Structure fires are never a good thing, but that doesn't mean they can't be damned impressive. Last Sunday, this railroad trestle in Texas caught fire, and when authorities decided it'd be too dangerous to fight, they just let it burn. The result is a spectacular show of what have to be some of the most dangerous dominoes in the world.
The unintentional fire-show ultimately cost about $10 million in damages, and while the resulting footage probably isn't worth quite that much, it's something to see. Especially the way the rails themselves fall like puny little wires. Fortunately the fire was contained to just the bridge, and no one was injured in the process. And as far as disasters go, this is a fun one to watch, relatively guilt-free. [KWTX via Reddit]
When I stepped off the plane in Mexico I got that sinking feeling. My iPhone wasn't going to work.
I mean it was, but, you know, it's expensive to use a cell phone abroad. It's even more expensive to use a smartphone abroad. A few years ago, I took a work trip to Paris and did a dumb thing. Long story short, I get off the plane, forget that both my voice and data plans are standard and end up with a four-figure phone bill. AT&T was actually really great about getting the number down to around $50, but they told me very clearly that this was my one get out of jail free card.
I've not been back to jail. Every year, at least once a year, I try to leave the country. I like traveling and have spent a decent amount of time living abroad. So when I go now, I still don't get the data plan. I either forget or can't be bothered. This is more or less what happened when I went to Mexico. It was a hastily planned trip, and I was on my own. I was even thinking about quitting the Internet the whole time I was there. "You're just gonna wanna lay on the beach and read books made of paper," my friends said. My friends were wrong. I love technology*.
So after one expensive phone call to sort out a rental car situation (Pro tip: Don't buy the insurance, through Kayak. It's a ripoff.), the iPhone went into airplane mode. It was the only time I used my data plan, and I didn't miss it one bit.
My first survival instinct was also probably the most obvious: I basically spent every free minute I had hunting down Wi-Fi hotspots. Luckily and quite surprisingly, the tiny beach town where I was vacationing was pretty damn wired. So Internet wasn't hard to find, and it was almost always free.
It was not, though, available on the beach, or in my rustic little cabana. But that's where a little ingenuity?and a few handy apps?came in.
I developed a nice little routine of using Wi-Fi at the bar and loading up things to do offline when I went wandering. If I really needed to call someone, I would take the phone off airplane mode and try to talk fast. If I really needed to check my email, I couldn't because my carrier is Sprint (don't ask) and Sprint is horrible. Data wouldn't work at all.
So when I was out of Wi-Fi zones, my life was full of offline playlists and preloaded longreads. Spotify is buggy lately, but it's still the best music app, in my humble opinion. Pocket, my go-to save for later app, fixes everything you find frustrating about Instapaper. And it's free.
There are obviously other apps that work great offline.
If you're going to a city, you're definitely going to want a map, especially one that includes public transit. (Google Maps doesn't work very well abroad, even if you have a data plan, and Apple Maps, well, don't get me started.) Try the iTrans family for transit maps. There's a handy offline app for most major American cities, and they cost between $0.99 and $3.99 each.
If you like words?who doesn't!?download Dictionary.com's fantastic app. It's handy if you'll be somewhere that you don't know the language (you can get a translation upgrade for a buck), but dictionaries also make for surprisingly entertaining beach reading. If you need a straight-up translator, go with Jibbigo. It's slick, and ten times better than the lame Lonely Planet translator apps that cost $7.99. Jibbigo is free free free.
If you're going abroad, you'll also want a currency convertor. Get XE Currency. It comes in a free version and an ad-free pro version. Don't waste your money on the pro version unless you really really hate ads, in which case, you should probably not have an iPhone.
If you get all of these apps, there's really no need to buy and expensive data plan. I met a couple from Los Angeles, while I was down in Mexico and one of them had gotten the data plan and the other hadn't. We had a fun debate about the perks and perils of staying totally connected while on vacation. Basically what we ended up agreeing on was that it depends on your personality. The man was a total surfer and said he like unplugging because, well, it is really relaxing. The woman used to work in the media, so she liked to be able to keep up with what was going on. In a way it would've been more stressful for her not to have a phone. (I'm the same way.) If you plan ahead, it's not that expensive either.
Oh and one last thing. Get Star Walk. Whether you're picnicking in Paris or lying down on the powdered sugar sand in Tul?m, stars are still amazing, and it's really such a blast to use. It's best on a retina iPad, but the iPhone version is excellent.
When I stepped of the plane at JFK, it was raining. I flipped the Airplane mode off, dropped my phone into my pocket laughed as it rattled with all the missed calls and texts that I didn't let myself see while I was away. It felt good.
"); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['togglesource'] = new Template(""); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['toolbar'] = new Template(""); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['button'] = new Template("
"); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['menu_item'] = new Template("
#{title}
"); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['togglesource'] = new Template(""); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['emoticons_showall'] = new Template(""); ipb.editor_values.get('templates')['emoticon_wrapper'] = new Template("
Emoticons
"); // Add smilies into the mix ipb.editor_values.set( 'show_emoticon_link', false ); ipb.editor_values.set( 'bbcodes', $H({"snapback":{"id":"1","title":"Post Snap Back","desc":"This tag displays a little linked image which links back to a post - used when quoting posts from the board. Opens in same window by default.","tag":"snapback","useoption":"0","example":"[snapback]100[/snapback]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"topic":{"id":"5","title":"Topic Link","desc":"This tag provides an easy way to link to a topic","tag":"topic","useoption":"1","example":"[topic=1]Click me![/topic]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"Enter the topic ID","menu_content_text":"Enter the title for this link","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"post":{"id":"6","title":"Post Link","desc":"This tag provides an easy way to link to a post.","tag":"post","useoption":"1","example":"[post=1]Click me![/post]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"Enter the Post ID","menu_content_text":"Enter the title for this link","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"spoiler":{"id":"7","title":"Spoiler","desc":"Spoiler tag","tag":"spoiler","useoption":"0","example":"[spoiler]Some hidden text[/spoiler]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"Enter the text to be masked","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"acronym":{"id":"8","title":"Acronym","desc":"Allows you to make an acronym that will display a description when moused over","tag":"acronym","useoption":"1","example":"[acronym='Laugh Out Loud']lol[/acronym]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"Enter the description for this acronym (EG: Laugh Out Loud)","menu_content_text":"Enter the acronym (EG: lol)","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"hr":{"id":"12","title":"Horizontal Rule","desc":"Adds a horizontal rule to separate text","tag":"hr","useoption":"0","example":"[hr]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"1","optional_option":"0","image":""},"php":{"id":"14","title":"PHP Code","desc":"Allows you to enter PHP code into a formatted/highlighted syntax box","tag":"php","useoption":"0","example":"[php]$variable = true;\n\nprint_r($variable);[/php]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"html":{"id":"15","title":"HTML Code","desc":"Allows you to enter formatted/syntax-highlighted HTML code","tag":"html","useoption":"0","example":"[html]\n \n[/html]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"sql":{"id":"16","title":"SQL Code","desc":"Allows you to enter formatted/syntax-highlighted SQL code","tag":"sql","useoption":"0","example":"[sql]SELECT p.*, t.* FROM posts p LEFT JOIN topics t ON t.tid=p.topic_id WHERE t.tid=7[/sql]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"xml":{"id":"17","title":"XML Code","desc":"Allows you to enter formatted/syntax-highlighted XML code","tag":"xml","useoption":"0","example":"[xml]\n \n Test\n \n[/xml]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"member":{"id":"31","title":"Member","desc":"Given a member name, a link is automatically generated to the member's profile","tag":"member","useoption":"1","example":"[member=skyhawk133] runs this site.","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"Input Username of Member","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"1","optional_option":"0","image":"memberbbcode.png"},"extract":{"id":"33","title":"Extract Blog Entry","desc":"This will allow users to define an extract for an entry. Only this piece of the entry will be displayed on the main blog page and will show up in the RSS feed.","tag":"extract","useoption":"0","example":"[extract]This is an example![/extract]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"blog":{"id":"34","title":"Blog Link","desc":"This tag provides an easy way to link to a blog.","tag":"blog","useoption":"1","example":"[blog=100]Click me![/blog]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"entry":{"id":"35","title":"Blog Entry Link","desc":"This tag provides an easy way to link to a blog entry.","tag":"entry","useoption":"1","example":"[entry=100]Click me![/entry]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"twitter":{"id":"36","title":"Twitter","desc":"A tag to link to a user's twitter account","tag":"twitter","useoption":"0","example":"[twitter]userName[/twitter]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":"twitter.png"},"inline":{"id":"37","title":"Inline Code","desc":"Formats code inline instead of in a seperate code box. ","tag":"inline","useoption":"0","example":"[inline]style=\"font-size: 12px;\"[/inline]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":""},"il":{"id":"38","title":"Abbreviated Inline (IL)","desc":"Abbreviated version of the [inline] tag. ","tag":"il","useoption":"0","example":"[il]Code Here[/il]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"0","image":"il2.png"},"code":{"id":"41","title":"Code","desc":"Allows you to enter general code","tag":"code","useoption":"1","example":"[code]$text = 'Some long code here';[/code]","switch_option":"0","menu_option_text":"","menu_content_text":"","single_tag":"0","optional_option":"1","image":""}}) ); ipb.vars['emoticon_url'] = "http://cdn.dreamincode.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/default"; //Search Setup ipb.vars['search_type'] = 'forum'; ipb.vars['search_type_id'] = 15; ipb.vars['search_type_2'] = 'topic'; ipb.vars['search_type_id_2'] = 321502; //]]>
Hi all, just joined. I've written a segment of code that writes the first and last name of employess like so: last name, first name. To minimize the clutter in the main I want to get almost everything into a function so I've written this function that does string copies and string cats the last name and first name with a comma in the middle. However I received errors these are them:
arturo@arturo-Satellite-L305:~/Assign3c$ make g++ assign3c.cpp taxes.o Qsort.o -o main.exe assign3c.cpp: In function ?int main()?: assign3c.cpp:143:28: error: ?lastname? was not declared in this scope assign3c.cpp: In function ?void attachNames(char, char)?: assign3c.cpp:208:17: error: ?record? was not declared in this scope assign3c.cpp:208:24: error: ?i? was not declared in this scope assign3c.cpp:209:21: error: invalid conversion from ?char? to ?char*? [-fpermissive] /usr/include/string.h:136:14: error: initializing argument 1 of ?char* strcat(char*, const char*)? [-fpermissive] make: *** [main.exe] Error 1
Oklahoma's two Republican senators, Tom Coburn and Jim Inhofe, are among the most fiscally conservative in all of Congress. In the wake of the deadly tornadoes that hit their home state Monday, they're living up to their reputations. ?
As Oklahoma begins to recover from the devastating storms, both senators are rejecting comparisons to the disaster funding legislation in the wake of Hurricane Sandy that they both opposed. Coburn said that he wouldn't support supplementary disaster aid unless such additional spending is offset elsewhere in the budget.? Inhofe reiterated that the Sandy aid bill was filled with wasteful spending.
?
Jim Inhofe, left, Tom Coburn. (AP Photo)
"There's an old saying in Oklahoma. You've got to get to the right of your opponent and stay there," said Bill Shapard, the CEO of SoonerPoll, an Oklahoma-based polling firm. "So everyone in Oklahoma that runs for office is trying to out-conservative the other."
The senators' positions come after an acrimonious debate over funding for Sandy relief, when lawmakers from the affected states turned livid that the aid bill was pulled from the floor because of conservative opposition. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer even?suggested?conservatives would feel differently about an aid bill if it were needed in their states.
A handful of lawmakers from Mid-Atlantic states even took the unusual step of appearing in the House press gallery to voice their frustration after midnight when it became clear House Speaker John Boehner would not bring the measure for a vote. The bill passed with Democratic support after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hammered Boehner and House Republicans.
In Oklahoma, though, voters might be more likely to hammer lawmakers for supporting increased government spending.
"I think Coburn instinctively understands that his position won't hurt him," Shapard said. "I think he understands the psyche of the Oklahoman. After this tragedy, you're not going to find a lot of Oklahomans screaming to the federal government."
Oklahoma is a solidly conservative state. Every county in the state voted for Mitt Romney with at least 55 percent of the vote in 2012. All of the state's representatives in Congress are Republican, and the GOP controls the governorship and both houses of the state legislature.
All this puts the senators' tornado reactions into political context.
Coburn announced his position quickly, telling CQ Roll Call Monday evening that he would not support aid that was not offset elsewhere, even as first responders were arriving on the scene.
"We ought to live within our budget," Sen. Tom Coburn told?Government Executive. "And that applies to Oklahoma. Remember, the Oklahoma City Bombing?we offset that. The real question . . . is should the people of Moore?ultimately children?have to pay interest on money that we've borrowed when we're wasting $200 billion a year?"
Coburn's staff later issued a six-point statement that said the senator was en route to Oklahoma to assess the storm's damage first-hand and doubled-down on his position for relief. The first point called it "crass to play disaster aid politics when first responders are pulling victims from the rubble."
"If an additional emergency aid package is necessary Dr. Coburn will not change his long-standing position on offsets.? Since the Oklahoma City bombing, Dr. Coburn has argued that supplemental bills should be paid for by reducing spending on less vital priorities," the statement said.
Inhofe has not said whether he would support an aid package without offsets, but said extra funds might not be necessary because the Federal Emergency Management Agency could have enough money to spend.
"We wouldn't need an additional appropriations bill. Everything's in place right now," Inhofe told?CNN.
He also rejected on Tuesday any parallel between federal aid for the tornado and Hurricane Sandy.
"Everyone was getting in and exploiting the tragedy that took place," he said. "That won't happen in Oklahoma."
May 22, 2013 ? Children living in households where the parents are married are less likely to be obese, according to new research from Rice University and the University of Houston.
"Childhood obesity is a significant public health issue in our country, with nearly one-third of all U.S. children ages 2-17 overweight or obese," said Rachel Kimbro, study co-author, associate professor of sociology at Rice and director of Rice's Kinder Institute Urban Health Program. "Despite this, very little research has been conducted to explore the impact of family structure on this epidemic."
In a recent edition of the Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, research by Kimbro and colleagues shows that children living in a traditional two-parent married household are less likely to be obese (17 percent obesity rate) than children living with cohabitating parents, who have a 31 percent obesity rate. The obesity rate is even higher for children living with an adult relative (29 percent), single mother (23 percent) and cohabitating stepparent family (23 percent). The study did not evaluate children of same-sex couples, due to lack of available data. The higher rates for nontraditional parent families were observed even after the researchers accounted for factors associated with childhood obesity, including diet, physical activity and socio-economic status.
The exception to this finding was children living with single fathers or in married stepparent households, who had an obesity rate of 15 percent.
"Previous research has shown that single-father households tend to have more socio-economic resources than single-mother households," Kimbro said. "And since socio-economic status is the single greatest predictor of health, it serves to explain why children in single-father households may be less likely to be obese."
The study, "Family Structure and Obesity Among U.S. Children," examined the obesity rates of children living in traditional and nontraditional family structures in the U.S. The research sample of 10,400 children comes from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, a nationally representative study of U.S. children and their families designed to provide information on children's development.
Data collection for the study began in 2001. The primary caregivers of the children participated in the first wave of the in-home interviews when their children were approximately 9 months old. Data was subsequently collected when the children were 2 years old, in preschool (approximately age 4) and in kindergarten. The sample included children from diverse socio-economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as an oversample of Asian, Pacific Islander, Alaska Native, American Indian, twins and low-birth-weight children. Forty-six percent of the children were racial or ethnic minorities, 25 percent were poor and 16 percent of the children had mothers without high school diplomas.
The interviews included assessments of the children's height, weight and other measures of development, such as cognitive functioning. The children were organized in eight mutually exclusive categories designed to account for the children's current family structure and the one they were born into.
The authors hope their research will inspire future studies of nontraditional family structures and their impact on health and weight.
"For reasons we cannot fully measure, there appears to be something about people who marry and have a child that is fundamentally different than the other groups, and these factors are also linked to children's weight," Kimbro said.
"Our hope is that this research will encourage further exploration of this topic," said Kimbro's co-author, Jennifer Augustine. "There is substantial research on how family structure matters to other domains of children's development, yet little research on why marriage and other family structure types might matter for children's obesity."
Kimbro and Augustine have already begun to lead this charge with a new project that examines the household-level processes associated with different family structures that may explain differences in young children's risk of obesity.
The research was funded by Rice University and the University of Houston.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - China and Pakistan should make cooperation on power generation a priority, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, as Islamabad seeks to end an energy crisis that triggers power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, bringing the economy to a near standstill.
Li arrived in the Pakistan capital under extra-tight security on Wednesday on the second leg of his first official trip since taking office in March after a visit to Pakistan's and China's arch rival, India.
Li's plane was escorted by six air force fighter jets as it entered Pakistan air space. Security measures also included shutting down mobile phone networks across the city.
Pakistan was one of the first countries to switch diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China, in 1950, and Li told a lunch attended by Prime Minister-elect Nawaz Sharif and President Asif Zardari that China and Pakistan should remain "trustworthy partners" and good neighbors.
In an interview with Pakistan media, Li said there was still "great potential" for the relationship. Bilateral trade last year rose above $12 billion for the first time and both sides are aiming to reach $15 billion in the next two or three years.
"Our two sides should focus on carrying out priority projects in connectivity, energy development and power generation and promoting the building of a China-Pakistan economic corridor," Li said.
The power shortages have sparked violent protests and crippled key industries, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in a country already beset by high unemployment, a failing economy, widespread poverty, sectarian bloodshed and a Taliban insurgency.
There are several joint energy and infrastructure projects under way in Pakistan and China has taken over operation of the strategically important Gwadar port.
When complete, the port, which is close to the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil shipping lane, is seen opening up an energy and trade corridor from the Gulf, across Pakistan to western China, and could be used by the Chinese Navy, upsetting India.
Li this week offered India a "handshake across the Himalayas" and said the world's two most populous nations could become a new engine for the global economy - if they could avoid friction.
China and India disagree about large areas of their 4,000 km (2,500 mile) border and their troops faced off for three weeks last month on a windswept Himalayan plateau where they fought a brief but bloody war in 1962.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars, two of them over disputed Kashmir.
"PRAGMATIC" MILITARY COOPERATION
India has responded cautiously to Li's overtures, partly because of China's friendship with Pakistan. For its part, Beijing is concerned about India's growing relations with the United States.
"I wish to reiterate solemnly China's continued firm support to Pakistan in its efforts to uphold independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity," Li said in a possible reference to India and to the United States, which angers many with drone strikes targeting militants in Pakistan.
Pakistan is going through a turbulent chapter in its ties with the United States, which plans to withdraw most of its troops from neighboring Afghanistan in 2014. Many U.S. officials have questioned Pakistan's commitment to fighting Islamic militancy since U.S. forces tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden in a garrison town near Islamabad two years ago.
China's Xinhua state news agency said Beijing was looking for "pragmatic" military cooperation with Pakistan, "which is in the front line of the fight against international terrorism".
"The military exchanges are not directed against any third party and contribute to peace and stability in both the region and the whole world," it said in a commentary.
Pakistan's Nation newspaper said Islamabad wished China well in its attempts to address its border and security concerns.
"It is also good that Premier Li is not oblivious to the kind of ill-will resulting from the core issue of Kashmir," it said.
In a brief security scare in southern Karachi on Tuesday, a roadside bomb exploded near the seafront which police said was likely aimed at a passing van full of Chinese port workers. No one was hurt.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
The question has been swirling ever since Francis laid his hands Sunday on the head of a young man after celebrating Mass in St. Peter's Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, convulsed and shook, and then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him.
The television station of the Italian bishops' conference said it had surveyed exorcists, who agreed that Francis either performed an exorcism or a prayer to free the man from the devil.
The Vatican was more cautious Tuesday, saying Francis "didn't intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone."
Fueling the speculation is Francis' obsession with the devil, a frequent subject of his homilies.
The police have arrested and charged 26 year-old David Daniel Bannis of Castle Bruce with the murder of 74 year-old Julius Joseph better known as Edictor also of Castle Bruce.
Joseph was found dead on the public road a short distance from the Castle Bruce secondary school on May 14, 2013.
Bannis will appear before a Roseau Magistrate on May 21, 2013.
Meantime, police are seeking the public?s assistance in their investigation of a shooting incident over the week-end which left a middle aged man ?critically injured?.
Albert Bethel better known as ?Psycho?, was found lying in an unconscious state,?with a gunshot wound to his head at the Botanic Gardens at about 11.00 pm on May 18, 2013.
The Police say he was transported to the Princess Margaret Hospital Accident and Emergency Department where he was treated and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit.
The police are soliciting the assistance of the general public in finding the shooter and anyone with information about this incident or any other crime is asked to call 1-800-Hint (1-800-4468) or 1-800-Tips (1-800-8477).
Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
A new measure of the heterogeneity ? the variety of genetic mutations ? of cells within a tumor appears to predict treatment outcomes of patients with the most common type of head and neck cancer. In the May 20 issue of the journalCancer, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary describe how their measure was a better predictor of survival than most traditional risk factors in a small group of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
"Our findings will eventually allow better matching of treatments to individual patients, based on this characteristic of their tumors," says Edmund Mroz, PhD, of the MGH Center for Cancer Research, lead author of the Cancerreport. "This method of measuring heterogeneity can be applied to most types of cancer, so our work should help researchers determine whether a similar relationship between heterogeneity and outcome occurs in other tumors."
For decades investigators have hypothesized that tumors with a high degree of genetic heterogeneity ? the result of different subgroups of cells undergoing different mutations at different DNA sites ? would be more difficult to treat because particular subgroups might be more likely to survive a particular drug or radiation or to have spread before diagnosis. While recent studies have identified specific genes and proteins that can confer treatment resistance in tumors, there previously has been no way of conveniently measuring tumor heterogeneity.
Working in the laboratory of James Rocco, MD, PhD ? director of the Mass. Eye and Ear /MGH Head and Neck Molecular Oncology Research Laboratory, principal investigator at the MGH Center for Cancer Research and senior author of the Cancerreport ? Mroz and his colleagues developed their new measure by analyzing advanced gene sequencing data to produce a value reflecting the genetic diversity within a tumor ? not only the number of genetic mutations but how broadly particular mutations are shared within different subgroups of tumor cells. They first described this measure, called mutant-allele tumor heterogeneity (MATH), in the March 2013 issue of Oral Oncology. But that paper was only able to show that patients with known factors predicting poor outcomes ? including specific mutations in the TP53 gene or a lack of infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) ? were likely to have higher MATH values.
In the current study, the investigators used MATH to analyze genetic data from the tumors of 74 patients with squamous cell head and neck carcinoma for whom they had complete treatment and outcome information. Not only did they find that higher MATH values were strongly associated with shorter overall survival ? with each unit of increase reflecting a 5 percent increase in the risk of death ? but that relationship was also seen within groups of patients already at risk for poor outcome. For example, among patients with HPV-negative tumors, those with higher MATH values were less likely to survive than those with lower MATH values. Overall, MATH values were more strongly related to outcomes than most previously identified risk factors and improved outcome predictions based on all other risk factors the researchers examined.
The impact of MATH value on outcome appeared strongest among patients treated with chemotherapy, which may reflect a greater likelihood that highly heterogeneous tumors contain treatment-resistant cells, Mroz says. He also notes that what reduces the chance of survival appears to be the subgroups of cells with different mutations within a tumor, not the process of mutation itself. "If all the tumor cells have gone through the same series of mutations, a single treatment might still be able to kill all of them. But if there are subgroups with different sets of mutations, one subgroup might be resistant to one type of treatment, while another subgroup might resist a different therapy."
In addition to combining MATH values with clinical characteristics to better predict a patient's chance of successful treatment, Mroz notes that MATH could someday help determine treatment choice ? directing the use of more aggressive therapies against tumors with higher values, while allowing patients with lower values to receive less intense standard treatment. While MATH will probably be just as useful at predicting outcomes for other solid tumors, the investigators note, that will need to be shown in future studies.
"Our results have important implications for the future of oncology care," says Rocco, the Daniel Miller Associate Professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School. "MATH offers a simple, quantitative way to test hypotheses about intratumor genetic heterogeneity, including the likelihood that targeted therapy will succeed. They also raise important questions about how genetic heterogeneity develops within a tumor and whether heterogeneity can be exploited therapeutically."
###
Massachusetts General Hospital: http://www.mgh.harvard.edu
Thanks to Massachusetts General Hospital for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
The death toll from the collapse reached 1,036 today, but the recovery of 'Reshma' is giving rescuers hope that more people may still be found alive.
By Saad Hammadi,?Correspondent / May 10, 2013
Rescuers carry a survivor pulled out from the rubble of a building that collapsed in Saver, near Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday. When the woman, whom soldiers identified as Reshma, was freed within an hour of her discovery in the flooded basement of the building, the crowd erupted in both cheers and tears.
AP
Enlarge
Seventeen days after the building collapsed killing more than 1,000 workers in Bangladesh, armed forces and firefighters have rescued one woman alive from the basement of the eight-story building at?4:28 p.m.?local time, raising cautious hope that more people could still be found alive.
Skip to next paragraph Saad Hammadi
Bangladesh Correspondent
Saad Hammadi is an investigative journalist based in Dhaka, covering Bangladesh for The Christian Science Monitor and The Guardian.?He is also the assistant editor of Xtra, the weekend magazine of New Age, one of the leading English dailies in Bangladesh.?Saad graduated from the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh with a BSS in media studies and journalism and a minor in English.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
When the woman, whom soldiers identified as Reshma, was freed within an hour of her discovery in the flooded basement of the building, the crowd erupted in both cheers and tears. Despite her ordeal, she appeared to be in good shape and was rushed to a military hospital on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital.
Reshma?s rescue comes 12 days after Bangladesh mourned a failed attempt to rescue another woman, Shahina Akhter. After the death of Ms. Akhter, rescuers lost hope of finding anyone alive in the rubble and rolled out heavier equipment to clear the rubble and recover dead bodies. But with Reshma's rescue, the mood at the scene has been uplifted.?
The death toll from the collapse of a building, which housed five factories, reached 1,036 today, and that number is expected to rise as more bodies are being found. The incident is being described as the world's deadliest garment industry disaster and one of the worst industrial accidents. As many as 6,000 people may have worked in the building, according to some estimates. The collapse puts a spotlight on the often extremely poor labor conditions of the country?s $20 billion garment industry, which provides cheap clothing for major retailers around the world.
As some bulldozers were crushing building beams to clear the way to look for bodies today they reached the basement, and noticed something.
?We were removing slabs. Between 2:45 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. we learned of the trace of a person,? says Lt. Col. SM Imran-Uz-Zaman, an Army spokesman at the site. ?We immediately halted work in all other areas and [focused] people on rescuing Reshma.?
Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Sarwardy, coordinator of the search and rescue operations at the disaster site, told The Christian Science Monitor how she was discovered: ?She shouted when we were going inside. We saw her. I talked to her,? he says.
?We have halted use of all heavy equipment such as hydraulic drilling. Our rescuers are working with information we are getting from her,? said Sarwardy ? just before she was rescued.?
Rescuers at the site said Reshma was confined between two beams and they had to be extremely cautious in order to rescue her alive.?
After a fire broke out just before the rescue of Shahina, Imran said the rescuers put water around the perimeter of their rescue operation to ensure that wouldn?t happen again.?
Once the woman was pulled out alive, says Sawardy, ?we provided her with oxygen and saline.? Reshma was rescued unhurt but with complications after 17 days without food and trauma.
Though Reshma told rescuers there were no more survivors in her area, workers began to sift through nearby rubble for more survivors.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina congratulated the rescuers for saving Reshma.?"This is an unbelievable feat," she was quoted as saying by her assistant, Mahbubul Haque Shakil.
MOORE, Okla. (AP) ? Spotlights bore down on massive piles of shredded cinder block, insulation and metal as crews worked through the night early Tuesday lifting bricks and parts of collapsed walls where a monstrous tornado barreled through the Oklahoma City suburbs, demolishing an elementary school and reducing homes to piles of splintered wood. At least 51 people were killed, including at least 20 children, and those numbers were expected to climb, officials said.
The storm left scores of blocks in Moore barren and dark. Rescuers walked through neighborhoods where Monday's powerful twister flattened home after home and stripped leaves off of trees to see if they could hear any voices calling out from the rubble.
As Monday turned into Tuesday, the town of Moore, a community of 41,000 people 10 miles south of the city, braced for another harrowing, long day.
"As long as we are here ... we are going to hold out hope that we will find survivors," said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
More than 120 people were being treated at hospitals, including about 50 children. Amy Elliott, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office, said Tuesday that there could be as many as 40 more fatalities from Monday's tornado.
Families anxiously waited at nearby churches to hear if their loved ones were OK. A man with a megaphone stood Monday evening near St. Andrews United Methodist Church and called out the names of surviving children. Parents waited nearby, hoping to hear their sons' and daughters' names.
While some parents and children hugged each other as they reunited, others were left to wait, fearing the worst as the night dragged on.
Crews continued their desperate search-and-rescue effort throughout the night at Plaza Towers Elementary, where the storm had ripped off the school's roof, knocked down walls and turned the playground into a mass of twisted plastic and metal as students and teachers huddled in hallways and bathrooms.
Children from the school were among the dead, but several students were pulled out alive earlier Monday from under a collapsed wall and other heaps of mangled debris. Rescue workers passed the survivors down a human chain of parents and neighborhood volunteers. Parents carried children in their arms to a triage center in the parking lot. Some of the students looked dazed while others appeared terrified.
James Rushing, who lives across the street from the school, heard reports of the approaching twister and ran to the school, where his 5-year-old foster son, Aiden, attends classes. Rushing believed he would be safer there.
"About two minutes after I got there, the school started coming apart," he said.
As dusk fell, heavy equipment rolled up to the school, and emergency workers wearing yellow crawled among the ruins, searching for survivors. Crews used jackhammers and sledgehammers to tear away concrete, and chunks were being thrown to the side as the workers dug.
Douglas Sherman drove two blocks from his home to help.
"Just having those kids trapped in that school, that really turns the table on a lot of things," he said.
Another school, Briarwood Elementary, was also damaged by the tornado, but not as extensively as Plaza Towers.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin deployed 80 National Guard members to assist with rescue operations and activated extra highway patrol officers.
Fallin also spoke Monday with President Barack Obama, who declared a major disaster and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts.
In video of the storm, the dark funnel cloud could be seen marching slowly across the green landscape. As it churned through the community, the twister scattered shards of wood, awnings and glass all over the streets.
The tornado also destroyed the community hospital and some retail stores. Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis watched it pass through from his jewelry shop.
"All of my employees were in the vault," Lewis said.
Chris Calvert saw the menacing cloud approaching from about a mile away.
"I was close enough to hear it," he said. "It was just a low roar, and you could see the debris, like pieces of shingles and insulation and stuff like that, rotating around it."
Even though his subdivision is a mile from the tornado's path, it was still covered with debris. He found a picture of a small girl on Santa Claus' lap in his yard.
A map provided by the National Weather Service showed that the storm began west of Newcastle and crossed the Canadian River into Oklahoma City's rural far southwestern side about 3 p.m. When it reached Moore, the twister cut a path through the center of town before lifting back into the sky at Lake Stanley Draper.
The National Weather Service issued an initial finding that the tornado was an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale, the second most-powerful type of twister.
Monday's powerful tornado loosely followed the path of a killer twister that slammed the region in May 1999.
The weather service estimated that Monday's tornado was at least a half-mile wide. The 1999 storm had winds clocked at 300 mph.
Kelsey Angle, a weather service meteorologist in Kansas City, Mo., said it's unusual for two such powerful tornadoes to track roughly the same path.
It was the fourth tornado to hit Moore since 1998. A twister also struck in 2003.
Lewis, who was also mayor during the 1999 storm, said the city was already at work on the recovery.
"We've already started printing the street signs. It took 61 days to clean up after the 1999 tornado. We had a lot of help then. We've got a lot of help now."
Monday's devastation in Oklahoma came almost exactly two years after an enormous twister ripped through the city of Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people and injuring hundreds more.
That May 22, 2011, tornado was the deadliest in the United States since modern tornado record keeping began in 1950, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Before Joplin, the deadliest modern tornado was June 1953 in Flint, Mich., when 116 people died.
___
Associated Press writers Sean Murphy and Sue Ogrocki contributed to this report.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The top Palestinian negotiator with Israel on Monday threw his weight behind U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's bid to revive stalled peace talks, while describing the situation in the West Bank as apartheid worse than that suffered in South Africa.
Kerry is due to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah on Thursday and Friday. U.S.-brokered peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel broke down in 2010 in a dispute over continuing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told a U.N. committee in New York on Monday that a settlement freeze and the release of Palestinian prisoners were not conditions for returning to negotiations, but rather obligations that Israel must fulfill.
"We have no conditions to resume negotiations," Erekat told the committee on rights of the Palestinian people, which was created by the U.N. General Assembly in 1975.
"Make no mistake we are exerting every possible effort in order to see that Mr. Kerry succeeds. No one benefits more from the success of Secretary Kerry than Palestinians and no one loses more from his failure than Palestinians," Erekat said.
He said that in the past two months Kerry had met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas five times, Erekat three times and that the three spoke by phone almost weekly.
"Mr. Kerry is keeping things (close to) his chest. He likes to work very, very, very below the radar and grow things like mushrooms," Erekat said. "We did everything ... in order to enable him to succeed. He is not going to wait for years or months actually, he's working very hard."
Palestinians seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza, where about 2.7 million Palestinians live, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
CHANCE FOR PEACE
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected any Israeli return to the lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, calling those boundaries indefensible.
"Today in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem ... I can sum up the situation with one word - apartheid. Worse than that which existed in South Africa," Erekat said. "Today Israel justifies its apartheid by the term security."
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor accused Erekat of spreading falsehoods and propaganda.
"One would expect a so-called 'peace negotiator' to be educating his own people for tolerance and coexistence," Prosor said in a statement. "Saeb Erekat is using every microphone to incite, inflame, and demonize the State of Israel."
Erekat said the Palestinians had finished preparation to join a raft of international bodies, such as the International Criminal Court, but would not act yet in order to give Kerry and President Barack Obama "a chance" to pursue Middle East peace.
"We want to give a chance to all nations who have a common denominator of achieving two states on the 1967 lines," Erekat said. "There is a chance, there is a good opportunity now."
If the Palestinians were to join the ICC, they could file complaints with the court accusing Israel of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious crimes.
The Palestinians are able to apply to join the ICC and other international bodies after the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine on November 29.
It was a diplomatic setback for the United States and Israel, which were joined by only a handful of countries in voting against upgrading the Palestinian Authority's observer status to "non-member state" from "entity," like the Vatican.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Eric Beech)
The planets beyond Mars exhibit the highest winds speeds of any other planets in the solar system. It's a puzzle, because less energy from the sun is available there to drive higher winds.?
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / May 17, 2013
This image of Neptune was taken during the August 16-17, 1989, period as Voyager 2 photographed the planet almost continuously, but had no way to measure the winds or how deep they reach into the atmosphere. Now, scientists have turned to subtle changes in the planet's gravity for clues.
NASA/AP
Enlarge
Astronomers have long marveled that the fastest wind speeds in the solar system have been clocked on the planets farthest from the sun.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Now, they may be a step closer to figuring out the energy source that drives these mighty winds.
In a new study, a team of scientists from Israel and the US finds that on Uranus and Neptune the winds appear to be confined to the top 680 miles of the atmosphere ? and may actually involve a thinner layer than that.
The results not only reveal new information about Uranus and Neptune, the researchers say. They also provide insights into the mechanisms driving the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars, says William Hubbard, a researcher at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and a member of the team reporting the results in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
Up to now, researchers have posited two possible sources: processes confined to the top layer of the atmosphere or heat welling up from deep in the planets' interiors. Both planets emit more heat than they receive from the sun, with Neptune radiating twice as much. And while 680 miles of atmosphere seems towering by Earthly standards, it's only skin deep for Uranus and Neptune.
The winds in the planets' wide equatorial jet streams rip along at speeds of up to 450 miles an hour on Uranus and as high as 1,300 miles an hour on more-distant Neptune. Still, the flows "seem to be rather shallow, so the amount of energy that has to be supplied to keep them going is much less than might have been thought," Dr. Hubbard says.
The planets beyond Mars exhibit the highest winds speeds of any other planets in the solar system. Yet from Jupiter on out, wind speeds increase with distance, even though less energy is available from the sun to drive atmospheric circulation at each orbit along the way.
The reasons for this trend "are not well understood, actually," says Adam Showman, also with the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and a member of the study's team. But the prime suspect is atmospheric drag, or rather, the lack of it.
The outer planets' atmospheres behave more like liquids deep in their interiors, so there is virtually no surface roughness to act as a drag on winds, as there is on Earth. And as the distance between a planet and the sun increases, there is less solar energy to impart turbulence to the atmosphere, which also acts as a drag.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? A suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform killed 14 people including a prominent provincial council chief Monday in northern Afghanistan in an attack outside the council headquarters, authorities said. The Taliban insurgency quickly claimed responsibility.
Seeking to weaken the Afghan government, Taliban insurgents have been carrying out attacks and assassinations intended to intimidate both officials and civilians ahead of next year's withdrawal of most international troops.
Baghlan provincial council leader Mohammad Rasoul Mohseni was entering the compound in the morning when the bomber approached on foot detonated his explosives in the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri, said Baghlan chief of police Asadullah Sherzad.
The attacker was dressed in police uniform and blended with officers at a checkpoint near the council headquarters, then slipped into a group of people surrounding Mohseni and set off his bomb in the crowd, said Baghlan deputy police chief Mohammad Sadeq Muradi.
"He was basically waiting for his target, who was Rasoul Mohseni," Muradi said.
Two of Mohseni's police bodyguards, four checkpoint police and seven civilians were killed in the blast, he said. It was unclear whether the attacker was actually a member of Afghan security forces or an insurgent who bought or stole a uniform.
Mohammad Zahier Ghanizada, a member of parliament from Baghlan, said that Mohseni had previously received multiple death threats.
A well-known figure in Baghlan, Mohseni was previously a respected commander in the Northern Alliance that fought against the Taliban's hard-line regime before it was toppled in 2001. He comes from a prominent family in the province, and his brother Azim Mohseni is a member of parliament.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed in a text message to journalists that an insurgent operative carried out the targeted bombing.
"Today at 11 a.m. in front of the Baghlan provincial council office, we have carried out a suicide attack and killed the head of the council," it said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing Monday.
"Such attacks are against all human rights and the principles of Islam," Karzai said in a statement. "Perpetrators of such attacks are enemies of the Afghan nation and the puppets of foreigners."
Karzai left later Monday for a two-day state visit to India, where he is expected to request military aid.
Both Karzai and the U.S. have sought peace talks with the Taliban and other insurgent factions in preparation for most foreign troops leaving next year after more than 12 years of war, but the efforts have borne little fruit. The Taliban seek to re-establish the strict interpretation of Islamic law they imposed for five years before being ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion over its sheltering of al-Qaida's terrorist leadership.
The insurgents last month launched a fierce new spring offensive that has in the past week alone seen the police chief of Farah province gunned down outside his home and twin bombings that killed nine people in an elite gated community for government officials and business owners outside of the southern city of Kandahar. Two bombs also exploded outside the provincial governor's office in Nangarhar province last week, killing one police guard.
Insurgents have also targeted members of the international coalition. A roadside bomb killed four American soldiers last week in the country's south, while another insurgent faction, Hizb-e-Islami, targeted a coalition convoy in the capital of Kabul two days later, killing two U.S. soldiers and four American contractors who were training Afghan troops to take over security.
___
Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed from Kabul.
rogueclassicism: 1. n. an abnormal state or condition resulting from the forced migration from a lengthy Classical education into a profoundly unClassical world; 2. n. a blog about Ancient Greece and Rome compiled by one so afflicted (v. "rogueclassicist"); 3. n. a Classics blog.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least 43 people were killed in car bomb explosions targeting Shi'ite Muslims in the Iraqi capital and the southern oil hub of Basra on Monday, police and medics said.
About 150 people have been killed in sectarian violence over the past week and tensions between Shi'ites, who now lead Iraq, and minority Sunni Muslims have reached their highest level since U.S. troops pulled out in December 2011.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Iraq is home to a number of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups, including the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq, which has previously targeted Shi'ites in a bid to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation.
Nine people were killed in one of two car bomb explosions in Basra, a predominantly Shi'ite city 20 km (260 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police and medics said.
"I was on duty when a powerful blast shook the ground," said a police officer near the site of that attack in the Hayaniya neighborhood.
"The blast hit a group of day laborers gathering near a sandwich kiosk," he told Reuters, describing corpses littering the ground. "One of the dead bodies was still grabbing a blood-soaked sandwich in his hand."
Five other people were killed in a second blast inside a bus terminal in Saad Square, also in Basra, police and medics said.
In Baghdad, a parked car exploded in a busy market in the mainly Shi'ite eastern district of Kamaliya, killing seven people, police said.
A further 22 people were killed in blasts in Ilaam, Diyala Bridge, al-Shurta, Shula and Sadr City - all areas with a high concentration of Shi'ites.
Iraq's delicate intercommunal fabric has come under increasing strain from the conflict in neighboring Syria, which has drawn Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims from across the region into a proxy war.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main regional ally is Shi'ite Iran, while the rebels fighting to overthrow him are supported by Sunni Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Iraq says it takes no sides in the conflict, but leaders in Tehran and Baghdad fear Assad's demise would make way for a hostile Sunni Islamist government in Syria, weakening Shi'ite influence in the Middle East.
The prospect of a possible shift in the sectarian balance of power has emboldened Iraq's Sunni minority, embittered by Shi'ite dominance since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by U.S.-led forces in 2003.
Thousands of Sunnis began staging street protests last December against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of marginalizing their sect.
A deadly raid by the Iraqi army on a protest camp in the town of Hawija last month ignited a bout of violence that left more than 700 people dead in April, according to a U.N. count, the highest monthly toll in almost five years.
At the height of sectarian violence in 2006-07, the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000.
(Additional reporting by Aref Mohammed and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
LONDON (Reuters) - An independent Scotland would have a vastly oversized financial sector that would leave it vulnerable to a Cyprus-style banking crisis, Britain's finance ministry says.
Before a referendum due in September 2014 on whether Scotland should split from the United Kingdom, the British government is analyzing the impact of independence on Scotland, which has a population of about 5 million.
A report from the finance ministry - or Treasury - says that without the British government's regulatory framework, Scotland would be left vulnerable by having a banking sector that dwarfs its economy, driving businesses out of the country.
"An independent Scotland would have an exceptionally large banking sector compared to the size of its economy - with banking assets of more than 1250 percent of Scottish GDP - making it more vulnerable to financial shocks and the volatility of the sector," said a Treasury statement which contained excerpts from the report, due to be published on Monday.
The Scottish National Party (SNP), which controls Scotland's devolved government and is behind the independence campaign, dismissed the report and said it would produce its own study on Tuesday highlighting the benefits of a split from Britain
"An independent Scotland will be an economic success story, as we will outline this coming week, and the tall tales from the Treasury can't hide that reality," said Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney of the SNP.
Opinion polls indicate the pro-independence movement in Scotland has the support of about a third of voters, while nearly 60 percent want to stay in the United Kingdom. British Prime Minister David Cameron has campaigned against Scottish independence.
At 12-1/2 times the size of Scotland's economic output, Scotland's banking sector would be even more out of proportion to the economy than that of Cyprus, which ground to a standstill earlier this year as the cost of recapitalizing its banks, which had assets worth nine times its GDP, spiraled.
"Overall, the experience of financial crises shows that countries with a large banking sector compared to the size of their GDP are significantly more vulnerable," the Treasury statement said.
Scotland currently benefits from the British government's capacity to support struggling banks.
During the 2007/08 financial crisis, government support for Britain's financial sector peaked at more than 1 trillion pounds' ($1.5 trillion) worth of guarantees and cash injections.
The Treasury report will say any future bank rescues would place a heavy burden on Scottish taxpayers, and could generate concerns about state finances that might discourage firms from basing their operations there.
Previous reports from the British government have said that there is no clear case for an independent Scotland to share use of the British pound, and that it might have to reapply for membership of international bodies such as the European Union.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen killed a senior female politician from a reformist party in Pakistan on Saturday night, the latest violent incident in a bloody election campaign and one that set off a war of words between two major opposition parties.
Around 150 people were killed in the run-up to national elections held last week, which handed a landslide victory to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N party.
It marked the first time an elected government replaced another one in a nation that has been run by military leaders for more than half its history.
Results from a handful of constituencies are still awaited amid accusations of vote-rigging. The shooting came hours ahead of repolling in a key area beset by allegations of voting fraud.
It was not immediately clear who killed Zara Shahid Hussain, a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The PTI has promised to reduce endemic corruption in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people.
The PTI's leader, former international cricket star Imran Khan, immediately blamed the killing on the Muttahida Quami Movement. The MQM has a stranglehold on politics in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi.
"Her death has sent shockwaves across the rank and file of the party," Khan said in a statement.
Police said that two gunmen shot Hussain dead outside her home in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi, he said.
"I hold (MQM leader) Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts," he added in a tweet.
"I also hold the British government responsible as I had warned them about British citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats."
MQM leader Hussain is wanted on murder charges in Pakistan and leads his party remotely from exile in England. His party is designated a terrorist organization by Canada, a charge it strongly denies.
In recent days he gave a speech which many Pakistanis felt was an incitement to attack political rivals. The British police have been flooded with complaints demanding an investigation.
The MQM leader insisted his words were taken out of context. MQM leaders held a press conference within hours of Hussain's death to disclaim responsibility and demand a retraction from Khan.
Khan's election campaign electrified many Pakistanis, pushing the PTI from a marginal party with no seats in the legislature to become Pakistan's third largest party.
National polls held a week ago gave the MQM 18 out of 19 national assembly seats in its power base in Karachi. Repolling is due to be held Sunday in the final constituency, thought to be a stronghold of PTI, after many polling stations failed to open on election day.
The steamy port city of Karachi is Pakistan's financial heart and home to 18 million people. It typically sees about a dozen murders a day, a deadly combination of political killings, attacks by Taliban and sectarian militant groups, and street crime.
jjl, on 21 May 2013 - 01:13 AM, said: