LUBBOCK, Texas ? The worst drought in Texas' history has led to the largest-ever one-year decline in the leading cattle-state's cow herd, raising the likelihood of increased beef prices as the number of animals decline and demand remains strong.
Since Jan. 1, the number of cows in Texas has dropped by about 600,000, a 12 percent decline from the roughly 5 million cows the state had at the beginning of the year, said David Anderson, who monitors beef markets for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. That's likely the largest drop in the number of cows any state has ever seen, though Texas had a larger percentage decline from 1934 to 1935, when ranchers were reeling from the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, Anderson said.
Anderson said many cows were moved "somewhere there's grass," but lots of others were slaughtered. He said that in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas, about 200,000 more cattle were slaughtered this year, a 20 percent increase over last year.
That extra supply could help meet increased demand from China and other countries, but the loss of cows likely will mean fewer cattle in future years.
"Consumers are going to pay more because we're going to have less beef," Anderson said. "Fewer cows, calves, less beef production and increasing exports."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that beef prices will increase up to 5.5 in 2012, in part because the number of cattle has declined. That follows a 9 percent increase in beef prices in the past year.
Oklahoma, the nation's second-largest cattle producer, also saw about a 12 percent drop in cows, Oklahoma State University agriculture economist Derrell Peel said.
Anderson said beef production nationally will be down 4 percent next year.
In Texas, the problem is primarily due to the worst single-year drought in the state's history. From January through November the state got just 46 percent of its normal rainfall of about 26 inches.
The drought was the result of a La Nina weather pattern, which brings drier than normal conditions to the southwestern states. Forecasters have said La Nina is back, meaning another dry year for Texas, Oklahoma and other nearby states.
The lack of rain coupled with blistering summer heat caused pastures to wither, leaving rancher with the choice of buying feed for the cattle or selling them.
Betsy Ross, a 75-year-old rancher from the small central Texas community of Granger, said she sold all but 80 of the 225 grass-fed animals she had in January. With feed costs up 40 percent and her pasture parched, Ross said she didn't have any other option.
"It's not a profitable year, heavens no," she said. "If you can't keep them on grass when they're grass fed you're not going to make any money."
About 200 miles north in Sulphur Springs, Texas, part-time rancher Dwyatt Bell said producers in his part of the state sold off up to half their herds. Bell said high prices for cattle have helped offset increases expenses, but many ranchers still are struggling to stay afloat.
"It's been a rough year," he said.
Across Texas, the drought has caused an estimated $5.2 billion in losses to farmers and livestock producers, and that figure is expected to rise
Nationally, the number of cows has dropped by an estimated 617,000 this year, a 2 percent decline from the 30.9 million animals on Jan. 1. That number would be larger, but states in northern plains such as North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, increased their cow herd.
Anderson said it's unclear whether high beef prices would hurt U.S. sales or limit exports. The U.S. is the world third largest consumer of beef per capita at 85.5 pounds per year. Uruguay is first at 137 pounds per capita.
"Exports have been the strongest part of beef demand all year and they're expected to remain so but higher prices should constrain their growth," he said.
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Evanthia Plakoura's life recently became a lot more complicated.
Conversations with her boss switched to email only. Visits to the doctor require additional planning. She feels helpless in Greece's bureaucratic labyrinth.
"It's like someone flicked a switch and turned off your voice," said Plakoura, a deaf woman who works at the Education Ministry.
Plakoura joined some 2,000 disabled demonstrators at a rally in central Athens this week to protest sweeping benefit cuts imposed in Greece's economic crisis that have deprived her of sign-language translation.
In August, a five-year-old program providing deaf people with interpreters was suspended after the government abruptly cut its funding to less than half. Overnight, 15,000 deaf people around Greece were left without help to report a crime to the police, rent a house or go to a job interview.
Funding cuts have opened up gaps across welfare services, with slashed services and longer waiting times for vulnerable groups including the blind, recovering organ-transplant patients, autistic children, and paraplegics in need of physiotherapy.
"This program is very important to us. It's our bridge to the outside world and it's vital for our education," Plakoura said in sign language, her speech relayed by one of the very translators whose help is being cut off.
"People have gone back to writing things down, or taking a relative, but it's not the same thing," she said. "It makes things very difficult for us, and especially for elderly deaf people."
The axed program is the latest casualty of Greece's draconian austerity measures that have battered social services as demand for help by the recession-hit public increases.
Independent welfare programs that rely on grants from the state offer a tempting target to a government fighting the threat of bankruptcy. Unlike state-run programs, which enjoy strong legal protections, the government can simply turn off the money taps.
As a result, independent programs to assist the disabled, the elderly, psychiatric patients and recovering drug users have all suffered steep cuts, occasionally with dramatic consequences.
An alarming rise in HIV infections in 2011 has been blamed in part on problems with needle exchange programs for drug users. Between January and October this year, 190 new infections of the deadly virus were reported among intravenous drug users, compared with 14 in the first 10 months in 2010, according to the Health Ministry.
Groups representing the disabled and other vulnerable Greeks have held several demonstrations outside the Finance Ministry, on Athens' main Syntagma Square, but getting attention is difficult in a city where between four and five protests are held every day.
At his suburban headquarters, Costas Gargalis, who heads the National Association of the Deaf in Greece, is struggling to keep his 60-member network of interpreters together, hoping to restart the program sometime next year.
"Since the program was suspended, it's been really chaotic," he said. "Some people can pay for interpreters on occasion, but others have simply postponed their tasks forever."
Gargalis, who is deaf, spends his working day in hectic silence: swiftly thumbing text messages on his cell phone, poring over fax requests from around Greece, and making video calls over the Internet.
His interpreters program started with an annual state grant of euro250,000 ($333,200) in 2006; that was steadily reduced to euro180,000 ($240,000) this year, before being suddenly slashed to euro80,000 ($106,600) in August.
"We were immediately over-budget and had to suspend the program. And even then, interpreters were left unpaid for two months of work," said Gargalis.
At previous funding levels, deaf people were offered 25 hours a year with interpreters. If the program is restarted next year, they will receive no more than 10 hours, Gargalis said.
"The amount of money we are asking for is laughable," he said, speaking through an interpreter. "This is a matter of survival for us."
Interpreters for the deaf need six years of training to get their license, and are paid below-minimum wage to crisscross Greek cities daily and provide help communicating.
"People generally become interpreters because they are interested in the subject," registered interpreter Costas Christodoulakos said.
"Now they are obliged to look for other work and take on other commitments, often unrelated to their interpreting jobs," he said. "What else can they do?"
Greece's debt-shackled economy has been kept alive by international rescue loans for the past 19 months, and creditors are pressing for more aggressive spending cuts, as the Socialist government continues to miss deficit-cutting targets and heads into a fourth year of recession in 2012.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos promised this week to submit protesters' demands to the country's new prime minister, and invite disabled groups to join negotiations on a major new tax code due to take effect next year.
Health care is facing major cuts this year ? down from euro7 billion originally planned to euro5.6 billion ($9.4 billion to $7.5 billion), excluding state insurance subsidies.
Since the debt crisis started in late 2009, store closures have exceeded 20 percent in some commercial parts of Athens, while more than 275,000 people have lost their jobs nationwide, the vast majority in the private sector, pushing the unemployment rate to more than 16 percent.
"The unemployment rate among disabled people is normally more than double the national average ... so there is an urgent need for disabled people to be protected (from the cuts)," Yiannis Vardakastanis, leader of the National Confederation of Disabled People, said in an interview.
"The effects of the initial (government spending) cuts were not immediately obvious. But the cuts being made now have brought parts of the care system to a state of near-collapse."
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MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Longtime Russian parliament speaker Boris Gryzlov, the day-to-day head of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party, said on Wednesday he would not take his seat in the State Duma lower house elected last week.
The decision appeared aimed at cooling public anger over an election opponents say was rigged in the ruling party's favor. Protests against the result have undermined Putin's authority ahead of a March vote in which he plans to return to the presidency.
"I decided today to reject my mandate as a deputy," Gryzlov said in remarks posted on the party's website, adding that it would "not be right to hold the post of chairman of the chamber for more than two consecutive terms."
As Duma speaker since 2003 and chairman of United Russia's Supreme Council, Gryzlov is a powerful symbol of a political system dominated by Putin and the party for more than a decade.
Voters expressed their frustration with that dominance by sharply reducing United Russia's parliamentary majority in the December 4 vote. It will hold 238 seats when the 450-member Duma convenes on December 21, down from the 315 it won in 2007 elections.
Opponents charge United Russia's official result - 49.3 percent of the vote - was inflated by fraud.
Claims of electoral violations spread via the Internet and tens of thousands of people protested in dozens of cities on Saturday, calling for a new election and chanting for a "Russia without Putin."
Putin, president from 2000-2008, will seek a new six-year term in the Kremlin in a March 4 election.
The decline of support for his party and the biggest opposition protests of his rule have put him under pressure to address the concerns of Russians who want a stronger voice in politics and fear his return could hamper economic progress.
Gryzlov's decision will be seen as a victory for the protesters, but may not appease them. Some observers had expected Putin to ensure he stepped aside in favor of a new speaker.
The decision fit into an apparent effort by Putin to set some distance between himself and the party, which has always been less popular than he is. Putin is chairman of United Russia but not a member.
Gryzlov, who turns 61 on Thursday, was entitled to one of United Russia's seats in the Duma because of his position on the party's candidate lists. Any candidate allotted a seat can refuse to take it and cede it to the next person in line.
Gryzlov, a former interior minister, once encapsulated the party's legislative style for its critics by saying the Duma was "no place for discussions."
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, smiles as he greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday Dec. 5, 2011. The leaders of Germany and France will try to agree Monday on a cohesive plan to help save the euro through stricter oversight of government budgets. Financial markets signaled optimism that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will unveil a unified plan that tightens political and economic cooperation among the 17 European Union countries that use the euro and sets the stage for more aggressive aid from the European Central Bank. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, smiles as he greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday Dec. 5, 2011. The leaders of Germany and France will try to agree Monday on a cohesive plan to help save the euro through stricter oversight of government budgets. Financial markets signaled optimism that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will unveil a unified plan that tightens political and economic cooperation among the 17 European Union countries that use the euro and sets the stage for more aggressive aid from the European Central Bank. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy awaits German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss Europe's financial crisis at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday , Dec. 5, 2011. The leaders of Germany and France will try to agree on Monday on a cohesive plan to help save the euro through stricter oversight of government budgets. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, to discuss Europe's financial crisis at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday, Dec. 5, 2011. The leaders of Germany and France will try to agree on Monday on a cohesive plan to help save the euro through stricter oversight of government budgets.(AP Photo/Michel Euler)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday Dec. 5, 2011.The leaders of Germany and France will try to agree on Monday on a cohesive plan to help save the euro through stricter oversight of government budgets.(AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, right, smiles as he shakes hands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to their meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Monday Dec. 5, 2011. The leaders of Germany and France will try to agree Monday on a cohesive plan to help save the euro through stricter oversight of government budgets. Financial markets signaled optimism that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will unveil a unified plan that tightens political and economic cooperation among the 17 European Union countries that use the euro and sets the stage for more aggressive aid from the European Central Bank. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)
PARIS (AP) ? French President Nicolas Sarkozy says a jointly issued bond by all the countries that use the euro is not the solution to the continent's debt crisis.
Many analysts have said that only by issuing bonds backed by the whole eurozone will Europe be able to save its shared currency.
Stronger countries, like Germany and France, have resisted those calls, but some thought that as the crisis worsens they might be forced to relent. Sarkozy reiterated Monday, however, that a common bond was "in no way" the solution to the crisis.
He spoke after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of a crucial week for the eurozone. Markets cheered their comments, with the euro and stocks and bond yields edging lower.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
PARIS (AP) ? The leaders of Germany and France are calling for a new European Union treaty to ensure that the region's debt crisis never happens again.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that they would prefer a treaty agreed by all 27 members of the European Union but would also accept a treaty among just the 17 countries that use the euro.
The new treaty should include automatic sanctions for countries that violate rules meant to keep government deficits in check.
The meeting comes at the start of a crucial week for the eurozone, as it struggles to convince markets that it is able to solve its debt crisis.
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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? You just know that Regis Philbin would never find himself in this kind of mess -- mainly because he probably doesn't know what a "tranny" is.
Neil Patrick Harris found himself in apology mode Friday, after catching flak for using the phrase "tranny" on Thursday's "Live! With Kelly."
"Truly sorry for saying the word 'tranny' on Live this week. Twice!" Harris wrote on his Twitter account. "Should have been more thoughtful. Didn't at all mean to offend."
Harris' gaffe came during his guest-hosting stint, during a segment with Science Bob, who introduced Harris and Kelly Ripa to the joys of sulfur hexafluoride, referred to as "helium's evil twin" by the visiting science expert.
Taking a huff and marveling at the voice-deepening properties of the substance, Harris busted out a Darth Vader impression. Then, recognizing how much he sounded like the "Silence of the Lambs" character Buffalo Bill, he intoned, "Put the lotion in the basket!"
As his voice returned to normal, Harris cracked, "I've never sounded more like a tranny in my life." (Presumably, Harris was referring to Buffalo Bill, not Darth Vader.)
The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation lauded Harris's mea culpa, noting, "It's heartening to see a celebrity of Harris' stature recognize and apologize for using the slur in such a timely manner, and for greater media attention being paid to its use. Many people do not realize that the word "tr*nny" is one of the most hurtful and dehumanizing slurs that transgender people hear. Most transgender people associate that word with personal experiences of violence, hatred and derision."
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ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) ? Tweaking the levels of factors used during the reprogramming of adult cells into induced pluriopotent stem (iPS) cells greatly affects the quality of the resulting iPS cells, according to Whitehead Institute researchers.
"This conclusion is something that I think is very surprising or unexpected -- that the levels of these reprogramming factors determine the quality of the iPS cells," says Whitehead Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch. "We never thought they'd make a difference, but they do."
An article describing this work is published in the December 2 issue of Cell Stem Cell.
"This conclusion is something that I think is very surprising or unexpected -- that the levels of these reprogramming factors determine the quality of the iPS cells," says Whitehead Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch. "We never thought they'd make a difference, but they do."
iPS cells are made by introducing specific reprogramming genes into adult cells. These factors push the cells into a pluripotent state similar to that of embryonic stem (ES) cells. Like ES cells, iPS cells can become any cell type in the body, a characteristic that could make them well-suited for therapeutic cell transplantation or for creating cell lines to study such diseases as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Since the creation of the first iPS cells in 2006, researchers using various reprogramming techniques have reported a broad spectrum of efficiency rates and quality of resulting iPS cells. Although researchers have shown iPS cells can fulfill all developmental tests applied to ES cells, recent reports have identified molecular differences that can influence their developmental potential and render them less-than-equivalent partners to ES cells. These inconsistencies have tarnished the promise of iPS cells, dampened enthusiasm, and fueled speculation that they may never be used therapeutically.
In one example reported last year, a lab created iPS cells using a cutting-edge technique in which a piece of DNA containing four reprogramming genes is safely integrated in the genome of adult mouse cells. In this highly publicized study, the resulting iPS cells performed poorly in tests of pluripotency and failed to produce adult mice, which is the most stringent test of pluripotency. Yet again this called into question the fidelity by which reprogramming factors could consistently generate fully reprogrammed cells equivalent to ES cells. Many in the field saw this as another nail in the coffin of iPS cells.
To Bryce Carey, first author of the Cell Stem Cell paper and a graduate student in Jaenisch's lab at the time, this death knell seemed premature. He repeated the experiment, changing a few details, including the order in which the reprogramming factors were placed on the inserted piece of DNA. Surprisingly, such small alterations had a profound effect -- more adult cells were converted to high-quality iPS cells than in the earlier, nearly identical study.
"We are trying to show that the reprogramming process is not as flawed as some have thought, and that you can isolate these fully pluripotent iPS cells that have all of the developmental potential as embryonic stem cells at a pretty high frequency," says Carey, who is now a postdoctoral associate at Rockefeller University. "A lot of times these parameters are very difficult to control, so while the approach first described by [Shinya] Yamanaka back in 2006 is still the most reliable method for research purposes, we should be cautious in concluding there are inherent limitations. We show recovery of high-quality cells doesn't have to be the exception."
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201125151.htm
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JOHANNESBURG ? A film opening on World AIDS Day Thursday that mixes live action and animation is taking viewers inside a soccer player's body, showing how he becomes infected with HIV and spreads the virus.
The cast and characters are Kenyan, Nigerian and South African ? which producers hope will help the movie travel across the continent hardest hit by the disease. The pull of soccer, which has a unique power to unite Africans, also should help.
Harriet Gavshon, a producer who worked on "Inside Story: The Science of HIV/AIDS," said the "toxic combination" of death and sex still makes it difficult for people to discuss AIDS.
"You have to constantly find new ways of trying to talk about it," she said.
The 90-minute film, aimed at viewers from their mid-teens and up, is a co-production of Johannesburg's Curious Pictures and an international development program sponsored by the U.S. reality and educational TV company Discovery.
Thursday's premiere at a Johannesburg multiplex will be followed by a U.S. debut in January in Washington and one in Nigeria later next year.
Aric Noboa, president of Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership, said they hope to broadcast the film and distribute DVDS, along with booklets to help guide community leaders in conducting post-film discussions.
Films, TV and radio shows, newspaper ads and billboards can get conversations started. But experts at loveLife, a group that has pioneered a range of programs to teach young South Africans about AIDS, say changing behavior requires keeping the dialogue going long enough for lifesaving messages to sink in.
It appears, though, that messages are getting across in South Africa, at least to young people targeted by projects like "Inside Story." Results released this week from a South African health ministry survey found that infections among 15- to 24-year-olds had dropped from 23.1 percent in 2001 to 21.8 percent in 2010.
But across all age groups, infections are creeping up, and this country of 50 million that has more people ? at least 5.5 million ? living with HIV than in any other country.
The focus on prevention may be becoming even more important. The cost of treatment is increasing as more people test and go on drugs, and efforts to find a cure or vaccine are advancing slowly and fitfully.
According to a U.N. report released on the eve of World AIDS Day, funding for HIV programs dropped from $15.9 billion in 2009 to $15 billion in 2010, well below the estimated $22 billion to $24 billion the U.N. says is needed in 2015 for a comprehensive global response. The report cited the global economic crisis and concerns about the sustainability of the AIDS response, given the increasing costs of treatment and prevention.
Last week, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria declared it had run out of money to pay for new health programs in the next two years. The fund currently pays for AIDS drugs for about half of the world's HIV patients in developing countries.
It took five years and $2 million ? raised from the U.S. and South African governments, the U.N. AIDS agency and other donors ? to put together "Inside Story."
Since 1997, Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership has been getting educational TV to impoverished communities. Noboa said "Inside Story" grew out of requests from teachers in Africa and elsewhere for more information about AIDS.
The problem is confounded in South Africa by years of misinformation from a president, Thabo Mbeki, who questioned the link between HIV and AIDS, and a health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who promoted a "treatment" of beets and garlic.
"I think the issues that were part and parcel of the Mbeki era are still there, they still linger on," said Dr. Dave Spencer, a program director at Right to Care, which provides treatment for thousands of HIV-positive South Africans.
A doctor can prescribe AIDS medication and see a patient grow stronger and healthier. Campaigners trying to change the behavior that leads to infection can never be sure their message is getting across.
"It's so hard to know where exactly we are in the fight," said the director of "Inside Story," Rolie Nikiwe. "It's a frustrating fight, but it's one that needs to be fought."
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AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng contributed to this report from London.
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Donna Bryson can be reached on http://twitter.com/dbrysonAP
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