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A man harvests flowers on the Valleflor flower farm in Pifo, Ecuador, Saturday, June 29, 2013. A week after National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden began his flight across the globe, every passing day without him making progress toward Ecuadorean asylum makes the prospect look less likely. But the men who grow roses, asters and delphinia in the thin air of Ecuador's sun soaked highlands are deeply concerned that, whatever happens to Snowden, they may turn out to be the most unlikely collateral damage from the geopolitical wrangle over his fate. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
A man harvests flowers on the Valleflor flower farm in Pifo, Ecuador, Saturday, June 29, 2013. A week after National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden began his flight across the globe, every passing day without him making progress toward Ecuadorean asylum makes the prospect look less likely. But the men who grow roses, asters and delphinia in the thin air of Ecuador's sun soaked highlands are deeply concerned that, whatever happens to Snowden, they may turn out to be the most unlikely collateral damage from the geopolitical wrangle over his fate. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Flowers grow on the Valleflor flower farm in Pifo, Ecuador, Saturday, June 29, 2013. A week after National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden began his flight across the globe, every passing day without him making progress toward Ecuadorean asylum makes the prospect look less likely. But the men who grow roses, asters and delphinia in the thin air of Ecuador's sun soaked highlands are deeply concerned that, whatever happens to Snowden, they may turn out to be the most unlikely collateral damage from the geopolitical wrangle over his fate. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, center, sings with a band before the start of his his weekly broadcast "Enlace Ciudadano," or "Citizen Link" in Manta, Ecuador, Saturday, June 29, 2013. While the Ecuadorean government appeared angry over U.S. threats of punishment if it accepts U.S. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, there were also mixed signals about how eager it was to grant asylum. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, left, speaks during his weekly broadcast "Enlace Ciudadano," or "Citizen Link" in Manta, Ecuador, Saturday, June 29, 2013. While the Ecuadorean government appeared angry over U.S. threats of punishment if it accepts Edward Snowden, there were also mixed signals about how eager it was to grant asylum. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Flowers grow in a greenhouse on the Valleflor flower farm in Pifo, Ecuador, Saturday, June 29, 2013. A week after National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden began his flight across the globe, every passing day without him making progress toward Ecuadorean asylum makes the prospect look less likely. But the men who grow roses, asters and delphinia in the thin air of Ecuador's sun soaked highlands are deeply concerned that, whatever happens to Snowden, they may turn out to be the most unlikely collateral damage from the geopolitical wrangle over his fate. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
PIFO, Ecuador (AP) ? Gino Descalzi used to fret about things like aphids, mildew and the high cost of shipping millions of roses a year from Ecuador to florists in the United States. These days he's worried about a 30-year-old American thought to be stuck in the transit area of the Moscow airport, and he can't believe it.
The Obama administration sent a thinly veiled economic threat to this South American country on Thursday when it indefinitely delayed a decision to eliminate tariffs on imports of roses worth about $250 million a year. The move created leverage over the leftist government seen as likeliest to grant National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden political asylum that would protect him from U.S. criminal charges.
A week after Snowden began his stuttering, surreal flight across the globe, every passing day without him making progress toward Ecuadorean asylum makes the prospect look less likely. But the men who grow roses, asters and delphinia in the thin air of Ecuador's sun-soaked highlands are deeply concerned that, whatever happens to Snowden, they may turn out to be the most unlikely collateral damage from the geopolitical wrangle over his fate.
"This totally changes the financial panorama for our businesses and seriously affects the structure of our markets," said Descalzi, whose 280 employees produce some 22 million roses a year. "We're just shocked that an event so far from the political and economic life of Ecuador has caused so much commotion and worry."
The rose benefit for Ecuador had been widely expected to be approved. Any delay, they say, puts it into uncomfortably uncertain territory.
Even if Snowden never touches Ecuadorean soil and the U.S. cuts the 6.8 percent tariff on Ecuadorean roses, along with tariffs on frozen broccoli and canned artichokes, Ecuadorean flower growers are worried that the brouhaha has damaged Ecuador in the eyes of the United States, hurting its reputation for stability and reliability among the buyers who must decide between flowers from Ecuador and the already tariff-free blooms from its nearby market-dominant competitor, Colombia.
"This is not a mathematical equation," said Benito Jaramillo, the head of the Ecuadorean flower-growers' association. The graduate of Texas A&M and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign employs hundreds of people growing "summer flowers" ? a category of less-flashy blooms like hydrangeas and asters ? on his farm about a half-hour from the capital, Quito.
"The point is that there are a lot of other factors that damage our industry's image and competitiveness in the midterm," Jaramillo said.
Flowers are serious business in Ecuador.
The industry says it employs about 50,000 people on about 550 farms across the country and is indirectly responsible for 110,000 jobs, putting it after only oil, seafood and bananas in the ranks of the country's biggest exporters. It boasts that the long days, rich sunlight and cool nights of the Andean highlands mean the heads of flowers, particularly roses, grow fuller and richer than those from Colombia, which they scoff at as more suitable for grocery stores than florists.
Industry representatives spent around a year campaigning hard in Washington for the inclusion of cut roses under the Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP, a mechanism meant to encourage development in lower-income countries. A broader trade pact that covers a wide range of Ecuadorean products, the Andean Trade Preference Act, had been widely expected to expire next month. That now seems certain, not least because Ecuador declared Thursday that it was preemptively rejecting it.
Now, the flower industry has turned its focus to its own government, which it desperately hopes won't offer asylum to Snowden.
A small group of U.S. senators explicitly threatened trade retaliation if Ecuador harbors Snowden. And on Saturday, Vice President Joe Biden asked Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to turn down any asylum request.
"We can't put the interests of 14 million Ecuadoreans at risk because of a 29-year-old hacker whom we don't even know," Descalzi said. "This gentleman doesn't mean anything to us."
The business impacts of the Snowden affair have infuriated Ecuador's main business groups, who accuse the government of putting ideology before commerce.
The decision to renounce the Andean Trade deal was "permeated by political and ideological motives," said Roberto Aspiazu, chairman of a coalition of Ecuador's largest industries. The country's business sector is calling on the government to manage the relationship with the United States "with the utmost care," he said.
The government said it planned to compensate business damaged by the loss of U.S. tariff benefits and has painted its decision in terms of the nation's sovereignty versus U.S. threats.
However, Correa told The Associated Press in an interview Sunday that his government was not thinking about renouncing the GSP trade benefits that would affect rose exports, along with a host of other Ecuadorean products, because those benefits had not been subject to U.S. threats.
"If they threaten us, we'll take the appropriate decisions. Ecuador doesn't accept threats from anyone, we don't allow blackmail and our sovereignty isn't for sale," Correa said.
When asked how he feels about the whole situation, Jaramillo, the head of the flower association, thought before responding with a single word: "frustrated."
"One isolated issue shouldn't create so much damage," he said.
___
AP writer Gonzalo Solano contributed to this report.
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At night, in the ocean, they look like little Broadway billboards with dazzling trills of rainbow colored light. They have eight little runways on their bodies for light display. What are they?
They're called comb jellies. They're not jellyfish. They don't pulse like jellies. They seem to hang. You can find them bobbing off eastern beaches from Massachusetts to the Carolinas and if you pull them up (you can, they don't sting), they're goopy, gelatinous clumps vaguely shaped like walnuts.
But the secret about comb jellies is they aren't bobbing. They're moving, with cunning and purpose. They do this with very teeny oars. And then at night, those oars double as moving lights!
You might call them master-rowers. Think of a walnut-sized ship with thousands and thousands of oarsmen packed together on benches, with long, skinny paddles that plow the sea in serial strokes, like Yankee fans doing the wave. No animal their size does anything like this.
Here's a fine little animation showing their secret system, created (with help from Sophia Tintori) by college student Lee Stevens, who a few years ago was in Professor Casey Dunn's invertebrate zoology class at Brown University. Lee points out that the teeniest organisms on our planet, bacteria, use little oars (called cilia) to get about. Comb jellies, who are much, much bigger, didn't want to give up rowing, so, after some cunning adaptations, you can still find them off the Jersey shore, quietly going "stroke, stroke, stroke."
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Source: Twitter Blog
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is urging Americans to make climate change a political litmus test, asking them to declare they won't vote for any politicians who don't protect future generations from environmental devastation.
Obama says Americans are already paying the price for climate change, including in lost lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. He says America will be judged as a people and a nation by how it responds.
"If you agree with me, I'll need you to act," Obama says, appealing to Americans to spread the word to their family, friends and classmates. "Remind everyone who represents you, at every level of government, that there is no contradiction between a sound environment and a strong economy ? and that sheltering future generations against the ravages of climate change is a prerequisite for your vote."
Obama's remarks in his weekly radio and Internet address, released Saturday but recorded at the White House prior to the start of Obama's weeklong trip to Africa, marks the start of a new phase for Obama's efforts on climate change: convincing the public to sell it for him.
Obama last week unveiled a national plan to combat climate change and prepare for its effects, bypassing Congress after years of frustrated efforts to get lawmakers to pass legislation to deal with the issue. At the core of Obama's plan are new controls on new and existing power plants that emit carbon dioxide ? heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. The program also will boost renewable energy production on federal lands, increase efficiency standards and prepare communities to deal with higher temperatures.
None of the measures in Obama's plan require Congress to act ? a consideration that liberates the president but also poses risks if it's perceived as executive overreach. Republicans and some Democrats have already denounced the plan as a job-killing "war on coal," and opponents could try to hinder Obama's plan or hinder it through legal action if Americans don't seem to be on board.
"The question is not whether we need to act. The question is whether we will have the courage to act before it's too late," Obama says, adding that a sound environment and a strong economy aren't mutually exclusive.
In the Republican address, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas says there are troubling, unanswered questions about the implementation of Obama's health care law.
"We must put an end to the fear and uncertainty," Roberts says. "Those 'bumps' and 'glitches' the president talks about? It's a train wreck, folks, and we have to get America out of the way."
___
Online:
Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov
GOP address: www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-climate-change-must-vote-100111195.html
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June 24, 2013 at 2:02 PM ET
Apple
If your young ones went on a spending spree for Angry Birds or other games and apps from the Apple's iTunes Store, and you didn't know about it ? until you got the bill ? you may be due some money from the company, or at the very least, a $5 iTunes credit.
In 2011, five parents filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, saying that some downloaded apps were purchased by their children using their parents' accounts, but without their knowledge or permission.
Apple settled the suit earlier this year, agreeing to pay as many as 23 million customers in the U.S. amounts varying from a $5 iTunes Store credit to larger cash refunds. In all, the settlement may cost the company up to $100 million. Apple now has posted information about the settlement details here, with claims to be filed online by Jan. 13, 2014.
Parents are eligible for a settlement benefit if before May 2, 2013 they paid for apps or in-app purchases that were charged to their iTunes account by a minor without the parents' "knowledge or permission," within one 45-day period ? and if they haven't already received a refund from Apple for the charge.
If you're not good with a $5 iTunes Store credit, for claims under $30, parents will need to identify and submit the names of the apps that were charged without permission. For claims over $30, you'll need to do the same thing, but also describe the circumstances that led to your children making those charges to your account.
After the lawsuit was filed, Apple added more stringent controls for in-game purchases, and has also tried to educate users about how app purchases work. Still, there are children out there who know their parents' iTunes passwords, including a 5-year-old boy in Britain who recently racked up about $2,500 in App Store charges for the iPad in only 15 minutes. (Apple said it would issue a complete refund to the parents.)
For more information about the settlement, check Apple's FAQ page about it here.
Check out Technology and TODAY Tech on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.
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TORONTO (AP) ? Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion plunged nearly 30 percent Friday after the company posted a loss and warned of future losses despite releasing its make-or-break new smartphones this year.
RIM also announced that it will stop developing new versions of its slow-selling tablet computer called the Playbook.
Analysts were looking for insight into how phones running RIM's new Blackberry 10 operating system are selling. It wasn't good.
RIM said it sold 6.8 million phones overall versus 7.8 million last year. That includes older models. In wasn't until well into a conference call with analysts that RIM announced that 2.7 million of the devices sold in the quarter were Blackberry 10 models.
RIM's Blackberry 10 operating system is critical to the company's comeback. New phones running the BlackBerry 10 software began selling around the world this year. The BlackBerry Z10, a touchscreen model and the Q10, which sports a keyboard, have received positive reviews, but there was a delay in getting them to market in the U.S.
The first quarter, however, included a substantial period of sales of the Z10 phone in the U.S. It didn't include sales numbers for the Q10 in the U.S. The Q10 just went on sale in the U.S. earlier this month.
Sales results and RIM's projections, however, signal that the new BlackBerry 10 phones are not selling well. The company said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter, too.
Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said it's clear the new operating system has not turned the company around.
"With Z10, Q10, and Q5 all shipping in the August quarter and BlackBerry still guiding to a loss we believe that is strong evidence BB10 has not turned around BlackBerry in an extremely competitive smartphone market," Walkley said.
Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on a conference call with analysts that the "transition takes time" and noted things are better compared to last year when "we were told the company was finished."
Shares of Research in Motion Ltd. dropped $4.02, or 28 percent, to close at $10.46 Friday.
The BlackBerry, introduced in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. But it lost its cachet not long after Apple released the first iPhone in 2007. Apple's device reset expectations for what a smartphone can do. RIM promised to catch up while developing new a software system called BlackBerry 10, which uses technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But the company took more than two years to unveil new phones that were redesigned for the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now demand. During that time, RIM cut more than 5,000 jobs and saw shareholder wealth of more than $70 billion vanish.
The Canadian company said it lost $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the three months ended June 1 on revenue of $3.1 billion. It lost $518 million, or 99 cents per share, on revenue of $2.8 billion a year ago.
Analysts expected RIM to earn 5 cents a share on revenue of $3.37 billion.
The number of BlackBerry users in the world also fell by four million to 72 million. RIM also said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter. Heins noted the highly competitive smartphone market makes it difficult to estimate revenue and levels of profitability.
Heins also announced on the call that he has halted further development of RIM's failed tablet offering, the Playbook. The Playbook has not sold well.
"Our teams have spent a great deal of time and energy looking at solutions that could move the BlackBerry 10 experience to Playbook, but unfortunately I am not satisfied with the level of performance and user experience and I made the difficult decision to stop these efforts and focus on our core hardware portfolio," Heins said.
Heins said they'll continue to support the PlayBook on the existing software platforms and configurations. Asked if RIM will continue to make the Playbook, a RIM spokeswoman said the company is evaluating its hardware strategy.
Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, said said it's tough for RIM because it's hard to make money on handsets now.
"There are a lot of people that haven't been able to make it happen. For all the talk about Apple and Samsung, there are companies like Nokia and HTC," Gillis said.
Gillis said things look bleaker for the company and it's going to continue to be a struggle.
Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek said the high end global smartphone market is saturated and brutally competitive.
"Everybody is coming to this reality. You talk to HTC, Samsung and even Apple, the high end is saturated. That's a fact," Misek said. "Anybody in the high end who wants a smartphone in the world has one, so you have to knock somebody away from another platform. That is a brutal, brutal market."
RIM has unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets, but hasn't said if the device will be available in North America.
Misek was expecting the company to sell 4 million BlackBerry 10 phones. He said the sale of 2.7 million new BlackBerry 10 phones was the most disappointing news Friday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rim-posts-larger-expected-loss-shares-plunge-121958378.html
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PARIS (Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi said it won approval from the Japanese government for its Lyxumia drug for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes in combination with basal insulin.
Lyxumia is part of a new class of diabetes treatments called GLP-1 analogues which prompt the body to release insulin when a diabetic's blood sugar level climbs too high.
Lyxumia is now approved in Mexico, the European Union, Australia and Japan, Sanofi said in a statement on Friday. A new drug application for lixisenatide in the United States is currently being reviewed, it added.
(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Dominique Vidalon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sanofi-wins-diabetes-drug-approval-japan-061321216.html
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By Douwe Miedema
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Tennessee man was charged with attempting to extort $1 million during last year's election by threatening to release former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's tax returns that he falsely claimed he had stolen, the Department of Justice said on Wednesday.
Michael Mancil Brown, 34, was indicted on six counts of wire fraud and six counts of extortion in U.S. District Court in Tennessee, the agency said.
Romney's taxes were a hot political issue last year during the presidential campaign because he refused to release several years of his personal tax returns.
Brown was charged with demanding $1 million worth of the digital currency Bitcoin to hand over tax documents that he said he obtained by gaining access to the computers of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Brown sent a letter to the offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers in August 2012 to demand the money and invited others wanting the tax documents to transfer $1 million to another Bitcoin account, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that Brown delivered similar letters to the Democratic and Republican parties.
(Reporting by Douwe Miedema; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-man-charged-extortion-romney-tax-return-scheme-005318147.html
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By Piya Sinha-Roy
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. celebrity chef Paula Deen saw more lucrative deals evaporate on Thursday despite her renewed apologies for using a racial slur, as retailer Target Corp and drug company Novo Nordisk A/S joined the list of sponsors distancing themselves from the doyenne of Southern cooking.
But in a sign that Deen could make a comeback, her upcoming cookbook "Paula Deen's New Testament," which features "lightened up" recipes, shot to the top of the Amazon books best-sellers list this week on pre-orders for the October 15 release. And her "Southern Cooking Bible" is No. 2 on the list.
Experts say not all may be lost for Deen despite the exodus of sponsors and they point to the comeback of another domestic maven, Martha Stewart, who was able to rebuild her career and image after serving jail time for insider trading.
Deen, 66, has been in damage control mode after a deposition surfaced last week in which she admitted to using the "N-word." She released online apology videos and made a tearful appearance on NBC's "Today" on Wednesday.
For Robert Passikoff, president and founder of Brand Keys Inc, a consumer and brand loyalty consulting firm, Deen's apology was "too little, too late."
"She came across as very defensive and when you are talking about contrition, the two words don't really go together," Passikoff said.
"While she had reasonable brand values that worked for her sponsors, she's not the only one available and these days sponsors don't need to take a chance on folks that self destruct," he added.
Forbes estimated Deen's earnings at $17 million in 2011, placing her fourth on its list of highest-earning chefs last year as her privately held company, Paula Deen Enterprises, expanded.
The contract with Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company, came in 2012 after she revealed that she had been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. As spokeswoman for the maker of diabetes care and equipment she would earn an estimated $6 million over three years, according to Forbes.
The company said in a statement that it had "mutually agreed" with Deen to suspend her partnership with the company "while she takes time to focus her attention where it is needed."
FANS RALLY IN SUPPORT
Deen's merchandising deals, which include cookware, homeware and books, have an estimated value of about $7 million, according to Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for market researcher The NPD Group.
Cohen also estimated Deen's food and restaurant branding deals added another $6 million to $7 million to her empire.
Retail giants Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Target and Home Depot Inc all cut ties with Deen within 24 hours of her "Today Show" appearance.
"We have made a decision to phase out the Paula Deen merchandise in our stores as well as on Target.com," Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement. "Once the merchandise is sold out, we will not be replenishing inventory."
Since last Friday, Deen has also been dropped by pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc and Food Network, owned by Scripps Network Interactive Inc, home of Deen's cooking shows.
Home-shopping network QVC, owned by Liberty Media Corp, has taken a wait-and-see approach with Deen, saying it was putting a "pause" on her involvement with the network.
Sears Holdings Corp, which stocks Deen's products, said on Thursday it was still deciding the future of the partnership.
"Now she's going to be given an opportunity down the road ... to rebuild and retool," NPD Group's Cohen said. "She may never get (her brand) back to the same level, but there's enough people who will sympathize with her."
QVC said in its statement that "People deserve second chances."
Some companies that have partnered with Deen have stood behind her, including Landies Candies and Sandridge Food Corp, which said it is "proud to provide unwavering support for Paula Deen."
Deen's comeback may come down to her loyal fans, many of whom have come out in force on social media to voice their support, some threatening in Facebook and Twitter posts to boycott the companies dropping the chef.
"The consumers have a very short memory ... in a few years from now, no one is going to remember what Paula Deen did," Cohen said. "American consumers are very forgiving and very forgetful."
(Additional reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Mary Milliken)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/celebrity-chef-paula-deen-loses-more-deals-book-000429318.html
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EXCLUSIVE: Director Evan Goldberg tells Screen he is up for a sequel - but Seth Rogen might need some convincing.
Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, the duo behind Superbad and Pineapple Express, were in London this week to promote their new comedy, which is released in the UK by Sony this weekend.
With the $31m-budgeted spoof about six friends facing the apocalypse having grossed $57.8m after two weeks in the US, Screen asked Goldberg about the prospect of a sequel.
?If you ask me, I?d say there?s a good chance of sequel,? said Goldberg, who co-directed the comedy with Rogan. ?If you ask Seth, he?d say no. So, we?ll see.?
Real-life friends James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson star as the six friends fending off the apocalypse, while there are cameos from the likes of Rihanna, Emma Watson, the Backstreet Boys, Channing Tatum and Paul Rudd.
Corralling that level of talent for a follow-up film would pose a challenge, according to Goldberg, who said: ?We lucked out that they were all available. I honestly don?t know if we could get the guys together.?
That hasn?t stopped Goldberg, Rogen and their Point Grey Pictures outfit from brainstorming possible plotlines.
?We actually talked about doing a sequel where it starts at the premiere of This is the End,? Goldberg revealed. ?Seth?s a cokehead in this version, Michael Cera is a calm dude with a boyfriend, Rihanna and The Backstreet Boys are back.
?We have a lot of ideas: a heaven and hell, for example, and a garden of Eden version where Danny [McBride] is Adam.?
Next up on the directorial slate for Goldberg and Rogen is comedy The Interview, in which James Franco and Rogen will respectively play a talk show host and his producer who unwittingly get caught up in an assassination plot against Korean dictator Kim Jung-un.
Sony is backing again, with shoot due in October.
Goldberg and Rogen recently produced comedy Townies, starring Franco, Rogen, Rose Byrne and Zac Efron, while in development are Jamaica, written by 50/50?s Will Reiser, in which a teenager travels to Jamaica with his grandmother, and a sequel to hockey comedy Goon.
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927743/news/1927743/
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Posted on 06/24/2013 by Tamara Lytle | Washington Watch | Comments
Bulletin Today | Personal Health | Politics PrintWhere to begin? Come Oct. 1, when the online health insurance marketplaces open for business, that will be the challenge for many people who want to get coverage under the health care law.
To get ready for the launch, they can visit the government?s newly revamped HealthCare.gov website. Or they can call the 24-hour call center, which opened June 24. It?s supposed to be able to handle enrollment questions in 150 languages.
The website asks a few simple questions, such as what coverage you have now, where you live and your age range. The site offers up a checklist of information you will need to have handy when the application process opens. You can also get questions answered through a live online chat. And you can sign up to get email alerts with more information.
Here?s what three imaginary consumers would find out:
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Over the summer, the Department of Health and Human Services will add new features so that by the time marketplace enrollments begin, you?ll be able to set up accounts, complete an insurance online application and shop for coverage. A Spanish version, CuidadoDeSalud.gov, is also being updated.
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Also of Interest
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See the AARP home page for deals, savings tips, trivia and more
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Can quality of urban life be boiled down to a formula?
Image: Flickr/tomdz
Most people might think of a city such as Paris or Tokyo as a unique entity, with a character that is distinct from other metropolises. But large cities, towns and even smaller villages also share common purpose: they strive to provide a good place to live. Urban planners are trying to find a way to bring mathematical rigor to analyzing how well a city accomplishes this universal goal.
Professor and theoretical physicist Luis Bettencourt teamed up with his colleagues at the Santa Fe Institute and recently published a theory that suggests cities, towns and villages are more similar than different. He observed statistical trends across urban areas worldwide?how size, geographic location, wealth and other measures vary?and identified universal components that are integral to a city?s success. Bettencourt has tried to synthesize these components into a mathematical formula, intended to quantify how successful a city or town really is. Scientific American asked Bettencourt about what makes cities successful and how a more formalized, mathematical approach to urbanization can be used to diagnose and improve struggling cities.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
What was your approach in identifying universal patterns from one city to the next?
It took a long time. Our team here at Santa Fe Institute is generally interested in complex systems. I?ve always been interested in cities. I grew up in Lisbon and lived in London, and I just love trying to understand how the hell we create all these amazing things that we see in our society. Where does it go wrong, and how can we make it better? Essentially, we?ve been looking at every scrap of data that we can find in the last 10 years, not only in the West but also in Japan. Then we moved to China and Brazil.
What do your findings contribute to our current understanding of cities?
A lot of ways we?ve viewed cities in the past have been through analogies to other complex systems, such as organisms. What this paper tries to do is create a shift in perspective from what cities look like and describe and formalize a city?s function. Trying to shift this perspective creates a new view of cities and allows us to say what cities are. Our conclusion is that cities are a kind of social reactor; they exist to solve the problem of putting lots of socializing people together and coordinate them in space and time in an open-ended, sustainable way.
What makes a city successful?
You want a balance between interactivity and the cost of creating those interactions, and that?s what this formula is about. That balance is what defines a city that is working well and can be achieved for cities of any size. Although people sort of knew that, this paper allows us to formalize that and put all these things in the same equation for the first time.
Does more social interaction necessarily mean a city will be more successful? Or can social interaction sometimes be a bad thing?
Some interactions make you want to be in a city, like the exchange of innovative ideas. But others can deter people from cities. Social interactions have to give you an overall advantage in order for cities to exist. You have to take the advantageous social interactions, like measures of innovation and creativity, and subtract the negative interactions, like violence or crime. You also have to subtract the cost of these advantageous interactions, like transportation. When you subtract that cost, that gives the conditions for the city to exist in this balance between creating value through interactions and paying the price for that value.
Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-mathematical-guide-to-cities
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By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters) - The number of people dying from heart disease in Europe has dropped dramatically in recent decades, thanks largely to the success of cholesterol-lowering drugs and drives to persuade people to quit smoking, scientists said on Wednesday.
Cardiovascular disease death rates have more than halved in many countries in the European Union since the early 1980s, according to their study in the European Heart Journal.
Yet heart disease - which can lead to fatal heart attacks and strokes - remains a leading cause of death in the region and rising rates of obesity and diabetes could soon start to reverse progress made in the past 30 years.
"For the most part and for most countries this is good news - the death rates have come down quite substantially in the last 30 years," said Nick Townsend of Britain's Oxford University, who worked on the study.
"But what we don't want to say is that the job is done, because we know by looking at trends in other conditions that they could reverse the trends we've worked so hard to achieve in heart disease."
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases kill around 17 million people globally each year.
Townsend's team looked at deaths from coronary heart disease between 1980 and 2009 in both sexes and four age groups: under 45, 45 to 54, 55 to 64, and 65 years and over.
They found that almost all EU countries had a large and significant decrease in death rates from heart disease over the last three decades in both men and women when all the age groups were considered together.
Britain, Denmark, Malta, The Netherlands and Sweden had the largest declines in death rates for both sexes, while among men in Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, the decreases were small and not statistically significant. In Romanian men, there was a small but statistically significant increase.
Although the study did not look specifically for causes, Townsend said the progress was probably mainly due to better drugs - such as statins to treat high cholesterol and anti-hypertensives to treat high blood pressure - as well as lower rates of smoking in the region overall.
He warned, however, that other risk factors, such as obesity and diabetes, were a real concern: "It could lead to a future time bomb, whereby these fantastic gains in terms of heart disease mortality could start to reverse with the impact of rises in obesity and diabetes."
Commenting on the study's findings, Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation charity, said while the picture of heart disease mortality is improving "we're an awful long way from back-patting and hand-clapping".
"More than 2 million people are battling coronary heart disease in the UK and while our work in science labs and (in) improving prevention and care has made a huge difference, that's 2 million people too many," he said in a statement.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heart-disease-deaths-show-dramatic-decline-europe-230716816.html
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By Paul ToscanoMarc Nemer, the CEO of Cole Real Estate Investments, one of the largest publicly traded REITs, said that a recovery is under way with fundamentals noticeably improving in the market.
"It's fundamentally different out there," Nemer told "Squawk on the Street" Friday, when asked how the market today compares with the period six months prior.
Nemer said that his company focuses on "necessity-based" properties, which are less subject to discretionary spending at the consumer level. "The kind of properties we're focused on are doing very well right now."
According to the company, Cole invests primarily in single-tenant commercial real estate, leasing the properties under long-term leases. Cole's portfolio of tenants includes such companies as Walgreen, Dr. Pepper Snapple, PetSmart, Microsoft, Apollo Group's University of Phoenix and more. In 2012, Cole's portfolio topped $10 billion.
"Development is coming back a little bit, which is an indication that things are improving, but that is slow," he said. "Being one of the most active investors, we are able to take advantage of opportunities in the market right now."
With a dividend yield of nearly 6.5 percent, Nemer said that the payouts are backed up by a strong portfolio of income-generating collateral. "It's very compelling right now," he said.
With markets that are sensitive to a looming rise in interest rates, Nemer said that his company is "relatively isolated from a fundamental standpoint" for the eventuality of higher rates. "We've been taking advantage of historically low interest rates for some time, locking in long-term fixed-rate debt."
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Billionaire's Real Estate Playbook
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Find homes for sale in your area.
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By Jeff Mason and Lidia Kelly
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States increased pressure on Russia on Monday to hand over Edward Snowden, the American charged with disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs, and said it believed he was still in Moscow.
Snowden, until recently a contractor with the U.S. National Security Agency, had been expected to fly to Havana from Moscow on Monday, perhaps on the way to Ecuador, according to sources at the Russian airline Aeroflot who spoke on Sunday.
But he was not seen on the daily Aeroflot flight that landed in Havana on Monday evening and the captain of the plane said he had not been aboard.
White House spokesman Jay Carney, speaking hours after the Moscow-Havana flight took off, said it was Washington's assumption that Snowden was still in Russia and pressed Russia to use all options to expel him to the United States.
The U.S. State Department said diplomats and Justice Department officials were engaged in discussions with Russia, suggesting they were looking for a deal to secure his return.
"Given our intensified cooperation working with Russia on law enforcement matters ... we hope that the Russian government will look at all available options to return Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged," spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters.
Snowden flew to Moscow after being allowed to leave Hong Kong on Sunday, even though Washington had asked the Chinese territory to detain him pending his possible extradition on espionage charges.
Julian Assange, founder of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks which is assisting Snowden, said the 30-year-old had fled to Moscow en route to Ecuador and was in good health in a "safe place" but did not say where he was now.
Ecuador, like Cuba and Venezuela, is a member of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials. The Quito government has been sheltering Assange at its London embassy for the past year.
With Snowden's whereabouts still a mystery on Monday night, U.S. President Barack Obama, may face prolonged embarrassment from a young American leading the world's lone superpower on a global game of hide and seek.
Seat 17A on the Aeroflot flight to Havana had been set aside for Snowden, but reporters aboard said another person occupied the seat and it was not clear whether the plane had a section in which the American could have been concealed.
When the captain of the Aeroflot plane emerged from customs in Havana, he was surrounded by photographers and said: "No Snowden, no."
Washington has been stung by the defiance from Russia, with which Obama has sought improved relations, and China's apparent compliance in letting Snowden leave Hong Kong. Obama has met the leaders of both powers in recent months.
Obama told reporters his government was "following all the appropriate legal channels working with various other countries to make sure the rule of law is observed."
U.S.-RUSSIA DISCUSSIONS
Carney defended the administration's attempts to bring Snowden into U.S. custody and slammed those countries from which Snowden had chosen to seek protection, saying his choices belied his claim that he was focused on supporting transparency, freedom of the press and individuals' rights.
Carney blamed China for helping Snowden's departure from Hong Kong and said it would damage U.S. China relations.
"This was a deliberate choice by the (Hong Kong) government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN Snowden's activities could threaten the security of China as well as that of the United States.
"People may die as a consequence to what this man did," he said. "It is possible that the United States would be attacked because terrorists may now know how to protect themselves in some way or another that they didn't know before. This is a very dangerous act."
While U.S. officials are clearly furious at the governments that have helped Snowden, analysts expect a restrained U.S. response.
Anthony Cordesman, a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Washington should avoid risking important alliances.
"Compared to all of the key issues between the United States, Russia and China, Snowden doesn't matter," he said.
U.S. HYPOCRISY SEEN
China, which itself has frequently been accused of hacking abroad, has sought the high ground, expressing "grave concern" over Snowden's allegations that the United States had hacked Chinese computers. It said it had taken up the issue with Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's press secretary denied any knowledge of Snowden's movements. Asked if Snowden had spoken to the Russian authorities, Dmitry Peskov said: "Overall, we have no information about him."
Other Russian officials said Moscow had no obligation to cooperate with Washington, citing legislation passed in the United States to impose visa bans and asset freezes on Russians accused of violating human rights.
The Russian news agency Interfax quoted an unnamed source as saying Moscow could not arrest or deport Snowden because he had not actually entered Russian territory - suggesting he had remained in the transit area at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.
Putin has missed few chances to champion public figures who challenge Western governments and to portray Washington as an overzealous global policeman.
WikiLeaks said Snowden was supplied with a refugee document of passage by Ecuador and that a British legal researcher working for the anti-secrecy group had accompanied him.
Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said during a trip to Vietnam that Quito would take into account a U.S. request about Snowden and was in contact with Russia about him. He gave no details of the U.S. request.
To his supporters, Snowden is a whistleblowing hero who exposed the extent of U.S. surveillance activities.
A petition initiated by his supporters and posted on the White House website described him as "a national hero and should be immediately issued a full, free, and absolute pardon for any crimes he has committed or may have committed related to blowing the whistle on secret NSA surveillance programs."
The petition at https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/pardon-edward-snowden/Dp03vGYD had garnered more than 113,000 signatures by 2030 GMT, above the 100,000 needed to oblige a White House response within 30 days.
One of three high-powered lawyers representing Snowden in Hong Kong said they had warned him he might be stuck in legal limbo for years - and possibly detained - if he stayed put and requested asylum in the city-state.
Snowden, who worked as a systems administrator at a U.S. National Security Agency facility in Hawaii for about three months, had been hiding in Hong Kong, since leaking details about secret U.S. surveillance programs to news media.
He said in an interview published by Hong Kong's South China Morning Post on Monday that he took a job at U.S. contractor Booz Allen Hamilton deliberately to gain access to details of the NSA's surveillance programs.
"My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked," Snowden said, according to the article.
Booz Allen Hamilton fired Snowden on June 10, a day after he went public about his role in revealing details of the NSA programs in a video posted by the Guardian newspaper in London. It had no comment about Snowden's latest comments.
U.S. officials said intelligence agencies were worried they do not know how much sensitive material Snowden had in his possession and he may have taken more documents than initially estimated. They were concerned that his links with WikiLeaks would increase the likelihood of their being published.
Snowden has been charged with theft of federal government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person. The last two charges fall under the U.S. Espionage Act.
(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Alexei Anishchuk in Moscow, Martin Petty in Hanoi, Sui-Lee Weein in Beijing,; Andrew Cawthorne, Mario Naranjo and Daniel Wallis in Caracas, Alexandra Valencia in Quito, Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington and Katya Golubkova in Havana.; Writing by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Christopher Wilson)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-presses-russia-mystery-over-snowden-deepens-015914306.html
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Ecuador's Foreign Mister Ricardo Patino speaks to reporters at a hotel during his visit to Vietnam Monday, June 24, 2013. Patino said that his government is analyzing an asylum request from Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor wanted for revealing classified secrets. (AP Photo/Tran Van Minh)
Ecuador's Foreign Mister Ricardo Patino speaks to reporters at a hotel during his visit to Vietnam Monday, June 24, 2013. Patino said that his government is analyzing an asylum request from Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor wanted for revealing classified secrets. (AP Photo/Tran Van Minh)
A TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong Sunday, June 23, 2013. The former National Security Agency contractor wanted by the United States for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has been allowed to leave for a "third country" because a U.S. extradition request did not fully comply with Hong Kong law, the territory's government said Sunday. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) ? Ecuador's foreign minister said Monday his country will act not on its interests but on its principles as it considers an asylum request from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, wanted for revealing classified U.S. secrets.
Speaking to reporters through a translator at a hotel in Hanoi, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said the asylum request "has to do with freedom of expression and with the security of citizens around the world."
Patino spoke briefly to reporters on his way to a meeting with Vietnam's foreign minister. He did not say how long it would take Ecuador to decide.
Snowden was on a flight from Hong Kong that arrived in Moscow Sunday and was booked on a flight to Cuba Monday, the Russian news agencies ITAR-Tass and Interfax reported, citing unnamed airline officials.
"We know that he's currently in Moscow, and we are ... in touch with the highest authorities of Russia," Patino said.
Anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Snowden was bound for Ecuador "via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from WikiLeaks." The organization's founder Julian Assange, was granted asylum by Ecuador last year and has been staying at the country's embassy in the United Kingdom.
The Russian reports said a plane carrying Snowden arrived in Moscow on Sunday and he was booked on a flight to Cuba on Monday. The reports cited unnamed airline officials and said he intended to travel from Cuba to Caracas, Venezuela. There was also speculation that he might try to reach Ecuador.
Snowden had been in hiding in Hong Kong for several weeks after he revealed information on the highly classified spy programs.
Patino said Ecuador would not base its asylum decision on its potential to damage the country's relationship with the United States
"There are some governments that act more upon their own interests, but we do not," Patino said. "We act upon our principles."
He added, "We take care of the human rights of the people."
Patino was to hold a news conference Monday evening in Hanoi.
WikiLeaks said it was providing legal help to Snowden at his request and that he was being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from the group.
Assange has spent a year inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about sex crime allegations. He told the Sydney Morning Herald that his organization is in a position to help Snowden because it has expertise in international asylum and extradition law.
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Existing home sales rose 4.2 percent in May and 12.9 percent above the level seen in May 2012.?
This chart shows the monthly and annual change in existing single family home sales. Single family homes jumped 5 percent in May 2013.
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EnlargeToday, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released their Existing Home Sales Report for May showing an increase in sales with total home sales rising a notable 4.2% since April and climbing 12.9% above the level seen in May 2012.?
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Single family home sales also improved climbing a whopping 5.0% from April and rising 12.7% above the level seen in May 2012 while the median selling price increased a notable 15.8% above the level seen a year earlier.?
Inventory of single family homes increased from?April to 1.98 million units but still remained 9.2% below the level seen in?May 2012 which, along with the sales pace, resulted in a monthly supply of 5.2 months.?
The following charts (click for full-screen dynamic version) shows national existing single family home sales, median home prices, inventory and months of supply since 2005.?
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on paper-money.blogspot.com.
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Supporters of Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi attend Friday noon prayer before a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi attend a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
CAIRO (AP) ? More than 100,000 supporters of Egypt's Islamist president staged a show of force Friday ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution!" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil.
Adding to the combustible mix, comments by the U.S. ambassador that were interpreted as critical of the opposition's planned protests sparked outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."
Friday's mass gathering was ostensibly called by Islamists to denounce violence, but it took on the appearance of a war rally instead. Participants, many of them bearded and wearing robes or green bandanas, vowed in chants to protect President Mohammed Morsi against his opponents. Some who addressed the crowd spoke of smashing opposition protesters on June 30, the anniversary of Morsi's assumption of power.
"We want to stress that we will protect the legitimacy with our blood and souls," declared Mohammed el-Beltagy, a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic group from which Morsi hails.
Most participants were bused in from elsewhere in the Egyptian capital or from far-flung provinces. They waved Egypt's red, white and black flag as well as the green banner of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and posters of the president. Many raised their fists in the air.
Brotherhood members in red helmets and carrying white plastic sticks manned makeshift checkpoints, searching bags and checking IDs as demonstrators streamed into the venue.
Friday's rally was the latest evidence of the schism that has torn Egypt apart in the more than two years since autocrat Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising. That division has plunged the country into deadly street battles and taken on a clear religious character after Morsi took office a year ago as the nation's first freely elected leader. In the year since, Egypt has been divided into two camps, with the president and his Islamist backers in one, and secular, liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, women and minority Christians in the other.
The past year has also been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy. Morsi's opponents charge that he and his Brotherhood have been systematically amassing power, excluding liberals, secular groups and even ultraconservative Salafi Muslims. A persistent security vacuum and political turmoil have scared away foreign investors and tourists. Egypt's already battered economy has continued to slide, draining foreign currency reserves and resulting in worsening fuel shortages and electricity cuts, along with increasing unemployment.
The president's supporters charge that the opposition, having lost elections, is trying to impose its will through street protests.
"They threaten us with June 30. We promise them they will be smashed that day," warned hard-line Islamist Tareq el-Zommor, who spent more than two decades in jail for his part in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
"June 30 is Islamic," he said as the crowd chanted behind him.
"Our battle is an identity battle, against communism and secularism," read one banner carried by protesters. "The people want to implement Islamic Shariah law," declared another.
"I am here to support the legitimacy of an elected president who was chosen by the people through the ballot box," said Saad Ismail, a 43-year-old teacher from the Nile Delta province of Beheira.
Assem Abdel-Maged, a hard-line Islamist leader addressing the crowd, threatened that any attempt to oust Morsi would be met with an Islamic revolution. On Thursday, he told a gathering in the southern city of Minya that those conspiring against Morsi include Coptic Christian extremists, communists and remnants of Mubarak's regime.
"Our dead will be in heaven, and their dead will be in hell," he said.
The main boulevard where the rally was held, along with several side streets were packed as protesters streamed in for hours and the crowd grew to more than 100,000.
Opposition leaders were not impressed by the turnout.
"Those 100,000 are not going to scare the people. We have collected petitions of 15 million people," said Mahmoud Badr, one of the main organizers of the June 30 protests. "They brought people from the provinces that stretch from Cairo to (the southern city of) Aswan. This is their top capacity."
After a months-long petition drive, opposition organizers announced on Thursday that they had collected up to 15 million signatures supporting Morsi's ouster and an early presidential election.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, who has repeatedly been accused by the opposition of bias in favor of Morsi, caused outrage this week when she said she was "deeply skeptical" the protests will be fruitful and defended U.S. relations with Morsi and his Brotherhood as necessary because the group is part of the democratically elected Egyptian government.
"Some say that street action will produce better results than elections. To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical," she said at a seminar Tuesday organized by a Cairo research center. "Egypt needs stability to get its economic house in order, and more violence on the streets will do little more than add new names to the lists of martyrs."
Her unusually frank comments were widely interpreted as referring to the June 30 demonstrations.
Leading opposition activist Shady el-Ghazali Harb said Patterson showed "blatant bias" in favor of Morsi and the Brotherhood and her remarks had earned the U.S. administration "the enmity of the Egyptian people."
"The Muslim Brotherhood is ready to offer Egypt on a golden platter to the United States in exchange for Washington's support. It is no surprise that she would say that," he said.
Another prominent opposition activist, George Ishaq, counseled Patterson in a television interview to "shut up and mind your own business." Christian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris posted a message on his Twitter account addressed to the ambassador saying, "Bless us with your silence."
The United States has had its own frustrations with the mainly liberal and secular opposition, which has been beset by divisions. During a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Egypt in March, he pressed the main opposition grouping, the National Salvation Front, to reverse its decision to boycott parliamentary elections expected later this year or early in 2014.
Washington, Egypt's longtime economic and military backer, has maintained relatively warm ties with Morsi. The Obama administration has praised him for mediating a truce late last year between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant rulers of the Gaza Strip, and for maintaining Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.
"This is the government that you and your fellow citizens elected. Even if you voted for others, I don't think the elected nature of this government is seriously in doubt," Patterson said. "Throughout Egypt's post-revolution series of elections, the United States took the position that we would work with whoever won elections that met international standards, and this is what we have done."
Meanwhile, privately owned TV network ONTV aired footage of what it said was Patterson's convoy of black SUVs in a visit to Khairat el-Shater, a powerful figure in the Muslim Brotherhood who is widely suspected to exercise vast influence over Morsi.
The visit drew criticism from the opposition. The U.S. Embassy declined comment.
"Is this democracy that she visits a man who holds no post in the Egyptian state," Harb said.
Morad Ali, spokesman for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, confirmed the meeting but said he was not authorized to disclose details.
"It was not a secret meeting. The ambassador meets with all political parties and this is the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Why is this considered interference in Egypt's domestic affairs?" he said.
___
Associated Press reporter Tony G. Gabriel contributed to this report.
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