SAfrica: Mandela remains critical as family feuds

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Nelson Mandela's grandson says he will contest a court order for him to move the remains of three family members to their original gravesite.

The family feud comes as Mandela, 94, remains in critical condition Sunday in a Pretoria hospital.

The grandson, Mandla Mandela, issued a statement Sunday saying he was compelled to take action against 16 other family members who had pressed the case.

The court orders that the remains of Nelson Mandela's three deceased children should be moved back to the family gravesite in Qunu from the nearby village of Mvezo, according to South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper.

The Mandela family feud over the gravesite is apparently a prelude to a disagreement over where Nelson Mandela's remains will stay.

Both sides expressed regret over the public case.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/safrica-mandela-remains-critical-family-feuds-123230806.html

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Microsoft 'approaching' 100,000 apps in the Windows Store, boasts app downloads in the 'hundreds of millions'

Companies love milestones nearly as much as bees love honey, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Microsoft would take advantage of Build 2013 to announce as much positive news as it possibly can. This time, MS head Steve Ballmer has revealed to us that he expects the Windows Store to hit the 100,000 mark (in terms of total apps) sometime this month. Sounds about right if you monitor services like MetroStore Scanner to get a good feel for the OS's progress: it lists over 95,000 apps, which certainly fits the bill.

Additionally, Microsoft also claimed that the very same Windows Store has witnessed app downloads in the vicinity of "hundreds of millions." This vague indicator is not as impressive as it could certainly be if an actual number was attached, but we have a feeling that our friends in Redmond are trying to keep the specifics as hush-hush as possible.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Microsoft

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/microsoft-100-000-apps/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Jay-Z And Frank Ocean Tackle Deep Race Issues On 'Oceans'

Magna Carta Holy Grail track's lyric sheet follows 'Holy Grail' and 'Heaven.'
By Rob Markman

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709640/jay-z-frank-ocean-lyrics-magna-carta.jhtml

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Hormone therapy in the 50s not linked to memory loss

By Andrew M. Seaman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hormone replacement therapy during the early stages of menopause - typically around age 50 - doesn't hurt or help brain function, according to a new study.

Researchers found that women between the ages of 50 and 55 years old who took estrogen or estrogen with progesterone performed just as well on tests that measure memory problems as women of the same age who took a placebo.

"Our findings are that we didn't see any long term impact on cognitive function," said Mark Espeland, the study's lead author, from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Previous studies had found that women 65 years old and older suffered lasting memory problems when they used hormone therapy to treat symptoms of menopause, such as hot flashes, vaginal dryness and trouble sleeping.

Imaging tests even found that the brains of those older women assigned to hormone therapy had become smaller, compared to those who took a placebo.

Currently, the government-backed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that postmenopausal women avoid hormone replacement therapy due to increased risks of heart disease, stroke, breast cancer and dementia.

Some research, however, has suggested there may be a "window of opportunity" when women first enter menopause that allows the safe use of hormones to possibly decrease their risk of conditions such as heart disease. What the effects would be on younger women's brains, however, has been unclear.

For the new study, Espeland and his colleagues used data on 1,326 women between the ages of 50 and 55 in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study to see whether taking estrogen or estrogen and progesterone led to any problems or benefits in brain health.

The women were assigned to take estrogen, estrogen and progesterone or a placebo for about seven years at the beginning of the study between 1996 and 1999. They were then followed for about the next 14 years.

During the follow-up period, the women were asked 14 questions that measured their cognitive abilities during phone interviews.

Overall, all groups scored about a 38 on a scale from zero to 50 - with lower scores signaling more memory problems.

There was also no difference between the groups on several other scales that measured - among other things - attention and working memory.

Francine Grodstein, who wrote an editorial accompany the new study in JAMA Internal Medicine, told Reuters Health the findings are primarily reassuring.

"So for (younger) women who really need hormone therapy to treat menopause symptoms? this study didn't find hormone therapy had the amount of harm as it did for older women," said Grodstein, an associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Espeland told Reuters Health there could be a few possible explanations for the difference between older and younger women using hormone replacement therapy.

One possible explanation could be that older women already have more memory problems and hormone therapy accelerates the decline. It could also be that a woman's brain adapts to lower levels of hormones after menopause and hormone therapy disrupts that process.

The new study, however, may not have had enough participants to measure any moderate benefits from taking hormone therapy during the early stages of menopause, said Grodstein.

"One study is not going to tell us everything," she said.

But, Espeland noted, the researchers continue to follow these women for more information.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/18gabXb and http://bit.ly/19C6ARe JAMA Internal Medicine, online June 24, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hormone-therapy-50s-not-linked-memory-loss-203558958.html

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Korean sites still down after war anniversary hack

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Several North and South Korean websites that went offline on a war anniversary remained shut down Wednesday, a day after what Seoul partly blamed on a hacking attack.

The shutdown appeared to be less severe than one in March, and some government and private sector sites were operating again.

The main page of the presidential Blue House was restored, but websites for the prime minister's office, the science ministry and South Korea's spy agency remained offline. The conservative South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo was back online.

North Korea's national airline, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the North's official Uriminzokkiri site and Naenara, the country's state-run Internet portal, had been shut down Tuesday, and all but Air Koryo were operational a few hours later.

Seoul blamed hacking for the shutdown of the South Korean sites, and National Intelligence Service officials said they were investigating what may have shut down the North Korean websites. North Korea has not commented.

The shutdowns occurred on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War, which both countries commemorated. They also are preparing for the 60th anniversary of the end of the fighting July 27, a day North Koreans call "Victory Day" even though the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

It wasn't immediately clear what or who was responsible for the shutdowns. Several Twitter users purporting to belong to the Anonymous hackers' collective claimed they attacked North Korean websites, but they did not respond to attempts by The Associated Press to communicate with them. Shin Hong-soon, an official at South Korea's science ministry in charge of online security, said the government was not able to confirm whether these hackers were linked to the South Korean attacks.

North and South Korea have traded accusations of recent cyberattacks.

A March 20 cyberattack struck 48,000 computers and servers in South Korea, hampering banks and broadcasters for several days, though it did not interrupt television programming or compromise bank records or personal data. Seoul has pointed to a North Korean military-run spy agency as the culprit.

North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyberattacks in March that temporarily disabled Internet access and websites in North Korea.

Experts believe North Korea trains large teams of cyber warriors and that the South and its allies should be prepared against possible attacks on key infrastructure and military systems. If the inter-Korean conflict were to move into cyberspace, South Korea's deeply wired society would have more to lose than North Korea's, which largely remains offline.

Thousands of North Koreans gathered Tuesday evening in Pyongyang's main Kim Il Sung Square for the largest of many rallies around the nation denouncing the United States. People held signs calling for "Death to the U.S. imperialistic aggressors."

On Monday evening, men lined up in the shadow of the capital's iconic Juche Tower to practice coordinating their steps as they hoisted signs reading "sworn enemies," and "U.S. troops out of South Korea" while a man with a megaphone barked orders.

In South Korea, thousands of people, including Korean war veterans, gathered at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. Two South Korean army units held military drills in Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi Province, near the demilitarized zone, defense officials said in Seoul.

North Korea in recent weeks has pushed for diplomatic talks with Washington. Tensions ran high on the Korean Peninsula in March and April, with North Korea delivering regular threats over U.N. sanctions and U.S.-South Korean military drills.

___

Associated Press writers Jean H. Lee and Kim Kwang Hyon contributed to this report from Pyongyang, North Korea.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/korean-sites-still-down-war-anniversary-hack-034026360.html

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High court gay marriage decisions due Wednesday

Gay rights advocate Vin Testa waves a rainbow flag in front of the Supreme Court at sun up in Washington, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Justices are expected to hand down major rulings on two gay marriage cases that could impact same-sex couples across the country. One is a challenge to California's voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriage. The other is a challenge to a provision of federal law that prevents legally married gay couples from receiving a range of tax, health and pension benefits. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Gay rights advocate Vin Testa waves a rainbow flag in front of the Supreme Court at sun up in Washington, Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Justices are expected to hand down major rulings on two gay marriage cases that could impact same-sex couples across the country. One is a challenge to California's voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriage. The other is a challenge to a provision of federal law that prevents legally married gay couples from receiving a range of tax, health and pension benefits. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - This Nov. 2, 2008 file photo shows supporters of Proposition 8, the state?s measure that banned same sex marriages, in front of city hall during a Yes on Prop. 8 rally in Los Angeles. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that will determine the fate of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages on Wednesday morning, June 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 5, 2008 file photo, Joni Boettcher, left, kisses her roommate Tika Shenghur during a protest march down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood , Calif. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that will determine the fate of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages on Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court is meeting to deliver opinions in two cases that could dramatically alter the rights of gay people across the United States.

The justices are expected to decide their first-ever cases about gay marriage Wednesday in their last session before the court's summer break.

The issues before the court are California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies legally married gay Americans a range of tax, health and pension benefits otherwise available to married couples.

The broadest possible ruling would give gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. But several narrower paths also are available, including technical legal outcomes in which the court could end up saying very little about same-sex marriage.

If the court overturns California's Proposition 8 or allows lower court rulings that struck down the ban to stand, it will take about a month for same-sex weddings to resume for the first time since 2008, San Francisco officials have said.

The high court rulings are arriving amid rapid change regarding gay marriage. The number of states permitting same-sex partners to wed has doubled from six to 12 in less than a year, with voter approval in three states in November, followed by legislative endorsement in three others in the spring.

At the same time, an effort to legalize gay marriage in Illinois stalled before the state's legislative session ended last month. And 30 states have same-sex marriage bans enshrined in their constitutions.

Massachusetts was the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry, in 2004. Same-sex marriage also is legal, or soon will be, in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Roughly 18,000 same-sex couples got married in California in less than five months in 2008, after the California Supreme Court struck down a state code provision prohibiting gay unions.

California voters approved Proposition 8 in November of that year, writing the ban into the state's constitution.

Two same-sex couples challenged the provision as unconstitutional and federal courts in California agreed.

The federal marriage law, known by its acronym DOMA, defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits. Another provision not being challenged for the time being allows states to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages from other states.

DOMA easily passed Congress and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the year of his re-election.

Several federal district and appeals courts struck down the provision. In 2011, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law but continued to enforce it. House Republicans are now defending DOMA in the courts. President Barack Obama subsequently endorsed gay marriage in 2012.

The justices chose for their review the case of 83-year-old Edith Windsor of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.

Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 after doctors told them Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.

Windsor would have paid nothing in inheritance taxes if she had been married to a man.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-26-Supreme%20Court-Gay%20Marriage/id-443d4b0133b54dcba115bde17e502929

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A Real-Life Iron Man Suit That Could Be as Comfortable as Pajamas

Tony Stark used exotic composites, metal alloys, and other Hollywood-only make-believe materials to build his armor-plated Iron Man suit. But researchers at Harvard University's Wyss Institute, constrained by the limitations of reality, took a different approach with a muscle-enhancing exoskeleton that could one day be as comfy to wear as your favorite pair of jeans.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/IgEw2-z0jtQ/a-real-life-iron-man-suit-that-could-be-as-comfortable-576953643

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