King's Speech "I have a dream"

US marks 50 years since Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech

US President Barack Obama has addressed celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.

 The "Let Freedom Ring and Call to Action" commemoration took place on the steps of Washington's Lincoln Memorial, the site of King's address on 28 August, 1963.

Mr Obama said King's speech inspired millions of Americans to fight for a more just society and rights that people now take for granted.
"To dismiss the magnitude of this progress, to suggest, as some sometimes do, that little has changed, that dishonours the courage, the sacrifice of those who paid the price to march in those years," Obama said. "But we would dishonour those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete," he said, calling economic justice the "unfinished business" of the civil rights battle.
Other speakers included former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The ceremony followed an interfaith service at Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington.
The speech by Mr Obama, the first black US president, came as almost half of Americans say much more needs to be done before the colour-blind society that King envisioned is realised.
The Lincoln Memorial ceremony included bell-ringing at 3pm , 50 years to the minute after King ended his call for racial and economic justice with the words "let freedom ring".
About 50 communities or organizations around the US also said they would ring bells. The Swiss city of Lutry and Tokyo also took part. Other organizers included the National Action Network of civil rights leader and talk show host Al Sharpton, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Council of Churches.
A "Jobs and Justice" march took place before the event. Mr Obama's address wrapped up more than a week of Washington events marking the 50th anniversary of King's address. They included seminars, conferences and a march on Saturday that drew tens of thousands of people urging action on jobs, voting rights and gun violence. "What we must do is we must give our young people dreams again," Mr Sharpton told marchers. King, a black clergyman and advocate of non-violence, was among six organizers of the 1963 "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," where he made his address. That address is credited with helping spur passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act the following year. A white prison escapee, James Earl Ray, assassinated the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1968.

Nelson Mandela's Condition Becomes Critical

Nelson Mandela remains in a critical condition in hospital, South Africa's President Jacob Zuma said.

Mr Zuma and ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa visited Mr Mandela in hospital on Sunday evening after the former president's health deteriorated.

They were briefed by Mr Mandela's medical team and told the 94-year-old's condition had become critical over the past 24 hours".

Mr Zuma said in a statement: "The doctors are doing everything possible to get his condition to improve and are ensuring that Madiba is well-looked after and is comfortable. He is in good hands."

The pair also met Mr Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, who has been by her husband's bedside since he was taken ill.

On Monday, Mr Zuma told a news conference in Johannesburg that he had no further updates on Mr Mandela's condition.

Mr Mandela has suffered repeated bouts of illness in recent months and has been admitted to hospital four times since December.

The anti-apartheid leader has been in intensive care since he was last admitted to hospital on June 8 for a recurring lung infection.

Mr Zuma appealed to South Africans and to the world to pray for Mr Mandela, his family and the medical team attending him.

In Sunday's statement, Mr Zuma also discussed the government's acknowledgement a day earlier that an ambulance carrying Mr Mandela to the hospital two weeks ago had broken down.

"There were seven doctors in the convoy who were in full control of the situation throughout the period. He had expert medical care," Mr Zuma said.

"The fully equipped military ICU ambulance had a full complement of specialist medical staff including intensive care specialists and ICU nurses.

"The doctors also dismissed the media reports that Madiba suffered cardiac arrest. There is no truth at all in that report."

Mr Mandela is seen by many around the world as a symbol of reconciliation.

He played a leading role in steering South Africa from the apartheid era to democracy, becoming the country's first black president in all-race elections in 1994.

Court says human genes cannot be patented

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that companies cannot patent parts of naturally-occurring human genes, a decision with the potential to profoundly affect the emerging and lucrative medical and biotechnology industries.

The high court's unanimous judgment reverses three decades of patent awards by government officials. It throws out patents held by Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics Inc. on an increasingly popular breast cancer test brought into the public eye recently by actress Angelina Jolie's revelation that she had a double mastectomy because of one of the genes involved in this case.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote the court's decision, said that Myriad's assertion — that the DNA it isolated from the body for its proprietary breast and ovarian cancer tests were patentable — had to be dismissed because it violates patent rules. The court has said that laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas are not patentable.

"We hold that a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated," Thomas said.

However, the court gave Myriad a partial victory, ruling that while naturally-occurring DNA was not patentable, synthetically-created DNA could be patented. The court said that synthetically created DNA, known as cDNA, can be patented "because it is not naturally occurring," Thomas said.

Patents are the legal protection that gives inventors the right to prevent others from making, using or selling a novel device, process or application. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been awarding patents on human genes for almost 30 years, but opponents of Myriad Genetics Inc.'s patents on the two genes linked to increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer say such protection should not be given to something that can be found inside the human body.

The company has used its patent to come up with its BRACAnalysis test, which looks for mutations on the breast cancer predisposition gene, or BRCA. Those mutations are associated with much greater risks of breast and ovarian cancer. Women with a faulty gene have a three to seven times greater risk of developing breast cancer and also have a higher risk of ovarian cancer.

Jolie revealed last month that her mother died of ovarian cancer and that her maternal grandmother also had the disease. She said she carries a defective BRCA1 gene that puts her at high risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers, and her doctor said that the test that turned up the faulty gene link led Jolie to have both of her healthy breasts removed to try to avoid the same fate.

The court's ruling on synthetic DNA leaves the door open for future genetic patent work for companies like Myriad, lawyers said.

Thomas noted there are still ways for Myriad to make money off its discovery. "Had Myriad created an innovative method of manipulating genes while searching for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, it could possibly have sought a method patent," he said. And he noted that the case before the court did not include patents on the application of knowledge about the two genes.

Most biotech companies have already moved on from trying to patent isolated DNA, instead looking at synthetic options and other ways of protecting their multimillion-dollar investments, said Matthew McFarlane of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P.

"On a day-in and day-out basis, I don't see this changing that part of the industry," McFarlane said. "Isolated DNA itself is not something that companies seek to protect anymore."

Myriad's stock price jumped 10 percent after the ruling and was above $36 a share in early afternoon trading.

For its part, Myriad focused on what the ruling left intact.

"We believe the court appropriately upheld our claims on cDNA and underscored the patent eligibility of our method claims, ensuring strong intellectual property protection for our BRACAnalysis test moving forward," said Peter D. Meldrum, Myriad's president and CEO. "More than 250,000 patients rely upon our BRACAnalysis test annually, and we remain focused on saving and improving peoples' lives and lowering overall healthcare costs."

Myriad sells the only BRCA gene test. Opponents of its patents say the company can use the patents to keep other researchers from working with the BRCA gene to develop other tests.

"Today, the court struck down a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation," said Sandra Park, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union Women's Rights Project. "Myriad did not invent the BRCA genes and should not control them. Because of this ruling, patients will have greater access to genetic testing and scientists can engage in research on these genes without fear of being sued."

Companies have billions of dollars of investment and years of research on the line in this case. Their advocates argue that without the ability to recoup their investment through the profits that patents bring, breakthrough scientific discoveries to combat all kinds of medical maladies wouldn't happen.

But "genes and the information they encode area not patent eligible ... simply because they have been isolated from the surrounding genetic material," Thomas said.

In a concurring opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia said "the portion of the DNA isolated from its natural state sought to be patented is identical to that portion of the DNA in its natural state."

The case is 12-398, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc.

How to pronounce "-ed"

New diet craze offers five days of feasting for two days of famine

LONDON (Reuters) - Forget abandoning carbohydrates or detoxing. The new dieting craze sweepingBritain and taking off in the United States lets people eat whatever they like - but only five days a week.

"The Fast Diet", also known as the 5:2 diet, is the brainchild of TV medical journalist Michael Mosleyand journalist Mimi Spencer and allows people to eat what they want for five days but only eat 600 calories a day on the other two.

Their book, "The Fast Diet", has topped bestselling book lists in Britain and the United States this year and been reprinted more than a dozen times.

Mosley said the diet is based on work by British and U.S. scientists who found intermittent fastinghelped people lose more fat, increase insulin sensitivity and cut cholesterol which should mean reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes.

He tried this eating regime for a BBC television science program called "Eat, Fast, Live Longer" last August after finding out his cholesterol level was too high and his blood sugar in the diabetic range. He was stunned by the results.

"I started doing intermittent fasting a year ago, lost 8 kgs (18 pounds) of fat over 3 months and my blood results went back to normal," Mosley told Reuters.

Mosley said he had been amazed at the way the diet had taken off with a list of websites set up by followers of the 5:2 diet or variations of the eating regime to share their experiences.

Following the success of "The Fast Diet", Spencer joined forces with dietitian Sarah Schenker to bring out "The Fast Diet Recipe Book" in April which has topped amazon.co.uk's food and drink list with 150 recipes containing under 300 calories.

Eating a 600 calorie daily diet - about a quarter of a normal healthy adult's intake - could consist of two eggs for breakfast, grilled chicken and lettuce for lunch, and fish with rice noodles for dinner with nothing to drink but water, black coffee or tea.

ONE DAY AT A TIME

Mosley put the diet's success down to the fact it is psychologically attractive and leads to steady drop in weight with an average weekly loss of 1 pound (0.46kg) for women and slightly more for men.

"The problem with standard diets is that you feel like you are constantly having to exercise restraint and that means you are thinking about food all the time, which becomes self-defeating," said Mosley.

"On this regime you are only really on a diet two days a week. It is also extremely flexible and simple."

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) initially expressed doubts about the diet and its longterm effects, saying side effects could include sleeping difficulties, bad breath, irritability, anxiety, and daytime sleepiness.

But as the popularity of the 5:2 diet has grown and become one of the most searched diets on the Internet, the NHS has started to look again at the diet and its effects.

On its website last month the NHS said the British Dietetic Association (BDA) reviewed a 2011 study by researchers at the UK's University Hospital of South Manchester that suggested intermittent fasting could help lower the risk of certain obesity-related cancers such as breast cancer.

"The increasing popularity of the 5:2 diet should lead to further research of this kind," the BDA said in a statement.

Schenker, a sports and media dietitian who works with football clubs and food companies, said it was a shame that the NHS had criticized the eating regime that had proved such a success with so many people.

"We are in the midst of an obesity crisis and you need to balance up which is worse - intermittent fasting of staying obese?" Schenker told Reuters.

Despite concerns raised by the NHS, the 5:2 diet has been widely praised by those who follow it.

Deb Thomas, 50, a management coach from London, said she has followed the diet for six months and dropped a couple of dress sizes. This has also inspired her husband to join her in fasting two days a week.

"It is such an easy diet to follow that fits into my way of life," Thomas said. "You have a tough day of not eating but you know the next day you can eat normally again, and that keeps you going."

Top Tips if you're travelling to New York this summer

Yellow Cabs vs Regular taxis

Sometimes yellow cabs are cheaper. They tend to charge a standard rate. However, make sure you look at the meter because once I went into a cab where the person was racist and tried to add $5 extra dollars to the fare. When I told him that I know how to read he started to say that is why he does not like Black people. Mind you the guy who was of another race was darker than us.

Non-yellow cabs don't always use a meter. They charge you based on how you dress and where you are going. If you look like you have money they will charge you alot. If you are going to an expensive neighborhood in Manhattan they may charge you more than those who are going to the Bronx which may be further out. 

Your best bet is to take public transportation during non rush hours 10:30am - 2:00pm, 4pm-4:30pm and 7pm-5am. If coming from airport take the shared van service, or one of the local buses or trains

 

Check your hotel's location

Our package's program said "Two nights in New York". We slept two nights not far from New York (in American scale, very far in Portuguese scale), but as a matter of fact, in New Jersey State. And, sleeping in New Jersey can be a good or bad solution, depending on your program. As you may see in my Newark page, I had a very good experience with that kind of solution, when I was coming from inland, needing to take a plane in Newark Airport and with a very short time to be in New York. 

However, this time, I was coming from Europe, expecting to have some free time in New York, and we didn’t. We followed the straight program of the package, and were moved more than 25km outside NY, to Saddle Brook, far from everything. Next time I’ll check it more carefully.

 

Beware with the Naked Cowboy!

A funy character in Times square!
You can take a pic with him for a tip. You have to leave the tip in one of his cowbow boots, the "pack" includes a picture with his "front" and a pic of his 'back" hahah.
He also has a legend, you can read it in his website, I just get to a conclusion: JUST IN NEW YORK......

Pickpockets and fake tickets

Always keep an eye on your money, and camera in the subway, pickpockets are good at taking your stuff without you noticing it in time.

and never buy tickets from a stranger on the street, and so you do not buy fake tickets, and never go fake cab

can be good also to read a bit about New York before traveling here.