TORONTO - Canada is tightening the rules for producing its popular icewine, a sweet dessert wine that is only made in cold climates, to crack down on fraudsters who sell mislabeled bottles that don't make the grade. In regulations published this week, the Canadian government said any bottle labeled and sold as icewine must be made only from grapes that have frozen on the vine. Some ...
Canada Day beer drinking Molson and Moosehead
C News - Sunday 30th June, 2013
It might surprise you to know, given the number of beer ads that you see in print and on TV, that Canada is not exactly a world leader in beer consumption. In 2010, we ranked in the low twenties just behind Spain. Despite that, there?s always a certain amount of effort made by Canadian breweries to gear up for the Canada Day long weekend. It?s unlikely that this has to do with the ...
T-shirt store starts new fashion trend in Libyas Benghazi
Reuters - Sunday 30th June, 2013
BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Browsing through the racks of printed T-shirts and scarves, a handful of shoppers inspect the latest designs in what has become one of the most popular clothing stores in the eastern Libyan city of ...
Lifestyle Fastest flight on earth to be unveiled in 2021
Standard Digital - Sunday 30th June, 2013
London to Sydney, just over 12,000 miles away. Currently, the fastest subsonic executive jet, Gulfstream's new G650, can fly 7,000 miles at a 646mph and has a top speed of just ...
Orion Holdings buys $6m Dubai Sports City tower
Construction Week Online - Sunday 30th June, 2013
Dubai-based property investor Orion Holdings has bought the Frankfurt Tower residential building currently under construction at Dubai Sports City from Memon Investments for just over $6m (AED: ...
Jeremy Forrest schoolgirl says she groomed teacher who abducted her
The Guardian - Sunday 30th June, 2013
Jeremy Forrest, who was jailed for five-and-a-half years for child abduction and five charges of sexual activity with a child earlier this month. Photograph: Philip ...
Lifestyle Changes Reduce Risk Of Prostate Cancer
Medical News Today - Sunday 30th June, 2013
The adherence of eight new World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) lifestyle recommendations has been found to significantly reduce the risk of developing highly aggressive prostate cancer. The study, published in the journal Nutrition and Cancer, was carried out by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC). The eight lifestyle recommendations that the WCRF made ...
Singapores Pink Dot rally shows growing pressure for gay rights
Reuters - Sunday 30th June, 2013
1 of 4. Participants dressed in pink enjoy a picnic before taking part in the forming of a giant pink dot at the Speakers' Corner in Hong Lim Park in Singapore June 29, ...
Health happy birthday NHS. Stay public for us all
Guardian - Sunday 30th June, 2013
National Health Service was born in the face of fierce opposition. It promised a comprehensive service, funded by taxation, available to all and free at the time of need. It has developed, over the years, into an institution rightly esteemed around the world and much-loved by the British people whom it has mostly served well.On Friday, the NHS celebrates its 65th birthday. It is of pensionable ...
Hate porn sure but be wary of banning it | Nick Cohen
The Guardian - Sunday 30th June, 2013
When websites advertise with the slogan "nothing is better than seeing these good-looking sluts getting raped", you may well feel in your gut that their viewers should be arrested.Never confuse your gut with your brain. The old principle that consenting adults are free to watch what they want is worth defending, not least because it is not as permissive of porn as it seems. It ...
Lifestyle Woman sentenced for cutting off husbands private organ
Standard Digital - Sunday 30th June, 2013
woman imprisoned of cutting off the penis of her then-husband and throwing it into a garbage disposal was given a life sentence Friday with the possibility of parole after seven years, authorities ...
Lifestyle Brazilian man pays doctors to make him look like a dog
Standard Digital - Sunday 30th June, 2013
A man who was reportedly having sex with a pit bull in a Detroit alley Tuesday had unintended company: Students walking by filmed him in the act on their cell ...
Buckley Dark week in Boston sports
Boston Herald - Sunday 30th June, 2013
The headline that accompanies these images: "Worst. Week. Ever."This Boston sports plague was making the rounds even before the latest news broke about Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce being traded to the Brooklyn Nets, a transaction that officially brings to a close the latest Big Three era for the Celtics.In trying to make sense of all this, is it possible to even mention the Bruins and ...
The TV channel for and by the people of Notts COVER STORYNottingham will have its very own TV channel next year. Notts TV will deliver news sport...
Hispanic Business Magazine - Sunday 30th June, 2013
The TV channel for and by the people of Notts ; COVER STORYNottingham will have its very own TV channel next year. Notts TV will deliver news, sport, entertainment, business, politics and plenty more to homes right across the county, seven days a week. SIMON WILSON finds out moreTHE short clip of Prince Harry grinning into the camera and saying ey up mi duck has been seen by millions around ...
Former coach says hes fall guy in sports-recruiting scandal
Orlando Sentinel - Sunday 30th June, 2013
Chad Long is fighting to get his job back, calling himself the scapegoat in a sports-recruiting scandal at Oviedo High two years ago that Seminole County school leaders described as the worst case of rules violations they could ...
Sports Briefing | Swimming Longtime 1500-Meter Freestyle Record Falls
New York Times - Saturday 29th June, 2013
Katie Ledecky broke one of the oldest national championship records, finishing the 1,500-meter freestyle in 15 minutes 47.15 seconds in Indianapolis. She beat her 2012 Olympic teammate Chloe Sutton by 20.6 seconds and broke Janet ...
Sports site No. 11 La Costa Resort Spa
San Diego Union-Tribune - Saturday 29th June, 2013
La Costa no longer hosts a prestigious PGA Tour event, but it is rife with golf history. In the Mercedes Open in 1997, for example, Woods stuck it two feet from the pin on the North Course's par-3 16th to beat Tom Lehman in a playoff for his first win of the year. When the Accenture Match Play Championship replaced the Mercedes as the resort's annual event in 1999, Tiger would again ...
Sports Briefing | Horse Racing Trading Leather Wins Irish Derby
New York Times - Saturday 29th June, 2013
Trading Leather, a 6-1 shot ridden by Kevin Manning and trained by Jim Bolger, won the Irish Derby ahead of Galileo Rock at the Curragh racecourse in County Kildare. Third place went to Festive Cheer, a 33-1 outsider trained by Aidan ...
Sports Briefing | Soccer Six Players Chase Golden Ball Award at Confederations Cup
San Diego Union-Tribune - Saturday 29th June, 2013
Paco Fitzurka, 64, and his teammate Shane West, 43, compete in a recent tournament for Over the Line Champions of all brackets on Fiesta ...
Yes prog-rock of the Seventies is back says Rick Wakeman
Independent UK - Saturday 29th June, 2013
Clubbers who have made "Get Lucky" this summer's dance-floor anthem will be shocked to hear that Daft Punk aren't the robot-friendly sound of the future - but revivalists of Seventies progressive rock, once the most derided of ...
Sports site No. 13 Peterson Gym
San Diego Union-Tribune - Saturday 29th June, 2013
Looking at it today, it's hard to believe that more than 6,600 fans crowded into Peterson Gym on the San Diego State campus to watch the Aztecs against Army and Long Beach State vs. Ball State in 1973 in the semifinals of the NCAA Men's Volleyball ...
SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Actor Jim Kelly, who played a glib American martial artist in "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee, has died. He was 67.
Marilyn Dishman, Kelly's ex-wife, said he died Saturday of cancer at his home in San Diego.
Sporting an Afro hairstyle and sideburns, Kelly made a splash with his one-liners and fight scenes in the 1973 martial arts classic. His later films included "Three the Hard Way," ''Black Belt Jones" and "Black Samurai."
During a 2010 interview with salon.com, Kelly said he started studying martial arts in 1964 in Kentucky and later moved to California where he earned a black belt in karate. He said he set his sights on becoming an actor after winning karate tournaments. He also played college football.
The role in the Bruce Lee film was his second. He had about a dozen film roles in the 1970s before his acting work tapered off. In recent years, he drew lines of autograph seekers at comic book conventions.
"It was one of the best experiences in my life," he told salon.com of working on "Enter the Dragon." ''Bruce was just incredible, absolutely fantastic. I learned so much from working with him. I probably enjoyed working with Bruce more than anyone else I'd ever worked with in movies because we were both martial artists. And he was a great, great martial artist. It was very good."
Coming into the 2013 NBA draft, there was no consensus for the top overall pick, leading to shock when the Cleveland Cavaliers announced they were selecting Canadian forward Anthony Bennett of University of Nevada Las Vegas.
The Cavaliers? selection threw the draft into disarray as they passed on a trio of prospects tabbed by analysts as potential No. 1 choices ? Nerlens Noel of Kentucky, Ben McLemore of Kansas, and Alex Len of Maryland.
Len was drafted fifth by the Phoenix Suns, while Noel slipped to sixth to the New Orleans Pelicans, who then traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers. McLemore ended up with the Sacramento Kings at No. 7.
There figures to be far fewer questions next year, with current college freshman prospect Andrew Wiggins projected to be the consensus top overall pick.
He is the son of former Houston Rockets guard Mitchell Wiggins, who played for a Ginebra team carrying the Tonde?a banner in 1994. The elder Wiggins highlighted his PBA stint with a 78-point effort against Sta. Lucia that season.
But the younger Wiggins, who was born and raised in Canada, has quickly made a name for himself in basketball circles. He won the Naismith Prep Player of the Year Award and the Gatorade National Player of the Year as a high school senior.
He will be joining the Kansas Jayhawks for the upcoming United States NCAA season, but his stay on campus is expected to be a short one with the NBA knocking on his door.
The DraftExpress website has had the 6-foot-8 Wiggins as its top pick in its 2014 mock draft for months, calling him ?one of the best athletes you?ll find in the world outside of the NBA.?
Veteran sports marketing executive Sonny Vacarro, best known for signing Michael Jordan to his first Nike contract and organizing top high school basketball camps in the world, called Wiggins ?the anointed one? in an interview with Adam Zagoria of SportsNet New York.
?Everybody knows how good he is,? said Vacarro of Wiggins. ?If he doesn?t hurt himself while he?s in college, physically or mentally or whatever, he?s got it locked.?
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Hundreds of protesters marched to the U.S. embassy in South Africa on Friday in a peaceful protest against the impending visit by President Barack Obama.
The demonstrators opposed U.S. policy on Cuba, the war in Afghanistan, global warming and other issues. The rally in Pretoria was organized by trade unionists and members of the South African Communist Party.
The protesters want to raise public awareness and warn U.S. citizens about human rights violations committed by the Obama administration, which includes the non-closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison holding terrorism suspects, said campaign coordinator Mbuyiseni Ndlozi.
"Their administration's government is not welcome, and is being received with antagonism," Ndlozi said. "Therefore they'll have to rethink the standards by which they hold their government."
Protesters carried signs that read: "No, You Can't Obama," a message inspired by the "Yes We Can" campaign slogan adopted by the president during his first run for election.
Obama and his family were expected to arrive in South Africa later Friday as part of a tour of three African countries. Their three-day trip includes a visit to Cape Town's Robben Island, where former President Nelson Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years imprisoned by the previous white racist South African government.
Demonstrators staged a similar protest outside the Parliament building in Cape Town where Obama's record on human rights and trade relations in Africa were questioned.
"He's coming here to plunder Africa and South Africa," protester Abdurahman Khan said. "He's coming for the wealth and resources, for the gold and the diamond mines, while the majority of Africans and South Africans are suffering."
Protesters also plan to rally Saturday at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto campus, where Obama will address students and receive an honorary law degree, and on Sunday at the University of Cape Town.
DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegalese President Macky Sall said on Friday he had asked U.S. President Barack Obama to provide more help to African nations fighting an Islamist threat in the Sahara, particularly in the sphere of military training, hardware and intelligence.
Sall, who held talks with Obama in Dakar on Thursday on the first leg of a three-nation African tour, said they had discussed the menace from al Qaeda-linked groups in the vast and lawless desert region, which runs east to west across Africa.
Senegal borders Mali, where armed Islamists seized control of the country's north last year. France launched a military campaign in January to oust the jihadists - warning that their enclave was a threat to the West - but groups of fighters have regathered in the deserts of south Libya and north Niger.
"We need in Africa, not just in Senegal but the whole of Africa, to have the military capacity to solve this problem but we need training, we need materials, we need intelligence," Sall told Reuters in an interview.
The United States, as well as the European Union and France, had a crucial role to play in helping African countries overcome a lack of military capacity and resources, Sall said. The Islamists had armed themselves with weapons looted from the stocks of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi after he was toppled in 2011.
"We need our friends to cooperate with us to help build those capacities and I think President Obama understands that terrorism since September 11 moves around the world," he said. "It is a global action and I think he's ready to work in that way."
The United States has already stationed surveillance drones and sent military trainers to Niger to prepare African troops which will form part of a 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, due to start on July 1.
Washington had for many years conducted counter-terrorism training in Mali but military cooperation was halted by a March 2012 coup in Bamako, prompted by a northern uprising by Islamists and Tuareg separatists.
Sall said both he and Obama agreed it was essential for planned presidential elections in Mali to go ahead on July 28, despite reservations from some advocacy groups, in order to complete a transition back to democracy.
Some rights groups have said Mali will not be ready to hold the ballot and have called for it to be postponed, warning that a botched vote could jeopardize the legitimacy of a new government charged with ending ethnic and religious tensions.
"We think, and we discussed this, that on July 28 the Malians should hold presidential elections. I think we can really do it," said Sall, whose country has sent troops to take part in the U.N. mission.
TIME TO BUILD BETTER RELATIONS
Sall voiced confidence Obama intended to devote more attention to Africa after a first term spent dealing with the global financial crisis and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Many Africans have seen their initial enthusiasm over America's first black president turn to disappointment after he visited the continent only once during his first term: a one-day stopover in Ghana shortly after taking office in 2009.
"Today it's his second term and the time has come for him to build better the relation between the USA and Africa," Sall said.
"Africa is a place where you can invest and get back your investment very easily ... His visit to Africa will facilitate American investment in the continent."
Sall said U.S. companies were interested in investing in Senegal in the energy sector and infrastructure projects, like toll roads and railways. Senegal was seeking joint-ventures with U.S. firms to add value, particularly in agriculture where local companies needed help to meet U.S. sanitary standards.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; editing by Ralph Boulton)
In this undated photo released by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic, newly nominated ambassador James "Wally" Brewster poses for a portrait in an unknown location. Religious groups in the Dominican Republic say they are outraged by the nomination of a gay U.S. ambassador to the conservative Caribbean country. Brewster would be the seventh U.S. ambassador in history to be openly gay, but opponents on Friday asked the administration of Dominican President Danilo Medina to reject his nomination. (AP Photo/US Embassy in Dominican Republic)
In this undated photo released by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic, newly nominated ambassador James "Wally" Brewster poses for a portrait in an unknown location. Religious groups in the Dominican Republic say they are outraged by the nomination of a gay U.S. ambassador to the conservative Caribbean country. Brewster would be the seventh U.S. ambassador in history to be openly gay, but opponents on Friday asked the administration of Dominican President Danilo Medina to reject his nomination. (AP Photo/US Embassy in Dominican Republic)
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) ? Religious groups in the Dominican Republic said Friday they are outraged by the nomination of a gay U.S. ambassador to the conservative Caribbean country.
James "Wally" Brewster would be the seventh U.S. ambassador in history to be openly gay, but opponents are asking the administration of Dominican President Danilo Medina to reject his nomination.
Rev. Cristobal Cardozo, leader of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity, said he worried about the message that Brewster's presence might send.
"It's an insult to good Dominican customs," he said.
Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, president of the Conference of the Dominican Episcopate, echoed similar sentiments.
"You can expect anything from the U.S.," said Lopez, who is also the archbishop of Santo Domingo.
Meanwhile, Vicar Pablo Cedano criticized the nomination as "a lack of respect, of consideration, that they send us that kind of person as ambassador."
"If he arrives, he'll suffer and will be forced to leave," Cedano warned, without elaborating.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Daniel Foote said in a brief statement to reporters that Brewster was nominated because of his skills as an international businessman and his ideas on democracy and human rights.
"Brewster arrives as an ambassador, he's not coming here as an activist for the gay community," Foote said.
Local gay and lesbian activists condemned the outrage, saying the words of religious officials were filled with hate.
Nominating a gay man as ambassador should be viewed as normal, according to a statement by the umbrella nonprofit LGBT Collective.
The groups' stance "contrasts with the silence maintained by prelates and pastors when it comes to sexual assaults on children," said Leonardo Sanchez, of the nonprofit gay group Friends, Always Friends.
Officials with Medina's administration have declined to comment on the issue.
"It would be in bad taste for the state to comment on this nomination," said Cesar Pina, a judicial consultant to the presidency.
The debate comes as activists prepare for an annual gay pride parade scheduled for Sunday in the capital of Santo Domingo, which has hosted the parade for about a decade.
Brewster is currently a senior managing partner for the Chicago consulting firm SB&K Global. He also was a fundraiser for Obama and an inaugural committee contributor.
I?m not trying to get her to grow up gay. I?m not hiding my gayness to get her to grow up straight. But she can see that there are many orientations and many ways to be. Hopefully, by the time she grows up we will have a society where those dichotomies of whether you?re gay or straight, a man or a woman aren?t so important. Where people can just be as they feel most natural and comfortable in being.
In 1975, my father concluded an essay on gay fatherhood with these lines. I was 4 years old, and he was raising me alone in San Francisco. He?d described himself as bisexual when he first met my mother in 1968. They married a year later, as self-styled revolutionaries, believing they could redefine family and gender relations. Then in 1973, my mother was killed in a car accident, and the next year my father moved us to San Francisco, where he could live openly as a gay man and raise me as a single father.
It was difficult to be a gay dad in the 1970s, even in San Francisco. The city was full of young men exploring the concept of sexual liberation, but few of these men were raising kids. And the culture at large was hostile to the idea of gays even mixing with children: In 1977, Anita Bryant successfully rolled back gay rights bills in several states with a campaign to ?Save Our Children?; in 1978, California state Sen. John Briggs tried to pass Proposition 6, an initiative that, if passed, would have removed all?gay?and?lesbian?school employees, and their supporters, from their jobs.?I?m told my extended family wanted to take over raising me after my mother died, but my father told them that if they even tried to take me away, they?d never see me again. He lived in fear then. And he even coached me to hide news of his boyfriends whenever I visited my grandparents in the Midwest.
But despite my father?s fears, he carried hope, believing that by the time I reached adulthood, gay men and women wouldn?t have to hide their romantic preferences for equal access to jobs and services, that people could one day ?just be as they feel most natural and comfortable in being.? Now I?m 42, an adult for more than 20 years, and finally a version of that dream has come true. I can?t help but wonder what he would think. He fought his whole life to raise the profile of gay writers and thinkers, marginalized in his time, through his work as an activist and editor. The experience of gay men and women was so beneath the scope of national concern back then that by the time AIDS began to spread across urban centers of the country in the early ?80s, the Reagan administration turned its back. Conservatives such as Jesse Helms, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Buchanan believed that gay men were solely responsible for their illness and not deserving of government help. In 1983, Buchanan famously quipped, ?The poor homosexuals?they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution.?
The author and her father
Courtesy of Alysia Abbott
Gays were so closely aligned with the terrifying disease of AIDS that they were regularly targeted in random acts of violence and vandalism throughout San Francisco in the ?80s. I remember riding the bus home from school and seeing ?Kill Fags!? spray-painted on a billboard. Another day I saw graffiti scrawled on the back of a bus seat: ?Gays?get help NOT AIDS.?I didn?t want my social identity, so tentative and fragile as a teenager, associated with stigma, so I pushed myself deep into the closet. I was scared. By the time the HIV test was introduced in 1985, close to half of the gay men in San Francisco were already infected. My father was one of them, but neither he nor I were talking about it.
In 1991, my father told me he was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS and asked me to graduate college early and move home. I didn?t feel ready. I was 20 years old, finally making good friends and good grades. I?d secured myself a coveted internship at a record label in New York and an apartment share in the East Village. I then worried that taking on the task of caring for my dad indefinitely would swallow up my burgeoning future. But my father had no long-term lover, no close family member who could step forward. That responsibility was mine alone. And, as he later reminded me, he didn?t feel ready to care for me alone after the death of my mother, but he did it. This is how family works.
I spent the last year of my father?s life nursing him in that same Haight-Ashbury apartment where he raised me before finally moving him into hospice. It was a difficult time, but one I feel fortunate to have known. I enjoyed bringing my father special meals he couldn?t get at the hospice?chocolate ice cream cones from a shop around the corner, miso soup and safe sushi (no raw fish) from our favorite Japanese restaurant. We ate these meals in his too-warm room, often sitting together in silence, with only the sound of his supping or the spoon scraping the bottom of our Styrofoam bowls. My father used to tell me he liked visiting with me above anyone else because other people needed to be entertained. ?I don?t always have energy to be cheered up,? he?d explain. I held his hand when he died in December 1992.
There were times in my life when I longed for the ?normal? family that I saw on TV and in the parking lots of my private school. I blamed the awkwardness and loneliness I sometimes felt as a child on my mother?s accident, foolishly believing my father?s overwhelming grief had ?turned? him gay. When I was little, I even told him that he should date women so I could get back that mother who was lost to me. But had my father done this, he?d not have been happy. And his success as a father, I now realize, was due to his ability to be happy, to love openly, and to parent in concert with, instead of in opposition to, his values and ideals.
I see this same spirit in the gay couples who want to start families today. Unlike the majority of gay parents in my father?s generation, who produced children from straight marriages before coming out themselves, gay men and women who want to become parents in 2013 go to tremendous lengths to do so. They foster children, wait years for expensive adoptions, or navigate complicated surrogate relationships in order to know the pleasure of being someone?s mom or dad. I envy their kids. They get to have their gay families, now recognized as legitimate before the law, and keep them, too.
The emergence of NumberFour in Berlin ? which has today announced a $38m Series A round ? throws up a few interesting points worth briefly dwelling on. It may be the case that we are looking at a tipping point in the European tech startup scene, which will play out over the next few years. Indeed, this business platform may be Europe?s answer to the global consumer platform created by Google and Facebook.
The first point to note is the location. For the last few years Berlin has become a hotbed of startups. Everything from the execution-led factories of Rocket Internet, to the cool innovation of Soundcloud and Wooga, we?ve seen a cross-section of technology emerge in Berlin. The city was almost built for technology startups on purpose. With high unemployment, cheap offices and housing, and almost no incumbent industries other than cafes, galleries and the government civil service, tech startups are free to roam the badlands of Berlin, throwing the proverbial startup mud against the wall to see what sticks.
Right now, the cost of failure in Berlin is pretty low. Admittedly, it still doesn?t have the end-to-end capabilities of London ? meaning that there is a lot more money in London from early to late, and a potential pipeline towards acquisition or a public market listing. But at the early stage right now, and if you can find the talent amid Berlin?s tiny population (3.5 million versus London?s 8m) Berlin has a strong hand. And importantly, NumberFour, while it is HQ?d in Berlin, it also has an office in the U.S. It shows that smart European entrepreneurs always have one foot in the important American market, and don?t cut off the possibility of raising large second rounds in the U.S. if they need to.
The second is the people. Let?s just have a look. CEO and founder Marco Boerries is one of the most experienced executives in the world, let alone Europe. He was former head of Yahoo EMEA and knew Yahoo founder Jerry Yang very well. It is little surprise Yang is an investor. Then there is Mike Volpi of Index Ventures; Andy Bechtolsheim co-founded Sun Microsystems and wrote the first $100,000 check to Google; Simon Levene, a former partner of Accel Partners, and executive at Excite@Home and Yahoo; Klaus Hommels has invested in Skype, Facebook, Xing and Spotify ? not a bad track record; Lars Hinrichs, Founder of XING, has been one of Europe?s most active Angels and has a well-earned reputation as someone who really understand technology under the hood. And lets add a non-investor, Ian Formanek, NumberFour?s Director of Engineering. Formanek was formerly VP of Engineering at GoodData, the cloud platform allows 6,000 global businesses to monetize big data. It is also worth noting that Allen&Co has been involved in almost every interesting mezzanine round or IPO in the tech or new media space for some time.
A curious side note is who missed out on this deal. The obvious answers are Index?s arch-rivals, Balderton and Accel. Whoever over at those firms couldn?t convince Boerries to take their money must feel like the guy who didn?t sign the Beatles right now.
Then there is the money. $38 million is a lot of bug fixes, and is reminiscent of the $41m the ill-fated Colour raised at its launch.
But Color appeared in 2011 during the white heat of the social app gold rush. NumberFour is very, very different ? it has an amazing team and it?s aiming at that sweet spot around small business and enterprise.
Admittedly one thing missing is the product. No-one has publicly seen it yet and the secrecy around the project is enormous. There are rumors of hundreds of engineers involved already. Current job openings on the newly unveiled web site include Sr. Java / Scala Software Engineer, Senior Software engineers and Mobile Software Engineers. No doubt there will be many more.
But we can be pretty confident that this team, with this funding, ought to produce something pretty amazing. And they?ve been taking their time to think about it, clearly. Fingers crossed they will pull it off.
And if there?s one thing about having $38m in Berlin ? it will take some time to burn through that cash, so they have quite a big runway ahead of them to get this right.
It?s now up to a delegation from the City of London to fly over and convince these guys to eventually IPO, in Europe, not on the NASDAQ.
But all that is a long way off. For now, we wait with bated breath for ? after de-cloaking in the middle of Europe ? this particular starship to start firing its photon torpedoes.
NumberFour is a business platform paired with a collection of versatile, easy to use apps that run on smartphones, tablets and personal computers. It was founded in 2009 by Marco Boerries. NumberFour?s solution creates a level playing field by giving small businesses instant access to the tools, capabilities insights normally only available to larger companies. Their goal is to provide the majority of small businesses around the world with similar efficiencies and scale effects to those that...
CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's military on Wednesday brought in reinforcements of troops and armor to bases near Egyptian cities ahead of Sunday's protests planned by the opposition to try to force the Islamist president out, security officials said.
Clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi erupted Wednesday, killing at least one person.
The troop movements accompanied speculation over the army's role in the crisis. The presidency says that the military has been coordinating with Morsi's government in the run-up to the protests, but activists say they are looking to the army for protection from hard-line government supporters.
Some Islamists accuse activists of paving the way for a coup, a charge that the opposition vehemently denies.
The security officials said the army deployments are restricted to the outskirts of major cities and inside existing military facilities. In Cairo, the focus of Sunday's protests, the extra troops deployed to major bases to the east and west of the city of some 18 million people.
The protests mark President Mohammed Morsi's first year in office.
Tension is building, and clashes between supporters and opponents of the president are growing in frequency, particularly in cities north of Cairo on the Mediterranean coast and in the Nile Delta.
On Wednesday, at least one person was killed and scores injured in the coastal city of Mansoura, according to hospital and security officials.
In Tanta in the Nile Delta, clashes between the two sides also broke out Wednesday. There were no reports of casualties.
On Sunday, army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is also the defense minister, gave Morsi and the opposition a week to reach an understanding to prevent bloodshed. There has been no sign of compromise by either side.
El-Sissi also warned the military would intervene to stop the nation from entering a "dark tunnel." Appointed by Morsi last August, he also gave a thinly veiled warning to Morsi's backers that the military will step in if the protesters are attacked during the planned protests, as some hard-liners have threatened.
Morsi, who addresses the nation later on Wednesday, has sought to project the impression of business as usual since el-Sissi's comments. He has discussed fuel shortages and power cuts with Cabinet ministers. He urged other ministers to ensure that basic goods are available ahead of the start around July 10 of the holy month of Ramadan, when devout Muslims refrain from food, water, smoking and sex from dawn to sunset.
The buildup to the Sunday protests comes as the country is partly paralyzed by an acute shortage of fuel that has created traffic jams caused by the long lines outside gas stations. Egyptians have also been angered by a steep rise in prices that is caused in part by the sliding value of the Egyptian pound against the U.S. dollar.
Cabinet ministers blamed the fuel shortage on corruption, rumors and hoarding by a public that is nervous over the protests.
Morsi's opponents calculate they can force him out through the sheer number of people they bring into the streets starting Sunday ? building on widespread discontent with his running of the country ? plus the added weight of the army's declaration that it will protect them against attacks.
His backers say the mainly liberal and secular political opposition is fomenting a coup to remove an elected leader because they can't compete at the ballot box.
The security officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said army commanders have carried out reconnaissance missions in areas and facilities they intend to protect ahead of June 30.
For example, the commander of the central military region on Tuesday inspected a media complex on the western outskirts of Cairo that houses several TV networks, some critical of Morsi. The complex was besieged at least twice in recent months by Islamists loyal to Morsi attempting to intimidate the networks and hosts of talk shows critical of the president.
Besides that complex, the military plans to protect the massive Nile-side building housing state TV, the Suez Canal, the Cabinet offices and parliament.
Morsi's supporters have accused organizers of the June 30 protests of planning to use violence, but the protesters have repeatedly vowed to keep their demonstrations peaceful.
Morsi backers plan a rally in Cairo on Friday for the second successive week. In last Friday's rally, hard-line Islamists addressing the crowd vowed to "smash" the June 30 protesters whom they denounced as Mubarak loyalists.
HTC's bone shaking BoomSound front facing speakers are making their way to Windows Phone later this year. The 8XT, which appears to be a slightly tweaked variant of last year's 8X, will launch on Sprint's 4G LTE network for $99.99 with a two-year contract. That's after you mail in a $50 rebate card, however. Powered by a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor paired up with 1GB of RAM, we want to say the 8XT has the same 4.3 inch 720p screen as its older cousin, but the spec sheet in our hands merely says "crisp". The front of the phone has a 1.6-megapixel camera, while the rear has an 8-megapixel shooter. You'll have to make do with 8GB of memory for your music, but there's a microSD card in there should you need to carry a few more albums.
Alban Denoyel founded?Sketchfab on the observation that the internet lives largely in 2D but could easily become a 3-dimensional landscape. The website, which Denoyel is calling “YouTube for 3D files,” is seeking to raise $1M at TechStars Demo Day. It’s a straightforward service: users upload a 3D model to Sketchfab in any of its 27 supported formats, which the server processes and displays using?WebGL and HTML5. The?graphic can then be embedded on any web page. Accounts are free for “3D enthusiasts.” Monetization happens in incremental upgrades for use in advertising, marketing, media, and brand content.?The rates stand at $7/month for 3D artists as a portfolio platform, up to $59/month for ecommerce sites. The most expensive enterprise plans support multi-user collaboration. Denoyel is betting on the overtake of 3D everything in the tech industry. For ecommerce sites, he argues, 3D graphics are much more compelling than flat photographs in showcasing the product. SketchFab went live on Quirky this week, so check out the 3D models and decide for yourself. Here are some Sketchfab’d TechCrunch glasses:
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A former Cleveland school-bus driver accused of imprisoning three women in his home for a decade was expected to appear in court on Wednesday and may face additional charges.
Ariel Castro, 52, pleaded not guilty last week to more than 300 charges against him, including rape and kidnapping in connection with the imprisonment of Amanda Berry, 27, Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32.
The indictment also charges Castro with aggravated murder for impregnating Knight between November 2006 and February 2007 and forcing her to miscarry by assaulting her.
Prosecutors have indicated they may seek the death penalty, and Castro's attorney, Craig Weintraub, told reporters the defense was willing to discuss a plea agreement with prosecutors to avoid capital punishment.
Prosecutors have said they plan to seek additional indictments from the grand jury this week or next and that DNA and other forensic evidence processing would be completed sometime in July.
It was unknown whether the grand jury had returned any more indictments that might be addressed at Wednesday's pretrial hearing, which otherwise would deal with more routine matters related to Castro's case.
The initial indictment against Castro covered five years from August 2002, when Knight disappeared, to early 2007. He has not faced charges related to Berry's 6-year-old daughter, who authorities have said was fathered by Castro.
A committee will consider seeking the death penalty for murder, prosecutors have said. Ohio is one of 38 U.S. states that have fetal homicide laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The women and child were rescued on May 6 after Berry discovered an unlocked interior door that allowed her to get close enough to the exterior to make voice contact with neighbors, who helped her break free.
Cleveland police responded and found DeJesus and Knight inside Castro's house on the west side of Cleveland.
Berry disappeared the day before her 17th birthday in 2003 after leaving her job at a Burger King restaurant. DeJesus was 14 when she went missing while on her way home from school in 2004. Knight disappeared in 2002 at age 20.
As of Tuesday, donations to a fund set up by Cleveland City Council members to help the women totaled more than $1 million, with more than 9,200 individual donations.
Tuesday also marked the end of one Ohio man's 240-mile (386-km) walk across the state to create awareness for "the needs of victims of sexual violence" in honor of the three women. Alex Sheen started his trek in Cincinnati 10 days ago and ending his walk at the house the three women were held captive.
Spokesmen for the three women have said they would not comment on the investigation while it was ongoing but hope for a "just and prompt resolution" of the legal proceedings.
Castro was being held in county jail on $8 million bail and according to jail logs has been refusing to shower or change his prison-issued clothing.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Michael Russo set an initial trial date for August 4.
(Reporting by Kim Palmer; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Lisa Shumaker)
Sony Music Unlimited is still a relative newbie on the iOS scene, but users will soon find a new revision that brings high-quality streaming and offline playback to the fold. According to Sony, version 1.3 of Music Unlimited for iOS is just around the bend, which will bring the ability to download entire albums or single tracks that can later be accessed within the app's offline mode. Also new in the latest update, you'll find high-quality streaming of 320 Kbps AAC files, which can be enabled in the app's settings. Sadly, you can't download high-quality files for offline playback, but at least iOS users can take solace in parity with the Android version.
LG has teased the Optimus G's successor for awhile, but we've seen precious little of the phone's design. We may have just received a better peek: a tipster has sent @evleaks some images that appear to come from a promo video for the flagship device. While the snapshots are clearly victims of Mr. Blurrycam, they're detailed enough to suggest a big break from last year's model. They show both a previously seen buttonless front as well as an extremely slim profile that moves the volume controls to the back. There's also no mention of the Optimus badge -- all the on-screen graphics simply refer to the phone as the "G2." None of the images are verifiable, so there's no guarantee that they reflect the real thing. If we happen to see something similar-looking on August 7th, however, it won't come as a surprise.
A major addition to the immigration bill that beefs up border security and effectively serves in part as a ?redo? of the legislation will face a crucial procedural vote in the Senate on Monday afternoon.
Written after a series of negotiations between Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, the amendment is intended to ease concerns of skeptical lawmakers who are calling for tougher border enforcement as part of the bill.
The bill retains the language of the original one proposed by a bipartisan group of eight senators earlier this year, but adds 119 new pages, Corker says. While most of the language would remain the same, the Corker-Hoeven version strengthens security measures by nearly doubling the amount of security agents along the nation's borders. The bill would also mandate the construction of a fence stretching "no less than" 700 miles along the U.S. border with Mexico and provide funding for aerial surveillance of the area. The federal government will be required to meet a series of security benchmarks before immigrants living in the country illegally would be allowed to obtain permanent legal status.
?The American people want a strong, comprehensive immigration reform plan, but we need to get it right,? Hoeven said in a statement last week. ?That means first and foremost securing the southern border before we address other meaningful reforms to our immigration policy. They want to know that ten years from now, we won?t find ourselves in this same position, having to address the same problem.?
The Senate will vote on whether to end debate on the amendment, which will allow it to move on to final passage within the next few weeks.
Lawmakers rejected a similar (and less costly) amendment to the bill proposed by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn last week by tabling the measure, so supporters of the new amendment hope it will serve as a new vessel to entice more Republicans to sign on to the bill.
The co-authors of the original immigration bill, including Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have spoken optimistically about securing as many as 70 votes for the final bill in the Senate, the number they think the bill needs to show the effort has wide bipartisan support. The bill is likely to get the support from 60 members needed to overcome a filibuster, but getting 70 would put pressure on the House?a chamber with a higher concentration of conservative lawmakers?to act.
?We?re very, very close to getting 70 votes," Graham said during a weekend interview on ?Fox News Sunday.?
The Senate is expected to hold the procedural vote on the Corker-Hoeven amendment at about 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Logitech really nailed the iPad keyboard case design with its Ultrathin Keyboard Cover?and Ultrathin Keyboard mini?so much so that the superlative keyboard cases have nearly as many imitators as the iPad itself. The Belkin FastFit Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard Case for the iPad mini ($79.99 direct), aside from leaving no doubts about its purpose or function, looks and feels a heck of a lot like the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard mini. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as the anodized aluminum design is thin and light, nicely complimenting the iPad mini. Unfortunately, while the keys have a nice springy feel to them, the awkward layout makes typing on the already tiny keys a chore. At the same price, but with a more comfortable keyboard, the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard mini is the keyboard case you want.
Design, Setup, and Keyboard At first glance, the Belkin FastFit and Logitech Ultrathin look pretty indistinguishable, but there are a few notable differences. For one, the FastFit is actually slightly wider than the iPad mini itself, while the Ultrathin aligns perfectly with the mini. That extra width accommodates the second difference; instead of a plastic, magnetic hinge like the Ultrathin, the FastFit has a solid aluminum strip for a hinge. It feels less chintzy than the Ultrathin's, but it makes the whole package appear asymmetrical, as opposed to looking like two equal halves. Inside you get the same single ridge that props the iPad up for typing. ?
Like all cover-style keyboards, the FastFit provides some protection for the front, but leaves the back of the mini completely exposed. The FastFit activates the iPad's Auto Sleep/Wake function when opening or closing the cover. Unfortunately, like the Logitech Ultrathin, the FastFit doesn't stay securely closed on its own. The cover could flap back open if carelessly thrown in, say, a backpack, which might affect the tablet's battery life by waking the iPad as it travels. Keep this in mind when you place it in a bag.
There's a microUSB port along the right edge for charging with the included cable, and an On/Off switch above keyboard. The FastFit automatically enters pairing mode when turned on, and setup is as simple as any other Bluetooth accessory. A dedicated Pair key lets you put the FastFit back into pairing mode.
That dedicated Pair key is one of a few frustratingly awkward key layout choices with the FastFit. The key resides right where the Delete key typically does, and trust me, you'll be searching for the Delete key a lot with the FastFit. The keys themselves aren't any smaller than Logitech's, and actually have a good springy feel to them, but they're offset by the spacebar. Belkin dedicated far too much precious space to the arrow keys, pushing the spacebar to the left of where my thumbs naturally search for it. The ? key is also to the right of the spacebar, instead of in line with the lower row of letter keys. Are dedicated arrow keys and < or > keys more important than the spacebar or ? key? Belkin seems to think so. I eventually got used to this awkward layout, but my fingers never felt quite at home.
Conclusions The Belkin FastFit isn't a bad keyboard case; in fact it's pretty good compared with clunkier options like the ZAGGkeys Mini 7. It's a well-made, beautifully designed case, but the puzzling key layout choices left me scratching my head. To be frank, however, you really won't find a truly comfortable or accurate typing experience on any iPad mini keyboard case?its footprint is just too small to accommodate a proper keyboard. You'll be making sacrifices with any choice, but if you're set on a keyboard case for your iPad mini, get the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard mini.
Contact: Gerard Farrell gerard.farrell@hkstrategies.com 646-317-7401 Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell study suggests urbanization and industrialization, coupled with a possible predisposition to hypertensive diseases, may be responsible
NEW YORK (June 25, 2013) -- Based on the experience of a large hospital in Tanzania, Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have discovered a "startlingly" high burden of hypertension in this sub-Saharan African country.
In the Journal of Hypertension, the researchers say non-communicable disease -- driven primarily by hypertension, resulting in stroke and other cardiovascular diseases -- accounted for nearly half of the deaths and admissions during a three-year period at Weill Bugando Medical Center, one of Tanzania's preeminent teaching hospitals.
Previous research has hinted that hypertension may be a rising health issue in Tanzania, but this study, the first large prospective evaluation of hospital diagnoses and death, provides hard, confirmatory data, according to the researchers.
It paints a picture of an African country in which infectious and tropical diseases are declining, while stroke and other non-communicable diseases are rapidly increasing, says the study's lead author, Dr. Robert Peck, an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Bugando Medical College.
"This is a striking finding, because most people assume that stroke is a disease of the developed world," says Dr. Peck, who has worked in Tanzania for six years. "To the contrary, our study shows the tremendous burden of stroke among adult inpatients at a typical African hospital.
"It may be that the exploding epidemic of hypertension-driven, non-communicable disease we found in Tanzania is occurring in other African nations," he says. "These findings have important implications for public health and medical intervention in sub-Saharan Africa, where communicable diseases have always been the top priority."
Death from hypertension was second only to HIV mortality
Weill Bugando, located in Mwanza, northwestern Tanzania, opened in September 2003 and has been affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical Center since its inception.
Tanzania has the lowest ratio of physicians to patients in the world -- one physician per 50,000 patients, says the study's senior investigator, Dr. Daniel Fitzgerald, co-director of the Weill Cornell Medical College's Center for Global Health. The Center has programs in Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania and other countries.
"Of the 42 million people living in Tanzania, approximately 34 million will never see a doctor in their lifetime," says Dr. Fitzgerald. "This lack of human health resources contributes to Tanzania's major health inequities and motivates Weill Cornell in its mission to deliver the best education possible to future Tanzanian physicians."
Since arriving at Weill Bugando Medical College, Dr. Peck has coordinated in-hospital training of Tanzanian students and residents in the Department of Medicine. He also conducts research on the epidemiology and optimal management of chronic diseases in Tanzania, including hypertension, kidney disease, and diabetes.
This study aimed to provide a profile of diseases in Tanzania that result in hospitalization, Dr. Peck says. It recorded diagnoses of patients admitted to the 900-bed hospital between 2009 and 2011, along with their age, sex, length of hospitalization, and in-hospital mortality.
The researchers documented 11,045 admissions during this time period; the median age for hospitalized patients was 40 years old. They found that non-communicable diseases accounted for nearly half of admissions, hospital stays, and deaths. Hypertension-related diseases were the most common non-communicable disease.
The leading three causes of death were HIV (684 deaths), hypertension (314 deaths) and non-hypertensive heart failure (123 deaths). Of the 10 most common causes of death, six -- or 45 percent -- were due to non-communicable diseases. Hypertension accounted for 34 percent of these deaths and 15 percent of all deaths.
Hypertension was the leading cause of death in patients more than 50 years old, and more than half of hypertension-related deaths occurred before age 65.
"Simply put, hypertension is the leading cause of non-communicable disease-related hospital mortality and healthcare utilization at our hospital," Dr. Peck says. "Nearly 10 percent of all adult hospital admissions at Weill Bugando were due to stroke, and stroke was the leading cause of hypertension-related death.
"This massive burden of stroke in sub-Saharan African countries such as Tanzania is likely due to the high prevalence of severe and untreated hypertension," he says. "Among adults in our region, nearly 20 percent have hypertension."
Need to screen for hypertension
The reasons for the rise of hypertension in Tanzania are not known, but Dr. Peck offers a few theories.
"Urbanization and industrialization are occurring very rapidly in sub-Saharan African countries such as Tanzania. Fifty years ago less than 10 percent of the sub-Saharan African population lived in cities; almost all Tanzanians were farmers who worked in the field and ate what they grew," he says.
"Now more than 50 percent of Tanzanians live in cities, and they work in non-labor jobs. Rapid urbanization and industrialization has also brought rapid changes in diet, including increased consumption of processed foods high in fat and salt. Still, typical Western fast food has not yet arrived here, and the prevalence of obesity here remains lower than in the U.S."
Dr. Peck adds that, as seen among African-Americans in the U.S., "there may be a predisposition to hypertension and stroke in Africa. We do not know that for sure. Nonetheless, adding rapid urbanization and change in diet and exercise to this predisposition could help explain this exploding epidemic."
Many things can be done to help, he says. "We need to increase community awareness of hypertension and its complications so that Tanzanians will want to be tested and will be motivated to adhere to their antihypertensive therapy if they have hypertension.
"We also need to improve primary care health systems for hypertension screening and longitudinal care," Dr. Peck says. "Studies need to be conducted that will help us better understand the underlying pathophysiology of hypertension in this population in order to design and target efforts to prevent hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa."
Dr. Peck and the Weill Bugando team are already working with the Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to design strategies to improve community awareness and primary care systems.
The goal of Weill Cornell's Center for Global Health "is to develop innovative health interventions that will save lives in resource poor countries," says Dr. Fitzgerald. "We build the capacity of international partner institutions through the training of their clinicians, researchers, and educators.
"This study is an example of how the Center is moving from infectious diseases to other major causes of mortality in Africa and the world, such as chronic diseases, maternal-child health, and trauma," he says.
###
Study co-authors include Cornell University undergraduate student Ethan Green; postdoctoral researcher Luke Smart, M.D., and Jennifer Downs, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, both from Weill Cornell Medical Center; and Weill-Bugando Professors Jacob Mtabaji, Ph.D., and Charles Majinge, M.D.
The study was supported by a grant from the United States National Institute of Health Fogarty International Center. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.
Office of External Affairs
Weill Cornell Medical College
tel. 646-317-7401
email: pr@med.cornell.edu
Follow WCMC on Twitter and Facebook
John Rodgers
(646) 317-7401
Jdr2001@med.cornell.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Gerard Farrell gerard.farrell@hkstrategies.com 646-317-7401 Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell study suggests urbanization and industrialization, coupled with a possible predisposition to hypertensive diseases, may be responsible
NEW YORK (June 25, 2013) -- Based on the experience of a large hospital in Tanzania, Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have discovered a "startlingly" high burden of hypertension in this sub-Saharan African country.
In the Journal of Hypertension, the researchers say non-communicable disease -- driven primarily by hypertension, resulting in stroke and other cardiovascular diseases -- accounted for nearly half of the deaths and admissions during a three-year period at Weill Bugando Medical Center, one of Tanzania's preeminent teaching hospitals.
Previous research has hinted that hypertension may be a rising health issue in Tanzania, but this study, the first large prospective evaluation of hospital diagnoses and death, provides hard, confirmatory data, according to the researchers.
It paints a picture of an African country in which infectious and tropical diseases are declining, while stroke and other non-communicable diseases are rapidly increasing, says the study's lead author, Dr. Robert Peck, an assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Bugando Medical College.
"This is a striking finding, because most people assume that stroke is a disease of the developed world," says Dr. Peck, who has worked in Tanzania for six years. "To the contrary, our study shows the tremendous burden of stroke among adult inpatients at a typical African hospital.
"It may be that the exploding epidemic of hypertension-driven, non-communicable disease we found in Tanzania is occurring in other African nations," he says. "These findings have important implications for public health and medical intervention in sub-Saharan Africa, where communicable diseases have always been the top priority."
Death from hypertension was second only to HIV mortality
Weill Bugando, located in Mwanza, northwestern Tanzania, opened in September 2003 and has been affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical Center since its inception.
Tanzania has the lowest ratio of physicians to patients in the world -- one physician per 50,000 patients, says the study's senior investigator, Dr. Daniel Fitzgerald, co-director of the Weill Cornell Medical College's Center for Global Health. The Center has programs in Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania and other countries.
"Of the 42 million people living in Tanzania, approximately 34 million will never see a doctor in their lifetime," says Dr. Fitzgerald. "This lack of human health resources contributes to Tanzania's major health inequities and motivates Weill Cornell in its mission to deliver the best education possible to future Tanzanian physicians."
Since arriving at Weill Bugando Medical College, Dr. Peck has coordinated in-hospital training of Tanzanian students and residents in the Department of Medicine. He also conducts research on the epidemiology and optimal management of chronic diseases in Tanzania, including hypertension, kidney disease, and diabetes.
This study aimed to provide a profile of diseases in Tanzania that result in hospitalization, Dr. Peck says. It recorded diagnoses of patients admitted to the 900-bed hospital between 2009 and 2011, along with their age, sex, length of hospitalization, and in-hospital mortality.
The researchers documented 11,045 admissions during this time period; the median age for hospitalized patients was 40 years old. They found that non-communicable diseases accounted for nearly half of admissions, hospital stays, and deaths. Hypertension-related diseases were the most common non-communicable disease.
The leading three causes of death were HIV (684 deaths), hypertension (314 deaths) and non-hypertensive heart failure (123 deaths). Of the 10 most common causes of death, six -- or 45 percent -- were due to non-communicable diseases. Hypertension accounted for 34 percent of these deaths and 15 percent of all deaths.
Hypertension was the leading cause of death in patients more than 50 years old, and more than half of hypertension-related deaths occurred before age 65.
"Simply put, hypertension is the leading cause of non-communicable disease-related hospital mortality and healthcare utilization at our hospital," Dr. Peck says. "Nearly 10 percent of all adult hospital admissions at Weill Bugando were due to stroke, and stroke was the leading cause of hypertension-related death.
"This massive burden of stroke in sub-Saharan African countries such as Tanzania is likely due to the high prevalence of severe and untreated hypertension," he says. "Among adults in our region, nearly 20 percent have hypertension."
Need to screen for hypertension
The reasons for the rise of hypertension in Tanzania are not known, but Dr. Peck offers a few theories.
"Urbanization and industrialization are occurring very rapidly in sub-Saharan African countries such as Tanzania. Fifty years ago less than 10 percent of the sub-Saharan African population lived in cities; almost all Tanzanians were farmers who worked in the field and ate what they grew," he says.
"Now more than 50 percent of Tanzanians live in cities, and they work in non-labor jobs. Rapid urbanization and industrialization has also brought rapid changes in diet, including increased consumption of processed foods high in fat and salt. Still, typical Western fast food has not yet arrived here, and the prevalence of obesity here remains lower than in the U.S."
Dr. Peck adds that, as seen among African-Americans in the U.S., "there may be a predisposition to hypertension and stroke in Africa. We do not know that for sure. Nonetheless, adding rapid urbanization and change in diet and exercise to this predisposition could help explain this exploding epidemic."
Many things can be done to help, he says. "We need to increase community awareness of hypertension and its complications so that Tanzanians will want to be tested and will be motivated to adhere to their antihypertensive therapy if they have hypertension.
"We also need to improve primary care health systems for hypertension screening and longitudinal care," Dr. Peck says. "Studies need to be conducted that will help us better understand the underlying pathophysiology of hypertension in this population in order to design and target efforts to prevent hypertension in sub-Saharan Africa."
Dr. Peck and the Weill Bugando team are already working with the Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, to design strategies to improve community awareness and primary care systems.
The goal of Weill Cornell's Center for Global Health "is to develop innovative health interventions that will save lives in resource poor countries," says Dr. Fitzgerald. "We build the capacity of international partner institutions through the training of their clinicians, researchers, and educators.
"This study is an example of how the Center is moving from infectious diseases to other major causes of mortality in Africa and the world, such as chronic diseases, maternal-child health, and trauma," he says.
###
Study co-authors include Cornell University undergraduate student Ethan Green; postdoctoral researcher Luke Smart, M.D., and Jennifer Downs, M.D., an infectious disease specialist and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, both from Weill Cornell Medical Center; and Weill-Bugando Professors Jacob Mtabaji, Ph.D., and Charles Majinge, M.D.
The study was supported by a grant from the United States National Institute of Health Fogarty International Center. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Weill Cornell Medical College
Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University's medical school located in New York City, is committed to excellence in research, teaching, patient care and the advancement of the art and science of medicine, locally, nationally and globally. Physicians and scientists of Weill Cornell Medical College are engaged in cutting-edge research from bench to bedside, aimed at unlocking mysteries of the human body in health and sickness and toward developing new treatments and prevention strategies. In its commitment to global health and education, Weill Cornell has a strong presence in places such as Qatar, Tanzania, Haiti, Brazil, Austria and Turkey. Through the historic Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, the Medical College is the first in the U.S. to offer its M.D. degree overseas. Weill Cornell is the birthplace of many medical advances -- including the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer, the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial of gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, and most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally conscious brain-injured patient. Weill Cornell Medical College is affiliated with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where its faculty provides comprehensive patient care at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The Medical College is also affiliated with the Methodist Hospital in Houston. For more information, visit weill.cornell.edu.
Office of External Affairs
Weill Cornell Medical College
tel. 646-317-7401
email: pr@med.cornell.edu
Follow WCMC on Twitter and Facebook
John Rodgers
(646) 317-7401
Jdr2001@med.cornell.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Coming into the 2013 NBA draft, there was no consensus for the top overall pick, leading to shock when the Cleveland Cavaliers announced they were selecting Canadian forward Anthony Bennett of University of Nevada Las Vegas.
The author and her father
The author and her father
Alban Denoyel founded?Sketchfab on the observation that the internet lives largely in 2D but could easily become a 3-dimensional landscape. The website, which Denoyel is calling “YouTube for 3D files,” is seeking to raise $1M at TechStars Demo Day. It’s a straightforward service: users upload a 3D model to Sketchfab in any of its 27 supported formats, which the server processes and displays using?WebGL and HTML5. The?graphic can then be embedded on any web page. Accounts are free for “3D enthusiasts.” Monetization happens in incremental upgrades for use in advertising, marketing, media, and brand content.?The rates stand at $7/month for 3D artists as a portfolio platform, up to $59/month for ecommerce sites. The most expensive enterprise plans support multi-user collaboration. Denoyel is betting on the overtake of 3D everything in the tech industry. For ecommerce sites, he argues, 3D graphics are much more compelling than flat photographs in showcasing the product. SketchFab went live on Quirky this week, so check out the 3D models and decide for yourself. Here are some Sketchfab’d TechCrunch glasses:
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uLKLGYEaq9p1yQIRfEzD5x4z7NG4eV6WMIj2I5rU1W2uMnYb7NN8d2UEWVt15sPWXUAkqXhMKyj8SeUHjjrFde78utP0rN4yRzQXCm-VI=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Jun-2013
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