US posts in Muslim world will remain closed

Map shows U.S. embassies and consulates that will close; 3c x 3 inches; 146 mm x 76 mm;

Map shows U.S. embassies and consulates that will close; 3c x 3 inches; 146 mm x 76 mm;

A Yemeni soldier inspects a car at a checkpoint on a street leading to the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013. Security forces close access roads, put up extra blast walls and beef up patrols near some of the 21 U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world that Washington ordered closed for the weekend over a ``significant threat'' of an al-Qaida attack. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

A Bahraini armored personnel vehicle and personnel reinforce U.S. Embassy security just outside of a gate to the building, surrounded in barbed wire, in Manama, Bahrain, on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013. Security forces close access roads, put up extra blast walls and beef up patrols near some of the 21 U.S. diplomatic missions in the Muslim world that Washington ordered closed for the weekend over a ``significant threat'' of an al-Qaida attack. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

A ,man walks past the U.S Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013. The threat of a terrorist attack led to the weekend closure of 21 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Muslim world and a global travel warning to Americans, the first such alert since an announcement before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 strikes. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Bangladeshi police stop a motorist for checking in front of the U.S. embassy building that remained closed due to security threat in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2013. The threat of a terrorist attack led to the weekend closure of 21 U.S. embassies and consulates in the Muslim world and a global travel warning to Americans, the first such alert since an announcement before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 strikes. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. diplomatic posts in 19 cities in the Muslim world will be closed at least through the end of this week, the State Department said Sunday, citing "an abundance of caution."

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the decision to keep the embassies and consulates closed is "not an indication of a new threat."

She said the continued closures are "merely an indication of our commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect our employees, including local employees, and visitors to our facilities."

Diplomatic facilities will remain closed in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among other countries, through Saturday, Aug. 10. The State Department announcement Sunday added closures of four African sites, in Madagascar, Burundi, Rwanda and Mauritius.

The U.S. has also decided to reopen some posts on Monday, including those in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Baghdad.

The Obama administration announced Friday that the posts would be closed over the weekend and the State Department announced a global travel alert, warning that al-Qaida or its allies might target either U.S. government or private American interests.

The weekend closure of nearly two dozen U.S. diplomatic posts resulted from the gravest terrorist threat seen in years, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss said "the chatter" intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies led the Obama administration to shutter the embassies and consulates and issue a global travel warning to Americans.

"Chatter means conversation among terrorists about the planning that's going on ? very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11," Chambliss, R-Ga., told NBC's "Meet the Press."

"This is the most serious threat that I've seen in the last several years," he said.

Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC's "This Week" that the threat intercepted from "high-level people in al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula" was about a "major attack."

Yemen is home to al-Qaida's most dangerous affiliate, blamed for several notable terrorist plots on the United States. They include the foiled Christmas Day 2009 effort to bomb an airliner over Detroit and the explosives-laden parcels intercepted the following year aboard cargo flights.

Rep. Peter King, who leads the House Homeland Security subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence, said the threat included dates but not locations of possible attacks.

"The threat was specific as to how enormous it was going to be and also that certain dates were given," King, R-N.Y., said on ABC.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a House Intelligence Committee member, said the "breadth" of the closures suggests U.S. authorities are concerned about a potential repeat of last year's riots and attacks at multiple embassies, including the deadly assault in Benghazi, Libya, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

In addition, Interpol, the French-based international policy agency, has issued a global security alert in connection with suspected al-Qaida involvement in several recent prison escapes including those in Iraq, Libya and Pakistan.

Those prison breaks add to the concerns about an attack, said Schiff, D-Calif., also noting the approaching end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

"So you have a lot things coming together. ... But all of that would not be enough without having some particularly specific information," he said.

The Obama administration's decision to close the embassies and the lawmakers' general discussion about the threats come at a sensitive time as the government tries to defend recently disclosed surveillance programs that have stirred deep privacy concerns and raised the potential of the first serious retrenchment in terrorism-fighting efforts since Sept. 11.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman has scoffed at the assertion by the head of the National Security Agency that government methods used to collect telephone and email data have helped foil 54 terror plots.

Schiff said he has seen no evidence linking the latest warnings to that agency's collection of "vast amounts of domestic data."

Other lawmakers defended the administration's response and promoted the work of the NSA in unearthing the intelligence that lead to the security warnings.

"The bottom line is ... that the NSA's job is to do foreign intelligence," Ruppersburger said. "The whole purpose is to collect information to protect us."

Added King, a frequent critic of President Barack Obama, "Whether or not there was any controversy over the NSA at all, all these actions would have been taken."

Friday's warning from the State Department urged American travelers to take extra precautions overseas, citing potential dangers involved with public transportation systems and other prime sites for tourists. It noted that previous terrorist attacks have centered on subway and rail networks as well as airplanes and boats. It suggested travelers sign up for State Department alerts and register with U.S. consulates in the countries they visit. The alert expires Aug. 31.

The statement said al-Qaida or its allies might target either U.S. government or private American interests.

___

Associated Press writer Michele Salcedo contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-08-04-US-US-Embassy-Security/id-7a2067a938ee49169e8f608bf5b5515a

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Facebook Co-Founder to Push Immigration Reform at Movie Screening

by Tony Lee 3 Aug 2013, 11:03 AM PDT post a comment

Vargas revealed his status as an illegal immigrant in a 2011 New York Times Magazine article and has been an advocate for illegal immigrants ever since.

The screening is co-sponsored by Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC, which was formed to push comprehensive immigration reform. Facebook, like other Silicon Valley tech companies, think the only way they can get an increase in the number of high tech visas is through a comprehensive bill.

According?to BuzzFeed, Joe Green, who is now president of FWD.us, reached out to Vargas when he made his announcement. Green had been Zuckerberg's roommate at Harvard.

Vargas said Zuckerberg also sent him a Facebook message after he went public with his immigration status, saying, "That was amazing."

Zuckerberg's PAC, FWD.us, has a roster of advisers--like Republicans Dan Senor and Rob Jesmer--from Washington's permanent political class that have been strong proponents of comprehensive immigration reform.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreitbartFeed/~3/QX65AepUFF8/story01.htm

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Judge denies class action for Wal-Mart bias suit

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? A judge has rejected an attempt to file a class action discrimination lawsuit on behalf of Wal-Mart women workers in California who claimed their male colleagues were paid more and promoted faster than them.

The lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court was a scaled-down version of an initial complaint that sought to represent 1.6 million women nationwide.

But the Supreme Court tossed out that class action lawsuit in 2011, ruling it covered too many disparate claims under one legal claim.

After that setback, the women's lawyers filed smaller class action lawsuits, alleging discrimination occurred in different states and Wal-Mart "regions."

On Friday, the judge said the smaller suit on behalf of 150,000 California women employees was still too disparate and wide ranging to qualify as a class action lawsuit.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-denies-class-action-wal-mart-bias-suit-022931895.html

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Al-Qaida-linked fighters attack UN base in Somalia

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) ? Al-Qaida-linked militants detonated several bombs and breached the main U.N. compound in Somalia's capital Wednesday, sparking gun battles that killed at least 12 people. A U.N. official said at least three foreigners were believed to be among the dead.

The attack comes only six months after the United Nations expanded its presence in Mogadishu, where it had kept only a small operation because Islamic insurgents had controlled much of the capital until being pushed out in an offensive in 2011.

Al-Shabab said on its Twitter feed shortly after Wednesday's attack began that its fighters "are now in control of the entire compound and the battle is still ongoing."

African Union and Somali security forces responded and took control of the compound about an hour later. The U.N. staff who sought refuge in the bunker then were evacuated to the secure military base and airport complex across the street, Parker said.

A U.N. official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not an official spokesman, said he believed three foreigners were killed: one Kenyan and two South Africans.

"There was not very much time to get into the safe area," said another U.N. official, Ben Parker, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia.

The top U.N. official on Somalia, Nicholas Kay, also works out of the building but was not inside the compound when it was attacked.

At 11:30 a.m. the compound was rocked by the first explosion. At least two others followed, Parker said. Dozens of staff from U.N. humanitarian and development agencies were in the compound and many were moved to the secure bunker, he said.

Mohamed Ali, an ambulance driver, said he transported five dead civilian bodies and 10 people who were wounded.

An Associated Press reporter who went inside the U.N. compound after the battle saw two dead bodies of what appeared to be al-Shabab attackers wearing Somali military uniforms. An official said seven attackers died in total.

Somali Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said he is appalled that "our friends and partners" at the U.N. who are carrying out humanitarian activities would be the victims "of such barbaric violence." An African Union official, Mahamet Saleh Annadif, condemned the "cowardly" attack and sent condolences "to those who had lost loved ones."

The U.N. has had only a small presence in Mogadishu in recent years. In December, though, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon touched down in Mogadishu wearing a bullet proof jacket to announce a return of the U.N.'s political office to the seaside capital.

That security measure was necessary because of al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked militant group.

One of the three blasts included a car bomb that largely blew down the compound's front gate. Inside walls were scarred with bullet marks.

The attacked compound just across the street from the secure airport complex, where U.N.-backed African Union military forces are based. The U.N. compound is used by agencies like UNICEF, WHO and UNDP.

Mogadishu fell into anarchy in 1991 and is just beginning to move past years of sustained conflict. The U.N. and foreign embassies were absent from Mogadishu for close to two decades.

African Union forces pushed al-Shabab out of Mogadishu in August 2011, meaning residents didn't have to live through daily battles for the first time in years. An international presence slowly began to return and the U.N. began the process of moving its personnel from the nearby capital of Nairobi, Kenya, back to Mogadishu, a process that has accelerated in recent weeks.

International embassies ? from Turkey and Britain, for example ? followed. Wednesday's attack underscores the fragile security situation and will force the U.N. and embassies to review their safety plans and decide if they have enough defenses to withstand a sustained al-Shabab assault.

Fadumo Hussein, a shopkeeper who was sitting inside her shop near the scene of the attack, described a narrow escape.

"It started with an earsplitting explosion, followed by heavy gunfire," she said, showing holes made by bullets on her shop. "I crouched and then crawled like an animal. I am very lucky. It was a shocking moment."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaida-linked-fighters-attack-un-somalia-134647810.html

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The community college payoff: New site reveals earnings of California graduates, by program

California's community colleges have published the median earnings of graduates who went straight into the workforce after earning a certificate or associate degree -- pay that varies widely by the field of study.

Students interested in studying dramatic arts, for instance, can check the college system's Salary Surfer website and see the median earnings of degree holders were just $15,000 five years after graduating -- compared with $76,600 for those with a certificate in diagnostic medical sonography.

They can also click on a particular field to find which of the state's 112 colleges offer related programs.

"I do think it tells a very powerful story that's never been available before," said David Rattray, president of UNITE-LA, a nonprofit affiliate of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

One of the first of its kind, the new earnings database might soon be followed by similar initiatives. The federal government and student advocacy groups have been calling for colleges to release earnings information by major, so students don't make education decisions blindly.

Salary Surfer's trove of information has its limitations. It does not include those who were unemployed the year the data was collected, or those who were self-employed or working in the federal government or military. It also doesn't show whether the work was full- or part-time, or list the workers' actual occupation.

Still, the database offers students

evidence of what might be available to them after they complete their programs -- and it might give them the extra motivation they need to persevere, said Helen Benjamin, chancellor of the Contra Costa Community College District.

"I really think our students need something like this," she said.

The median pay of community college graduates in the analysis doubled two years after they completed an associate degree and nearly tripled after five years when compared to their pre-college earnings, said Brice Harris, chancellor of the California Community Colleges.

About 45 percent of the graduates tracked in a new database earned more than $54,000 five years after finishing their programs, the chancellor said.

The earnings data mirrors the findings of a recent Brookings report that half of all science, technology, engineering and math jobs were available to those without a four-year degree and paid an average of $53,000.

"The return on investment for our students is really remarkable," Harris.

The Salary Surfer database is at http://salarysurfer.cccco.edu/SalarySurfer.aspx.

Follow Katy Murphy at Twitter.com/katymurphy.

Source: http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_23494701/community-college-payoff-new-site-reveals-earnings-california?source=rss

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U.S. Kids Born in Polluted Areas More Likely to Have Autism

Babies born in areas with high airborne levels of mercury, diesel exhaust, lead, manganese, nickel and methylene chloride were more likely to have autism than those in areas with lower pollution

By Brian Bienkowski and Environmental Health News

Researchers used U.S. EPA models that estimate air pollution based on traffic and industrial emissions. Image: Flickr/cesar harada

• 

  Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

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Women who live in areas with polluted air are up to twice as likely to have an autistic child than those living in communities with cleaner air, according to a new study published today.

Building on two smaller, regional studies, the Harvard University research is the first to link air pollution nationwide with autism. It also is the first to suggest that baby boys may be more at risk for autism disorders when their mothers breathe polluted air during pregnancy.

Babies born in areas of the United States with high airborne levels of mercury, diesel exhaust, lead, manganese, nickel and methylene chloride were more likely to have autism than those in areas with lower pollution. The strongest links were for diesel exhaust and mercury.

?The striking similarity with our results and the previous studies adds a tremendous amount to the weight of evidence that pollutants in the air might be causing autism in children,? said Andrea Roberts, a research associate at the Harvard University School of Public Health and lead author of the new study published online in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Scientists have been trying to figure out whether a variety of environmental exposures are linked to autism, a neurological disorder diagnosed in one out of every 50 U.S. children between the ages of 6 and 17.

Because the new air pollution study has some weaknesses, however, its findings, while interesting, are not conclusive, several scientists said. For example, the researchers estimated the mothers? exposure to air pollutants based on computer models.

?It?s the same weakness as other studies [on environmental pollutants and autism]. They?re using an EPA model, which estimates what?s coming out of factories and traffic and spits out a pollution estimate,? said Amy Kalkbrenner, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who was not involved in this study.

Also pollution varies by season and ?pregnant women don?t just sit inside a census tract,? said Kalkbrenner, who conducted a similar, smaller study in 2010.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=us-kids-born-in-polluted-areas-more-likely-to-have-autism

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NSA head: Surveillance helped thwart more than 50 terror plots (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/313571373?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Teen's Biofuel Invention Turns Algae Into Fuel

And by that, I mean both the Tamba Bay and the Slashdot article. There is nothing anywhere about how she got the biodiesel from algae, which at this point is the only interesting thing about the experiment. It mentions photoautotrophic cultivation, which just means that the algae use light to grow, which is a big no-shit-Sherlock. It mentions osmotic sonication, which is a fancy word for using sound waves and osmotic principles to get the detergent into the cell innards. Google searches turn up no indication of how the experiment was set up, what the actual results or anything of interest. The best thing I got was a list of who else won what other categories at the fair.

So we have two utterly known principles being applied to biodiesel generation from algae, and somehow this makes news as a breakthrough. Yawn.

Which leads me to my second rant: the insistence of news organizations to hail science fair winners as geniuses who solved a problem no one else could (I'm specifically looking at the stories about the kid arranging solar cells in a tree shape). It completely oversells the experiment, turns the kid into something they're not, and covers up the actual interesting item: that you can do cool science in your home that goes beyond baking powder volcanoes. It could even be science that is relevant to an existing topic of interest to actual scientists, which should put the kids on a good trajectory to actually solving the problem. But no, instead we are presented with kid geniuses who solve world hunger, and I get to fend off all kinds of dumb questions and comments about science, the state of technology and why we're not listening more to kids.

Now get off my lawn.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/34PkMUaX66s/story01.htm

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America Loves Mystery Cat! June 9, 2013 - From Tv Food and Drink ...

?It?s an odd thing but when you tell someone the true facts of a mythical tale they are indignant not with the teller but with you. They don?t?want?to have their ideas upset. It rouses some vague uneasiness in them, I think, and they resent it. So they reject it and refuse to think about it. If they were merely indifferent it would be natural and understandable. But it is much stronger than that, much more positive. They are annoyed. Very odd, isn?t it.?

-Josephine Tey

#AmericaLovesMysteryCat

Tags: #AmericaLovesMysteryCate, #ArrestedDevelopment, #MysteryCat, cat pic black and white, Josephine Tey quotes, mystery cat

Posted in Mystery Cat 10 hours, 12 minutes ago at 1:36 pm. Add a comment

Source: http://tvfoodanddrink.com/2013/06/america-loves-mystery-cat-june-9-2013/

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'The Purge' Shocks Box Office With $36.4 Million Debut

Small-budget flick starring Ethan Hawke takes #1 spot, as 'The Internship' debuted at #4.
By Ryan J. Downey

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1708701/purge-ethan-hawke-box-office.jhtml

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Judge orders inquiry in Paris Jackson wellbeing

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2011 file photo Paris Jackson smiles on stage at the Michael Forever the Tribute Concert, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Jackson is physically fine after being taken to a hospital early Wednesday, June 5, 2013, an attorney for Jackson's mother said. Perry Sanders Jr. writes in a statement that Paris Jackson is getting appropriate medical attention and the family is seeking privacy. Fire and sheriff's officials confirmed they transported someone from a home in Paris' suburban Calabasas neighborhood for a possible overdose but did not release any identifying information or additional details. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2011 file photo Paris Jackson smiles on stage at the Michael Forever the Tribute Concert, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Jackson is physically fine after being taken to a hospital early Wednesday, June 5, 2013, an attorney for Jackson's mother said. Perry Sanders Jr. writes in a statement that Paris Jackson is getting appropriate medical attention and the family is seeking privacy. Fire and sheriff's officials confirmed they transported someone from a home in Paris' suburban Calabasas neighborhood for a possible overdose but did not release any identifying information or additional details. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - This Jan. 26, 2012 file photo shows Paris Jackson, daughter of the late pop icon Michael Jackson, during the hand and footprint ceremony honoring her father at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Jackson is physically fine after being taken to a hospital early Wednesday, June 5, 2013, an attorney for Jackson's mother said. Perry Sanders Jr. writes in a statement that Paris Jackson is getting appropriate medical attention and the family is seeking privacy. Fire and sheriff's officials confirmed they transported someone from a home in Paris' suburban Calabasas neighborhood for a possible overdose but did not release any identifying information or additional details. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? An investigation into Paris Jackson's well-being has been ordered by a judge overseeing the guardianship of Michael Jackson's three children, court records show.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ordered an investigator to look into Paris Jackson's health, education and welfare and recommend whether any changes are necessary on Thursday, one day after she was taken by ambulance from her family's home and hospitalized.

Authorities have said they were dispatched to the home on a report of a possible overdose, but have not released any additional details.

"There have been communications between the court and counsel and we're completely supportive of the court's actions," Katherine Jackson's attorney, Perry Sanders Jr., said Friday.

He has said the 15-year-old is physically fine and receiving appropriate medical treatment. He declined further comment on her health status Friday.

Beckloff issued a similar inquiry into the well-being of Michael Jackson's three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, last year after an incident in which Katherine Jackson was out of communication with them for several days. The Jackson family matriarch had been taken by some of her children to a resort in Arizona, prompting an agreement that led to another guardian being temporarily instated.

Tito Jackson's son, TJ, was appointed co-guardian over the children.

"This is standard protocol in a high profile case," his attorney Charles Shultz wrote in an email. "The court is doing what we fully expected the court to do."

An attorney for Jackson's estate said it would assist Katherine and TJ Jackson however necessary to help Paris Jackson.

"The estate will work with Paris's guardians to provide whatever is required for her best interests," estate attorney Howard Weitzman wrote in a statement. "We are totally and completely supportive of Paris as her well-being is our foremost concern."

The earlier report to Beckloff was not made public, although he has stated that he believed Katherine Jackson was doing a good job of raising her son's children.

Beckloff's order requires an investigator to prepare a report that only he will be allowed to review. He did not include instructions on how the review should occur or when the report was due. Last year, Beckloff required an investigator to interview each of the children separately.

The filing was first reported Friday by celebrity website TMZ.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-07-People-Paris%20Jackson/id-13ae00bbce9b441fac4a0c19a80fbabf

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Bashful? Buy the little blue pill online

FILE - In this Friday, March 2, 2012, file photo, counterfeit Viagra pills, top and bottom left, are displayed alongside real ones, top and bottom right, in a lab at Pfizer in Groton, Conn. In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. told The Associated Press on May 6, 2013, that it will sell erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

FILE - In this Friday, March 2, 2012, file photo, counterfeit Viagra pills, top and bottom left, are displayed alongside real ones, top and bottom right, in a lab at Pfizer in Groton, Conn. In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. told The Associated Press on May 6, 2013, that it will sell erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

This undated photo provided by pfizer shows Viagra pills. In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. told The Associated Press on May 6, 2013, that it will sell erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website. (AP Photo/pfizer, William Vazquez)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? Men who are bashful about needing help in the bedroom no longer have to go to the drugstore to buy that little blue pill.

In a first for the drug industry, Pfizer Inc. told The Associated Press that the drugmaker will begin selling its popular erectile dysfunction pill Viagra directly to patients on its website.

Men still will need a prescription to buy the blue, diamond-shaped pill on viagra.com, but they no longer have to face a pharmacist to get it filled. And for those who are bothered by Viagra's steep $25-a-pill price, Pfizer is offering three free pills with the first order and 30 percent off the second one.

Pfizer's bold move blows up the drug industry's distribution model. Drugmakers don't sell medicines directly to patients. Instead, they sell in bulk to wholesalers, who then distribute the drugs to pharmacies, hospitals and doctors' offices.

But the world's second-largest drugmaker is trying a new strategy to tackle a problem that plagues the industry. Unscrupulous online pharmacies increasingly offer patients counterfeit versions of Viagra and other brand-name drugs for up to 95 percent off with no prescription needed. Patients don't realize the drugs are fake or that legitimate pharmacies require a prescription.

Other major drugmakers likely will watch Pfizer's move closely. If it works, drugmakers could begin selling other medicines that are rampantly counterfeited and sold online, particularly treatments for non-urgent conditions seen as embarrassing. Think: diet drugs, medicines for baldness and birth control pills.

"If it works, everybody will hop on the train," says Les Funtleyder, a health care strategist at private equity fund Poliwogg who believes Pfizer's site will attract "fence-sitters" who are nervous about buying online.

The online Viagra sales are Pfizer's latest effort to combat a problem that has grown with the popularity of the Internet.

In recent years, Americans have become more comfortable with online shopping, with many even buying prescription drugs online. That's particularly true for those who don't have insurance, are bargain hunters or want to keep their medicine purchases private.

Few realize that the vast majority of online pharmacies don't follow the rules.

The Internet is filled with illegitimate websites that lure customers with spam emails and professional-looking websites that run 24-hour call centers. A January study by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, which accredits online pharmacies, found that only 257 of 10,275 online pharmacy sites it examined appeared legitimate.

Experts say the fake drugs such websites sell can be dangerous. That's because they don't include the right amount of the active ingredient, if any, or contain toxic substances such as heavy metals, lead paint and printer ink. They're generally made in filthy warehouses and garages in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Online buyers are "playing Russian roulette," says Matthew Bassiur, vice president of global security at New York-based Pfizer.

"The factories are deplorable. I've seen photographs of these places," he says. "You wouldn't even want to walk in them, let alone ingest anything made in them."

Pfizer, which invented the term "erectile dysfunction," has long been aggressive in fighting counterfeiters. It conducts undercover investigations and works with authorities around the globe, with good reason.

Counterfeit versions of Viagra and dozens of other Pfizer medicines rob the company of billions in annual sales.

Viagra is one of its top drugs, with $2 billion in worldwide revenue last year. And it's the most counterfeited drug in the U.S., according to the company.

A 2011 study, in which Pfizer bought "Viagra" from 22 popular Internet pharmacies and tested the pills, found 77 percent were counterfeit. Most had half or less of the promised level of the active ingredient.

Viagra is appealing to counterfeiters because it carries a double whammy: It's expensive and it treats a condition with an "embarrassment" factor.

Crooks running the illegal online pharmacies brazenly explain their ultra-low Viagra prices ? often $1 to $3 a pill ? by claiming they sell generic Viagra.

Generics are copycat versions of brand-name prescription drugs. They can legally be made after a drugmaker's patent, or exclusive right to sell a drug, ends. Generic drugmakers don't have to spend $1 billion or so on testing to get a new drug approved, so their copycat versions often cost up to 90 percent less than the original drug.

But there is no such thing as generic Viagra. Pfizer has patents giving it the exclusive right to sell Viagra until 2020 in the U.S. and for many years in other countries.

Many patients are unaware of that.

Dr. David Dershewitz, an assistant urology professor at New Jersey Medical School who treats patients at Newark's University Hospital, says erectile dysfunction is common in men with enlarged prostates, diabetes and other conditions, but most men are too embarrassed to discuss it.

He says well over half of his patients who do broach the issue complain about Viagra's price. Some tell Dershewitz that they go online looking for bargains because they can't afford Viagra.

"The few that do admit to it have said that the results have been fairly dismal," but none has suffered serious harm, he says.

For Pfizer, that's a big problem. People who buy fake drugs online that don't work, or worse, harm them, may blame the company's product. That's because it's virtually impossible to distinguish fakes from real Viagra.

"The vast majority of patients do believe that they're getting Viagra," said Vic Cavelli, head of marketing for primary care medicines at Pfizer, which plans to have drugstore chain CVS Caremark Corp. fill the orders placed on viagra.com.

The sales lost to counterfeits threaten Pfizer at a time when Viagra's share of the $5 billion-a-year global market for legitimate erectile dysfunction drugs has slipped, falling from 46 percent in 2007 to 39 percent last year, according to health data firm IMS Health.

The reason? Competition from rival products, mainly Eli Lilly and Co.'s Cialis ? the pill touted in those ubiquitous commercials featuring couples in his-and-hers bathtubs in bizarre places.

Judson Clark, an Edward Jones analyst, forecasts that Viagra sales will decline even further, about 5 percent each year for the next five years, unusual "for a drug in its prime."

Clark says he thinks Pfizer's strategy will prevent sales from declining, but he's unsure how well it will work.

"It's a very interesting and novel approach," he says. "Whether it returns Viagra to growth is hard to say."

___

On the Net:

Link to accredited pharmacies: http://www.nabp.net/programs/accreditation/vipps/find-a-vipps-online-pharmacy

___

Linda A. Johnson at http://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-05-06-US-Viagra-Online-Sales/id-3d7890bc3eb54d40b5f68fc6154d2976

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Seagate Central review: media sharing for the home, plus backup too

We really enjoy the ability to consume content on any device from just about anywhere we may roam. The cloud has been a big part of making that happen, but there are still a few things the cloud can't do nearly as well as local storage -- namely, share large files and provide continuous full backups of large media libraries. Attempting to bridge that gap is the Seagate Central. Ranging in price from $189 to $259, depending on whether you get it with 2TB, 3TB or 4TB of space, the Central connects to your home network and gives you a single place to store or back up your content, making it accessible both at home and on the go. That's the idea, anyway. But what about the reality?

Gallery: Seagate Central review

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Storage, HD

Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/4iMGfV4wEck/

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All hospitals should require drug, alcohol tests for physicians

Public release date: 7-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mark Guidera
mguider1@jhmi.edu
443-898-2320
Johns Hopkins Medicine

To improve patient safety, hospitals should randomly test physicians for drug and alcohol use in much the same way other major industries in the United States do to protect their customers. The recommendation comes from two Johns Hopkins physicians and patient safety experts in a commentary published online April 29 in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

In addition, the experts say, medical institutions should take a cue from other high-risk industries, like airlines, railways and nuclear power plants, and mandate that doctors be tested for drug or alcohol impairment immediately following an unexpected patient death or other significant event.

"Patients might be better protected from preventable harm. Physicians and employers may experience reduced absenteeism, unintentional adverse events, injuries, and turnover, and early identification of a debilitating problem," write authors Julius Cuong Pham, M.D., Ph.D., an emergency medicine physician at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Gregory E. Skipper, M.D., of the drug and alcohol treatment center Promises, in Santa Monica, CA. also contributed.

Pham, Pronovost and Skipper note that "mandatory alcohol-drug testing for clinicians involved with unexpected deaths or sentinel events is not conducted in medicine," even though physicians are as susceptible to alcohol, narcotic and sedative addiction as the general public. (A sentinel event is an incident which results in death or serious physical harm.)

The authors recommend in their commentary that hospitals take a number of steps as a model to address this overlooked patient safety issue. They are:

• Mandatory physical examination, drug testing or both, before a medical staff appointment to a hospital. This already occurs in some hospitals and has been successful in other industries.
• A program of random alcohol-drug testing.
• A policy for routine drug-alcohol testing for all physicians involved with a sentinel event leading to patient death.
• Establishment of testing standards by a national hospital regulatory or accrediting body. The steps could be limited to hospitals and their affiliated physicians at this time, since hospitals have the infrastructure to conduct adverse event analysis and drug testing, note the authors. Hospitals also have the governing bylaws to guide physician conduct and an existing national accrediting body, The Joint Commission, the authors add.

In cases in which a physician is found to be impaired, a hospital could "suspend or revoke privileges and, in some cases, report this to the state licensing board," the authors write. Impaired physicians would undergo treatment and routine monitoring as a condition for continued licensure and hospital privileges.

"Patients and their family members have a right to be protected from impaired physicians," argue the authors in the JAMA commentary. "In other high-risk industries, this right is supported by regulations and surveillance. Shouldn't medicine be the same? A robust system to identify impaired physicians may enhance the professionalism that peer review seeks to protect."

###

Read the entire commentary: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1682565

---

[ | 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: 7-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mark Guidera
mguider1@jhmi.edu
443-898-2320
Johns Hopkins Medicine

To improve patient safety, hospitals should randomly test physicians for drug and alcohol use in much the same way other major industries in the United States do to protect their customers. The recommendation comes from two Johns Hopkins physicians and patient safety experts in a commentary published online April 29 in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

In addition, the experts say, medical institutions should take a cue from other high-risk industries, like airlines, railways and nuclear power plants, and mandate that doctors be tested for drug or alcohol impairment immediately following an unexpected patient death or other significant event.

"Patients might be better protected from preventable harm. Physicians and employers may experience reduced absenteeism, unintentional adverse events, injuries, and turnover, and early identification of a debilitating problem," write authors Julius Cuong Pham, M.D., Ph.D., an emergency medicine physician at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Gregory E. Skipper, M.D., of the drug and alcohol treatment center Promises, in Santa Monica, CA. also contributed.

Pham, Pronovost and Skipper note that "mandatory alcohol-drug testing for clinicians involved with unexpected deaths or sentinel events is not conducted in medicine," even though physicians are as susceptible to alcohol, narcotic and sedative addiction as the general public. (A sentinel event is an incident which results in death or serious physical harm.)

The authors recommend in their commentary that hospitals take a number of steps as a model to address this overlooked patient safety issue. They are:

• Mandatory physical examination, drug testing or both, before a medical staff appointment to a hospital. This already occurs in some hospitals and has been successful in other industries.
• A program of random alcohol-drug testing.
• A policy for routine drug-alcohol testing for all physicians involved with a sentinel event leading to patient death.
• Establishment of testing standards by a national hospital regulatory or accrediting body. The steps could be limited to hospitals and their affiliated physicians at this time, since hospitals have the infrastructure to conduct adverse event analysis and drug testing, note the authors. Hospitals also have the governing bylaws to guide physician conduct and an existing national accrediting body, The Joint Commission, the authors add.

In cases in which a physician is found to be impaired, a hospital could "suspend or revoke privileges and, in some cases, report this to the state licensing board," the authors write. Impaired physicians would undergo treatment and routine monitoring as a condition for continued licensure and hospital privileges.

"Patients and their family members have a right to be protected from impaired physicians," argue the authors in the JAMA commentary. "In other high-risk industries, this right is supported by regulations and surveillance. Shouldn't medicine be the same? A robust system to identify impaired physicians may enhance the professionalism that peer review seeks to protect."

###

Read the entire commentary: http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1682565

---

[ | 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/2013-05/jhm-ahs050713.php

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Dropbox Announces Its First Developer Conference, The Invite-Only DBX On July 9th In SF

Dropbox doesn't want to be a storage service. It wants to be the data layer uniting your information on all apps. To get more apps and enterprises integrated with its platform, today it announced DBX, the six year-old startup's first developer conference. To be held July 9th at San Francisco, you can request an invite for a $350 ticket to, DBX which could help Dropbox drive enterprise sales.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/elSSTYaVDKE/

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Why Baby's Hungry Cry Tugs at Women (But Not Men)

The idea that women are hard-wired to respond to babies is supported in a small new brain scan study from Italy.

Women in the study who listened to the sounds of a baby crying in hunger showed a change in activity in certain brain regions, but men showed no change.

The study included nine men and nine women, some of whom were parents. Most participants were in their 30s. Researchers at the University of Trento asked participants to let their minds wander, and then played a recording of about 15 minutes of white noise, interrupted with periods of silence and the sounds of a hungry infant crying.

In women's brains, there was a decrease in activity in two areas known to be active during mind wandering ? the dorsal medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate areas. By contrast, these regions in men's brains remained active when they heard the baby's cries, according the study.

The study shows that "women interrupt mind wandering when exposed to the sounds of infant hunger cries, whereas men carry on without interruption," the researchers wrote.

The brain patterns were not different between parents and nonparents in the study, the researchers said. This suggests that women may be predisposed to care for infants other than their own, the researchers said, though more study is needed to see whether this idea is held up.

Previous studies have shown that women are more likely than men to say that hearing an infant cry evokes feelings of sympathy and caregiving, while men are more likely to say that crying evokes irritation and anger.

Other work has shown that mothers' suffering from postpartum depression have muted brain activity patterns when they hear their baby cry, compared with nondepressed women.

The study was published in the February issue of the journal Neuroreport.

Pass it on: Hungry baby's cry affects the mother's brain, and evokes sympathy and caring.

Follow Karen Rowan?@karenjrowan. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily?@MyHealth_MHND, Facebook?&?Google+. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily.

Copyright 2013 MyHealthNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-babys-hungry-cry-tugs-women-not-men-171814583.html

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Obama tees off in bipartisan golf match

By Alasdair Fotheringham ISCHIA, Italy, May 5 (Reuters) - Team Sky took a morale-boosting victory in the Giro d'Italia team time trial as overall contender Bradley Wiggins moved up to second overall and gained time on his rivals on Sunday. Second in the short, hilly and very technical second stage were Spanish squad Movistar, nine seconds back, with Astana, led by Wiggins's key rival Vincenzo Nibali, third at 14 seconds. The first Team Sky rider to cross the line in Saturday's first stage, Italian Salvatore Puccio, took the overall leader's pink jersey. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-plans-monday-bipartisan-golf-game-163637852.html

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Senate bill lets states tax Internet purchases

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Attention online shoppers: The days of tax-free shopping on the Internet may soon end for many of you.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Monday on a bill that would empower states to collect sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The measure is expected to pass because it has already survived three procedural votes. But it faces opposition in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. A broad coalition of retailers is lobbying in favor of it.

Under current law, states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state.

That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Walmart, Best Buy and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don't have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers.

As a result, many online sales are tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

The bill would empower states to require businesses to collect taxes for products they sell on the Internet, in catalogs and through radio and TV ads. Under the legislation, the sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives.

The measure pits brick-and-mortar stores against online services.

As Internet sales have grown, "It's putting pressure on the brick-and-mortar competitors and it's putting pressure on state and local sales tax revenues," said David French, senior vice president of government relations for the National Retail Federation. "It's time for Congress to create a level playing field so that all retailers are treated fairly."

On the other side, eBay says the bill doesn't do enough to protect small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million in online sales would be exempt. EBay wants to exempt businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees.

"Complying and living under the tax laws of 50 states is a major undertaking because the process of complying with tax law goes far beyond just filling out the right forms," said Brian Bieron, eBay's senior director of global public policy.

"You have to deal with the fact that all of these government agencies can audit you and can question you and can actually take you into court and sue you if they think you are doing something wrong," Bieron said.

Supporters say the bill makes it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send them to individual counties or cities.

Opponents say online businesses would still have to use resources to account for the taxes they collect and to periodically send the money to each state.

Support for the legislation crosses party lines: The main sponsor, Sen. Mike Enzi, is a conservative Republican from Wyoming. He has worked closely with Sen. Dick Durbin, a liberal Democrat from Illinois.

Supporters say the bill is not a tax increase. In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state income tax returns. However, states complain that few taxpayers comply.

In the Senate, lawmakers from three states without income taxes are leading the opposition. They argue that businesses based in their states should not have to collect taxes for other states.

Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon and Delaware have no state or local sales taxes, though Delaware's two senators support the bill.

Delaware has long benefited from shoppers in neighboring states visiting Delaware to take advantage of the tax-free shopping, said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. Tax-free Internet shopping threatens Delaware's advantage, he said.

Many governors ? Republicans and Democrats ? have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to Commerce Department estimates.

States lost a total of $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales, according to a study by three business professors at the University of Tennessee. About $11.4 billion was lost from Internet sales; the rest was from purchases made through catalogs, mail orders and telephone orders, the study said.

The study was done for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-bill-lets-states-tax-internet-purchases-071827312.html

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Senate bill to let states tax Internet purchases

This photo taken May 2, 2013, shows Sarah Davis, co-owner of Fashionphile.com, posing with her bags in a company warehouse in the Carlsbad, Calif. The Internet company sells rare, vintage, and discontinued previous owned bags and is facing the complicated task of dealing with new state regulations on Internet sale taxes. (AP photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

This photo taken May 2, 2013, shows Sarah Davis, co-owner of Fashionphile.com, posing with her bags in a company warehouse in the Carlsbad, Calif. The Internet company sells rare, vintage, and discontinued previous owned bags and is facing the complicated task of dealing with new state regulations on Internet sale taxes. (AP photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

This photo taken May 2, 2013, shows Sarah Davis and Ben Hemmnger, co-owners of Fashionphile.com, posing in the lobby of their Carlsbad, Calif. office. The Internet company sells rare, vintage, and discontinued previous owned bags and is facing the complicated task of dealing with new state regulations on Internet sale taxes. (AP photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Chart shows U.S. online sales and projections

This photo taken May 2, 2013, shows Sarah Davis and Ben Hemmnger, co-owners of Fashionphile.com posing in the lobby of their Carlsbad, Calif. office. The internet company sells rare, vintage, and discontinued previous owned bags and is facing the complicated task of dealing with new state regulations on Internet sale taxes. (AP photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate is aiming to help traditional retailers and financially strapped state and local governments with a vote Monday that would widely subject online shopping ? for years a largely tax-free frontier ? to state sales taxes.

Support for the Senate legislation crosses party lines and it was expected to pass. But opposition from some conservatives who view it as a tax increase will make it a tougher sell in the House. President Barack Obama has conveyed his support for the measure.

Under current law, states can only require retailers to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state.

That means big retailers with stores all over the country like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target collect sales taxes when they sell goods over the Internet. But online retailers like eBay and Amazon don't have to collect sales taxes, except in states where they have offices or distribution centers.

As a result, many online sales are tax-free, giving Internet retailers an advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

"We ought to have a structure in place in the states that treats all retail the same," said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation. "Small retailers are collecting (sales tax) on the first dollar of any sale they make, and it's only fair that other retailers who are selling to those same customers the same product have those same obligations."

Internet giant eBay is leading the fight against the bill, along with lawmakers from states with no sales tax and several prominent anti-tax groups. The bill's opponents say it would put an expensive obligation on small businesses because they are not as equipped as national merchandisers to collect and remit sales taxes at the multitude of state rates.

"Giant retailers have a requirement to collect sales taxes nationwide because they have physical presence nationwide," eBay president John Donahoe wrote in an online column over the weekend. "Likewise, today small retail stores and online retailers collect sales taxes for the one state where they are located. That's a fair requirement."

"If the bill passes, small online businesses would have the same tax compliance obligations and face the same enforcement risks as giant retailers, despite the fact that they are usually located in just one state."

The bill would empower states to require businesses to collect taxes for products they sell on the Internet, in catalogs and through radio and TV ads. Under the legislation, the sales taxes would be sent to the state where the shopper lives.

Businesses with less than $1 million in online sales would be exempt. EBay wants to exempt businesses with up to $10 million in sales or fewer than 50 employees.

Some states have sales taxes as high as 7 percent, plus city and county taxes that can push the combined rate even higher. For example, the combined state and local sales tax is 9 percent in Los Angeles and 9.25 percent in Chicago. In New York City, it's 8.5 percent and in Richmond, Va., 5 percent. In many states, shoppers are already required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state income tax returns. However, states complain that few taxpayers comply.

Many governors ? Republicans and Democrats ? have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales.

The issue is getting bigger for states as more people make purchases online. Last year, Internet sales in the U.S. totaled $226 billion, up nearly 16 percent from the previous year, according to government estimates.

States lost a total of $23 billion last year because they couldn't collect taxes on out-of-state sales, according to a study done for the National Conference of State Legislatures, which has lobbied for the bill. About half of that was lost from Internet sales; half from purchases made through catalogs, mail orders and telephone orders, the study said.

Supporters say the bill makes it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send it to individual counties or cities.

Opponents worry the bill would give states too much power to reach across state lines to enforce their tax laws. States could audit out-of-state businesses, impose liens on their property and, ultimately, sue them in state court.

In the Senate, lawmakers from three states without sales taxes are leading the opposition: Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. They argue that businesses based in their states should not have to collect taxes for other states.

Delaware also has sales tax, though Delaware's two senators support the bill.

Grover Norquist, an anti-tax advocate, and the conservative Heritage Foundation oppose the bill, and many Republicans have been wary of crossing them.

Even so, the issue has a bipartisan flavor. The main sponsor, Sen. Mike Enzi, is a conservative Republican from Wyoming. He has worked closely with Sen. Dick Durbin, a liberal Democrat from Illinois.

In the House, Republican Speaker John Boehner has not commented publicly about the bill, giving supporters hope that he could be won over.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would have jurisdiction over the bill, has cited problems with the legislation but not rejected it outright.

"While it attempts to make tax collection simpler, it still has a long way to go," Goodlatte said in a statement. Without more uniformity in the bill, he said, "businesses would still be forced to wade through potentially hundreds of tax rates and a host of different tax codes and definitions."

Goodlatte said he's "open to considering legislation concerning this topic but these issues, along with others, would certainly have to be addressed."

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-06-Internet%20Sales%20Tax/id-802530c5b45b462db68b6d69a533fbc7

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In 'Iron Man 3,' Ben Kingsley Never Took His Eyes Off Robert Downey Jr.

'You have to anticipate and joy in the movements and twists and turns,' Kingsley tells MTV News of his cinematic sparring partner.
By Todd Gilchrist

Robert Downey Jr. in "Iron Man 3"
Photo: Marvel Studios

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706821/iron-man-3-ben-kingsley-robert-downey-jr.jhtml

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