Astronauts make repairs
with prolonged space walk


Astronauts carried out an unscheduled space walk Saturday to replace a pump that they believe was the cause of an ammonia leak from the International Space Station that was first detected on Thursday. NASA flight engineers plan to monitor the site of the leak closely in the weeks ahead to make sure no other problem exists.

NASA Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn spent five and a half hours outside the orbiting space station, removing a 97-kilogram pump controller box and replacing it with a spare. After completing the task, tethered to the orbiting craft in the weightlessness of space, the two astronauts looked for any further sign of leakage and saw none.

But in a news conference at the Johnson Space Center in Houston later, the deputy International Space Station program manager, Joel Montalbano, said it could be some time before engineers can be certain that the problem is completely resolved.

"It is going to take the teams a few weeks to go ahead and just watch the system, understand the system, see how it is performing, look at the different day and night cycles and, again, just watch it over time, before they are ready to tell us that we were 100 percent successful," Montalbano said.

Thursday the space station crew and engineers monitoring the orbiting laboratory from earth noticed white ammonia crystals, resembling snowflakes, that were floating out of an area where power units are located. Ammonia is used to cool the solar power systems that supply the station with electricity. In November there had been a similar leak in that area that crew members thought they had fixed.

International Space Station Flight Director Ed Van Cise said engineers thought the pump was the problem, but they could not be certain until it was replaced.

"That is the reason we kept the crew out there for 40 minutes after everything was done is that we wanted to have their eyes there at the scene while we turned it on and they could look for not only a big flow of ammonia crystals, but any smaller things that may tell us that there is still a leak going on," he said.

NASA engineers say the ammonia in that power channel would have run out within a day had it not been shut down after the leak was discovered Thursday. But they say it never posed a serious threat to the space station or the six-man crew.


U.S. nursing grads facing
slow market for their skills


U.S. nurses are caught between a sour economy, a demographic bump and a flood of unemployed new graduates. After years of worry about a shortage of nurses, about one-third of new nursing graduates in the United States have been struggling to find work. Experts say there will be many job openings for nurses eventually.

”I’ve applied for 35 different jobs and, despite having a 4.0 GPA, I have not received any jobs, so it’s really concerning,” said University of Maryland student Alexandra Bauernschub. She is finishing a master’s degree in nursing, and learned patient care using high-tech simulators, as well as through traditional classroom activities.
   
She is finishing school just as new graduates are struggling to find work. Nurses with a two-year degree have more difficulty than those who graduate from four-year schools or graduate programs.
 
Experts say there are fewer job openings than usual right now because nurses in their 50s and 60s are putting off retirement so they can rebuild savings lost during the financial crisis, or pay the bills when a spouse loses a job.
 
“This economic downturn has created this tension in terms of people staying in the workforce right at the same time we have been working hard to increase the number of graduates to meet that growing health care need," said Jane Kirschling, the dean of the University of Maryland’s nursing school.

Nursing school enrollments have soared in recent years as the medical profession prepared for the retirement of the baby boomers, the larger-than-usual generation of Americans born right after World War II.  Hundreds of thousands of nurses are expected to eventually leave the workforce, just as the rest of their generation reaches the age when they need more medical care.
 
Additionally, changes in health care laws give millions more Americans access to health insurance and care, which means demand for nurses will grow even more.
    
Health economists say if the economy improves, many older nurses will be willing to leave their jobs and make room for newcomers. One study says a drop in overall unemployment could open tens of thousands of nursing jobs.

"One percentage point in unemployment seems to lead to about 30,000 additional nurses in the workforce," said Rand Corp. analyst David Auerbach, who spoke via Skype. "So we are at about 7.6 percent [unemployment]. So if we go down to about 5.5 percent, that suggests that about 60,000 RNs kind of opening up those spots and retiring."  

Nursing school dean Kirschling said that in spite of problems at the moment, nursing is a rewarding career with a bright future. “The opportunities are going to continue to be very, very strong. We are just sitting in this window of time where the economy has played out, the boomers staying in the workforce."

In the meantime, many nursing students say they are worried because they face an uncertain job future, and the certainty of having to repay thousands of dollars in college loans.


Vaccine against heroin seen
as major anti-drug advance


Scientists have developed an experimental vaccine to treat heroin addicts.  Such a vaccine would be a major advance for both public health and safety.  Addiction to the powerful, illicit narcotic not only destroys human lives, but also fuels a violent global drug trade.  

An estimated 20 million people around the world are addicted to heroin and related opiates.  Their addiction and frequent use of contaminated syringes put heroin users at risk of a variety of diseases, notably HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C.  They are also more likely to die prematurely, either from a drug overdose or the violence related to drug trafficking.

Drug relapse after conventional treatment for heroin addiction is an especially difficult challenge.  The experimental vaccine may prevent addiction even if a user is re-exposed to the drug.

The heroin vaccine developed by Kim Janda and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, essentially tricks the body's immune system into thinking heroin is a pathogen, like a bacterium or virus.  

The experimental compound stimulates the production of antibodies that keep the drug from reaching the brain, which is where Ms. Janda notes the drug  produces the euphoric high that heroin addicts crave.

"So, it creates like a wall to block the drug from entering the brain, the pleasure centers," said Ms. Janda. "And when it’s in circulation, our own body has enzymes that degrade heroin.  And as it degrades it loses its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, it loses its potency and eventually it’s just removed.”

Ms. Janda, a chemist and immunologist, says developing a vaccine against heroin has been especially challenging because the body rapidly metabolizes the drug into several byproducts, the last being morphine, the compound which actually triggers the high.  

So, researchers had to develop a pretty versatile vaccine, one able to empower the immune system to recognize and produce antibodies that bind to all of the breakdown products before they reach the brain.

In experiments with heroin-addicted rats exposed to an unlimited supply of the drug, Ms. Janda says the results were striking.  The drug-sated rodents were detoxified for one month, a period similar to a human going through drug rehabilitation.

Next, researchers divided the rats into two groups, again giving them as much heroin-laced water as they wanted.  Only this time, Ms. Janda says half the rats had been vaccinated against heroin.

“What happens if you don’t vaccinate them they re-escalate and double the amount of intake," he said. "In the case of the vaccine, they completely don’t recognize the heroin at all and stop taking it.”

None of the vaccinated rats relapsed after being re-exposed to heroin.  

The National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has been interested in drug vaccine development, helped fund the research.

David Shurtleff, acting deputy director of the institute, says a heroin vaccine is not a magic bullet and would have to be used as part of a comprehensive treatment program that also addresses drug-seeking behavior.  Like heroin-addicted humans who continue to crave the drug even after going through treatment, Shurtleff notes that the vaccinated rats persisted for a while in trying to get high.

"Once they are in an environment where they've been using the drug, they start to crave the drug and they will use it even though the vaccine may kick in to prevent the high," said Shurtleff. "They will still try and attempt to take the drug to overcome the craving, to reduce the craving for the drug.  So, there's a lot of behavioral to addiction beyond what the vaccine can do."

Scripps investigators are currently seeking funding to begin human trials of the vaccine, possibly by later this year.

An article describing an experimental heroin vaccine is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  

Benghazi gains new life
after email disclosures


Scrutiny of the Obama administration could reach a fever-pitch this week.  New questions have arisen concerning last year’s deadly attack at U.S. outposts in Benghazi, Libya.

Just when it seemed investigations of the Benghazi attack had run their course, ABC News said it obtained emails showing State Department editing of administration talking points to downplay terrorist involvement in the incident, in which four Americans were killed.

The revelation breathes new life into congressional probes, particularly in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Rep. Darrell Issa said, “Our goal in this investigation is to get answers.”

The White House has long denied intentionally misleading the American people about the September attack, which came at the height of President Barack Obama's re-election effort.  Spokesman Jay Carney said, “This would be more significant if we did not acknowledge from the beginning that extremists were likely involved.  This is an effort to accuse the administration of hiding something that we did not hide.”


Probe sought of IRS scrutiny
of conservative groups


Republican lawmakers have called for a broad investigation of the U.S. tax agency's revelation that its agents singled out conservative political groups for heightened scrutiny, demanding that President Barack Obama personally apologize for the action.

The House Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, said Sunday the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service during the 2012 political campaign "is something we cannot let stand. It needs to have a full investigation."

Sen. Susan Collins said she doesn't believe "this was a couple of rogue IRS employees. After all, groups with progressive in their names were not targeted similarly." She called the practice truly outrageous.

The IRS claims the groups were targeted as part of an inappropriate policy by a small number of bureaucrats, rather than for political reasons.

Lois Lerner, a top IRS official who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, apologized Friday to conservative groups that were singled out for additional scrutiny. She said about 75 organizations that included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in applications for tax-exempt status were put through unnecessary, additional reviews.

In some cases, groups were asked for lists of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases. Ms. Lerner acknowledged it was wrong for the agency to target groups based on political affiliation.


U.S. education Vietnamese
named to country's politboro


Vietnam's ruling Communist Party has appointed for the first time a U.S.-educated official to its powerful politburo, a landmark decision as pressure mounts to reform an economy stagnating after years of boom growth.

The top decision-making body of the party that has ruled Vietnam since 1975 voted to increase its membership and bring in Nguyen Thien Nhan, a deputy prime minister overseeing education, health and technology, it said on its website.

Nhan, 59, has a master's degree in public policy from the University of Oregon and joins an elite group long dominated by politicians educated locally or in the former Soviet Union.

Vietnam's ruling party is facing its toughest economic challenges in years and has vowed reforms to tackle crippling debt in its banking system, and mismanagement at scores of cash-sapping state-owned firms.

Economists say policy makers have acted effectively to rein in inflation but have been too slow, or reluctant, to implement the sweeping structural changes needed to revive what was a promising economy now growing at its slowest pace in 13 years, and put Vietnam back on foreign investors' radar.

Vietnam's economy is hamstrung by weak credit growth and consumer demand that has forced 113,000 businesses to close since 2011, when inflation soared to over 20 percent and foreign investors delivered only a sixth of the $64 billion pledged.

The politburo also picked its second female member, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, a deputy chairwoman of parliament. Ms. Ngan, also 59, is a former deputy minister of trade and finance. The two appointments will increase the politburo's size to 16 members.

Nhan studied in the former East Germany in the 1970s before being awarded a scholarship to the United States. He also served as vice mayor of Ho Chi Minh City.


New film follows Pakistani
after twin towers attack


Indian-born filmmaker Mira Nair has made acclaimed films on multiculturalism: mixed marriages amid racial intolerance and U.S. immigrants grappling with ethnic identity.

Her most recent film, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, deals with the mistrust and alienation of a young Pakistani immigrant in the post 9/11 world. Her film, based on Mohsim Hamid’s 2007 novel by the same name, was released days after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Changez, a son of an intellectual Pakistani family and a brilliant financial adviser, has everything going for him: a great job on Wall Street, a beautiful American girlfriend, connections. After 9/11, everything changes. He is heckled at the airport and profiled as a potential terrorist.

Ms. Nair says people like Changez were forced to take sides.

“They were encouraged to because Bush said, ‘Either you are with us or you’re against us.’ He set up this so-called Axis of Evil," she said. "He taught people to look at ‘us' and 'them.’ And I don’t think that that reaction has led to greater understanding or peace."  

In the film, Changez loses his girlfriend, gives up his lucrative job and returns to his country to teach economics at the University of Lahore. His theories criticizing rampant capitalism and the American dream attract a following, and he becomes a prime suspect in the kidnapping of an American professor.  

An American CIA operative posing as a journalist is convinced Changez is responsible for the kidnapping because he fits the profile of a disaffected emigrant. The conversation between the two characters describes two worlds mired in mutual suspicion.

“Because so often both sides and any side in our life is presented as reductionist, as good or bad, or black or white," Ms. Nair said. "But there is a whole level of gray and gray is also beautiful in its own way.”

The film reveals that Changez, although radical, is not a terrorist and thus counters stereotypes.   

Elizabeth Goitein of the Brennan Institute for Justice says such stereotypes can jeopardize the fight against terrorism.

“Like growing a beard, wearing traditional Islamic dress, giving up gambling and cigarettes and drinking," Ms. Goitein said. "The focus needs to shift from trying to identify these personal attributes of a would be terrorist. It needs to shift from that to focusing on actual criminal activity or activity that has indicators of potential criminality.”

Ms. Nair hopes her film will help shatter some of the misconceptions and promote dialogue in a growing multicultural world.

“Yes, I‘m Pakistani," the character of Changez says in the film. "Yes, I’m Muslim. But that’s not all I am.”


European Union-U.S. pact
seen as game-changer


European Union officials on Thursday touted the huge economic potential of a proposed free-trade pact with the United States even as they poked fun at its cumbersome name, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.

"We've launched this strange animal called TTIP ['tee tip']," EU Ambassador to the United States JoIao Vale de Almeida said at a reception to mark Europe Day. "This is a game-changer. As I like to say, this is the mother of all free trade areas."

The two sides are expected to begin talks on the pact in July and hope to finish in one to two years. If successful, the final agreement would cover half the world's economic output and about a third of global trade.

The proposed pact "sends a strong signal... that despite our economic challenges, we are all open for business and trade," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told the group.

The United States already is negotiating another free trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11 countries in the Asia Pacific region, so there is symmetry in the moniker for the proposed U.S.-EU pact.

But Ashton still said it was "bizarrely named... I call it a free trade agreement. I can't get my head around TTIP."

Whatever it is called, negotiations are expected to be tough, with EU lawmakers already backing French demands to exempt cultural and audiovisual services, which would be a big disappointment for U.S. film and television companies.

Members of the U.S. Congress also want the pact to tackle longtime barriers to U.S. farm products, potentially requiring many European countries to overcome their aversion to importing U.S. genetically modified crops.

It will be "a long difficult process of negotiations. We have of course the best negotiators on the European side. But we respect a lot the American negotiators," Vale de Almeida said to laughter from the crowd.

Last week, President Barack Obama nominated Mike Froman to be the next U.S. trade representative, effectively charging his longtime friend and chief international economic affairs adviser with the task of completing the U.S.-EU deal.


Grandson of Malcom X
beaten to death in México


Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of U.S. rights activist Malcolm X has died in a Mexico City hospital after an apparent beating. He was 28.

Mexican authorities said Shabazz died after suffering multiple injuries following a fight Thursday in a bar near Plaza Garibaldi, home to Mariachi bands, strip clubs and bars.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City declined to give information on the death at the request of his family.

In June 1997, Malcolm Shabazz, then 12, set a fire at his grandmother Betty Shabazz's home. She died from severe burns, and he served four years in juvenile detention.

Shabazz also served time on a 2002 attempted robbery conviction, and was released in 2005. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief for smashing the window of a Yonkers doughnut shop.


Rios Montt will appeal
his genocide conviction


A Guatemalan court has found former dictator Efrain Rios Montt guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.

A judge in Guatemala City sentenced the 86-year-old to 80 years in prison, 50 years for genocide and 30 years for crimes against humanity.

Rios Montt was convicted of ordering the deaths of 1,771 people of the Ixil Maya ethnic group during his time in office in 1982 and 1983.

The retired general had denied the charges, saying he neither knew of nor ordered the massacres while in power.

He is expected to appeal the court's decision.