NORFOLK, VA. (WAVY) - Pet owners need to take special care of their animals during the sizzling summer months.
"If you feel hot outside, your pet probably feels ten times hotter than you do," Heather Smith with the Norfolk Care and Adoption Center said.
Lisa Barlow with Norfolk SPCA says all animals should simply be kept inside as much as possible during high temperatures.
"All animals should be kept inside in these temperatures," Barlow said. "These temperatures they're not safe for humans, they're not safe for pets"
Workers at the SPCA created a makeshift water park for dogs.
"They're panting as soon as we bring them outside," Kari Vincent said. "They're uncomfortable right away, so we have people supervising them while they're out here"
Barlow says owners shouldn't leave their pets inside of their vehicles.
"[Car temperatures] can shoot up to 140 degrees in a car in fifteen minutes if your air-conditioner is not on," Barlow said.
NAVY COLOURED NETWORK O2 has revealed that it will be selling the Sony Xperia Go phone later this month, making it the first operator to snap up the cheap and cheerful handset.
Unveiled last month, Sony's Xperia Go is billed as a "rugged" smartphone boasting an IP67 compliance rating, which means it's resistant against dust, scratches and water. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread handset also features a 3.5in Reality Display with wet finger tracking, and is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor.
There's also a 5MP rear-facing camera with HD 720p video, 8GB of internal storage with microSD support up to 32GB, 50GB of free cloud storage, HDMI connectivity and a 1305mAh battery. Sony will release the phone in black, white and yellow coloured models, but it's unclear whether O2 will be selling all three.
O2 has yet to announce the handset's pricing and release date, and was unavailable for comment at the time of writing. ?
New Stanford method enables sequencing of fetal genomes using only maternal blood sample Public release date: 4-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center
STANFORD, Calif. -- Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time sequenced the genome of an unborn baby using only a blood sample from the mother.
The findings from the new approach, to be published July 4 in Nature, are related to research that was reported a month ago from the University of Washington. That research used a technique previously developed at Stanford to sequence a fetal genome using a blood sample from the mother, plus DNA samples from both the mother and father.
The whole genome sequencing in the new Stanford study, however, did not require DNA from the father a significant advantage when a child's true paternity may not be known (a situation estimated to affect as many as one in 10 births in this country) or the father may be unavailable or unwilling to provide a sample. The technique brings fetal genetic testing one step closer to routine clinical use.
"We're interested in identifying conditions that can be treated before birth, or immediately after," said Stephen Quake, PhD, the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of bioengineering and of applied physics. "Without such diagnoses, newborns with treatable metabolic or immune system disorders suffer until their symptoms become noticeable and the causes determined." Quake is the senior author of the research. Former graduate student H. Christina Fan, PhD, now a senior scientist at ImmuMetrix, and current graduate student Wei Gu are co-first authors of the article.
As the cost of such technology continues to drop, it will become increasingly common to diagnose genetic diseases within the first trimester of pregnancy, the researchers believe. In fact, they showed that sequencing just the exome, the coding portion of the genome, can provide clinically relevant information.
In the new study, the researchers were able to use the whole-genome and exome sequences they obtained to determine that a fetus had DiGeorge syndrome, which is caused by a short deletion of chromosome 22. Although the exact symptoms and their severity can vary among affected individuals, it is associated with cardiac and neuromuscular problems, as well as cognitive impairment. Newborns with the condition can have significant feeding difficulties, heart defects and convulsions due to excessively low levels of calcium.
"The problem of distinguishing the mother's DNA from the fetus's DNA, especially in the setting where they share the same abnormality, has seriously challenged investigators working in prenatal diagnosis for many years," said Diana Bianchi, MD, executive director of the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center, who was not involved in the Nature study. "In this paper, Quake's group elegantly shows how sequencing of the exome can show that a fetus has inherited DiGeorge syndrome from its mother." (Bianchi is chair of the clinical advisory board of Verinata Health Inc., a company that provides a fetal genetic test using earlier technology developed by Quake.)
Prenatal diagnosis is not new. For decades, women have undergone amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling in an attempt to learn whether their fetus carries genetic abnormalities. These tests rely on obtaining cells or tissue from the fetus through a needle inserted in the uterus a procedure that can itself lead to miscarriage in about one in 200 pregnancies. They also detect only a limited number of genetic conditions.
The new technique hinges on the fact that pregnant women have DNA from both their cells and the cells of their fetus circulating freely in their blood. In fact, the amount of circulating fetal DNA increases steadily during pregnancy, and late in the third trimester can be as high as 30 percent of the total.
In 2008, Quake's lab pioneered the use of the relative levels of fetal DNA in maternal blood to diagnose conditions caused by missing or extra chromosomes, such as Down syndrome. Four companies in the United States now market tests based on the technique to physicians and parents, and demand for the service is increasing steadily. (Quake's specific approach was licensed by Stanford to Redwood City-based Verinata and South San Francisco-based Fluidigm Inc. Neither company was involved in the current study.) These tests, however, do not provide a full-genome profile, and cannot identify more-subtle genetic anomalies that occur within chromosomes and other DNA.
This study takes the blood-sampling test one step farther by recognizing that circulating fetal DNA contains genetic material from both the mother and the father. By comparing the relative levels in the mother's blood of regions of maternal (from both the mother and the fetus) and paternal (from the fetus only) DNA known as haplotypes, the researchers were able to identify fetal DNA from the mix and isolate it for sequencing. The method differs from that of the University of Washington group by inferring the father's genetic contribution, rather than sampling it directly (through saliva).
The Stanford team tried its method in two pregnancies. One of the mothers had DiGeorge syndrome; the other did not. Their whole genome and exome sequencing showed that the child of the woman with DiGeorge syndrome would also have the disorder. The finding was confirmed by comparing the predicted fetal genome sequence with the sequence obtained immediately after birth from umbilical cord blood. Although the experiments were performed retrospectively and these women and their babies remained anonymous, a similar finding in a real clinical setting would likely prompt doctors to assess the baby's heart health and calcium levels shortly after birth.
"Three years ago we were very excited about successfully validating non-invasive fetal aneuploidy detection," said study co-author Yair Blumenfeld, MD, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford medical school. "But we always knew that detecting fetal chromosomal abnormalities was just the tip of the iceberg, and that diagnosing individual gene defects was the future. This important study confirms our ability to detect individual fetal gene defects simply by testing mom's blood."
The researchers plan to continue to develop the technology for eventual use in the clinic.
In addition to Quake, Gu, Fan and Blumenfeld, other Stanford scientists involved in the research include graduate student Jianbin Wang and professor of obstetrics and gynecology Yasser El-Sayed, MD.
###
The research was funded with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institute of Health.
Quake and Fan hold shares in Verinata Health and Fluidigm. Quake is also co-chair of Stanford's Department of Bioengineering, which is run jointly by the schools of Engineering and of Medicine.
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
The Stanford School of Engineering has been at forefront of innovation for nearly a century, creating pivotal technologies and businesses that have transformed the worlds of technology, medicine, energy and communications and laid the foundation for Silicon Valley. The school advances modern science and engineering through teaching and research. The school is home to nine departments, 245 faculty and more than 4,000 students, tackling the world's most pressing problems in areas like human health and environmental sustainability. For more information, visit http://engineering.stanford.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New Stanford method enables sequencing of fetal genomes using only maternal blood sample Public release date: 4-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center
STANFORD, Calif. -- Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have for the first time sequenced the genome of an unborn baby using only a blood sample from the mother.
The findings from the new approach, to be published July 4 in Nature, are related to research that was reported a month ago from the University of Washington. That research used a technique previously developed at Stanford to sequence a fetal genome using a blood sample from the mother, plus DNA samples from both the mother and father.
The whole genome sequencing in the new Stanford study, however, did not require DNA from the father a significant advantage when a child's true paternity may not be known (a situation estimated to affect as many as one in 10 births in this country) or the father may be unavailable or unwilling to provide a sample. The technique brings fetal genetic testing one step closer to routine clinical use.
"We're interested in identifying conditions that can be treated before birth, or immediately after," said Stephen Quake, PhD, the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of bioengineering and of applied physics. "Without such diagnoses, newborns with treatable metabolic or immune system disorders suffer until their symptoms become noticeable and the causes determined." Quake is the senior author of the research. Former graduate student H. Christina Fan, PhD, now a senior scientist at ImmuMetrix, and current graduate student Wei Gu are co-first authors of the article.
As the cost of such technology continues to drop, it will become increasingly common to diagnose genetic diseases within the first trimester of pregnancy, the researchers believe. In fact, they showed that sequencing just the exome, the coding portion of the genome, can provide clinically relevant information.
In the new study, the researchers were able to use the whole-genome and exome sequences they obtained to determine that a fetus had DiGeorge syndrome, which is caused by a short deletion of chromosome 22. Although the exact symptoms and their severity can vary among affected individuals, it is associated with cardiac and neuromuscular problems, as well as cognitive impairment. Newborns with the condition can have significant feeding difficulties, heart defects and convulsions due to excessively low levels of calcium.
"The problem of distinguishing the mother's DNA from the fetus's DNA, especially in the setting where they share the same abnormality, has seriously challenged investigators working in prenatal diagnosis for many years," said Diana Bianchi, MD, executive director of the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center, who was not involved in the Nature study. "In this paper, Quake's group elegantly shows how sequencing of the exome can show that a fetus has inherited DiGeorge syndrome from its mother." (Bianchi is chair of the clinical advisory board of Verinata Health Inc., a company that provides a fetal genetic test using earlier technology developed by Quake.)
Prenatal diagnosis is not new. For decades, women have undergone amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling in an attempt to learn whether their fetus carries genetic abnormalities. These tests rely on obtaining cells or tissue from the fetus through a needle inserted in the uterus a procedure that can itself lead to miscarriage in about one in 200 pregnancies. They also detect only a limited number of genetic conditions.
The new technique hinges on the fact that pregnant women have DNA from both their cells and the cells of their fetus circulating freely in their blood. In fact, the amount of circulating fetal DNA increases steadily during pregnancy, and late in the third trimester can be as high as 30 percent of the total.
In 2008, Quake's lab pioneered the use of the relative levels of fetal DNA in maternal blood to diagnose conditions caused by missing or extra chromosomes, such as Down syndrome. Four companies in the United States now market tests based on the technique to physicians and parents, and demand for the service is increasing steadily. (Quake's specific approach was licensed by Stanford to Redwood City-based Verinata and South San Francisco-based Fluidigm Inc. Neither company was involved in the current study.) These tests, however, do not provide a full-genome profile, and cannot identify more-subtle genetic anomalies that occur within chromosomes and other DNA.
This study takes the blood-sampling test one step farther by recognizing that circulating fetal DNA contains genetic material from both the mother and the father. By comparing the relative levels in the mother's blood of regions of maternal (from both the mother and the fetus) and paternal (from the fetus only) DNA known as haplotypes, the researchers were able to identify fetal DNA from the mix and isolate it for sequencing. The method differs from that of the University of Washington group by inferring the father's genetic contribution, rather than sampling it directly (through saliva).
The Stanford team tried its method in two pregnancies. One of the mothers had DiGeorge syndrome; the other did not. Their whole genome and exome sequencing showed that the child of the woman with DiGeorge syndrome would also have the disorder. The finding was confirmed by comparing the predicted fetal genome sequence with the sequence obtained immediately after birth from umbilical cord blood. Although the experiments were performed retrospectively and these women and their babies remained anonymous, a similar finding in a real clinical setting would likely prompt doctors to assess the baby's heart health and calcium levels shortly after birth.
"Three years ago we were very excited about successfully validating non-invasive fetal aneuploidy detection," said study co-author Yair Blumenfeld, MD, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford medical school. "But we always knew that detecting fetal chromosomal abnormalities was just the tip of the iceberg, and that diagnosing individual gene defects was the future. This important study confirms our ability to detect individual fetal gene defects simply by testing mom's blood."
The researchers plan to continue to develop the technology for eventual use in the clinic.
In addition to Quake, Gu, Fan and Blumenfeld, other Stanford scientists involved in the research include graduate student Jianbin Wang and professor of obstetrics and gynecology Yasser El-Sayed, MD.
###
The research was funded with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institute of Health.
Quake and Fan hold shares in Verinata Health and Fluidigm. Quake is also co-chair of Stanford's Department of Bioengineering, which is run jointly by the schools of Engineering and of Medicine.
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation's top medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
The Stanford School of Engineering has been at forefront of innovation for nearly a century, creating pivotal technologies and businesses that have transformed the worlds of technology, medicine, energy and communications and laid the foundation for Silicon Valley. The school advances modern science and engineering through teaching and research. The school is home to nine departments, 245 faculty and more than 4,000 students, tackling the world's most pressing problems in areas like human health and environmental sustainability. For more information, visit http://engineering.stanford.edu.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Mexican authorities check a ballot box during a computation of ballot boxes at an electoral institute district council in Mexico City, Wednesday July 4, 2012. The computation is done to determine which ballot boxes used in last Sunday's general elections will be recounted in front of party representatives. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Mexican authorities check a ballot box during a computation of ballot boxes at an electoral institute district council in Mexico City, Wednesday July 4, 2012. The computation is done to determine which ballot boxes used in last Sunday's general elections will be recounted in front of party representatives. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Ballot boxes are brought to an electoral institute district council to be computed in Mexico City, Wednesday July 4, 2012. The computation is done to determine which ballot boxes used in last Sunday's general elections will be recounted in front of party representatives. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Election officials and party representatives begin the computation of ballot boxes at an electoral institute district council in Mexico City, Wednesday July 4, 2012. The computation is done to determine which ballot boxes used in last Sunday's general elections will be recounted in front of party representatives. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
A party representative participates in the computation of ballot boxes at an electoral institute district council in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 4, 2012. The computation is done to determine which ballot boxes used in last Sunday's general elections will be recounted in front of party representatives. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Ballot boxes arrive at an electoral institute district council to be computed in Mexico City, Wednesday July 4, 2012. The computation is done to determine which ballot boxes used in last Sunday's general elections will be recounted in front of party representatives. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Mexican electoral authorities said Wednesday they are recounting more than half the ballot boxes used in the weekend's presidential election after finding inconsistencies in the vote tallies.
Of the 143,000 ballot boxes used during Sunday's vote, 78,012 will be opened and the votes recounted, said Edmundo Jacobo, executive secretary of Mexico's Federal Electoral Institute.
Electoral officials expect the recount plus the final, official overall count on the presidential vote to be ready by Sunday, said Ana Fuentes, an IFE spokesman.
Mexico's electoral law states that votes should be recounted if there are inconsistencies in the final tally reports, if there is a difference of one percentage point or less between the first and second place finishers or if all the votes in a ballot box are in favor of the same candidate.
With 99 percent of the vote tallied in the preliminary count, Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, led with 38 percent of the vote. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party had 32 percent.
Authorities also will recount 61 percent of the ballot boxes in the vote for Senate seats and 60 percent in the vote for the lower house of Congress, Jacobo said.
The presidential front-runner expressed confidence Wednesday about the recount. "I trust that the final tally will be consistent with the preliminary count," Pena Nieto said.
Lopez Obrador has refused to accept the preliminary vote tallies, saying the election campaign was marred by overspending, vote-buying and favorable treatment of Pena Nieto by Mexico's semi-monopolized television industry.
The leftist candidate said Tuesday that his team had detected irregularities at 113,855 polling places, and called for a total recount.
Feeding suspicion of large-scale vote-buying were scenes of thousands of people rushing to grocery stores this week to redeem pre-paid gift cards they said the PRI had given them ahead of the election. Several told reporters they had been told to turn in a photocopy of their voter ID card in order to get the gift cards.
Under Mexican election law, giving voters gifts is not a crime unless the gift is conditioned on a certain vote or is meant to influence a vote. However, the cost of such gifts must be reported, and cannot exceed campaign spending limits. Violations are usually punished with fines, but generally aren't considered grounds for annulling an election.
Shoppers nearly stripped some shelves at a Soriana store in the poor district of Iztapalapa and officials in Mexico City, which is governed by Democratic Revolution, ordered at least one branch of the chain closed for alleged violation of safety codes.
Both the PRI and the supermarket company denied any irregularities.
PRI spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said that "Neither the PRI's executive committee, nor Enrique Pena Nieto's campaign has contracted any service from the Soriana grocery store chain.
Asked if some other local or congressional PRI candidate could have done it on behalf of Pena Nieto, he said "I don't know."
Humberto Fayad, a spokesman for the Soriana chain, denied the company had sold huge amounts of gift cards to the PRI.
"There is no agreement between the PRI and Soriana, or Soriana and any other political party. Soriana is a non-political company," Fayad said.
The PRI, too, accused rivals in many parts of the country of handing out groceries or using government programs to influence voters.
The governing National Action Party accused Pena Nieto's campaign of acquiring about 9,500 prepaid gift cards worth nearly $5.2 million (71 million pesos) to give away for votes. Authorities said a business had bought that number of cards, but that they had found no direct evidence of vote-buying. That investigation continues.
On Tuesday, Alfredo Figueroa, a council member of the Electoral Institute, said authorities were investigating complaints about the Soriana gift cards. Members of the institute have said they were aware of attempts to engage in vote buying.
___
Associated Press writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - New suspicions that Yasser Arafat was murdered, perhaps poisoned by radioactive polonium, prompted the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday to agree to exhume the body of the iconic leader.
Israel, seen by many Arabs as the prime suspect behind the mysterious illness that killed the 75-year-old Arafat in 2004, sought to distance itself anew from the death of the man who led Palestinians' bid for a state through years of war and peace.
A Swiss institute which examined clothing provided by Arafat's widow Suha for a documentary by Qatar-based Al Jazeera television said its radiation protection experts had found "surprisingly" high levels of polonium-210, the same substance found to have killed a former Russian spy in London in 2006.
But it said symptoms described in the president's medical reports were not consistent with the radioactive agent.
"I want the world to know the truth about the assassination of Yasser Arafat," Suha Arafat, 48, told Al Jazeera, without making any direct accusations, but noting that both Israel and the United States saw him as an obstacle to peace.
Allegations of foul play - and of Palestinian involvement in it - have long marked factional fighting among Palestinians. The latest revelation coincides with renewed tensions within Arafat's Fatah movement, now headed by his successor President Mahmoud Abbas, and between Fatah and Hamas, the Islamist movement which controls the Gaza Strip.
Abbas's administration said it would approve Suha Arafat's request to bring her husband's remains out for autopsy from a limestone mausoleum built next to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, without giving a date for such a move.
"The Authority, as it always has been, is ready to completely cooperate with and clear the way for an investigation into the true causes leading to the martyrdom of the late president," said Nabil Abu Rdeineh, spokesman for Abbas.
Saeb Erekat, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), told Reuters the exhumation could take place as soon as "religious and family procedures" were complete.
"If you ask me, it's a matter of a days, not more than a few days," he said. "Then we will be in contact with the Swiss team or any other team that could come and exhume the body."
FINAL DAYS
Confined by Israel to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah for three years after a Palestinian uprising erupted, an ailing Arafat collapsed in October 2004.
Foreign doctors flocked to his bedside from Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan amid public assurances from Arafat's aides over the next two weeks that he was suffering from no more than the flu.
But looking weak and thin - and telling aides "God willing, I will be back" - he was airlifted to a military hospital in France, where he slipped into a coma and died on November 11, 2004.
At the time, rumors flew that he had died from anything from stomach cancer to poisoning to AIDS. French doctors who treated Arafat in his final days said they could not establish the cause of death. French officials, citing privacy laws, refused to give details of the nature of his illness.
Israel denied involvement in Arafat's death and the head of its Shin Bet intelligence service at the time, Avi Dichter, said on Wednesday it was for Palestinians to investigate: "The body is in their hands. It is in Ramallah, and really, all the keys are in their hands," he told Israel's Army Radio.
Polonium, apparently ingested with food, was found to have caused the slow death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. At high doses, polonium-210 causes damage to organs and tissues. Britain tried and failed to extradite from Russia a suspect who was a former Kremlin security officer.
Israeli Army Radio said introducing polonium into food was the only way to kill someone with the poison and asked Dichter, whose agency had overall responsibility for monitoring the Palestinians, whether it would have been possible with Arafat.
"You're asking me as his cook?" he answered, laughing.
"MANY ENEMIES"
He continued: "No, we were focused on more serious things. Arafat's food did not interest us. I think it interested those around him, in order, really, to keep his health up, as he was indeed known to be unwell. But the Shin Bet, or the State of Israel, were not involved in Yasser Arafat's food."
Pressed on the poisoning scenario, Dichter said: "Yasser Arafat had many enemies, domestically, abroad. But let them investigate ... The Palestinians know well how to investigate what goes on in their house. Let them investigate and find out."
A Hamas official, Salah Al-Bardaweel, called for an investigation, suggesting Palestinians might have helped Israel kill him, calling them "sinful hands that cooperated or facilitated the occupier's mission to get these poisonous materials into the body of President Arafat".
Commenting on the Al Jazeera report, Paddy Regan, professor of nuclear physics at Britain's University of Surrey, said "there is not enough information in the public domain to be clear about whether polonium-210 was, or indeed could have been, the cause of death".
Regan said there could be several other explanations, such as naturally occurring radioactivity, for the high readings on Arafat's clothing. He said all such "natural sources" must be ruled out before concluding polonium-210 was "a murder weapon".
In 1997, Israeli assassins were caught trying to poison a senior member of Hamas in Jordan. Israel is also suspected in the 2010 death in a Dubai hotel room of a Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who UAE authorities said had been drugged.
Suha Arafat, who lives in Malta and France and whose lavish lifestyle abroad has made her a controversial figure among Palestinians, said determining there had been a plot to kill her husband "will glorify more his legacy" and harden Palestinian resolve in any future negotiations with Israel.
U.S.-sponsored peace talks collapsed in 2010 in a dispute over Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
"Arafat wanted to arrive with the Palestinian cause to a Palestinian state, and because of this they got rid of him," she said, without elaborating.
Israel's foreign minister in 2004, Silvan Shalom, rejected at the time as "scandalous and false" the idea that his country had a role in Arafat's death. But Israel had earlier threatened Arafat, blaming him for Palestinian violence.
After losing 15 citizens to suicide bombings in September 2003, Israel's security cabinet decided to "remove" Arafat, without elaborating publicly on the precise action it planned to take. An Israeli newspaper quoted Dichter as saying at the time that it would be better to kill Arafat than exile him.
(Additional reporting by Noah Browning and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah,; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Alastair Macdonald)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Israel has remotely detonated three spying devices in south Lebanon, the Lebanese army said Tuesday.
The explosions occurred Monday evening in the village of Zrariye, north of the Litani river, which runs through southern Lebanon, the army said. The militant Hezbollah group said it discovered the devices before their detonation and hailed that as a major achievement, accusing Israel of violating Lebanese sovereignty.
The Lebanese army said in a statement published on its website that it was investigating the incident. It gave no details of exactly what the devices were supposed to do or how long they had been there.
The Israeli military declined to comment.
Lebanese and U.N. officials have accused Israel in the past of detonating similar spy devices planted in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah guerrillas operate. Hezbollah and Israel, bitter enemies, fought a fierce monthlong war in 2006.
Lebanese officials claim that Israel regularly recruits spies in Lebanon and has penetrated the nation's telecommunications networks. Israel does not comment on the allegations.
The two countries have been in a formal state of war since Israel was created in 1948. In Lebanon, spying for or collaborating with Israel can be punishable by death.
Lebanon has arrested dozens of alleged collaborators in the past few years, including several people working in the telecommunications industry.
[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]
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Public release date: 4-Jul-2012
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