Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/PmBX9oYcLsQ/130731122833.htm
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Wednesday 31 July 2013
Promising new direction for organ regeneration and tissue repair
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Researchers have identified an entirely new approach to enhance tissue growth, findings that could lead to advances in organ regeneration and tissue repair, with widespread therapeutic applications.
Northwestern to pay nearly $3 million to settle cancer research fraud suit
BY KIM JANSSEN Federal Courts Reporter kjanssen@suntimes.com July 30, 2013 12:14PM
Updated: July 30, 2013 6:14PM
Northwestern University has agreed to pay the federal government nearly $3 million to settle a claim of cancer research fraud against a former doctor at its Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center.
Dr. Charles L. Bennett allegedly took his wife on personal trips, then illegally billed the flights, hotels and meals to the National Institutes of Health, claiming it was part of his cancer-fighting work. And he allegedly submitted phony bills for his work over a seven-year period beginning in 2003.
A whistleblower suit filed under seal in 2009 by former Lurie Cancer Center worker Melissa Theis first alleged the wrongdoing by Bennett. Federal investigators from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, the FBI, the NIH and the U.S. Attorney?s office then probed Theis? allegations.
According to Theis? complaint, her bosses at the highly ranked hospital ?refused to seriously address the issues? when she raised concerns about Bennett in 2008, and Theis left the university soon after.
Under a settlement deal unsealed Tuesday, Northwestern will pay the government $2.93 million, of which Theis will get $498,000.
Northwestern did not admit liability as part of the settlement, but university spokeswoman Marla Paul issued a statement Tuesday saying Northwestern was ?disappointed to see the allegations in the complaint.?
Theis? attorney Linda Wyetzner said it had ?not been easy? for Theis to ?put herself out there as a whistleblower? but that she was happy with the outcome.
Acting U.S. Attorney Gary Shapiro noted that using ?federal grant money to pay for personal travel, hotels and meals, and to hire unqualified friends and relatives as ?consultants? violates the public trust? and warned that anyone who receives federal grants faces punishment if they ?allow the system to be manipulated.?
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Company president sentenced for mail fraud
Company president sentenced for mail fraud
July 30, 2013 17:29 EDT
BALTIMORE (AP) -- The president of a bulk mailing company has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for defrauding charities and nonprofits by failing to provide contracted services.
Fifty-eight-year-old William Bigelow was also ordered to forfeit more than $600,000 that the charities lost at sentencing Tuesday in federal court in Baltimore.
According to his plea agreement, Bigelow was the president of RMS Direct Inc., a mail preparation service in Frederick. Prosecutors say RMS clients were primarily non-profit corporations that relied upon the mailings sent through RMS to raise money.
Authorities say the company mailed items late or not at all, but still charged clients.
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Man Shot in East Baltimore
Tuesday, July 30 2013, 09:59 PM EDT
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Record-Breaking Baby Born in Germany
Tuesday, July 30 2013, 04:45 PM EDT
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Ravens Re-Sign Vonta Leach
Monday, July 29 2013, 08:01 PM EDT
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Delays for MARC's Camden Line
Monday, July 29 2013, 08:49 AM EDT
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Two Alarm Fire in South Baltimore
Sunday, July 28 2013, 10:54 PM EDT
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1 Dead in Essex Home Invasion
Sunday, July 28 2013, 01:38 PM EDT
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1 Dead in Single Car Crash in Joppa
Sunday, July 28 2013, 11:59 AM EDT
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Suspect Arrested in Toddler Murder
Saturday, July 27 2013, 04:13 PM EDT
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Man Stabbed in Downtown Baltimore
Friday, July 26 2013, 10:42 PM EDT
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Mayor Traveling Out West Again
Friday, July 26 2013, 09:08 PM EDT
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Orioles, Tillman Defeat Red Sox 6-0
Friday, July 26 2013, 10:02 PM EDT
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Lawmakers To Tour Baltimore Jail
Thursday, July 25 2013, 06:52 AM EDT
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Man Attacked in Little Italy
Monday, July 22 2013, 10:34 PM EDT
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Alaina DeLucia Wins Baltimore Idol
Monday, July 22 2013, 08:51 AM EDT
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Man Shot Sunday Morning in Essex
Sunday, July 21 2013, 12:04 PM EDT
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From Baltimore Idol to American Idol
Saturday, July 20 2013, 12:04 PM EDT
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USPS Truck Fire in Owings Mills
Friday, July 19 2013, 05:49 PM EDT
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Maryland Adds 6,200 Jobs in June
Friday, July 19 2013, 04:27 AM EDT
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Nelson Mandela Turns 95 Today
Thursday, July 18 2013, 11:41 AM EDT
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Annual Crab Bake Set For Crisfield
Wednesday, July 17 2013, 09:04 PM EDT
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Britain Legalizes Gay Marriage
Wednesday, July 17 2013, 09:53 AM EDT
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Body Found in Car in Towson
Wednesday, July 17 2013, 06:53 AM EDT
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2 Shot in Baltimore Tuesday Night
Tuesday, July 16 2013, 10:45 PM EDT
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Fatal Elkridge Motorcycle Accident
Tuesday, July 16 2013, 01:38 PM EDT
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George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty
Saturday, July 13 2013, 10:03 PM EDT
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Man Found Dead in Rockville Home
Thursday, July 11 2013, 08:29 PM EDT
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Pedestrian Hit, Killed in Frederick
Thursday, July 11 2013, 11:52 AM EDT
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7-Year-Old Battling Rare Cancer
Wednesday, July 10 2013, 10:42 PM EDT
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Dog Park to be Built in Perry Hall
Wednesday, July 10 2013, 05:22 PM EDT
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Zimmerman Declines to Testify in Trial
Wednesday, July 10 2013, 03:45 PM EDT
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State Employee Pleads Guilty to Theft
Wednesday, July 10 2013, 03:40 PM EDT
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Howard County Police Involved Shooting
Wednesday, July 10 2013, 12:36 PM EDT
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Hagerstown Won't Charge Stormwater Fee
Wednesday, July 10 2013, 10:08 AM EDT
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Four People Shot in West Baltimore
Tuesday, July 9 2013, 03:18 PM EDT
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Police Probe Drowning of 2-Year-Old
Tuesday, July 9 2013, 08:07 AM EDT
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Suspect in Delmar Slaying Arrested
Tuesday, July 9 2013, 06:19 AM EDT
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Defense Presents WikiLeaks Case
Monday, July 8 2013, 10:46 AM EDT
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One Killed in Rosedale House Fire
Sunday, July 7 2013, 10:57 AM EDT
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Fire crews said they don?t believe church gym fire was suspicious
OKLAHOMA CITY ? A late night fire Monday damaged the gym of a metro church.
Residents in the neighborhood of the old Dunlap Church on S.W. 55th St. and May Ave. called authorities at about 11:30 p.m. after seeing flames shooting from the window.
Firefighters were able to quickly put out the blaze. ?
Authorities said because they had to force their way inside, investigators don?t believe the fire is suspicious.
No on was inside the gym when the fire started.
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Source: http://kfor.com/2013/07/30/fire-crews-said-they-dont-believe-church-gym-fire-was-suspicious/
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Tuesday 30 July 2013
Report: Bud Selig is prepared to tear up the drug agreement just to get A-Rod out of baseball
He is if you believe this report from the Daily News, anyway. Which, yes, is a pretty big caveat ? this could very well just be a big bluff communicated to a newspaper which has done a great job over the years carrying the anti-PED crowd?s water ? but we gotta take reports at face value until we have reason not to.
The report: that Bud Selig is prepared to invoke his powers to ?preserve the integrity of the game? in order to keep Alex Rodriguez off the field even if he appeals his discipline. In other words: Selig will essentially void the part of the Joint Drug Agreement that allows players to play pending appeal and suspend him summarily.
Which is absolute madness, of course.
Even if A-Rod has done everything of which he is accused, even if he is the biggest PED user in the history of PED users, even if he has attempted to interfere with MLB?s investigation, he is still owed due process. Everyone is. The Joint Drug Agreement covers all of those offenses, even the interference with an investigation thing. It says that the JDA is the sole basis of discipline in matters arising out of PEDs. To deny a player his appeal rights under that agreement would be a shameful abuse of power, even when the player involved happens to be unpopular. The least of my brothers, and such.
At some point we have to ask ourselves how much of Major League Baseball?s investigation and subsequent discipline of Alex Rodriguez is about penalizing a player for his bad acts and how much of it is about kicking an unliked and unwanted player ? and a player who makes an awful lot of money ? out of the game simply because it would make most people feel good.
Of course, maybe it doesn?t go this far. ?Maybe the point of this is to simply make Bud Selig look tough. After all, this very question ? ?Is Bud Selig going too far to fight the drug users?!? ? serves his legacy interests very, very well.
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Rangers homer twice in 9th to beat Angels 4-3
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Geovany Soto hit a game-ending homer for Texas after A.J. Pierzynski had already gone deep in the ninth off Los Angeles Angels closer Ernesto Frieri, and the Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory Monday night.
Pierzynski led off the ninth by pulling a pitch into the right-field seats, his 11th homer this season snapping a 4-for-27 slump and tying the game. Nelson Cruz followed with a single off Frieri (0-3) before David Murphy grounded into a double play. Soto, who entered the game hitting only .198 this season, then hit a towering flyball to left that easily cleared the wall.
Jason Frasor (1-2) pitched a scoreless ninth for Texas, three days after he gave up a game-ending homer in an 11-inning loss at Cleveland.
Texas had gone 26 innings without scoring a run, two short of the 41-year-old team record, until Ian Kinsler's RBI single in the sixth to get the Rangers within 3-1. They had played 46 innings without leading a game until Soto's second career game-ending homer.
The Texas comeback spoiled another solid effort for Angels starter Jered Weaver, who allowed only one run with six strikeouts over seven innings. The right-hander has a 1.31 ERA (seven runs in 48 innings) his last seven starts.
Dane De La Rosa allowed an unearned run in his inning of relief before Frieri's third blown save in 28 chances.
J.B. Shuck hit his first major league homer for the Angels, who have lost four in a row. Josh Hamilton had a two-run single against his former team.
Matt Garza (1-1) struck out six and allowed three runs over seven innings in his second Texas start since getting traded. The right-hander had won six starts in a row, including his last five for the Chicago Cubs before a winning debut for the Rangers last Wednesday against the New York Yankees when the only run he allowed was unearned after his throwing error.
Weaver had retired 12 in a row before Leonys Martin, in the leadoff spot for the first time in his 124 major league games, had a drag bunt in the sixth. The pitcher fielded the ball along the first-base line, but didn't even attempt a throw since Martin had already run past him.
Martin got to second when Elvis Andrus unsuccessfully tried to bunt for a hit. Ian Kinsler, who went to No. 3 in the order with Martin leading off, followed with an RBI single for the first Texas run in three games, and also ended a scoreless streak of 19 2-3 innings for Weaver.
Andrus extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single in the eighth, then stole second, went to third on catcher Hank Conger's throwing error and scored on Kinsler's sac fly.
Shuck homered in the fifth, homering in his 323rd career at-bat and 115th game. Later that inning, Erick Aybar drew a walk and Mike Trout had a two-out double before both scored on Hamilton's opposite-field grounder to left against a shifted Rangers infield to make it 3-0.
Hamilton was a five-time All-Star and the 2010 AL MVP during his five seasons in Texas before going to the Angels with a $125 million, five-year contract over the winter.
Just like when the Angels were the opponent for the first Rangers home series in early April, Hamilton was booed each time he came to the plate. He came in hitting only .220 overall, but had two hits Monday and is 11 for 29 (.379) against his former team.
NOTES: Weaver is 15-2 with a 1.72 ERA in July games since 2011. ... The Rangers second ended on a 6-4-3 grounder ? for one out, not the double play usually associated with that sequence. Soto hit a grounder that SS Aybar fielded in the hole and threw to second base, where runner Cruz had already reached. But 2B Howie Kendrick still had plenty of time to get Soto out at first. ... Angels left-hander C.J. Wilson, 7-1 with a 1.96 ERA his last eight starts, is scheduled to start against his former team Tuesday night. He is 0-2 with a 7.65 ERA in five starts against the Rangers, all last season.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rangers-homer-twice-9th-beat-angels-4-3-022940725.html
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One dead, 35 injured in Swiss train collision
Laurent Gillieron, EPA
Rescue workers inspect the scene of a train collision in Granges-pres-Marnand in western Switzerland on July 29.
By Elisha Fieldstadt, NBC News
A man was killed and 35 people were injured in a head-on train collision in Switzerland on Monday night, police told Swiss media.
Five of the 35 hurt were seriously injured when two Swiss Federal Railways trains collided at Granges-pr?s-Marnand in the Vaud region, police spokesman Pierre-Olivier Gaudard told Swiss Radio and Television (SRF).
Swiss police said that the driver of one of the trains was dead after rescuers recovered his body from the wreckage, according to 20 Minuten, a Swiss newspaper.
Gaudard said that the crash happened as one of the trains was returning to the station in West Switzerland and another was departing.
Eyewitnesses told 20 Minuten the impact was so violent that the trains wedged into each other and windows exploded.
According to 20 Minuten, the cause of the accident is unknown and is being looked into by The Swiss Accident Investigation Board.
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Monday 29 July 2013
Apple Needs To Buy TomTom ASAP
The growing value of mapping and location assets is clear as recently witnessed by Google's (GOOG) $1bn acquisition of Waze. Mapping and related location applications such as monitoring traffic flows is becoming increasingly significant to smartphone makers as a point of competitive differentiation. At the Nokia (NOK) Lumia 1020 presentation, CEO Stephen Elop's focused on the camera as its major point of differentiation. However after the camera it was the Lumia 1020's mapping technology with its augmented reality and ability to work off-line that was the feature most commented on. With mapping and location services growing as a major point of differentiation for smartphone makers, Apple (AAPL) is best advised to purchase the last remaining independent mapping company on the market, namely TomTom (TMOAY.PK). Apple already licenses its mapping and location services content from TomTom.
The map on a smartphone is becoming more than just a global positioning system (GPS). Additional features are being rolled out such as traffic flows, retail opportunities and augmented reality. The next step will be for retailers to be able to advertise directly to potential customers in their vicinity via the mapping technology on the smartphone. This could be powerful. For example a retailer could directly advertise in-store deals to a potential customer walking by.
Mapping and location services are the next growth areas in the smart phone arena. The growth is visible as can be seen with the 19% external sales growth in Q2 2013 delivered by Nokia's HERE mapping business. Google just launched its latest version of Google Maps to much fan fare in the press. Smartphone makers and ecosystems are starting to use their mapping and location services as a point of differentiation to consumers.
From supplier to competitor
As history in the tech space shows, a supplier can quite easily morph into a competitor. The biggest example of this is Samsung, a major supplier of memory to Apple. Samsung eventually became Apple' major competitor in the smartphone space. As a result of this transition from supplier to also being a competitor, Apple has worked hard to ensure memory supply from other players such as Micron's (MU) soon to be completed acquisition Elpida. This same dynamic was the reason that Apple dropped Google in 2012 as its supplier of maps and licensed the digital map library of TomTom instead. Google's Android operating system is the main competitor to Apple's iOS system.
Smartphone battleground
The software and hardware business is getting more integrated in the smart phone space. The software and apps each ecosystem offers is a growing point of differentiation. The fact that the lack of a few apps (namely Instagram, Pininterest, SnapChat) is the most common complaint about the Windows Phone ecosystem demonstrates the potential power of having ownership of these apps by the actual smartphone maker. Hence software and apps is growing as a battle ground for smart phone makers. Mapping and location services now sit squarely in the middle of that battleground.
It is interesting to note that Apple's mapping and location services have been historically seen as source of weakness vis a vis the Google maps experience. This can be partly explained by Apple's approach of amalgamating many different external service providers into its map function. It would be more efficient to bring them all in house and deliver a very high quality competitive product. This article from 2012 refers to some of the issues Apple had with its mapping and location services product as per the view of the consumer. Interestingly Apple announced two deals to bolster mapping, HopStop, and Locationary on July 19th, 2013. Apple is addressing its mapping business and looking to make acquisitions.
Strategic value of mapping
As mapping becomes more significant, the strategic value of owning the mapping content increases. A smartphone maker could find itself in trouble if all the available mapping assets were to be owned by its competitors. The price of licensing TomTom's maps are not such that it would be cost efficient in anyway to acquire the whole company. However it would be a major a competitive issue for Apple if TomTom fell into the wrong hands.
TomTom is the only major provider of mapping content either not owned or heavily tied into one of Apple's smartphone competitors. Nokia has its HERE mapping business and Google Maps through its Android ecosystem is very strongly aligned to several of Apple's competitors such as Samsung. That makes Apple vulnerable if TomTom were to fall into the hands of a competitor at a time Apple is evidently focusing on beefing up its mapping product.
TomTom
TomTom is the market leader in mapping & navigational services with maps that cover 112 countries and more than 3 billion people. The company also has hundreds of millions of probes globally contributing to its traffic service. Effectively TomTom is a software company with mapping, traffic and location services as its key products. It sells this content through a variety of channels to many consumer and corporate customers.
At TomTom's Q2 2013 results conference call, management stated that 38% of TomTom's revenue came from License Deals and Content. The remaining 62% came from hardware, namely Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) and the new growth area of GPS watches. Investors are bearish on TomTom due to the competition for PNDs from GPS services on smartphones. However the content and licensing side of the business is seeing growth driven by various customer groups.
The Automotive division sells services and content such as maps to car manufacturers world wide including the likes of GM, Audi, Ford, BMW & VW. The business solutions division helps corporate customers manage their commercial fleets through various different software programs.
The Licensing business unit leverages their content to deliver high quality digital maps to customers including other PND manufacturers, internet companies and importantly smart phone manufacturers. This is the division that licenses TomTom's all important mapping content to Apple, HTC, Blackberry, Mapquest amongst others. The list of TomTom's licensing partners is available here. At Q2 2013 results reported on July 25th, the stock was up 5% as the company outperformed with revenues declining by a better than expected 4% and the FY 2013 guidance of E900 - E950m revenues was maintained.
Ultimately TomTom is a content company with maps and traffic as its content which is then sold via various market routes. There is definitely significant value in their content as mapping and location services becomes one of the key differentiators for smart phone makers.
Apple needs to buy TomTom due to the strategic value there is in the company's maps. TomTom owns one of the world's three main mapping libraries at a time when mapping is moving to being a battleground product for smart phones. If a competitor were to buy TomTom, Apple would be left in a position where each of the three global map libraries would effectively be in the hands of one of its competitors namely Nokia, Google and whomever purchases TomTom.
The cost but most importantly the time to rebuild a global map would be extremely high, put Apple at a competitive disadvantage and feeling very vulnerable in the mean time. Note Nokia purchased Navteq which became Nokia's HERE mapping business for $8.1bn in 2007. The more recent comparison in Google's purchase of just the Waze app for over $1bn. Mapping assets are expensive to come by and take years to build.
Given TomTom has a market capitalisation of only $1.2bn with a Net Asset Value of $1.1bn, it is easy to foresee a strategic purchase by Apple in order to avoid the competitive nightmare of all three major mapping assets falling into the hands of Apple's competitors. The rationale for the acquisition of TomTom is driven solely by strategic and competitive reasons. This makes TomTom a great stock to own. The press is starting to pick up on this logic as witnessed by the May 17, 2013 article in the Wall Street Journal.
Apple integrated their software and hardware and produced amazing products. This is the overarching trend in the smartphone space. It begs the question if and when a hardware company like Nokia becomes the hardware division of Microsoft and when a software company like Tomtom become the mapping division of Apple. In the case of the latter, I think that time is soon. Buy TomTom.
Disclosure: I am long NOK. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Source: http://seekingalpha.com/article/1581572-apple-needs-to-buy-tomtom-asap?source=feed
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Bus crash in southern Italy kills 37 people
Bus crash in southern Italy kills 37 people
By FRANCES D'EMILIO?
?By FRANCES D'EMILIOFirefighters stand near the wreckage of a bus following a crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A16 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Firefighters stand near the wreckage of a bus following a crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A16 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Firefighters stand near the wreckage of a bus following a crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A16 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A partial view of the wreckage of a bus following a crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A16 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Firefighters stand near the wreckage of a bus following a crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A16 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A firefighter looks at the wreckage of a bus following a crash near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. A tour bus filled with Italians returning home after an excursion plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy on Sunday night after it had smashed into several cars that were slowed by heavy traffic, killing at least 37 people, said police and rescuers. Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of the A16 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday. They said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
ROME (AP) ? Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted wreckage of an Italian tour bus for survivors of a crash in southern Italy that killed at least 37 people after it crashed into traffic and plunged into a ravine on Sunday night.
Reports said as many as 49 people ? mostly Italians ? had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail, then plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) off a viaduct near a wooded area. In its plunge, the bus tore away whole sections of concrete barriers as well as guardrail. The concrete lay in large chunks in a clearing in a wooded area where the bus landed. State radio quoted Avellino police as saying the bus driver was among the dead.
The bus lost control near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, a largely agricultural area about 40 miles (60 kilometers) inland from Naples and about 250 kilometers (160 miles) south of Rome.
The radio report said 11 people were hospitalized with injuries, two of them in critical condition. It was not immediately known if there were other survivors or any missing.
Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic ahead along a stretch of a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio early Monday.
It was not immediately clear why the bus driver lost control of the vehicle.
A reporter for Naples daily Il Mattino, Giuseppe Crimaldi, told Sky TG24 TV from the scene that some witnesses told him the bus had been going at a "normal" speed on the downhill stretch of the highway when it suddenly veered and started hitting cars. He said some witnesses thought they heard a noise as if the bus had blown a tire.
Hours after the crash, firefighters said that they had extracted 37 bodies ? most of the dead were found inside the mangled bus, which lay on its side , while a few of the victims were pulled out from underneath the wreckage, state radio and the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Occupants of cars which were hit by the bus stood on the highway near their vehicles. One car's rear was completely crumpled, while another was smashed on its side. It was not immediately known if anyone in those cars had been injured.
Early reports said the passengers had spent the day in Puglia, an area near the Adriatic on the east coast famed for religious shrines. But on Monday, a state radio reporter at the scene said authorities told him that the bus had been bringing the passengers home after an outing to a thermal spa area near Benevento, a town not far from Avellino. Others at the scene said the passengers might have visited another nearby town, Benevento, which was the early home of Padre Pio, a late mystic monk popular among Catholics in Italy.
Passengers came from small towns near Naples, and relatives streamed to the crash site.
___
AP photographer Salvatore Laporta contributed to this report.
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