ROME (Reuters) - The Italian president's office said on Saturday it was opening its press room at 8.00 a.m. ET but gave no details of any statement that may come, following reports that the head of state is considering standing down to hasten early elections.
A source close to the situation told Reuters on Saturday that President Giorgio Napolitano was looking at the option of resigning early to get around get around constitutional provisions which prevent a president dissolving parliament in the final months of his mandate.
Similar reports were carried in all of Italy's main newspapers following failed attempts to form a government this week and break a month-long stalemate created by last month's inconclusive elections.
(Reporting By James Mackenzie; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin staged a televised meeting on Friday with a loyal support group called the People's Front, suggesting he may promote it as an alternative power base to his scandal-plagued ruling party.
At an event that mixed echoes of Soviet Communist Party congresses with the atmospherics of a U.S. talk show, Putin said he planned to raise the Front's status by making it a "public movement" and holding a formal founding congress in June.
He first set up the Front two years ago to broaden the appeal of his ruling United Russia party after regional elections showed its influence waning. Since then, United Russia's reputation has taken further blows.
At Friday's event, Putin made a series of populist pledges to loyalists assembled in the southern heartland city of Rostov-on-Don - ranging from curbs on severance pay for corporate bosses to better care for orphans, to higher standards for teaching Russian history in schools.
"We will meet regularly ... so that what we promised our citizens is not forgotten," Putin said.
Sitting in the front row flanked by activists, he called for uniforms at state schools and for a post-Soviet version of the honorary title Hero of Socialist Labour. He made good on the latter promise by creating the title Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation in a decree signed shortly after the meeting.
Less than a year after his inauguration for a third term, Putin is maneuvering to firm up his political footing in the years before a parliamentary election in 2016. He could seek a fourth term in 2018.
Although his ruling United Russia party faces few serious challengers, it has lost much of its power to generate public enthusiasm since the days when it was first set up as Putin's political vehicle.
The party's reputation was harmed by allegations of fraud in a December 2011 parliamentary election, which led to the biggest opposition protests of Puin's 13-year rule. Demonstrators branded it the "party of crooks and thieves".
Putin responded with what opponents say is a clampdown on dissent, but has also distanced himself from United Russia, handing its top post to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Disclosures that senior United Russia members held expensive properties abroad have proved embarrassing when Putin and the party are criticizing the West and pushing legislation to bar officials from holding foreign bank accounts or stocks.
The former head of the ethics committee in the State Duma lower chamber quit the parliament in February after documents posted on the Internet showed his name on deeds of property in Florida worth $2 million. Three other United Russia members have quit the Duma in recent weeks.
The troubles have prompted speculation Putin could dissolve the Duma and call a parliamentary election before 2016.
A Popular Front representative said the group did not intend to become a political party. However, under legislation Putin has submitted, half of the Duma's 450 deputies would be elected in district races rather than from party lists, which means Putin loyalists could run without being part of a party.
(Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Peter Graff)
"Come See Our New Home on Android," the invitation sent to members of the press on Thursday declared. Does this mean the long-rumored Facebook phone is about to become official? What is the social network's next move? And does it stand a chance?
Facebook is intending to introduce a modified version of Google's Android operating system, according to sourcing from TechCrunch's Josh Constine, the New York Times' Nick Bilton and Brian X. Chen, and the Wall Street Journal's Evelyn M. Rusli and Amir Efrati. This version of Android will put Facebook front and center and "will debut on a handset made by HTC, according to a Facebook employee and another person who were briefed on the announcement," Chen and Bilton explain.
"Imagine Facebook?s integration with iOS 6, but on steroids, and built by Facebook itself," Constine adds. "It could have a heavy reliance on Facebook?s native apps like Messenger, easy social sharing from anywhere on the phone, and more."
?It?s putting Facebook first,? a person familiar with the matter emphasized to Wall Street Journal reporters. But unlike competitors such as Amazon and Google, it is not putting Facebook itself into the hardware game.
"With Amazon, it's pretty clear," mobile industry consultant Chetan Sharma told NBC News. "They want to sell their content and services. They're building their own devices, which is different from what Facebook is doing."
However, the idea of a modified version of Android may be viewed as an act of hostility directed at Facebook's frenemy, Google.
"The reaction from Google will be interesting to see," Sharma pointed out. "There's obviously overlap ... It seems to Google that it's underpinning their Google+ efforts. Longer term, I don't see them letting it go and letting other people do their work."
But even if Google lets Facebook's plans fly, there are other issues to consider, Sharma says. "If it's just a phone that's going to be pushed by HTC, its chances are going to be limited," he explains. "[HTC] doesn't have the marketing powers." To truly stand a shot, Facebook needs to join hands with carriers.
Of course, some might wonder whether any carriers would be game. After all, Facebook's VoIP efforts and its baked-in Messenger service might conflict with carriers' business agendas, right?
Not necessarily so, says Sharma. "In certain markets [VoIP and Messenger] would be challenging," he elaborates. "In markets where unlimited voice and messaging is already bundled in ? in those scenarios operators have less resistance to the idea. They already make money on voice and messaging and they'll also make money on the data used by Facebook."
Initial whispers don't suggest that "Facebook Home," as the social network's device/software combo is expected to be named, is going to be pitched by any carriers, so we'll have to see how things fare with merely HTC. (Of course, that's assuming all these rumors and reports pan out.)
Things will be official on Thursday, April 4, and we'll be in Menlo Park, Calif., to report live.
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Four convicted sex offenders huddled in a busy hallway at the Texas Capitol, congratulating each other for going public and testifying against a bill that would plaster their criminal past on their Facebook profiles.
As expected, not everyone was moved by their objections.
"I don't feel bad for the guys that came in here whining," Republican state Rep. Steve Toth said after the men had left the room at a recent House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting. A Democrat switched on her microphone to voice on the record that she, too, had no sympathy.
In the Texas Legislature and statehouses nationwide, bills aimed at curbing how and where sex offenders can live and work are routine. But for the 72,000 registered sex offenders in Texas this year, there is optimism. A legislative victory is in sight, and it's not for sinking a fresh round of get-tougher proposals ? but scaling back one already in place.
Pushing forward what advocates say would mark a minor but extraordinary softening of the state's sex offender laws, the GOP-controlled Senate has passed a bill to remove employer information from Texas' online sex offender registry.
"I've been on that registry for 15 years and going on for a lifetime," said Hwi-Kee Wong, 34, who works in information technology and said he was arrested at 18 for copying illegal images. "I've never re-offended. I have no intention to re-offend."
It's not a change of heart swaying lawmakers but the wringing hands of frustrated business leaders ? they complain their bottom line suffers when the public discovers who's on the payroll.
The odd result: Sex offenders and Gov. Rick Perry's favorite conservative think tank is among those left seeing eye-to-eye. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which backs business-friendly bills, argues the current registry comes between the private relationship between employer and employee.
"We've seen if it bleeds, it leads in news coverage for years," said Marc Levin, director of the foundation's Center for Effective Justice. "Obviously, people may be able to make money by doing a news report, 'We went to a McDonald's and there was a sex offender serving as a cashier' or something. It may be salacious, but what's the public interest?"
Mary Sue Molnar, executive director of Texas Voices for Reason and Justice and the mother of a registered sex offender, said the bill is only the second her group has endorsed since forming in 2007.
Hers and a small band of similar organizations typically play defense in statehouses, arguing that decades of stacking one restriction atop another has pushed sex offenders to society's fringes. They say the result is growing ranks of unemployable and homeless outcasts, who then become more likely to commit new crimes.
"(Texas) would have every right to crow, jump up and down, dance jigs ? whatever," said Brenda Jones, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Reform Sex Offender Laws Inc. "It would be a huge win. It's very difficult to do."
Pressure on lawmakers to step up restrictions began intensified in 2005 when 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford of Florida was sexually assaulted and killed by a sex offender, according to a 2006 report by Texas House researchers. States began enacting sweeping "Jessica's Laws" that generally included mandatory minimum sentences and prohibiting sex offenders from living with 2,000 feet of schools and playgrounds.
Rules were being put in place prior to that. In 2001, for example, a Texas judge ordered sex offenders to place conspicuous signs in their front yards announcing their convictions to neighbors. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld that sex offender registries are not punitive, though an Indiana federal appeals court this month did uphold the rights of sex offenders to have social media accounts.
And states ? Texas included? continue to roll out new legislation to more closely track sex offenders and restrict what they can and cannot do. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder this month signed a new law expanding the state's public sex offender registry to include a wider range of crimes involving minors. In Arkansas, a proposal would keep sex offenders whose victim was under 18 on the registry for life, whereas now they can petition for removal after 15 years.
About a dozen bills in the Texas Legislature this session would create new restrictions, including one reinforcing the authority of cities to keep sex offenders away from playgrounds and swimming pools.
In all, it's a reality check that keeps groups stopping short of predicting that wiping employer information off the registry will lead to a wave of other rollbacks.
Tough-on-crime conservatives aren't the only ones piling on the restrictions, either: The Texas proposal that would require sex offenders to list their convictions on social media profiles was filed by Democrats' go-to political attack dog, state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer.
"The state made a public policy decision in 1991 to get into this business. Every year we've expanded it," Martinez Fischer said. "It's all been done under the rubric that we need to protect the public. And most important, we need to protect those who probably can't protect themselves."
Phil Taylor, a licensed sex offender treatment provider in Dallas, told lawmakers the social media bill would only further stigmatize sex offenders and hamper their efforts to rejoin society. He said 80 percent of sex offenders don't relapse after prison, and pointed out that the group has lower recidivism rates than burglars and other criminals.
Sex offenders, meanwhile, sought to make a pragmatic case to lawmakers: money and resources. State law requires released sex offenders to register within seven days of leaving prison. Jonathan Cooney, 43, said he fell out of compliance that first week of freedom because the state was so backlogged. Three months passed before Cooney said he was finally registered.
"I think if more people knew the person behind the mug shot, they would be more in favor of turning away from sex offender registry," Cooney said.
___
Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber
UPS agrees to $40 million fine to end US probe into deliveries for illegal online pharmacies. UPS also agrees to block further deliveries from suspect pharmacies. FedEx is still under investigation.
By Paul Elias,?Associated Press / March 29, 2013
A UPS truck arrives for a delivery in Miami Springs, Fla. United Parcel Service has agreed to pay a federal fine of $40 million ? what the US Justice Department says it made from delivering drugs from illegal Internet pharmacies.
Alan Diaz/AP/File
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Shipping company?UPS?agreed Friday to pay $40 million to end a federal criminal probe connected to deliveries it made for illicit online pharmacies.
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The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the Atlanta-based company would also "take steps" to block illicit online drug dealers from using their delivery service.
The DOJ said the fine amount is the money?UPS?collected from suspect online pharmacies.?UPS?won't be charged with any crimes.
"We believe we have an obligation and responsibility to help curb the sale and shipment of drugs sold through illegal Internet pharmacies,"?UPS?spokesman Bill Tanner said. "UPS?will pay a $40 million penalty and has agreed to enhance its compliance policies with respect to Internet pharmacy shippers."
Its biggest rival, FedEx Corp., still remains a target in the federal investigation, according to its March 21 quarterly report filed with the Security and Exchange Commission.
"We believe that our employees have acted in good faith at all times," FedEx stated in its regulatory filing. "We do not believe that we have engaged in any illegal activities and will vigorously defend ourselves in any action that may result from the investigation."
FedEx said it received subpoenas from a federal grand jury in San Francisco in 2008 and 2009. The San Francisco U.S. Attorney's office has played a central role in a nationwide crackdown on online pharmacies. Ten people with ties to online pharmacies have been convicted over the last two years.
"It is unclear what federal laws?UPS?may have violated," FedEx said in statement Friday. "We remain confident that we are in compliance with federal law."
The DOJ said some?UPS?employees knew the company was making deliveries between 2003 and 2010 for pharmacies that filled orders for dangerous drugs without proper prescriptions from doctors.
"Despite being on notice that this activity was occurring,?UPS?did not implement procedures to close the shipping accounts of Internet," the DOJ said in a prepared statement.
FedEx said federal investigators have declined to supply it with a list of suspect pharmacies. The company said it "can immediately shut off shipping services to those pharmacies" if given such a list.
A DOJ spokesman declined to comment about the FedEx investigation.
In a prepared statement announcing the?UPS?settlement, Food and Drug Administration criminal chief John Roth said the "FDA is hopeful that the positive actions taken by?UPS?in this case will send a message to other shipping firms to put public health and safety above profits."
Earlier this week, a federal judge in San Francisco sentenced Chris Napoli to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit $24 million his illicit pharmacy Safescripts Online earned between 2004 and 2006. Two other men were sentenced to prison along with Napoli. Receipts from?UPS?and FedEx were used as evidence in the trio's trial last year.
In 2011, Google Inc. agreed to pay $500 million to settle allegations by the Justice Department that it profited from ads for illegal online pharmacies.
VIENNA (AP) ? Austrian police and firefighters have taken on the role of urban cowboys in a two-day round-up of a herd of cattle that broke out of a fenced-off pasture and decided to go into town.
A police statement says the 43 steers defied attempts by police and volunteer firefighters to recapture them after wandering off Thursday and heading toward the Upper Austrian town of Freistadt. After being chased away from the railway station, they endangered motorists by stampeding onto a two-lane highway before running into a town suburb.
Two firefighters who tried to stop them were injured and needed hospital treatment.
The statement says 18 of the animals remain on the loose Friday. The rest have been corralled or tranquilized.
Heartland Gourmet is recalling some "dairy-free" mixes that may contain milk. (Image credit: Heartland Gourmet/FDA)
A gourmet food company is recalling three of its ?dairy-free? baking mixes because they might contain milk, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Heartland Gourmet, based in Lincoln, Neb., announced the voluntary recall Thursday after routine sample testing in Canada uncovered milk in some cookie and pizza crust mixes, which are labeled both gluten-free and dairy-free.
The recall notice cites ?a temporary breakdown in the company?s production and packaging processes? leading to the contamination, but a company spokeswoman said the problem is still under investigation.
Milk is one of the most common food allergens, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious disease. It can cause hives, wheezing and vomiting, as well as abdominal cramps and diarrhea. In rare cases, milk can cause anaphylaxis, a life-threatening reaction.
17 Scary Allergy Triggers
An ABC News analysis in?December?2012 revealed that more than 400 recalls for undeclared allergens in food were reported to the FDA since March 2009. More than 140 of them were for desserts and snack foods, including cookies, candy and ice cream.
The Heartland Gourmet?mixes were distributed to stores in Minnesota, Texas, Indiana, Connecticut, North Carolina, California and Colorado between October 2012 and March 2013, according to the recall notice. The company also supplies mixes for fundraisers, according to its website. No illnesses have been reported to date.
The recalled products include:
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix: Item # 2017 UPC Code 7376967020171 16 oz. Lot #0023065, best buy date of 12/2014 and distributed in March of 2013, and Lot # 0023007, best buy date of 10/2014 and distributed in February 2013.
Gluten Free Double Chocolate Cookie Mix: Item # 1530 -UPC Code 737697015306 16 oz. Lot #0012289 ? Best buy Date of 10/2014 and distributed in October of 2012; Lot #0022317 with a best buy date of 10/2014 and distributed in November of 2012; and Lot #0012341 with a best buy date of 01/2014 and distributed in December of 2012.
Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix: Item # 2024 UPC Code 737697020249 15.4 oz. Lot #0073007. Best buy date of 09/2014 and distributed in January of 2013.
Customers are urged to return the recalled products to the place of purchase for a refund, according to the recall notice. Click here for more information.
When Sequoia Capital India landed in Singapore quietly in 2012, the buzz around town was that a big-name US fund being in the country was going to really jolt the market and provide serious cred to the startups here. The Indian team running operations here, however, appears to have spent the last year of its time in the island state helping its Indian funds expand into Singapore, rather than directly investing in startups here. Singapore is a popular choice as a base for foreign companies looking to expand into Southeast Asia. Early last year, Sequoia Capital India MD, Shailendra Jit Singh, expressed interest in having the fund?s companies expand into the region. Sequoia Cap in the US also appeared to have been eyeing activity in Singapore for a while?it had its first offsite meeting in the country in 2011, and was in discussion with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about its presence here. The Prime Minister?s Office oversees its R&D arm, the National Research Foundation (NRF), which has been busy backing local venture capital firms here over the past few years. Its Technology Incubation Scheme is a program that distributes seed funding to startups picked by 11 NRF-appointed VCs. The NRF matches investment values in the proportion of 85 percent to 15 percent?the larger portion dished out by the government. This allows the VCs here to provide bigger sums of seed capital to startups, with much of the risk absorbed by the NRF. Former NRF projects head, Yinglan Tan, was also pulled over to Sequoia Capital India?s team in July last year, where he is now a venture partner based in Singapore. When I ran into Tan in Manila a couple of months ago, he was evasive about the funds they?re looking at in Singapore, but was happy to try to set up meetings with their existing funds in Singapore?all Indian-based startups, except for Airbnb and Evernote. Some of these companies that are being incubated in Singapore by Sequoia Cap include Via, Druva, Mu Sigma, Idea Device and Practo. The meetings never happened, but word on the street is that Tan has been meeting with some Singapore-based startups that are approaching Series A or B in size, and are looking to expand beyond the island. One that I know of provides Wi-Fi infrastructure. As for its current startups here, Via is pretty sizable. It operates a flight booking portal
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea.
Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely and North Korea's threats are instead aimed at drawing Washington into talks that could result in aid and boosting leader Kim Jong Un's image at home. But the harsh rhetoric from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's Feb. 12 nuclear test have raised worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.
In a joint statement by the government, political parties and organizations, North Korea said Saturday that it will deal with all matters involving South Korea according to "wartime regulations." It also warned it will retaliate against any provocations by the United States and South Korea without "any prior notice."
The divided Korean Peninsula is already in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. But Pyongyang said it was scrapping the war armistice earlier this month.
South Korea's Unification Ministry released a statement saying the latest threat wasn't new and was just a follow-up to Kim's earlier order to put troops on a high alert in response to annual U.S-South Korean military drills. Pyongyang sees those drills as rehearsals for an invasion; the allies call them routine and defensive.
In an indication North Korea is not immediately considering starting a war, officials in Seoul said South Korean workers continued Saturday to cross the border to their jobs at a joint factory park in North Korea that's funded by South Koreans
On Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned his forces were ready "to settle accounts with the U.S." after two nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bombers dropped dummy munitions on a South Korean island range as part of joint drills and returned to its base in Missouri.
North Korean state media later released a photo of Kim and his senior generals huddled in front of a map showing routes for envisioned strikes against cities on both American coasts. The map bore the title "U.S. Mainland Strike Plan."
At the main square in Pyongyang, tens of thousands of North Koreans turned out for a 90-minute mass rally in support of Kim's call to arms. Small North Korean warships, including patrol boats, conducted maritime drills off both coasts of North Korea near the border with South Korea earlier this week, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said in a briefing Friday. He didn't provide details.
The spokesman said that South Korea's military was mindful of the possibility that North Korean drills could lead to an actual provocation. He said that the South Korean and U.S. militaries are watching closely for any signs of missile launch preparations in North Korea. He didn't elaborate.
Experts believe North Korea is years away from developing nuclear-tipped missiles that could strike the United States. Many say they've also seen no evidence that Pyongyang has long-range missiles that can hit the U.S. mainland.
Still, there are fears of a localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters. Such naval clashes have happened three times since 1999. There's also danger that such a clash could escalate. Seoul has vowed to hit back hard the next time it is attacked.
"The first strike of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will blow up the U.S. bases for aggression in its mainland and in the Pacific operational theatres including Hawaii and Guam," the North said Saturday in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.
Pyongyang uses the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a justification for its own push for nuclear weapons. It says that U.S. nuclear firepower is a threat to its existence.
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-08M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, March 29, 2013. The Russian rocket carries Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin, Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-08M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, March 29, 2013. The Russian rocket carries Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin, Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Russian Cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin, right, Pavel Vinogradov, center, and U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, walk prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, Pool)
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-08M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS), blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, March 29, 2013. The Russian rocket carries Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin, Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)
Russian Cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin, right, and U.S. astronaut Christopher Cassidy, crew members of the mission to the International Space Station, ISS, wave prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky, Pool)
In this picture taken through a safety glass, Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, crew member of the mission to the International Space Station (ISS), is seen during inspection of his space suit prior the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Thursday, March 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Ramil Sitdikov, Pool)
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) ? A Russian spacecraft carrying a three-man crew blasted off Friday from a launch pad in the steppes of Kazakhstan, for the first time taking a shorter path to the International Space Station.
Instead of the two-day approach maneuver used by Soyuz spacecraft in the past, this journey to the station would take NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russians Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin just under six hours.
The Soyuz TMA-08M lifted off on time from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome at 2:43 a.m. Friday (2043 GMT; 4:43 p.m. EDT Thursday). It's set to dock at the space outpost at 10:32 p.m. EDT Thursday (0232 GMT Friday).
The trio are "on a fast track to the International Space Station," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said, adding minutes after the launch that all was going well and the spacecraft went into orbit without any problems.
The new maneuver has been tested successfully by three Russian Progress cargo ships, an unmanned version of the Soyuz used to ferry supplies to the space station.
Vinogradov joked at a pre-launch news conference at Baikonur that the journey to the station would be so quick that it could allow the crew to even carry ice cream as a present to the three men currently manning the orbiting outpost.
"It wouldn't melt in such a short time," he said.
On a more serious note, Vinogradov added that the shorter flight path would reduce the crew's fatigue and allow astronauts to be in top shape for the docking. He said that it takes about five hours for the human body to start feeling the impact of zero gravity, so the quicker flight would allow the crew to more easily adapt to weightlessness in much roomier space station interiors.
The downside of the accelerated rendezvous is that the crew will have to stay in their spacesuits, which they don hours before the launch, through the entire approach maneuver.
Other Russian cosmonauts in the past have described the two-day approach maneuver in the cramped Soyuz as one of the most grueling parts of missions to the orbiting station. The spheroid orbiting capsule allows the crew to take off their bulky spacesuits, change into more comfortable clothes and use a toilet, but its interior is extremely confined.
The ship's spartan layout lacks adequate heating and fails to provide an opportunity for the crew to get hot food. It contrasts sharply with the spacious U.S. space shuttle, whose retirement has left Soyuz as the only means to deliver crews to the space outpost.
Russian space officials said the longer approach was necessary at a time when the station was in a lower orbit required for the shuttle flights. After they ended, it was raised from 350 kilometers (217 miles) to 400 kilometers (249 miles), making a quicker rendezvous possible.
NASA is working on the development of its new generation Orion spacecraft. Orion's first trip is an unmanned mission in 2017, and the first manned mission is set for 2021.
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Associated Press writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
Contact: marla Paul marla-paul@northwestern.edu 312-503-8928 Northwestern University
Viral protein hijacks cellular machinery and grabs the wheel
(Chicago) Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.
Led by Gregory Smith, associate professor in immunology and microbiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, researchers found that viral protein 1-2, or VP1/2, allows the herpesvirus to interact with cellular motors, known as dynein. Once the protein has overtaken this motor, the virus can speed along intercellular highways, or microtubules, to move unobstructed from the tips of nerves in skin to the nuclei of neurons within the nervous system.
This is the first time researchers have shown a viral protein directly engaging and subverting the cellular motor; most other viruses passively hitch a ride into the nervous system.
"This protein not only grabs the wheel, it steps on the gas," says Smith. "Overtaking the cellular motor to invade the nervous system is a complicated accomplishment that most viruses are incapable of achieving. Yet the herpesvirus uses one protein, no others required, to transport its genetic information over long distances without stopping."
Herpesvirus is widespread in humans and affects more than 90 percent of adults in the United States. It is associated with several types of recurring diseases, including cold sores, genital herpes, chicken pox, and shingles. The virus can live dormant in humans for a lifetime, and most infected people do not know they are disease carriers. The virus can occasionally turn deadly, resulting in encephalitis in some.
Until now, scientists knew that herpesviruses travel quickly to reach neurons located deep inside the body, but the mechanism by which they advance remained a mystery.
Smith's team conducted a variety of experiments with VP1/2 to demonstrate its important role in transporting the virus, including artificial activation and genetic mutation of the protein. The team studied the herpesvirus in animals, and also in human and animal cells in culture under high-resolution microscopy. In one experiment, scientists mutated the virus with a slower form of the protein dyed red, and raced it against a healthy virus dyed green. They observed that the healthy virus outran the mutated version down nerves to the neuron body to insert DNA and establish infection.
"Remarkably, this viral protein can be artificially activated, and in these conditions it zips around within cells in the absence of any virus. It is striking to watch," Smith says.
He says that understanding how the viruses move within people, especially from the skin to the nervous system, can help better prevent the virus from spreading.
Additionally, Smith says, "By learning how the virus infects our nervous system, we can mimic this process to treat unrelated neurologic diseases. Even now, laboratories are working on how to use herpesviruses to deliver genes into the nervous system and kill cancer cells."
Smith's team will next work to better understand how the protein functions. He notes that many researchers use viruses to learn how neurons are connected to the brain.
"Some of our mutants will advance brain mapping studies by resolving these connections more clearly than was previously possible," he says.
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This work was funded by grants R01 AI056346, R01 EY017809, T32AI07476 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
It was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe and is available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312813000401.
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Contact: marla Paul marla-paul@northwestern.edu 312-503-8928 Northwestern University
Viral protein hijacks cellular machinery and grabs the wheel
(Chicago) Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.
Led by Gregory Smith, associate professor in immunology and microbiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, researchers found that viral protein 1-2, or VP1/2, allows the herpesvirus to interact with cellular motors, known as dynein. Once the protein has overtaken this motor, the virus can speed along intercellular highways, or microtubules, to move unobstructed from the tips of nerves in skin to the nuclei of neurons within the nervous system.
This is the first time researchers have shown a viral protein directly engaging and subverting the cellular motor; most other viruses passively hitch a ride into the nervous system.
"This protein not only grabs the wheel, it steps on the gas," says Smith. "Overtaking the cellular motor to invade the nervous system is a complicated accomplishment that most viruses are incapable of achieving. Yet the herpesvirus uses one protein, no others required, to transport its genetic information over long distances without stopping."
Herpesvirus is widespread in humans and affects more than 90 percent of adults in the United States. It is associated with several types of recurring diseases, including cold sores, genital herpes, chicken pox, and shingles. The virus can live dormant in humans for a lifetime, and most infected people do not know they are disease carriers. The virus can occasionally turn deadly, resulting in encephalitis in some.
Until now, scientists knew that herpesviruses travel quickly to reach neurons located deep inside the body, but the mechanism by which they advance remained a mystery.
Smith's team conducted a variety of experiments with VP1/2 to demonstrate its important role in transporting the virus, including artificial activation and genetic mutation of the protein. The team studied the herpesvirus in animals, and also in human and animal cells in culture under high-resolution microscopy. In one experiment, scientists mutated the virus with a slower form of the protein dyed red, and raced it against a healthy virus dyed green. They observed that the healthy virus outran the mutated version down nerves to the neuron body to insert DNA and establish infection.
"Remarkably, this viral protein can be artificially activated, and in these conditions it zips around within cells in the absence of any virus. It is striking to watch," Smith says.
He says that understanding how the viruses move within people, especially from the skin to the nervous system, can help better prevent the virus from spreading.
Additionally, Smith says, "By learning how the virus infects our nervous system, we can mimic this process to treat unrelated neurologic diseases. Even now, laboratories are working on how to use herpesviruses to deliver genes into the nervous system and kill cancer cells."
Smith's team will next work to better understand how the protein functions. He notes that many researchers use viruses to learn how neurons are connected to the brain.
"Some of our mutants will advance brain mapping studies by resolving these connections more clearly than was previously possible," he says.
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This work was funded by grants R01 AI056346, R01 EY017809, T32AI07476 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
It was published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe and is available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312813000401.
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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.
I stopped by the golden arches at Sunny Isle Shopping Center for a burger and saw a notice on the glass door as I entered yesterday at about 4:30pm.
It stated (on a crudely photocopied, faded paper similar to a VI Drivers Licence application) that the Sunny Isle Shopping Center had been found by the Health Department to have had FECAL COLIFORMS well above the permitted limits in the drinking water produced by thier in-house water purification system. It went on to state that the higher than allowed results had been found on more than one occasion dating back to January 2013.
I didn't think much of it as I munched on my Big Mac Meal and slurped my soft drink which contained ICE made with WATER from the IN-HOUSE PURIFICATION SYSTEM.
Did I have a case of diarrhea this morning? Oh yes...I surely did and it wasn't pretty either.
WARNING: Don't drink the WATER or have ICE in your drinks at golden arches, the theater or any food service establishment at Sunny Isle Shopping Center. Taking it one step further, don't eat at the Sunny Isle Shopping Center at all since all cooking utensils and equipment whould have been washed with contaminated water.
We all know how lax enforcement of anything is here in the VI (except using a cell phone while driving), but public health should not be overlooked.
I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT THEY HAVE FIXED THE PROBLEM.
Storify has become a useful tool for media organizations trying to capture newsworthy or entertaining social media conversations for their readers, with its ability to combine tweets, photos, and more into an embeddable conversation. Today the company is announcing a VIP plan with features designed specifically for "media organizations, publishers or anyone wanting to deeply integrate social curation and storytelling into their site." The plan includes the ability to update a Storify story in real-time (useful for live blogging), to customize the appearance of a story with CSS, to receive priority technical support, add custom sources, and to share stories privately. Co-founder Burt Herman told me via email that the first two features will probably make the biggest difference for readers, while the private sharing could be useful for newsroom collaboration, and also for communication within companies and PR agencies. (So for example if a brand becomes embroiled in a big social media controversy, Storify might be a good way for an agency to capture what's going on, but that's probably not something they'd want to highlight publicly.)
Contact: Kent Kiehl kkiehl@mrn.org 505-925-4516 Duke University
Low anterior cingulate activity linked to repeat offenses
ALBUQUERQUE, NM and DURHAM, NC--A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison.
The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.
You can view the paper by clicking here: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219302110.
The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region.
"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."
The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison.
"These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective."
The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests.
"People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest."
The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre."
Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders.
###
The four-year study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and pilot funds by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. The study was conducted in collaboration with the New Mexico Corrections Department.
ABOUT THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK
The Mind Research Network (MRN), headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., is committed to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and other brain disorders. MRN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization consisting of an interdisciplinary association of scientists located at universities, national laboratories and research centers around the world and is focused on imaging technology and its emergence as an integral element of neuroscience investigation.
The Mind Research Network is a part of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute family of companies.
Learn more at http://www.mrn.org
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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.
Contact: Kent Kiehl kkiehl@mrn.org 505-925-4516 Duke University
Low anterior cingulate activity linked to repeat offenses
ALBUQUERQUE, NM and DURHAM, NC--A new study conducted by The Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, N.M., shows that neuroimaging data can predict the likelihood of whether a criminal will reoffend following release from prison.
The paper, which is to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied impulsive and antisocial behavior and centered on the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that deals with regulating behavior and impulsivity.
You can view the paper by clicking here: http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1219302110.
The study demonstrated that inmates with relatively low anterior cingulate activity were twice as likely to reoffend than inmates with high-brain activity in this region.
"These findings have incredibly significant ramifications for the future of how our society deals with criminal justice and offenders," said Dr. Kent A. Kiehl, who was senior author on the study and is director of mobile imaging at MRN and an associate professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico. "Not only does this study give us a tool to predict which criminals may reoffend and which ones will not reoffend, it also provides a path forward for steering offenders into more effective targeted therapies to reduce the risk of future criminal activity."
The study looked at 96 adult male criminal offenders aged 20-52 who volunteered to participate in research studies. This study population was followed over a period of up to four years after inmates were released from prison.
"These results point the way toward a promising method of neuroprediction with great practical potential in the legal system," said Dr. Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Stillman Professor of Practical Ethics in the Philosophy Department and the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, who collaborated on the study. "Much more work needs to be done, but this line of research could help to make our criminal justice system more effective."
The study used the Mind Research Network's Mobile Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) System to collect neuroimaging data as the inmate volunteers completed a series of mental tests.
"People who reoffended were much more likely to have lower activity in the anterior cingulate cortices than those who had higher functioning ACCs," Kiehl said. "This means we can see on an MRI a part of the brain that might not be working correctly -- giving us a look into who is more likely to demonstrate impulsive and anti-social behavior that leads to re-arrest."
The anterior cingulate cortex of the brain is "associated with error processing, conflict monitoring, response selection, and avoidance learning," according to the paper. People who have this area of the brain damaged have been "shown to produce changes in disinhibition, apathy, and aggressiveness. Indeed, ACC-damaged patients have been classed in the 'acquired psychopathic personality' genre."
Kiehl says he is working on developing treatments that increase activity within the ACC to attempt to treat the high-risk offenders.
###
The four-year study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and pilot funds by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. The study was conducted in collaboration with the New Mexico Corrections Department.
ABOUT THE MIND RESEARCH NETWORK
The Mind Research Network (MRN), headquartered in Albuquerque, N.M., is committed to advancing the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and other brain disorders. MRN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization consisting of an interdisciplinary association of scientists located at universities, national laboratories and research centers around the world and is focused on imaging technology and its emergence as an integral element of neuroscience investigation.
The Mind Research Network is a part of the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute family of companies.
Learn more at http://www.mrn.org
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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.
Never in Louisiana?s history has our state?s child welfare system been more highly regulated. Never has so much significant change occurred in such a compressed period of time than during the last 18 months.
I?ll summarize it like this: We now have federal regulations being interpreted by state regulations to create a coordinated system of behavioral health care from four state departments? funding mixed with federal funds which are being managed by a state-based subsidiary of a public corporation traded on Wall Street. (I think that?s correct.)
Louisiana?s Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) is one year old this month. Created by an Executive Order issued by Governor Jindal on March 3, 2011, CSoC became operational when Magellan of Louisiana began acting as the State Management Organization on March 1, 2012.
CSoC (pronounced ?sea sock?) is a managed behavioral health care system for Louisiana?s children who are in out-of-home placements or who are at risk of being placed out of their homes. Louisiana?s Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) is a cross-departmental project of the Office of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department of Health and Hospitals and the Department of Education to organize a coordinated network of broad, effective services for Louisiana?s at risk children and youth with significant behavioral health challenges or related disorder.
The cross-departmental nature of CSoC is chiefly related to funding. State General Fund dollars from each of the four state departments were pooled and used as a pot to pull down untapped Medicaid dollars at a ratio of 1:3. One state dollar brings down 3 additional Medicaid dollars.
Of course, anytime federal dollars are pulled into a state, those federal dollars have significant strings attached. When Louisiana converted to a federally-funded child welfare system, those federal strings required significant changes.
One imposed change was the creation of two new DHH-licensed levels of residential care: Treatment Group Homes (TGH) and Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities (PRTF). Mercer, a consulting firm which helped DHH design Louisiana?s CSoC, determined that Louisiana needs 340 PRTF beds and 250 PRTF beds.
Because each of our residential programs cares for more than 16 children, the Methodist Children?s Homes in Louisiana were required to become licensed as Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities. A PRTF license is not a hospital license. We continue operations as residential facilities with additional staff to provide for medical care and residential psychiatric care.
This is probably the best place to insert the chart I have created which demonstrates the levels of out-of-home care (Click the image for a larger view):
Notice the third step. That?s the PRTF step. Then notice that the second and fourth steps on either side are missing. There is no step for Longer Term Psychiatric Hospitalization. There is no step for Treatment Group Homes. This diagram describes the current status of the array of services available for children in Louisiana.
Let?s start with the Longer Term Psychiatric Hospitalization. To my knowledge, there are only a small number of these beds in Louisiana. 40 is the last official number I heard reported during a meeting in Baton Rouge in late 2010. I?ll assume the number of these beds today is still close enough to 40 to call it 40. I assume there are times when 40 beds are sufficient. There will also be times when 40 beds in the entire state are not enough for children who have longer term psychiatric hospitalization needs.
In terms of numbers, the most significant missing step is the absence of Treatment Group Homes. Louisiana reports it needs 340. There can be no more than 8 children in a single group home. Louisiana needs at least 42.5 treatment group homes spread across the state. Today, after a year of CSoC, there is only one Treatment Group Home. Parker House is the Volunteers of America?s TGH in Baton Rouge for boys under 13. (I commend the staff of VOA and Parker House for their work to license a Treatment Group Home. It was not an easy road.)
At Methodist we have reviewed the Treatment Group Home materials and we do not believe we can provide Treatment Group Home services. I?ll share some of the reasons we and others are unable to provide Treatment Group Home services.
1. Federal regulations dictate what a children?s home can do now that CSoC is at work. We have four houses on our Ruston campus that would make great Treatment Group Homes. However, because we have PRTF beds on the same property, all our beds on the property must be PRTF beds. Remember, because we have more than 16 children in care, we must be licensed as a Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility.
2. The TGH minimum licensing standards require a Treatment Group Home be located in a neighborhood. Finding a suitable, existing house which meets the licensing requirements will be like finding a needle in a haystack. Homes built for families will not serve as great Treatment Group Homes. For example, few families require 8 bedrooms. If a provider builds their own house with 8 bedrooms it will be nearly impossible to sell in the future because, again, few families require 8 bedrooms.
3. I wrote earlier that it was initially reported that CSoC would bring $3 federal dollars into Louisiana for each $1 of State General Funds Louisiana tossed into the common pot. That?s a significant amount! I don?t believe it has worked out that way, though. Reimbursement rates for services are now lower than the cost of providing the service. The per diem payment for Non-Medical Group Homes is less than the rate providers received before CSoC was created. Several providers have crashed into their financial wall this past year because the current reimbursement rates do not support the costs of care. The Treatment Group Home reimbursement rate is low.
4. There are adolescent group home providers in Louisiana who have the experience and the heart to become Treatment Group Home providers. Unfortunately, CSoC does not pay for the start-up costs of making the transition from the former DCFS Child Residential license to the new DHH Treatment Group Home license. The cost of additional staff who must be hired prior to receiving the TGH license, the cost of licenses for evidence-based treatment practices, and the cost of accreditation are all financial burdens group home providers must shoulder to become Treatment Group Homes. Unfortunately, the per diem reimbursement rate is too low to allow a provider to ever recoup the startup costs. Figuratively speaking, a new TGH provider will start out in a hole and never climb out.
I?ll stop there because this is growing a bit long.
Scroll up and click on the chart again. Louisiana?s children need access to the two missing steps on the staircase of services. It?s a big step down from care in a psychiatric residential treatment facility to care in a non-medical group home. Some children require longer term psychiatric hospitalization because of significant mental illness.
CSoC still has important gaps to fill ? the sooner the better.
Punxsutawney Phil's handler says he's to blame for the groundhog's botched forecast, saying, "I made the wrong call, I'm sorry for the mistake I made." WJAC's Rich Wisniewski reports.
By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News
Punxsutawney Phil is innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt.
That is the legal opinion of an Ohio prosecutor who on Tuesday abandoned his plan to seek the death penalty against the furry forecaster for blowing it by calling for an early spring.
The prosecutor dropped his pursuit, which would have caused an international outcry but probably made at least one decent stew, after one of Phil?s handlers, a top-hatted groundhog enthusiast named Bill Deeley, took the fall.
Phil appeared Feb. 2 and was reported not to have seen his shadow, suggesting an early spring. What the critter actually meant when he appeared at Gobbler?s Knob, it seems, was six more weeks of winter.
Winter endured well beyond six weeks, as millions of frigid, snow-shoveling, cursing Americans can attest.
?All my fault,? said Deeley, who volunteered to a local television reporter over the weekend that he had not been drinking. ?Misinterpretation by me. I just read him wrong.?
The prosecutor, Michael T. Gmoser of Butler County, Ohio, told NBC News that it was time to exonerate the groundhog because the handler ?stepped up to the burrow and took responsibility.?
?I always appreciate the acceptance of responsibility in all the criminal cases we handle here,? he said from his office in the city of Hamilton, where it was snowing an hour earlier.
?We do a lot of serious work here,? he added, almost defensively. ?This has been a little lighthearted fun.?
Butler County Prosecutor's Office
Michael T. Gmoser, zealous prosecutor.
Gmoser said he had been persuaded by a sheaf of thorough legal arguments ? friend-of-the-groundhog briefs, if you will ? turned in by Elana Clavner?s fourth-grade class at Cleveland Community School.
One of them figures that what Phil really needed was a Hawaiian vacation. Another suggested bagels. Still another warned that Phil might bite the prosecutor.
?I mean you can?t cancel Groundhog Day,? one child wrote. ?How will you get a trained groundhog? Why would you press charges? It?s only one mistake.?
Another, applying rigorous logic, offered: ?Phil is an innocent little groundhog because on the other hand the groundhog can?t predict the weather. It can?t talk.?
The teacher told the prosecutor in a letter that the students would be happy to serve as attorneys for Phil, and that the letters used their creativity in ways she hadn?t seen all year.
Earlier:
Prosecutor sees Punxsutawney Phil pushing daisies for forecast fraud
When Sequoia Capital India landed in Singapore quietly in 2012, the buzz around town was that a big-name US fund being in the country was going to really jolt the market and provide serious cred to the startups here. The Indian team running operations here, however, appears to have spent the last year of its time in the island state helping its Indian funds expand into Singapore, rather than directly investing in startups here. Singapore is a popular choice as a base for foreign companies looking to expand into Southeast Asia. Early last year, Sequoia Capital India MD, Shailendra Jit Singh, expressed interest in having the fund?s companies expand into the region. Sequoia Cap in the US also appeared to have been eyeing activity in Singapore for a while?it had its first offsite meeting in the country in 2011, and was in discussion with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about its presence here. The Prime Minister?s Office oversees its R&D arm, the National Research Foundation (NRF), which has been busy backing local venture capital firms here over the past few years. Its Technology Incubation Scheme is a program that distributes seed funding to startups picked by 11 NRF-appointed VCs. The NRF matches investment values in the proportion of 85 percent to 15 percent?the larger portion dished out by the government. This allows the VCs here to provide bigger sums of seed capital to startups, with much of the risk absorbed by the NRF. Former NRF projects head, Yinglan Tan, was also pulled over to Sequoia Capital India?s team in July last year, where he is now a venture partner based in Singapore. When I ran into Tan in Manila a couple of months ago, he was evasive about the funds they?re looking at in Singapore, but was happy to try to set up meetings with their existing funds in Singapore?all Indian-based startups, except for Airbnb and Evernote. Some of these companies that are being incubated in Singapore by Sequoia Cap include Via, Druva, Mu Sigma, Idea Device and Practo. The meetings never happened, but word on the street is that Tan has been meeting with some Singapore-based startups that are approaching Series A or B in size, and are looking to expand beyond the island. One that I know of provides Wi-Fi infrastructure. As for its current startups here, Via is pretty sizable. It operates a flight booking portal
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Public release date: 27-Mar-2013
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