Venezuela opposition: Military can't take sides

Venezuela's interim President Nicolas Maduro smiles as he's surrounded by supporters during a campaign rally in Sabaneta, Barinas state, Venezuela, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. Late President Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro is competing against opposition leader Henrique Capriles in the April 14 presidential election. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Venezuela's interim President Nicolas Maduro smiles as he's surrounded by supporters during a campaign rally in Sabaneta, Barinas state, Venezuela, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. Late President Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro is competing against opposition leader Henrique Capriles in the April 14 presidential election. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, riding on the back of the motorcycle, greets supporters after a meeting with former supporters of late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Venezuela will hold a presidential election to replace late President Hugo Chavez on April 14. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuela's interim President Nicolas Maduro clenches his fist while greeting supporters from his campaign bus in Barinas, Venezuela, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. Late President Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro is competing against opposition leader Henrique Capriles in the April 14 presidential election. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles looks on during a meeting with former supporters of late President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, April 3, 2013. Behind the wall shows an image referring to independence hero Simon Bolivar and reads in Spanish "Vote April 14." Other parts of the sign, partially covered, read "Bolivarians and revolutionaries for the homeland with Capriles." Venezuela will hold a presidential election to replace late President Hugo Chavez on April 14. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Supporters of Venezuela's interim President Nicolas Maduro greet him upon his arrival to a campaign rally in Barinas, Venezuela, Tuesday, April 2, 2013. Late President Hugo Chavez's chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro is competing against opposition leader Henrique Capriles in the April 14 presidential election. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Venezuela's presidential campaign on Wednesday veered between warnings of military meddling in the April 14 vote and opposition mirth at the acting president's suggestion that the spirit of Hugo Chavez visited him as "a little bird" while he prayed.

Opposition lawmaker Alfonso Marquina presented a complaint to Venezuela's elections council, demanding it sanction officers who have publicly backed Nicolas Maduro, who has been acting president since President Hugo Chavez's death on March 5.

Marquina has alleged that Defense Minister Diego Molero and National Guard Gen. Antonio Benavides plan to use military resources to intimidate voters, especially those dependent on government services, to cast ballots for Maduro.

Maduro's campaign denies the allegations and there was no immediate comment from the council.

But the controversy was almost overshadowed in the press and chatter in the street by Maduro's latest move to draw an almost religious connection to Chavez, whom he served as foreign minister and vice president.

Maduro declared on Tuesday that a "little bird" appeared as he was praying alone in a little wooden chapel shortly after Chavez's death.

"It sang, and I responded with a song and the bird took flight, circled around once and then flew away, and I felt the spirit and blessings of Commander Hugo Chavez for this battle," said Maduro, who interspersed his remarks with sounds to simulate the flapping of the bird's wings and its whistle.

The message, delivered as he visited Chavez's hometown of Sabaneta in southern Venezuela, was intended for a national audience of Chavistas that reveres the late leader. It also fell in line with an electoral strategy in which Maduro repeatedly emphasizes his close ties to Chavez, who tapped him as his chosen successor.

But it prompted ridicule among many of his opponents.

Many newspapers led their campaign stories Wednesday with Maduro's bird remarks. The satirical website "El Chiguire Bipolar" said the statement was so strange that its own jokes could not compete: "If you laugh, it's not because of us."

Images of birds with Chavez's head circulated among government critics on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, prompting Maduro to defend himself.

"Now the bourgeoisie and the right are talking about Maduro's little bird. What do they think? That we're ridiculous? Show some respect, gentlemen," he said at a Tuesday rally in the western state of Zulia.

Maduro also defended what he called revolutionary unity with the armed forces at a rally Wednesday in the western state of Tachira, even as the opposition was filing its complaint.

"Civic-military unity is one of the greatest works that our supreme commander, Hugo Chavez, built," Maduro said, according to the government news agency.

Venezuela's Constitution bans military officers from publicly promoting politicians or political parties. But in his 14 years in power, Chavez co-opted the armed forces' leadership to ensure loyalty to his socialist government, especially after he was briefly ousted in a coup in 2002.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles and his supporters have lambasted top-ranking military officers, including Molero and Benavides, for publicly backing Maduro in the April 14 election.

But just one day after Chavez died, Molero said the military would follow instructions left by Chavez. He did not elaborate.

"The national armed forces will not fail Chavez," Molero said, according to state television. "Once elections are organized, we will honor his wishes and we will give the fascists a tough blow."

On March 21, the defense minister tweeted: "From this day on, we join the battle of ideas the Supreme Commander of the Revolution pushed forward."

On Tuesday, Maduro accused the opposition of attempting to create splits within the military. He did not provide details.

"They want to divide the armed forces," he told supporters. "Everyone, be alert."

During an interview with the Caracas-based television network Telesur on Wednesday, Molero expressed confidence in the military's unity, saying "it's more solid than ever."

"They will never be able to divide this unity," he added.

Capriles, 40, is the governor of Miranda state. After losing a hard-fought October election to Chavez in October, he agreed to lead the opposition again in this month's election. His campaign has focused on separating Maduro from the enigmatic Chavez. Maduro has sought to ride Chavez's coattails into office.

___

Christopher Toothaker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ctoothaker

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-03-Venezuela-Election/id-57176a8ec2c9483ca8d1c844b03da9bf

how to tie a tie sweet potato recipes the sound of music celebration church new york auto show 2012 tulsa easter eggs

Ohio woman who delivered 'miracle' baby sues over allegedly botched abortion

By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

An Ohio woman who feared carrying her baby full-term would endanger her life is suing an abortion clinic after she went there to terminate her pregnancy -- only to find out a week later that the procedure hadn't worked.

Ariel Knights, 22, of Cuyahoga Falls,?has a rare medical condition called uterine didelphys, which means?she has a double uterus. She was repeatedly told by a doctor when she got pregnant last year that her life could be threatened due to the fact that the fetus was in the more unstable of her two uteruses, her attorney, James Gutbrod, said from his Akron office.

Going to The Akron Women's Medical Group for an abortion last March was a difficult decision for Knights, but she felt she had to do it to save her life, Gutbrod said. Immediately afterward, she sensed something was wrong.

"She was having some pain," Gutbrod said. "She was sick, bleeding and miserable."

Knights, who is engaged and has a three-year-old son who she successfully carried in her other uterus, according to The Akron Business Journal, went to an Akron hospital six days after she had gone in for her abortion. At the emergency room, an?obstetric?triage doctor performed an internal ultrasound on her, reported The Business Journal.

?And the look on [the doctor?s] face when he found out, he was like, ?Oh my goodness, honey, you?re still pregnant,??? Knights told The Business Journal. ?My fiance and I, we both were kind of in shock.?

Knights was given the name of a different abortion clinic to go to at that point, her attorney said. But the new abortion clinic -- this one located in Cleveland -- was not interested in "dealing with somebody else's mistake," and refused to perform the abortion, Gutbrod said. Not wanting to go back to the Akron clinic that she believes failed in the first place, she made the potentially life-threatening decision to carry her baby to term.

Knights' baby daughter was born by C-section on Sept. 20, 2012. She told The Business Journal the 6-pound girl is her "miracle baby."

Her attorney said they are monitoring the baby's health.?

"The baby was in the neonatal intensive care unit for five days. As far as we know, the baby is healthy. There have been a couple of issues. At one point she would only turn her head to the left. And then there was some leg and eye?twitching. At this point, we don't know whether those are just normal pediatric events or if they have any more significance," Gutbrod said.

The lawsuit against the medical group alleges doctors were negligent and asks the clinic to cover the medical expenses Knights had to pay throughout her high-risk pregnancy, as well as her lost income. It also makes a claim for the emotional anguish she experienced during the experience. Her lawyer wouldn't comment on the amount they are seeking.

It's unclear what went wrong with the abortion. Knight's attorney said he did not know if the problems were related to her medical condition. D. Cheryl Atwell, who represents the medical group, wouldn't comment on the lawsuit.?

"Everything being alleged by Ariel Knights is protected under the HIPAA [Health Insurances Portability and Accountability Act] statute regarding protected medical information," she said.

Being pregnant with her daughter was "constant stress," Knights said.

?I can?t explain how I felt. It was just a sense of being overwhelmed, wondering what happened to the baby, wondering what?s happening to me," Knights told The Business Journal. "It was just constant stress."

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a422a0a/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C0A20C17570A5160Eohio0Ewoman0Ewho0Edelivered0Emiracle0Ebaby0Esues0Eover0Eallegedly0Ebotched0Eabortion0Dlite/story01.htm

christina aguilera Mayan End Of The World Olivia Black World Ending 2012 gossip girl Ink Master Jenni Rivera Funeral

Maroon 5 Have 'Great Songs' Recorded For Next Album

'We're just getting started,' singer Adam Levine says of the follow-up to Overexposed.
By Gil Kaufman

Maroon 5
Photo: Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704674/maroon-5-overexposed-album.jhtml

Duck Dynasty sequestration Van Cliburn Sequester Miami Heat Harlem Shake Harlem Shake Miami Heat stephen curry

Ozone masks plants volatiles, plant eating insects confused

Public release date: 2-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: A'ndrea Elyse Messer
aem1@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State

Increases in ground-level ozone, especially in rural areas, may interfere not only with predator insects finding host plants, but also with pollinators finding flowers, according to researchers from Penn State and the University of Virginia.

"Ozone pollution has great potential to perniciously alter key interactions between plants and animals," the researchers said in a recent issue of Environmental Research Letters.

The animal tested in this case was the striped cucumber beetle, a predator of cucurbits -- cucumber, squash, pumpkin and melons. These insects dine on the plants from the moment they emerge from the ground and when fruit forms, they eat that as well.

"Insects detect odor with olfactory receptors located on their antennae," said Jose D. Fuentes, professor of meteorology, Penn State. "These receptors sense plant-emitted volatile organic compounds in very small amounts -- as low as six molecules hitting an antenna."

However, ozone, which is a very reactive substance, degrades the volatile organic compounds when they mix to the point where they no longer stimulate the olfactory system.

Fuentes, working with John Zenker, Penn State undergraduate in meteorology, and T'ai H. Roulston, research associate professor and curator, Blandy Experimental Farm, University of Virginia, tested the beetles in an enclosed Y-tube apparatus so that the insect could choose which branch to take. Researchers collected the insects from pumpkin and squash plants. They tested the insects using buffalo gourd plants, a naturally growing wild gourd that likes semiarid areas.

Separate air streams flowed into the two branches of the Y-tube. Choices of air in each tube were ambient filtered air, ambient filtered air plus up to 120 parts per million ozone, ambient filtered air plus volatile organic compounds, or air plus up to 120 parts per billion ozone and volatile organic compounds from the plant. To obtain this mix, or only ozone or volatile organic compounds, that branch flowed either to a plant chamber or ozone generator or both.

The researchers tested the insects with all ambient air, with ambient air and ozone, with ambient air and volatile organic compounds, and with ambient air and a mix of ozone and volatile organic compounds. When presented with an ambient air or volatile organic compound airstream, the beetles chose the volatile organic compound tube 80 percent of the time.

"However, as the ozone levels increased, they chose the path to the flower less frequently," said Fuentes. "By the time the mix contained 80 parts per billion ozone, the beetles showed no preference for either tube."

The researchers also tested the beetles with volatile organic compounds and a mix of volatile organic compounds and ozone. At low ozone levels, the insects showed no preference, but as ozone levels increased, the insects increasingly preferred the ozone-free path. At 80 parts per billion, the beetles chose the volatile organic compounds without ozone significantly more often than the ozonized mixture.

While one might think that higher ozone levels in the lower atmosphere would improve crops because predator insects would be unable to find their hosts, the additional ozone would also interfere with mutualistic insect plant responses such as pollination.

###

The National Science Foundation supported this research.

---

[ | 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.

Public release date: 2-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: A'ndrea Elyse Messer
aem1@psu.edu
814-865-9481
Penn State

Increases in ground-level ozone, especially in rural areas, may interfere not only with predator insects finding host plants, but also with pollinators finding flowers, according to researchers from Penn State and the University of Virginia.

"Ozone pollution has great potential to perniciously alter key interactions between plants and animals," the researchers said in a recent issue of Environmental Research Letters.

The animal tested in this case was the striped cucumber beetle, a predator of cucurbits -- cucumber, squash, pumpkin and melons. These insects dine on the plants from the moment they emerge from the ground and when fruit forms, they eat that as well.

"Insects detect odor with olfactory receptors located on their antennae," said Jose D. Fuentes, professor of meteorology, Penn State. "These receptors sense plant-emitted volatile organic compounds in very small amounts -- as low as six molecules hitting an antenna."

However, ozone, which is a very reactive substance, degrades the volatile organic compounds when they mix to the point where they no longer stimulate the olfactory system.

Fuentes, working with John Zenker, Penn State undergraduate in meteorology, and T'ai H. Roulston, research associate professor and curator, Blandy Experimental Farm, University of Virginia, tested the beetles in an enclosed Y-tube apparatus so that the insect could choose which branch to take. Researchers collected the insects from pumpkin and squash plants. They tested the insects using buffalo gourd plants, a naturally growing wild gourd that likes semiarid areas.

Separate air streams flowed into the two branches of the Y-tube. Choices of air in each tube were ambient filtered air, ambient filtered air plus up to 120 parts per million ozone, ambient filtered air plus volatile organic compounds, or air plus up to 120 parts per billion ozone and volatile organic compounds from the plant. To obtain this mix, or only ozone or volatile organic compounds, that branch flowed either to a plant chamber or ozone generator or both.

The researchers tested the insects with all ambient air, with ambient air and ozone, with ambient air and volatile organic compounds, and with ambient air and a mix of ozone and volatile organic compounds. When presented with an ambient air or volatile organic compound airstream, the beetles chose the volatile organic compound tube 80 percent of the time.

"However, as the ozone levels increased, they chose the path to the flower less frequently," said Fuentes. "By the time the mix contained 80 parts per billion ozone, the beetles showed no preference for either tube."

The researchers also tested the beetles with volatile organic compounds and a mix of volatile organic compounds and ozone. At low ozone levels, the insects showed no preference, but as ozone levels increased, the insects increasingly preferred the ozone-free path. At 80 parts per billion, the beetles chose the volatile organic compounds without ozone significantly more often than the ozonized mixture.

While one might think that higher ozone levels in the lower atmosphere would improve crops because predator insects would be unable to find their hosts, the additional ozone would also interfere with mutualistic insect plant responses such as pollination.

###

The National Science Foundation supported this research.

---

[ | 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/ps-omp040213.php

morosini death jacoby ellsbury jacoby ellsbury lionel richie kenny rogers avatar the last airbender david wright

New 'Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones' Trailer: Watch Now!

The film, based on the best-selling novel, opens August 23.
By Driadonna Roland

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1704763/mortal-instruments-city-of-bones-new-trailer.jhtml

Rich Kids of Instagram felix hernandez julia child Ron Palillo Chad Johnson Twitter Helen Gurley Brown Kathi Goertzen

Diggins leads Notre Dame past Kansas, 93-63

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) ? Skylar Diggins was already having such a great day, her coach figured she might as well make it historic.

The Notre Dame point guard scored 22 of her 27 points by halftime Sunday and became the school's career scoring leader, leading the top-seeded Fighting Irish to a 93-63 victory against Kansas in the semifinals of the Norfolk Regional.

Coach Muffet McGraw had forgotten all about Diggins' pursuit of the school scoring mark until the game was well in hand. When she asked, she was told the senior was just two points away from passing assistant coach Beth Cunningham.

"I told her, 'You're coming out in 30 seconds. You might as well get one more,'" McGraw said she told Diggins.

Moments later, with 7:48 to play, the lefthander in her trademark white headband swished a 12-foot jumper.

"Coach told me to score two more. I didn't really know why, but I was like, 'OK,'" Diggins said.

It was that kind of the day for Diggins, who heard talk beforehand that the Norfolk Regional was full of great point guards, and quickly showed she might not have a peer, especially at this time of year with the stakes so high.

"We play in games that are so much like Sweet 16 or Elite Eight kind of caliber games in our conference," she said. "That helps all of us."

So does having a leader that makes it all look so easy. Diggins added nine assists and three steals, scored nine straight during a 16-2 first-half run that put the Irish (34-1) ahead to stay, and six more to cap a 10-2 run into halftime.

"She's what everyone says," Kansas point guard Angel Goodrich, who finished with seven points and 13 assists, said. "She's the whole package. She can create for herself and she can create for her teammates."

The victory was the 29th in a row for Notre Dame, and left the Irish one victory shy of a third consecutive trip to the Final Four. They have lost in the title game each of the last two years.

Carolyn Davis led the upstart Jayhawks (20-14) with 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting, but the second No. 12 seed ever to get this far in the women's tournament since the seeding format began in 1994 didn't stick around long.

Notre Dame led 40-27 at halftime and started the second half with a 22-9 run.

"We definitely let them play comfortable and confident," Jayhawks coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "I was disappointed our defensive effort wasn't better."

Goodrich's head-to-head duel with Diggins never materialized. When Goodrich, like Diggins a senior, finally scored with 5:48 left in the first half, Diggins already had 16 points and her team was about to make another run before halftime.

It came in the final 4:30 of the half, a 10-2 burst capped by two 3-pointers by Diggins.

"When she starts hitting the 3, you're in trouble," McGraw said.

Natalie Achonwa added 17 points and 10 rebounds for Notre Dame, Jewell Lloyd scored 15 and Kayla McBride 13 as the Fighting Irish shot 54.4 percent from the field, making 37 of 69 attempts.

Monica Engelman added 10 points for Kansas, but on just 4 of 16 shooting.

The Irish trailed 15-11 when Lloyd made a 3-pointer with 14:37 to go and then Diggins took over. She hit a 16-footer, a 17-footer, a 3-pointer and then had a steal and layup, making it 23-15. After Davis' stickback for the Jayhawks, Ariel Braker scored inside and Diggins did, too, posting up Goodrich.

The 16-2 run gave the Fighting Irish a 27-17 lead, and the spread stayed about the same until late in the half when Diggins hit a 3-pointer, then followed a turnover with another 3 from the right side.

___

Follow Hank on twitter at: http://twitter.com/hankkurzjr

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/diggins-leads-notre-dame-past-kansas-93-63-180031658--spt.html

neil armstrong little league world series us open tennis us open tennis Empire State Building shooting Republican National Convention Karlie Redd

Over-diagnosis of reflux in infants leads to needless medication, research finds

Apr. 1, 2013 ? Medications used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, are some of the most widely used medications in children less than one year old.

But in a new study, researchers from the University of Michigan and the University of Missouri concluded that physicians often label common symptoms in infants, such as crying and spitting up, as disease. Frequent use of the GERD label can lead to overuse of medication, according to study published today online ahead of print in the journal Pediatrics.

The study found that doctors' use of the label GERD prompted parents to request medication for their baby even when they had been advised that the medication would probably be ineffective.

"As doctors we need to appreciate that the words we use when talking with patients and parents have power -- the power to make a normal process seem like a disease. As pediatricians, our job is to make sick children healthy, not to make healthy children sick," says Tarini, who also is an investigator in U-M's Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit.

In the study, researchers surveyed parents coming into a pediatric clinic in Michigan about how they would respond to a hypothetical clinical scenario describing an infant who cries and spits up excessively but is otherwise healthy. Parents were randomly assigned to receive one of multiple vignettes. In some vignettes, the doctor gave a diagnosis of GERD; in others the doctor did not provide a disease label.

Additionally, half the parents were told that existing medications are probably ineffective; the rest were not given information about medication effectiveness. Parents who received a GERD diagnosis were interested in medicating their infant, even when told that medications were ineffective. Parents not given a disease label were interested in a prescription only when the doctor did not discuss whether the medication was effective.

Over-diagnosis of GERD can make a medical condition out of a normal behavior, says lead author Laura Scherer, assistant professor of psychological science in the College of Arts and Science at the University of Missouri.

"The growing digestive systems of an infant can be finicky and cause the child to regurgitate. The discomfort can cause the infant to cry, but it is not necessarily a disease," says Scherer. "Parents can learn from this study that a disease label can make them want medication for their child, regardless of whether the drugs are effective or not. Parents should follow doctors' advice, which sometimes means accepting a doctor's explanation of why an infant's crying and vomiting may be normal.

"Unnecessary use of medication is costly," says Scherer. "Especially for families without insurance, the over-use of medications can be a needless expense. In addition, the long-term side effects of the medication frequently prescribed to children diagnosed with GERD have not been fully studied, although the medication has been correlated to slightly higher rates of pneumonia."

Additional authors: Of the University of Michigan: Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Ph.D., Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health and Angela Fagerlin, Ph.D. of the Department of Internal Medicine and co-director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine.

Funding: Dr. Tarini is supported by a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (K23HD057994). Dr. Zikmund-Fisher was supported by a Mentored Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society (MRSG-06-130-01-CPPB). Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Michigan Health System.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Laura D. Scherer, Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher, Angela Fagerlin, and Beth A. Tarini. Influence of 'GERD' Label on Parents' Decision to Medicate Infants. Pediatrics, 2013; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2012-3070

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/J-oXsYdztjw/130401104403.htm

tim tebow survivor snl peter frampton Sandy Hook Elementary School Colors Cassadee Pope Victoria Soto