LONDON (AP) — A forgetful British bridegroom who made a hoax bomb threat rather than admit he'd neglected to book the venue for his wedding was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail.
Neil McArdle called Liverpool's St. George's Hall from a phone booth on his scheduled wedding day in April, claiming a bomb was due to go off in 45 minutes.
His fiancee, Amy Williams, was left standing in the street in her wedding gown while the building was evacuated.
McArdle, 36, was arrested the same day and admitted that he made the call because he had forgotten to fill out the paperwork for the wedding.
"He did say several times how embarrassed and ashamed he was and how sorry he was," said prosecutor Derek Jones.
A judge at Liverpool Crown Court in northwest England sentenced McArdle to 12 months in jail.
Judge Norman Wright said that McArdle had frightened staff at the venue with his hoax —which came days after the Boston marathon bombings — and let down his fiancee.
"She was getting ready, expecting you were going to be man and wife and a very solemn public event in her life and you knew that was not going to take place," the judge said.
"You did not say 'We need to talk.' You tried to weasel your way out by creating a bomb hoax so the wedding would not take place."
Defense lawyer Charles Lander said McArdle and Williams are still together.
"The fact that she stands with him speaks volumes for her, and I hope volumes for him," Lander said.
Contact: Marie Rippen lytal@med.usc.edu University of Southern California - Health Sciences
Without sweat, we would overheat and die. In a recent paper in the journal PLOS ONE, USC faculty member Krzysztof Kobielak and a team of researchers explored the ultimate origin of this sticky, stinky but vital substance sweat gland stem cells.
Kobielak and his team used a system to make all of the sweat gland cells in a mouse easy to spot: labeling them with green fluorescent protein (GFP), which is visible under ultraviolet light.
Over time, the GFP became dimmer as it was diluted among dividing sweat gland cells. After four weeks, the only cells that remained fluorescent were the ones that did not divide or divided very slowly a known property among stem cells of certain tissues, including the hair follicle and cornea. Therefore, these slow-dividing, fluorescent cells in the sweat gland's coiled lower region were likely also stem cells.
Then, the first author of this paper, graduate student Yvonne Leung, tested whether these fluorescent cells could do what stem cells do best differentiate into multiple cell types. To the researchers' surprise, these glowing cells generated not only sweat glands, but also hair follicles when placed in the skin of a mouse without GFP.
The researchers also determined that under certain conditions, the sweat gland stem cells could heal skin wounds and regenerate all layers of the epidermis.
"That was a big surprise for us that those very quiescent sweat gland stem cells maintain multilineage plasticity participating not only in their own regeneration, but also in the regeneration of hair follicles and skin after injury," said Kobielak, assistant professor of pathology at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC.
This offers exciting possibilities for developing future stem cell-based treatments for skin and sweat gland-related conditions, such as hyperhidrosis or hypohidrosis (excessive or insufficient sweating). It could also lay the foundation for creating fully functional skin containing both sweat glands and hair follicles for burn victims.
###
Additional co-authors on the study were Eve Kandyba, Yi-Bu Chen and Seth Ruffins from the Broad Center.
The study was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R03-AR061028 and R01-AR061552).
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
USC researcher learns how to break a sweat
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
23-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Marie Rippen lytal@med.usc.edu University of Southern California - Health Sciences
Without sweat, we would overheat and die. In a recent paper in the journal PLOS ONE, USC faculty member Krzysztof Kobielak and a team of researchers explored the ultimate origin of this sticky, stinky but vital substance sweat gland stem cells.
Kobielak and his team used a system to make all of the sweat gland cells in a mouse easy to spot: labeling them with green fluorescent protein (GFP), which is visible under ultraviolet light.
Over time, the GFP became dimmer as it was diluted among dividing sweat gland cells. After four weeks, the only cells that remained fluorescent were the ones that did not divide or divided very slowly a known property among stem cells of certain tissues, including the hair follicle and cornea. Therefore, these slow-dividing, fluorescent cells in the sweat gland's coiled lower region were likely also stem cells.
Then, the first author of this paper, graduate student Yvonne Leung, tested whether these fluorescent cells could do what stem cells do best differentiate into multiple cell types. To the researchers' surprise, these glowing cells generated not only sweat glands, but also hair follicles when placed in the skin of a mouse without GFP.
The researchers also determined that under certain conditions, the sweat gland stem cells could heal skin wounds and regenerate all layers of the epidermis.
"That was a big surprise for us that those very quiescent sweat gland stem cells maintain multilineage plasticity participating not only in their own regeneration, but also in the regeneration of hair follicles and skin after injury," said Kobielak, assistant professor of pathology at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC.
This offers exciting possibilities for developing future stem cell-based treatments for skin and sweat gland-related conditions, such as hyperhidrosis or hypohidrosis (excessive or insufficient sweating). It could also lay the foundation for creating fully functional skin containing both sweat glands and hair follicles for burn victims.
###
Additional co-authors on the study were Eve Kandyba, Yi-Bu Chen and Seth Ruffins from the Broad Center.
The study was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (grant numbers R03-AR061028 and R01-AR061552).
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Months after Apple apologized to consumers in China, Korean rival Samsung is doing the same after the country's state media criticized the vendor for failing to fix glitches in several of its phone models.
"We welcome the scrutiny from the media," Samsung posted to its China website on Wednesday. "Due to problems with management that brought inconvenience to our customers, the company expresses its sincerest of apologies."
Earlier this week, the country's state-controlled China Central Television aired a 30-minute segment that put a spotlight on flaws found in Samsung phones. The affected models include handsets that are part of Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Note 2 product line.
According to CCTV's report, a software glitch in the phones can permanently damage a memory chip within the device's motherboard. This can cause the phone to frequently crash, from 20 to 30 times a day, according to one Galaxy S3 owner interviewed in the segment.
Samsung, however, refused to properly acknowledge the problem, CCTV claimed in its report. Instead, the company said the glitch could be fixed with a software update, rather than replacing the phone's hardware.
In response, Samsung issued an apology on Wednesday and said it would offer free repairs or replace phones with persistent problems. In addition, all affected phone models will receive another year of warranty protection, regardless of whether they showed any glitches.
The flaws in the phones could be unique to the Chinese market. Samsung said the problems stem from certain local third-party apps installed on the handsets. These unspecified apps cause the phone's application processor and memory to overrun when "waking up," and they will continue to contact servers even when in "sleep" mode.
"This issue can be prevented through a simple firmware over-the-air (FOTA) software update," the company said in an email.
Samsung is just the latest tech company to be scrutinized by China's state press. In March, Apple faced similar criticism over its warranty policies, which CCTV alleged treated U.S. customers more favorably than those in China.
Other foreign companies have also been targets. This past week, Starbucks has been defending itself after CCTV criticized the company for pricing its coffee products higher in China than in the United States.
China's state press will regularly scrutinize companies, both foreign and domestic, as a way to regulate them, according to analysts. Apple and Samsung are two of the largest smartphone vendors in the country.
Sometimes companies do stupid things to market their products. A silly commercial here. A ridiculous junket there. That's all fine and good, but sometimes companies overdo it, companies like Samsung who just got slapped with a $340,000 fine in Taiwan for illegally paying people to trash talk HTC in forums.
She knows what she likes! Kate Middleton accessorized her stunning cream-colored ensemble with her favorite pair of pumps at son Prince George's christening at St. James' Palace on Wednesday, Oct. 23. The 31-year-old Duchess of Cambridge carefully carried the heir to the British throne out of the Chapel Royal wearing a pair of off-white "Sledge" pumps by L.K. Bennett.
The British brand's stylish heels paired perfect with Middleton's Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen dress and matching fascinator. Prince William's wife has been spotted wearing the same shoes many times before including cousin Zara Philips' wedding in 2011 and during the couple's North American tour that same year.
In March 2012, Middleton's go-to footwear choice became available at Nordstrom and norstrom.com for stateside shoppers. The 4-inch heels with a 1/2-inch platform retailed for $325.
Not only did the nude pumps match the rest of Middleton's ensemble perfectly on Wednesday, but they also coordinated with Prince George's christening gown. The adorable 3-month-old little boy wore a white satin and Honiton lace robe, which was a replica of the one created for Victoria, Princess Royal, back in 1841. The replica was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2008 in order to "preserve the original," which is now on display at the Museum of London.
AT&T won't be matching T-Mobile's offer of free wireless data for the iPad Air when the device debuts at the company's stores across the U.S. next month.
AT&T, the country's second-largest cellular carrier, said it will offer a $100 discount to customers who sign a two-year contract for tablet data service.
For customers who don't want to sign a contract, AT&T will offer recently announced plans costing between $5 for 250MB of data for one day and $50 for 5GB for one month. Those customers won't get the $100 discount.
Subscribers will also be able to add the iPad Air to an existing data plan for an additional $10 per month.
On Wednesday, T-Mobile said it will give tablet owners 200MB of data per month for no cost. Once that's used up, customers will have the option of paying $5 for 500MB of data for one day or $10 for 1GB of data for a week.
T-Mobile, which is the fourth-largest of the country's four major carriers, is aggressively courting customers with cheaper pricing plans. It recently said customers heading overseas would get unlimited 2G data at no additional cost.
A spokesman for AT&T declined to comment on T-Mobile's announcement.
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is martyn_williams@idg.com
This undated image released Sunday Oct. 13, 2013, by the London Metropolitan Police, shows missing British girl Madeleine McCann before she went missing from a Portuguese holiday complex on Thursday, May 3, 2007. British police are making a fresh appeal Monday Oct. 14, 2013, with new information about their investigation, with e-fit computer images of men allegedly seen in the Portuguese town of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. (AP Photo/London Metropolitan Police)
This undated image released Sunday Oct. 13, 2013, by the London Metropolitan Police, shows missing British girl Madeleine McCann before she went missing from a Portuguese holiday complex on Thursday, May 3, 2007. British police are making a fresh appeal Monday Oct. 14, 2013, with new information about their investigation, with e-fit computer images of men allegedly seen in the Portuguese town of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine McCann's disappearance. (AP Photo/London Metropolitan Police)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — More than six years after British girl Madeleine McCann vanished from her bedroom during a family vacation in Portugal and five years after Portuguese police gave up trying to find her, authorities reopened the case Thursday, citing new evidence.
Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had long campaigned from their home in central England for the Portuguese investigation to resume. In a statement Thursday, they said they were "very pleased" at the development.
"We hope that this will finally lead to (Madeleine) being found and to the discovery of whoever is responsible for this crime," Kate and Gerry McCann said. The couple, both doctors, continue to care for Madeleine's younger siblings, twins Sean and Amelie.
Madeleine went missing shortly before her fourth birthday. Her disappearance sparked global interest as pictures of her and her grieving parents beamed around the world. Her parents briefly met with Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square in June 2007, a month after Madeleine disappeared, and the pontiff held a picture of their daughter.
Then, in a stunning twist, Portuguese police briefly considered the parents suspects before they were cleared and returned home.
Portuguese police closed the case in 2008 because authorities had detected no crime. However, a team of detectives from Porto, in northern Portugal, began reviewing the evidence in March 2011. They had not been involved in the original investigation.
The public prosecutor's office in Lisbon said it decided to reopen the investigation after new leads emerged during the case review. It did not elaborate. The case is subject to Portugal's judicial secrecy law, which forbids the release of information about investigations.
British police, meanwhile, launched Operation Grange in 2011 to try to find out what happened to Madeleine. British detectives have been sifting through the case files in Portugal and say they also have identified new avenues of investigation. They say both the timeline and the version of events surrounding the girl's disappearance have changed significantly as new information has emerged.
Madeleine disappeared from her family's resort apartment in Praia da Luz, a coastal town 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Lisbon, while her parents and their friends were eating dinner nearby.
British detectives say it's possible that Madeleine is still alive.
Ten days ago, British police released a computer-generated image of a person they were interested in questioning about the girl's disappearance. Police asked the public for help and worked with the BBC on a "Crimewatch" TV show, which drew more than 2,000 calls offering possible new leads.
Police said the images were based on information from witnesses who spotted a man in the Portuguese resort the day Madeleine was last seen.
In London, Scotland Yard said the reopened Portuguese investigation will run parallel to the British police's efforts, and British police will be traveling regularly to Portugal.
"Both sides of the investigation are at relatively early stages, with much work remaining to be done," Scotland Yard said in a statement. "This new momentum is encouraging, but we still have a way to go."
Experts say all those efforts are worthwhile.
Even after so many years, officials should "do whatever it takes" to ensure that grieving parents get closure, said Delphine Moralis of Missing Children Europe, an umbrella group of 28 non-governmental organizations in 19 European Union countries and Switzerland.
"It's essential to keep the ball rolling" on efforts to find missing children, Moralis said by telephone from Brussels.
She cited as examples the cathartic resolution provided in the cases involving Natascha Kampusch, who was found eight years after being kidnapped in 1998 in Austria, and three women rescued in May after being held captive in a Cleveland house for about a decade.
____
Gregory Katz in London contributed to this report.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Share
