Virginia court, home to spying and cyber cases, to hear Snowden case

By Diane Bartz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal court in Virginia where the Justice Department has decided to charge Edward Snowden with leaking secrets about U.S. surveillance programs has a long track record of hearing cases related not only to national security cases but also to cyber crime.

The United States filed a criminal complaint including charges under a U.S. espionage law against Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The charges are the government's first step in an effort to arrest and extradite Snowden from Hong Kong, where he is in hiding, to try him in the United States.

Snowden has acknowledged leaking secrets about classified U.S. surveillance programs to the Washington Post and Britain's Guardian newspaper. On Saturday, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said Snowden had divulged information to the newspaper showing how computers in Hong Kong and China had been targeted.

On Friday, the Guardian reported that documents made available by Snowden showed that Britain's electronic eavesdropping agency, known as GCHQ, downloaded masses of data from telecommunications cables it had tapped into.

In the past 20 years, the U.S. government has racked up remarkable success rates in winning convictions or guilty pleas from people brought before the federal court in Virginia who were accused of espionage or terrorism. Because of its speed, the court is considered a "rocket docket."

But its most high-profile cyber case - that of accused copyright pirate Kim Dotcom - has proved a tougher nut to crack.

The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Neil MacBride, has worked as chief counsel to then-Senator Joe Biden, as a prosecutor in Washington handling homicide and other criminal cases, and as a general counsel for the anti-software piracy group Business Software Alliance.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is where the government charged Russian spies like former CIA officer Aldrich Ames in 1994 and former FBI agent Robert Hanssen in 2001; and Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty to an al Qaeda conspiracy linked to the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon, outside Washington.

Its Norfolk court is where the Justice Department prosecuted five Somalis accused of piracy in attacking the USS Ashland in 2010 off the coast of Africa. They were convicted and are scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Sources say the same court has had a grand jury probe underway of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after the website put online confidential U.S. documents allegedly acquired by U.S. soldier Bradley Manning. Court papers show that prosecutors in the Eastern District have subpoenaed message records generated by some of Assange's contacts or associates.

Manning is being court-martialed in connection with the case while Assange has taken refuge in Ecuador's Embassy in London, trying to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sexual assault, or the United States.

In addition to espionage cases, the court is also where the U.S. government has opted to try some of the biggest cyber crime cases - like the prosecution of Kim Dotcom's Hong Kong company Megaupload for what is alleged to be a massive scheme to help users swap pirated movies and music.

While the espionage cases led to convictions, the Megaupload case has hit some rocky shoals in a battle over whether prosecutors properly notified defendants in the case. Kim Dotcom is fighting extradition from New Zealand.

An extradition hearing is scheduled for August, but may be delayed due to separate cases linked to another court ruling that unlawful warrants were used in the police raid.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Nate Raymond; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/virginia-court-home-spying-cyber-cases-hear-snowden-195317753.html

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Gerrit Cole pitches Pirates past Angels 5-2

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws to the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws to the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Jordy Mercer celebrates his two-run home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the second inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver throws to the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Albert Pujols, right, talks with Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Ryan Reid before their baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Pedro Alvarez celebrates his home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the second inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? Gerrit Cole wasn't nervous about making his first major league road start in his backyard until he heard "Calling All Angels," the syrupy Train ballad played before every game at Angel Stadium.

"I've probably been listening to that song here since I was like 6 years old," said Cole, the Pittsburgh Pirates phenom with pure Southern California roots. "I might have a couple of Rally Monkeys at home."

Once the music faded, Cole shook off his homecoming jitters and kept rolling on an outstanding start to his career.

Cole pitched four-hit ball into the seventh inning in his native Orange County, earning his third straight victory in the Pirates' 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

The Pirates' 22-year-old right-hander out of Orange Lutheran High School and UCLA dazzled the Angels, repeatedly hitting 100 mph on the stadium radar gun. He struck out five and retired 11 straight before Albert Pujols' leadoff homer in the seventh, leaving later in the inning to a warm ovation from his hometown fans.

"It was a lot of fun to see everybody and be back in California," Cole said. "I wasn't expecting to be back here for another few months, so it was great."

Cole (3-0) is the first Pittsburgh pitcher to win his first three career starts since Myrl Brown in 1922. He even outpitched Angels ace Jered Weaver (1-4), who yielded nine hits and four runs over six rocky innings in his fourth straight winless start.

After beating Cy Young winners Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke in his first two starts, it's clear Cole can hold his own against the majors' best ? and still keep a sense of humor about his rising star.

"That's like $400 million worth of pitching," Cole said. "We've just been scoring runs and giving me a chance."

Until they ran into Cole, the Angels had won six of eight while enjoying perhaps the best offensive stretch of their disappointing season. Los Angeles had scored at least five runs in six of its last eight games, including 10 runs and 17 hits while rallying from a seven-run deficit to beat Seattle on Thursday.

"That's a power arm, there's no doubt about that," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "The ball comes out hot. I think we had some good at-bats against him and hit some balls hard, but for the most part, he was pounding the zone with good stuff and pitched a good game for those guys."

Cole, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, was born in nearby Newport Beach, Calif., and went to high school 15 minutes from Angel Stadium, racking up 121 strikeouts with an 0.46 ERA as a senior.

After three years at UCLA, Cole rocketed through the Pirates' system and made his major league debut in Pittsburgh to much fanfare 10 days ago. The 6-foot-4 power pitcher hasn't disappointed, beating San Francisco and the Dodgers in Pittsburgh before besting Weaver, who finished second in last year's AL Cy Young voting.

"He pitched like he was pitching in front of his friends and family," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. "He was geared up. He got after it. It was like he was pitching in his hometown, and he wasn't going to let anybody down."

Pedro Alvarez and Jordy Mercer homered in the second inning of the Pirates' first game in Anaheim since 2007.

Jason Grilli pitched the ninth for his NL-leading 26th save.

Cole retired Los Angeles' first seven hitters before back-to-back singles by Hank Conger and Peter Bourjos in the third, but he escaped the jam and didn't allow another baserunner until the seventh.

The Angels finally got to Cole when Pujols led off with his 488th career homer off the fake rock pile in left-center field. That was the first major-league homer allowed by Cole, and he followed up by issuing his first career walk to Mark Trumbo.

Howie Kendrick then hit a liner back to the mound that hit Cole on the upper left thigh, but he stayed in the game.

"It's pretty sore," Cole said. "Got me right on the thigh. Good thing I've got fat legs."

The Angels finally chased Cole on Alberto Callaspo's RBI single, and the Anaheim crowd cheered the local kid on the way to the dugout.

Weaver hasn't been his usual dominant self in five starts since returning from a 45-day stint on the disabled list. After he gave up Alvarez's 17th homer to lead off the second inning, Mercer followed with a two-run shot, his fourth of the season.

"The last three starts it just kind of seems like there's one inning that's a blow-up inning, and I've just got to learn to stay away from that," Weaver said. "It's frustrating. I'm not doing a whole lot to help the team right now. I just have to keep battling, and hopefully things will turn around."

The Pirates added another run in the fourth when Bourjos, normally a spectacular fielder, lost track of Starling Marte's two-out fly to center. The ball landed well behind him for an RBI triple.

Josh Hamilton sat out with a sore right wrist, and the $125 million slugger isn't likely to start a game this weekend while the Angels give him some rest. Hamilton, who was available off the bench, was in a 3-for-26 skid in the first seven games of the Angels' homestand.

NOTES: Pittsburgh improved to 2-5 at the Big A, getting its only previous win here on June 11, 2002. ... RHP Billy Buckner, selected from Triple-A Salt Lake before the game to take injured Jason Vargas' roster spot, pitched 2 2-3 sharp innings of relief for Weaver, giving up one hit and one walk. ... Mike Trout went 0 for 4, but made a full-stretch diving catch on Gaby Sanchez's drive into the left-field corner in the fifth.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-22-Pirates-Angels/id-21ec981b3314497593ab604b5092db8f

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Billboard chart won't count Jay Z sales from Samsung album deal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Billboard's weekly music chart will not include the 1 million copies of rapper Jay Z's upcoming album that were sold to electronics maker Samsung as part of a promotion, the U.S. trade magazine said on Friday.

Jay Z, 43, announced last weekend that his album "Magna Carta Holy Grail" could be downloaded for free on July 4 - three days before its public release - to the first 1 million users of Samsung smartphones who had downloaded a special app.

Bulk album sales that are give away for free are not counted in total sales and not eligible to be included on the music charts even if an artist and a record label are paid for them, according to Billboard's rules.

The magazine's editorial director, Bill Werde, said Billboard rejected Jay Z's request that the Samsung promotional sales be counted toward the Billboard 200 chart because "in the context of this promotion, nothing is actually for sale."

"The ever-visionary Jay Z pulled the nifty coup of getting paid as if he had a platinum album before one fan bought a single copy," Werde said.

The magazine in 2011 also instituted a minimum price of $3.49 for an album to be considered for its chart in the first four weeks after release, which came in response to retailers and record labels who were selling albums for less than $1 to inflate sales.

Werde said Jay Z should earn his 13th No. 1 album anyway, as "Magna Carta Holy Grail" is forecast to sell between 400,000 and 450,000 units in its first week.

But Werde said Billboard will discuss tweaking its album-counting policy because of the prevalence of branding deals in the industry and the changing nature of how music is consumed.

"Just because the Billboard 200 has been based purely on sales of an album for the entirety of the life of the chart doesn't mean it must always remain so," Werde said.

The magazine's Hot 100 songs chart has been changed in recent years to include digital downloads and online streaming figures as consumers turn away from traditional terrestrial radio and buying physical copies of songs.

"Magna Carta Holy Grail" will be released by Universal Music Group's Roc-A-Fella Records.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/billboard-chart-wont-count-jay-z-sales-samsung-195129536.html

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Gerrit Cole pitches Pirates past Angels 5-2

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws to the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Gerrit Cole throws to the Los Angeles Angels during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Jordy Mercer celebrates his two-run home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the second inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver throws to the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Los Angeles Angels designated hitter Albert Pujols, right, talks with Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitcher Ryan Reid before their baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Pedro Alvarez celebrates his home run against the Los Angeles Angels during the second inning of a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif., Friday, June 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? Gerrit Cole wasn't nervous about making his first major league road start in his backyard until he heard "Calling All Angels," the syrupy Train ballad played before every game at Angel Stadium.

"I've probably been listening to that song here since I was like 6 years old," said Cole, the Pittsburgh Pirates phenom with pure Southern California roots. "I might have a couple of Rally Monkeys at home."

Once the music faded, Cole shook off his homecoming jitters and kept rolling on an outstanding start to his career.

Cole pitched four-hit ball into the seventh inning in his native Orange County, earning his third straight victory in the Pirates' 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Friday night.

The Pirates' 22-year-old right-hander out of Orange Lutheran High School and UCLA dazzled the Angels, repeatedly hitting 100 mph on the stadium radar gun. He struck out five and retired 11 straight before Albert Pujols' leadoff homer in the seventh, leaving later in the inning to a warm ovation from his hometown fans.

"It was a lot of fun to see everybody and be back in California," Cole said. "I wasn't expecting to be back here for another few months, so it was great."

Cole (3-0) is the first Pittsburgh pitcher to win his first three career starts since Myrl Brown in 1922. He even outpitched Angels ace Jered Weaver (1-4), who yielded nine hits and four runs over six rocky innings in his fourth straight winless start.

After beating Cy Young winners Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke in his first two starts, it's clear Cole can hold his own against the majors' best ? and still keep a sense of humor about his rising star.

"That's like $400 million worth of pitching," Cole said. "We've just been scoring runs and giving me a chance."

Until they ran into Cole, the Angels had won six of eight while enjoying perhaps the best offensive stretch of their disappointing season. Los Angeles had scored at least five runs in six of its last eight games, including 10 runs and 17 hits while rallying from a seven-run deficit to beat Seattle on Thursday.

"That's a power arm, there's no doubt about that," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "The ball comes out hot. I think we had some good at-bats against him and hit some balls hard, but for the most part, he was pounding the zone with good stuff and pitched a good game for those guys."

Cole, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, was born in nearby Newport Beach, Calif., and went to high school 15 minutes from Angel Stadium, racking up 121 strikeouts with an 0.46 ERA as a senior.

After three years at UCLA, Cole rocketed through the Pirates' system and made his major league debut in Pittsburgh to much fanfare 10 days ago. The 6-foot-4 power pitcher hasn't disappointed, beating San Francisco and the Dodgers in Pittsburgh before besting Weaver, who finished second in last year's AL Cy Young voting.

"He pitched like he was pitching in front of his friends and family," Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle said. "He was geared up. He got after it. It was like he was pitching in his hometown, and he wasn't going to let anybody down."

Pedro Alvarez and Jordy Mercer homered in the second inning of the Pirates' first game in Anaheim since 2007.

Jason Grilli pitched the ninth for his NL-leading 26th save.

Cole retired Los Angeles' first seven hitters before back-to-back singles by Hank Conger and Peter Bourjos in the third, but he escaped the jam and didn't allow another baserunner until the seventh.

The Angels finally got to Cole when Pujols led off with his 488th career homer off the fake rock pile in left-center field. That was the first major-league homer allowed by Cole, and he followed up by issuing his first career walk to Mark Trumbo.

Howie Kendrick then hit a liner back to the mound that hit Cole on the upper left thigh, but he stayed in the game.

"It's pretty sore," Cole said. "Got me right on the thigh. Good thing I've got fat legs."

The Angels finally chased Cole on Alberto Callaspo's RBI single, and the Anaheim crowd cheered the local kid on the way to the dugout.

Weaver hasn't been his usual dominant self in five starts since returning from a 45-day stint on the disabled list. After he gave up Alvarez's 17th homer to lead off the second inning, Mercer followed with a two-run shot, his fourth of the season.

"The last three starts it just kind of seems like there's one inning that's a blow-up inning, and I've just got to learn to stay away from that," Weaver said. "It's frustrating. I'm not doing a whole lot to help the team right now. I just have to keep battling, and hopefully things will turn around."

The Pirates added another run in the fourth when Bourjos, normally a spectacular fielder, lost track of Starling Marte's two-out fly to center. The ball landed well behind him for an RBI triple.

Josh Hamilton sat out with a sore right wrist, and the $125 million slugger isn't likely to start a game this weekend while the Angels give him some rest. Hamilton, who was available off the bench, was in a 3-for-26 skid in the first seven games of the Angels' homestand.

NOTES: Pittsburgh improved to 2-5 at the Big A, getting its only previous win here on June 11, 2002. ... RHP Billy Buckner, selected from Triple-A Salt Lake before the game to take injured Jason Vargas' roster spot, pitched 2 2-3 sharp innings of relief for Weaver, giving up one hit and one walk. ... Mike Trout went 0 for 4, but made a full-stretch diving catch on Gaby Sanchez's drive into the left-field corner in the fifth.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-22-Pirates-Angels/id-21ec981b3314497593ab604b5092db8f

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Cambodian lost city not so lost after all

Cambodian lost city:?Researchers clarified that the Mahendraparvata was not lost, but that it was found to be unexpectedly large.

By Elizabeth Barber,?Contributor / June 19, 2013

In this photo taken in June 2012, Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples complex stands in Siem Reap province, some 230 kilometers (143 miles) northwest Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia's Angkor Wat temples complex.

Heng Sinith/AP

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Researchers have clarified that Cambodia?s ?lost city,? found in the swelter of the country?s northwestern jungles, was not so lost at all.?It is, however, bigger than once thought, prompting scientists to revise their previous beliefs about the?character ? and the eventual collapse ??of the Khmer Empire.

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Researchers from the University of Sydney's archaeological research center in Cambodia said that they had known about Mahendraparvata ? an ancient city from the Khmer Empire some 1,200 years old ? for decades, but that before the use of Lidar technology, which allowed them to probe the vast undergrowth with lasers that revealed the buried city?s shape, they had not understood just how extensive the abandoned one-time seat of the Khmer kingdom was. The city had previously been misreported as ?discovered" in a "world exclusive" from The Sydney Morning Herald.

?It is an exaggeration to say a lost city has been found because if you?re working in Cambodia you know it?s been there since the 1900s,"?Jean-Baptiste Chevance, director of the Archaeology and Development Foundation and the project?s lead archaeologist, told The Cambodia Daily. "The main discovery is a whole network of roads and dykes that were linking monuments that were already known."

The city's unexpected size suggests that the Khmer?Empire, which ruled Southeast Asia from?about 800 A.D. to 1400 A.D.,?was more urban than previously imagined: Mahendraparvata was a planned, well-laid-out city that was formerly linked with a system of roads and canals to the Angkor Wat temples, built some 350 years later also in Siem Reap province. Scientists had previously thought that the kingdom was more a loosely organized collection of population centers. The findings are due to be published in the?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We identify?an entire, previously undocumented, formally planned urban landscape into which the major temples such as Angkor Wat were integrated," the researchers wrote in a statement?published by NBC.

The researchers also offered additional comment on why it was that the Khmer Empire, once decadent in its stone temples ascending toward the clouds, collapsed into ruin, not to be reincorporated into the country?s story again until the French reintroduced the memory to Cambodian national identity. Now, researchers have suggested that periods of megadrought, combined with practices that caused environmental degradation, were to blame for the fall of the empire ? a recipe?thought to have led to the decline of massive, ancient civilizations elsewhere in the world.

?The lidar data reveal anthropogenic changes to the landscape on a vast scale, and lend further weight to an emerging consensus that infrastructural complexity, unsustainable modes of subsistence and climate variation were crucial factors in the decline of the classical Khmer civilization,??the researchers wrote.?

Once abandoned to time, the royal city was worked to rubble as a millennium of industrious vegetation and monsoon rains did their worst on its stone temples. The mountain, Phnom Kulen,?which once observed Cambodia at a cultural peak, would go on to witness one of the country's worst moments, becoming a Khmer Rouge stronghold in the 1970s, when the government murdered about a fifth of its population.

Throughout all that, the mountain has remained a spiritual place, host to tens of thousands of pilgrims each year.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/Se8DLCFCp5s/Cambodian-lost-city-not-so-lost-after-all

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Obama in Boston as Markey calls on party's big guns to fend off Gomez

With memories of Republican Scott Brown's upset win in the last special Senate election in the deep blue state still fresh, Markey needs Obama et al to remind voters an election is taking place.

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / June 12, 2013

President Barack Obama and and Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Ed Markey wave during a campaign rally for Markey in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, June 12. Obama is stumping for Markey hoping to give him an edge over Republican Gabriel Gomez in the Massachusetts US Senate special election.

Elise Amendola/AP

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When President Obama took the stage Wednesday at a Boston rally for Democratic Senate hopeful Edward Markey, he touted the state?s storied legacy of powerhouse senators.

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?Here in Massachusetts you have a long history of sending smart, tough, hardworking leaders to the Senate, who roll up their sleeves and fight the great battles on behalf of middle-class families and everybody who?s trying to get into the middle class,? he said, before rattling off their names in quick succession: Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Elizabeth Warren.

There was, of course, one recent Massachusetts senator missing from the president?s list: Scott Brown. In 2010, Mr. Brown, a Republican, sent the Democratic Party in this deep blue state into a tailspin when he upset Democratic Attorney General Martha Coakley in a special election to replace the late?Senator Kennedy.

Now, with the special election for Mr. Kerry?s former seat just two weeks away, Representative Markey is leaning on a growing cast of Democratic heavyweights to help him avoid that same fate at the hands of youthful Republican Gabriel Gomez. And he?s using them, by and large, to tout a simple fact ? that there is an election at all.

?Markey knows he has got to raise awareness of this race,? says Shannon Jenkins, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth. ?Republican turnout is pretty consistent in this state, but the Democrats have to get people to pay attention and turn out.?

That may seem simple in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a margin of 3 to 1 and Obama carried the vote by 24 percentage points in 2012. But special elections have a curious momentum, Ms. Jenkins says.

Without other races or referendums to energize voters, the candidates have to build excitement from a base level of zero. And this time around they have to do it on a political off-year, just as the Massachusetts winter thaws into a sunny New England summer and the Boston Bruins head for the finals of the Stanley Cup.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/08DzKwk0HhA/Obama-in-Boston-as-Markey-calls-on-party-s-big-guns-to-fend-off-Gomez

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Youth who have their first drink during puberty have higher levels of later drinking

May 18, 2013 ? Research shows that the earlier the age at which youth take their first alcoholic drink, the greater the risk of developing alcohol problems. Thus, age at first drink (AFD) is generally considered a powerful predictor of progression to alcohol-related harm. A new study shows that individuals who have their first drink during puberty subsequently have higher drinking levels than do individuals with a post-pubertal drinking onset.

Results will be published in the October 2013 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"Most teenagers have their first alcoholic drink during puberty, however, most research on the risks of early-onset alcohol use up to now has not focused on the pubertal stage during which the first alcoholic drink is consumed," said Miriam Schneider, leader of the Research Group Developmental Neuropsychopharmacology at the Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, as well as corresponding author for the study. "Common thinking in alcohol research was that the earlier adolescents begin, the more deleterious become their drinking habits. However, a closer look at the statistics revealed a peak risk of alcohol use disorders for those beginning at 12 to 14 years of age, while even earlier beginners seemed to have a slightly lower risk. Since timing of puberty is not a simple function of chronological age, and also greatly differs between the sexes, the pubertal phase at first drink may therefore represent a stronger and better indicator for subsequent alcohol-related problems than simply the age."

"Usually this type of research has to be done retrospectively, and those studies are not very reliable," added Rainer Spanagel, head of the Institute of Psychopharmacology at the University of Heidelberg. "Prospective longitudinal studies like the one here ? are able to provide reliable conclusions on such a clinically and highly relevant research question. Alternatively, animal studies can be very informative -- and which the researchers have also provided."

"Adolescents have their first drink at very different ages," explained Schneider. "It would be unethical to make adolescents have their first drink in the course of a study, so this variable requires a longitudinal epidemiological study or experimental animal research to assess drinking behavior. Also, the determination of the pubertal stage at AFD is not trivial; even our study had to rely on estimations. Third, it takes longitudinal studies to assess drinking data in early adulthood. Fourth, both drinking behavior and pubertal development can be traced back to common factors such as psychosocial adversity. Finally, while puberty and adolescence are overlapping time periods, with puberty being a part of adolescence, the terms cannot be used interchangeably. 'Puberty' refers to the time period during which sexual maturity is achieved. 'Adolescence' refers to the gradual period of behavioral and cognitive transition from childhood to adulthood, where adult behavioral abilities are acquired, and the boundaries of this period are not precisely defined. Girls complete puberty much earlier than boys, indicating a difference in timing of neurodevelopmental processes."

Schneider and her colleagues determined pubertal age at first drink in 283 young adults (152 females, 131 males) that were part of a larger epidemiological study. In addition, the participants' drinking behavior -- number of drinking days, amount of alcohol consumed, and hazardous drinking -- was assessed at ages 19, 22, and 23 years via interviews and questionnaires. Furthermore, a rodent study concurrently examined the effects of mid-puberty or adult alcohol exposure on voluntary alcohol consumption in later life by 20 male Wistar rats.

"Both studies revealed that those individuals that initiated alcohol consumption during puberty tended to drink more and also more frequently than those starting after puberty," said Schneider.

"In other words," said Spanagel, "this study indicates that the period of puberty might serve as a risk window for AFD. Results also show a higher Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score later in life in those individuals who had their AFD in puberty. A higher AUDIT score is indicative of a high likelihood of hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption. This information is of great relevance for intervention programs. Even more interesting, neither pre-pubertal nor post-pubertal periods seem to serve as risk-time windows. Therefore, intervention programs should be directed selectively towards young people in puberty."

Both Schneider and Spanagel noted the influence of a high degree of brain development that occurs during puberty.

"Numerous neurodevelopmental alterations are taking place during puberty, such as maturational processes in cortical and limbic regions, which are characterized by both progressive and regressive changes such as myelination and synaptic pruning," said Schneider. "Typically, an overproduction of axons and synapses can be found during early puberty, followed by rapid pruning during later puberty, indicating that connections and communication between subcortical and cortical regions are in a highly transitional state during this period."

"Puberty is a phase in which the brain reward system undergoes major functional changes," said Spanagel. "For example, the endocannabinoid and dopamine systems are at their peak and these major neurobiological changes are reflected on the behavioral level; reward sensitivity is highest during puberty. Therefore, during puberty the brain is in a highly vulnerable state for any kind of reward, and drug rewards in particular. This high vulnerability might also affect reward seeking, or in this particular case, alcohol seeking and drinking behavior later in life."

"In summary," said Schneider, "puberty is a very critical developmental period due to ongoing neurodevelopmental processes in the brain. It is exactly during puberty that substances like drugs of abuse -- alcohol, cannabis, etc. -- may induce the most destructive and also persistent effects on the still developing brain, which may in some cases even result in neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia or addictive disorders. Prevention work therefore needs to increase awareness of specific risks and vulnerability related to puberty."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/UJdq6_mf21M/130518153740.htm

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