CHICAGO (Reuters) - Researchers have been working for years to determine whether genetic glitches are driving high rates of especially deadly breast cancer in black women in the United States.

Now, the most comprehensive genetic study yet found that one in five black women already diagnosed with breast cancer and referred for genetic counseling had at least one of 18 genetic mutations known to increase the risk of the disease.

The findings, presented on Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, suggest that inherited mutations may be more common that expected in blacks with breast cancer, pointing to the need for broader genetic counseling and screening among these women and their family members.

Although white women in the United States are slightly more likely to develop breast cancer than black women overall, in women under 45, breast cancer is more common in black women. And it's more deadly.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black women in the United States have the highest breast cancer death rates of all racial and ethnic groups and are 40 percent more likely to die of breast cancer than white women.

"For many years, we've seen breast cancer take a heavy toll on African American women, and this study begins to resolve unanswered questions about what's driving these disparities," said Dr Jane Churpek of the University of Chicago.

Churpek and her colleagues used a new genomic test available to academic researchers called BROCA that allowed the team to look at 18 breast cancer susceptibility genes at one time. They tested 249 women with breast cancer who were referred for genetic counseling at the University of Chicago.

Overall, 22 percent of these women had at least one mutation that increased their risk of breast cancer. Changes in commonly known breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 accounted for 79 percent of the mutations. Women with mutations in these genes have a 37 percent to 85 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer, compared with a 12 percent risk among women in the general population.

"Those are the two that are the best characterized and that we have the best prevention methods for," Churpek said in an interview.

About 21 percent of the women had mutations in other breast cancer susceptibility genes, including CHEK2, PALB2, ATM and PTEN. The mutations within these genes differed from woman to woman, suggesting the need for more comprehensive testing.

"Almost all of the mutations were different. This is important. For some populations, we can use tests which only look at a few sites in a few genes. That technique will not work in this population with such great genetic diversity," Churpek said.

DECIDING WHEN TO TEST

Dr. Sylvia Adams, a breast cancer expert at New York University and a spokeswoman for ASCO, said the findings should not be taken to mean that all black women should get genetic testing for breast cancer. Rather, it is a reminder to doctors to refer young black women with breast cancer to a genetic counselor in the hopes of preventing future cancers among their family members.

"This is to detect an inherited trait that can be passed on to their family members," she said. Adams was not involved in the study.

Churpek also cautioned against using the study findings to draw conclusions about breast cancer risk and the wider community of black women.

Among women included in the study, the main risk factors were the age at which they developed breast cancer and the type, namely triple-negative breast cancer, a very aggressive form of the disease that is especially hard to treat.

Churpek said black women with breast cancer who are young, have triple-negative cancer or have a family member with breast or ovarian cancer should ask their doctors about whether they should get genetic counseling and testing.

Doctors in a press briefing noted that blacks in the United States have been under-studied and that black women with breast cancer are less likely to be referred to genetic counseling services, even among women with a family history of these cancers.

Patients will find other hurdles to comprehensive testing.

The gene test used in the study, BROCA, is available to academic researchers. But doctors practicing outside of academic facilities who want to test for the same genes may have to do so by ordering a series of tests, given that the patents for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene tests are held by Myriad Genetics, which prohibits them from being included in broader commercially available tests, Churpek said.

That could change later this month as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on whether companies can hold patents on human genes.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Douglas Royalty)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Next week marks the first big week of second-quarter earnings, and it is sure to bring both joy and misery to Wall Street.

Investors will concentrate on market fundamentals after weeks when Federal Reserve policies have dominated the market. If they see companies are still struggling, stocks could take a fall.

Even after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke scared markets in June by telling investors the Fed is likely to reduce monetary stimulus in coming months, stocks have recovered, with both the Dow and S&P 500 climbing to all-time highs. In an appearance earlier this week, the Fed chairman said monetary policy was likely to be accommodative for some time.

"We're in the terminal stages of a Bernanke-driven bubble," said Walter Zimmerman, technical analyst at United-ICAP in Jersey City, New Jersey. "While a lot of damage has been done to the bear case, eventually bad news like weak earnings growth will start to bear fruit."

To be sure, the Fed, which has shown a much friendlier face to investors lately, will not be out of the picture. Bernanke will appear before congressional committees on Wednesday and Thursday to deliver the semiannual testimony about monetary policy. However, few surprises are expected.

The S&P's 17.8 percent advance in 2013 is largely attributable to the central bank's accommodative policies. The major indexes made impressive gains in the week: the Dowup 2.1 percent, the S&P3 percent higher and the Nasdaqup 3.5 percent. It was the third straight week of gains for all three, and the best week for the S&P and Nasdaq since early January.

"The Fed has been able to prevent a big selloff so far, but eventually the economy will have to catch up to the market or the market will fall back to match the economy," said Scott Armiger, who helps oversee $5.6 billion as portfolio manager at Christiana Trust in Greenville, Delaware.

MORE FOCUS ON EARNINGS

That analysts are now turning their focus to earnings, believing the Fed's power to buoy stocks is waning, may not be a positive if the rally is going to continue.

Earnings are seen growing 2.8 percent in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data, a far cry from the 8.4 percent growth forecast by analysts on January 1. Revenue is now seen growing 1.5 percent.

For every company that has said it expects positive earnings, 6.5 have lowered their forecasts, the worst positive-to-negative ratio since the first quarter of 2001.

United Parcel Service Inc , the world's largest package delivery company, tumbled on Friday after giving a weak profit outlook, citing economic conditions as one reason.

Companies can appear to look good when they beat a lowered earnings bar, but signs of weakness will hurt a market that is hovering near all-time highs and seeking new catalysts to spur further gains.

POSITIVE RISK/REWARD

"The second quarter wasn't particularly robust, and estimates seem to still be too high," said Barry Knapp, managing director of equity research at Barclays Capital in New York.

"We don't really see any sector where there is a positive risk/reward, just places where there are more likely to be negative surprises."

Next week about 70 S&P 500 companies will report results. If the results indicate that companies' earnings are still weak despite intervention by the world's major central banks, shares could slump.

General Electric , Verizon , Johnson & Johnsonand UnitedHealthare among the biggest names, as are tech giants Microsoft Corp , Intel Corp , Google Incand IBM .

Financial companies may be the most in view as investors look to reports from Bank of America , Citigroup , Goldman Sachsand Morgan Stanley , among others. The sector is seen posting profit growth of 19.6 percent in the quarter, by far the highest among S&P groups.

"Since they have the highest growth expectations, it will be especially important for the market that they live up to those expectations," said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for Standard & Poor's Equity Research Services in New York. "Those results will be pivotal."

Early results from financial companies were mixed. Wells Fargo & Coand JPMorgan Chase & Coposted profits that beat forecasts, though JPMorgan said it might be forced to accelerate cost-cutting because of difficult market conditions.

Among economic reports, June retail sales will be released on Monday, with consumer prices and housing starts, both for June, will be released later in the week. The July Philadelphia Fed survey of manufacturers is due on Thursday.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Republican recognize that they only need to win three Senate seats in the most of conservative of states -- Arkansas, Louisiana and Alaska -- and Mitch McConnell could be a Majority Leader in 2015. (That is, if McConnell can hold onto his own Kentucky seat.) The latest developments underline how punishing the map is for Democrats for 2014, and little margin for error they have.

Democrats can afford to lose up to five Senate seats and still maintain their majority, but they already risk conceding over half that number before campaigning even gets underway.

Schweitzer was the type of grade-A recruit who could nearly guarantee victory despite Montana's Republican leanings. His near-universal name recognition, blunt outspokenness, and statewide organization made him a heavy favorite, especially when Republicans had yet to field a first-tier challenger. Big Sky Country was beginning to look like a long-shot for the GOP.

But somewhere along the way, Schweitzer got cold feet. Montana Democratic officials were expecting Schweitzer to announce his campaign earlier this week, and were caught by surprise when they didn't hear from the former governor. Democrats are claiming -- after the fact -- that they were concerned about vulnerabilities in his background, but Republicans claim that the difficult political environment for Democrats in Montana also played a role.

"We did our homework and there was a lot of rust under Schweitzer's hood a LOT of rust," said Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "Just as important though is that Schweitzer looked at the race and realized he couldn't win in light of how unpopular the Democrat agenda of higher taxes, bankrupting spending, and the ObamaCare train wreck is in Montana these days."

Indeed, Schweitzer's backing out is illustrative to a mounting recruiting problem for Senate Democrats in conservative states, which make up a disproportionate share of the battleground matchups in 2014. The party has failed to persuade any of its top choices in West Virginia, where Rep. Nick Rahall and attorney Nick Preservati passed on bids. In South Dakota, the party missed out on former Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and the son of retiring Sen. Tim Johnson. In Georgia, Rep. John Barrow decided not to run, but the party rallied behind Michelle Nunn, daughter of former senator Sam Nunn. The party's biggest red-state recruit is Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, whose campaign against McConnell has gotten off to a rocky start.

Possible Democratic candidates for the Montana Senate seat include Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily's List, Denise Juneau, state superintendent of public instruction, Monica Lindeen, the state's auditor, Brian Morris, a state Supreme Court justice, and state Sen. Kendall Van Dyke.

On the Republican side, all eyes are on freshman Rep. Steve Daines, who comfortably won the state's at-large House seat last year.

"We remain confident that Democrats can hold the Montana seat and the overall math still favors Democrats next year," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Guy Cecil. "Only three Democratic incumbents have lost reelection in the last decade. Our incumbents are positioned to win, we've already recruited a strong challenger to Mitch McConnell and Republicans have failed to expand the senate map into blue and purple states."

That's been the Democratic saving grace this election year -- that Republicans have struggled to recruit top candidates in the traditional battlegrounds -- against Sen. Al Franken in Minnesota, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, Sen. Mark Udall in Colorado and for open seats in Iowa and Michigan.

But if Democrats struggle to put Montana in play without Schweitzer, that means the path to a majority will run through Louisiana and Alaska, not the more Obama-friendly confines of the Midwest and Northeast. That's an unnerving proposition for Democrats, given how badly the party has struggled outside their comfort zone lately.

The families of 12 surviving children who witnessed the Dec. 14 shootings would each get $20,000; two teachers who were injured would get $150,000 between them.

The foundation was asked to divide up $11.4 million that was raised with the help of the United Way. The foundation previously decided to divvy up $7.7 million to the families and survivors and to have committees decide on uses for the remainder of the donations, including whether to use some of it for future mental health care and other needs.

The recommendations were released before a public forum Thursday at Newtown's Edmond Town Hall to discuss how to divide the $7.7 million. Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, special advisers to a distribution committee appointed by the Newtown-Sandy Hook Community Foundation, made the recommendations.

"Is the money adequate? Of course not," Feinberg said. "No amount is adequate to deal with these horrors. Money is a pretty poor substitute but that's what we have. Solomon himself could not distribute this money in a fashion that would please everybody."

The committee met privately before the meeting with some family members. A handful of people commented at the meeting, attended by dozens. Some questioned the process for arriving at the $7.7 million for the families.

"Why isn't all the money going to all the victims? The intent was to give the money to the victims. We're starting from a false premise and this process is re-victimizing the victims," said Caryn Kaufman, who represents a coalition of prior mass shooting victims.

Jeffrey Dion, deputy executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime, praised the recommendation to provide money to the 12 children who survived the shootings because he said it recognizes the lasting trauma survivors suffer.

Some victims' families have complained the process has caused them anguish by putting them in the difficult place of deciding how to divide the money.

The $7.7 million is expected to be paid out next month.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenagers are more likely to have hearing loss if their mothers smoked during pregnancy, according to a new study that included audio tests of close to 1,000 youth.

Researchers said that although the link was "relatively modest," even limited hearing loss can have implications for kids' learning and social skills - so it's important to reach out to those who might need help, and to prevent as much exposure as possible.

The findings "should be part of all our efforts to get people not to smoke, and especially not to smoke when they're pregnant," said Dr. Michael Weitzman, a child health researcher from the New York University School of Medicine, who led the study.

Past research has tied smoking during pregnancy to a range of childhood problems, including asthma and learning disabilities.

In another study, Weitzman and his colleagues found exposure to secondhand smoke during adolescence was linked to hearing loss, based on blood tests for nicotine-related products (see Reuters Health story of July 18, 2011 here: http://reut.rs/ns1p0b).

This time, they analyzed data on a group of 12- to 15-year-olds who underwent hearing tests in 2005-2006 as part of a national health survey, and whose parents were asked about smoking in pregnancy. The hearing exams were done in both ears to see if kids had any trouble picking up on sounds at different pitches.

Just over 16 percent of youth had moms who smoked while pregnant, the study team reported in JAMA Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery.

Those kids were especially at risk for hearing loss at the lower frequencies of human speech: one in six had hearing problems in one ear, compared to one in 14 whose moms didn't smoke.

Weitzman said many teens with mild hearing loss don't realize they have a problem, but that it can lead to irritability and trouble in school.

What's more, he told Reuters Health, it's possible the mild hearing loss measured in some adolescents will only get worse in adulthood.

Hearing researcher Abbey Berg from Pace University in New York said the findings "make sense" given what is known about risks to the baby when a woman smokes during pregnancy, including reduced oxygen flow.

"There are also toxins in the cigarettes as well that we don't even know necessarily what those are and what the effects of those are," said Dr. Josef Shargorodsky, from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"There are so many other risks of smoking in pregnancy," Shargorodsky, who wasn't involved in the research, told Reuters Health. "Preventing exposures is the most important thing."

Berg, who also didn't participate in the new study, said children who have been exposed can be counseled growing up about how to prevent further damage to their hearing.

"These kids could be monitored and hearing conservation and hearing education could be started at a very young age," she told Reuters Health.

Weitzman agreed that it's important to spot young people with hearing trouble early.

"Parents might really want to consider having their 12- to 15-year-olds have hearing tests if they smoked during pregnancy," he said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/122kUjJ JAMA Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, online June 20, 2013.

Intels official term for these products: two-in-ones. Intel has heard loud and clear thatand even some business users have been struggling with the question of whether they should buy a tablet or a new laptop. Studies have shown that for many consumers, a tablet can do as much as 80% of what they used to do on their laptop; the laptops in these cases are only used for things like managing photos and music or creating long emails, documents and spreadsheets what we call heavy lifting tasks.

There is an important fallout from this decision process that has had a direct impact on the demand for PCs and laptops. Those who are using their tablets more and more as a primary computing device are either holding on to their current laptops longer, or if they are going to buy a new PC or laptop, they will buy a cheap one.

So to boost laptop sales in the second half of the year, Intel and its partners will be pushing two distinct designs. The first was made possible by the fact that Microsoft decided to deliver a version of Windows 8.1 to vendors for about $30 instead of the normal $60-$90 per computer license fee. But it comes with a catch: In order to get this discount, Windows 8.1 can only be used in laptops 12.1 inches and below, and they must all be touch-based. That means this version of the operating system can be used for 7-inch tablets up to 12.1-inch clamshells.

The good news for consumers is that starting around mid-August, we should begin seeing many touched-based clamshells coming out with 10.1-, 11.6- and 12.1-inch screens priced below $500. Many will be $399. Interestingly, they will look to consumers like ultrabooks but they dont meet the Intel definition of Ultrabooks, which calls for more higher-end processors, security hooks and other features that normally keep these machines prices around $699 and up. Although Intel does not have an official name for these low-end clamshells, most of us researchers are referring to them as ultralights. They will be coming from all of the vendors this fall.

However, the more interesting of the two designs that will be pushed for the holidays are the various models coming out in the two-in-one category. We will see some that are like the , where the screen does not detach but can be folded back to become a tablet or stood up like a tent for viewing presentations. But the ones that Intel and Microsoft think will be the bigger hits are the convertibles and hybrids where the screen detaches to become a standalone tablet.

They think that this solves the consumer dilemma of whether to buy a laptop or tablet. Now consumers can have the best of both worlds in a single package. There will be many of these types of two-in-ones coming to market over the next six months, giving consumers a lot of choices. In fact, we know that at least one of them will be priced at $349, and many of the others will have aggressive pricing as well.

My big concern about these products is that while I like the idea of a two-in-ones versatility, for this to work I believe that they must deliver a superior experience in both modes for them to take off. That means that they must deliver a great laptop experience in laptop mode and a great tablet experience in tablet mode. It will be interesting to see if vendors can deliver this type of quality experience given the fact that they all want to bring these two-in-ones in at prices well below $500.

At a personal level, my wife has become a fan of her , a Windows 8 convertible.Whats interesting about this is that she has been a very committed laptop user and to move to a smaller screen that works as a laptop and a tablet was something I would have never guessed she would be comfortable with. Yet, she finds its smaller size and the versatility of being a true laptop as well as a true tablet very useful, especially when she travels. I use the Lenovo Yoga, too, and also like its design, but because of my heavy lifting workload, a dedicated laptop is still my primary computing device.

Unlike last holiday season where Microsoft and its partners expected Windows 8 to give them a boost, this time around, vendors are actually innovating on the hardware side, too. They hope that these two new form factors will catch consumers attention. Along with Windows 8.1, these industry giants are crossing their fingers that there will be greater demand for new PCs in the latter part of the year, and clearly think two-in-ones will be hot this holiday season.

Bajarin is the president of, a technology-industry-analysis and market-intelligence firm in Silicon Valley. He contributes to, an opinion column that appears every Monday on TIME Tech.

Daniel Barrera Barrera spoke through a Spanish interpreter during the brief hearing in Manhattan, responding "Yes, your honor" when asked if he understood the charges. Afterward two burly deputy U.S. marshals, both several inches taller than Barrera, led him back to jail.

Defense attorney Ruben Oliva told a judge he would possibly seek bail at a later date.

"They are very serious charges," Oliva said outside court. "He is being accused of very serious crimes"

The single charge against Barrera, conspiracy to import narcotics, could carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison or a maximum of life in prison if he is convicted. He also faces charges in federal court in Miami, where he would be taken after the court cases are completed in New York.

Prosecutors have described the 44-year-old Barrera as one of the largest cocaine distributors in history. They alleged he laundered tens of millions of dollars of profits as he processed about 30,000 kilograms of raw cocaine into cocaine powder each month since 1998.

The U.S. Treasury Department in March 2010 put Barrera on its list of most-wanted Colombian narcotics traffickers. He was arrested last September in Venezuela. He was then sent to Colombia, where the U.S. pursued his extradition.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has called Barrera "the last of the great capos." He is known to authorities in Colombia as "El Loco" and reportedly had several cosmetic surgeries and tried to burn off his fingerprints with acid to mask his identity. His attorney on Wednesday denied his client had the surgeries.

Venezuelan officials say they confiscated houses, ranches, a yacht, apartments and 48 cars from Barrera, U.S. authorities said.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Barrera's organization produced as much as 400 tons of cocaine annually and used some of the proceeds to fund terrorist groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC.

Authorities allege he purchased raw cocaine base or paste from the FARC and converted it into powder at laboratories he owned and operated in an area of Colombia once controlled by the since-demobilized terrorist group, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC.

___

Associated Press writer Claudia Torrens contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Zynga's decision to hire Microsoft's Don Mattrick as CEO sent the troubled online gaming company's stock higher for the second day on Tuesday as one Cowen analyst called it "too strange not to be true" but also "a bit odd."

THE SPARK: Mattrick, who hails from Microsoft Corp.'s interactive entertainment division, which houses the Xbox, will officially start at Zynga Inc. next Monday. Mark Pincus, who founded Zynga in 2007, will remain chairman and chief product officer. He will also keep his controlling voting stake in the company, Cowen's Doug Creutz noted, which makes it unclear "how much operating room Mattrick will really have."

ANALYST COMMENTS: Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said he sees Mattrick's appointment as a positive sign, "although it is not without challenges."

"Zynga has seen its market leadership in social gaming wane, and finds itself neck-and-neck with King.com for social games dominance," Pachter wrote in a note to investors. King.com is behind the popular Facebook game "Candy Crush Saga," which is currently the No. 1 game on the site.

"Similarly, Zynga's plans to expand on mobile devices have taken seemingly forever; while the company has grown over the past year, it has as yet to generate a significant portion of its revenue from mobile," Pachter added.

Brian Pitz of Jefferies called Mattrick "an industry vet with a long track record of success," and said he is "supportive of the move." But he also noted the mobile challenge.

"As we wait to learn how the strategy will change under the incoming CEO, we note Zynga still faces the daunting task of creating hit mobile games," Pitz wrote.

BACKGROUND: Zygna went public in late 2011 at $10, but its stock price has fallen sharply since amid concerns about its ability to keep growing revenue and the number of people who play its games. Its games are still largely on the Web at a time when many players are switching to mobile games.

SHARE ACTION: San Francisco-based Zynga's stock rose 33 cents, or 10.8 percent, to $3.40 in morning trading. It is up 47 percent year-to-date but still well below its $10 IPO price.

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A dark figure stands alone in the centre of a bleak, shadowy landscape in one painting, while an ethereal tree-like form claims attention in another.

The haunting black-and-white paintings are the work of Gao Xingjian, the first Chinese-born Nobel literature laureate, who traded pen for brush to explore a realm of mood and meditation in a rare exhibit in Taiwan's capital of Taipei.

The 20 works on display in "The Edge of Reality" exhibition, the 73-year-old Gao's first in Asia for three years, present stark landscapes of form, shade and shape that stand in sharp contrast to his detail-rich novels such as "Soul Mountain", for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2000.

"Painting and literature are two completely different languages," Gao, who lives in France, said at the show's recent opening. "Where literature reaches its limits of expressive power, that's where painting begins."

Gao's literary oeuvre, which also includes "One Man's Bible" and numerous stage plays, has won him global acclaim. In his native China, however, his works were banned in 1989 after a play, "Escape", explicitly addressed the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

He said his two artistic endeavors have been part of his life since he was a child, although as an adult he keeps a distance between them.

"For my tenth birthday my uncle gave me a notebook that was just white pages, no grid and no lines," Gao said. "At that time I used it for both writing and drawing.

"I strictly separate the two disciplines. When I'm painting, not only do I not write, I won't even read."

Gao's art began to garner public attention in the 1980s with a number of exhibits across Europe. Since then, his works have been showcased in group and solo exhibitions around the world, although only rarely in mainland China.

"His art used to be more imagistic, more concrete," said Thomas Lee, president of the Asia Art Center that hosted the exhibition. "These pieces are more abstract; he's opened up a more imaginative space for the viewer."

Attendees at the opening described a sense of emotion, particularly loneliness, from the barren scenes and dreamlike vistas on display.

"You really see inside his mind," said collector Henry Chow. "Even though we're standing outside the work, it draws you in completely."

Though Gao intends to keep on with his art, readers may be disappointed to find that he plans no more novels.

"It's too tiring," he said. "That kind of work is too intense."

"The Edge of Reality" continues until July 28.

(Reporting by Michael Gold; Editing by Elaine Lies)