By Tuan C. Nguyen, Washington Post

Not too long ago, scientists injected 50-year-old cancer patient Stacy Erholtz with a special strain of the measles virus. After suffering through a barrage of symptoms that included a severe headache, vomiting, shaking, and a fever upwards of 105 degrees, something remarkable happened. In a matter of weeks, the tumors that were taking over her body shrank to the point where they were no longer detectable. That one dose, enough to inoculate 10 million people, turned out to be just enough to overwhelm her disease.

Doctor injecting patient with vaccine. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Another patient participating in the study, also battling myeloma, a cancer of the blood, experienced some improvement as well, though not nearly as dramatic. The Erholtz case stands out for demonstrating that, for the first time, a virus can be used to beat back cancer to the point where doctors declared her to be in complete remission. “The main thrust of this is that we’ve proven that this treatment is beneficial,” said hematologist Stephen Russell of the Mayo Clinic, who led the trial. “We have seen it in mice and now we’re seeing it in humans, so it gives us a lot of confidence that someday we can develop a single shot cure that will completely wipe out a patient’s cancer.”

But not long after word of Erholtz’s case got out, skeptics began offering up their own tempered-down version of where these kind of interventions stand. In a blog post titled “Could measles cure cancer? Uh, not exactly,” Cancer Research UK, a leading independent research institution, emphasized that although the patient had a “strong response” to the treatment, the cancer did eventually come back nine months later. In an editorial, Ars Technica editor John Timmer, a former molecular biologist, pointed out that earlier trials also reported results that, at the time, “looked very promising,” but haven’t — as of yet — yielded any viable treatments. “It’s important to note that a short-term remission in one of the two patients who are described here doesn’t come anywhere close to being a general cure for this type of cancer,” he wrote.

As some have noted, the tendency of some cancers to regress following a viral infection had been observed by practitioners for some time now, as far back as the beginning of the twentieth century. In the 1950s, investigators experimenting with cancer-infecting or “oncolytic” viruses were even able to, in some instances, reverse the growth of certain tumors such as Burkitt lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and cervical cancer. Back then, they simply tested naturally-evolved strains that were found to be effective against specific types of cancer. The herpes virus, for example, is particularly well-suited for treating cancers of the brain since it generally latches on to nerve cells. Unfortunately, this initial foray into virotherapy was largely abandoned partly because there wasn’t a way to infect the targeted sites in a controlled manner.

It’s only with recent advances in bioengineering techniques that the field has undergone a sudden resurgence. California-based Amgen, the world’s largest independent biotech firm, has made steady progress on a modified version of the herpes virus (T-Vec) that was shown to be effective in shrinking skin tumors (melanoma). And in 2005, a modified strain of H101, which attacks cancer of the head and neck, was given regulatory approval by China’s State Food and Drug Administration to become the first commercially-available oncolytic-based treatment. This was after a clinical trial had shown that injections reduced tumors in nearly a third of patients compared to a control group. “What makes viruses an especially effective weapon against cancer is that it will change and adapt to whatever you are growing it on,” Russell explained. “And they became very good at attacking cancer cells, but at the same time lose their ability to attack normal cells.”

Read the full article by Tuan C. Nguyen from Washington Post.

By Kaitlyn S Ross, WXIA

ATLANTA, Ga. — It was a reunion 42 years in the making. A brother and sister had not seen each other for more than four decades when social media brought them together again.

Daniel and Janet hug for the first time in more than 4 decades apart. (Photo: 11alive)

Most people go on Facebook to look at pictures, or see what their friends and family are up to, but for one family, it was the lifeline that brought them back together after a lifetime apart.

It’s a phone call Daniel McLean didn’t think he would ever make: forty-two years after losing his sister Janet, he heard her voice.

“We called and…I found my sister,” he said.

His daughters and grandchildren knew all about Janet, but had never met her. She was born disabled, and Daniel was protective of his little sister. He called her Pug, and never left the house without her.

“He never went on a date by himself, she went on his back, he carried her with him,” said Daniel’s daughter, Laura.

After their parents died, Daniel and Janet were placed in foster care.

At 18, Daniel enlisted in the Marines, and went off to Vietnam.

Read the full story by Kaitlyn S Ross, WXIA.

From Associated Press

HANOI — Like thousands of other factory owners in Vietnam, Mr Nguyen Van Phuc relies on China for the expertise and raw materials needed to keep his production line humming. But spiking tensions between Hanoi and Beijing over maritime territorial claims are threatening that relationship and his bottom line.

In this photo taken on May 5, 2014, Vietnamese workers feed wire of a spool in a factory producing electronic cables in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo: AP

Chinese technicians scheduled to upgrade his equipment are too spooked to visit following anti-China violence. His Chinese suppliers no longer accept cash on delivery, fearing an even sharper deterioration in relations would leave them out of pocket, so Mr Phuc must now pay more from a third-party supplier.

“One hundred per cent of Vietnamese companies just want to have peace to do their business,” he said at his electric cable company in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi.

China has long feuded with its South-east Asian neighbours over who owns what in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and a region potentially rich in oil and natural gas. In recent years, Beijing has been more forceful in pressing its expansive claims, bringing it into conflict with Vietnam and the Philippines.

The latest upheaval followed a decision by Beijing on May 1 to plant a massive oil rig in a part of the sea long claimed by Vietnam. Patrol ships sent by both sides to the area have played a cat and mouse game of harassment, with some colliding. Deadly anti-China riots broke out in Vietnamese industrial parks.

While a shooting war on the high seas is still a remote possibility, relations are unlikely to get better anytime soon. With China ignoring Vietnam’s appeals for it to withdraw the rig, Hanoi is threatening an international legal challenge to Beijing’s claims. That carries the risk that China, the world’s second biggest economy, will retaliate economically against its much smaller neighbour, a path Beijing has been willing to go down before with other countries.

Vietnam’s authoritarian rulers are in a difficult position: Their legitimacy rests in large part on an ability to deliver rising living standards to the country’s 90 million people. Good relations with China, Vietnam’s largest trading partner, a major source of development funding and an important investor in the textile and power industries, are vital to that.

Yet there is deep anger in the government over Beijing’s latest move, as well as domestic pressure for it to respond. Some analysts are predicting an economic slowdown as a result of the tensions, even as they recognise that Vietnam’s dependence on China means it cannot afford to risk a complete breakdown in ties.

Mr Nguyen Duc Thanh, the director of Vietnam’s Economic and Policy Research Centre, said the current tensions could result in a 1 percentage point drop in gross domestic product growth this year due to delays in infrastructure projects, particularly power plants that are being developed with Chinese expertise.

“China is building a lot of them. I don’t think they will totally stop, but they will be delayed. And time is money,” he said.

Other China-linked factors that could drag on growth this year include trade being hurt by tougher customs clearance at the land border, fears of greater instability deterring foreign investment, and a drop in Chinese tourists. Visitor arrivals from China totalled 2 million last year, about a quarter of total foreign visitors.

For many companies in Vietnam there is little alternative but to trade with China, which supplies its factories with everything from the components to make smartphones to the fibre that its cheap labour force weaves into sweatshirts and T-shirts for international retailers.

But despite these ties, China has never been very popular in Vietnam, where the country is seen by many as untrustworthy, aggressive neighbour. One legacy of the current upheaval may be that companies diversify their suppliers, said Mr Peter Sorenson, the managing director of a Vietnam-based investment banking firm.

“This could psychologically reinforce the case for a lot of business to find alternative import sources,” he said.

Last year, the Philippines filed a complaint against Beijing before an international tribunal in The Hague challenging the legality of its territorial claims in the South China Sea. It did this despite threats from China, which wants one-on-one talks with each of its rival claimants.

Vietnam stayed silent then, but Beijing’s oil rig gambit appears to have changed its geopolitical calculations.

In 2012, China banned banana imports from the Philippines, ostensibly for health reasons but widely interpreted as related to the territorial dispute. Norway’s salmon exports to China have collapsed since 2010 when the Oslo-based Nobel Peace prize committee honoured a jailed dissident.

But Beijing will have to consider the potential cost to Chinese businesses before taking any measures against Hanoi.

“The thing with using economics as a weapon is that it is artillery fire in both directions,” said Mr Jason Morris-Jung, a Vietnam expert at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies. “If you punish a seller in Vietnam, you also hurt a buyer in China, and vice versa.”

Mr Phan Minh Chinh, who has a large garment factory in the north of the country that sources 80 per cent of its yarn from China, said he feared that emotions might get out of hand.

“Conflict with China would come with an economic cost, but maybe the leaders are no longer thinking about that. This is politics now,” he said.

By Wendy Tokuda, CBS San Francisco

RICHMOND — It’s quiet in Meuy Phan’s kitchen, even when she and her parents are all bustling around. They are both deaf, and Phan is their connection to the outside world.  As a family, they communicate in sign but whenever they need something outside the home, Phan is their interpreter, guide and negotiator.  She calls herself the “keyholder.”

Meuy Phan. Photo from CBS San Francisco.

“My responsibilities at home are basically being a parent,” Phan said. “I’m like a parent to my parents.”

Angelica Arriaga, Phan’s college counselor says she has to remind herself that Phan is only in high school because she is so mature.

“Whenever something needs to be handled, like a doctor’s appointment, Meuy is the one who handles that,” Arriaga said. “She will call the doctor’s office and set up the appointment and then go along with her parents because she needs to translate for them.”  Arriaga knows Phan has sometimes had to miss school to help her parents.

As they get older, Phan says their English skills are slipping.  Her father was born in Laos and her mother in Cambodia, and so they face cultural issues as well. Their disabilities and cultural differences marginalize and isolate them.

“The hardest part of taking care of my folks would be trying to translate to them over and over and they still don’t understand,” Phan said. “They don’t know exactly what’s going on and I have to explain it to them so many different ways until they understand it.”

Her mom is mute as well.  Phan says “she can’t speak which makes it difficult for her. Sometimes she’s scared to be by herself.”

Her extra responsibilities at home have given Phan a confidence that is evident the first time you meet her. “She’s so bold,” says Arriaga, “she’s just a little firecracker. She speaks her mind, she doesn’t hesitate and she’s not shy.”

But it took confidence for Phan to venture into the College and Career Center at Richmond High. She never expected to go to college until she got to know Arriaga who planted the seed.

“At Richmond High, kids worry about not being able to afford it,” Phan said. “Having to take out loans … But when you walk into that College Career Center, the people that are in there, they change your whole mindset about it.”

Not all of Richmond is poor, but in Central Richmond there are areas of significant poverty–some with rates as high as 59% living below the federal poverty line.

At Phan’s school, 77 percent of the students are eligible for the reduced or free lunch program. And all the kids know the reputation that central Richmond has for crime.

Its violent crime rate is more than double the national average.

Read the full article by Wendy Tokuda from CBS San Francisco.

By Tom Lochner, San Jose Mercury News

State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, is headed to the November runoff, continuing his march to represent the 11th Congressional District seat held by George Miller, the doyen of California’s congressional delegation.

Republican Tue Phan, of Danville, maintained a sizable lead in early returns Tuesday and will likely face off against DeSaulnier in the November general election. Photo from www.judgephan.com

Republican Tue Phan, of Danville, maintained a sizable lead in early returns Tuesday and will likely face off against DeSaulnier in the November general election. Democrats Cheryl Sudduth of Richmond, Tony Daysog of Alameda and Ki Ingersol of Benicia and independent Jason Ramey of Concord lagged behind. The 11th District covers most of Contra Costa County, including Richmond, Walnut Creek, Concord, Clayton, Danville, Orinda, Pittsburg, San Pablo, Moraga and Lafayette. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans about 2 to 1.

DeSaulnier, 62, said he wants to cut off federal funding for a high-speed rail link between the Bay Area and Southern California; Phan, 72, wants it to continue. Both candidates advocate universal background checks for gun owners.

In the 17th Congressional District, which includes parts of Alameda and Santa Clara counties, longtime Rep. Mike Honda, 72, of San Jose, held a strong lead over fellow Democrat Ro Khanna, 37, of Fremont, an attorney and former deputy U.S. commerce secretary.

Read the full story by Tom Lochner from San Jose Mercury News.

From The Canadian Press

HANOI, Vietnam – Like thousands of other factory owners in Vietnam, Nguyen Van Phuc relies on China for the expertise and raw materials needed to keep his production line humming. But spiking tensions between Hanoi and Beijing over maritime territorial claims are threatening that relationship and his bottom line.

This photo taken on May 14, 2014 shows smoke billowing from a Taiwanese furniture factory in Binh Duong as anti-China protesters set more than a dozen factories on fire in Vietnam, according to state media, in an escalating backlash against Beijing’s deployment of an oil rig in contested waters. The US on May 16, betrayed increasing disquiet over the potential for serious clashes between China and Vietnam over disputed South China Sea territory, calling on both sides to show restraint. (Photo: STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese technicians scheduled to upgrade his equipment are too spooked to visit following anti-China violence. His Chinese suppliers no longer accept cash on delivery, fearing an even sharper deterioration in relations would leave them out of pocket, so Phuc must now pay more from a third-party supplier.

“One hundred per cent of Vietnamese companies just want to have peace to do their business,” he said at his electric cable company in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi.

China has long feuded with its Southeast Asian neighbours over who owns what in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and a region potentially rich in oil and natural gas. In recent years, Beijing has been more forceful in pressing its expansive claims, bringing it into conflict with Vietnam and the Philippines.

The latest upheaval followed a decision by Beijing on May 1 to plant a massive oil rig in a part of the sea long claimed by Vietnam. Patrol ships sent by both sides to the area have played a cat and mouse game of harassment, with some colliding. Deadly anti-China riots broke out in Vietnamese industrial parks.

While a shooting war on the high seas is still a remote possibility, relations are unlikely to get better anytime soon. With China ignoring Vietnam’s appeals for it to withdraw the rig, Hanoi is threatening an international legal challenge to Beijing’s claims. That carries the risk that China, the world’s second biggest economy, will retaliate economically against its much smaller neighbour, a path Beijing has been willing to go down before with other countries.

Vietnam’s authoritarian rulers are in a difficult position: their legitimacy rests in large part on an ability to deliver rising living standards to the country’s 90 million people. Good relations with China, Vietnam’s largest trading partner, a major source of development funding and an important investor in the textile and power industries, are vital to that.

Yet there is deep anger in the government over Beijing’s latest move, as well as domestic pressure for it to respond. Some analysts are predicting an economic slowdown as a result of the tensions, even as they recognize that Vietnam’s dependence on China means it can’t afford to risk a complete breakdown in ties.

Nguyen Duc Thanh, the director of Vietnam’s Economic and Policy Research Center, said the current tensions could result in a 1 percentage point drop in gross domestic product growth this year due to delays in infrastructure projects, particularly power plants that are being developed with Chinese expertise.

“China is building a lot of them. I don’t think they will totally stop, but they will be delayed. And time is money,” he said.

Other China-linked factors that could drag on growth this year include trade being hurt by tougher customs clearance at the land border, fears of greater instability deterring foreign investment, and a drop in Chinese tourists. Visitor arrivals from China totalled 2 million last year, about a quarter of total foreign visitors.

Read the full story from The Canadian Press.