Gene Study Sheds Light on Body Clock's Link to Diabetes (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers studying the link between diabetes and a hormone that affects your so-called "body clock" have identified a genetic mutation in the receptor for the hormone, melatonin, that may to boost the risk of the disease.

The finding could help improve assessment of a person's diabetes risk and could also lead to the development of personalized treatments, according to the study published in the Jan. 29 online edition of the journal Nature Genetics.

The research team from Imperial College London found that people who have rare genetic mutations in the receptor for melatonin have a greatly increased risk for type 2 diabetes.

Melatonin controls the body's sleep-wake cycle. A previous study found that people with common variations in the gene for the melatonin receptor MT2 have a slightly increased risk for type 2 diabetes.

This new study discovered that having any of four rare mutations of the MT2 is associated with a six times increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Melatonin controls the release of insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels. Mutations in the MT2 gene may disrupt the connection between the body clock and insulin release, resulting in abnormal control of blood sugar, the researchers explained.

For their study, the investigators examined the MT2 gene in more than 7,000 people. They identified 40 variants associated with type 2 diabetes, four of which are very rare and make the receptor incapable of responding to melatonin. The effect of these four variants was then confirmed in an additional group of nearly 12,000 people.

"Blood sugar control is one of the many processes regulated by the body's biological clock. This study adds to our understanding of how the gene that carries the blueprint for a key component in the clock can influence people's risk of diabetes," study leader Philippe Froguel, from the School of Public Health, said in an Imperial College London news release.

"We found very rare variants of the MT2 gene that have a much larger effect than more common variants discovered before. Although each mutation is rare, they are common in the sense that everyone has a lot of very rare mutations in their DNA. Cataloging these mutations will enable us to much more accurately assess a person's risk of disease based on their genetics," Froguel added.

While the study found a link between the mutation and diabetes risk, it did not find a cause-and-effect relationship.

More information

The American Diabetes Association offers an overview of diabetes prevention.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120130/hl_hsn/genestudyshedslightonbodyclockslinktodiabetes

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New DMARC email authentication aims to stop phishing (Digital Trends)

Email spam has been a problem for even longer than commercial activity has been permitted on the Internet, and thanks to botnet operators, scammers, and outright cybercriminals spam has ballooned to account for the vast majority of all email. Although antispam technologies and filters have improved considerable over the years?and there have been some notable victories, like the takedown of the Rustock botnet last year?email operators and end users are always playing catch-up to the spammers, who always seem to find new ways to get a few messages into people?s inboxes.

A new email authentication framework backed by the likes of Microsoft, Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Facebook looks to put an end to that?or, at least, some of that. The new Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) specification aims to make it easier to verify whether email messages are legitimate. The DMARC spec has been in the works for over 18 months, and now the DMARC organization has taken the wraps off it in preparation for proposing it to the IETF as an Internet standard. Members of the DMARC group include major email providers like Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft, security companies like eCert, Agari, and Cloudmark, as well as member of the financial community like PayPal, Bank of America, and Fidelity Investments.

As most Internet users know, there?s nothing secure about plain-jane email: anyone can put any address they like into the ?from? line of a message to make it appear to be from someone else. Spammers and particular phishers abuse this lack of security, crafting messages that appear to be legitimate in an effort to get users to click a link (which, more than likely leads to a malware or scareware site) or to divulge personal information like passwords, birth dates, and account numbers, which in turn will be used in forms of identity theft.

The DMARC spec builds on previous authentication mechanisms like Sender ID, SPF, and DKIM and aims to provide an easily-to-implement standard that augments SPF and DKIM. Both SPF and DKIM aim to validate whether mail from a particular domain (not a particular user) is legitimate: i.e., if a machine in the domain example.com wants to deliver a message that claims to be from yahoo.com, either SPF or DKIM could be used to determine whether Yahoo lets example.com deliver mail on its behalf. If so, great, the message will be accepted. If not, the receiving server has to make a decision about whether it wants to treat the message as legitimate.

Without a standard, major email senders and providers have had to work out individual arrangements with each other to verify messages, report problems, and attempt to block fraudulent mail before it reaches users?often with the result that legitimate (but unauthenticated) mail gets rejected. DMARC aims to improve that, creating a standard that embraces both SPF and DKIM and creates a standard feedback mechanism so site operators can more easily identify problems with email delivery or reception.

Embracing both SPF and DKIM means email operators can embrace whichever standard makes the most sense for them. SPF is the easiest to implement, and works by publishing email sender polices as part of a site?s DNS information: that?s manageable for simple setups but doesn?t always scale well for complex operators. DKIM, conversely, relies on cryptographic verification?it?s harder to set up, but easier to scale for truly massive email operators.

The proposed DMARC standard is explicitly aimed at phishing and making it much harder for scammers to get legitimate-looking email into inboxes in an effort to get people to reveal information or click links to malicious sites?and that?s one reason the financial community is interested in the technology. However, the DMARC standard doesn?t do anything to make the ?from? line in messages any more authentic: even if DMARC gets accepted as a standard, everyone will still have open season on ?from? lines?so always take them with a grain of salt.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/security/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120130/tc_digitaltrends/newdmarcemailauthenticationaimstostopphishing

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Catholic Churches Distribute Letter Opposing Obama Healthcare Rule (ABC News)

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Thousands of Tunisians denounce Islamist extremism (AP)

TUNIS, Tunisia ? More than 8,000 Tunisians marched Saturday through the capital denouncing violence committed by ultraconservative Islamist groups in recent months.

Since the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's secular dictatorship in a popular uprising a year ago, small groups of ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafists have risen in Tunisia calling for greater piety, attacking unveiled women and secular intellectuals and occupying universities.

Organized by two leftist opposition parties, the demonstration was one of the largest marches in the country since a moderate Islamist party swept elections last year. Not far away, several hundred Islamists held a counter-protest.

"Make a common front against fanaticism," read one of the posters carried by demonstrators in the main rally, many of whom were women. "We got rid of totalitarianism, and we don't want it back," read another banner.

Tunisia's long-oppressed moderate Islamist party, Ennahda, won October's elections and formed a government with two secular parties. Ennahda has taken pains to calm the fears of Tunisia's secular elite that it would turn the country into an Islamic state.

The party has been repeatedly embarrassed by the actions of the Salafists, who appear to be justifying the warnings of secular parties such as the Progressive Democratic Party that radical Islamists are trying to change the country.

PDP leader Maya Jribi attended the demonstration and called for a "tolerant and pluralistic Tunisia where the citizens are respected in face of the death threats we hear these days."

Critics of the government say it is not doing enough in the face of the Salafi actions, which included occupying a university and preventing students from taking exams because of the institution's policy against the religious face veil.

"I came to denounce the violence and say that the government has to take responsibility for applying the law against those who are violent," said demonstrator Aicha Naboltane, 29.

The incident that appeared to have really galvanized people was an attack on secular intellectual Hamadi Rendissi and newspaper editor Zied Krichen by Salafis outside a courthouse Monday.

The two men were attending a civil trial against a television station owner for airing the award-winning Iranian animated film Persepolis on charges he "violated sacred values."

The three-kilometer long march passed through Avenue Bourguiba in the heart of Tunis, where demonstrators brought down the dictatorship a year earlier.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_tunisia_protests

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Arab League halts observer mission due to violence

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

Updated 12:51 p.m. ET: Syria says it regrets an Arab League decision to halt its mission monitoring a peace plan in the country, official state television?reported on Saturday.

"Syria regrets and is surprised at the Arab decision to stop the work of its monitoring mission after it asked for a one-month extension of its work,'' Syria Television reported in an urgent news flash.

Updated at 11:31 a.m. ET: The Arab League halted its observer mission to Syria on Saturday, sharply criticizing the regime of President Bashar Assad for escalating violence in recent days that has killed nearly 100 people across the country.

"Given the critical deterioration of the situation in Syria and the continued use of violence ... it has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League's mission to Syria pending presentation of the issue to the league's council," Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement.

AP

This citizen journalism image provided by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria purports to show anti-Syrian regime protesters during a demonstration in Idlib province, Syria Friday.

A delegate at the league said no date had yet been fixed for a meeting of the council on Syria.

The rising bloodshed has added urgency to new attempts by Arab and Western countries to find a resolution to the 10 months of violence that according to the United Nations has killed at least 5,400 people as Assad seeks to crush persistent protests demanding an end to his rule.

But the initiatives continue to face two major obstacles: Damascus' rejection of an Arab peace plan which it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia's willingness to use its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.

Syrian government forces clashed with anti-regime army defectors across the country on Saturday. At least 20 were reported killed in the clashes and other violence. The new deaths come after two days of bloody turmoil killed at least 74 people, including small children.

NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin visits Zabadani and speaks with members of the?anti-regime Free Syria Army.

The Arab League and Western countries are pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria.

The Security Council discussed a European-Arab draft resolution on Friday aimed at halting the bloodshed.

Russia, which joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft, said the European-Arab version was unacceptable in its present form but said it was willing to "engage" on it.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow wanted a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome of a political process that has not yet taken place" or Libyan-style "regime change.

The Arab League said it was in talks with Russia ahead of a Security Council meeting in New York. Britain and France said they hoped to put the draft resolution to a vote next week.

Published at 7:30 a.m. ET: A Syrian opposition group claimed Saturday that 130 people had been killed across the country in just 24 hours by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the death toll while speaking to NBC News in London.

Activists also told Reuters Saturday that the bodies of 17 men previously held by Syrian security forces have been found in the city of Hama.

"They were killed execution-style, mostly with one bullet to the head. Iron chains that had tied them were left on their legs as a message to the people to stop resisting," Abu al-Walid, an activist in the city, told Reuters by telephone.

Another activist said the bodies, their hands tied with plastic wire and some with their legs chained, were dumped in the streets of five Hama neighborhoods on Thursday evening.

Turkey was due to meet Gulf Arab states later Saturday to reinforce support for an Arab call for Assad to quit.

The Arab League and Western countries are pushing for a U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria, resisted by Assad's ally Russia. The U.N. Security Council discussed a new European-Arab draft resolution on Friday aimed at halting the bloodshed.??

The United Nations Children's Fund also said Friday that at least 384 children had been killed and virtually the same number had been jailed during the course of the uprising.

UN Security Council weights action on Syria

The U.N., which estimated in mid-December that more than 5,000 people had been killed, says it can no longer keep track of the total death toll. The Syrian government says insurgents have killed more than 2,000 soldiers and policemen.

'Siding with the Syrian people'
Turkey urged Syria's leadership to comply with an Arab League transition plan that calls on Assad to step down.

"We are siding with the Syrian people and their legitimate demands," Turkish President Abdullah Gul was quoted as saying by the United Arab Emirates newspaper al-Bayan.

Outside Syria capital, suburbs look like war zones

Turkish officials say the number of Syrians seeking sanctuary in Turkey has risen in the past six weeks, with 50 to 60 arriving daily, taking the total living in refugee camps to nearly 9,600 from about 7,000 previously.

More than 6,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon.

Turkey, which spent years rebuilding relations with Syria, turned against Assad after he ignored its advice to enact reforms to calm what began in March as a peaceful uprising against his rule, inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere.

Russia, which joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft U.N> resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft, said the European-Arab version was unacceptable in its present form but added that it was willing to "engage" on it.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin criticized the draft, which endorses the Arab transition plan.

Moscow, he said, wants a Syrian-led political process, not "an Arab League-imposed outcome of a political process that has not yet taken place" or Libyan-style "regime change."

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/28/10257534-arab-league-halts-observer-mission-due-to-violence

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How Did 30 Pounds of Drugs Get Delivered to the United Nations? [WTFriday]

Thirty pounds of cocaine was mysteriously delivered to the United Nations mailroom according to a report. There are no further details available about the incident, but it makes wonder how all of that blow got that far undetected. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/S2WGTU7q_7k/how-did-30-pounds-of-drugs-get-delivered-to-the-united-nations

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Jan Brewer: 'The Talk' Ladies Rip Arizona Governor's Finger-Pointing (VIDEO)

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is making headlines after she use some aggressive body language in a heated exchange with President Obama on a tarmac in Phoenix on Wednesday. A photo of the tense conversation has gone viral, and the ladies of "The Talk" (weekdays on CBS) offered their opinions Brewer's testy body language on Thursday.

Aisha Tyler poked fun at Brewer calling the President overly sensitive. "The guy has been taking a beating for three years straight, he definitely does not have thin skin. But I'm surprised the Secret Service didn't shoot that finger right off," she joked.

Sara Gilbert thought Brewer's combative body language indicated that she was over-compensating, and argued that it was counter-productive. "When people talk to me that way, I think it comes because they feel like they're in a weak position, so they compensate with aggressive body language to make you hear them. But if anything it just shuts you down, it doesn't make you open when somebody's aggressive," she said.

Guest-host Tori Spelling empathized with Brewer's gesture, but still called her behavior childish. "As a mom, I'm used to finger pointing every single day. They're condescending ... all the same things, basically," Spelling quipped.

Sheryl Underwood, for her part, closed the discussion by demonstrating a much more friendly greeting she would've offered the President. Maybe when election season's in full swing, he'll stop by "The Talk" and "The View."

TV Replay scours the vast television landscape to find the most interesting, amusing, and, on a good day, amazing moments, and delivers them right to your browser.

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MONDAY, JANUARY 23: "Gossip Girl"

1? of ?19

"Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. EST, The CW) "Clueless" writer/director Amy Heckerling makes her first foray into TV directing since 2005 for Blair's bachelorette party, as others scheme behind Queen B's back to make it a night to remember. After discovering the truth behind Chuck and Blair's car accident, Nate joins forces with a surprising ally to gather the evidence, while Serena and Dan pretend to be dating again to protect Blair's secret. "Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. EST, The CW)
"Clueless" writer/director Amy Heckerling makes her first foray into TV directing since 2005 for Blair's bachelorette party, as others scheme behind Queen B's back to make it a night to remember. After discovering the truth behind Chuck and Blair's car accident, Nate joins forces with a surprising ally to gather the evidence, while Serena and Dan pretend to be dating again to protect Blair's secret.

MONDAY, JANUARY 23: "Gossip Girl"

"Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. EST, The CW) "Clueless" writer/director Amy Heckerling makes her first foray into TV directing since 2005 for Blair's bachelorette party, as others scheme behind Queen B's back to make it a night to remember. After discovering the truth behind Chuck and Blair's car accident, Nate joins forces with a surprising ally to gather the evidence, while Serena and Dan pretend to be dating again to protect Blair's secret. "; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/jan-brewer-the-talk_n_1234774.html

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