New York City sees surge in gun violence

Brooklyn saw three shootings on Sunday (AP)When a gunman opened fire Sunday night on Kelly Street in the Bronx, 15-year-old Sarah Rivera put herself in harm’s way to save a toddler who had been left in a stroller on the street. While several adults ran from the scene, River dashed for the child. She was hit in the leg by a stray bullet while pushing the child to safety.

“I thought I was going to die,” Sarah told the New York Daily News. “I fell to the ground."

Doctors expect Sarah to make a full recovery, but the circumstances of the shooting are disturbingly familiar. Over the weekend, New York City witnessed 25 shootings, resulting in six fatalities. On Sunday alone, three people were killed and eight others wounded by gunfire from Brooklyn to the Bronx.

The rash of weekend shootings comes against a backdrop of major gun control efforts by both New York City and state officials. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has emerged as one of the nation’s strongest advocates for stricter firearm regulations, and has long touted the city’s strict gun control rules as helping to bring about a significant drop in crime over the last decade. (The mayor’s office declined to comment on the weekend’s shootings.)

New York recently became the first state to pass major gun control legislation since the Dec. 14 shootings in Newtown, Conn. The bill that Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law in January both strengthens the state’s existing assault weapons ban and introduces new mental health regulations for potential gun owners.

None of that did much to help Sarah, a seventh-grader at Middle School 302 in the Bronx and one of three girls to be caught in the line of fire over the last few weeks.

On May 18, D’aja Robinson, 14, was shot and killed on her way to a Sweet 16 party when a gunman fired off nine rounds into the side of a Queens bus.

Last Friday, 11-year-old Tayloni Mazyck was shot by a stray bullet outside her apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood when a teenage boy opened fire on rival gang members. Tayloni, who survived the gunshot, lost feeling in her legs and may never walk again.

“We should have more gun control,” Sarah’s mother, Jacqueline Franco, told the Daily News. “I wish they could just make guns extinct, period.”

While the weekend’s heinous gun violence might suggest the ineffectiveness of such measures, this year’s numbers are notably better than the last. According to the Daily News, the 440 shootings so far this year represent a 23 percent drop from the 574 victims in 2012.

And while some have described this weekend’s figures as “Chicago-like,” the Windy City still leads the Big Apple in gun violence. Chicago, a city with just one-third of New York’s population, witnessed over 500 homicides last year compared with New York’s 414. This weekend, Chicago saw 12 people wounded by shootings and one fatality.

HPV a growing cause of upper throat cancer

Chart shows new oral cancer cases in ...

ATLANTA (AP) — Doctors have known for some time that a sexually spread virus can cause some types of oral cancer. But actor Michael Douglas' comments on his own throat cancer in a newspaper story Monday threw a spotlight on a subject not often discussed.

And it raises a lot of questions:

—What virus can cause oral cancer?

HPV, the human papillomavirus. It's best known for causingcervical cancer and genital warts. It also can be spread by oral sex, and men are more susceptible than women. It is a growing cause of certain types of oral cancer — those in the upper throat, at the base of the tongue and in the tonsils.

Indeed, studies suggest that HPV can be blamed for 60 to 80 percent of cancers of the upper throat.

—What's the risk of getting oral cancer from performing oral sex?

About 2.5 million Americans are estimated to have oral HPV infections. But only about 14,000 cases of that type of cancer are expected this year, suggesting the risk of developing this cancer is low.

The virus is hard to avoid. As many as 75 percent of sexually active men and women will be infected with it at some point. Most people clear the infection on their own within two years. Some, however, have difficulty ridding themselves of HPV. And in some cases, the virus creeps down through tiny fissures in the base of the tongue or in the tonsils to lodge deep in the tissue.

Those deep-settling infections can become dangerous cancers that often aren't diagnosed until they're at a late stage, experts say.

—What are the symptoms for upper throat cancer?

Symptoms can include a sore throat that doesn't go away, pain or trouble swallowing, a lump in the back of the throat, ear pain and voice changes.

—Men are at greater risk?

Apparently, yes. A small study in Baltimore found men accounted for about 85 percent of recent HPV-related oral cancers, said Dr. Sara Pai, a Johns Hopkins University researcher.

Experts believe men have lower amounts of antibody protection against HPV, she added.

—What should I do if my girlfriend or boyfriend has an HPV infection?

Abstain from oral sex, experts advise, though if you've had sex you likely were already infected. And use condoms during vaginal intercourse.

—How do I know if my partner has an HPV infection?

Usually there aren't symptoms, though there may be genital warts. Or a woman might learn from her gynecological exam that she has it. But there is no such testing for men.

—If a woman had an infection but subsequent tests suggest it's gone, is it safe to have oral sex with her again?

Probably. Bear in mind that if you are her partner, you've probably been exposed already.

The issue is not so much whether or not people are exposed to HPV. Rather, it's that some people develop cancer from exposure and some do not, said Dr. Maura Gillison, an HPV expert at Ohio State University.

—Is there a greater risk from a person who's had many sex partners?

Yes, that's the greatest risk factor. HPV is highly communicable, so it only takes sex with one partner to infect you. But the more partners, the greater the chance you've been exposed, Gillison said.

—Isn't there a vaccine against HPV that's available to males?

Yes, but it's recommended for boys before they first have sex. Experts say it generally doesn't work after someone's already been exposed to HPV. There is some work being done on a therapeutic vaccine against HPV, but such a treatment is believed to be many years away, at best.

—Is the risk for oral cancer greater from tobacco or alcohol?

Tobacco especially has been fingered as the cause of most cancers in the head and neck, including in the voice box and at the front of the tongue. Alcohol is believed to be a contributor, too. But cancers of the upper throat are mainly tied to HPV.

—What happened to Michael Douglas?

In 2010, Douglas announced that after seeking treatment for a very sore throat, he was diagnosed with a tumor at the base of his tongue. Because of the location of the cancer, some experts had wondered if it was related to HPV, but Douglas had a history of smoking and drinking and did not go into detail.

Since then, the 68-year-old Douglas has been free of cancer for more than two years after receiving extensive chemotherapy and has returned to acting. On Monday, The Guardian newspaper in England published an interview Monday in which Douglas said HPV is a cause of the kind of cancer he'd suffered.

IRS victims testify as new agency scandal emerges

House Financial Services and General Government subcommittee Chairman Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, June 3, 2013, during the subcommittee's hearing regarding a report that the IRS spent about $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative groups who were targeted by the Internal Revenue Service are getting their say on Capitol Hill just as the details of another IRS controversy are being made public.

The leaders of six conservative groups were scheduled to tell lawmakers Tuesday about their mistreatment at the hands of IRS agents. Several of the groups say their applications for tax-exempt status were delayed while agents asked intrusive questions that the IRS has since acknowledged were inappropriate. One group, theNational Organization for Marriage, says the IRS publicly disclosed confidential information about donors.

Leaders of the groups were scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee. Ways and Means is one of three congressional committees investigating the IRS' treatment of such groups. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation.

For more than 18 months during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, IRS agents in a Cincinnati office singled out tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they sought tax-exempt status, according to a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration.

The report said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues. The additional scrutiny delayed applications for an average of nearly two years, making it difficult for many of the groups to raise money.

George was scheduled to release another report Tuesday, one that said the IRS spent $50 million to hold at least 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.

The conference spending included $4 million for an August 2010 gathering in Anaheim, Calif., for which the agency did not negotiate lower room rates, even though that is standard government practice, according to a statement by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which requested the report.

Instead, some of the 2,600 attendees received benefits, including baseball tickets and stays in presidential suites that normally cost $1,500 to $3,500 a night. In addition, 15 outside speakers were paid a total of $135,000 in fees, with one paid $17,000 to talk about "leadership through art," the committee said.

"I am absolutely appalled at the apparent waste of taxpayer dollars on frivolous conferences," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "It seems we have a new misstep every day at the IRS."

Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has called the conferences "an unfortunate vestige from a prior era."

Werfel took over the agency about two weeks ago, after President Barack Obama forced the previous acting commissioner to resign.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday the president had not seen the forthcoming report. But, Carney said, Obama believed the IRS conduct was inappropriate.

When Obama appointed Werfel as acting head of the IRS, he ordered him to conduct a 30-day review of the agency's operations.

"We must have the trust of the American taxpayer. Unfortunately, that trust has been broken," Werfel told a House Appropriations subcommittee Monday. "The agency stands ready to confront the problems that occurred, hold accountable those who acted inappropriately, be open about what happened and permanently fix these problems so that such missteps do not occur again."

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U.N. rights team believes chemical weapons used in Syria

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights investigators said on Tuesday they had "reasonable grounds" to believe that limited amounts of chemical weapons had been used in Syria.

In their latest report, they said they had received allegations that Syrian government forces and rebels had used the banned weapons, but that most testimony related to their use by state forces.

The commission examined four reported toxic attacks in March and April but could not determine which side was behind them.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that limited quantities of toxic chemicals were used. It has not been possible, on the evidence available, to determine the precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrator," Paulo Pinheiro, who chairs the U.N. commission of inquiry, told a news conference in Geneva.

"The witnesses that we have interviewed include victims, refugees who fled some areas, and medical staff," Pinheiro said, declining to be more specific for reasons of confidentiality.

President Bashar al-Assad's government and its opponents have accused each other of using chemical weapons.

The U.N. team of more than 20 investigators conducted 430 interviews from January 15 to May 15 among refugees in neighboring countries and by Skype with people still in Syria.

Vitit Muntarbhorn, one of its members, said the team had cross-checked testimony about chemical weapons and viewed videos including on YouTube.

But findings remained inconclusive and it was vital that a stalled separate team of experts named by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon be given full access to Syria to collect samples from victims and sites of alleged attacks, the team said.

In any case, atrocities committed with conventional weapons far outweighed any casualties from the use of chemical agents, Pinheiro said, noting the absence of a large-scale toxic attack.

"NEW LEVELS OF BRUTALITY"

"The conflict in Syria has reached new levels of brutality", the 29-page report said. "War crimes, crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations continue apace."

Syrian leaders must be held accountable for directing a policy that includes besieging and bombing cities and executing civilians, the investigators said.

"The documented violations are consistent and widespread, evidence of a concerted policy implemented by the leaders of Syria's military and government," they said in their fifth report on the 26-month-old war that has killed more than 80,000.

Government forces and allied militia have committed murder, torture, rape and other inhumane acts, the report said.

For the past two weeks, Syrian government forces have laid siege to the border town of Qusair where agencies say hundreds of wounded and other civilians are trapped in dire conditions.

Syrian rebels and allied foreign militants have murdered civilians as well as captured soldiers, often after "show trials" in an increasingly sectarian conflict, the report said.

"They continue to endanger the civilian population by positioning military objectives in civilian areas," it added.

However, war crimes by rebels, including murder, torture and hostage-taking, did not reach the intensity and scale of those committed by government forces and affiliated militia.

The team called on the U.N. Security Council to ensure that those responsible for crimes face justice, including by possible referral of Syria to the International Criminal Court.

"Accountability will come, it will come in any case," said Carla del Ponte, a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor and a member of the commission.

At least 17 massacres were committed in the period under review, making a total of 30 since September, the report said.

Dozens of women and children were killed in May in the coastal villages of Baida and Banias, where evidence links the slaughter to government-backed militia, it said.

Eleven kneeling, blindfolded men were shot in the back of the head in Deir al-Zor province by al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front rebels, the report said, citing a video that appeared in May.

Regarding a separate incident near Deir al-Zor in which the evidence also points to rebels, it said: "Video footage emerged showing a child participating in the beheading of two kidnapped men. Following investigation, it is believed that the video is authentic and the men were soldiers, killed as depicted."

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