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HIV - Bacterial Vaginosis Linked To Greater Female-to-Male Transmission

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Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 30 Jun 2012 - 16:00 PDT

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HIV - Bacterial Vaginosis Linked To Greater Female-to-Male Transmission

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Women with bacterial vaginosis are much more likely to transmit HIV to males than other females, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, reported in PLoS Medicine. The risk is three times greater, the authors added.

Bacterial vaginosis (BV), also known as vaginal bacteriosis, is a condition in which the vagina's normal balance of naturally occurring microorganisms in the vaginal flora has changed, so that the 'good' bacteria are reduced and the harmful bacteria increase. About 50% of all females with bacterial vaginosis are asymptomatic - they have no symptoms.

If BV symptoms do appear, they may include a watery and thin vaginal discharge, the discharge can become gray or white, and it may have a strong (fishy) smell. Less commonly, some women may experience a durning sensation when urinating, and itching around the outside of the vagina.

Bacterial vaginosis raises the risk of acquiring STIs

Women with bacterial vaginosis are more susceptible to acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV and have a higher risk of preterm delivery. HIV-positive women with bacterial vaginosis potentially have higher HIV levels, and their cervix and vagina may shed greater amounts of the virus.

Lead author, Craig R. Cohen, MD, MPH, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF wrote:

"Previous research has shown that bacterial vaginosis can increase a women's risk of becoming infected with HIV as much as sixty percent. Our study is the first to show that the risk of transmitting HIV is also elevated.

Our findings point to the need for additional research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of bacterial vaginosis, which is extremely common in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the globe with the highest burden of HIV."

They examined the link between bacterial vaginosis and female-to-male HIV transmission risk. The prospective study involved 2,236 HIV- positive women and their uninfected male partners from seven African countries.

After the scientists had adjusted the findings for variables, such as sexual behavior, socio-demographic factors, male circumcision, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and HIV levels in the HIV-positive women's blood, they discovered that bacterial vaginosis was linked to a considerably higher risk of female-to-male HIV transmission.

Cohen explained:

"We looked at the increased shedding of HIV in the genital tract, but that was not sufficient to explain the increased risk of female-to-male HIV transmission. It is also possible that bacterial vaginosis causes inflammation and that could be a factor. We don't really understand the relationship between vaginal flora and inflammation.

We think it's likely that the sharing of genital tract microbiota between women and men may be implicated as a cause of the transmission risk. The interrelationship of the sharing of flora remains poorly understood and is an important avenue for future research."

Cohen concluded that more studies are required to gain a better understanding of the vaginal flora's role. However, developing more treatments for bacterial vaginosis, such as improved drugs and probiotics would be a considerable step forward towards improving women's health in general, but it would also be beneficial in helping to decrease the number of HIV infections and the risk of transmission.

Written by Petra Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
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N.Y. school bus monitor 'fine' with bully punishment

By Steven Senne, AP

Bus monitor Karen Klein, of Greece, N.Y., holds flowers Thursday during an award ceremony in her honor at a radio station in Boston.

By Steven Senne, AP

Bus monitor Karen Klein, of Greece, N.Y., holds flowers Thursday during an award ceremony in her honor at a radio station in Boston.

NEW YORK (AP) — The upstate New York school bus monitor who was bullied by four seventh-graders says she's satisfied that they're being suspended for a year.

Speaking one day after the boys' punishment was announced, Karen Klein told The Associated Press on Saturday that she wants to meet with the boys who tormented her.

"Oh yes, I would like to talk to them!" said the 68-year-old, speaking from her home in Rochester. "I want to ask them why they did it."

What the four boys did was captured on video, mercilessly taunting Klein as she sat on the bus, gradually breaking down in tears.

On Friday, the school system in the Rochester suburb of Greece suspended the four middle school students for a year, keeping them from regular bus transportation.

How does Klein feel about this punishment?

"It's fine with me," she told the AP.

Klein said they'll still be going to an alternative school — "they won't be just sitting at home doing nothing."

But the best part of her ordeal going public, and the resulting school action, "is that they have to do community service — for senior citizens," she said, her voice rising with emotion.

"I'm so glad everyone out there knows about this," she added, sounding upbeat as she spoke to the AP minutes after returning from Boston and a much needed, four-day vacation that followed the flurry of attention raining on her from across the country.

Klein, who is hard of hearing, spoke by telephone with the help of her adult son and daughter, who repeated questions that she then answered herself.

Another benefit of the video of the incident going viral, she said, "is that it's putting people into action, making them talk to their children, making them teach them what they should not do."

The cellphone video posted online by a fellow student drew millions of viewers. The video shows Klein trying her best to ignore a stream of profanity, insults and outright threats.

One student taunted: "You don't have a family because they all killed themselves because they don't want to be near you." Klein's oldest son killed himself 10 years ago.

Among the mounds of messages she received this week were letters of apology from three of the boys and their families.

She said earlier in the week that she didn't feel the youths were sincere.

But on Saturday, Klein said she accepts the newest letter she received several days ago — from the fourth boy.

His parents dropped it off with flowers.

"He said he was sorry, and that he didn't mean to do it," Klein said. "And I think he means it."

Sounding relieved, she said that none of the students will be showing up on her school bus in the fall — should she choose to return to work.

The support she's received wasn't only verbal.

A fund drive that began with a goal of $5,000 to help Klein take a nice vacation raised more than $667,000 as of Friday.

She hasn't decided yet whether to return to her job

"I don't know, I just don't know," she said, adding, "I'm going to invest and I don't need to work."

But Klein, a grandmother of eight, including one with Down syndrome, said she'll donate part of the money to support research.

And she wants to pay off all her bills.

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Type 1 Diabetes Prevented In Animal Study

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Main Category: Diabetes
Also Included In: Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 30 Jun 2012 - 15:00 PDT

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Type 1 Diabetes Prevented In Animal Study

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Researchers from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, managed to prevent Type 1 Diabetes onset in genetically susceptible mice, according to an article published in Diabetes. The scientists explain that they injected the mice with specifically prepared cells, which stopped their immune systems from destroying the pancreatic beta cells - cells that produce insulin - just in time.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells as if they were harmful pathogens - the immune system confuses them for alien bodies that cause harm. As beta cells become destroyed, insulin production goes down. Eventually, the patient has to inject insulin.

Experts are not sure what causes the immune system to attack the beta cells.

Beta cells are located in the so-called islets of Langerhans (islets), in the pancreas - they make up 65% to 80% of the cells in the islets. A healthy pancreas has about 1 million islets distributed throughout it. The islets produce and secrete at least 5 different types of hormones into the bloodstream: alpha cells produce glucagon, beta cells produce insulin and amylin, delta cells produce somatostatin, PP cells produce pancreatic polypeptide, and epsilon cells produce ghrelin.

Light microscopy - a mouse pancreatic islet. The beta cells are in green (insulin staining), glucagon in red, and the nuclei in blue

Scientists do know, however, that certain immune cells, macrophages, are highly active and play a major role in beta cell destruction in Type 1 diabetes. On the other hand, macrophages can do the opposite - studies have shown that they can protect against inflammation-mediated tissue damage.

Immune cells communicate with each other by using cytokines - signal molecules. They tell each other what to do.

Robert Harris and team set out to find out which cytokines were involved in instructing the macrophages to become protectors, rather than destroyers.

Robert Harris said:

"We managed to achieve this aim, defining a novel combination of cytokines that confer on macrophages the ability to protect mice from developing Type 1 diabetes.

It has never previously been reported, that such an adoptive transfer cell therapy can be used in Type 1 diabetes and this study could thus represent a major advance towards disease prevention"

The scientists used non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice - these animals are generally susceptible to becoming Type 1 diabetics within 12 to 30 weeks after birth. The authors grew macrophages from bone marrow progenitors within the mice. They then stimulated the mature macrophage with a specific set of cytokines.

At the age of 16 weeks, the mice were separated into three groups:

The cytokine-treated macrophage group. The mice received macrophage treated with a specific set of cytokines.
The untreated macrophage group. The mice received macrophages which had not been treated.
The untreated group. The mice received nothing.

They then observed the mice for another twelve weeks. They were able to visualize the extent of immune-mediated attack of the beta cells in each treatment group, using a specific three-dimensional imaging technique that scientists at Umea University, also in Sweden, had developed.

Only 25% of the mice who received the cytokine-treated macrophages developed Type 1 diabetes, compared to 83% in the other groups.

Dr. Harris said:

"The cell therapy was initiated just 2 weeks before mice developed clinical diabetes. At this stage few insulin-producing beta cells remain in the pancreas, yet we were able to protect these so that the mice never developed diabetes.

Such a successful late-stage intervention has never previously been reported and is a significant result of our study. At the time of their clinical Type 1 diabetes diagnosis, most human individuals have already lost most of their insulin-producing beta cells."

Written by Christian Nordqvist

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Visit our diabetes section for the latest news on this subject.

‘Adoptive Transfer of Immunomodulatory M2 Macrophages Prevents Type 1 Diabetes in NOD Mice’
Roham Parsa, Pernilla Andresen, Alan Gillett, Sohel Mia, Xing-Mei Zhang, Sofia Mayans, Dan Holmberg, and Robert A. Harris
Diabetes June 28, 2012, doi: 10.2337/db11-1635

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Tab for alternate Afghan supply route hits $2.1 billion

By Marcus Weisgerber, Military Times

Updated

Pakistan's refusal to let NATO access its ports and roads into Afghanistan has cost the Pentagon more than $2.1 billion in extra transportation costs to move supplies and equipment in and out of the country.

By Asif Hassan, Getty Images

Fuel tanker trucks, used to transport fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan, are seen parked along a road in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

By Asif Hassan, Getty Images

Fuel tanker trucks, used to transport fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan, are seen parked along a road in Pakistan's port city of Karachi.

The revelation of the huge cost comes as the Pentagon continues to negotiate with Islamabad to regain access to the supply routes.

"The good news is that there continue to be those discussions," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday during a briefing at the Pentagon. "There still are some tough issues to try to resolve, but, you know, I think the important thing right now is that both sides in good faith keep working to see if we can resolve this."

Pakistan closed the ground route to NATO supplies after a U.S. airstrike mistakenly killed 24 of its soldiers last November. The only other access to land-locked Afghanistan is through the Northern Distribution Network, a series of roads through Russia and Central Asia.

Panetta told the Senate Appropriations Committee in mid-June that the closure of the Pakistani routes was costing the U.S. military about an extra $100 million per month. These new costs were disclosed in a Pentagon budget document — called the omnibus reprogramming request — sent to Congress on Friday. In the document, which is traditionally sent to lawmakers at the end of each June, the Pentagon asks for permission to shift already appropriated money within its own accounts.

The Army asked Congress to shift $1.7 billion due to "shortfalls that resulted from increased fuel costs and continued closure of the Pakistan Ground Lines of Communication," the document states.

The other, most expensive, transport option is to airlift supplies and equipment into Afghanistan.

The Air Force has requested the transfer of $369.2 million of airlift, "partially due to the closure of the Pakistan Ground Lines of Communication ," the document states

Contributing: Kate Brannen, Zachary Fryer-Biggs, Christopher P. Cavas and Paul McLeary

Rodney King remembered at funeral as forgiving man

By Matt Sayles, AP

Civil rights leaders joined with family and friends Saturday in Los Angeles to remember Rodney King.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rodney King is being remembered at his funeral as a forgiving man who bore the scars of his infamous beating with dignity.

The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy Saturday in Los Angeles and said King never showed bitterness to the officers who beat him.

PHOTOS: Rodney King 1965-2012

King became famous after his beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 was captured on videotape and broadcast worldwide.

Sharpton called King "a symbol of forgiveness."

The funeral comes nearly two weeks after King was found dead at the bottom of the swimming pool at his California home on June 17. He was 47.

His death is being treated as an accidental drowning, but authorities are awaiting autopsy results to determine the official cause of death.

Surge in violence spurs new fears in Iraq

People carry the body of a victim of a car bomb attack in the Washash neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, on Thursday.

By Karim Kadim, AP

BAGHDAD (AP) – A half year after the U.S. military left Iraq, dire predictions seem to be coming true: The country is mired in violence and the government is on the verge of collapsing. With no relief in sight, there's growing talk of Iraq as a failed state as al-Qaida's local wing staged near daily attacks that killed at least 234 people in June.

By Karim Kadim, AP

People inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in the Washash neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, on Thursday.

By Karim Kadim, AP

People inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in the Washash neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, on Thursday.

Iraq no longer suffers widespread retaliatory killings between Sunni and Shiite extremists that brought the country to the brink of civil war. But the spike in violence heightens fears that Iraq could limp along for years as an unstable and dangerous country.

June was the second-deadliest month since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq in mid-December as insurgents exploited the political struggles between the country's ethnic and sectarian factions. More significant than the numbers was the fact that insurgents appeared able to sustain the level of violence over a longer period than usual. There was a major deadly bombing or shooting rampage almost every three days, many targeting Shiite pilgrims.

The violence has brought the weakness of Iraq's security apparatus into sharp focus even as deepening political divisions dim the prospects that the country will emerge as a stable democracy after decades of war and dictatorship.

"The state is almost paralyzed and dysfunctional due to political feuds. In such circumstances, the security forces also will be paralyzed and the insurgents groups are making use of this chaos," Haider al-Saadi, the Shiite owner of internet cafe in eastern Baghdad, said Saturday. "I do not think that al-Qaida is getting any stronger — it is the state that is getting weaker."

The situation deteriorated shortly after American troops left Iraq on Dec. 18, following failed negotiations to stay beyond a year-end withdrawal deadline that was cemented in a 2008 security agreement.

The next day Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government issued terror charges against Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq's highest-ranking Sunnis, who fled Baghdad and remains on the lam. Sunni lawmakers briefly boycotted parliament and al-Maliki's cabinet in protest. By spring, leaders of the self-ruled Kurdish northern region joined the Sunni-dominated Iraqiya political coalition against al-Maliki, whom they accused of refusing to share power.

And last week, in the first major defection by an influential Shiite leader, anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said he would direct his followers to join efforts to oust al-Maliki if a power-sharing agreement is not reached.

Al-Maliki, who won a second term in 2010, followed with a threat to call for early elections that would dissolve parliament if government infighting does not stop.

In calling for an early election, al-Maliki is betting he would win with enough widespread support to gain undisputed power. His political coalition fell short of winning the most seats in parliament in 2010 elections and back-room dealing among political parties delayed a new government from taking over for nine months.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh agreed Saturday that the political crisis has fueled June's violent surge.

"The insurgents are making use of the political differences in the country, and the recent attacks are the result of this political strife," al-Dabbagh said.

By Adil al-Khazali, AP

A wounded man is helped from the scene after a bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 4.

Violence has been steady across Iraq so far this year, but the levels of attacks in June soared beyond the occasional, if spectacular, wave of bombings that is al- Qaida's usual pattern. Victims mostly have been Shiite pilgrims, government officials and security forces — three of al-Qaida's favorite targets.

Al-Qaida front group the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for a June 13 wave of nearly two dozen bombings nationwide that killed 72 Iraqis. The coordination, sophistication and targets of several other attacks also bore the hallmarks of the terror network.

Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials long have said that al-Qaida's resources in Iraq — including money, weapons and a stable of suicide bombers — have dwindled to the point where the insurgent group can only carry off a few attacks each month.

Many experts believe the turmoil in neighboring Syria is stoking the violence, saying the success of the Sunni-led opposition against President Bashar Assad's regime is emboldening Iraqi Sunnis to attack government targets.

"As the edifice in Syria weakens, the more space for violence is going spill over to the Sunni areas in Iraq," said Kamran Bokhari, a Canadian-based expert on Mideast issues for the global intelligence company Statfor.

Some analysts believe Iraq is turning into a failed state. This month, the U.S.-based Fund for Peace ranked Iraq No. 9 on its annual Top Ten list of failed states worldwide. The nonpartisan research group ranked 178 nations and blamed the persistent security problems in Iraq on the inability to overcome long-standing ethnic and sectarian tensions.

Despite the continued bombings and other attacks, Iraqis have not returned to the sectarian warfare that killed tens of thousands of people as violence peaked in 2006-2007. Shiite militias have shown restraint even as a spate of bombings targeted Shiite pilgrims, shrines and government leaders.

And as al-Sadr, an anti-U.S. cleric whose militias were responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks of the war, seeks to secure his status as a major political player in Iraq, it's doubtful he will unleash his followers in widespread violence that would undermine his credibility across the mostly-Sunni Arab world.

Even al-Maliki's opponents speak only of ousting him in a parliamentary vote, not by force.

"People now know that violence will breed violence and sectarian killings will lead to more counter-sectarian killings," said Omar al-Jubouri, a Sunni lawmaker from the Iraqiya bloc.

Underscoring the continued dangers, however, the month ended with a pair of bombings Saturday in the northern, Sunni-dominated Nivevah province, killing two soldiers on separate security patrols, local officials said.

Many Iraqis lament the withdrawal of U.S. forces, saying it was premature.

"The U.S. pullout was a mistake because the country is still in need for their intelligence and military capabilities," said Mohammed Salam, a Sunni government employee in Baghdad. "The Iraqi government should have kept some several thousands of U.S. troops in order to help Iraq forces maintain a reasonable level of security."

The international community spent billions of dollars to stabilize Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed during the war.

But the U.S. currently has limited influence in Baghdad: A June 14 statement by the top national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden that urged Iraqi officials to "alleviate current tensions in order to refocus energy on critical state-building challenges" produced few, if any, signs of progress.

Nor do most Iraqis expect any.

"I think Iraq will see worse days in the future if the politicians continue their destructive feuds and keep following their personal ambitions," Salam said.

10,000 still displaced in raging Colorado wildfire

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) – About 10,000 people remained displaced by the largest wildfire in Colorado history Saturday, a day after President Barack Obama visited the scene and called it a "major disaster." Two burned bodies have been found so far, and police say fewer than 10 people may be unaccounted for.

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By Spencer Platt, Getty Images

Destroyed homes sit beside homes left untouched by fire in a neighborhood affected by the Waldo Canyon fire on Saturday in Colorado Springs.

By Spencer Platt, Getty Images

Destroyed homes sit beside homes left untouched by fire in a neighborhood affected by the Waldo Canyon fire on Saturday in Colorado Springs.

What happened on May 26th, 2012?

5.30am - Eugene left his girlfriend's home in Fort Lauderdale and drove to Miami beach. His intention was to be at a concert.
His car stopped working. Security video showed him spending between 30 to 40 minutes in and around his Chevrolet Caprice.
According to witness reports, he left his car around midday and started crossing the MacArthur Causeway, a three-mile stretch. He took his clothes off.
Miami Beach police eventually had his car towed away. They found five empty water bottles and a Koran in the car. Police think Eugene had recently consumed the water in the bottles.
When Eugene reached the "crime scene", he was completely naked, and without shoes on. He got rid of his Bible at the crime scene.
1.55pm - Eugene came across Poppo who had been lying down under the elevated Metromover railway. Eugene started punching Poppo, took his pants off, and bit his face.
A cyclist saw Eugene attacking Poppo and called 911.
Jose Ramirez, from the Miami Police Department, arrived at the scene. He warned Eugene, telling him to stop attacking Poppo. Eugene did not heed Ramirez' warnings. Reports say Eugene growled at the police officer, and continued biting Poppo.
2.13pm - Ramirez shot Eugene once, and then again four times after the first shot appeared to have no effect.

The crime scene was near the The Miami Herald building - the incident was captured on one of the building's security cameras. According to the video, Poppo sustained an attack for 18 minutes before help arrived.

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Worries about vote buying despite Mexican reforms

MEXICO CITY (AP) – Political reforms in Mexico have made it much harder to steal an election, officials say. But a lot of people think you can still buy one.

By Esteban Felix, AP

A youth takes a poll for an Internet site between presidential candidates Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City on Friday.

As voters go to the polls Sunday to elect a new president, allegations are flying that candidates are offering money and swag, flouting campaign-spending limits in the process. Most allegations are aimed at the old guard Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which polls say holds a sizeable lead after being kicked out of the top office by voters 12 years ago.

The PRI held on to Mexico's presidency for 71 years, using vote-buying and other kinds of fraud when deemed necessary, until it was defeated in 2000 by the National Action Party, or PAN. The PRI claims to have changed, and political reforms instituted since 1988 have made Mexican elections far harder to steal.

But in the latest contest, the PAN accused the PRI candidate Enrique Pena Nieto's campaign of acquiring about 9,500 prepaid gift cards worth nearly $5.2 million (71 million pesos) to give away for votes.

Pena Nieto has also been dogged by allegations that he overspent his $330 million campaign funding limit and bought favorable coverage from Mexico's television giant, Televisa.

With a double-digit lead in most polls, Pena Nieto has seldom felt the need to respond to the attacks."We are going to win with your vote, with your free participation, nothing coerced or conditioned," he told a crowd last week at a closing rally in southern Chiapas state.

But the election fraud unit of Mexico's Attorney General's Office says that since the campaign officially began March 30 it has opened investigations into 542 complaints that voters were bought off or coerced to vote for a certain candidate.

"In a country so poor, with so much inequality, there are undoubtedly forces that will try to take advantage of that," said Ricardo Becerra, coordinator of the institute's election advisers.

On Sunday, Mexico's more than 79 million voters will elect a president, who serves one six-year term, as well as 500 congressional deputies and 128 senators. There are governors' races in six of Mexico's 31 states, plus Mexico City, as well hundreds of local offices up for grabs. For president, voters will choose among Pena Nieto and his chief rivals: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Democratic Revolution Party; Josefina Vazquez Mota of the ruling National Action Party and Gabriel Quadri of the New Alliance.

Becerra said ballot fraud is "materially impossible" because 92 percent of the 143,151 polling stations nationwide will have registered representatives from all three major parties. At the start of the day, all three must sign off on the ballots, ensuring they are blank. At the end of the day, the marked ballots will be counted again and stamped at the polling place, so counterfeits cannot be brought in.

There will also be about 700 international observers, the largest contingent from the Organization of American States. But that's down from more than 900 in the 1994 and 2000 elections, when Mexico's emerging democracy was under much more pressure.

The PRD and PAN, as well as the PRI, have been accused of giving out gift cards and groceries to garner votes. Technically, parties are allowed to give away anything they want, as long as they report the expense, don't exceed spending limits and don't make people feel the gift is payment for their vote.

In practice, such distinctions are not always clear.

Maria Dolores Flores Sandoval, 66, works the unpaved roads of her Mexico state slum neighborhood in Tultitlan looking to sign up voters for Pena Nieto, saying she has been promised she'll get paid for her work "once they get into office."

"I work at bringing the people out to vote," she said. "I hope it happens soon," she said of her payment, "if not, I'm going to die of hunger."

Cesar Solaris hands out discounted, $7.50-per pair eyeglasses worth three or four times that much at a Pena Nieto campaign office in Mexico City in what he calls "part campaign work, part social work."

A video posted on social networks shows a huge warehouse stuffed with election give-away groceries in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz. The PRD held a press conference Wednesday to display 3,000 gift cards from the Soriana department store that it said were worth about $75 (1,000 pesos) each and had been distributed to voters in the State of Mexico by the PRI in exchange for promises of support in Sunday's election.

PRI leader Pedro Joaquin Caldwell hotly denied his party was involved in any of the card schemes, and has suggested that opposition party members who are far behind in the polls are crying "'fraud" because they know they'll lose.

"It is a completely implausible accusation," Caldwell said. "The PRI has already opened its books … let me remind you that in spending reports on the pre-campaign (primary races), the PRI was the only party that complied with all the rules."

Becerra acknowledged that technology allows some new methods for vote-buying, but he doubts they could swing an election.

"You could say that, in the past, some cacique (political boss) would hand out envelopes filled with cash at his house, and now it could be a credit card with a certain pre-paid amount," Becerra said. "But I find it unlikely that could be done a thousand times with nobody seeing it, or reporting it."

He said one safeguard is that no matter what voters take or promise, they can still vote freely once inside the curtain-draped booth.

"You can't really tell a man who's poor not to take that (gift)," Becerra said.

At least three groups have set up sophisticated websites where citizens can upload complaints and videos or other material to document irregularities. There are also social media sites for reporting alleged fraud in real time, something unthinkable in the 2006 contest, when Twitter was a few months old.

"Six years ago we didn't have the have the tools we have now," said Carlos Gershenson, a leader of the Contamos election watchdog group.

Lopez Obrador is Pena Nieto's closest challenger, but is behind by at least 10 points in most recent polls. He charged that his narrow loss in 2006 to President Felipe Calderon was because of fraud, though he never proved it. He has been the most vocal against allegations of vote-buying, leading many to fear he won't concede if he loses and will lead his supporters into clogging Mexico City's streets in protest as he did six years ago.

Even Lopez Obrador acknowledges that "2012 is not 2006."

"Things have changed. In 2006 we lacked organization, now we are organized," he said, referring to his party's near-complete coverage of polling observers.

Voter fraud was a well-practiced tradition under PRI rule, including the delivery of ballot boxes to polling stations with the votes already marked. Among the most dramatic examples of alleged vote stealing was the 1988 presidential election, which many people believe Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the PRD won. Cardenas was ahead until a power outage shut down the count. When the power came back, Carlos Salinas of the PRI was winning and became the next president.

After more than two decades of political reforms, such a maneuver would be impossible today. But handouts are still practiced by all parties, which is legal if the expenses are reported.

Supporters for all parties are brought by bus to massive campaign rallies and given lunch and other gifts in a long-standing Mexican electoral tactic known as the "acarreo," which roughly translates as "trucking in."

At Contamos, whose name can be translated as either "We Count" or "We Tell," activists skew largely young, Internet-savvy and anti-Pena Nieto. They say the PRI accounts for 85.4 percent of the 1,000 or so complaints the site has received about campaign overspending or vote-buying and have seen some new schemes.

In one such alleged scheme, voters would carry pre-marked ballots to deposit at the polls then take out their blank ballot to present for pay. Becerra said the new ballots are hard to counterfeit and are specially stamped when they arrive at the polls.

In another, candidates' supporters allegedly have sought to "borrow" the voting credentials of people planning to vote against them for a fee, returning them after election day. The elections institute ran ads during the 90-day campaign reminding voters that such practices are illegal.

There have also been reports that voters have been offered cash if they agree to take cellphone photographs inside the voting booths, showing their ballot marked for a certain candidate. Authorities have not found decisive proof that practice is occurring.

Even if a candidate is found to have vastly overspent his campaign limit, the result is simply a fine after the election, not the reversal of the results.

"Someone could say, 'Yes, I spent ten times more the than the campaign spending limit, fine me whatever you want'," said Jesus Zambrano, the leader of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.

Former Israeli PM Shamir dies at 96

JERUSALEM (AP) – Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, who clung throughout his life to the belief that Israel should hang on to territory and never trust an Arab regime, has died. He was 96 years old.

1991 AP file photo

Yitzhak Shamir served as prime minister for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92.

Israeli media said he died at a nursing home in Herzliya Saturday, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement mourning Shamir's death.

Shamir served as prime minister for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, leading his party to election victories twice, despite lacking much of the outward charm and charisma that characterizes many modern politicians.

Barely over five feet (1.52m) tall and built like a block of granite, Shamir projected an image of uncompromising solidity at a time when Palestinians rose up in the West Bank and Gaza, demanding an end to Israeli occupation.

Defeated in the 1992 election, he stepped down as head of the Likud party and watched from the sidelines as his successor, Yitzhak Rabin, negotiated interim land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.

The agreements, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel, did nothing to ease his suspicion.

In a 1997 interview with the New York-based Jewish Post, he declared: "The Arabs will always dream to destroy us. I do not believe that they will recognize us as part of this region."

He embraced the ideology of the Revisionists — that Israel is the sole owner of all of the biblical Holy Land, made up of Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.

The Labor movement, in power for Israel's first three decades, agreed to a 1947 U.N.-proposed partition plan to allow the creation of the Jewish state alongside a Palestinian entity. To Shamir and other Revisionists, that was tantamount to treason.

In later years, asked his view of territorial compromise for peace, Shamir said often that Israel had already given up 80 percent of the Land of Israel— a reference to Jordan.

Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in Poland in 1915, he moved to pre-state Palestine in 1935. He joined Lehi, the most hardline of three Jewish movements resisting British mandatory authorities, taking over the Lehi leadership after the British killed its founder.

Captured twice, he escaped from two British detention camps and returned to resistance action. The second camp was in Djibouti, in Africa.

After Israel was founded in 1948, Shamir was in business for a few years before entering a career in Israel's Mossad spy agency. In the mid-1960s he emerged to join the right-wing Herut party, which evolved into the present-day Likud.

Shamir succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister in 1983 in the aftermath of Israel's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

His term was marked by the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

During the Gulf war, Shamir went along with American demands not to retaliate for the Iraqi missile strikes. After the war, the United States stepped up pressure to start a Middle East process that could lead in only one direction — compromise with the Arabs.

Exasperated by Shamir's stubborn refusal to go along with their plans for a regional settlement, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once went on television, recited the switchboard number of the White House and told Shamir to call when he got serious about peace.

In the end, American pressure bent even Shamir. Despite his deep mistrust of Arab intentions, he agreed to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, sponsored by the United States and Russia.

Shamir hotly rejected the deals his successors made with the Palestinians, in which Israel turned over control of some West Bank land to the Palestinians.

His pleasure at the 1996 election victory of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soured when Netanyahu continued to negotiate with the Palestinians and carry out land-for-security deals.

Before the 1999 election, Shamir resigned from the Likud and joined a new right-wing block called National Union, headed by Begin's son, Ze'ev Binyamin.

The party, which rejected any turnover of land to the Palestinians, won only four seats in parliament, though it had seven members of the outgoing legislature on its list.

In 2001, Shamir was given his nation's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize awarded annually to outstanding citizens in several fields.

No date has yet been set for a funeral.

PIX: Maharashtra CM offers prayers at Pandharpur

Ekadashi marks the culmination of the pilgrimage, called waari, that devotees undertake from across the state on foot to reach the temple town.

In Mumbai, large crowds gathered at Vitthal Temple in Wadala to perform puja on the auspicious occasion.

Arrangements were made to ensure smooth traffic flow in the area.

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'Govt will be lame duck without super power Pranab'

Maintaining that Mukherjee's victory was "certain", the Shiv Sena patriarch said none of the two candidates in the race -- Mukherjee and BJP-backed P A Sangma -- could win the election without "borrowed support".

"Neither Mukherjee nor P A Sangma has the ability to get elected on his own or on their party strength alone. That is why the poll is being contested on borrowed support," he said.

"When Pranab went to file nominations, he was accompanied by Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Ramvilas Paswan, T R Balu. But the Maths isn't that just because these people are with him, he will win and go to Rashtrapati Bhawan. His victory is certain only because of the open-hearted support given by Shiv Sena and JD-U," Thackeray said.

He said Shiv Sena and JD-U had decided to support Mukherjee as he was a veteran and an administrator with a balanced outlook, whose presence in the Rashtrapati Bhavan will "only benefit the country".

"Mukherjee has snapped ties with the Congress. He is the Presidential candidate and he can win. Our support is limited only to him (and not Congress or UPA)," Thackeray said.

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Gas under graveyards raises moral, money questions

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Cemeteries are joining parks, playgrounds, churches and backyards as targets of the U.S. shale drilling boom, and that's an uncomfortable idea for some.

By Robert K. Yosay, AP

Trustees have received a proposal at this cemetery in Lowellville, Ohio, to lease cemetery mineral rights for $140,000 plus a percentage of any royalties for any oil and gas.

By Robert K. Yosay, AP

Trustees have received a proposal at this cemetery in Lowellville, Ohio, to lease cemetery mineral rights for $140,000 plus a percentage of any royalties for any oil and gas.

Opponents say cemeteries shouldn't be disturbed by drilling they worry will be noisy, smelly and unsightly. Defenders say the drilling is too deep to cause such problems and can generate revenue to enhance the grounds.

In rural Ohio, trustees in Poland Township received a proposal this year to lease cemetery mineral rights for $140,000, plus 16 percent of any royalties, for any oil and gas. Similar offers followed at two other area cemeteries.

STORY: Natural gas gold rush: Is your state next?

"Most people don't like it," said 70-year-old Marilee Pilkington, who lives down the road from the 122-year-old Lowellville Cemetery and whose father and brother are buried there.

"I think it's a dumb idea because I wouldn't want anyone up there disturbing the dead, number one, and, number two, I don't like the aspect of drilling," she said.

John Campbell, a lease agent for Campbell Development LLC, a Texas-based company, declined a request for more information on his proposal, which was not expected to stir any graves. He said only that the offer was not accepted.

The news is just more fuel for the dispute in the Youngstown area, already rocked by a series of earthquakes that have been tied to deep-well injection of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing and other drilling activities. They're fighting for a citywide drilling ban.

Concerns are driven largely by a lack of information, said John Stephenson, president of the Texas Cemeteries Association.

"A lot of it just has to do with the way that it's presented," he said. "You're hundreds of feet (maters) below the ground, and it's not disturbing any graves."

It's possible to reach oil and gas deposits now from drilling rigs placed sometimes miles away because of advances in what's called horizontal drilling. The technology has made vast new shale energy deposits available under the Northeast, Texas and elsewhere.

Stephenson leased mineral rights under two of his cemeteries in the past three years, he said. Each is about a century old and populated with 75,000 graves. Revenue from the leases — he wouldn't say how much — has allowed him to pave roads, repair fences and make other improvements during economic hard times.

The Catholic Cemeteries Association in Pittsburgh also saw benefits to leasing mineral rights under 11 of its cemeteries. The five-year lease, signed in 2008, came to light through news reports in 2010.

David Shields, a city councilman at the time, was able to push through a citywide drilling ban amid the outrage.

"Everybody (in the press) liked the ghoulish aspects of drilling on sacred ground and disturbing great-Grandma's body and all that," Shields said.

Plot owners have no legal claim to the mineral rights at a cemetery, Stephenson said.

The inability to control mineral rights has become a concern in Colorado, where the National Cemetery Association, which operates veterans' cemeteries, is working to select a site for a new cemetery.

"Certainly you don't want oil drilling operations occurring on a property where it could be disruptive to the services or to the visitors, to the serenity or the peace of the site," said Glenn Madderom, the agency's chief of cemetery development and improvement service.

The administration also successfully fought to move drilling operations to the other side of a forest abutting the veterans' cemetery in Natchez, Mississippi, to preserve the mood, he said.

Pa. monsignor seeks prison release, plans appeal

By Matt Rourke, AP

Monsignor William Lynn walks to the Criminal Justice Center before a scheduled verdict reading on June 22 in Philadelphia.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Lawyers for an imprisoned Roman Catholic official will push to have him released to await sentencing, arguing that he has a good chance of having his conviction thrown out on appeal.

Monsignor William Lynn has been in prison since a jury found him guilty June 22 of felony child endangerment. Lynn oversaw clergy abuse complaints at the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004.

A judge has suggested that she might release Lynn to house arrest at a hearing Thursday, if she's persuaded he couldn't seek refuge at the Vatican or elsewhere.

The 61-year-old Lynn faces 3½ to seven years in prison when he is sentenced Aug. 13. But defense lawyers expect to move that same day for a stay of the sentence while he appeals.

By any account, his case is unprecedented in the 20-year history of clergy abuse investigations in the United States. Lynn was the first U.S. church official ever charged for his handling of abuse complaints.

He was charged with child endangerment even though the same district attorney's office had concluded in 2005 that no church officials could be charged with that crime because they didn't supervise any individual children. Prosecutors used a 2007 amendment to the law to reach back and charge him last year.

Despite defense objections, Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina never defined the term "supervisor" during jury instructions.

And in perhaps her most pivotal ruling, she allowed prosecutors to spend most of the three-month trial on evidence related to prior bad acts, concerning sex abuse complaints lodged against 20 priests who weren't part of the direct case against Lynn. The complaints dated to 1948, and the priests were never charged because the statute of limitations had long run out.

"We spent 35 (of 40) days trying the case that had not been charged," defense lawyer Thomas Bergstrom said Friday.

Many of those victims testified, giving harrowing accounts of abuse that moved some jurors to tears.

The jury was less sure of the testimony of at least one of the two direct accusers in Lynn's case. One testified that he had been molested by the Rev. James Brennan, Lynn's co-defendant, and the other by the Rev. Edward Avery, who pleaded guilty before trial. The jury deadlocked on the Brennan charges and acquitted Lynn of endangering that accuser.

The jury also acquitted Lynn of conspiring with Avery to endanger children but convicted him of endangering Avery's victim.

Lynn admitted on the stand that a 1992 sex abuse complaint against Avery had "fallen through the cracks." He said he'd been new on the job as secretary for clergy and was distracted by his mother's illness and death.

"And I'm sorry for that," Lynn testified.

In 1999, Avery sexually assaulted the trial accuser, at age 10, in a church sacristy. The same man alleges he was also assaulted by another priest and his Catholic schoolteacher at St. Jerome's in northeast Philadelphia. The Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero go on trial over those charges later this year.

It remains unclear whether that trial will bring an end to the city's 10-year criminal investigation of the Philadelphia Archdiocese, or whether anyone else will be charged based on new evidence that emerged at Lynn's trial.

An internal 1994 memo turned over only this year shows long-powerful Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua had top aides shred a list of known or suspected predator-priests that Lynn had prepared. Bishop Joseph R. Cistone, who now leads the Saginaw, Mich., diocese, witnessed the shredding. And retired Allentown Bishop Edward Cullen, Bevilacqua's right-hand man, discussed the list at the cardinal's "issues meeting."

Neither Cullen nor Cistone was called to testify about it. And District Attorney Seth Williams won't say if they or anyone else are in his crosshairs.

"I haven't made a decision as to whether or not to retry James Brennan or if there will be additional defendants," Williams said after the Lynn verdict.

"Many in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia hierarchy had dirty hands," Williams said. "We had the most evidence as to Monsignor Lynn."

It may now be up to an appeals court to determine if that evidence was enough.

During his tenure, as before, the reports that priests were raping and molesting children were kept in locked, secret files at church headquarters.

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Former Israeli PM Shamir dies at 96

PIX: Maharashtra CM offers prayers at Pandharpur

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Gas under graveyards raises moral, money questions

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Pa. monsignor seeks prison release, plans appeal

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