Boston bombing probe: What female DNA may mean in investigation

(CBS News) There is new focus in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation on the widow of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Investigators have identified female DNA on a fragment of one of the bombs used in Boston. It's not clear what that means -- the DNA could have come from an injured spectator, or perhaps from a clerk who sold the materials used in the bombs. But, there's also a chance, it could lead the FBI to a female accomplice.

FBI agents Monday visited the Rhode Island family home of Katherine Russell, the widow of accused bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Complete coverage: Boston bombings
Sources: Female DNA found on Boston bomb fragment

Sources say agents were there to collect a DNA sample from Russell to compare it against the female DNA found on a bomb fragment at the blast scene. Investigators say a lab test could help them determine if Russell ever had contact with the device.

Investigators say Russell is not a suspect and hasn't been charged in the plot. Her attorney has said she is fully cooperating with the investigation.

If the female DNA found on the bomb was Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow's, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller, a former assistant FBI director, said on "CBS This Morning," it becomes "a critical moment" in the investigation. "(Law enforcement's) relationship with her may change," Miller said. "And the question is what do you do with that? She's already represented by a lawyer. It certainly becomes a circumstantial that says she may have handled the device or parts of the device and that opens the door she may have known."

Of particular interest to investigators may also be where the bombs were tested. Miller explained, "What they found in the apartment was black powder and parts, but not the work bench you would need to have to make these bombs. They are still looking for that another place. One way is they recovered a GPS device belonging to these guys after the big shootout in the carjacked vehicle. That could tell them some things, depending on what they saved and what they got rid of. It may have trips way outside of the city where you could have tested the bomb or take you to a location where they could have made that bomb. And even if they wiped everything out, they're still going back through the systems of his cell phone carrier, 60 days, 30 days, 90 days, is there a trip to the Berkshires, to the woods, to some remote area because, even if you follow the instructions perfectly, you don't put those two devices down on the marathon without having taken them somewhere first and tested them out to make sure, 'Does my main charge function with this initiator,' and 'does my remote control make it go?'"

Watch John Miller's full analysis in the video below.

At the same time, FBI investigators are in Russia and Dagestan, trying to find out if Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his younger brother Dhzokhar Tsarnaev, had any foreign terror connections.

Of particular interest, a Russian-born, Canadian militant named William Plotnikov. Like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Plotnikov was a boxer, and both men were in Dagestan last summer. Plotnikov was killed there in a shootout between Muslim radicals and police in July 2012, just days before Tsarnaev returned to the United States.

So far, investigators do not know if Plotnikov and Tsarnaev ever met. And there is no evidence to date that the Tsarnaev brothers had any connections to any wider conspiracy.

Meanwhile, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains in a federal medical center lockup outside of Boston. He has not answered any questions since being read his rights a week ago.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's defense team has added veteran death penalty opponent in Judy Clarke. She has represented several high profile defendants, including the unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Jared Loughner, the gunman who shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson. Both of those defendants avoided the death penalty. Legal sources tell CBS News it would be no surprise if DkzhokarTsarnaev seeks some kind of cooperation deal to do the same.

SOURCE : http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57582026/boston-bombing-probe-what-female-dna-may-mean-in-investigation/

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Microsoft integrates Skype into Outlook.com

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Microsoft has integrated its voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service Skype into Outlook.com so that users can make calls via the email service.
The feature is being rolled out today in the UK first in the form of a "preview" plug-in that can be downloaded via a web browser.
Once the plug-in is installed, a Skype video chat or VoIP call can be initiated while reading an email at Outlook.com. To do this, users just need move their mouse over the friend's picture and click on the Skype audio or video call buttons that appear above his or her contact details.
Skype said in a blog post that it added its video and call features to Outlook for those times when you just can't be bothered to type an email.
"We all face those situations where it's just easier to jump on a call to talk something through," Skype senior director Simon Longbottom said. "Sometimes that quick call can accomplish more than a long email reply. That's why we are bringing Skype audio and video calling to your Outlook.com inbox."
To get the plug-in, users need to connect Skype to Outlook.com using their Microsoft account, once the plug-in has been downloaded via the web browser. After Skype and Microsoft accounts have been merged, the service will also allow users to add all of their Skype contacts to their Outlook.com contacts list.
The preview will start rolling out to UK customers beginning today, however it won't reach the US and Germany until "the coming weeks", with worldwide availability scheduled for this summer.
Microsoft replaced its rather outdated email service Hotmail with Outlook.com back in February, seven months after it unveiled the preview version in July. Microsoft said that the upgrade would be "seamless and instant" for people who use Hotmail, with their @hotmail.com email address, password, messages, folders, contacts, rules and vacation replies staying the same with no disruption in service.
However, since that time users have encountered many service disruptions as part of the transition, during which they've been unable to access either service.

SOURCE : http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2265069/microsoft-integrates-skype-into-outlookcom

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iOS 7 to be 'very, very flat,' with redesigned Apple app icons and more, report says

Apple's iOS 7, expected to be unveiled at WWDC 2013 in June, will have major user interface changes that will appeal to new iPad and iPhone users, but could be "unsettling" for veteran users, a new report has suggested.
Citing multiple sources who have seen or been briefed on iOS 7, internally codenamed "Innsbruck," 9To5Mac's report claims that iOS 7 will have a new user interface that is "very, very flat," ditching all skeuomorphic design elements from the mobile operating system. According to one of the sources, the "flatness" can be compared to Microsoft's Windows Phone user interface.
The interface changes will include a redesign of Apple's native app icons, as well as new tool bars, tab bars and more, the sources say.
Despite the visual changes, the sources insist that the new user interface design in iOS 7 is no more difficult to use than previous iterations of iOS. "While iOS 7 does look different, its core apps and system fundamentals (like the Lock and Home screens) mostly operate in a similar fashion to how they do today," says the report.

9To5Mac suggests that Apple has been considering implementing a more 'glance-able' information and system options panel, which could be accessed through swiping gestures, in a way that is reminiscent of the trackpad gesture used on a Mac to access the Notification Center in Mountain Lion. The report notes that this feature is uncertain, however.
It is currently unclear whether the information in 9To5Mac's latest report is legitimate, but this is not the first speculation we've heard about the possibility of an iOS redesign under the leadership of Apple design guru Jony Ive.
Following an executive shakeup in October that saw then head of iOS software Scott Forstall leave the company, Ive has taken on more responsibilities, as the leader of human interface at Apple. This means that, as well as hardware design leadership, Ive now has more involvement with the design of iOS and other Apple platforms.
Ive's promotion sparked speculation that Apple may be considering dropping its skeuomorphic design elements in favour of a cleaner, more minimalist design.
In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ive is pushing for a "flat design" that is "starker and simpler" for iOS 7.
At the beginning of April, a thread between various tech reporters on discussion site Branch hinted that Apple is working on a complete user interface overhaul for iOS 7, and that Apple has pulled engineers from OS X 10.9 to work on it.
Later in April, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty predicted that Apple is busy cooking up a "killer app" that will be ready to launch with iOS 7 this summer, which could come in the form of a music streaming service or mobile payment system.
Apple has applied for a patent concerning a system of '3D position tracking for panoramic imagery navigation', prompting analysts and Apple fans to speculate that iOS 7 will see Apple's Maps application get a feature to rival Google's Street View.
It's pretty certain that we'll be getting our first official glimpse at iOS 7 at WWDC 2013, which kicks off on 10 June. SEE: Decoding Apple' WWDC 2013 logo: what does it mean?
In a press release sent out last week, Apple revealed that developers will "learn about the future of iOS and OS X."
Tickets for WWDC 2013 sold out in a record-breaking 2 minutes when they went on sale on Thursday. SEE: Apple is growing; why not WWDC?
WWDC 2012 saw the launch of iOS 6, new MacBooks and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. You can find more about last year's event here.
In a similar report on Monday, 9To5Mac also published allegedly leaked details of Mac OS X 10.9, which could bring new power-user features and 'core' iOS elements to the Mac.

SOURCE : http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphone/news/?newsid=3444827&pagtype=allchandate

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Chinese join rush to live in Mars, 600 apply for Dutch project

Over 600 Chinese have applied to join an ambitious Dutch aerospace project that plans to send humans on a one-way trip to Mars for permanent settlement.
The Dutch project, while triggering enthusiasm to explore outer space, is also under fire with the trip being viewed by some as a suicide mission, with applicants being shipped to a planet that is uninhabitable by humans.
The project, Mars One, is being launched by a Dutch non-profit organization, and is scheduled to take four humans to the Red Planet in 2023.
In the first three days after it was launched this week, over 20,000 people from all over the world submitted their applications online, with more than 600 coming from China, state-run China Daily reported.
Bas Lansdorp, co-founder of Mars One told the media in Shanghai that he is confident of turning the dream into reality, and plans to attract more than five lakh applicants.
The Chinese enthusiasm to travel to Mars is building up as China, which has a well funded space programme focussing on Moon missions and building a space station is planning a three-phase Mars space missions to collect samples from the Red Planet by 2030.
The three stages are remote sensing, soft-landing, exploration and return after collecting automatic sampling, according to Ouyang Ziyuan, China's Chief scientist for Lunar missions.
But India may steal the march as Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is bracing to launch its first Mars mission in November to become the first Asian country to accomplish it.
NASA has already landed a rover on Mars remaining well ahead of other space programmes of the world. India's Mars Orbiter Mission is expected to be launched in mid-October this year, will carry five experimental payloads with a total weight of 14.49 kg.
Lansdorp said that when about 40 candidates have been fully trained, the final decision on choosing the first settlers will be made by a TV audience vote.

SOURCE : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/chinese-join-rush-to-live-in-mars-600-apply-for-dutch-project/1109225/

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About 40 Hurt in Prague Explosion

PRAGUE—A powerful explosion of a leaky gas pipe has caused significant damage of a building in a busy section of downtown Prague, shattering windows in the immediate area and injuring some 40 people, police said Monday.

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Reuters

Firefighters and police officers searched the area after an explosion in central Prague on Monday.

Police spokesman Tomas Hulan said the explosion occurred at around 9:56 a.m. local time and that an initial investigation suggests the explosion was caused by a leaking gas pipe.

Enlarge Image

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Rescue workers help a woman who was injured in an explosion in Prague on Monday.

"The explosion was caused by gas," a police officer working near the blast site told The Wall Street Journal. The officer was cordoning off the area and instructing passersby to move away.

The police can't confirm if anyone is buried in rubble inside the damaged building, Mr. Hulan said.

"According to preliminary information, we believe that up to four people suffered from severe injuries in the wake of the blast and most other injuries, totaling around 40, are light ones largely caused by cuts from shattered glass," Zdenek Schwarz, the head of Prague Emergency Medical Services, said.

The building is on a side street near the National Theater, the Prague FAMU film school and the popular Cafe Slavia on the east bank of the Vltava river. The area is a tourist destination and offers views of the Prague castle perching on the hill across the river.

Buildings located in a radius of more than hundred meters had their windows shattered, including the glass front of the New Scene building of the National Theater.

 SOURCE : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323528404578452313589131382.html

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Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez back in one another's arms

 

Back together ... Justin and Selena snuggle up with each other in the online snap

EROTEME.CO.UK

 

JUSTIN Bieber and Selena Gomez appear to be back together after a snap emerged of them snuggled up together.

Spring Breakers star Selena wraps her arms around the singer’s bare torso whilst scowling at the camera in the picture.

And it seems the 20-year-old was eager for her boyfriend to finish up his music writing and pay her some attention.

Justin captioned the picture with what appears to be Selena saying: “You’ve been makin music for too long babe come cuddle.”

The couple split in December, but there were rumours earlier this week that a romance was back on the cards.

Troubled ... star has had a torrid time recently and Selena could well prove to be a stabilising influence

Rex

Justin, 19, posted a snap several days ago of him snuggling up with actress.

The picture was quickly deleted, but the latest black-and-white snap of the pair — posted on the singer’s instagram account — is still online.

It sparked a frenzy amongst Justin’s loyal Beliebers when it appeared attracting 170,000 comments.

And in a reference to the rekindled romance, Justin’s manager Scooter Braun wrote on his Twitter feed: “Well you can’t say Justin Bieber doesn’t like to keep things interesting."

The star has appeared in danger of going off the rails recently after his involvement in a string of unsettling incidents.

But hopefully his loyal girlfriend will now serve as a stabilising influence for the Canadian singer.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/4905740/justin-bieber-and-selena-gomez-are-back-together.html#ixzz2RqTIOnxV

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LivingSocial hacked; 50 million affected

The databases of daily deals site LivingSocial were hacked, with more than 50 million customer records compromised.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Daily deals Web site LivingSocial is the latest database target for hackers, who have compromised the personal information of more than 50 million people.
In internal LivingSocial e-mails obtained by AllThingsD, the unknown culprits appear to have made off with the names, e-mails, birthdates, and encrypted passwords of what appears to be the vast majority of LivingSocial customers.
The Washington, D.C.-based site, owned in part by Amazon, claims around 70 million customers worldwide. The company's divisions in the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand remain unaffected because they are hosted on different servers.
To put this breach in perspective, said Robert Hansen, director of Product Management & Technical Evangelist at WhiteHat Security, it's important to consider its scale. "If there are approximately a billion people on the Internet, this hack single-handedly represents about half a percent of all Internet users. This could be catastrophic, not for the accounts and credit cards that are stolen directly, but also because of password reuse of all of those millions of users. They should be changing their passwords immediately," he said.

In his e-mails, LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy wrote, "We recently experienced a cyberattack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue."
He advised customers to create a new password. LivingSocial has subsequently reset customer passwords, although it's not clear if all customers' passwords were reset or just those who were affected by the hack.
One saving grace of the hack is that merchant and customer financial data, including credit card numbers, appears to have avoided the hackers' grasp. "The fact that the credit card information is stored separately is good, and I'm glad that they did that," Chris Wysopal, an information security expert at Veracode, said in a phone conversation with CNET today.
LivingSocial left many questions unanswered in its internal e-mails, including two key ones: What kind of attacks were used to get at the databases? How long ago did the attacks occur?
Given the type of data stolen, Wysopal said, it's likely that the attacks used a Web app to get at the site's SQL databases. "If it was a Web application, testing should've been better," he said.
"That's one of the frustrations out here in the professional security world," Wysopal said. "If we knew what the root causes were of these hacks, it would be easier to help companies improve their security."
LivingSocial declined to comment when asked for more information on the attacks. "We're not discussing timing or details on the attack due to the ongoing investigation taking place," a LivingSocial spokesperson wrote in an e-mail to CNET.
LivingSocial is only the latest in a string of high-profile Web companies who've suffered massive customer database breaches. In the past 18 months, Evernote, Zappos, and LinkedIn have all had their customer data compromised.
Although it's common during security attacks like these to feel helpless, Wysopal offered some concrete steps that individuals can take to protect themselves. Because it's not clear when the attack happened, he said, it's possible that "the hackers are well on their way to getting at your e-mail account. It's important to check your e-mail, see if it's been accessed from strange places, or if it's being forwarded to another account."
"If you're using the same password on multiple sites, now's the time to change them. Use a password manager like OnePass," he added. Other options include RoboForm, LastPass, and KeyPass, among others.

SOURCE : http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57581718-83/livingsocial-hacked-50-million-affected/

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Businessman father booked for posting video of kids driving Ferrari on YouTube

The video of the boy driving the Ferrari F430 on Kerala roads with his younger brother in tow had gone viral online and had caused widespread outrage.

When NRI businessman Mohammed Nisham posted a video of his nine-year-old son driving a Ferrari F430 Scuderia (CH 04K 8545) on YouTube earlier in April, little did he know of the troubles that awaited him.

The Kerala police have registered a case against the businessman for allowing his son to drive the luxury sports car on his ninth birthday and posting it on the video sharing website.

The video of the boy driving the Ferrari F430 on Kerala roads with his younger brother in tow had gone viral online and had caused widespread outrage.

According to media reports, the Kerala police have now charged Nisham under the Juvenile Justice Act and Motor Vehicles Act.

The Peramangalam police initially sought an explanation on Friday and later charged him with "encouraging underage driving" and "allowing an unlicensed child to drive".

A media report quoted Peramangalam Circle Inspector Biju Kumar as saying, "We have collected statements from the boy and other family members. But, the police couldn’t take custody of Mohammed Nisham as he is an NRI. After completing routine formalities, we would refer the case to the court for further proceedings."

However, the family was far from apologetic for their irresponsible behaviour, which had drawn flak from international websites.

The 'proud' parents were all praise for the driving abilities of their son, who they claimed, had driven several other cars owned by the family, including a Lamborghini and Bentley.

SOURCE : http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1828342/report-businessman-father-booked-for-posting-video-of-kids-driving-ferrari-on-youtube

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Guinness record holder dies performing stunt

Sailen Nath Roy, who had made his way to the Guinness Book of World records for his stunts, died here today while performing a rope stunt over Teesta river at Sevoke near here.
In Pics: Stuntman dies during world record attempt, Sarbajit's family meets him
Roy (45) was crossing the turbulent river by hanging from a pulley tied to his ponytail this afternoon. The tragedy took place when the pulley got stuck and he could not move it despite attempts.
The people helplessly watched him dying as he hung mid-air from the rope unable to move, the police said, adding, there were no safety measures in place. Roy was later pulled to the shore by the onlookers and the doctors declared him dead.
The doctors said that Roy had died of cardiac arrest while hanging from the rope over the river.
A pall of gloom descended on the town as Roy, a police driver, was a resident of Milan Pally here. He entered the Guinness Book by pulling the heritage Darjeeling Himalayan toy train in September 2012.

SOURCE : http://www.indianexpress.com/news/guinness-record-holder-dies-performing-stunt/1109156/

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HIV vaccine trial shut down

In another major setback for efforts to develop an HIV vaccine, federal researchers have shut down a key clinical trial after an independent panel of safety experts determined that volunteers who got an experimental vaccine appeared to be slightly more likely to contract the human immunodeficiency virus than those who got a placebo.
Investigators involved in recruiting volunteers and running the trial at 21 sites across the country were ordered Tuesday morning to stop immunizing volunteers with the genetically engineered HVTN 505 vaccine and to inform the nearly 2,500 people who participated in the study whether they got the vaccine or the placebo. All of the volunteers were men or transgender people who have sex with men.

The announcement came Thursday from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, known as NIAID, which developed the HVTN 505 vaccine and launched the advanced clinical trial in 2009. The vaccine was designed to prime the immune system to mount a robust defense against all three subtypes of the HIV virus.
Although earlier trials that tested the vaccine on fewer people suggested it was able to produce an immune response to HIV and had a good safety record, the larger trial revealed a "non-statistically significant increase in HIV acquisition among volunteers in the investigational vaccine group compared to those in the placebo group," NIAID said in a statement.
The difference in infection risk between the vaccine group and the placebo group could have been a matter of chance. Even so, the data failed to indicate that the vaccine was having — or would ever achieve — its intended effects of reducing one's risk of infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Also discouraging was the fact that the three-shot vaccine regimen did not help suppress the replication of HIV in people once they were infected, NIAID noted.
"This is quite a substantial disappointment," said Dr. Scott Hammer, a Columbia University virologist who is one of the trial's principal investigators. But, Hammer added, "we've learned from every clinical efficacy trial we've done. We've had good and bad news, but each one takes us a little closer in terms of what to pursue and not to pursue."
Altogether, there were 41 HIV infections among the 1,250 study volunteers who got the experimental vaccine and 30 infections among the 1,244 who received the placebo.
Of the 23 volunteers who became infected with HIV in the first 28 weeks of the study, 14 had received the vaccine and nine had received the placebo.
The experimental vaccine was also a disappointment for another reason: It failed to reduce the viral load of volunteers who became infected after they enrolled in the trial.
In its statement, NIAID said that it "remains committed to the pursuit of a highly effective, preventive HIV vaccine as part of a multifaceted HIV prevention research program." Meanwhile, it said that study volunteers who became infected during the trial would be referred to local services "for appropriate care and treatment." The study's investigators would continue to follow those volunteers for five years from the time they enrolled, NIAID said.
This is not the first large HIV vaccine trial to end abruptly after initial results proved disappointing. In 2003, early trials testing a Genentech Inc. vaccine known as Aidsvax found that some who got it developed HIV — prompting government regulators to block further testing in the United States. In 2007, a trial in South Africa that tested a vaccine made by Merck & Co. was ended prematurely because participants who got the active vaccine were found to have higher rates of infection than those who did not.

The HVTN 505 vaccine regimen was an outgrowth of one of those disappointments. Researchers improved upon the Aidsvax vaccine and tested the new formulation, called RV-144, in heterosexuals in Thailand. In 2009, they found that it reduced infection rates by 30%.
The HVTN 505 vaccine incorporated many of the lessons learned from the RV-144 trial about constructing a vaccine that would train the immune system to recognize and fight the genetic guts of the virus as well as its "envelope," or outer cell wall.
That those lessons failed to yield a successful vaccine in the NIAID trial was a bitter disappointment to researchers. In the coming weeks and months, researchers will be poring over two years' worth of blood samples from volunteers, said Dr. Stephen J. Brown, medical director of the AIDS Research Alliance, the Los Angeles site participating in the HVTN 505 trial.
As they do so, Brown said, researchers are likely to glean new insights into which parts of the current vaccine might form the basis for new HIV-prevention regimens. The next HIV vaccine trials are to start next year in southern Africa.
The World Health Organization estimates that 34 million people worldwide are living with HIV, including 2.5 million who became infected in 2011 — a statistic that underscores the need for a vaccine. More than 25 million people have died since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began, according to the WHO.

SOURCE : http://articles.latimes.com/2013/apr/25/science/la-sci-hiv-vaccine-trial-halted-20130426

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Poultry wet market likely source of virus of H7N9 human infection: research

HONG KONG, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding the human infections with avian influenza A
H7N9 virus by finding out that poultry wet market might be the source of the deadly virus, according to a research published online on Thursday by the leading international medical journal The Lancet.
The research was conducted by a collaborative research team from The University of Hong Kong and Zhejiang University. They analyze four infected patients in southeast China's Zhejiang Province, and discover for the first time that the patient's virus is genetically very closely related (>/=99.4%) to the chicken virus isolated from the epidemiologically linked poultry market.
The Lancet publishes the research entitled "Human infections with the emerging avian influenza A H7N9 virus from wet market poultry: clinical analysis and characterization of viral genome" in a timely manner, according to a statement from The University of Hong Kong.
The research analyses four epidemiologically unlinked Zhejiang patients suffering from severe acute community acquired pneumonia not responding to typical and atypical antimicrobial coverage who are found to have the H7N9 virus.
The team shows for the first time that the patient's virus is genetically very closely related (>/=99.4%) to the chicken virus isolated from the epidemiologically linked poultry market. Indeed about 20% of the chickens in the epidemiologically linked markets were infected with this virus. The researchers thereby believe that poultry wet market might be the source of virus of avian influenza A H7N9 human infection.
Moreover, the team conducts a characterization of viral genome. They find that the patient virus has a PB2 Asp701Asn mutation which is important for adaptation to mammalian host. There are also important mutations on the haemagglutinin, a virus surface protein, facilitating the virus attaching to mammalian host cell. These include the HA Gly186Val and Gln226Leu.
But no person-to-person transmission was found in 303 household or workplace contacts and 82 health-care workers with unprotected exposure to the four patients, according to the research.
Among these four patients, two of them died with respiratory failure, multiorgan dysfunction and markedly elevated serum cytokines and chemokines when compared with the survivors. Research found fatal but not the mild cases exhibit aberrant proinflammatory response of "cytokine storms," which resembles that observed in H5N1 or SARS patients. Another important finding is that virus testing appeared to be more sensitive with lower respiratory tract specimens such as sputum than throat swabs.
All in all, further studies on the virus evolution and disease pathogenesis will be performed to improve disease management and epidemic control, said the statement.
The research team is led by Professor Li Lanjuan of Zhejiang University and Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, the Co-director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology of The University of Hong Kong Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine.
The deadly H7N9 virus has caused a total of 108 human infections on the Chinese mainland, including 23 cases that have ended in death, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said on Wednesday.
 

 SOURCE : http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-04/26/c_124637927.htm

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Two And A Half Men Renewed For Eleventh Series - But Without Angus T. Jones

as announced today that an eleventh series of the comedy has been renewed - but Angus will only be coming back part-time.
Warner Bros., who make the award-winning show, have signed up Jon Cryer and Ashton Kutcher for another round, but the studio revealed that it is talking to Jones about a a possible recurring role on the show instead of coming back as a series regular.
And as Jones is no longer that cherub-faced 10-year-old that he was when he first appeared on the show, will it now be called Two And A Part-Time Man?

Jon Cryer (left) and Ashton Kutcher (middle) have signed up for an eleventh series of Two And A Half Men but Angus T. Jones is in talks to come back in a recurring role (Splash News)

Jones was seen bitching about the show that made him a star after a video of him in an interview with the religious website Forerunner Chronicles was leaked onto YouTube last November.
In it he rants: "Jake from Two and a Half Men means nothing. He is a non-existent character. If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching Two and a Half Men. I'm on Two and a Half Men and I don't want to be on it.

"Please stop watching. Please stop filling your head with filth, please. People say it's entertainment ... the fact that it's entertainment ... do some research on the effect of television on your brain and you'll have a decision to make. It's bad news. A lot of people don't like to think about how deceptive the enemy is."
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Especially one that reportedly paid Jones £218,000 ($350,000) an episode of the programme and made him the highest paid child star in television!
However, despite his harsh words, he is being asked to go back and CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said in January that the conflict had been resolved with Jones.

"The kid’s 19 years old," she said. "I've got a 24 year old. Between the ages of 19 and 24 there’s been plenty of things my kid has come out and said that I wish he hadn’t but the bottom line is cooler heads prevailed.
"[Jones has] been a beloved member of that cast for years and years and he issued a public apology. At the end of the day, they want him back and he wants to come back and that’s it."
Do you think Jones should be asked to come back or can the show do without him?

See Hilary Duff ahead of her guest appearance on the show!

 

SOURCE : http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news/112956/Two-And-A-Half-Men-Renewed-For-Eleventh-Series-But-Without-Angus-T-Jones

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Johnny Depp: 'Into the Woods' Musical with Meryl Streep?

Johnny Depp is reportedly in talks to join the highly anticipated movie musical Into the Woods alongside Meryl Streep, according to Variety.
There are currently conflicting reports out there that say he will either play the role of the Baker or the sexy Wolf character. We can’t wait to find out which!
Meryl is in final talks to play the pivotal role of the Witch, who casts a spell on the Baker and his wife, which sends the couple on a journey interrupted by many fairytale characters, in which they must find special objects to break the curse.
There were two Broadway productions of the Stephen Sondheim musical and most recently, Amy Adams starred as the Baker’s wife in the Shakespeare in the Park production last summer.
Pictured inside: Johnny heading into a medical building through the back door on Friday (July 26) in Los Angeles.

SOURCE : http://www.justjared.com/2013/04/27/johnny-depp-into-the-woods-musical-with-meryl-streep/

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World of Darkness development shown at EVE Fanfest 2013

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When the World of Darkness MMO was first announced in November 2006, it was just an idea and we knew that it wouldn't be released any time soon. The chance to play a sandbox game set in the Vampire: The Masquerade universe nevertheless made fans of the series go nuts, but now over six years later we haven't seen much progress on the game. At EVE Fanfest 2013 today, CCP laid the current state of development bare for all to see and showed some plans for the coming year. There are now 70 people on the WoD team, and they've spent the past week working on everything from art tools and server infrastructure to vampire powers and social options.

Development plans for 2013 include working on out-of-game web-based social tools, clothing systems, and PvE game environments. There are also plans to work on item creation, but direct crafting is probably not on the cards. As the presenter put it, "You're a powerful, immortal lord of the night. You don't want to stitch a shirt." Though the game is still in the pre-production stage, CCP was keen to show off the tools it's made to speed up the development process. "Some of these videos are a bit dry and technical," joked the presenter, but it came across as more real and honest than another trailer or musings on theoretical gameplay.

CCP showed some interesting tools that it will use to rapidly develop procedural content like buildings and cityscapes. It's not the gameplay fans were eager to see, but it was an honest look at the state of the game and it shows that development really is still ongoing. We saw a building going through the entire development system from basic block shapes to the graphically impressive final results, with plenty of eye candy to go around. As an indie game developer who specialises in shader programming, I can say that the video they showed of shader tech was genuinely impressive. Whenever World of Darkness finally does release, it's going to look amazing.

Developers also showed video footage of their own internal visual targets running in the WoD engine but were adamant that we not film it since it's not actual gameplay footage and may give a false impression of how far along development is. The animations were clearly unfinished and much of the graphical detail was added in post-processing, but the video clearly showed the direction the game is heading and it looks like it'll be worth the wait.

Whether you're a die-hard fan of internet spaceships or just a gawker on the sidelines, EVE Fanfest is the EVE Online event of the year (and the key source of new DUST 514 and World of Darkness scoops!). Follow Massively's Brendan Drain as he reports back on this year's Fanfest starpower, scheming, and spoilers from exotic Reykjavik, Iceland.

 

SOURCE : http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/04/26/world-of-darkness-development-shown-at-eve-fanfest-2013/ 

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Now, transform your Android phone into a personalised shooter location system

The technology takes advantage of the fact that all but the lowest powered firearms produce unique sonic signatures when they are fired.

Researchers have developed a new device which helps users track gunfire with their smartphones, popping a map of the neighbourhood on its screen pointing in the direction the shot came from.
Computer engineers from Vanderbilt University's Institute of Software Integrated Systems has made such a scenario possible by developing an inexpensive hardware module and related software that can transform an Android smartphone into a simple shooter location system.
The technology takes advantage of the fact that all but the lowest powered firearms produce unique sonic signatures when they are fired.
First, there is the muzzle blast an expanding balloon of sound that spreads out from the muzzle each time the rifle is fired. Second, bullets travel at supersonic velocities so they produce distinctive shock waves as they travel.As a result, a system that combines an array of sensitive microphones, a precise clock and an off-the-shelf microprocessor can detect these signatures and use them to pinpoint the location from which a shot is fired with remarkable accuracy.
Like the military version, the smartphone system needs several nodes in order to pinpoint a shooter's location. As a result, it is best suited for security teams or similar groups.
In addition to the smartphone, the system consists of an external sensor module about the size of a deck of cards that contains the microphones and the processing capability required to detect the acoustic signature of gunshots, log their time and send that information to the smartphone by am Bluetooth connection.The smartphones then transmit that information to the other modules, allowing them to obtain the origin of them gunshot by triangulation.
The researchers have developed two versions. One uses a single microphone per module. It uses both the muzzle blast and shockwave to determine the shooter location. It requires six modules to obtain accurate locations. The second version uses a slightly larger module with four microphones and relies solely on the shockwave. It requires only two modules to accurately detect the direction a shot comes from, however, it only provides a rough estimate of the range.
 

 

SOURCE : http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/1827728/report-now-transform-your-android-phone-into-a-personalised-shooter-location-system

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Illegal for minors to open Facebook account: petition

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Union government to explain how it was allowing children below 18 years to open accounts in social networking sites such as Facebook and Google.

A Division Bench of Justices B.D. Ahmed and Vibhu Bakhru asked the Centre to respond within 10 days when counsel for the former BJP leader, K.N. Govindacharya, the petitioner in the matter, accused the two sites of not verifying the details of its subscribers. It posted the matter on May 13 for further hearing.

The court has been seized of the petition since June 2012.

The Bench also impleaded Facebook Inc. and Google Inc. as parties to the petition and issued notices to them. Their Indian subsidiaries had responded to the petition.

Earlier, lawyer Virag Gupta, arguing for the petitioner, said the agreements entered into by minors here with the sites were against the Indian Majority Act, the Indian Contract Act and the Information Technology Act. In June 2012, Facebook, in a statement filed before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said that more than eight crore of its registered users had given false identities. This might have further increased, he noted.

The government had framed detailed guidelines for ‘Know Your Customer’ norms for all sectors and more specifically for verification of mobile subscribers by telecom companies. However, these norms were not being followed by the sites, thus posing a grave security risk to the nation, he added.

He also raised the issue of invasion of privacy of users of the sites as their data was being transferred to the U.S. for commercial use.

Cyber law experts say that there may be merit in the petition, as misrepresentation can invite penal action. “Creating a false electronic record is an offence under the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code. Under Section 465, the offence would attract punishment up to two years’ imprisonment and if the account so opened is used for the purpose of cheating, it would be punishable with a maximum of seven years’ imprisonment,” said top cyber law expert Pavan Duggal.

Children “openly lying about their age to create accounts on these websites” were likely to face potential legal exposure” and even parents “who knowingly misrepresent information about their children while opening accounts in their names,” could be prosecuted under the IPC and the IT Act. “Ignorance of law is no excuse,” he said.

The cyber law expert added that the online contract between users and social networking sites is enforceable in India. Therefore, under Indian law, both sides must be competent to contract, which means that they must be adults and of sound mind and the contract must be for lawful purposes. “Therefore, any [online] contract with a minor is null and void under the Indian Contract Act. While the age of majority in India is 18 years, it varies from country to country,” Mr. Duggal said. 

SOURCE : http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/illegal-for-minors-to-open-facebook-account-petition/article4654571.ece

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Country music icon George Jones dies at 81

 

"The King of Broken Hearts" just broke many more.
Country Music Hall of Famer George Jones, a master of sad country ballads whose voice held the bracing power, the sweetness and the burn of an evening's final pull from a bourbon bottle, has died after an illness that hospitalized him since April 18. He was 81, and was often called the greatest male vocalist in country music history.
"He is the spirit of country music, plain and simple," wrote country scholar Nick Tosches.
George Glenn Jones was dubbed "The Possum" because of his marsupial resemblance, and later called "No Show Jones" because of his mid-career propensity for missing stage appointments. Those monikers seem trifling in comparison to "The King of Broken Hearts," which became the title of a Jim Lauderdale-written tribute recorded by George Strait and Lee Ann Womack. Lauderdale was inspired by country-rock forerunner Gram Parsons, who would play Mr. Jones' albums at parties and silence the room with an admonition to listen to the King of Broken Hearts.
"The King of Broken Hearts doesn't know he's the king," wrote Lauderdale. "He's trying to forget other things/ Like some old chilly scenes/ He's walking through alone."

Mr. Jones was well familiar with such scenes. He was bruised by alcohol and drug use, and in later, happier and sober years he wondered at the adulation afforded him, given the recklessness with which he had at times treated his talent.
"I messed up my life way back there, drinking and boozing and all that kind of stuff," he told The Tennessean in 2008. "And you wish you could just erase it all. You can't do that, though. You just have to live it down the best you can."
The best he could was to sing about it, with an unblinking emotional truth that regularly rivaled and sometimes surpassed his own heroes, Hank Williams and Roy Acuff. He could offer a wink and a smile on quirky up-tempo hits "The Race Is On" and "White Lightning," but he built his legacy with the sorrowful stuff. Betrayal, desperation and hopelessness found their most potent conduit in Mr. Jones.
"Definitely, unequivocally, the best there ever was or will be, period," is how the Village Voice's Patrick Carr assessed Mr. Jones' contribution.
Mr. Jones' signature song was the Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman-penned "He Stopped Loving Her Today," which regularly lands atop critics' lists of greatest country recordings. In it, the King of Broken Hearts sang of a man whose death signaled the end of his unrequited love. In the studio, the song was difficult to capture, exacerbated by Mr. Jones' slurring of the spoken-word portion: When inebriated, he sung more clearly than he spoke. When the recording was finally concluded, Mr. Jones told producer Billy Sherrill, "It ain't gonna sell. Nobody'll buy that morbid (expletive)."
But they did. Mr. Jones consistently credited Sherrill with the song's success, but it was the empathy in Mr. Jones' voice that made the song's abject sadness somehow palatable.
"I'd rather sing a sad song than eat," said Mr. Jones, who sometimes lacked for food (he once withered to 105 pounds) but never for sad songs to sing. His treatment of those songs made him a legend, a designation which ultimately afforded him an uncomplicated satisfaction that capped a complicated life.
"That's what you live for in this business, really: to be remembered," Mr. Jones said in 2002, surveying the Country Music Hall of Fame and contemplating his place therein.
If Mr. Jones lived to be remembered, then his life stands as consummate triumph.

SOURCE : 

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Eric Schmidt Is Right, Using Google Glass Is Weird — Here’s My Experience

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has said he finds having to talk to Google Glass out loud to control the interface “the weirdest thing” and that there are going to be “places where Google Glass are inappropriate.” My own experience of trying out the device, even briefly, confirmed to me that this product simply will not become a mass-market device any time soon. Indeed, if it has any future at all it will be either in disappearing inside normal glasses, or solely used by industry. I can’t see it becoming as ubiquitous as the smartphone in any way, and here’s why.
At a conference in Europe this week I briefly tried on a pair lent to me by an individual — who will remain nameless since Google has threatened to take back the Glass if they are used by someone other than the owner.
Suffice to say the experience was quite odd. For starters you are staring straight into clear space, despite feeling like you are wearing glasses. But then there is this small screen hovering slightly above your line of sight and slightly to the right. So you can’t flick your eye up directly, but up and slightly to the right. It’s not a natural movement, which implies Google Glass may need to be personally adjusted to the individual.
A friend – who wears contact lenses – who tried out the Glass for a full 10 minutes complained of an hour-long headache afterwards from having to look up at the screen.
Next up is using your voice to do various commands like “Take a picture.” If you have someone standing in front of you, this is extremely odd. Suddenly they are cut out of the conversation and you’re talking to the Glass. This is very unlike being able to check something on your smartphone while you are chatting casually to someone. The latter feels quite normal, but performing similar operations while wearing Google Glass would seem downright rude in front of someone.
Ultimately this suggests to me that Google Glass will be incapable of being used socially. Okay, people in the tech world may use it socially and wander around with them on at conferences Googling each other. But it’s my belief that ‘normal’ people will not.
In part this was suggested by Andrew Keen onstage at The Next Web conference in Amsterdam. His point is that there is “no permission” given when the person in front of you is brandishing Google Glass. He’s right, and I can see most people asking the person to remove their Glass before conducting a civil conversation. You just don’t see that happening when two people with smartphones start talking.
Where I can see Google Glass working is in activities where you require both hands to be free. Skiing down a mountain filming, using the Glass like you would a GoPro camera, for instance. And in industrial applications – building and manufacturing, yes, I can see this would work very well: “Show House Plans” for instance, would be a great command for a building app. And you can see the police suddenly thinking of a few useful applications.
But not in everyday interactions just walking around.
But the technology itself? Well, if it does disappear inside normal glasses perhaps it has a chance. But once again, interrupting a conversation with someone to interrogate it? We’ll have to rethink thousands of years of human interaction, and that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.
So Google Glass for me will be this era’s Segway: hyped as a game changer but ultimately used by warehouse workers and mall cops.

SOURCE : http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/26/eric-schmidt-is-right-using-google-glasses-is-weird-heres-my-experience

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Poland is a nation still poisoned by anti-Semitism

WARSAW, Poland — Simcha Rotem stood at a podium between two black menorahs, from which rose towering gas flames. He was old and stooped, with wisps of white hair.

Behind him a stone frieze showed armed guerillas, their faces locked in determined grimaces. Before him TV cameras recorded his every word as Rotem declared: “We knew we had no chance. Should we start the uprising? Those are the doubts I live with every day.”
Rotem was a featured speaker at a ceremony April 19 recognizing the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943. That’s when thousands of Jews, realizing they were about to be hauled away to the Treblinka death camp, stood up to the Germans with pistols and rifles and fought back. Within a week the Nazis had slaughtered nearly all of them.
Rotem, now 88 years old, managed to escape through the sewers. Now, he’s the last surviving uprising commander.
Unlike previous years, Poland put on an extravaganza for this year’s anniversary because it was also the grand opening of a new museum intended to celebrate the 1,000-year history of Judaism here, part of an effort, sponsored in part by wealthy Polish-American Jews, to help stage a rebirth of Judaism in this state.
Today, this is a nation riven with anti-Semitism. The reasons are varied, but one bitter fact helps explain. Germany built its death camps in Poland, Auschwitz, Treblinka and others. And to this day, many people partly blame Poland for the Holocaust.
Poland is now a thriving, vibrant democracy that, like Germany, managed to escape most of the devastating economic repercussions of the European debt crisis. But it’s still struggling, not so successfully, to cope with its dark past.
Before World War II, 10 percent of Poland’s population was Jewish, more than 3 million people. Now fewer than 10,000 Poles openly identify themselves as members of the faith.
Severyn Ashkenazy was 6 years old when his family fled the Nazis. He eventually wound up in Los Angeles, and as an adult made a fortune in commercial real estate. Now he identifies himself as chairman of “Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland.”
Tad Taube, who lives in Northern California, also barely escaped Poland before the Nazis occupied the state. He donated $16 million for the new museum — determined to promote Poland’s Jewish history as a means to foster its revival.
Taube and Ashkenazy are among the most prominent Americans involved in this endeavor, but others also participate. Here in Poland, Andrzej Folwarczny runs an organization that works toward the same goal, spurred by several distressing personal observations, including an ugly moment during Poland’s first national elections after the communist era.
That’s when right-wingers, as Folwarczny put it, tried to defame a candidate for prime minister by accusing him of being Jewish.
Folwarczny is Catholic, like 90 percent of Poles. But he was stunned when he visited Israel for the first time with some other Europeans. Israelis greeted a “German with some warmth while they treated me with some distance,” he said. “They think Poles are responsible for the Holocaust.”
Last week, leading up to the 70th anniversary celebration, a university in Warsaw surveyed 1,250 high school students and found that 44 percent would be upset to find that a neighbor was Jewish.
Folwarczny’s group does most of its work in small towns that once were largely Jewish, showing evidence of the town’s past to young residents who’d had “not a clue,” as one said.
Ashkenazy blames the Catholic Church. Radio Maria, its Polish station, “spews anti-Semitism,” he said, echoing a claim made by the Council of Europe and other organizations. Folwarczny agreed and concluded: “Our goal is to change attitudes, but we’re still on the way. There’s so much to do.”

SOURCE : http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/26/4204801/poland-is-a-nation-still-poisoned.html

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/26/4204801/poland-is-a-nation-still-poisoned.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/26/4204801/poland-is-a-nation-still-poisoned.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

Behind him a stone frieze showed armed guerillas, their faces locked in determined grimaces. Before him TV cameras recorded his every word as Rotem declared: “We knew we had no chance. Should we start the uprising? Those are the doubts I live with every day.”
Rotem was a featured speaker at a ceremony April 19 recognizing the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943. That’s when thousands of Jews, realizing they were about to be hauled away to the Treblinka death camp, stood up to the Germans with pistols and rifles and fought back. Within a week the Nazis had slaughtered nearly all of them.
Rotem, now 88 years old, managed to escape through the sewers. Now, he’s the last surviving uprising commander.
Unlike previous years, Poland put on an extravaganza for this year’s anniversary because it was also the grand opening of a new museum intended to celebrate the 1,000-year history of Judaism here, part of an effort, sponsored in part by wealthy Polish-American Jews, to help stage a rebirth of Judaism in this state.
Today, this is a nation riven with anti-Semitism. The reasons are varied, but one bitter fact helps explain. Germany built its death camps in Poland, Auschwitz, Treblinka and others. And to this day, many people partly blame Poland for the Holocaust.
Poland is now a thriving, vibrant democracy that, like Germany, managed to escape most of the devastating economic repercussions of the European debt crisis. But it’s still struggling, not so successfully, to cope with its dark past.
Before World War II, 10 percent of Poland’s population was Jewish, more than 3 million people. Now fewer than 10,000 Poles openly identify themselves as members of the faith.
Severyn Ashkenazy was 6 years old when his family fled the Nazis. He eventually wound up in Los Angeles, and as an adult made a fortune in commercial real estate. Now he identifies himself as chairman of “Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland.”
Tad Taube, who lives in Northern California, also barely escaped Poland before the Nazis occupied the state. He donated $16 million for the new museum — determined to promote Poland’s Jewish history as a means to foster its revival.
Taube and Ashkenazy are among the most prominent Americans involved in this endeavor, but others also participate. Here in Poland, Andrzej Folwarczny runs an organization that works toward the same goal, spurred by several distressing personal observations, including an ugly moment during Poland’s first national elections after the communist era.
That’s when right-wingers, as Folwarczny put it, tried to defame a candidate for prime minister by accusing him of being Jewish.
Folwarczny is Catholic, like 90 percent of Poles. But he was stunned when he visited Israel for the first time with some other Europeans. Israelis greeted a “German with some warmth while they treated me with some distance,” he said. “They think Poles are responsible for the Holocaust.”
Last week, leading up to the 70th anniversary celebration, a university in Warsaw surveyed 1,250 high school students and found that 44 percent would be upset to find that a neighbor was Jewish.
Folwarczny’s group does most of its work in small towns that once were largely Jewish, showing evidence of the town’s past to young residents who’d had “not a clue,” as one said.
Ashkenazy blames the Catholic Church. Radio Maria, its Polish station, “spews anti-Semitism,” he said, echoing a claim made by the Council of Europe and other organizations. Folwarczny agreed and concluded: “Our goal is to change attitudes, but we’re still on the way. There’s so much to do.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/04/26/4204801/poland-is-a-nation-still-poisoned.html#storylink=cpy

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