Tahminah blog

Izzo dismisses MSU G Lucious for rest of season

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Korie Lucious made one too many mistakes at Michigan State.

The junior guard was suspended for the rest of the season, another blow for the slumping Spartans.

"Man did I really mess up this time...off 2 the gym I go!," Lucious posted on his Twitter account shortly before the school announced his suspension late Tuesday night.

Lucious helped the Spartans reach the Final Four in each of the past two years.

"Unfortunately, Korie Lucious displayed conduct detrimental to the program," Izzo said in a statement issued by the school. "My focus is on this team for the remainder of the season."

The news released stated that the school and basketball program would have no further comment.

An East Lansing District Court clerk said Wednesday morning there were no active cases pending against Lucious.

The 5-foot-11 Lucious averaged 6.5 points in 18 games this season for 25th-ranked Michigan State, which started the season ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press poll.

The Spartans (12-7, 4-3 Big Ten) host Michigan on Thursday, hoping to snap a two-game losing streak.

Lucious made a game-winning 3-pointer against Maryland in the second round of the NCAA tournament last season, helping Michigan State reach the Final Four, and filled in well for injured star Kalin Lucas.

The Milwaukee native, though, had trouble off the court.

Lucious pleaded guilty in September to misdemeanor reckless driving, leading to him being suspended for one exhibition game and the Spartans' season-opening victory against Eastern Michigan in November. He was also suspended for a game last season for missing class.

"I didn't live up to the standards of the program," Lucious said in the school's release. "Unfortunately, I let my teammates, my coaches, and myself down, and wish them the best for the rest of the season."

Amazon investors to gauge margin toll in results

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com (AMZN.O) is expected to post impressive fourth quarter sales results on Thursday, fueled by momentum throughout the key holiday season, but Wall Street will be closely watching for clues about profit margins in 2011.

The world's largest online retailer has posted revenue gains of at least 39 percent in the past three quarters, and shares reached all-time highs last week, reflecting Wall Street's high expectations.

But the company is expected to provide a first glimpse at its profit expectations for 2011, which could show that investments and a focus on driving revenue, rather than profit, will continue to temper margins.

Analysts are hoping for some kind of payoff on a period of investment in 2011 that took Wall Street off guard in the second quarter of 2010. The company invested in new distribution centers to expand capacity and investors are now hoping for a payoff to that added scale.

For a look at revenue versus operating profit, click here:http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/11/01/US_AMZNPVW0111.gif

Amazon has historically brushed off criticism about margin growth and focused on building its revenue base through loyalty programs, such as its Amazon Prime program that charges $79 per year for unlimited free shipping. Such deals, it argues, ensures that customers buy more products and turn to Amazon as its default online retailer.

Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth said recent positive results from Google Inc (GOOG.O) and eBay (EBAY.O) pointed to overall e-commerce strength in the holiday quarter.

"We believe Amazon needs to report revenue at least at the high end of guidance ... even with some recent pullback in the shares," he wrote, adding that he expected margins to expand in the second half of 2011.

The company -- whose Kindle e-reader is considered the best-selling such device in the market -- also operates a web-hosting business and offers other services to businesses, such as fulfillment.

Regardless of how shares react to Thursday's disclosures, many will continue to see Amazon as overvalued.

The company's stock price is 70 times expected 2011 earnings, far exceeding that of competitors in both the technology and retail sectors.

Analysts, on average, expect fourth-quarter revenue of $12.99 billion on earnings of 88 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

For the first quarter, Wall Street expects operating profit of $469 million on revenue of $9.31 billion. For full-year 2011, analysts expect operating profit of $2.2 billion on revenue of $44 billion.

Amazon does not give an outlook for earnings per share, focusing instead on an operating profit range.

(Reporting by Alexandria Sage)

Royal wedding, A to Z

Want a quick overview of the royal wedding hoopla? Here are the basics, from A to Z.

Anglesey: Remote island location of thein North Wales where Prince William is stationed and where Kate and William have been living together.

Bachelor party: To be planned by brother Prince Harry, the wilder one; location is unknown.

Carriage: Conveyance Kate will not use to travel to Westminster Abbey, but will use to travel with her new husband to Buckingham Palace.

Duke and duchess:on the couple on the occasion of their marriage.

Engagement ring: The oval sapphire-encircled-by-diamonds ring that was made famous by Princess Diana, recycled for a new generation.

Fascinator: Fluffy feathery headpieces worn by British ladies, including Kate Middleton, when she is not wearing a full-fledged hat with a brim.

Goring Hotel:where Kate, her family, and many of William and Kate's friends will stay and socialize prior to the wedding.

Harry: Prince and younger brother, who will undoubtedly serve as chief "supporter" for Prince William at his wedding.

Issa London: The middle brow andof the gorgeous deep blue dress Kate wore for the engagement announcement.

Klosters: Swiss ski resort whereand family, resulting in a much-photographed on-slopes kiss.

Lingerie: Garments being modeled at aat St. Andrews, where Kate definitely caught Prince William's eye.

Marlborough College: Exclusive co-educational prep school attended by Kate, where she excelled in academics and at field hockey and tennis.

Oldfield, Bruce:and couturier beloved by Princess Diana and one of the leading possibilities for the designer of Kate's wedding gown, which she is keeping secret until April 29.

Party Pieces: Mail order company owned by Michael and Carole Middleton, Kate's parents, and Kate's sometimes place of employment.

Queen Elizabeth II: Proud grandmother, hosting a post-wedding luncheon for William and his bride at Buckingham Palace.

Royal Knight of the Garter: Honor conferred on Prince William in a , with Kate attending her first official royal occasion in public.

St. Andrews: A small town in Scotland, and the universityas undergraduate students and fell in love -- not to mention the birthplace of golf.

Time: The wedding will begin at 11a.m. on April 29, which is 6 a.m. on the East Coast of the U.S. and even earlier across the country.

Vanity Fair: The magazine that named Kate Middleton to its .

Westminster Abbey: The historic Anglican church in central London, for 1,000 years the site of coronations, weddings, and funerals of royalty and notables, including the upcoming royal wedding, seats 2,000.

Zara Phillips: Blonde, horsey daughter of Princess Anne and first cousin of William, whoto her rugby player boyfriend just after William -- in a copy-cat vein.

New Virus 'Jumps' From Monkey to Scientist, Causing Serious Illness

FRIDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A never-before detected strain of virus that killed more than one-third of a monkey colony at a U.S. lab appears to have 'jumped' from the animals to sicken a human scientist, researchers report.

Although it's an unusual move for that type of virus and does warrant further monitoring, the researchers stress there is no cause for alarm at this time. There is no evidence the virus has spread beyond the single scientist -- who recovered from her illness -- nor is there even proof that the virus would be transmissible between humans.

Still, "there is very strong evidence to suggest a cross-species transmission event happened," said lead investigator Dr. Charles Chiu, an assistant professor of laboratory medicine and medicine/infectious diseases at the University of California San Francisco. "I don't think people should be worried about this right now. It's more of a worry to public health officials monitoring these new viruses that have the potential for causing outbreaks."

The study was presented Friday at the Infectious Diseases Society of America annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.

The scientist appears to have caught the virus while investigating an outbreak of illness among a colony of Titi monkeys at the California National Primate Research Center in Davis, Chiu said.

Among the monkeys, the virus was highly contagious and deadly:Of 55 monkeys housed at the center, 23 (about 40 percent) became seriously ill with upper respiratory symptoms that progressed to pneumonia and an inflammation of the liver. Nineteen monkeys, or about 83 percent of those infected, died.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics did not help the monkeys, suggesting that the pneumonia was caused by the virus and not a secondary bacterial infection, Chiu said.

Researchers later determined the cause of the illness was an adenovirus, a broad class of viruses that can cause everything from relatively harmless respiratory illnesses such as the common cold, to pneumonia, as well as gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis and inflammation of the liver in people.

The new strain, however, had never before been identified, Chiu said.

"This is almost certainly a new species of adenovirus," Chiu said. "By looking at the 'sequence divergence', or how different the genetic sequence of this adenovirus is relatively to other adenoviruses, we believe it is a new species."

The scientist who fell ill had been in close contact with the monkeys. Though she became seriously ill with pneumonia around the same time the monkeys were falling ill, she was not hospitalized and recovered after about four weeks, Chiu said.

Her blood tested positive for antibodies to the virus three months after the epidemic, Chiu said. While not a definitive test, Chiu said it's very likely the cause of her illness was the new adenovirus.

Infectious disease and public health experts are always on the lookout for new viruses that pose a threat to people, said Dr. Aaron Glatt, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America and president and CEO of St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage,N.Y.

While this sort of event makes infectious disease experts sit up and take notice, "it's not something to be nervous about or worried about today," Glatt said. "There is not a novel adenovirus associated with a deadly outbreak in humans, but it's very interesting from a scientific point of view."

While other viruses can infect more than one species, adenoviruses tend to be species-specific, which makes this somewhat unusual, he said. But as of now, there is no evidence of an outbreak of the virus outside that single monkey colony in Davis, Glatt added.

Chiu and his colleagues are trying to determine the origin of the virus, including whether it started as a monkey virus or began in a human and was passed to the monkeys. Since no new monkeys had been introduced to the colony in six years, one possibility is that the virus was circulating, undetected, in rhesus monkeys also housed at the facility and passed somehow to the Titis.

Researchers are also screening several thousand people to determine if anyone else has antibodies to the virus, which would indicate prior exposure and that the virus has already been in circulation in the general human population.

Another question is whether it's contagious among people, Chiu said. "There is possibly some evidence it's transmissible, but we just don't know yet," Chiu noted. "If this virus has the potential for human-to-human transmission, it would have the potential of developing into an outbreak."

While adenoviruses usually stick to one species, other viruses do "jump" between species frequently, Chiu said, and a virus that makes one species very ill may be relatively harmless in another.

SARS coronavirus, for example, colonizes bats and ferrets without causing disease, while in humans the illness triggers severe pneumonia, Chiu said.

Influenza also jumps between species. Pigs may show no signs of having H1N1 ("Swine flu"), but humans can get very sick from it.

Researchers are also working to determine if the new adenovirus is a "recombinant," or combined virus, which includes bits of genetic information from monkey and human adenoviruses.

"When viruses jump they can cause much more severe disease or less severe disease," Chiu said. "These findings might be an argument to do more broad surveillance of animals. If we can better understand what kind of viruses circulate in animals, it might help predict what viruses might jump over and when."

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on adenoviruses.

Clashes in Guinea amid vote doubts

CONAKRY, Guinea – Amid increasing doubts Friday that the runoff vote in Guinea's presidential election will be held this weekend, supporters of the two candidates clashed and the U.N.'s human rights office accused security forces of firing at unarmed protesters earlier in the week.

A doctor at Conakry's main hospital said Thursday night that he treated several men who appeared to have been hurt in a scuffle between supporters of presidential candidates Cellou Dalein Diallo and Alpha Conde. The doctor, who did not give his full name, said two of the victims were comatose when they arrived with severe head injuries and that one later died.

A spokesman for Diallo's party, Souleymane Bah, said men from his party were attacked as they returned from a party meeting.

Earlier this week, junta leader Gen. Sekouba Konate named a Malian to head the electoral commission after disagreements over the commission's makeup threatened to delay the presidential runoff, scheduled for Sunday. Since then, officials learned that 17 computers that were to tabulate poll results were missing.

The new electoral commission chief, Siaka Toumani Sangare, is expected to announce soon whether the vote will go ahead as planned.

During protests earlier this week, security forces fired at unarmed protesters — shooting some at point-blank range, the Geneva-based U.N. human rights office said in a statement.

One man was killed and at least 62 were wounded during demonstrations in Conakry during the week. The U.N. said authorities severely beat protesters and arbitrarily detained an unknown number of people and kept them in undisclosed locations. Among the victims was a 7-year-old schoolboy who was shot in the head by a stray bullet and remains in a coma.

The statement said some of those responsible for the violence appear to be members of a special police unit charged with safeguarding the election.

A policeman and a human rights worker also described other violent acts by security forces.

Thierno Maadjou Sow, president of a Guinean human rights group, said he knows of at least two rapes which he described as particularly violent.

"They were taken, brutalized, raped and imprisoned," he said, adding that his group is still gathering information.

A police officer said he saw two of his colleagues rape a young girl. He asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the situation. He said he also saw his colleagues strike a pregnant woman in her stomach, causing bleeding and the possible loss of her baby.

Security forces are feared in Guinea. On Sept. 28, 2009, soldiers sealed off the exits to the national soccer stadium where tens of thousands of protesters had gathered to demand an end to military rule. The troops entered and opened fire with assault rifles. A U.N. commission said 156 people were killed or disappeared and at least 109 women were raped or subjected to other forms of sexual violence, which may constitute crimes against humanity.

The U.N. human rights office said some of the latest violence appears to be ethnically motivated.

Diallo is a Peul, the country's largest ethnic group, which has never had one of its own in power. Last year, the Peul were explicitly targeted during the stadium massacre. Conde is a Malinke — a group heavily represented in the army, as well as in the junta blamed for the massacre.

The U.N. agency called on political leaders to restrain their supporters, "both within the security forces and among the general population," while respecting their right to assemble and protest peacefully.

Also Friday, top election official Lounceny Camara was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of approximately $300 for manipulating the first round of elections, held on June 27.

Discord over Sunday's presidential runoff is dividing the West African country and threatening to delay once again its attempt to freely elect its own leader for the first time since Guinea won independence from France in 1958.