PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? After months of threatening to wage a nuclear war, North Korea did an about-face Sunday and issued a surprise proposal to the United States, its No. 1 enemy: Let's talk.
But the invitation from North Korea's National Defense Commission, the powerful governing body led by leader Kim Jong Un, comes with caveats: No preconditions and no demands that Pyongyang give up its prized nuclear assets unless Washington is willing to do the same ? ground rules that make it hard for the Americans to accept.
Washington responded by saying that it is open to talks ? but only if North Korea shows it will comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions and live up to its international obligations.
"As we have made clear, our desire is to have credible negotiations with the North Koreans, but those talks must involve North Korea living up to its obligations to the world, including compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions, and ultimately result in denuclearization," U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. "We will judge North Korea by its actions, and not its words and look forward to seeing steps that show North Korea is ready to abide by its commitments and obligations."
North Korea's call for "senior-level" talks between the Korean War foes signals a shift in policy in Pyongyang after months of acrimony.
Pyongyang ramped up the anti-American rhetoric early this year after its launch of a long-range rocket in December and a nuclear test in February drew tightened U.N. and U.S. sanctions. Posters went up across the North Korean capital calling on citizens to "wipe away the American imperialist aggressors," slogans that hadn't been seen on city streets in years.
The U.S. and ally South Korea countered the provocations and threats by stepping up annual springtime military exercises, which prompted North Korea to warn of a "nuclear war" on the Korean Peninsula.
But as tensions began subsiding in May and June, Pyongyang began making tentative, if unsuccessful, overtures to re-establish dialogue with Seoul and Washington.
Earlier this month, it proposed high-level talks with South Korea ? the first in six years. But plans for two days of meetings last week in Seoul dramatically fell apart even before they began amid bickering over who would lead the two delegations.
Meanwhile, the virulent anti-American billboards plastered across the city were taken down. And on Sunday, as scores of people fanned out across Pyongyang to help carry out the latest urban renewal projects in the capital ? landscaping and construction ? the National Defense Commission issued a statement through state media proposing talks with the U.S. to ease tensions and discuss a peace treaty formally ending the Korean War.
North Korea fought against U.S.-led United Nations and South Korean troops during the three-year Korean War in the early 1950s, and Pyongyang does not have diplomatic relations with either government. The Korean Peninsula remains divided by a heavily fortified border.
Reunifying the peninsula was a major goal of North Korea's two late leaders, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and is a legacy inherited by current leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea is expected to draw attention to Korea's division in the weeks leading up to the 60th anniversary in July marking the close of the Korean conflict, which ended in an armistice. A peace treaty has never been signed formally ending the war.
Across Pyongyang, signboards at construction sites are marked with a countdown to July 27, giving laborers a deadline for retiling the roof of the People's Palace of Culture, renovating the Korean War museum, and planting trees and grass meant to beautify the city for the milestone anniversary.
For the nation's leaders, July 27 may well be their deadline for drawing the United States to the negotiating table to discuss a peace treaty.
But for Washington, there will be no talks just for talks' sake, officials say.
Speaking on CBS television's "Face the Nation" show Sunday, President Barack Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said Washington has been "quite clear" that officials support dialogue and have engaged Pyongyang in talks in the past.
But "those talks have to be real. They have to be based on them living up to their obligations, to include on proliferation, on nuclear weapons, on smuggling and other things," he said. "And so we'll judge them by their actions, not by the nice words that we heard yesterday."
He said smooth talk will not help Pyongyang evade U.N. sanctions supported by Moscow and Beijing, North Korea's two traditional allies. U.N. Security Council resolutions ban North Korea from developing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Earlier this year, Kim Jong Un enshrined the drive to build a nuclear arsenal, as well as expand the economy, in North Korea's constitution. Pyongyang, estimated to have a handful of crude nuclear devices, says it needs to build atomic weapons to defend itself against what it sees as a U.S. nuclear threat in Korea and the region.
The National Defense Commission reiterated its refusal to give up its nuclear ambitions until the entire Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons, a spokesman said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.
"The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula does not only mean 'dismantling the nuclear weapons of the North'" but also should involve "denuclearizing the whole peninsula, including South Korea, and aims at totally ending the U.S. nuclear threats" to North Korea, the spokesman said.
The U.S. denies having nuclear bombs in South Korea, saying they were removed in 1991. However, the U.S. military keeps nuclear submarines in the region and has deployed them for military exercises with South Korea.
After blaming Washington for raising tensions by imposing "gangster-like sanctions" on North Korea, the spokesman called on the U.S. to propose a venue and date for talks ? but warned against setting preconditions.
Washington has been burned in the past by efforts to reach out to Pyongyang.
Months of behind-the-scenes negotiations yielded a significant food-for-disarmament deal in February 2012, but that was scuttled by a failed North Korean long-range rocket launch just weeks later.
___
Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, and Tom Strong in Washington, contributed to this report. Follow AP's Korea bureau chief on Twitter at twitter.com/newsjean.
NYSCF and Columbia researchers demonstrate use of stem cells to analyze causes, treatment of diabetesPublic release date: 17-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David McKeon dmckeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation
Using patient-specific stem cells to correct deficient insulin-producing cells
NEW YORK, NY (June 17, 2013) A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY).
The researchers used skin cells of MODY patients to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, from which they then made beta cells. Transplanted into a mouse, the stem cell-derived beta cells secreted insulin in a manner similar to that of the beta cells of MODY patients. Repair of the gene mutation restored insulin secretion to levels seen in cells obtained from healthy subjects. The findings were reported today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells to become beta cells that secrete insulin in response to glucose or other molecules. But the question remained as to whether stem cell-derived beta cells could accurately model genetic forms of diabetes and be used to develop and test potential therapies.
"We focused on MODY, a form of diabetes that affects approximately one in 10,000 people. While patients and other models have yielded important clinical insights into this disease, we were particularly interested in its molecular aspectshow specific genes can affect responses to glucose by the beta cell," said co-senior author Dieter Egli, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at NYSCF, who was named a NYSCFRobertson Stem Cell Investigator in 2012.
MODY is a genetically inherited form of diabetes. The most common form of MODY, type 2, results in a loss-of-function mutation in one copy of the gene that codes for the sugar-processing enzyme glucokinase (GCK). With type 2 MODY, higher glucose levels are required for GCK to metabolize glucose, leading to chronic, mildly elevated blood sugar levels and increased risk of vascular complications.
MODY patients are frequently misdiagnosed with type 1 or 2 diabetes. Proper diagnosis can not only change the patient's course of treatment but affect family members, who were previously unaware that they, too, might have this genetic disorder.
NYSCF scientists took skin cells from two Berrie Center type 2 MODY patients and "reprogrammed"or revertedthem to an embryonic-like state to become iPS cells. To examine the effect of the GCK genetic mutation, they also created two genetically manipulated iPS cell lines for comparison: one fully functional (two correct copies of the GCK gene) and one with complete loss of function (two faulty copies of the GCK gene). They then generated beta cell precursors from the fully functional and loss-of-function iPS cell lines and transplanted the cells for further maturation into immune-compromised mice.
"Our ability to create insulin-producing cells from skin cells, and then to manipulate the GCK gene in these cells using recently developed molecular methods, made it possible to definitively test several critical aspects of the utility of stem cells for the study of human disease," said Haiqing Hua, PhD, lead author on the paper, a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Molecular Genetics, Department of Pediatrics and Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University and the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute.
When given a glucose tolerance test three months later, mice with MODY beta cells had decreased sensitivity to glucose but a normal response to other molecules that stimulate insulin secretion. This is the hallmark of MODY. Mice with two faulty copies of the GCK gene secreted no additional insulin in response to glucose. When the researchers repaired the GCK mutation using molecular techniques, cells with two restored copies of GCK responded normally to the glucose stress test. Unlike other reported techniques, the researchers' approach efficiently repaired the GCK mutation without introducing any potentially harmful additional DNA.
"Generation of patient-derived beta cells with gene correction could ultimately prove to be a useful cell-replacement therapy by restoring patients' ability to regulate their own glucose. This result is truly exciting," said Susan L. Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of The New York Stem Cell Foundation.
The researchers also used an electron microscope to assess beta cells for insulin content by counting granulespackages that store insulin for release. Even though all beta cell types had a similar number of granules, complete loss of function of the GCK gene was associated with decreased beta-cell production.
"These studies provide a critical proof-of-principle that genetic characteristics of patient-specific insulin-producing cells can be recapitulated through use of stem cell techniques and advanced molecular biological manipulations. This opens up strategies for the development of new approaches to the understanding, treatment, and, ultimately, prevention of more common types of diabetes," said co-senior author Rudolph Leibel, MD, Christopher Murphy Memorial Professor of Diabetes Research, Columbia University Medical Center, and Director, Division of Molecular Genetics, and Co-Director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.
The other authors are: Linshan Shang and Hector Martinez of the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute; and Matthew Freeby, Mary Pat Gallagher, Thomas Ludwig, Liyong Deng, Ellen Greenberg, Charles LeDuc, Wendy K. Chung, and Robin Goland of the Division of Molecular Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, and Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University.
###
Funding for this study was provided by: The New York Stem Cell Foundation; the Russell Berrie Foundation; the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; the Hunter Eastman Scholar Award in Translational Diabetes Research; the James and Irene Hunter Charitable Fund; an ADA-Mentored Fellowship to H. Hua; and NIH Grants RO1 DK52431 and P30DK063608.
The authors report no financial or other conflict of interest.
About The New York Stem Cell Foundation
The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) is an independent organization founded in 2005 to accelerate cures and better treatments for patients through stem cell research. NYSCF employs over 40 researchers at the NYSCF Research Institute, located in New York, and is an acknowledged world leader in stem cell research and in developing pioneering stem cell technologies, including the NYSCF Global Stem Cell Array. Additionally, NYSCF supports another 60 researchers at other leading institutions worldwide through its Innovator Programs, including the NYSCF Druckenmiller Fellowships and the NYSCF-Robertson Investigator Awards. NYSCF focuses on translational research in a model designed to overcome the barriers that slow discovery and replaces silos with collaboration.
NYSCF researchers have achieved four major discoveries in the field, including: the discovery of a clinical cure to prevent transmission of maternal mitochondrial diseases in December 2012; the derivation of the first-ever patient specific embryonic stem cell line (#1 Medical Breakthrough of 2011 by Time magazine); the discovery of a new way to reprogram stem cells; and the creation of the first disease model from induced pluripotent stem cells (also named the #1 Medical Breakthrough by Time magazine in 2008). More information is available at http://www.nyscf.org.
About the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center
Upon its official opening in October 1998, the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center established a new standard of care for the 1.6 million people with diabetes in the New York areacombining world-class diabetes research and education programs with unprecedented family-oriented patient care. Founded with support from the Russell Berrie Foundation and other friends, and named in honor of the mother of the late Russell Berrie, founder of RUSS Toys, the center is today recognized as the most comprehensive diabetes research and treatment center in the tri-state region and has been designated a national "Diabetes Center of Excellence" one of only three in the state of New York. Approximately one hundred and fifty clinicians and scientists, affiliated with the Center, conduct basic and clinical research related to the pathogenesis and treatment of all forms of diabetes and its complications. For more information, visit nbdiabetes.org.
Drs. Chung and Leibel are also members of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (http://www.ColumbiaStemCell.org), which brings together the many scientists and clinicians at Columbia focused on tapping the potential of stem cells for human health.
About Columbia University Medical Center
Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.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.
NYSCF and Columbia researchers demonstrate use of stem cells to analyze causes, treatment of diabetesPublic release date: 17-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: David McKeon dmckeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation
Using patient-specific stem cells to correct deficient insulin-producing cells
NEW YORK, NY (June 17, 2013) A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY).
The researchers used skin cells of MODY patients to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, from which they then made beta cells. Transplanted into a mouse, the stem cell-derived beta cells secreted insulin in a manner similar to that of the beta cells of MODY patients. Repair of the gene mutation restored insulin secretion to levels seen in cells obtained from healthy subjects. The findings were reported today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells to become beta cells that secrete insulin in response to glucose or other molecules. But the question remained as to whether stem cell-derived beta cells could accurately model genetic forms of diabetes and be used to develop and test potential therapies.
"We focused on MODY, a form of diabetes that affects approximately one in 10,000 people. While patients and other models have yielded important clinical insights into this disease, we were particularly interested in its molecular aspectshow specific genes can affect responses to glucose by the beta cell," said co-senior author Dieter Egli, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at NYSCF, who was named a NYSCFRobertson Stem Cell Investigator in 2012.
MODY is a genetically inherited form of diabetes. The most common form of MODY, type 2, results in a loss-of-function mutation in one copy of the gene that codes for the sugar-processing enzyme glucokinase (GCK). With type 2 MODY, higher glucose levels are required for GCK to metabolize glucose, leading to chronic, mildly elevated blood sugar levels and increased risk of vascular complications.
MODY patients are frequently misdiagnosed with type 1 or 2 diabetes. Proper diagnosis can not only change the patient's course of treatment but affect family members, who were previously unaware that they, too, might have this genetic disorder.
NYSCF scientists took skin cells from two Berrie Center type 2 MODY patients and "reprogrammed"or revertedthem to an embryonic-like state to become iPS cells. To examine the effect of the GCK genetic mutation, they also created two genetically manipulated iPS cell lines for comparison: one fully functional (two correct copies of the GCK gene) and one with complete loss of function (two faulty copies of the GCK gene). They then generated beta cell precursors from the fully functional and loss-of-function iPS cell lines and transplanted the cells for further maturation into immune-compromised mice.
"Our ability to create insulin-producing cells from skin cells, and then to manipulate the GCK gene in these cells using recently developed molecular methods, made it possible to definitively test several critical aspects of the utility of stem cells for the study of human disease," said Haiqing Hua, PhD, lead author on the paper, a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Molecular Genetics, Department of Pediatrics and Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University and the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute.
When given a glucose tolerance test three months later, mice with MODY beta cells had decreased sensitivity to glucose but a normal response to other molecules that stimulate insulin secretion. This is the hallmark of MODY. Mice with two faulty copies of the GCK gene secreted no additional insulin in response to glucose. When the researchers repaired the GCK mutation using molecular techniques, cells with two restored copies of GCK responded normally to the glucose stress test. Unlike other reported techniques, the researchers' approach efficiently repaired the GCK mutation without introducing any potentially harmful additional DNA.
"Generation of patient-derived beta cells with gene correction could ultimately prove to be a useful cell-replacement therapy by restoring patients' ability to regulate their own glucose. This result is truly exciting," said Susan L. Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of The New York Stem Cell Foundation.
The researchers also used an electron microscope to assess beta cells for insulin content by counting granulespackages that store insulin for release. Even though all beta cell types had a similar number of granules, complete loss of function of the GCK gene was associated with decreased beta-cell production.
"These studies provide a critical proof-of-principle that genetic characteristics of patient-specific insulin-producing cells can be recapitulated through use of stem cell techniques and advanced molecular biological manipulations. This opens up strategies for the development of new approaches to the understanding, treatment, and, ultimately, prevention of more common types of diabetes," said co-senior author Rudolph Leibel, MD, Christopher Murphy Memorial Professor of Diabetes Research, Columbia University Medical Center, and Director, Division of Molecular Genetics, and Co-Director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center.
The other authors are: Linshan Shang and Hector Martinez of the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute; and Matthew Freeby, Mary Pat Gallagher, Thomas Ludwig, Liyong Deng, Ellen Greenberg, Charles LeDuc, Wendy K. Chung, and Robin Goland of the Division of Molecular Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, and Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University.
###
Funding for this study was provided by: The New York Stem Cell Foundation; the Russell Berrie Foundation; the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; the Hunter Eastman Scholar Award in Translational Diabetes Research; the James and Irene Hunter Charitable Fund; an ADA-Mentored Fellowship to H. Hua; and NIH Grants RO1 DK52431 and P30DK063608.
The authors report no financial or other conflict of interest.
About The New York Stem Cell Foundation
The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) is an independent organization founded in 2005 to accelerate cures and better treatments for patients through stem cell research. NYSCF employs over 40 researchers at the NYSCF Research Institute, located in New York, and is an acknowledged world leader in stem cell research and in developing pioneering stem cell technologies, including the NYSCF Global Stem Cell Array. Additionally, NYSCF supports another 60 researchers at other leading institutions worldwide through its Innovator Programs, including the NYSCF Druckenmiller Fellowships and the NYSCF-Robertson Investigator Awards. NYSCF focuses on translational research in a model designed to overcome the barriers that slow discovery and replaces silos with collaboration.
NYSCF researchers have achieved four major discoveries in the field, including: the discovery of a clinical cure to prevent transmission of maternal mitochondrial diseases in December 2012; the derivation of the first-ever patient specific embryonic stem cell line (#1 Medical Breakthrough of 2011 by Time magazine); the discovery of a new way to reprogram stem cells; and the creation of the first disease model from induced pluripotent stem cells (also named the #1 Medical Breakthrough by Time magazine in 2008). More information is available at http://www.nyscf.org.
About the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center
Upon its official opening in October 1998, the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University Medical Center established a new standard of care for the 1.6 million people with diabetes in the New York areacombining world-class diabetes research and education programs with unprecedented family-oriented patient care. Founded with support from the Russell Berrie Foundation and other friends, and named in honor of the mother of the late Russell Berrie, founder of RUSS Toys, the center is today recognized as the most comprehensive diabetes research and treatment center in the tri-state region and has been designated a national "Diabetes Center of Excellence" one of only three in the state of New York. Approximately one hundred and fifty clinicians and scientists, affiliated with the Center, conduct basic and clinical research related to the pathogenesis and treatment of all forms of diabetes and its complications. For more information, visit nbdiabetes.org.
Drs. Chung and Leibel are also members of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative (http://www.ColumbiaStemCell.org), which brings together the many scientists and clinicians at Columbia focused on tapping the potential of stem cells for human health.
About Columbia University Medical Center
Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.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.
I also struggle with this from time to time. Right now I am doing great again. Some things that help me:
- Being conscious that no one is perfect and that everyone needs a lot of practice to become good at something. Practice requires failure. Failure requires courage. Courage simply means being conscious of what could go wrong but believing you could conquer something... sooner or later! - It's better to learn something late then never (a recent example for me: I just started to learn to keep my room organized. I have never been able to, and while I am not perfect I'm already a lot better at this then I was) - A lot of quality time with friends and family, open heartedly discussing what goes on within you, has helped me a lot. Knowing that there are people who love me, who know me. Connecting to them in this way gives me a huge boost of self confidence. Hearing that they believe in me. Saying to them that it's sometimes hard, but that I will keep on going for it! Hearing that they love whatever happens. No substitute for that! (It's quite special to have such good relations with people, but I hope that if you have these people, treasure them, or invest in them! Or find them.) - Have patience with yourself and focus on one issue at the time. All other issues should be irrelevant, something for later that you accept at the time. And have plenty of fun and relaxing time. You need that to be fit to conquer the issue you're focussing on.
For me, I've always see that I need a 3:1 ratio, or better, for positive:negative thoughts/experiences. If I have a 5:1 ratio, I am in a positive cycle and changing something is really easy. If I have a 1:5 ratio, then I can really get stuck and totally lose my self esteem.
It's not totally up to us to determine how this ratio is for use. There can be negative and stressful circumstances and events in our lives. But there are things that we can control and these are the number of goals we set for ourselves (which should never exceed 2, preferably 1 - I am talking about new goals, about changing stuff, which causes stress and perhaps shame and guilt) and the time and activities we allow ourselves to have fun and relax.
So, to summarize: for me, the keys are: reflection, courage, patience, meaningful relations with people (quality time), balancing and fun and relaxing.
ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) ? Tiger Woods made birdie at the first hole, only to watch his day go racing downhill from there.
By the time it was over, Woods skidded to seven bogeys and a 6-over-par 76 Saturday, tumbling down the leaderboard and matching his worst round as a pro at the U.S. Open. That left him 10 strokes behind third-round leader Phil Mickelson, the only player under par at the short but devilishly tough Merion Golf Club.
Despite leading the PGA Tour in putting in recent weeks, Woods needed 36 putts on the severely undulating greens. He blamed his inability to gauge the speed of those baffling putting surfaces for his three days of uneven play ? and he was right.
Woods is tied for third in fairways hit and 22nd in reaching the greens in regulation. But he's averaged 32 putts per round, which left him tied for 53rd in the field of 73 players.
"It's certainly frustrating because I was feeling like I was playing well this week and I just didn't make the putts I needed to make," he said afterward.
"The first two days, I had, like, three 3-putts and I was four shots off the lead, and I missed a boatload of putts within 10 feet. So I really wasn't that far off. If I clean up the round and don't 3-putt, I'm one shot back starting out today. ..." Woods added.
"Basically, I just didn't have the speed right this week and it certainly showed."
Woods' toughest stretch came at Nos. 3-6, where he made three bogeys in a four-hole stretch. He blamed the last of those for setting the negative tone that hung over his round like the storm clouds that rolled over Merion throughout Thursday's opening round. His troubles at No. 6 included a tee shot that finished up in another player's divot in the fairway, as well as a delicate greenside chip that rolled back and left him facing his next shot from farther back.
"I think the (bogey) 5 really turned my round around," Woods said. "I drove it right in the middle of the fairway and I end up in a ball mark from somebody else's ball mark, so it was kind of the way it went."
This U.S. Open marks exactly five years since Woods won his last major, at Torrey Pines, which he captured in a playoff against Rocco Mediate, despite hobbling around with ligament damage. His pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' career record of 18 majors remains stalled at 14.
Woods also shot a 76 in the final round at Shinnecock Hills in 2004, as well as two rounds of 76 at Winged Foot in 2006 when he missed the cut.
Woods' worst round ever at an Open was a 77 at Oakland Hills in 1996, when he was a 19-year-old amateur.
What made his performance here perhaps even more surprising is that Woods has already won four times this season, including The Players Championship ? sometimes called golf's fifth major ? and three of his last five starts. Most recently, however, Woods stumbled to an 8-over-par finish and a tie for 65th at the Memorial, a tournament he'd won five times.
Woods said several tough pin placements chosen by the U.S. Golf Association's course set up compounded his problems trying to figure out the speed of the greens.
"Look at what they did at (Nos.) 7 and 8 today. Couple short holes, but 7 is one step and a half over the top of the ridge. Eight is on the down slope a little bit, and it's a pretty steep slope. So they got some really tough ones out there," he said.
But Woods' also conceded he rarely put his approach shots into those greens where he should have.
"If you put the ball in the right spots you've got uphill putts and you can be really aggressive," Woods said.
Woods now faces the prospect of beginning the final day of yet another major with only the longest of shots to contend. What little consolation he could muster came when someone asked, "Tough day?"
There have been rumors for years about the biological parents of Michael Jackson’s children. Sources reveal that Paris’ recent suicide attempt happened days after she learned she and her older brother, Prince, do not share the same biological father. The 15-year-old had previously been convinced that she was Prince’s full” sister, believing Debbie Rowe and ...
ISTANBUL (AP) ? Bulldozers cleared all that was left of a two-week sit-in in an Istanbul park and police sealed off the area early Sunday, keeping angry demonstrators from returning to a spot that has become the focus of the strongest challenge to the prime minister in his 10 years in office.
Protesters set up barricades and plumes of tear gas rose in Istanbul's streets into the early hours after Turkish riot police rousted a group who had vowed to stay in Gezi Park despite Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's warnings to leave.
As dusk fell Saturday, hundreds of white-helmeted riot police swept through the park and adjacent Taksim Square, firing canisters of the acrid, stinging gas. Thousands of peaceful protesters, choking on the fumes and stumbling among the tents, put up little physical resistance.
The protests began as an environmental sit-in to prevent a development project at Gezi Park, but have quickly spread to dozens of cities and spiraled into a broader expression of discontent about what many say is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian decision-making. He vehemently denies the charge, pointing to the strong support base that helped him win third consecutive term with 50 percent of the vote in 2011.
As police cleared the square, many ran into nearby hotels for shelter. A stand-off developed at a luxury hotel on the edge of the park, where police opened up with water cannons against protesters and journalists outside before throwing tear gas at the entrance, filling the lobby with white smoke. At other hotels, plain-clothes policemen turned up outside, demanding the protesters come out.
Some protesters ran off into nearby streets, setting up makeshift barricades and running from water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets.
As news of the raid broke, thousands of people from other parts of Istanbul gathered and were attempting to reach Taksim. Television showed footage of riot police firing tear gas on a highway and bridge across the Bosphorus to prevent protesters from heading to the area.
As the tear gas settled, bulldozers moved into the park, scooping up debris and loading it into trucks. Crews of workmen in fluorescent yellow vests and plain-clothes police went through the abandoned belongings, opening bags and searching their contents before tearing down the tents, food centers and library the protesters had set up in what had become a bustling tent city.
Demonstrations also erupted in other cities. In Ankara, at least 3,000 people swarmed into John F. Kennedy street, where opposition party legislators sat down at the front of the crowd facing the riot police ? not far from Parliament. In Izmir, thousands converged at a seafront square.
Near Gezi, ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals as police set up cordons and roadblocks around the park, preventing anyone from getting close.
Tayfun Kahraman, a member of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protest movements, said an untold number of people in the park had been injured ? some from rubber bullets.
"Let them keep the park, we don't care anymore. Let it all be theirs. This crackdown has to stop. The people are in a terrible state," he told The Associated Press by phone.
Taksim Solidarity, on its Web site, called the incursion "atrocious" and counted hundreds of injured ? which it called a provisional estimate ? as well as an undetermined number of arrests. Istanbul governor's office said at least 44 people were taken to hospitals for treatment. None of them were in serious condition, it said in a statement.
Huseyin Celik, the spokesman for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, told NTV that the sit-in had to end.
"They had made their voice heard ... Our government could not have allowed such an occupation to go on until the end," he said.
It was a violent police raid on May 31 against a small sit-in in Gezi Park that sparked the initial outrage and spiraled into a much broader protest. While those in the park have now fled, it was unclear whether they would take their movement to other places, or try to return to the park at a later time.
The protests, which left at least four people dead and more than 5,000 injured, have dented Erdogan's international reputation and infuriated him with a previously unseen defiance to his rule.
Saturday's raid came less than two hours after Erdogan threatened protesters in a boisterous speech in Sincan, an Ankara suburb that is a stronghold of his party.
"I say this very clearly: either Taksim Square is cleared, or if it isn't cleared then the security forces of this country will know how to clear it," he told tens of thousands of supporters at a political rally.
A second pro-government rally is planned in Istanbul on Sunday.
According to the government's redevelopment plan for Taksim Square that caused the sit-in, the park would be replaced with a replica Ottoman-era barracks. Under initial plans, the construction would have housed a shopping mall, though that has since been amended to the possibility of an opera house, a theater and a museum with cafes.
On Friday, Erdogan offered to defer to a court ruling on the legality of the government's contested park redevelopment plan, and floated the possibility of a referendum on it.
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Fraser reported from Ankara. Jamey Keaten in Ankara contributed to this report.
Hines Ward is used to training, and he?s used to competing.
What he can?t get used to is the inevitability of losing.
The former Steelers wideout has struggled with that concept, as he prepares for the Ironman Triathlon.
?The realization is having never done it before, I can?t go in thinking I?m going to go out and win the Ironman,? Ward said, via Karen Price of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. ?That?s the battle I have, . . . I have to know what my body?s capable of doing and I have to run my pace. I can?t run a pace that?s someone else?s or I won?t make it at the end.?
By the time the race in Kona, Hawaii begins in October, he will have been in serious training for nearly a year.
Even for an elite athlete, the challenge of swimming 2.4 miles in the Pacific Ocean, biking 112 miles and then running 26.2 miles is a different kind of challenge than playing football or ?Dancing with the Stars.?
Ward has been training with eight-time Ironman champion Paula Newby-Fraser, who had to teach him how to ride a road bike with clip-in pedals, and teaching him the correct strokes in a pool to give him a chance.
?I think he thought it might be a bit of a challenge, but he had no idea how hard it was going to be, . . .? Newby-Fraser said. ?He gets incredibly frustrated. He melts down with frustration just because he wants to be good at it and wants to perform. He?s having to balance the reality of where he is with where he wants to be. When things don?t go exactly right he gets so mad.?
Ward has gradually built up from shorter races, and he did a half-Ironman last week.?He trains three hours a day, six days a week, logging on average 150 miles combined per week. As a result, he?s dropped 30 pounds since he started training, down to 195.
?I love challenges, and this will by far be my toughest challenge,? Ward said. ?It?s just me versus myself on the course. You have to continue to push through the pain and hopefully after 140 miles I can cross the finish line and what great satisfaction it will be to hear, ?Hines Ward, you?re an Ironman.? When that day comes, if I can cross that finish line, that will probably be one of my greatest accomplishments throughout my life.?
For a guy who has accomplished so much already, that?s saying something.
Danielle Powell, right, and her spouse Michelle Rogers are photographed in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, June 12, 2013. Grace University, a Christian college in Omaha, has revoked Powell's scholarship and expelled her because she was public about a same-sex relationship. The college also is demanding payment of tuition and won't send her transcripts to other schools until she pays off her bill. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Danielle Powell, right, and her spouse Michelle Rogers are photographed in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, June 12, 2013. Grace University, a Christian college in Omaha, has revoked Powell's scholarship and expelled her because she was public about a same-sex relationship. The college also is demanding payment of tuition and won't send her transcripts to other schools until she pays off her bill. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Danielle Powell, right, and her spouse Michelle Rogers are photographed in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, June 12, 2013. Grace University, a Christian college in Omaha, has revoked Powell's scholarship and expelled her because she was public about a same-sex relationship. The college also is demanding payment of tuition and won't send her transcripts to other schools until she pays off her bill.(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
The campus of Grace University is pictured in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday, June 12, 2013. The Omaha Christian college has revoked the student-athlete scholarship of Danielle Powell and expelled her because she was public about a same-sex relationship. The college also is demanding payment of tuition and won't send her transcripts to other schools until she pays off her bill. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? Danielle Powell was going through a hard time in the spring of 2011, just months away from graduating from a conservative Christian college in Nebraska. She had fallen in love with another woman, a strictly forbidden relationship at a school where even prolonged hugs were banned.
Powell said she was working at a civil rights foundation in Mississippi to finish her psychology degree when she was called back to Grace University in Omaha and confronted about the relationship. She was eventually expelled ? then sent a bill for $6,000 to reimburse what the school said were federal loans and grants that needed to be repaid because she didn't finish the semester.
Powell is now fighting the Omaha school, arguing that her tuition was covered by scholarships and that federal loans wouldn't need to be repaid in that amount. She also notes she was kicked out even after undergoing months of counseling, spiritual training and mentoring insisted upon by the school following her initial suspension.
"I shouldn't have this debt hanging over me from a school that clearly didn't want me," the 24-year-old said.
The university insists that the $6,000 bill covers federal grants and loans that, by law, must be repaid to the federal government because Powell didn't finish her final semester. School officials declined to discuss specifics of Powell's case, citing federal student privacy laws, but through a public relations agency said it would provide Powell official transcripts and transfer her credits.
Powell is skeptical. She noted that nine months after she was expelled in January 2012, the registrar's office denied her request for her transcripts because of the bill, though she eventually received student copies of her transcripts.
Grace University's code of conduct for its students is strict: No kissing, no prolonged hugs and certainly no premarital sex. The school even monitors students' television habits, forbidding HBO, MTV, Comedy Central and several other channels "because of the values they promote." The rules are laid out in a student handbook and signed by students every year.
"No one was more surprised than me," Powell recalled of her relationship. "I had been very religious since I was a small child, and that did not fit in with what I thought I believed."
It's not unusual to see gay and lesbian students disciplined or even expelled from private Bible- and faith-based colleges, but Powell's case is unusual, said Ken Upton, an attorney at Lambda Legal. The national civil rights organization helps gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
"This particular case is unusual because there's this fear that they might not release her information and they are demanding payback," Upton said. "We don't see that very often. Usually, the school's just glad to be rid of them."
In response to questions about the case from The Associated Press that included Powell's financial aid letter, the U.S. Department of Education said in an email Friday that the issue of whether Powell owes money is between her and the school ? but "it's not at all because of federal rules."
The department said it would need to analyze any case to determine if a school had violated federal discrimination regulations. But it noted that educational institutions controlled by religious organizations are exempt from some federal requirements that might conflict with the organizations' religious tenets.
Grace and other private colleges that accept federal student aid ? sometimes called Title IV funding ? must abide by the Civil Rights Act that forbids discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, sex, age or physical handicap. But sexual orientation is not included in that list.
"There's a long history of institutions of higher education that are faith-based participating in Title IV programs without having to compromise their institutional statement of faith or institutional statement of practice," said Ronald Kroll, director of the accreditation commission for the Association for Biblical Higher Education, which includes Grace University.
As required by the university after her suspension, Powell said she promised not to engage in sex and completed months of church attendance and meetings with Christian mentors, spiritual advisers and other groups. She was then readmitted, only to receive a letter days later from the university's vice president, Michael James, revoking her admittance.
James wrote that her re-admittance had been based on professions she made to various faculty and staff that she would change her behavior, but that "the prevailing opinion is that those professions appear to have been insincere, at best, if not deceitful."
"I was livid," Powell said. "I had done everything they asked me to do. I drove over to my mentors' house and just bawled my eyes out."
Powell legally married another woman in neighboring Iowa in December, but the couple still lives across the border in Omaha and has found support online. Her wife, Michelle Rogers, posted a petition on change.org asking the university to drop the tuition bill.
"Being kicked out of school for being gay would have been awful enough, but Danielle's nightmare didn't end there," Rogers wrote. "In addition to being expelled, school officials revoked her scholarships and are hounding her for $6,000 in back-due tuition for the final semester ? which she was never allowed to complete ? that her scholarships would have covered."
As of Friday, the petition had been signed by more than 35,000 people.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Private investigators found that CBS News Washington reporter Sharyl Attkisson's computer was tampered with multiple times late last year, the network said Friday.
CBS said an intruder, working remotely using Attkisson's accounts, executed commands involving the search and filtering of data. The network said it is taking further steps to identify the intruder and how that person gained access to her computer.
CBS hired a cybersecurity firm to conduct the analysis. Attkisson, an investigative reporter who has worked at CBS since 1995, said three weeks ago that she thought someone had tampered with her computers.
In an interview with Philadelphia's WPHT radio on May 21, Attkisson said "there could be some relationship" between what has happened to her and to James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News Channel. In what appeared to be a leak investigation, law enforcement officials obtained a search warrant to obtain some of Rosen's private emails and tracked his comings and goings from the State Department.
Attkisson said she had been having problems with a computer in her house since at least February 2011. At that time, she said, she was investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling sting operation and stimulus spending on clean-energy projects. Attkisson won an Emmy award for her "Fast and Furious" investigation.
In another leak probe, prosecutors secretly subpoenaed phone records from The Associated Press.
In its analysis, the cybersecurity firm said that whoever tampered with Attkisson's computer "used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion."
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says President Barack Obama has spoken with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (shin-zoh ah-bay) about North Korea's nuclear program and a territorial dispute with China.
The two leaders agreed in a phone call Wednesday to collaborate to end Pyongyang's (pyuhng-yahng) nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The White House says they also discussed the need for stability and dialogue about the East China Sea.
Japan and China are engaged in a long-running dispute over islands both claim in the East China Sea. The issue came up this month when Obama met in California with Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng).
The White House says Obama and Abe also discussed Japan's entrance into a Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Asia-Pacific trading pact. The U.S. approved Japan's entry into pact negotiations in April.
FILE - In this March 12, 2013 file photo, James Holmes, left, and defense attorney Tamara Brady appear in district court in Centennial, Colo. for his arraignment. Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater massacre, could enter his long-expected insanity plea at a hearing Tuesday June 4, 2013, though the case could also veer off on another tangent as his lawyers seek the strongest possible defense. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, RJ Sangosti, Pool, File)
FILE - In this March 12, 2013 file photo, James Holmes, left, and defense attorney Tamara Brady appear in district court in Centennial, Colo. for his arraignment. Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater massacre, could enter his long-expected insanity plea at a hearing Tuesday June 4, 2013, though the case could also veer off on another tangent as his lawyers seek the strongest possible defense. (AP Photo/The Denver Post, RJ Sangosti, Pool, File)
Defense attorney Daniel King arrives at district court for a hearing for Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes in Centennial, Colo., on Tuesday, June 4, 2013. Holmes is charged with killing 12 people and wounding more than 50 in a crowded Colorado movie theater last year. Holmes could enter his long-expected insanity plea at the hearing Tuesday, though the case could also veer off on another tangent as his lawyers seek the strongest possible defense. Judge Carlos Samour Jr. has indicated he will allow James Holmes to change his plea from not guilty to not guilty by reason of insanity. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) ? A judge on Tuesday accepted James Holmes' plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, setting the stage for a lengthy mental evaluation of the Colorado theater shooting suspect.
The court clerk placed a written advisory of the ground rules of the plea before Holmes so he could examine it as Judge Carlos Samour Jr. read through all 18 points.
When Samour asked if he had any questions, Holmes replied no. Samour then accepted the plea.
"I find Mr. Holmes understands the effects and consequences of the not guilty by reason of insanity plea," the judge said. "He was looking at the advisement and appeared to be following along."
Holmes is accused of opening fire in a packed Denver-area movie theater last summer, killing 12 people and injuring 70. He is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Holmes' lawyers repeatedly have said he is mentally ill, but they delayed the insanity plea while arguing state laws were unconstitutional. They said the laws could hobble the defense if Holmes' case should ever reach the phase where the jury decides if he should be executed.
The judge rejected that argument last week.
Hundreds of people were watching a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" at the Aurora theater when the shooting occurred July 20.
The dead included a Navy veteran who threw himself in front of his friends to shield them, an aspiring sports journalist who had survived a mall shooting just two months earlier, and a 6-year-old girl.
Prosecutors say Holmes spent months buying weapons, ammunition and materials for explosives and scouted the theater in advance. He donned police-style body armor, tossed a gas canister into the seats and opened fire, they say.
The insanity plea is widely seen as Holmes' best chance of avoiding execution, and possibly his only chance, given the weight of the evidence against him.
But his lawyers delayed it for weeks, saying Colorado's laws on the insanity plea and the death penalty could work in combination to violate his constitutional rights.
The laws state that if Holmes does not cooperate with doctors conducting a mandatory mental evaluation, he would lose the right to call expert witnesses to testify about his sanity during the penalty phase of his trial. Defense lawyers argued that is an unconstitutional restriction on his right to build a defense. They also contended the law doesn't define cooperation.
Samour rejected those arguments last week and said the laws are constitutional.
The next step is an evaluation of Holmes by state doctors to determine whether he was insane at the time of the shootings. That could take months.
Colorado law defines insanity as the inability to distinguish right from wrong caused by a diseased or defective mind.
If jurors find Holmes not guilty by reason of insanity, he would be committed indefinitely to the state mental hospital. He could eventually be released if doctors find his sanity has been restored, but that is considered unlikely.
If jurors convict him, the next step is the penalty phase, during which both sides call witnesses to testify about factors that could affect why Holmes should or shouldn't be executed.
The jury would then decide whether Holmes should be executed or sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.
If jurors impose the death penalty, it would trigger court appeals and open other possibilities that would take years to resolve.
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Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP
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There have been rumors for years about the biological parents of Michael Jackson’s children. Sources reveal that Paris’ recent suicide attempt happened days after she learned she and her older brother, Prince, do not share the same biological father. The 15-year-old had previously been convinced that she was Prince’s full” sister, believing Debbie Rowe and ...