China rejects U.S. charges of bogus weapons parts (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China on Tuesday rejected charges by two key U.S. senators that Beijing was failing to control a flood of counterfeit parts installed on U.S. weapons systems.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said committee investigators had identified about 1,800 cases involving one million counterfeit parts since 2009, and those numbers were "just the tip of the iceberg."

Parts for defense systems are bought from many sources, which often are infiltrated with counterfeit items, the senators said. China has been identified nearly five times more frequently than any other country as a source of counterfeit parts, according to a U.S. Commerce Department report.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, asked about those comments, said China was committed to fighting fake products.

"The Chinese government has always paid a great deal of attention to, and has promoted, cooperation with relevant overseas bodies in the fight against counterfeits. This is universally acknowledged," Hong told a daily news briefing.

He did not elaborate.

Levin said that rather than cooperating, Chinese authorities had impeded the committee's investigation, with one embassy official telling them it could be damaging to U.S.-China relations.

Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the committee, said the issue needed to be addressed urgently because counterfeit parts posed real dangers to U.S. troops and contributed to the high costs of weapons systems.

Last week, a U.S. intelligence report concluded that China was the most active and persistent country using cyber espionage to steal U.S. trade and technology secrets.

McCain and Levin said various measures were being considered to address the issue, including amendments that would clearly spell out that contractors should be held responsible for the cost of replacing any counterfeit parts.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111108/pl_nm/us_china_usa_weapons

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Grant funds feasibility study of microneedle patches for polio vaccination

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 7-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: John Toon
jtoon@gatech.edu
404-894-6986
Georgia Institute of Technology Research News

The Georgia Institute of Technology will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges. Mark Prausnitz, Regents' professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will pursue an innovative global health research project focused on using microneedle patches for the low-cost administration of polio vaccine through the skin in collaboration with researchers Steve Oberste and Mark Pallansch of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Grand Challenges Explorations funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. The Georgia Tech/CDC project is one of 110 Grand Challenges Explorations grants announced November 7th.

"We believe in the power of innovation -- that a single bold idea can pioneer solutions to our greatest health and development challenges," said Chris Wilson, director of global health discovery for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Grand Challenges Explorations seeks to identify and fund these new ideas wherever they come from, allowing scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue the kinds of creative ideas and novel approaches that could help to accelerate the end of polio, cure HIV infection or improve sanitation."

Projects that are receiving funding show promise in tackling priority global health issues where solutions do not yet exist. This includes finding effective methods to eliminate or control infectious diseases such as polio and HIV as well as discovering new sanitation technologies.

The goal of the Georgia Tech/CDC project is to demonstrate the scientific and economic feasibility for using microneedle patches in vaccination programs aimed at eradicating the polio virus. Current vaccination programs use an oral polio vaccine that contains a modified live virus. This vaccine is inexpensive and can be administered in door-to-door immunization campaigns, but in rare cases the vaccine can cause polio. There is an alternative injected vaccine that uses killed virus, which carries no risk of polio transmission, but is considerably more expensive than the oral vaccine, requires refrigeration for storage and must be administered by trained personnel. To eradicate polio from the world, health officials will have to discontinue use of the oral vaccine with its live virus, replacing it with the more expensive and logistically-complicated injected vaccine.

Prausnitz and his CDC collaborators believe the use of microneedle patches could reduce the cost and simplify administration of the injected vaccine. Use of the patches, which carry vaccine into the body by dissolving into the skin, could eliminate the need for administration by highly-trained personnel and the "sharps" disposal problems of traditional hypodermic needles. Because skin administration produces an immune response with smaller doses of vaccine than traditional deep intramuscular injection, the researchers expect to reduce the per-person cost of vaccine. And by incorporating dried vaccine into the microneedles, they hope to eliminate the need for vaccine refrigeration a challenge in remote areas of the world.

"We envision vaccination campaigns in which minimally-trained personnel go door-to-door administering microneedle patches rather than oral polio vaccine," Prausnitz explained. "Our goal for this study will be to provide the data to scientifically justify moving the microneedle patch for polio vaccination into a human trial."

In research that will complement the Grand Challenges Exploration grant, Prausnitz and his team have also received funding from the World Health Organization (WHO) to support development of the polio vaccine application for microneedle patches. And in a project sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Prausnitz and other Georgia Tech researchers are collaborating with Emory University scientists on development of a microneedle patch for administering flu vaccine.

###

About Grand Challenges Explorations: Grand Challenges Explorations is a US $100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Launched in 2008, Grand Challenge Explorations grants have already been awarded to nearly 500 researchers from over 40 countries. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short, two-page online applications and no preliminary data required. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have an opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to US $1 million. To learn more about Grand Challenges Explorations, visit http://www.grandchallenges.org.

About The Georgia Institute of Technology: The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world's premier research universities, ranked second among all U.S. colleges and universities in the amount of engineering research conducted. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities, Georgia Tech's more than 20,000 students are enrolled in its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Management and Sciences. Georgia Tech is among the nation's top producers of women and minority engineers. The Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the Georgia Tech Research Institute.



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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 7-Nov-2011
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: John Toon
jtoon@gatech.edu
404-894-6986
Georgia Institute of Technology Research News

The Georgia Institute of Technology will receive funding through Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative created by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that enables researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges. Mark Prausnitz, Regents' professor in Georgia Tech's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, will pursue an innovative global health research project focused on using microneedle patches for the low-cost administration of polio vaccine through the skin in collaboration with researchers Steve Oberste and Mark Pallansch of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Grand Challenges Explorations funds scientists and researchers worldwide to explore ideas that can break the mold in how we solve persistent global health and development challenges. The Georgia Tech/CDC project is one of 110 Grand Challenges Explorations grants announced November 7th.

"We believe in the power of innovation -- that a single bold idea can pioneer solutions to our greatest health and development challenges," said Chris Wilson, director of global health discovery for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "Grand Challenges Explorations seeks to identify and fund these new ideas wherever they come from, allowing scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs to pursue the kinds of creative ideas and novel approaches that could help to accelerate the end of polio, cure HIV infection or improve sanitation."

Projects that are receiving funding show promise in tackling priority global health issues where solutions do not yet exist. This includes finding effective methods to eliminate or control infectious diseases such as polio and HIV as well as discovering new sanitation technologies.

The goal of the Georgia Tech/CDC project is to demonstrate the scientific and economic feasibility for using microneedle patches in vaccination programs aimed at eradicating the polio virus. Current vaccination programs use an oral polio vaccine that contains a modified live virus. This vaccine is inexpensive and can be administered in door-to-door immunization campaigns, but in rare cases the vaccine can cause polio. There is an alternative injected vaccine that uses killed virus, which carries no risk of polio transmission, but is considerably more expensive than the oral vaccine, requires refrigeration for storage and must be administered by trained personnel. To eradicate polio from the world, health officials will have to discontinue use of the oral vaccine with its live virus, replacing it with the more expensive and logistically-complicated injected vaccine.

Prausnitz and his CDC collaborators believe the use of microneedle patches could reduce the cost and simplify administration of the injected vaccine. Use of the patches, which carry vaccine into the body by dissolving into the skin, could eliminate the need for administration by highly-trained personnel and the "sharps" disposal problems of traditional hypodermic needles. Because skin administration produces an immune response with smaller doses of vaccine than traditional deep intramuscular injection, the researchers expect to reduce the per-person cost of vaccine. And by incorporating dried vaccine into the microneedles, they hope to eliminate the need for vaccine refrigeration a challenge in remote areas of the world.

"We envision vaccination campaigns in which minimally-trained personnel go door-to-door administering microneedle patches rather than oral polio vaccine," Prausnitz explained. "Our goal for this study will be to provide the data to scientifically justify moving the microneedle patch for polio vaccination into a human trial."

In research that will complement the Grand Challenges Exploration grant, Prausnitz and his team have also received funding from the World Health Organization (WHO) to support development of the polio vaccine application for microneedle patches. And in a project sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), Prausnitz and other Georgia Tech researchers are collaborating with Emory University scientists on development of a microneedle patch for administering flu vaccine.

###

About Grand Challenges Explorations: Grand Challenges Explorations is a US $100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Launched in 2008, Grand Challenge Explorations grants have already been awarded to nearly 500 researchers from over 40 countries. The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization. The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short, two-page online applications and no preliminary data required. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have an opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to US $1 million. To learn more about Grand Challenges Explorations, visit http://www.grandchallenges.org.

About The Georgia Institute of Technology: The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world's premier research universities, ranked second among all U.S. colleges and universities in the amount of engineering research conducted. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities, Georgia Tech's more than 20,000 students are enrolled in its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Management and Sciences. Georgia Tech is among the nation's top producers of women and minority engineers. The Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the Georgia Tech Research Institute.



[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/giot-gff110611.php

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BRICS ready to help euro zone via IMF: Russia (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Major emerging economies are ready to provide financial help to the euro zone via the International Monetary Fund but in return want commitments to reform the IMF to be implemented, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.

The so-called BRICS nations "are ready to take part in joint efforts, including the provision of credits, under those rules and channels that exist in the International Monetary Fund," Lavrov told a news briefing in Moscow.

Lavrov spoke before IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was due to meet President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow for talks expected to focus on how cash-rich emerging economies can support Europe's struggle to contain its sovereign debt crisis.

His comments reinforced the joint position toward managing the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis taken by the BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- at last week's Group of 20 summit in Cannes, France.

They also reflected the aversion of Russia, holder of the world's third-largest foreign exchange reserves, to directly supporting the euro zone's common bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

"It will hardly be possible by simply handing out money to resolve problems that are systemic in character and which affect the financial stability and integrity not only of the euro zone but of the global financial system," Lavrov said.

"Recent events show that the consequences of the 2008 crisis have not passed and that the work started by the G20 right after the crisis has not been finished.

"This work needs to be completed -- above all concerning the full implementation of agreements that were reached earlier on the deep reform of the International Monetary Fund and the international financial system as a whole."

(Reporting by Thomas Grove, Writing by Douglas Busvine, Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111107/wl_nm/us_russia_imf

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WATCH: Kim Kardashian Says "Intuition" Told Her to Divorce

After escaping the media frenzy in the States to promote her new handbag collection Down Under, Kim Kardashian sat down with protective younger sister Khloe Kardashian for a live interview on Australia's popular morning talk-show, Sunrise.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/kim-kardashian-says-intuition-told-her-divorce/1-a-399023?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Akim-kardashian-says-intuition-told-her-divorce-399023

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Court tosses $43M award against Ford in crash case (AP)

ST. LOUIS ? The Illinois Supreme Court has thrown out an Illlinois jury's $43 million award against Ford Motor Co. in a product-liability lawsuit linked to a fiery 2003 crash that killed a Missouri man and disfigured his wife.

The high court, in a Sept. 22 ruling made public Wednesday, among other things found that the lawsuit on Dora and John Jablonski's behalf did not give sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude Ford negligently "breached its duty of reasonable care" in designing the Lincoln Town Car involved in the wreck.

Justices also found that Illinois law does not require a company to warn of defects undetected before the product left the manufacturer.

Pinning the tragic wreck on the distracted motorist who hit the Jablonskis from behind at 60 mph, Ford said in an emailed statement Thursday it was "gratified" by the Illinois Supreme Court's ruling that "recognized and corrected the substantial efforts and deficiencies in the earlier proceedings."

The automaker said the 1993 Town Car exceeded all federal crash safety standards and received a five-star safety rating ? the highest possible ? from the U.S. government.

"It was unfair to blame Ford for (the Jablonskis') injuries," Ford said.

A jury in southwestern Illinois' Madison County sided with the Jablonski family of Florissant, Mo., in 2005, faulting Ford in the design of the Jablonski's 1993 Lincoln Town Car that burst into flames in July 2003 when it was struck from behind while stopped in a freeway's construction zone near Granite City, Ill.

As a result of the crash, according to the ruling, a large pipe wrench in the Jablonski car's truck was propelled into the vehicle's gas tank, causing the blaze.

Attorneys for the family argued during the 11-day trial that the fuel tank's positioning behind axle was among things flawed in the car's construction, and that Ford should have warned car owners or retrofitted the vehicles with safety devices.

Ford countered that no similar accidents had occurred involving the same Town Car model as the one driven by John Jablonski, that the vehicle's fuel tank was in "the optimum location for that car," and that the crash should be blamed on the motorist who rear-ended the Jablonskis.

Jurors ordered Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford to pay more than $5 million to the estate of 74-year-old John Jablonski's estate, $23.1 million to his wife, and $15 million in punitive damages. The family reached an out-of-court settlement with the other driver.

Southern Illinois' 5th District Appellate Court unanimously upheld the verdict last year.

A message left Thursday with the Joblonskis' attorney, Brad Lakin of Wood River, Ill., was not immediately returned.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111103/ap_on_re_us/us_ford_lawsuit

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New Hampshire sets Republican primary for January 10 (Reuters)

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) ? New Hampshire will maintain the status of its presidential primary by holding it on January 10, a week after Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus, Secretary of State William Gardner said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes after New Hampshire thwarted an attempt by Nevada to advance its caucus into mid-January, a move that had threatened to reduce the importance of the primary often seen as a make-or-break contest.

"Whether they have fame or fortune, they have a chance here," said Gardner. "The tradition of the New Hampshire primary lives on."

After Florida and South Carolina moved their votes forward, Nevada tentatively set its contest for January 14, a date that Gardner said left New Hampshire inadequate time to schedule its vote following the Iowa caucus.

After Gardner threatened to move the state's primary into early December and the Republican National Committee threatened sanctions, Nevada Republicans set their caucus for February 4.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney enjoys a wide lead among Republicans in New Hampshire polls.

However, Romney was criticized by state Republicans and New Hampshire's largest newspaper after it was revealed that his campaign had lobbied Nevada to move up its vote.

Romney, who is making his second bid for the White House, easily won his party's Nevada caucus in 2008.

His campaign had hoped that a similar result there following a win in New Hampshire would create a sense of inevitability around his candidacy ahead of the January 31 Florida primary.

Gardner thanked officials from Iowa and South Carolina, which will hold the third presidential contest on January 24, for their "solidarity" with New Hampshire in helping it face down Nevada.

The small New England state has played a key role in the presidential selection process since 1952, when it began direct voting for primary candidates.

In 1968 a strong showing by anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy in New Hampshire helped end incumbent President Lyndon Johnson's bid for re-election.

In 1992 Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's surprisingly strong second-place finish in New Hampshire, to former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas, earned him the label "the comeback kid" and helped vault him to the presidency.

(Reporting by Jason McLure; Editing by Ros Krasny and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111102/pl_nm/us_usa_campaign_new_hampshire

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Chromosome centromeres are inherited epigenetically

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) ? Centromeres are specialised regions of the genome, which can be identified under the microscope as the primary constriction in X-shaped chromosomes. The cell skeleton, which distributes the chromosomes to the two daughter cells during cell division, attaches to the centromeres. In most organisms the position of the centromere is not determined by the DNA sequence. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have succeeded in demonstrating that the position, function and inheritance of the centromere are determined by the histone CenH3, a DNA packaging protein.

This discovery may help to further the development of artificial human chromosomes, which could be used for gene therapies in medicine.

Centromeres provide a platform for the development of a protein complex known as the kinetochore. During cell division, the kinetochore provides a point of attachment for the cell skeleton and enables the chromosomes to move to the opposite poles of the cell. In most organisms the position of the centromere is not determined by the sequence of the DNA building blocks, i.e. the DNA sequence, but epigenetically. The only exception to this rule is the unicellular fungus baker's yeast, in which a specific DNA sequence "encodes" the position of the centromere.

A particularly promising candidate for this kind of epigenetic centromere marking is a variant form of the H3 histone known as CenH3. Histone proteins bind the DNA largely independently of the underlying sequence and help to package the long thread-like DNA molecule. CenH3 arises exclusively in DNA regions at the centromere in various organisms. Patrick Heun's research group at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics and colleagues from the Helmholtz Research Center in Munich have now discovered that CenH3 alone is sufficient to trigger the formation of the centromere.

For their experiments, the researchers equipped the CenH3 histone with an artificially attached DNA binding domain so that the protein could bind to a DNA region where a centromere does not normally form. Now however, a functioning kinetochore arose there which interacted with the cell skeleton during cell division. Using this approach, the researchers succeeded in distributing artificial minichromosomes between the two daughter cells during cell division. The protein is able to recruit additional CenH3 proteins independently. "This ensures that sufficient CenH3 is available at the centromere after each cell division. Otherwise, the available CenH3 proteins would be reduced by half after each cell division. In this way, the centromere position can be passed on from generation to generation," says Heun.

The step from a DNA-identified centromere in baker's yeast, in which the position "is set in stone," to a protein-defined centromere position which is easier to change may also play a role in evolution. Despite being up to several million DNA building blocks in size, centromeres can "jump" to other positions without causing the DNA to move. Consequently, in rare cases, a new centromere can arise as it has already occurred in a closely-related ape species. Therefore neo-centromeres might contribute to the emergence of new species.

The insights into the central role of CenH3 for centromere identity could also prove important for medicine. Scientists would like to develop artificial human chromosomes as an alternative to gene therapy using viruses. "Like their natural counterparts, these require a centromere for cell division. Up to now it has not been possible to control the development of a centromere efficiently," says Heun.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.

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Journal Reference:

  1. M. J. Mendiburo, J. Padeken, S. Fulop, A. Schepers, P. Heun. Drosophila CENH3 Is Sufficient for Centromere Formation. Science, 2011; 334 (6056): 686 DOI: 10.1126/science.1206880

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103143249.htm

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Russia's 10 spies chose different paths at home (AP)

MOSCOW ? One is a compulsive socialite who hosts a TV show. Others landed lucrative jobs at state-run companies. Many have simply vanished from sight.

The 10 Russian sleeper agents arrested last year in the United States and deported to Russia in the biggest spy swap since the Cold War have taken vastly different paths since returning home to a hero's welcome.

The FBI's release Monday of a trove of material related to "Ghost Stories," the operation that busted the ring, has brought the spy saga back into the spotlight, but the agents have mostly taken pains to keep their lives low-key.

The exception is Anna Chapman. The 29-year-old posed for the cover of a men's magazine in sexy lingerie and has promoted everything from the occult to venture capitalism. As recently as Sunday, she turned up at a Moscow fashion show.

Nataliya Pereverzeva, known in the U.S. as Patricia Mills, was appointed adviser on foreign affairs to the Russian oil pipeline monopolist, Transneft. Andrei Bezrukov, who used the assumed name Donald Heathfield, landed a job with Russia's top oil company, Rosneft, as a foreign affairs adviser to the chief executive.

Little else about the spies' lives is likely to become known anytime soon. Russia's foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, does not look favorably on former agents talking to the public.

"Any attempt to track them down would be pointless," said Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist who co-authored a book on the Russian intelligence services.

The agents, most of them Russian citizens, were hailed as heroes upon their return in July 2010.

President Dmitry Medvedev bestowed the highest state award on them during a Kremlin ceremony. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who served as a KGB agent in East Germany in the 1980s, met with the agents and sang patriotic songs with them.

The SVR almost certainly has provided for its former agents. Soldatov says they have probably been given apartments in a special SVR complex in Moscow and the agency was obliged under Russian law to find them new employment.

Only Chapman has been allowed to socialize, appear on television and exploit her spying fame.

"Unlike the others, Chapman wasn't a trained officer," Soldatov said, drawing on his reading of U.S. court documents. Her knowledge of the activities of Russian intelligence operations in the U.S. appears to have been limited, he said, making her exposure to the public potentially less harmful.

When the 10 Russian sleeper spies were arrested, the risque photos that Chapman had posted on Facebook caused a sensation and told the story of an ambitious young real estate agent out to conquer the city.

But like the other nine, Chapman was nowhere to be seen in the first few months after she was flown to Moscow.

Her first public appearance was during a surprise visit to the Baikonur space center on the steppes of Kazakhstan for the launch of a crew to the International Space Station. She tried to hide from the cameras, but her picture made the cover of Russian tabloids the following day.

Chapman has been more friendly to photographers since then, stripping down to lingerie for a photo shoot for a men's magazine and posing for photographers at the social events she attends.

In the past year, Chapman has been hired to advise the chief executive of a state-controlled bank, hosted a television show on the unexplained mysteries of the occult and taken over as editor of a weekly magazine about venture capital.

Asked the name of the magazine in a recent interview, she replied ? "it's venture-something."

One question Chapman still avoids is her work in the United States, saying she's "not supposed to talk about it."

Her star power may be fading, however. Columnists from social pages ridicule her revealing outfits while bloggers laugh at her gaffes. On a recent visit to St. Petersburg University to give a lecture on leadership on behalf of a pro-Kremlin youth organization, she was booed by students who told her to leave and to take her PR stunts elsewhere.

The only couple among the sleeper spies who never pretended to be Americans, Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez, reportedly have parted ways since their deportation.

Pelaez, a well-known journalist, left Russia for her native Peru, where she was cited as saying she had never spied for Russia and had no idea that her husband was a Russian agent. Her husband, whose real name is Mikhail Vasenkov, claimed to have been born in Uruguay.

"I am a nearly 60-year-old woman. I love my companion. But I may never forgive him for not being straight with me," she said in a February interview with the Peruvian magazine Caretas.

She now writes a column for the Moscow News, an English-language newspaper published by a Russian state news agency.

In her first column, Pelaez said "constant support from the Russian government and its concern about my health and the well-being of my family have brought me out of despair and given me hope for the future and a new life."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_spies_at_home

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