing a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago was genocide. Turks waving their country's red flag marched on Saturday to the Senate, where the bill will be debated on Monday after passage in December in the lower house.(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)

PARIS (AP) ? France's parliament voted Monday to make it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted a genocide, risking more sanctions from Turkey and complicating an already delicate relationship with the rising power.

Turkey, which sees the allegations of genocide as a threat to its national honor, suspended military, economic and political ties and briefly recalled its ambassador last month when the lower house of parliament approved the same bill.

Before Monday's Senate vote, Turkey threatened more measures if the bill passed, though did not specify them. President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose party supported the bill, still needs to sign it into law, but that is largely considered a formality.

The debate surrounding the measure comes in the highly charged run-up to France's presidential elections this spring, and critics have called the move a ploy to the garner votes of the some 500,000 Armenians who live in France.

Valerie Boyer, the lawmaker from Sarkozy's conservative UMP party who wrote the bill, did not deny that, saying that politicians are supposed to pass laws that they think their constituents want.

"That's democracy," she said.

But this domestic gamble could have major international consequences. France's relations with Turkey are already strained, in large part because Sarkozy opposes Turkey's entry into the European Union. The law will no doubt further sour relations with a NATO member that is playing an increasingly important role in the international community's response to the violence in Syria, the standoff over Iran's nuclear program and peace negotiations in the Middle East.

"It is null and void for us," Turkey's Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin said on live TV immediately after the bill's passage Monday. "It is a great disgrace and injustice against Turkey. I want to tell to France that you have no value for us in the slightest degree, we don't care."

The bill has also drawn massive protests in Paris, with thousands of Turks converging on the city this weekend to denounce it. On Monday, smaller rival demonstrations, separated by a substantial police presence, gathered outside the Senate.

The Senate voted 127 to 86 to pass the bill late Monday. Twenty-four people abstained. The measure sets a punishment of up to one year in prison and a fine of euro45,000 ($59,000) for those who deny or "outrageously minimize" the killings.

Despite the potentially serious consequences, many senators did not show up for the vote, instead allowing colleagues to serve as proxies. Those in the Senate chamber, however, fiercely debated the measure over several hours.

For some in France, the bill is part of a tradition of legislation in some European countries, born of the agonies of the Holocaust, that criminalizes the denial of genocides. Denying the Holocaust is already a punishable crime in France.

Most historians contend that the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians as the Ottoman Empire broke up was the 20th century's first genocide, and several European countries recognize the massacres as such. Switzerland has convicted people of racism for denying the genocide.

But Turkey says that there was no systematic campaign to kill Armenians and that many Turks also died during the chaotic disintegration of the empire. It also says that death toll is inflated.

Boyer, the bill's author, said Monday that it seeks to protect the very human rights that France first defined during its revolution.

Others warn that it threatens those same rights, especially freedom of expression. A Senate commission, in fact, recommended against the passage of the law, saying it raised constitutional questions, and the law could still face constitutional challenges.

"It's not up to parliament to define history," said Jean-Jacques Pignard, a senator who spoke against the measure in an hourslong debate. "We can't impose repentance. Repentance is a long personal journey."

But the senators who spoke for it on Monday said it was their duty to fight against those who would deny settled history.

"Once it's written, isn't it up to us to take notice?" asked Yannick Vaugrenard, a Socialist senator. "The truth is not always strong enough to conquer lies."

While senators debated the law Monday afternoon, about 150 pro-Armenian protesters and the same number of pro-Turkish demonstrators gathered outside the building.

Those in the pro-Turkish camp held banners declaring, "Liberty, Equality, Stupidity" and "It's not up to politicians to invent history."

Turkey's ambassador to France later lamented the vote.

"Everyone is going to suffer (from this). France, Turkey, Armenia of course. There will be unfortunately a radicalization of positions of all sides," said Tahsin Burcuoglu.

But Alexis Govciyan, national president of the Council of Coordination of Armenian Organizations in France, said that the law that would protect "the memory of the victims of the genocide, and the dignity of their descendants like us will be respected."

___

Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, and Jeffrey Schaeffer and Nicolas Garriga in Paris also contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-01-23-EU-France-Turkey-Genocide/id-ecedc06405c54a8f8f59c5ce031a2382

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Teen ends globe-circling voyage in St. Maarten (AP)

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten ? Laura Dekker set a steady foot aboard a dock in St. Maarten on Saturday, ending a yearlong voyage aboard a sailboat named "Guppy" that apparently made her the youngest person ever to sail alone around the globe, though her trip was interrupted at several points.

Dozens of people jumped and cheered as Decker waved, wept and then walked across the dock accompanied by her mother, father, sister and grandparents, who had greeted her at sea earlier.

Dekker arrived in St. Maarten after struggling against high seas and heavy winds on a final leg from Cape Town, South Africa,

Dekker claims she is the youngest sailor to complete a round-the-world voyage, but Guinness World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council did not verify the claim, saying they no longer recognize records for youngest sailors to discourage dangerous attempts.

Dutch authorities tried to block Dekker's trip, arguing she was too young to risk her life, while school officials complained she should be in a classroom.

Dekker said she was born aboard a yacht off the coast of New Zealand and said she first sailed solo at 6 years old. At 10, she said, she began dreaming about crossing the globe. She celebrated her 16th birthday during the trip, eating doughnuts for breakfast after spending time at port with her father and friends the night before.

The teenager covered more than 27,000 nautical miles on a trip with stops that sound like a skim through a travel magazine: the Canary Islands, Panama, the Galapagos Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Bora Bora, Australia, South Africa and now, St. Maarten, from which she set out on Jan. 20, 2011.

"Her story is just amazing," said one of Dekker's fans, 10-year-old Jody Bell of Connecticut. "I can't imagine someone her age going out on sea all by herself."

Bell was in St. Maarten on a work trip with her mother, Deena Merlen, an attorney in Manhattan, who wanted to see Dekker complete her journey. The two wore T-shirts that read: "Guppy rocks my world."

"My daughter and I have been following Laura's story, and we think it's amazing and inspiring," Merlen said.

Unlike other young sailors who recently crossed the globe, Dekker repeatedly anchored at ports along the way to sleep, study and repair her 38-foot (11.5-meter) sailboat.

During her trip, she went surfing, scuba diving, cliff diving and discovered a new hobby: playing the flute, which she said in her weblog was easier to play than a guitar in bad weather.

Dekker also complained about custom clearings, boat inspections, ripped sails, heavy squalls, a wet and salty bed, a near-collision with two cargo ships and the presence of some persistent stowaways: cockroaches.

Highlights of her trip include 47 days of sailing the Indian Ocean, which left her with unsteady legs when she docked in Durban, South Africa, where she walked up and down the pier several times for practice.

Dekker launched her trip two months after Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old U.S. sailor, was rescued in the middle of the Indian Ocean during a similar attempt. Jessica Watson of Australia completed a 210-day solo voyage at age 16, a few months older than Dekker.

Dekker has said she plans to move there after her voyage, but it is unclear is she still plans to do so.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_st_maarten_young_sailor

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Is Democratic Socialism the Next Step in Our Political Evolution? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The last few months have seen some of the most prominent symbols of authoritarian communism falling. Protests have fired up in Russia against the almost dictatorial rule of Vladimir Putin (a former KGB officer and Communist Party of the Soviet Union elite). Allegations of election fraud and ballot-stuffing abound, and the people of Russia are now clamoring for real democracy.

Kim Jong-il has passed away and signals a change in regime of what USA Today calls "the world's last hardline communist state." While nobody is expecting a fair and free election in North Korea, the regime is changing. And the Glorious Successor Kim Jong-Un is reportedly "a whiz at computing and technology," which may open the door for freedom of information and communication in that country.

Finally, Cuba has slowly and quietly been instituting a number of free-market reforms, including privatizing real estate and allowing loans for private entrepreneurs. The anti-U.S. rhetoric of Fidel Castro has faded as he has, and Cuba is moving slowly toward a capitalist system. It is true that capitalism and democracy won the fight for world dominance decades ago in the intellectual and political trenches of the Cold War. But the fading historical bastions of communism must force us to consider this: What is the next step of human political evolution?

What is the next step?

This is what we must ask ourselves. Amid the chronic corruption and inequality that the current systems have promoted, and the subsequent economic collapses and global protests that they have inspired, there are any number of choices. Disciples of Ayn Rand would argue for a more capitalistic society (and would insist that the economic failures of the past century are due to the mixing of capitalism and socialism). However, there is another option.

Unfortunately, the words "socialism" and "communism" carry such a stigma these days that they are synonyms for unpatriotic and akin to treason (look no farther than the House Un-American Activities Committee which prosecuted members of the Communist Party at the height of the Cold War). But it cannot be ignored that all of the major communist societies in the past have also been authoritarian regimes. Communism equals authoritarian and capitalism equals democratic. This has been the norm, and thus the triumph of democracy has meant the triumph of capitalism. What has never been tried in any real way is a democratic socialist society, though it has existed in theory in the writings of various political philosophers like Erich Fromm and John Stuart Mill in his later writings.

What the collapse of the symbols of the last authoritarian communist regimes in the world should force us to consider is, are democracy and socialism incompatible? And if not, would a democratic socialist state thrive on the global stage?

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120123/pl_ac/10718195_is_democratic_socialism_the_next_step_in_our_political_evolution

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Vivica Genaux offers rare vocal 'Pyrotechnics' (AP)

NEW YORK ? Sometimes Vivica Genaux loves to sing with the precision and breakneck speed of an athlete ? in "techno rhythm."

Other times, the tunes are achingly slow, but still bursting with passion.

The common thread of most of the songs she performs is that they come from obscure archives, silent for centuries.

The four-time Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano is now taking some of the forgotten works by Vivaldi and others on a U.S. tour, in a program called "Pyrotechnics," after one of her albums.

"It represents fireworks, both the flashy, really fast-moving ones, and also the more delicate ones that glitter and fall like golden fronds," says Genaux, who is featured on Vivaldi's "Ercole sul Termodonte" ("Hercules in Thermodon"), which is up for a Grammy next month for best opera recording.

The tour, with Fabio Biondi leading his Europa Galante ensemble, starts Wednesday at Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles a includes Las Vegas and Denver.

On Feb. 2 in New York, Genaux appears at Carnegie's Zankel Hall with the ensemble based in Parma, Italy ? a few hours from the home near Venice she shares with her husband.

It's far from Genaux's native Fairbanks, Alaska, where she learned to drive her family's husky-drawn dog sled, and to change a car tire in 40 degrees below zero.

She's equally at ease in a Venetian palazzo, trying on a designer stage gown.

"In Italy, I learned how to be a girl," she jokes.

In Spain, where she sang a "pants" role ? a woman singing a male part ? "I learned how to be a boy."

And this fall in France, she'll tackle the ultimate "girl" part ? Bizet's seductive 19th century "Carmen."

The 42-year-old singer is not as well known as her amazingly agile voice and musicianship deserve, perhaps because she has focused on the "Early Music" of the 1700s, with its special, smaller audience ? for pieces often so fiendishly difficult that very few can pull them off technically.

But there's much more to it.

Works like Vivaldi's "Ercole" are "very modern, really," she says in an interview at the Manhattan home of her publicist. "The songs are about relationships between people, about personal contact, and that's the same now as it was 300 years ago, as it was 1,200 years ago!"

Vivaldi wrote "The Four Seasons," now heard in everything from ringtones to car ads. But many of his other compositions might have remained voiceless if it weren't for Genaux. With the help of musicologists, she's resurrected them along with forgotten pieces by Handel, Rossini and German-born composer Johann Adolph Hasse.

Leafing through his long-lost operas, "I got goose bumps just touching these manuscripts that were there since the 1700s," she says. "That's about 95 percent of what I do ? pieces that haven't been performed since then."

It took years of soul-searching and experimenting for Genaux to figure out where her voice truly belonged.

At the University of Rochester in upstate New York, she majored in genetics, simply because she'd been surrounded by science as a child; her father was a biochemistry professor and her mother a teacher.

Music was a hobby.

Genaux played Eliza Doolittle in a high school production of "My Fair Lady," listened to ABBA's rock music and enjoyed Fairbanks' "sing-it-yourself `Messiah' where you sang the whole bloody `Messiah' ? not just two pages of the `Hallelujah'!"

Halfway through college, she switched to singing, transferring to the University of Indiana's arts school in Bloomington as a soprano, eventually becoming more comfortable as a mezzo.

In 2002 came her breakthrough ? the Grammy-nominated album "Arias for Farinelli," the infamous "castrato" who was the rock star of his time, improvising on melodies as one does in jazz.

Farinelli's voice was a force of nature. And so is Genaux's, critics says.

"Onstage, she's a powerhouse," says David Shengold, a music critic who writes for New York-based Opera News and London's Opera, the world's leading magazines on the subject. "Her florid work ? fast coloratura with clean runs, trills and wide, accurate skips ? makes for bold, astonishing vocalism."

There's one quality that Genaux lacks, though: the elitism many people associate with classical music.

"Come, wear jeans, rip holes in the jeans, put on the worst pair of tennis shoes," she says. "But come and see ... come experience something new!"

____

Online:

http://vivicagenaux.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_en_ot/us_music_vivica_genaux

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South Carolina GOP primary races to dramatic close (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are not ceding one inch of South Carolina as the unpredictable campaign for the South's first presidential primary concludes ? and certainly not Tommy's Ham House.

Romney is fighting a suddenly surging Gingrich, while rivals Rick Santorum and Ron Paul look to surprise in a four-man race that has spun wildly in its last 48 hours.

Seen as Romney's to lose just days ago, South Carolina's primary has become a close contest between Romney, the former Massachusetts governor portraying himself as the best able to beat President Barack Obama, and Gingrich, the confrontational former House speaker and former Georgia congressman.

Both were scheduled to hold dueling campaign events at Tommy's, in Republican-rich Greenville, late Saturday morning. And neither campaign was stepping back from a primary day showdown.

It's "neck and neck," Romney declared Friday, moving to lower expectations for a race he led by double digits as of midweek.

Even as Romney was touting his electability in November, he continued to try to stoke doubt about Gingrich's ethics.

Gingrich, buoyed by the endorsement of Texas Gov. Rick Perry as he left the race Thursday, called Romney's suggestion that his chief rival release documents relating to an ethics investigation from the 1990s a "panic attack" brought on by sinking poll numbers.

Romney's demand was turnabout from Gingrich's that Romney release his income tax returns before the weekend primary. Gingrich argues that GOP voters need to know whether the wealthy former venture capital executive's records contain anything that could hurt the party's chances against Obama.

The stakes were high for Saturday's vote. The primary winner has gone on to win the Republican nomination in every election since 1980. And voters were faced with stamping Romney, who has led in national polls since December, as the party's front-runner, or reshuffle the contest.

Romney won the New Hampshire primary by a wide marign on Jan. 10, and was thought to have edged Santorum in a photo-finish in Iowa's leadoff caucuses. However, the certified count from Iowa on Thursday showed Santorum had received more votes, although a handful of precincts remained uncertain and no winner was declared.

Romney, Gingrich and Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator vying to be the preferred conservative, all planned to campaign in South Carolina's conservative upstate as the voting got under way. Paul, the Texas congressman who has campaigned lightly here, had no campaign appearances scheduled but was expected to visit campaign volunteers.

Behind the flurry of public events around the state Friday, telephones and televisions crackled with attack messages. Some of South Carolina's notorious 11th-hour devilry ? fake reports in the form of emails targeting Gingrich and his ex-wife Marianne ? emerged in a race known as much for its nastiness as for its late-game twists.

"Unfortunately, we are now living up to our reputation," said South Carolina GOP strategist Chip Felkel.

State Attorney Gen. Alan Wilson ordered a preliminary review of the phony messages to see if any laws had been broken.

Gingrich's ex-wife burst into the campaign this week when she alleged in an ABC News interview that her former husband had asked her for an "open marriage," a potentially damaging claim in a state where the Republican primary electorate includes a potent segment of Christian conservatives. The thrice-married Gingrich, who has admitted to marital infidelities, angrily denied her accusation.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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