Tasweek predicts a sustained rebound within the next months driven by rising confidence in the Dubai market and strong market fundamentals in Abu Dhabi.
More responsive legislation and robust real estate laws are also expected to quell local fluctuations on services and returns across industry. Al Awar notes that there are some concerns that must be addressed in order to sustain organic growth, such as affordable housing and varying financing options for real estate customers.
Abu Dhabi
The past year saw a fluctuating 5 to 12% slide in Abu Dhabi rents due to the entrance of new units all over the emirate. Major initiatives such as new regulations on housing allowances for government employees, the announcement of key government-backed projects and an Dhs330bn local stimulus package are expected to accelerate demand and market growth in Abu Dhabi for 2013, though.
More industry consolidation has been observed in Abu Dhabi after the merger of major developers Aldar and Sorouh. Consolidation is expected to extend beyond companies and towards government entities and projects as well. Upcoming rollouts such as 200 villas in Al Reef Contemporary Village and a Mosque, Community Center and mini-market in the Mediterranean Village will further boost the market. Other projects slated for opening in the coming years, such as 'The District' retail destination in Saadiyat Island and the mixed-use Sowwah Central in Al Maryah Island will further strengthen Abu Dhabi's real estate claim.
Another trend to watch out for is Abu Dhabi's lead in sustainability integration in light of Masdar activities and Estidama regulations. Sustainability initiatives in 2013 are expected to be small-scale, though, as owners have not yet fully embraced 'green' leases. Overall, the Abu Dhabi property is expected to sustain its market momentum, especially with the local Government pledging Dhs6bn per year to boost economic activity.
Dubai
While residential rents in Dubai rose 7 to 10% over the past 3 months, the emirate has been able to maintain its popularity as a preferred destination offering flexible payment schemes. Experts forecast a 10 to 17% increase in rental rates across the Dubai market in 2013, driven by several new project announcements made in late 2012. The emirate's recent posting of a 34-month closing high on its stock market index bodes well for its investment outlook. Barring major construction delays, around 36,000 new apartments and villas could go online from 2013 to 2015. Amidst broad options, Dubai tenants are expected to go for localities offering quality units and amenities.
Most of the residential supply is expected in locations including Dubai Land Residences, Motor City, Dubai Sports City, and Liwan. Looking forward, major developments in the pipeline such as the Dhs6bn Blue Waters Island and an Dhs3.67bn hotel and branded serviced apartment project in Downtown Dubai and the announcement of an Dhs3.67bn investment influx by Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) and Brookfield Asset Management reflect the resurgence of Dubai's property market.
Nationwide, the recent announcement of planned property regulations aimed at settling down prices and eliminating market speculation has prevented what could have been a spiraling of rents in 2013. The UAE Central Bank has declared that a proposed cap on mortgage lending - for expatriates at 50% of the property's value and 70% for UAE Nationals - will be discussed during the second half of this year.
The adoption of more transparent approaches for service charges and operating costs arrangements is also highly anticipated that will significantly reduce the number of rent disputes.
Al Awar added that this year will build on the transitional nature of 2012 to make the UAE property markets more robust and sustainable. He advised all sector players and stakeholders to closely monitor market movements to take advantages of opportunities that are quickly arising in what Tasweek believes will be a watershed year for the business.
SIT KWIN, Myanmar (Reuters) - The Muslims of Sit Kwin were always a small group who numbered no more than 100 of the village's 2,000 people. But as sectarian violence led by Buddhist mobs spreads across central Myanmar, they and many other Muslims are disappearing.
Their homes, shops and mosques destroyed, some end up in refugee camps or hide in the homes of friends or relatives. Dozens have been killed.
"We don't know where they are," says Aung Ko Myint, 24, a taxi driver in Sit Kwin, a farming village where on Friday Buddhists ransacked a store owned by the town's last remaining Muslim. "He escaped this morning just before the mob got here."
Since 42 people were killed in violence that erupted in Meikhtila town on March 20, unrest led by hardline Buddhists has spread to at least 10 other towns and villages in central Myanmar, with the latest incidents only about a two-hour drive from the commercial capital, Yangon.
The crowds are fired up by anti-Muslim rhetoric spread over the Internet and by word of mouth from monks preaching a movement known as "969". The three numbers refer to various attributes of the Buddha, his teachings and the monkhood. But it has come to represent a radical form of anti-Islamic nationalism which urges Buddhists to boycott Muslim-run shops and services.
Myanmar is predominantly Buddhist but about 5 percent of its 60 million people are Muslims. There are large Muslim communities in Yangon, Mandalay and towns across Myanmar's heartland where the religions have co-existed for generations.
But as violence spreads from village to village, the unleashing of ethnic hatred, suppressed during 49 years of military rule that ended in March 2011, is challenging the reformist government of one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries.
Dusk-to-dawn curfews are in effect in many areas of Bago, the region where Sit Kwin lies, while four townships in central Myanmar are under a state of emergency imposed last week.
"I will not hesitate to use force as a last resort to protect the lives and safeguard the property of the general public," President Thein Sein said in a nationally televised speech on Thursday, warning "political opportunists and religious extremists" against instigating further violence.
The unrest has made almost 13,000 people homeless, according to the United Nations. State-run media reports 68 people have been arrested.
RUMOURS
The trouble in Sit Kwin began four days ago when people riding 30 motorbikes drove through town urging villagers to expel Muslim residents, said witnesses. They then trashed a mosque and a row of Muslim shops and houses.
"They came with anger that was born from rumors," said one man who declined to be identified.
Further south, police in Letpadan have stepped up patrols in the farming village of 22,000 people about 160 km (100 miles) from Yangon.
Three monks led a 30-strong group towards a mosque on Friday. Police dispersed the crowd, many of whom carried knives and staves, and briefly detained two people. They were later released at the request of township officials, police said.
"I won't let it happen again," said police commander Phone Myint. "The president yesterday gave the police authority to control the situation."
The abbot who led the protest, Khamainda, said he took to the streets after hearing rumors passed by other monks by telephone, about violence between Buddhists and Muslims in other towns. He said he wanted revenge against Muslims for the destruction by the Taliban of Buddhist statues in Bamiyan province in Afghanistan in 2001.
"There is no problem with the way they live. But they are the minority and we are the majority. And when the minority insults our religion we get concerned," he told Reuters. "We will come out again if we get a chance."
Letpadan villagers fear the tension will explode. "I'm sure they will come back and destroy the mosque," says Aung San Kyaw, 35, a Muslim. "We've never experienced anything like this."
Across the street, Hla Tan, a 67-year-old Buddhist, shares the fear. "We have lived peacefully for years. Nothing can happen between us unless outsiders come. But if they come, I know we can't stop them," he said.
North of Sit Kwin, the farming town of Minhla endured about three hours of violence on both Wednesday and Thursday.
About 300 people, many from the nearby village of Ye Kyaw, gathered on Wednesday afternoon. The crowd swelled to about 800 as townsfolk joined, a Minhla policeman told Reuters. They then destroyed three mosques and 17 shops and houses, he said. No Buddhist monks were involved, said witnesses.
"VERY NERVOUS"
The mob carried sticks, metal pipes and hammers, said Hla Soe, 60, a Buddhist who runs an electrical repair shop in Minhla. "No one could stop them," he said.
About 200 soldiers and police eventually intervened to restore a fragile peace. "I'm very nervous that it will happen again," he said.
About 500 of Minhla's township's 100,000 people are Muslims, said the police officer, who estimated two-thirds of those Muslims had fled.
However, Tun Tun is staying. "I have no choice," says the 26-year-old, whose tea shop was destroyed and looted by Buddhists, one armed with a chainsaw.
He plans to rebuild his shop, whose daily income of 10,000 kyat ($11) supports an extended family of 12. On the wall of his ransacked kitchen is a portrait of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He did not believe she could do anything to help.
Tun Tun traced the rising communal tension in Minhla to speeches given on February 26 and 27 by a celebrated monk visiting from Mon State, to the east of Yangon. He spoke to a crowd of 2,000 about the "969 movement", said Win Myint, 59, who runs a Buddhist community centre which hosted the monk.
After the 969 talks, Muslims were jeered and fewer Buddhists frequented his tea shop, said Tun Tun. Stickers bearing pastel hues overlaid with the numerals 969 appeared on non-Muslim street stalls across Minhla.
President Thein Sein's ambitious reform program has won praise, but his government has also been criticized for failing to stem violence last year in Rakhine State in western Myanmar, where officials say 110 people were killed and 120,000 were left homeless, most of them Rohingya Muslims.
The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said on Thursday he had received reports of "state involvement" in the recent violence at Meikhtila.
Soldiers and police sometimes stood by "while atrocities have been committed before their very eyes, including by well-organized ultra-nationalist Buddhist mobs", said the rapporteur, Tomas Ojea Quintana. "This may indicate direct involvement by some sections of the state or implicit collusion and support for such actions."
Ye Htut, a presidential spokesman and deputy minister of information, called those accusations "groundless". "In fact, the military and the government could not be concerned more about this situation," he said in a Facebook post.
Late on Friday, three monks were preparing to give another "969" speech in Ok Kan, a town 113 km (70 miles) from Yangon.
(Additional reporting by Min Zayar Oo; Editing by Andrew R.C. Marshall and Robert Birsel)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Investigators are seeking a transient who has a long criminal record in the kidnapping of a 10-year-old who was snatched from her San Fernando Valley home before dawn last week and abandoned hours later in front of a hospital, police said.
Tobias Dustin Summers, 30, was identified by police Saturday as a suspect in the case but they couldn't elaborate on the motive or what led them to him. Police don't know if the girl was targeted but said they don't believe Summers had a connection to her family.
"We have no information that the family knew this individual or that the individual knew any members of the family," Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese said.
About 40 detectives have been working around the clock looking for clues since the girl was abducted from her home Wednesday. She was found hours later, wandering near a Starbucks several miles away.
The girl was barefoot, had bruises and scratches, and wasn't wearing the same clothes she had on when she vanished. She told the police two men she didn't recognize had taken her from her home.
Police initially said they were looking for two suspects, but now are focusing their efforts on locating Summers.
"This is the only person we are looking for right now," Albanese said Saturday.
Investigators have said they believe the girl was driven around the San Fernando Valley in a couple of cars and taken to at least two locations, including a storage facility, before she was released.
A passer-by who recognized her picture from media reports saw her outside the Starbucks and called police. The girl had wandered there from the hospital where she had been dropped.
Summers, who has a distinctive tattoo of a ghoulish face on his right arm, has arrests dating back to 2002, police said. Among them are robbery, grand theft auto, possession of explosives and kidnapping, authorities said.
Police said they had no details on the prior kidnapping case.
Summers was released from prison in July on a petty theft conviction as part of a California law designed to ease crowding in state prisons. He also spent six days behind bars in January on a probation violation.
Summers last checked in with his probation officer at some point earlier this month and had been complying with his release terms, police said. He is known to frequent the area where the kidnapping took place.
The Los Angeles Times reported that law enforcement sources said the girl was sexually assaulted. The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault. Summers isn't a registered sex offender, police said.
Albanese said Summers had been arrested four years ago for investigation of battery that involved child annoyance. Court records show Summers was convicted of battery in September 2009 but the child annoyance charge was either dismissed or not prosecuted.
Summers has family in Southern California, according to police, and the FBI said it will obtain a warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, if the agency determines he has fled the state.
New England College of Business and Finance (NECB)
LinkedIn
High energy, results-oriented sales professional with extensive experience in business development, account management, and relationship-building in the Education and Healthcare arenas.
Joanne oversees the New England College of Business and Finance?s (NECB) Corporate Partnership Program in the Northern New England, working directly with Human Resources and Training professionals in over 200 existing corporate accounts. Her goal is to continuously grow the partnerships program to encompass all industries and create a diverse network of partners and students.
Prior to joining NECB, Joanne worked in product marketing management for over 20 years in leading global healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations, including Hewlett-Packard, Philips Medical, Wyeth Research/Pfizer, and Draeger Medical. Joanne specializes in all aspects of product development, including development of the product roadmap, pricing, global launches, product line profitability, lifecycle activities, development of strategic sales, marketing, and business expansion plans. Joanne graduated with her MBA from Northeastern University in 2002.
The former Chief Strategy Officer for the People Marketing division of McCann-Erickson Advertising and now serves at the Chief Experience Officer in his growing training and development practice.
Recently recognized as one of the ?best keynote speakers seen or heard? alongside Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Al Gore and Marcus Buckingham, Ryan is a leading expert on culture, leadership and the future of work. He serves as a Sr. Associate with Employer Brand International, an advisory member on the SmartBrief Workforce Council, is a certified Human Capital Strategist and professional member of the National Speakers Association.
Deborah Sementa?
Program Chair, Masters of Science in Business Ethics and Compliance
New England College of Business and Finance (NECB)
Deborah serves as program chair for the Masters of Science in Business Ethics and Compliance where she assisted in developing this new program.
She has been in the education industry for over 10 years and in the financial services industry for over 26 years, serving as both a regulator and a compliance officer. She holds two industry certifications, Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager and Certified Risk Professional.
For several years, Deborah was chairperson of the Eastern Massachusetts Compliance Network (EMCN), an organization with a membership of over 130 compliance professionals. She is former president of her local Chamber of Commerce where she spent many years on the Board of Directors. She was involved with the organization of the Chamber?s Charitable Foundation, where she currently serves as a Board member.
?
Dr. Carla Patalano
Program Chair, CAGS degree program in HR Management
LinkedIn
The author and Program Chair of the first of its kind, fully online CAGS degree program in HR Management at New England College of Business & Finance.
With more than 17 years of HR practitioner and consulting experience in a variety of industries, Dr. Patalano brings a strategic business focus to the education of HR professionals. In addition to the CAGS-HRM, Dr. Patalano chairs the MBA program for the New England College of Business & Finance, and provides?consultation. Her publications and conference presentations focus on aligning HR with business and her interest in the study of Generational Differences.
Download Joanne, Deborah and Carla?s Audio
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Herb Cohen?
Chairman, Performance Connections International
Email
Download Herb?s Audio
?Chairman of Performance Connections International, a leading training and performance enhancement company best known for its work in employee and customer engagement, employee retention, and turning mission critical initiatives into results.Prior to joining Performance Connections, Herb has 25 years of experience in the HRD/performance improvement industry as a leader, founder, and corporate executive.
Herb was one of the original principles of MOHR Development, Inc., one of the nation?s leading training/consulting companies best known for pioneering behavior-modeling techniques in sales, service, and management development. Mr. Cohen then went on to become the CEO of MOHR Learning Systems, Inc., a specialty training firm and the nation?s largest retail training resource, increasing sales and improving customer service and organizational productivity for hundreds of retailers using state-of the-art classroom instruction and multimedia instructional design technology.
In 1998, Mr. Cohen became a founder and Director of Provant, a company offering the largest instructional performance improvement content in America. Also at Provant, Mr. Cohen took on the position of group President responsible for all Provant companies with an industry focus. A Maine native, Herb graduated from the University of Maine with a B.S. in Psychology.
Mr. Cohen served in the U.S. Army piloting helicopters and is a Vietnam veteran. Prior to his tenure in the performance improvement industry, Herb was a line manager at Melville Corp. (now CVS), where he was President of Miles Shoes, V.P. of Management Development at Meldisco, and V.P. of Stores at CVS. Herb is a frequent speaker at corporate meetings, training conferences, and banking and retail association meetings. Herb is a past President of ISA (Instructional Systems Association), an association of over 150 training, eLearning, and multimedia organizations dedicated to improving performance through training.
If you spend time worrying that you'll end up on the street in your old age with your belongings stuffed into plastic bags in a shopping cart, you have good company.
A new survey shows that almost half of American women fear they will become "bag ladies" some day, and the anxiety ripples across all income groups.
Even among women with household earnings above $200,000, 27 percent harbor the bag-lady fear, according to a new online survey?issued by Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America.
While Allianz is promoting the survey to encourage women to seek more financial-planning advice, the underlying concern is valid, according to a labor economist who studies aging and income issues.
Because women typically earn less and have more sporadic work histories, their pensions and benefits are less sturdy, said Barbara Butrica, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute?s Income and Benefits Policy Center. ?They are starting retirement at a disadvantage,? she said.
Women also tend to live longer than men.??So she?ll have to make that income last a lot longer time,? Butrica said.
Among the over-65 set, non-married women have the highest poverty rates. While only 4 percent of married women over 65 fell below the poverty line in 2010, that number rose to?14 percent for widows over 65 and 18 percent for divorced women over 65, Butrica said.
For men over 65 living in poverty, 4 percent were married; 11 percent were widowers and 12 percent were divorced. The gender differences are even more striking, Butrica said, when you consider that in 2010, only 29.5 percent of men age 65 or older were not married, compared with 56.3 percent of women. Those numbers come from the Social Security Administration's 2012 report on ?Income of the Population 55 or Older, 2010.?
But should?even women with very good jobs?fret about being homeless one day?
?It?s highly unlikely. But it could happen,? Butrica said, citing the likelihood that a catastrophic illness is more likely to strike as you get older. ?The fact that these women are thinking about it is a good thing.?
Folks in Norco may not want to read any further. Horse is back on the menu.
No, not in Horsetown USA or anywhere else in California. Voters in the Golden State criminalized horse slaughtering for human consumption in 1998.
In California, these fellows would not comprise a three-course dinner. But Oklahoma is about to make slaughtering horses for human consumption legal. FILE PHOTO
But in horse-loving Oklahoma, it?s about to be legal to kill horses and process the meat for sale to people.
According to our friends at Food Safety News, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is expected to sign into law a bill that will bring an end to the state?s five-decade-old ban on slaughtering horses.
The bill passed the state Senate this week. It passed the House last month.
?One important fact that the public may be unaware of: Oklahoma horses are already being slaughtered, ? said Aaron Cooper, the Governor?s spokesman. ? They are simply being shipped out of the country to Mexico and killed, in conditions that may be inhumane.?
That may be a bit of equine rationalization, however, it?s true. And the law won?t put pony burgers on the menu at Thunder games. While the law allows the slaughter of horses, all the meat must be shipped out of state.
However, the law could be rendered moot in the years ahead. Myriad efforts have been made for a national law banning horse consumption.
Read the complete story here.
Written by: Tom Bray
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I've long believed that touchscreens leave a certain something to be desired when it comes to playing games, and if a new (and very curious) report holds true, Apple may feel the same way. According to PocketGamer.biz's Jon Jordan, Apple has been meeting with developers on-site at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco to talk about a forthcoming Apple game controller.
Following today's rumor that Apple was quietly polling developers at this week's Game Developers Conference about support for a forthcoming gaming controller for iOS devices, the ever-reliable Jim Dalrymple has quickly quashed that report.
As usual, Dalrymple provides no additional comment beyond a simple "Nope", but his selective quoting of the source material suggests that he is denying any current plans for an Apple-branded controller.
"Long rumoured ? and hoped for ? GDC 2013 has finally provided confirmation that Apple will release its own dedicated game controller."
Nope.
Dalrymple has solid connections at Apple and has on numerous occasions and with 100% accuracy either confirmed or denied specific rumors. Prior to today, his most recent such statement came last month when he nixed a claim of a television-related Apple media event scheduled Apple for this month.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Authors Guild president and best-selling novelist Scott Turow is condemning Amazon.com's purchase of Goodreads, a leading book recommendation website.
In a statement posted Friday on the Guild home page, Turow called the acquisition a "textbook example" of how a monopoly is built. Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. announced Thursday that it had bought Goodreads, a favorite Internet stop for readers to review and discuss books. Founded in 2007 and based in San Francisco, Goodreads has 16 million subscribers.
Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler is defending the sale, which has set off a debate about Amazon's market power. In a blog posting Thursday on Goodreads, Chandler said that Goodreads would continue to operate independently and that Amazon's resources would help his company reach more readers.
The man suspected of killing Colorado's corrections chief may have been released from prison four years early because of a clerical mistake, NBC station KUSA of Denver reported late Friday.
KUSA said that court documents released by the state showed that Evan Ebel pleaded guilty to assaulting a prison guard while serving time for breaking into a car, having an illegal gun and carjacking a man. Under his plea agreement, KUSA said, Ebel's four-year term for assaulting the guard should have been served consecutively to the eight-year sentence he had been serving.
But the assault sentence was entered into a computer system as concurrent -- served at the same time, KUSA said. There's still a possibility that a judge changed the sentence, KUSA said:
Although the prosecutor in the Ebel's case does not specifically remember the sentence, he says it was his policy to never offer a concurrent sentence to someone already in prison.
If the judge changed the sentence, it's not reflected in the court minutes.
9Wants to Know is ordering a transcript of the court hearing to see what exactly the judge said during sentencing.
Ebel was freed in Jan. 28 after nearly eight years in prison.?
He is suspected of killing Tom Clements, executive director of the state Department of Corrections, on March 19. Clements was shot dead apparently after answering the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs.
Ebel is also suspected in the March 17 killing of a Domino?s pizza delivery man outside Denver. Authorities have speculated that Ebel used the man's uniform to get Clements to come to the door.
A Domino's uniform was found in the car Ebel was driving when he was killed in a shootout with deputies in Texas on March 21.
NEW YORK (AP) ? Apple is seeking a patent for an iPhone that has a display that wraps around the edges of the device, expanding the viewable area and eliminating all physical buttons.
The patent application reveals that Apple has put some thought into a device that takes advantage of a new generation of displays, which don't have to be flat and rigid like today's liquid-crystal displays, or LCDs. At a trade show in January, chief competitor Samsung Electronics Co. showed off a prototype phone with a display that is bent around the edges, presenting "virtual buttons" for the user's touch.
Apple Inc.'s patent filing shows a phone similar to a flattened tube of glass, inside of which a display envelops the chips and circuit board. This allows "functionality to extend to more than one surface of the device," the filing said. The design also means there's no frame or bezel surrounding the display, meaning it can take up more of the device's surface area.
The company filed for the patent in September 2011, though the application became public only Thursday. Like others, Apple often files for patents on designs that never come to fruition. It also doesn't comment about future products until it's ready to launch.
The Patently Apple blog wrote about the filing earlier.
Making do with more: Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers engineer plant cell walls to boost sugar yields for biofuelsPublic release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Yarris lcyarris@lbl.gov 510-486-5375 DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
When blessed with a resource in overwhelming abundance it's generally a good idea to make valuable use of that resource. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant organic material on Earth. For thousands of years it has been used as animal feed, and for the past two centuries has been a staple of the paper industry. This abundant resource, however, could also supply the sugars needed to produce advanced biofuels that can supplement or replace fossil fuels, providing several key technical challenges are met. One of these challenges is finding ways to more cost-effectively extract those sugars. Major steps towards achieving this breakthrough are being taken by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI).
"Through the tools of synthetic biology, we have engineered healthy plants whose lignocellulosic biomass can more easily be broken down into simple sugars for biofuels," says Dominique Loque, who directs the cell wall engineering program for JBEI's Feedstocks Division. "Working with the model plant, Arabidopsis, as a demonstration tool, we have genetically manipulated secondary cell walls to reduce the production of lignin while increasing the yield of fuel sugars."
JBEI is a scientific partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) whose mission is to advance the development of next generation biofuels that can provide the nation with clean, green and renewable transportation energy that will create jobs and boost the economy. Loque and his research group have focused on reducing the natural recalcitrance of plant cell walls to give up their sugars. Unlike the simple starch-based sugars in corn and other grains, the complex polysaccharide sugars in plant cell walls are locked within a robust aromatic polymer called lignin. Setting these sugars free from their lignin cage has required the use of expensive and environmentally harsh chemicals at high temperatures, a process that helps drive production costs of advance biofuels prohibitively high.
"By embedding polysaccharide polymers and reducing their extractability and accessibility to hydrolytic enzymes, lignin is the major contributor to cell wall recalcitrance," Loque says. "Unfortunately, most efforts to reduce lignin content during plant development have resulted in severe biomass yield reduction and a loss of integrity in vessels, a key tissue responsible for water and nutrient distribution from roots to the above-ground organs."
Lignin has also long posed problems for pulping and animal feed. To overcome the lignin problem, Loque and his colleagues rewired the regulation of lignin biosynthesis and created an artificial positive feedback loop (APFL) to enhance secondary cell wall biosynthesis in specific tissue. The idea was to reduce cell wall recalcitrance and boost polysaccharide content without impacting plant development.
"When we applied our APFL to Arabidopsis plants engineered so that lignin biosynthesis is disconnected from the fiber secondary cell wall regulatory network, we maintained the integrity of the vessels and were able to produce healthy plants with reduced lignin and enhanced polysaccharide deposition in the cell walls," Loque says. "After various pretreatments, these engineered plants exhibited improved sugar releases from enzymatic hydrolysis as compared to wild type plants. In other words we accumulated the good stuff polysaccharides - without spoiling it with lignin."
Loque and his colleagues believe that the APFL strategy they used to enhance polysaccharide deposition in the fibers of their Arabidopsis plants could be rapidly implemented into other vascular plant species as well. This could increase cell wall content to the benefit of the pulping industry and forage production as well as for bioenergy applications. It could also be used to increase the strength of cereal straws, reducing crop lodging and seed losses. Since regulatory networks and other components of secondary cell wall biosynthesis have been highly conserved by evolution, the researchers feel their lignin rewiring strategy should also be readily transferrable to other plant species. They are currently developing new and even better versions of these strategies.
"We now know that we can significantly re-engineer plant cell walls as long as we maintain the integrity of vessels and other key tissues," Loque says.
###
A paper describing this research in detail has been published in Plant Biotechnology Journal. The paper is titled "Engineering secondary cell wall deposition in plants." Loque is the corresponding author. Co-authors are Fan Yang, Prajakta Mitra, Ling Zhang, Lina Prak, Yves Verhertbruggen, Jin-Sun Kim, Lan Sun, Kejian Zheng, Kexuan Tang, Manfred Auer and Henrik Scheller.
This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science.
JBEI is one of three Bioenergy Research Centers established by the DOE's Office of Science in 2007. It is a scientific partnership led by Berkeley Lab and includes the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DOE's Bioenergy Research Centers support multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams pursuing the fundamental scientific breakthroughs needed to make production of cellulosic biofuels, or biofuels from nonfood plant fiber, cost-effective on a national scale.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the Unites States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website at science.energy.gov.
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Making do with more: Joint BioEnergy Institute researchers engineer plant cell walls to boost sugar yields for biofuelsPublic release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Lynn Yarris lcyarris@lbl.gov 510-486-5375 DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
When blessed with a resource in overwhelming abundance it's generally a good idea to make valuable use of that resource. Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant organic material on Earth. For thousands of years it has been used as animal feed, and for the past two centuries has been a staple of the paper industry. This abundant resource, however, could also supply the sugars needed to produce advanced biofuels that can supplement or replace fossil fuels, providing several key technical challenges are met. One of these challenges is finding ways to more cost-effectively extract those sugars. Major steps towards achieving this breakthrough are being taken by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI).
"Through the tools of synthetic biology, we have engineered healthy plants whose lignocellulosic biomass can more easily be broken down into simple sugars for biofuels," says Dominique Loque, who directs the cell wall engineering program for JBEI's Feedstocks Division. "Working with the model plant, Arabidopsis, as a demonstration tool, we have genetically manipulated secondary cell walls to reduce the production of lignin while increasing the yield of fuel sugars."
JBEI is a scientific partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) whose mission is to advance the development of next generation biofuels that can provide the nation with clean, green and renewable transportation energy that will create jobs and boost the economy. Loque and his research group have focused on reducing the natural recalcitrance of plant cell walls to give up their sugars. Unlike the simple starch-based sugars in corn and other grains, the complex polysaccharide sugars in plant cell walls are locked within a robust aromatic polymer called lignin. Setting these sugars free from their lignin cage has required the use of expensive and environmentally harsh chemicals at high temperatures, a process that helps drive production costs of advance biofuels prohibitively high.
"By embedding polysaccharide polymers and reducing their extractability and accessibility to hydrolytic enzymes, lignin is the major contributor to cell wall recalcitrance," Loque says. "Unfortunately, most efforts to reduce lignin content during plant development have resulted in severe biomass yield reduction and a loss of integrity in vessels, a key tissue responsible for water and nutrient distribution from roots to the above-ground organs."
Lignin has also long posed problems for pulping and animal feed. To overcome the lignin problem, Loque and his colleagues rewired the regulation of lignin biosynthesis and created an artificial positive feedback loop (APFL) to enhance secondary cell wall biosynthesis in specific tissue. The idea was to reduce cell wall recalcitrance and boost polysaccharide content without impacting plant development.
"When we applied our APFL to Arabidopsis plants engineered so that lignin biosynthesis is disconnected from the fiber secondary cell wall regulatory network, we maintained the integrity of the vessels and were able to produce healthy plants with reduced lignin and enhanced polysaccharide deposition in the cell walls," Loque says. "After various pretreatments, these engineered plants exhibited improved sugar releases from enzymatic hydrolysis as compared to wild type plants. In other words we accumulated the good stuff polysaccharides - without spoiling it with lignin."
Loque and his colleagues believe that the APFL strategy they used to enhance polysaccharide deposition in the fibers of their Arabidopsis plants could be rapidly implemented into other vascular plant species as well. This could increase cell wall content to the benefit of the pulping industry and forage production as well as for bioenergy applications. It could also be used to increase the strength of cereal straws, reducing crop lodging and seed losses. Since regulatory networks and other components of secondary cell wall biosynthesis have been highly conserved by evolution, the researchers feel their lignin rewiring strategy should also be readily transferrable to other plant species. They are currently developing new and even better versions of these strategies.
"We now know that we can significantly re-engineer plant cell walls as long as we maintain the integrity of vessels and other key tissues," Loque says.
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A paper describing this research in detail has been published in Plant Biotechnology Journal. The paper is titled "Engineering secondary cell wall deposition in plants." Loque is the corresponding author. Co-authors are Fan Yang, Prajakta Mitra, Ling Zhang, Lina Prak, Yves Verhertbruggen, Jin-Sun Kim, Lan Sun, Kejian Zheng, Kexuan Tang, Manfred Auer and Henrik Scheller.
This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science.
JBEI is one of three Bioenergy Research Centers established by the DOE's Office of Science in 2007. It is a scientific partnership led by Berkeley Lab and includes the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. DOE's Bioenergy Research Centers support multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research teams pursuing the fundamental scientific breakthroughs needed to make production of cellulosic biofuels, or biofuels from nonfood plant fiber, cost-effective on a national scale.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the Unites States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website at science.energy.gov.
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Mar. 28, 2013 ? Bacteria appear to speed up their evolution by positioning specific genes along the route of expected traffic jams in DNA encoding. Certain genes are in prime collision paths for the moving molecular machineries that read the DNA code, as University of Washington scientists explain in this week's edition of Nature.
The spatial-organization tactics their model organism, Bacillus subtilis, takes to evolve and adapt might be imitated in other related Gram-positive bacteria, including harmful, ever-changing germs like staph, strep, and listeria, to strengthen their virulence or cause persistent infections. The researchers think that these mechanisms for accelerating evolution may be found in other living creatures as well.
Replication -- the duplicating of the genetic code to create a new set of genes- and transcription -- the copying of DNA code to produce a protein -- are not separated by time or space in bacteria. Therefore, clashes between these machineries are inevitable. Replication traveling rapidly along a DNA strand can be stalled by a head-on encounter or same-direction brush with slower-moving transcription.
The senior authors of the study, Houra Merrikh, UW assistant professor of microbiology, and Evgeni Sokurenko, UW professor of microbiology, and their research teams are collaborating to understand the evolutionary consequences of these conflicts. The major focus of Merrikh and her research team is on understanding mechanistic and physiological aspects of conflicts in living cells -- including why and how these collisions lead to mutations.
Impediments to replication, they noted, can cause instability within the genome, such as chromosome deletions or rearrangements, or incomplete separation of genetic material during cell division. When dangerous collisions take place, bacteria sometimes employ methods to repair, and then restart, the paused DNA replication, Merrikh discovered in her earlier work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
To avoid unwanted encounters, bacteria orient most of their genes along what is called the leading strand of DNA, rather than the lagging. The terms refer to the direction the encoding activities travel on different forks of the unwinding DNA. Head-on collisions between replication and transcription happen on the lagging strand.
Despite the heightened risk of gene-altering clashes, the study bacteria B. subtilis still orients 25 percent of all its genes, and 6 percent of its essential genes, on the lagging strand.
The scientist observed that genes under the greatest natural selection pressure for amino-acid mutations, a sign of their adaptive significance, were on the lagging strand. Amino acids are the building blocks for proteins. Based on their analysis of mutations on the leading and the lagging strands, the researchers found that the rate of accumulation of mutations was faster in the genes oriented to be subject to head-on replication-transcription conflicts, in contrast to co-directional conflicts.
According to the researchers, together the mutational analyses of the genomes and the experimental findings indicate that head-on conflicts were more likely than same-direction conflicts to cause mutations. They also found that longer genes provided more opportunities for replication-transcription conflicts to occur. Lengthy genes were more prone to mutate.
The researchers noted that head-on replication-transcription encounters, and the subsequent mutations, could significantly increase structural variations in the proteins coded by the affected genes. Some of these chance variations might give the bacteria new options for adapting to changes or stresses in their environment. Like savvy investors, the bacteria appear to protect most of their genetic assets, but offer a few up to the high-roll stakes of mutation.
The researchers pointed out, "A simple switch in gene orientation ?could facilitate evolution in specific genes in a targeted way. Investigating the main targets of conflict-mediated formation of mutations is likely to show far-reaching insights into adaptation and evolution of organisms."
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The Honorable John Winston Howard, 25th prime minister of Australia (1996 ? 2007), will provide the keynote address at the ASIS International 59th Annual Seminar and Exhibits (ASIS 2013) on Thursday, September, 26, 2013 at Chicago?s McCormick Place.
Alexandria, Va. (PRWEB) March 28, 2013
The Honorable John Winston Howard, 25th prime minister of Australia (1996 ? 2007), will provide the keynote address at the ASIS International 59th Annual Seminar and Exhibits (ASIS 2013) on Thursday, September, 26, 2013 at Chicago?s McCormick Place. Recognized as the security industry?s most comprehensive education and networking event, ASIS 2013 is anticipated to draw more than 20,000 security professionals from around the world for education, networking, and an expansive exhibit floor of security products and services.
Get a view of the world from "Down Under" from Australia's second longest serving prime minister. During his 16-year tenure, Howard turned around the federal government budget from heavy deficit to free of net debt when he left office. He also initiated major reforms in taxation, labor laws, and social policy. Under Howard's government, Australia was both a strong and close ally of the United States as well as expanding links with Asian nations. With Howard's leadership, Australian forces joined the coalition of the willing in Iraq in March 2003. Australia strongly supported the war against terrorism with her forces continuing to serve alongside American and other coalition forces in Afghanistan. See full bio (PDF). The keynote address is open to all attendees.
Mike Ditka, NFL legend, team builder, and motivator will speak at the closing ASIS 2013 luncheon on Friday, Sept. 27. Ditka will highlight key characteristics people need to achieve their personal and professional goals. See full bio (PDF). This is a ticketed event.
(ISC)2, the largest not-for-profit membership body of certified information security professionals worldwide, will colocate its third annual Security Congress with ASIS 2013. More than 200 educational sessions will be presented at ASIS 2013, including expanded IT security offerings in collaboration with (ISC)2. The ASIS exhibits will feature more than 230,000 net square feet of the latest security technology and innovations in traditional and logical security, providing a showcase for more than 700 companies demonstrating cutting-edge solutions.
Registrants of either ASIS 2013 and (ISC)2 Security Congress may gain access to each event?s education sessions and the exhibit hall. Both organizations also will offer review courses for their respective certifications, as well as separate, members-only activities.
Visit http://www.asis2013.org for complete event details, including registration, housing, and sponsorships.
About ASIS International
ASIS International is the leading organization for security professionals, with more than 38,000 members worldwide. Founded in 1955, ASIS is dedicated to increasing the effectiveness and productivity of security professionals by developing educational programs and materials that address broad security interests, such as the ASIS Annual Seminar and Exhibits, as well as specific security topics. ASIS also advocates the role and value of the security management profession to business, the media, government entities and the public. By providing members and the security community with access to a full range of programs and services, and by publishing the industry?s No. 1 magazine?Security Management?ASIS leads the way for advanced and improved security performance.
Leigh McGuire ASIS International 703-518-1465 Email Information
Insurance Commissioner Mike Consedine today announced a workers? compensation rate reduction that will go into effect next week. The overall decrease of 4.01 percent is effective April 1, 2013.
?We are very pleased with the rate reduction which is the second workers? compensation decrease in a row,? Commissioner Mike Consedine said. ?The lower rate will benefit Pennsylvania employers with ongoing cost savings.?
The rate cut could result in a projected overall premium reduction of up to $110 million for Pennsylvania employers.? This savings estimate is based on employer risk classifications and may vary according to claims experience, payroll, and other factors. Not all employers will see a decrease.
Workers? compensation insurance provides for the cost of medical care and rehabilitation for injured workers, and lost wages and death benefits for the dependents of persons killed in work-related accidents.
?Pennsylvania employers are able to benefit from the outstanding job they are doing to provide safer workplaces,? Labor & Industry Secretary Julia Hearthway said. ?Establishing a state-certified workplace safety committee encourages a safe workplace and a productive workforce.
?More than 10,000 state-certified workplace safety committees have been established, protecting more than 1.3 million workers and saving employers close to $500 million in workers? compensation premiums,? Hearthway said.
The Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau advisory rates determine the premiums businesses pay for workers? compensation insurance. The Insurance Department?s actuaries must confirm and approve the calculations submitted.
Employers should contact their insurance agent prior to their next renewal date to determine the impact of the rate cut on their premium.
More information on Pennsylvania insurance products is available at www.insurance.pa.gov.
Workplace safety information is available at www.dli.state.pa.us.
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The information above provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
Charlie Rocque knows a great real estate deal when he sees one -- at one of the largest retirement communities in the nation, Century Village in Boca Raton, Fla. "I bought an apartment that not long ago was valued at around $75,000, and I picked it up for $20,000," Rocque said. "The value comes in surroundings, it comes with the club house, it comes with the peace of mind that I have some place I know that if I need to go there I can go there."
Home values in the area have fallen more than 50 percent from the height of the housing boom, according to Zillow.com. Now they are starting to rise again, and that has buyers of all ages flooding in, even into retirement communities. Roque is 56 years old and works full-time. "This is my little getaway place. It's very quiet where I live; my particular apartment, it's very quiet and I like that," Rocque said.
Alexander Fabian, age 61, also saw the opportunity. For him, Century Village gives him a second home. "I bought because I was here for a year prior, and what I was paying for rent, it was kind of crazy, so I might as well buy, so I live here and I have a home in Vegas also," Fabian said.
In the last 12 to 24 months, the average age of a new buyer at Century Village has gone from the mid-70s to the low 60s, according to Ben Schachter of Century Village Real Estate Inc. Schachter, well under the retirement age, owns six condos in the Village. "People are looking at this in terms of their long-term future," Schachter said. "They recognize that with the time value of money they are better off investing now, taking advantage of 20, 40, $60,000 price points, because if they look back just a half a decade ago, prices were 3-4 times what they are now. They're looking at the market as it increases, as the economy is strengthening, and they want to buy now while it's the best opportunity to do so."
Residents of Century Village must either be 55 years or older or be married to someone that age. However, buyers can be any age, and that has many younger investors jumping in. They are taking advantage of good rental income and the peace of mind from knowing that they already have a place to retire. Ten percent of Century Village residents still work part or full-time. This younger set has already brought changes to the Village.
"We have classes that never existed before: Zumba, Yoga, Ti Chi, unbelievable recreation for these very healthy seniors because they are younger," Schachter said. The community offers tennis, two pools and a full-service gym. As for the group activities, they still tend to skew older. At a water aerobics class, late one Thursday morning, the sun was shining and the water was flying through the blaring rock music, but mostly grey haired heads bobbed back and forth. "I'm in touch with people around here, but I don't associate with them a lot as far as socially here in the club house," said Charlie Rocque. "Because I'm not around. I'm always working."
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It's almost Easter, a day of ham, nice outfits, obligatory church trips, and borderline abuse of baby rabbits. But most importantly, it's the time of year when there are Peeps on the shelves of your local drugstore. More »
FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2013 file photo, Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa A judge in South Africa says Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, can leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2013 file photo, Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa A judge in South Africa says Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, can leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
State prosecutor Gerrie Nel, prepares for a hearing in the Pretoria, South Africa high court, Thursday, March 28, 2013. The state is opposing the relaxation of bail conditions in the charges against athlete Pistorius who is charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last month. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
FILE - In this Sept. 8, 2012 file photo, South Africa's Oscar Pistorius wins gold in the men's 400-meter T44 final at the 2012 Paralympics in London. A judge in South Africa says Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, can leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
The defense team for Oscar Pistorius, led by Barry Roux, left, prepare for an appeasl against bail conditions in the Pretoria, South Africa high court, Thursday, March 28, 2013. Pistorius is charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last month. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012 file photo, South Africa's Oscar Pistorius competes during Men's 100m T44 round 1 at the 2012 Paralympics in London. A judge in South Africa says Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, can leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? International athletics body the IAAF says Oscar Pistorius would be allowed to run at this year's world championships if he qualifies after the double-amputee runner was cleared by a court to leave South Africa to compete in track meets.
The Olympic athlete had appealed against some of his bail conditions, and a judge ruled Thursday that Pistorius can travel outside of South Africa to run, but with certain conditions. Pistorius is charged with murder in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
IAAF spokesman Yannis Nikolau says in a statement that there would be no objection from the world body to Pistorius competing at the worlds, saying "on the basis of the 'innocent until proven guilty' principle he would be free to run."
Nikolau says the decision on whether Pistorius could run at other events would be at the "discretion of meeting organizers" and not the IAAF.
FILE - In this June 17, 2010 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela leaves the chapel after attending the funeral of his great-granddaughter Zenani Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. The South African presidency says Nelson Mandela was re-admitted to hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection Thursday March 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool, File)
FILE - In this June 17, 2010 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela leaves the chapel after attending the funeral of his great-granddaughter Zenani Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. The South African presidency says Nelson Mandela was re-admitted to hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection Thursday March 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool, File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, July 18, 2012 file photo former South African President Nelson Mandela as he celebrates his birthday with family in Qunu, South Africa, Wednesday, July 18, 2012. The South African presidency says Nelson Mandela was re-admitted to hospital with a recurrence of a lung infection Thursday March 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
A hawker passes portraits of former president Nelson Mandela depicted in various stages of his life in a Soweto, South Africa, street Thursday, March, 28, 2013. 94-year-old Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, has been hit by a lung infection again and is in a hospital, the presidency said. Mandela, has become increasingly frail in recent years and has been hospitalized several times in recent months, including earlier this month when he underwent what authorities said was a scheduled medical test. The Nobel laureate is a revered figure in South Africa, which has honored his legacy of reconciliation by naming buildings and other places after him and printing his image on national banknotes. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
A child looks through a fence at a portrait of former president Nelson Mandela in a Park in Soweto, South Africa, Thursday, March, 28, 2013. 94-year-old Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, has been hit by a lung infection again and is in a hospital, the presidency said. Mandela, has become increasingly frail in recent years and has been hospitalized several times in recent months, including earlier this month when he underwent what authorities said was a scheduled medical test. The Nobel laureate is a revered figure in South Africa, which has honored his legacy of reconciliation by naming buildings and other places after him and printing his image on national banknotes. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
A child stands in front of a portrait of former president Nelson Mandela in a Park in Soweto, South Africa, Thursday, March, 28, 2013. 94-year-old Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa's first black president, has been hit by a lung infection again and is in a hospital, the presidency said. Mandela, has become increasingly frail in recent years and has been hospitalized several times in recent months, including earlier this month when he underwent what authorities said was a scheduled medical test. The Nobel laureate is a revered figure in South Africa, which has honored his legacy of reconciliation by naming buildings and other places after him and printing his image on national banknotes. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Nelson Mandela was back in the hospital for the third time in four months Thursday, and the 94-year-old former South African president was reported to be responding well to treatment for a chronic lung infection.
South Africa's presidency said that doctors were acting with extreme caution because of the advanced age of the anti-apartheid leader, who has become increasingly frail in recent years.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was admitted just before midnight to a hospital in Pretoria, the South African capital. He has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment for fighting white racist rule in his country.
"The doctors advise that former President Nelson Mandela is responding positively to the treatment he is undergoing for a recurring lung infection," the presidency said in a statement. "He remains under treatment and observation in hospital."
Mandela, who became South Africa's first black president in 1994, is a revered figure in his homeland, which has named buildings and other places after him and uses his image on national bank notes.
"I'm so sorry. I'm sad," Obed Mokwana, a Johannesburg resident, said after hearing that Mandela was back in the hospital. "I just try to pray all the time. He must come very strong again."
In December, Mandela spent three weeks in a hospital in Pretoria, where he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones.
Earlier this month, he was hospitalized overnight for what authorities said was a successful scheduled medical test.
Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj, referring to Mandela by his clan name "Madiba," said the latest stay was not for previously planned treatment.
"No, this wasn't scheduled. As you will appreciate the doctors do work with a great sense of caution when they are treating Madiba and take into account his age," he said. "And so when they found that this lung infection had reoccurred, they decided to have him immediately hospitalized so that he can receive the best treatment."
He said there had been a global outpouring of messages expressing concern for Mandela's health.
President Jacob Zuma wished Mandela a speedy recovery.
"We appeal to the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts. We have full confidence in the medical team and know that they will do everything possible to ensure recovery," his office quoted him as saying.
In February 2012, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. In January 2011, he was admitted to a Johannesburg hospital for what officials initially described as tests but turned out to be an acute respiratory infection. He was discharged days later.
He also had surgery for an enlarged prostate gland in 1985.
The apartheid government released Mandela in 1990. Four years later, he became the nation's first democratically elected president under the banner of the African National Congress, helping to negotiate a relatively peaceful end to apartheid despite fears of much greater bloodshed. He served one five-year term as president before retiring.
Perceived successes during Mandela's tenure include the introduction of a constitution with robust protections for individual rights and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a panel that heard testimony about apartheid-era violations of human rights as a kind of national therapy session.
Mandela last made a public appearance on a major stage when South Africa hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.
Until his latest string of health problems, Mandela had spent more time in the rural village of Qunu in Eastern Cape province, where he grew up. He was visited there in August by then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Doctors said in December that he should remain at his home in Johannesburg to be close to medical facilities that can provide the care he needs.
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AP Senior Producer Ed Brown contributed to this report from Durban, South Africa.
Joanne Lakin
Dr. Carla Patalano
I've long believed that touchscreens leave a certain something to be desired when it comes to playing games, and if a new (and very curious) report holds true, Apple may feel the same way. According to 
Following today's rumor that Apple was quietly polling developers at this week's Game Developers Conference about support for a forthcoming gaming controller for iOS devices, the ever-reliable Jim Dalrymple has quickly quashed that report. 
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By Diana Olick
