Dark Clouds Be Gone: Apica Raises $5M From SEB, Others To Keep SaaS Services Running Without A Hitch

Here's a timely funding announcement: Apica, a company that offers a solution enterprises can use to keep their cloud-based apps running smoothly -- even when there are problems in the clouds -- has just raised $5 million to continue expanding its services. The news coms after a weekend that saw several popular services like Instagram and ?Netflix collapse after a major storm knocked out one of Amazon's major data centers in North Virginia. The $5 million announced today will?be used for product development, marketing and expanding particular services in the U.S. around server testing capacity for the company's cloud and mobile testing and monitoring services. It?is a Series C round and was led by SEB Venture Capital, with existing investors Industrifonden, ALMI Invest, and KTH Chalmers Capital all participating.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tUKmOP38KS0/

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In outreach to Egypt, Israel urges continued peace

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/outreach-egypt-israel-urges-continued-peace-114128617.html

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Privately devout Romney worships with his family

WOLFEBORO, N.H. (AP) ? Every year, Mitt Romney and his family spend a week at his estate on picturesque Lake Winnipesaukee. They go boating, play games ? and attend church, an expression of the faith that's fundamentally shaped the Republican presidential candidate.

Romney, the first Mormon to clinch the presidential nomination of a major party, attended services Sunday with his wife, Ann, five sons, five daughters-in-law and 18 grandchildren. They made up nearly a third of the congregation that gathered inside the small, nondescript building that houses this tiny resort town's branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Romney clan has attended the church in Wolfeboro many times before ? only now the family patriarch carries the distinction of being President Barack Obama's Republican challenger.

Not that church leaders or worshippers mentioned the new reality as, one by one, they stood at a podium to offer testimony, a custom in Mormon churches on the first Sunday of every month. Among those testifying: one of the many Romney grandchildren.

"My name is Chloe Romney and I'm visiting here from California," the candidate's middle-school-age granddaughter said from the church's lectern, a pink flower in her hair. "I know that my family loves me and I like to go to church."

The family's devotion to the Mormon faith is a part of Romney's life that the electorate rarely sees. Romney almost never mentions it in public. And his campaign typically bars the media from seeing him participate in a religion that many Americans are unfamiliar with. But it's a part of his life that could help him connect with a public that's just now getting to get to know him ? one that includes many church-goers.

Romney's campaign doesn't tell reporters when Romney is going to church. But the Wolfeboro branch is open to visitors and an Associated Press reporter attended the same sacrament service the Romney family attended. It featured bread with water instead of wine, a variation on communion that allows for the Mormon prohibition on drinking alcohol.

And it provided a rare glimpse into his practice of a faith that has permeated every aspect of Romney's life: his childhood, his college years and time as a missionary, his marriage, his life in Boston, even his business career.

Mormonism began in the 1830s when, according to believers, an angel presented another book of scripture to Joseph Smith, the church's founder, called the Book of Mormon. With 14.4 million members, the church is among the fastest growing in the world, supported by a full-time missionary force of about 55,000 young people. Romney has been an active Mormon all his life, so involved in the church at one point that he rose to a rank equivalent to a bishop. He eventually presided over a group of congregations.

During his presidential campaign, the demands of Romney's faith can dictate how he spends his time; it requires as many as three hours nearly every Sunday for services. According to people familiar with his private schedule, Romney goes to church nearly every week. His faith also helps drive his fundraising; a significant amount of money comes from wealthy Mormon donors. And Mormon households across the country often housed campaign aides as they moved from state to state during the GOP primary.

When Romney does talk about his faith, he discloses little and usually focuses on his time as a missionary in France. He offered a forceful explanation of the role of faith in his own life during a recent speech at Liberty University that was aimed at bridging differences with evangelicals, many of whom are skeptical of Mormon theology.

"Culture ? what you believe, what you value, how you live ? matters," Romney said during the May speech that avoided all direct references to Mormonism. "What we have, what we wish we had ? ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed, investments won, investments lost, elections won, elections lost ? these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us."

Sunday's service was a cornerstone of a week that will see all 30 members of the Romney clan pack into the family's sprawling lakefront estate.

They'll gather for family dinners, waterski on the lake, paddleboard off the beach and discuss family affairs, all traditions the family has been developing at this home for more than a decade.

This year, questions about whom Romney will choose as his vice presidential running mate hang over his vacation ? though there was little sign of politics after church on Sunday, as Romney relaxed barefoot on his back deck with youngest son Craig and eldest Tagg, who held one of his newborn twin sons. On the lawn below, a team of photographers set up lights in preparation for the annual family picture.

At church, Romney sat next to his wife, with grandchildren occupying the rest of the row. He sang along during the service's three hymns, holding his iPad underneath his navy blue hymnal. Some of the kids ? who range in age from a few weeks old to 16 years ? grew restless during the long service. At different points, several walked over to receive a kind smile and quiet word from their grandfather. At one point, Romney took charge of a Ziploc bag of colored cereal, offering it to a grinning blond toddler.

As the first section of the service concluded, Romney and the congregation sang all the verses of "America the Beautiful," a song he often quotes on the campaign trail. Many attendees departed while others prepared for the second portion of the service, a Sunday school for adults.

While church leaders moved to close partitions to prepare for the school, Romney chatted at length with others who had come to the service, including several who wore "Romney" pins on their lapels. And Ann Romney focused on figuring out who would stay for the second and third hours and who would head home with restless kids to start dinner.

"Ok, so, we're just trying to figure out the cars," Ann Romney said to one of her daughters-in-law as the first section of the service ended, another about to begin. "I want to stay for the second hour." So did her husband.

Romney has been visiting Wolfeboro for decades, first coming here with his father, George Romney, to visit the J.W. Marriott family. The Marriott family played a significant role in building the Mormon church in Wolfeboro several decades ago.

The branch president, Matthew Jensen, said there are now more than 60 Marriott family members who will appear in Wolfeboro ? and at church ? sometime in the summer. They haven't arrived yet, so the Romneys have the largest contingent.

"We see them every year," Jensen said of the Romneys, noting that their presence swells the size of the congregation. He said that even though Romney is a likely presidential nominee, they fit into the congregation the way any other family would. And the town is still quiet enough that his Secret Service contingent isn't too disruptive as the family drives the few miles to the church from the Romney vacation home on the other side of town.

No matter the outcome of the election, it won't be the same next year.

___

Follow Kasie Hunt on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kasie

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/privately-devout-romney-worships-family-075740853.html

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Rare leukemia-causing protein discovered

ScienceDaily (July 2, 2012) ? Researchers at the University of Cincinnati Hoxworth Blood Center have discovered a new gene target for leukemia therapy.

These findings, slated for the July 26, 2012 print issue of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, could lead to cellular targets for a patient population that otherwise may not have desirable outcomes and could potentially stop the onset of leukemia before it begins.

A team led by Jose Cancelas, MD, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics at the UC College of Medicine and director of the research division at Hoxworth Blood Center, found that by inhibiting in animal models the protein Vav3, which controls cell signaling, the development of this leukemia -- known as BCR-ABL lymphoid leukemia -- is delayed.

"Despite advances in the treatment of this disease, the outcome of patients with this type of leukemia is very poor because it develops resistance to standard therapies," he says. "We found that the genetic deficiency of Vav3 delays the formation of leukemia by impairing the signals from BCR-ABL and the overproduction of leukemic cells. In doing this, it also allows the standardized therapies, or BCR-ABL inhibitors, to work."

Cancelas says this finding could lead to new multi-targeted therapies where Vav3 activity is related to the formation of leukemia.

"In collaboration with Dr. Nicolas Nassar, associate professor of pediatrics at UC and a physician in the division of experimental hematology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, we are now trying to find chemicals with Vav3 inhibitory activity," he says. "With this knowledge, we may be able to develop a therapy that can greatly improve the lives of patients facing leukemia."

Other authors of this multinational study are Kyung Hee Chang and Susan Dunn from Hoxworth Blood Center; and Yi Zheng, John Perentesis, Abel Sanchez-Aguilera, Amitava Sengupta, Malav Madhu, Ashley Ficker, Rebecca Santho and Ashley Kuenzi from Cincinnati Children's. Collaborators also include David Williams (Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School), Michael Deininger (University of Utah), Xose Bustelo (University of Salamanca, Spain) and Xabier Agirre (University of Navarra, Spain).

This study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Defense, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation and Cancer Free Kids Foundation.

Continuation of this study has been recently funded by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of North America.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. K. H. Chang, A. Sanchez-Aguilera, S. Shen, A. Sengupta, M. N. Madhu, A. M. Ficker, S. K. Dunn, A. M. Kuenzi, J. L. Arnett, R. A. Santho, X. Agirre, J. P. Perentesis, M. W. Deininger, Y. Zheng, X. R. Bustelo, D. A. Williams, J. A. Cancelas. Vav3 collaborates with p190-BCR-ABL in lymphoid progenitor leukemogenesis, proliferation and survival. Blood, 2012; DOI: 10.1182/blood-2011-06-361709

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/_SpjPl3c0Os/120702172815.htm

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Palfrey ends Cuba-Florida swim amid strong current

British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey begins her bid to complete a record swim from Cuba to Florida, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, June 29, 2012. Palfrey aims to be the first woman to swim the Straits of Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Instead she's relying on equipment that surrounds her with an electrical field to deter the predators. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey begins her bid to complete a record swim from Cuba to Florida, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, June 29, 2012. Palfrey aims to be the first woman to swim the Straits of Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Instead she's relying on equipment that surrounds her with an electrical field to deter the predators. (AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey, begins her bid to complete a record swim from Cuba to Florida, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, June 29, 2012. Palfrey aims to be the first woman to swim the Straits of Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Instead she's relying on equipment that surrounds her with an electrical field to deter the predators.(AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)(AP Photo/Franklin Reyes)

British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey says goodbye before beginning her bid to complete a record swim from Cuba to Florida, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, June 29, 2012. Palfrey aims to be the first woman to swim the Straits of Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Instead she's relying on equipment that surrounds her with an electrical field to deter the predators. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey and her husband Chris rub creme on her body in preparation for her bid to complete a record swim from Cuba to Florida, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, June 29, 2012. Palfrey aims to be the first woman to swim the Straits of Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Instead she's relying on equipment that surrounds her with an electrical field to deter the predators. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey smiles as she is flashed a thumbs up at the start of her bid to complete a record swim from Cuba to Florida, in Havana, Cuba, Friday, June 29, 2012. Palfrey aims to be the first woman to swim the Straits of Florida without the aid of a shark cage. Instead she's relying on equipment that surrounds her with an electrical field to deter the predators. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) ? A 49-year-old grandmother and veteran endurance swimmer scuttled her quest early Sunday to become the first woman to swim unaided from Cuba to the Florida Keys, unable to close the gap on the last 26 miles of a more than 100-mile ocean odyssey.

Penny Palfrey had fended off painful jellyfish stings while keeping an eye on hammerhead sharks as she attempted the crossing without a shark cage. But her support team said the tricky currents of the Florida Straits proved to be her biggest obstacle, thwarting her achingly close to her goal.

All told, the British-born Australian athlete had been swimming nearly 41 hours since plunging into balmy waters near Havana, Cuba, on Friday to start out. She was about three-quarters of the way into her swim when she gave up the effort about midnight, just 26 miles south of Florida's Key West.

Her crew tweeted few details early Sunday of the end of her quest but said: "Penny Palfrey had to be pulled out of the water ... due to a strong southeast current that made it impossible for her to continue her swim. Penny is presently on her escort boat being taken care of by her crew."

"She is fine," Andrea Woodburn, one of the team members, confirmed by telephone from Key West.

Wooburn said early Sunday that she had been in contact with the escort vessel during the night and it was unclear where it would head next. She had no immediate details on Palfrey's physical condition or the currents she had encountered.

The Straits are notorious for their fickle ocean currents, including the powerful Gulf Stream. But whether she encountered problems with the Gulf Stream or a side eddy of that current or some other were not immediately apparent.

At last report about 10 p.m. EDT Saturday (0200 GMT Sunday) ? roughly 39 hours into the swim ? Palfrey was 79 miles (127.13 kilometers) from her starting point at a marina in the Cuban capital, according to an online GPS tracking report. She was positioned about 28 miles (45.06 kilometers) south, southwest of Key West.

But two hours after the 10 p.m. Saturday report, it appeared based on GPS data that she had made difficult headway before scrapping her effort. GPS data released online suggested she had been averaging as much as 3 mph while swimming at her strongest Saturday, before her speed then slowed to 2 mph and less after sundown.

Earlier Saturday, however, Palfrey's crew reported she had been swimming steady and strong in calm, tepid ocean waters that were virtually ideal for the attempt at the record books. She also had reported no physical complaints other than the jellyfish stings more than halfway into the swim.

Palfrey had sought to become the first woman to swim from Cuba to the Keys without the aid of a shark cage. Instead she had been relying on equipment that surrounded her with an electrical field to deter the predators. Her support team consisted of more than a dozen navigators, handlers and medical personnel escorting her on the 44-foot (13-meter) catamaran Sealuver.

She said she spotted a few hammerhead sharks and her crew said they delighted in dolphin pods spotted on the ocean.

After Palfrey set off Friday from Cuba, a member of her crew was tweeting to fans regularly and her webpage was updated with her location every 10 minutes or so based on data from a GPS device she wore. The daunting effort has been commonly reported as a 103-mile (166-kilometer) swim, however the GPS coordinates suggest it is more like 107 miles (172 kilometer).

She faced numerous challenges, including the prospect of physical and mental fatigue and fending off dehydration, hypothermia and potentially dangerous marine life.

At the rate she had been swimming, it had been estimated the crossing would have taken more than 56 hours to complete ? with arrival sometime Sunday in the Keys if she had kept going.

Australian Susie Maroney made the crossing in 1997 at age 22, but with a shark cage. American Diana Nyad made two unsuccessful cageless attempts last year on either side of her 62nd birthday, but had to call them off due to a debilitating asthma attack and painful Portuguese man o' war stings. She has announced plans to try again this summer.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-07-01-US-Cuba-Swimming-to-Florida/id-9bbb85e3149d47179da2fc56814c688c

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Syrian troops recover rebellious Damascus suburb

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian troops have regained control of a rebellious Damascus suburb after a 10-day assault that left dozens dead, hundreds wounded and caused a major humanitarian crisis, activists said Saturday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local activist Mohammed Saeed said troops recaptured Douma outside the capital late Friday.

The latest campaign was the worst of several assaults on the area, with dead bodies left in the streets, the Observatory said.

"The situation in Douma is catastrophic. The suburb is badly destroyed," said Saeed via Skype, adding that he was among dozens of residents who on foot through the fields to safer areas for fear of being captured by security forces.

Douma has been a hotbed of dissent since the uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March last year.

Troops loyal to Assad are strong in central Damascus, but have battled to control the ring of suburbs and settlements in the surrounding countryside. The army launches frequent offensives into the suburbs only to see them slip back into rebel control.

Saeed said troops stormed two makeshift hospitals where seriously wounded people were being treated. "The doctors fled and the wounded remained. Their fate is unknown," he said.

The latest violence came as representatives of global and regional powers tried Saturday to agree on a peaceful formula to end the bloody crisis in Syria, including the role of Assad in a transitional government.

The talks hosted by the United Nations at its European headquarters in Geneva are seen as a last-ditch attempt to salvage the peace plan brokered by the U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Annan warned that if nations trying to end the country's violence fail to act they face an international crisis of "grave severity." He said history "will judge us all harshly if we prove incapable of taking the right path today."

Russia's determination to preserve its last remaining ally in the Middle East has collided head-on with the desire by the U.S. and other Western powers to replace Assad with a democracy. Diplomats are growing pessimistic that the U.N.-brokered conference can bridge the Russia-U.S. divide.

Activists say more than 14,000 people have been killed as the conflict has becoming increasingly militarized. Fighting also has left several rebel strongholds facing dire conditions.

Douma's residents suffer from daily shelling as well as shortages of food, electricity and running water, according to the Observatory. It also cited a shortage of cooking gas that has prevented people from cooking food since the latest campaign began on June 21.

The Observatory said about 100 families, mostly women and children, remain in Douma as men had to flee because of waves of arrests. Dozens of wounded people also are holed up in shelters and need urgent treatment after troops took over the main hospital in the area and damaged it, the Observatory said.

"Many of the wounded have died because of bad medical conditions," the Observatory said.

The state-run news agency SANA said troops continue to pursue "terrorist groups" in Douma, raiding their hideouts and destroying their communications and other equipment. Clashes resulted in the death of dozens of terrorists ? the official term authorities use for rebels ? and the wounding and arrest of many others, the statement said.

In other violence Saturday, a car bomb exploded in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, damaging a government building but causing no casualties since the building was closed for the weekend, according to SANA.

Activists also reported shelling by government troops and clashes between rebels and government forces in the central provinces of Hama and Homs, the eastern region of Deir el-Zour as well as Idlib and Aleppo to the north. Activists said at least 22 people were killed in violence Saturday.

In Egypt, Arab League deputy chief Ahmed ben Heli told reporters that a Syrian opposition meeting will be held Monday in Cairo.

More than 200 Syrians representing opposition groups from inside and outside the country have been invited along with foreign ministers from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members ? the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia, he said. Also invited were Annan and envoys from Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey and Tunisia.

They will discuss agreeing on a common vision to deal with the next stage, he said.

The regional and international participation will only be in the opening and closing sessions while the opposition groups alone will discuss the issue for two days.

Previous attempts in the past weeks to hold a similar meeting at the league's headquarters in Cairo failed because of differences between opposition groups.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed next week's meeting.

"In our view the transition must involve representatives of all Syrian communities," he said in Geneva.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-troops-recover-rebellious-damascus-suburb-131605319.html

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New Vilma lawsuit asks for quick appeal ruling

By BRETT MARTEL

AP Sports Writer

Associated Press Sports

updated 1:45 a.m. ET July 1, 2012

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma is suing the NFL in federal court, claiming Commissioner Roger Goodell failed to make a timely appeal ruling regarding Vilma's season-long suspension in connection with the league's bounty investigation.

The lawsuit filed Saturday night in U.S. District Court in New Orleans also asks for a temporary restraining order to allow Vilma to continue working if Goodell upholds the suspension.

The suit contends Goodell has undermined "the integrity of the NFL and the Commissioner's office" by handing down punishments to Vilma and others based on evidence that is either flawed or cannot be substantiated.

It is the second lawsuit Vilma has filed in the matter. The first, filed in May and also in federal court in New Orleans, seeks unspecified damages from Goodell for defamation of character.

In his latest filing, Vilma claims that the NFL's collective bargaining agreement required Goodell to rule as soon as was practical following a June 18 appeal hearing. Because players, in protest, declined to present new evidence or argue their case in the hearing, Goodell should have been able to rule by June 25, the first business day after the record was closed in the matter, the lawsuit argues.

It was not clear if the NFL had seen the suit. Messages left with two league spokesmen Saturday night were not immediately returned.

In his latest attack of the NFL's handling of the bounty probe, Vilma contends punished players have only been able to see less than 1 percent of the 18,000 documents the league said it has compiled. His suit also claims that the few key pieces of evidence the league shared are flawed, including printed reproductions of handwritten notes.

"The NFL's alteration of other documents evidences that the NFL cannot substantiate the suspension, and undermines the integrity of the process," Vilma's lawsuit states.

The lawsuit seeks to discredit a key piece of evidence outlining bounty pledges from before the NFC championship game against Minnesota in January 2010, and also takes aim at fired assistant coach Mike Cerullo, who, according to Vilma, produced the document for the league.

Cerullo had a vendetta against the Saints after his firing following the 2009 season, and resented that the Super Bowl ring he received had been made with imitation (cubic zirconia) diamonds, the lawsuit contends.

The lawsuit claims Cerullo created the document "well after the 2009 NFC Championship game and in an effort to gain revenge against the Saints."

The suit further contends that a "close associate" of Cerullo has confirmed that Cerullo retracted his previous claims about the bounty program "in a communication directly with Goodell that occurred in April 2012."

The lawsuit notes that Goodell has not shared notes from interviews with Cerullo. Goodell also did not produce Cerullo as a witness at the appeal hearing or acknowledge Cerullo's retraction.

However, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has denied that key witnesses in the bounty probe have retracted statements.

Aiello also has said the NFL has not issued any gag orders. Vilma's latest lawsuit, however, claims the NFL has ordered suspended former Saints defensive coordinator Greg Williams not to speak with suspended Saints players, coaches or officials as a condition for his reinstatement.

The NFL has said that Williams, who is suspended indefinitely, organized a bounty system that offered cash for hits that injured opponents, and which ran during his three seasons as defensive coordinator in New Orleans from 2009-11.

A close friend and associate of Williams, who was present for at least one discussion Williams had with Goodell, contends Williams never acknowledged the existence of a bounty program, Vilma's lawsuit said.

Williams' associate also contends that Williams has no information corroborating NFL findings that Vilma offered a $10,000 bounty for knocking quarterbacks Kurt Warner or Brett Favre out of 2009-10 playoff games.

The same associate confirmed that Goodell ordered Williams not to speak about the bounty matter with other punished individuals, the lawsuit said.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/48030662/ns/sports-nfl/

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