LAGOS, Nigeria ? The leader of a radical Islamist sect has challenged the authority of Nigeria's president in an online video, promising more attacks in a nation increasingly overcome by unrest and divided by religion.
The video of Imam Abubakar Shekau cements his leadership in the sect known as Boko Haram. Analysts and diplomats say the sect has fractured over time, with a splinter group responsible for the majority of the assassinations and bombings carried out in its name.
It also exploits the widening mistrust those living in Nigeria's Muslim north feel for a weak federal government run by a Christian president, who has sparked a nationwide strike and protests after removing subsidies that kept gasoline prices low.
"In the end, they said they should kill us. They kill us. They burn our houses. They burn our mosques," Shekau says in the Hausa language of Nigeria's north. "They didn't even leave us. Because of that, we thought, let us protect ourselves as well."
Boko Haram, whose name in Hausa means "Western education is sacrilege," has carried out attacks in Nigeria's northeast and its capital that killed at least 510 people last year alone, according to an Associated Press count. The sect is blamed by the government for killing at least 68 people in the last week alone, as it continues its campaign to impose strict Islamic Shariah law across the multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people.
On Wednesday, suspected Boko Haram gunmen attacked a bus in Yobe state carrying Christian Igbo traders fleeing the north for their homeland in the country's southeast, killing four people, police said. In Adamawa state, authorities said sect members shot to death a police officer.
Shekau took control of the sect after a riot and security crackdown in July 2009 saw Boko Haram's leader and about 700 others killed. Police initially claimed to have killed Shekau during that violence in Nigeria, but he emerged last year in audio and video messages just before Boko Haram began its campaign of violence.
In the 15-minute video uploaded Tuesday to YouTube, Shekau appears relaxed, wearing a camouflage bulletproof vest and sitting between two Kalashnikov rifles. He criticized President Goodluck Jonathan for speaking out about the sect and hints that the group carries much more popular support across Nigeria's arid and impoverished north than what authorities believe.
"All these things you've been seeing happening, it's Allah who has been doing it because you refuse to believe in him and you misuse his religion and because of that, the thing is more than you, Jonathan," Shekau says. You can "meet other people who think what we're doing is good."
Shekau also recites a list of areas where Muslims have been killed in communal violence across Nigeria, then called on the president of an umbrella group of Christians to "repent" for calling on worshippers to defend themselves after Boko Haram began targeting Christians.
"People are talking about us, that we are a disease, a cancer, to people in Nigeria," Shekau says. "But we are not cancer and we are not a disease. And we are not wicked people with a bad habit. If people do not know us, Allah knows us."
While Boko Haram attacks began as drive-by shootings on motorcycles, the sect's assaults have become much more sophisticated over time, including using suicide car bombers. The sect claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 attack on the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria that killed 25 people and wounded more than 100 others. It also carried out attacks that killed at least 42 people in Christmas Day strikes that included the bombing of a Catholic church near Abuja.
The U.S. government believes Boko Haram remains in contact with two al-Qaida-inspired terror groups in Africa, which could account for the increasing complexity of their attacks. The Shekau video also suggests an outside influence, copying the style of other terror groups' messages.
Muslims and Christians largely live in peace, do business with each other and intermarry in Nigeria. However, tension over Boko Haram's attacks have seen mosques attacked in recent weeks. On Tuesday, an angry mob attacked a mosque and school in southwest Nigeria, killing at least five people.
Muslim groups also denounced Boko Haram's violence, though many in the north remain angry over the high unemployment and poverty crushing the region as politicians embezzle billions of dollars of the country's oil revenues. Protests over the April presidential election that saw Jonathan win sparked rioting that left 800 dead across the north.
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Associated Press writer Njadvara Musa in Maiduguri, Nigeria contributed to this report.
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Jon Gambrell can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.
Preventive hemophilia A treatment reduces annual bleeding events and frequency of infusions
Monday, January 9, 2012
A Rush University Medical Center led international research team has announced that a treatment to prevent bleeding episodes in children with hemophilia A also is effective for adolescents and adults.
The preventive therapy will "optimize care for hemophilia patients of all ages by stopping unexpected bleeding events that can have a detrimental impact on the lives of patients," said Dr. Leonard Valentino, director of the Rush Hemophilia and Thrombophilia Center and principal investigator on the study. The study results appeared in the January online version of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis. Valentino is associate professor of Pediatrics at Rush University's Rush Medical College.
The study, sponsored by Baxter Healthcare Corporation, was conducted as part of a comprehensive clinical study of ADVATE Antihemophilic Factor (Recombinant), Plasma/Albumin Free Method (rAHF-PFM) to compare the effectiveness of two prophylactic treatment regimens, as well as between on-demand and prophylaxis treatments, in preventing bleeding in previously treated patients with severe or moderately severe hemophilia A. It is the first study designed to generate prospective data for stringent comparisons of bleeding rates.
Hemophilia A is a rare, inherited, potentially deadly blood clotting disorder that affects 400,000 people worldwide, most of them males. Approximately one in 5,000 individuals is born with hemophilia annually.
In people with hemophilia A, a protein called clotting factor VIII is either absent or present at low levels. Factor VIII replacement, such as rAHF-PFM, is considered the treatment of choice for managing hemophilia A patients who lack inhibitors (antibodies) of factor VIII.
About 90 percent of people who have hemophilia have type A. Of these, 70 percent have the severe form of the disorder, indicated by a factor VIII level of less than 1 percent of normal.
Patients with severe disease are at particular risk for spontaneous bleeding into joints, muscles and internal organs, as well as trauma-induced bleeding following injury and surgery. Joint bleeding may occur as frequently as 20 to 30 times a year, resulting in clinically significant hemophilia-related arthritis. "The main goal of replacement therapy is to prevent this pathology," Valentino said.
Primary prophylaxis is already the standard of care for children with hemophilia A. It is believed that the early initiation of prophylaxis may confer a protective effect against factor VIII inhibitor, the most serious complication associated with replacement therapy. Adult hemophilia patients are treated either in response to bleeding (on demand) or with regular infusion of clotting factor to prevent bleeding and further joint damage. However, while on-demand treatment can slow the progression of hemophilia-related arthritis, it does not seem to prevent the condition.
In the Rush study, one regimen was based on common practice with every-other-day dosing. The other was customized for each individual based on the drug's activity in the body (pharmacokinetics, or PK) with every-third-day dosing. PK-tailored prophylaxis offers an alternative to standard prophylaxis for the prevention of bleeding.
Study participants aged 7 to 65 years received six months of on-demand treatment with dosing dependent on the severity and type of bleeding episode. After completing the on-demand treatment period, subjects were randomized to receive 12 months of either standard or PK-tailored prophylaxis treatment. Once the prophylaxis period began, factor VIII levels were assessed every three months.
Of the 66 subjects in the study, 22 (33.3 percent) who received prophylaxis had no bleeding episodes, in contrast to the patients treated on demand. No subject developed factor VIII inhibitors. The patients who achieved these results were adherent to the prescribed number of prophylactic infusions.
Compared with on-demand treatment, both prophylaxis regimens significantly reduced bleeding, including spontaneous and traumatic hemorrhaging, and improved the quality of life for adolescent and adults patients. Results of the study suggest that prophylaxis is the optimal treatment for patients with severe hemophilia. Data from the study also confirm and extend the safety and effectiveness of rAHF-PFM for controlling and preventing bleeding in the management of hemophilia A.
The study findings suggest that the PK-tailored prophylaxis regimen, which used similar amounts of rAHF-PFM and one fewer infusion per week, is a viable treatment alternative to standard prophylaxis. The availability of this option could increase treatment adherence, particularly in children and adolescents, for whom compliance with long-term medical regimens is especially challenging. Additionally, the study confirms and extends the safety and effectiveness of rAHF-PFM for controlling and preventing bleeding in the management of hemophilia A.
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Rush University Medical Center: http://www.rush.edu
Thanks to Rush University Medical Center for this article.
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Brad Pitt has been sporting a new accessory in recent days ? a cane ? due to an injury to his ACL (a ligament in the knee).
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?I was carrying my daughter (Vivienne) down the hill and I slipped,? Brad, 48, explained to reporters at the 23rd International Palm Springs Film Festival in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday. ?It was either her or me.?
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Brad?s longtime love, Angelina Jolie, said she doesn?t mind Brad?s new adornment.
?I like the cane,? she told reporters, adding that the injury hasn?t slowed Brad down. ?He?s not that kind of guy. He does everything still.?
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Thanks to dad Brad?s valiant actions, Angelina said their 3-year-old daughter did not sustain any injuries.
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?Vivie?s okay,? Angelina said. ?She was absolutely fine.?
Angie also revealed that she too has sustained an injury for the sake of her offspring.
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?I think all parents get injured in the line of fire. When Maddox was young, I fell and hurt my elbow,? she said. ?It?s a pretty common occurrence.?
Copyright 2012 by NBC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Really cool! > RT @manielse: Microsoft's new holographic display breaks out from behind glass dvice.com/archives/2012/? Princess Leia style!Il y a environ 4 heuresvia Seesmic
In this special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, experts reflect on 2011 and highlight what to look out for in 2012 in the areas of nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, biosecurity, and climate change. Topics that have made the headlines during the previous 12 months, including the increased tension surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, the aftermath of the Fukushima incident, and the state of US policy on climate change, are analyzed in detail in this special issue.
At the Doomsday Clock Symposium on January 9-10 in Washington, DC, the Bulletin's Science and Security Board will evaluate the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock. In 1947, the Bulletin first displayed the Doomsday Clock on its magazine cover to convey, through a simple design, the perils posed by nuclear weapons. The Clock evokes both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero). In 1949, the Clock hand first moved to signal the assessment of world events and trends. The essays within this special issue are a glimpse into the topics the Bulletin's board will consider when evaluating the minute hand.
Gerald Epstein, director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy (CSIS) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says that 2011 saw progress on approaches to address biological threats posed by non-state groups at both the Seventh Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)Review Conference and the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
In his paper, Biosecurity 2011: Not a year to change minds, Epstein writes that the BWC is evolving to adapt to the nature of the biological threat. Going forward, biosecurity will hinge upon the international community's ability to cooperate, whether it can think creatively and strategically, and whether it enters partnerships with scientists from all world regions.
Steven E. Miller, director of the International Security Program at Harvard University, writes in his paper, Nuclear Weapons 2011: Momentum slows, reality returns that 2011 was short on breakthroughs in the arms control arena, following something of a landmark year in 2010. Miller highlights five events that unfolded during 2011 that he suggests "seem certain to cast a powerful shadow in months and years to come." The current tension with Iran over weapons, the spread of nuclear technology in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and difficulties in the US relationship with Russia are among them.
The Fukushima incident was a sudden and dramatic shock in 2011, writes Mark Hibbs, a senior associate in Carnegie's Nuclear Policy Program, but what continued to be a concern throughout the year was the incremental escalation of continuing crises in Iran, North Korea, and South Asia. In his paper, Nuclear Energy 2011: A watershed year, Hibbs reviews reassessments undertaken around the world after Fukushima, and underlines Europe's critical role in nuclear energy's global future.
In Climate change 2011: A status report on US policy, Steven Cohen and Alison Miller highlight a growing partisan divide in US Congress. This divide has stalled the country's federal climate policy, frustrated efforts to pass a cap-and-trade carbon permitting system, and spawned a battle between the US Environmental Protection Agency and Congress. Climate change policy has been pushed down to the municipal level, and the divide has also hindered US ability to effectively negotiate an international climate agreement. Meanwhile, US cities have enacted far-sighted climate policy initiatives, and growing fossil fuels costs have stimulated renewable energy investment, bringing commercially viable fossil fuel alternatives closer.
"The inevitable shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources would be greatly hastened by federal action to tax carbon dioxide emissions and use the revenue generated to support alternative energy technologies," writes Cohen, executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute. "That action is extremely unlikely to occur unless climate change comes to be seen in the United States as a practical, rather than ideological, issue."
###
The articles are available to access free for a limited period here: http://bos.sagepub.com/content/current
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Bulletin is an independent nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization that publishes analysis and conducts forums about nuclear security, climate stabilization, and safety in the biosciences. Founded by Manhattan Project scientists from the University of Chicago, it links the work of scholars and experts with policymaking entities and citizens around the world. An international network of authors assesses scientific advancements that involve both benefits and risks to humanity, with the goal of influencing public policy to protect the Earth and its inhabitants. The organization's scientific advisory boards include 19 Nobel laureates, ambassadors, leading scholars, distinguished NGO officials, and public policy experts. The Bulletin is closely followed in Washington and other world capitals and uses its iconic Doomsday Clock to draw international attention to global risks and solutions.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com
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The nuclear, biological and climate threat - 2011 reviewedPublic release date: 6-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
In this special issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE, experts reflect on 2011 and highlight what to look out for in 2012 in the areas of nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, biosecurity, and climate change. Topics that have made the headlines during the previous 12 months, including the increased tension surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, the aftermath of the Fukushima incident, and the state of US policy on climate change, are analyzed in detail in this special issue.
At the Doomsday Clock Symposium on January 9-10 in Washington, DC, the Bulletin's Science and Security Board will evaluate the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock. In 1947, the Bulletin first displayed the Doomsday Clock on its magazine cover to convey, through a simple design, the perils posed by nuclear weapons. The Clock evokes both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero). In 1949, the Clock hand first moved to signal the assessment of world events and trends. The essays within this special issue are a glimpse into the topics the Bulletin's board will consider when evaluating the minute hand.
Gerald Epstein, director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Security Policy (CSIS) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says that 2011 saw progress on approaches to address biological threats posed by non-state groups at both the Seventh Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)Review Conference and the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
In his paper, Biosecurity 2011: Not a year to change minds, Epstein writes that the BWC is evolving to adapt to the nature of the biological threat. Going forward, biosecurity will hinge upon the international community's ability to cooperate, whether it can think creatively and strategically, and whether it enters partnerships with scientists from all world regions.
Steven E. Miller, director of the International Security Program at Harvard University, writes in his paper, Nuclear Weapons 2011: Momentum slows, reality returns that 2011 was short on breakthroughs in the arms control arena, following something of a landmark year in 2010. Miller highlights five events that unfolded during 2011 that he suggests "seem certain to cast a powerful shadow in months and years to come." The current tension with Iran over weapons, the spread of nuclear technology in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and difficulties in the US relationship with Russia are among them.
The Fukushima incident was a sudden and dramatic shock in 2011, writes Mark Hibbs, a senior associate in Carnegie's Nuclear Policy Program, but what continued to be a concern throughout the year was the incremental escalation of continuing crises in Iran, North Korea, and South Asia. In his paper, Nuclear Energy 2011: A watershed year, Hibbs reviews reassessments undertaken around the world after Fukushima, and underlines Europe's critical role in nuclear energy's global future.
In Climate change 2011: A status report on US policy, Steven Cohen and Alison Miller highlight a growing partisan divide in US Congress. This divide has stalled the country's federal climate policy, frustrated efforts to pass a cap-and-trade carbon permitting system, and spawned a battle between the US Environmental Protection Agency and Congress. Climate change policy has been pushed down to the municipal level, and the divide has also hindered US ability to effectively negotiate an international climate agreement. Meanwhile, US cities have enacted far-sighted climate policy initiatives, and growing fossil fuels costs have stimulated renewable energy investment, bringing commercially viable fossil fuel alternatives closer.
"The inevitable shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources would be greatly hastened by federal action to tax carbon dioxide emissions and use the revenue generated to support alternative energy technologies," writes Cohen, executive director of Columbia University's Earth Institute. "That action is extremely unlikely to occur unless climate change comes to be seen in the United States as a practical, rather than ideological, issue."
###
The articles are available to access free for a limited period here: http://bos.sagepub.com/content/current
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The Bulletin is an independent nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization that publishes analysis and conducts forums about nuclear security, climate stabilization, and safety in the biosciences. Founded by Manhattan Project scientists from the University of Chicago, it links the work of scholars and experts with policymaking entities and citizens around the world. An international network of authors assesses scientific advancements that involve both benefits and risks to humanity, with the goal of influencing public policy to protect the Earth and its inhabitants. The organization's scientific advisory boards include 19 Nobel laureates, ambassadors, leading scholars, distinguished NGO officials, and public policy experts. The Bulletin is closely followed in Washington and other world capitals and uses its iconic Doomsday Clock to draw international attention to global risks and solutions.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com
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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.
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Public release date: 6-Jan-2012
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