New video shows Egyptian police allowing deadly attack on Coptic cathedral

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Newly-emerged video appears to show Egyptian police standing idly by - and even helping attackers during a deadly assault earlier this month on a Coptic cathedral where Christians were mourning five men killed in an earlier clash with Muslims.

The video shot April 7 and first obtained by MidEast Christian News, shows a men shooting guns, wielding machetes and hurling stones and possibly Molotov cocktails as mourners carry caskets out of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District of Cairo as uniformed police watch, unmoving. At one point, a police officer appears to help a gunman take aim at a courtyard full of mourners who had spilled out of the church. The attack left two Copts dead and another 84 people injured, including 11 police officers.

"There is a general feeling among citizens about the absence of law and the prestige of the state."

- Report on religious vilence in Egypt

When it was over, the only arrests made were of four Copts. Christians, who were already outraged over a three-day attack that began April 4 attack in Khosous which saw the four men killed and homes, a nursery and a church burned, said the events show how elusive justice is for Christians, who make up about 10 percent of the nation's population.

"Two Copts were killed during the attack on the Cathedral; four more died in Khosous, yet not one of their attackers has been arrested," said Andrew Johnston, advocacy director for Christian Solidarity Worldwide. “These arrests come at a time when the Coptic community in Egypt is still coming to terms with an unprecedented attack on the headquarters of the Coptic Orthodox Church and the violence in Khosous. Such discrepancies in the discharge of justice contribute to impunity, and can only foster more sectarianism.”

Tensions between Egypt's Christians and the majority Sunni Muslims have grown dramatically since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 and replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Mohammed Morsi.

"There is a general feeling among citizens about the absence of law and the prestige of the state," said a report released Wednesday by the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights. "Such a feeling could push the citizens to the violence and sectarianism without fearing from any deterrence, " reads a passage from the report.

"The recent incident proved the shrinking of the role of the state to control the actions of the individuals especially those people who think that they talk on the behalf of God," the report continued. "There is a need for implementing the law strictly to treat such incidents.”

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Deadly blood type solves 60-year-old medical mystery

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  People with the rare Vel-negative blood type can die if they receive a Vel-positive transfusion, and now scientists know why.Nicolle Rager Fuller, National Science Foundation

A blood type that can turn blood transfusions deadly has proven a perplexing mystery for 60 years. Now researchers have finally identified the secret behind the blood type known as "Vel," findings that could help make blood safer for hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

The mystery began in 1952, when a 66-year-old woman in New York, sick with colon cancer, received a blood transfusion and unexpectedly suffered from a severe and potentially fatal rejection of the blood. Investigators referred to her, using her last name, simply as Patient Vel.

Further research found that Mrs. Vel had developed a potent immune response against some unknown compound found on the red blood cells she had received. However, scientists could not identify this compound, opening the mystery of a new blood type, "Vel-negative."

"The molecular basis of the Vel-negative blood type remained elusive for more than 60 years despite intense efforts worldwide," researcher Bryan Ballif, a biochemist and mass spectrometrist at the University of Vermont, told LiveScience. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]

How Vel works

Most people in the world are Vel-positive, but soon investigators discovered that Mrs. Vel was not alone; more than 200,000 people in Europe and more than 100,000 in North America share the Vel-negative blood type. For the 1 in 2,500 people of European descent with the rare blood, receiving a Vel-positive transfusion can easily result in kidney failure and death.

Everyone's red blood cells are coated with molecules that can serve as what are called antigens, compounds that prompt the immune system to respond. It does so by pumping out proteins known as antibodies that latch onto and neutralize those antigens. However, people do not normally produce antibodies to their own red blood cell antigens, only to foreign ones — such as when they receive blood from another person who has a different blood type, and therefore an antigen they lack.

The most commonly known blood antigens make up the major human blood groups: A, B, AB and O. However, many less-common blood groups also exist, such as Vel, which can potentially make transfusions dangerous for patients.

Vel-negative blood is one of the most difficult blood types to supply in many countries. This is partly due to its rarity, but also to the dearth of any systematic way to screen for Vel-negative blood from donors. Previously, to identify whether someone was Vel-negative or Vel-positive, doctors had to use antibodies generated by the few known Vel-negative people after their bodies had rejected transfused blood. Many hospitals and blood banks lack access to these antibodies and thus any way to test for Vel.

Understanding rare blood types

Now Ballif, along with molecular biologist Lionel Arnaud of the French National Institute of Blood Transfusion and their colleagues have found the mysterious culprit behind Vel.

"Our findings promise to provide immediate assistance to health care professionals should they encounter this rare but vexing blood type," Ballif said.

To find the missing piece, the international team used antibodies from Vel-negative patients to purify the Vel protein from human red blood cell membranes. Ballif and his colleagues then identified the culprit, a tiny molecule researchers had never before observed, andwhich is now dubbed small integral membrane protein 1, or SMIM1. Genetic analysis of 70 Vel-negative people revealed that each such patient was missing a short gene that instructs cells how to make SMIM1. [7 Biggest Mysteries of the Human Body]

Last year, the same researchers identified the proteins responsible for two other rare blood types, Junior and Langeris. With Vel, the global count of understood blood types now rises to 33.

"While there are still a couple of rare blood types whose molecular basis remains to be elucidated, the Vel-negative blood type was surely the most vexing mystery," Arnaud told LiveScience.

The researchers developed DNA-based tests for identifying Vel-negative patients. These tests can easily be integrated into existing blood testing procedures and clinicians can complete them in two hours or less, the researchers said.

"For those rare Vel-negative individuals in need of a blood transfusion, this is a potentially life-saving time frame," Ballif said. "Even if you are that rare one person out of 2,500 that is Vel-negative, we now know how to rapidly type your blood and find blood for you."

The scientists detailed their findings online March 18 in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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The 7 deadly sins of smartphone users

Everyone is guilty of the occasional indiscretion on a mobile device. But don't be too hard on yourself — smartphones have been a part of people's daily lives for a relatively short time. In terms of mobile experience, smartphone users are just entering their teens, and breaking rules is part of the maturing process.

Results from "Truth About Connected You," a worldwide study of 9,000 mobile users published today (March 1) by consumer researcher McCann Truth Central, concludes all users are just teenagers when it comes to mobile.

"Like most teens, we're taking risks and trying new things," Laura Simpson, the company's global director, said. Consumers have owned 6.4 devices and entered into a serious relationship with a new mobile device or provider every 22 months over the past 12 years, according to the report. 

Chalk it up to lack of experience or the thrill of breaking rules, but either way, most mobile users have committed one or more transgressions through their devices. McCann dubbed these the seven deadly sins of mobile:  

1. Lust

Phone in hand, sometimes the temptation to send a racy text or sexy photo is just too much to resist. More than one in 10 people say they have received a so-called sext. (The American Association of Retired Persons even offers advice on sexting.)

2. Gluttony

Look around any restaurant, and you'll see quite a few phones on the tables or in people's laps (a technique used by more-discreet diners). People can't let their phones out of sight. In fact, 38 percent of respondents said they use their devices in the bathroom. 

3. Greed

There's an awful lot of free, legal entertainment online, but many want more. Copyright laws haven't stopped 29 percent of people from downloading illegal content (nearly 50 percent of respondents in China do it).

4. Sloth

Don't feel like talking? Can't be bothered with another text? More than half of the mobile users in the survey said they've purposely ignored calls and texts.

5. Wrath

Confrontation has become easier with phones, and the temptation to send off a quick "WTF" to express anger is not unusual. Two out of 10 people said they use "mofanities," (mobile profanities). And emojis make it all that much easier; how many times have you sent an angry face, steaming devil or grimacing cat?

6. Envy

In the old days, people judged others by their shoes, but today it's all about the phone. That's undeniably one of the reasons millions upgraded their iPhone 4S to the 5; they know their friends are watching and judging. In the survey, 55 percent said they judged others by their choices in device.

7. Pride

Call it pride or entitlement, but 44 percent of people said they have a right to do whatever they want with their mobile devices, even if it bothers someone else. Taking flash photos in restaurants, texting at the dinner table and listening to music with headphones when you're with friends, are just some of the annoyances phone users indulge in.

Maybe people aren't as grown up as they thought they were, and it just takes an iPhone to bring out their worst. How many of these mobile sins have you committed? Tell us below.

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