Reuters
Tue Dec 23, 2008 BERLIN (Reuters) - Some senior German politicians have caused a stir by suggesting that only citizens who pay church tax should be allowed to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
Worried that regular churchgoers cannot find a seat due to the popularity of the traditional Christmas service, Thomas Volk, a top member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in Baden-Wuerttemberg, said the church should be selective.
"I support the idea of church services on December 24 being open only to those people who pay church tax," Volk, from the predominantly Catholic southern state, told top-selling Bild newspaper this week.
Martin Lindner, a member of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin, also expressed alarm at the lack of places in church and told Bild that parish members should get tickets entitling them to the best seats.
Germany's Catholic and Protestant churches get most of their funding from revenues collected by the tax office. Germans who officially leave their church are exempt from the church tax.
But the idea hit a storm of protest from church figures.
"The idea that only parish members should get a place in the church on Christmas Eve and that other people should be excluded is absurd," the head of Germany's EKD Protestant Church, Wolfgang Huber, told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.
(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Giles Elgood)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Rare sleep disorder may be a harbinger of dementia | Health | Reuters
Health Reuters
Wed Dec 24, 2008. NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than half of people with a rare sleep disorder develop a neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson's disease, within 12 years of being diagnosed, results of a Canadian study published Wednesday indicate.
So-called "REM sleep behavior disorder" affects a small percentage of the population, Dr. Ronald B. Postuma, at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues explain in the journal Neurology. It is characterized by a loss of the normal muscle relaxation while dreaming and is seen most often in men aged 50 and older. REM sleep behavior disorder should not be confused with insomnia, night terrors, or confusional arousals.
Small studies have identified REM sleep behavior disorder as a risk factor for Parkinson's disease and dementia. To investigate further, Postuma's team conducted a follow-up study of 93 patients diagnosed with unexplained REM sleep behavior disorder between 1989 and 2006. The average time from diagnosis to last evaluation was 5.2 years.
During follow-up, 14 patients developed Parkinson's disease, 7 developed dementia, 4 developed Alzheimer's disease, and 1 developed a neurodegenerative disorder called multiple system atrophy (wasting).
The study showed that the chance a patient suffering from REM sleep behavior disorder will develop a neurodegenerative disease is 17.7 percent within 5 years of diagnosis, 40.6 percent within 10 years, and 52.4 percent within 12 years.
"These results establish a clear link and indicate that these sleep disorders could be a predictor of neurodegenerative disease," Postuma commented in a press statement.
"The results may help us better understand how these neurodegenerative diseases develop," Postuma added. "They also suggest that there may be an opportunity for protecting against the progression to disease, perhaps even preventing it before the symptoms can appear."
SOURCE: Neurology, online December 24, 2008.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wed Dec 24, 2008. NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than half of people with a rare sleep disorder develop a neurodegenerative disease, such as Parkinson's disease, within 12 years of being diagnosed, results of a Canadian study published Wednesday indicate.
So-called "REM sleep behavior disorder" affects a small percentage of the population, Dr. Ronald B. Postuma, at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and colleagues explain in the journal Neurology. It is characterized by a loss of the normal muscle relaxation while dreaming and is seen most often in men aged 50 and older. REM sleep behavior disorder should not be confused with insomnia, night terrors, or confusional arousals.
Small studies have identified REM sleep behavior disorder as a risk factor for Parkinson's disease and dementia. To investigate further, Postuma's team conducted a follow-up study of 93 patients diagnosed with unexplained REM sleep behavior disorder between 1989 and 2006. The average time from diagnosis to last evaluation was 5.2 years.
During follow-up, 14 patients developed Parkinson's disease, 7 developed dementia, 4 developed Alzheimer's disease, and 1 developed a neurodegenerative disorder called multiple system atrophy (wasting).
The study showed that the chance a patient suffering from REM sleep behavior disorder will develop a neurodegenerative disease is 17.7 percent within 5 years of diagnosis, 40.6 percent within 10 years, and 52.4 percent within 12 years.
"These results establish a clear link and indicate that these sleep disorders could be a predictor of neurodegenerative disease," Postuma commented in a press statement.
"The results may help us better understand how these neurodegenerative diseases develop," Postuma added. "They also suggest that there may be an opportunity for protecting against the progression to disease, perhaps even preventing it before the symptoms can appear."
SOURCE: Neurology, online December 24, 2008.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, December 12, 2008
Baby girl born from full ovary transplant...
Health - Reuters
Thu Dec 11, 2008. BOSTON (Reuters) - Doctors in St. Louis said they have successfully transplanted a full ovary from a volunteer, allowing her infertile twin sister to give birth to a healthy baby girl on November 11.
It is the first time an entire ovary has been transplanted and resulted in a live birth, the researchers said. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, they said the method may offer a way to preserve fertility for cancer patients or for women who want to wait until they are older to start families.
One twin went into early menopause at age 15, but the transplanted ovary from her sister restored full fertility and she gave birth at the age of 38, Dr. Sherman Silber of the Infertility Center of St. Louis and his colleagues reported.
Previously they had transplanted the outer shell of the ovary and found that, even if the tissue is frozen, it can restore fertility.
Although six babies were born to eight women using those techniques, about two-thirds of the eggs die from lack of blood flowing through the tissue, and the women quickly slip into menopause after about three years.
Hoping to avoid those problems, the Silber team used a full ovary and reconnected two veins and one artery to feed the graft, which is a challenge because the blood vessels are so tiny.
Silber said although the work has involved identical twins where one had become prematurely infertile, the technique could eventually benefit two groups of women if frozen ovaries turn out to be as viable.
"One is the young cancer patient who is about to lose all her ovarian function as she's about to undergo chemotherapy. We just take that ovary out, freeze it and transplant it back. That's one big payoff," he said in a telephone interview.
The other, he acknowledged, is more controversial: extending the time a woman is fertile.
Women in their 20s could have one of their two ovaries removed so it can be frozen. "If she's 40 or 45 when she has it transplanted back, it's still a 25- or 30-year-old ovary, so she's preserving her fertility," he said. "We've actually done it for quite a few patients. I think there will be many more women who will want to do that."
The infertility rate at age 25 is only about 6 percent. It jumps to 70 percent by age 40 and is about 95 percent at age 43, said Silber.
(Editing by Maggie Fox and David Wiessler)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Thu Dec 11, 2008. BOSTON (Reuters) - Doctors in St. Louis said they have successfully transplanted a full ovary from a volunteer, allowing her infertile twin sister to give birth to a healthy baby girl on November 11.
It is the first time an entire ovary has been transplanted and resulted in a live birth, the researchers said. Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, they said the method may offer a way to preserve fertility for cancer patients or for women who want to wait until they are older to start families.
One twin went into early menopause at age 15, but the transplanted ovary from her sister restored full fertility and she gave birth at the age of 38, Dr. Sherman Silber of the Infertility Center of St. Louis and his colleagues reported.
Previously they had transplanted the outer shell of the ovary and found that, even if the tissue is frozen, it can restore fertility.
Although six babies were born to eight women using those techniques, about two-thirds of the eggs die from lack of blood flowing through the tissue, and the women quickly slip into menopause after about three years.
Hoping to avoid those problems, the Silber team used a full ovary and reconnected two veins and one artery to feed the graft, which is a challenge because the blood vessels are so tiny.
Silber said although the work has involved identical twins where one had become prematurely infertile, the technique could eventually benefit two groups of women if frozen ovaries turn out to be as viable.
"One is the young cancer patient who is about to lose all her ovarian function as she's about to undergo chemotherapy. We just take that ovary out, freeze it and transplant it back. That's one big payoff," he said in a telephone interview.
The other, he acknowledged, is more controversial: extending the time a woman is fertile.
Women in their 20s could have one of their two ovaries removed so it can be frozen. "If she's 40 or 45 when she has it transplanted back, it's still a 25- or 30-year-old ovary, so she's preserving her fertility," he said. "We've actually done it for quite a few patients. I think there will be many more women who will want to do that."
The infertility rate at age 25 is only about 6 percent. It jumps to 70 percent by age 40 and is about 95 percent at age 43, said Silber.
(Editing by Maggie Fox and David Wiessler)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Miss Congeniality, make way for Miss Constitution...
Reuters
Wed Dec 10, 2008. MOSCOW (Reuters) - The winner of a new Russian beauty contest must be attractive, talented and witty.But never mind wanting to help children. She should also symbolize Russia's constitution.
Russia's main pro-government youth group, Nashi, is to stage the "Miss Constitution 2008" contest as the Kremlin is pushing for changes to the constitution that critics say aims to let Prime Minister Vladimir Putin become president again.
"This constitution is a state brand and today we want to choose a girl worthy of its image," a Nashi spokeswoman.
Nashi will crown Miss Constitution on December 12 to celebrate the document's 15th anniversary. Other Russian youth groups will also take part.
"The girls must prove they are gifted in many ways," the spokeswoman said. "Talented, clever, erudite, artistic, witty, graceful, flexible and most important of all not without sparkle."
The Kremlin wants to extend the Russian presidential term to six years from four, a change critics say could be designed to allow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to reclaim the top job.
Parliament has already approved the changes which now must be approved by Russia's regional legislatures.
Last year thousands of Nashi protesters marched to support Putin in parliamentary elections and demonstrate against his opponents but in 2008 the group has adopted a far lower profile.
(Writing by James Kilner; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wed Dec 10, 2008. MOSCOW (Reuters) - The winner of a new Russian beauty contest must be attractive, talented and witty.But never mind wanting to help children. She should also symbolize Russia's constitution.
Russia's main pro-government youth group, Nashi, is to stage the "Miss Constitution 2008" contest as the Kremlin is pushing for changes to the constitution that critics say aims to let Prime Minister Vladimir Putin become president again.
"This constitution is a state brand and today we want to choose a girl worthy of its image," a Nashi spokeswoman.
Nashi will crown Miss Constitution on December 12 to celebrate the document's 15th anniversary. Other Russian youth groups will also take part.
"The girls must prove they are gifted in many ways," the spokeswoman said. "Talented, clever, erudite, artistic, witty, graceful, flexible and most important of all not without sparkle."
The Kremlin wants to extend the Russian presidential term to six years from four, a change critics say could be designed to allow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to reclaim the top job.
Parliament has already approved the changes which now must be approved by Russia's regional legislatures.
Last year thousands of Nashi protesters marched to support Putin in parliamentary elections and demonstrate against his opponents but in 2008 the group has adopted a far lower profile.
(Writing by James Kilner; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Seeing red over scarlet-marked homework...
Reuters
<---Student studies her marked up paper.
Tue Dec 9, 2008. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Teachers using red pen to mark students' work could be harming their psyche as the color is too aggressive, according to education strategies drafted by an Australian state government.
The "Good Mental Health Rocks" kit, which was distributed this month to about 30 schools in Queensland state, offers strategies such as "don't mark in red pen (which can be seen as aggressive) - use a different color."
Other tips include structuring time for peer tutoring every day, apologizing to students when necessary and asking students to conduct a "personal skills audit" where they focus on their individual strengths rather than their weaknesses.
The kit, designed to help Queensland teachers address mental health in the classroom, suggests social and emotional wellbeing has been linked to young people's schooling, among other things.
The education aid has sparked a row in parliament, with deputy opposition leader Mark McArdle calling it "kooky, loony, loopy lefty policies."
But Health Minister Stephen Robertson, whose department devised the kit, said youth suicide was a serious issue.
"If mental health professionals determine that as one of a number of strategies teachers should consider, then I'll support them every day of the week," he told reporters recently. "This is not a matter for ridicule, this is serious."
According to some Australian mental health groups, the greatest number of people with mental illness are aged between 18 and 24 years, with 14 percent of Australian children and adolescents suffering from some sort of illness.
Boys are slightly more likely to experience mental health problems than girls and depression is one of the most common conditions in young people and increases during adolescence, the website of mental health group Mindframe said.
(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
<---Student studies her marked up paper.Tue Dec 9, 2008. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Teachers using red pen to mark students' work could be harming their psyche as the color is too aggressive, according to education strategies drafted by an Australian state government.
The "Good Mental Health Rocks" kit, which was distributed this month to about 30 schools in Queensland state, offers strategies such as "don't mark in red pen (which can be seen as aggressive) - use a different color."
Other tips include structuring time for peer tutoring every day, apologizing to students when necessary and asking students to conduct a "personal skills audit" where they focus on their individual strengths rather than their weaknesses.
The kit, designed to help Queensland teachers address mental health in the classroom, suggests social and emotional wellbeing has been linked to young people's schooling, among other things.
The education aid has sparked a row in parliament, with deputy opposition leader Mark McArdle calling it "kooky, loony, loopy lefty policies."
But Health Minister Stephen Robertson, whose department devised the kit, said youth suicide was a serious issue.
"If mental health professionals determine that as one of a number of strategies teachers should consider, then I'll support them every day of the week," he told reporters recently. "This is not a matter for ridicule, this is serious."
According to some Australian mental health groups, the greatest number of people with mental illness are aged between 18 and 24 years, with 14 percent of Australian children and adolescents suffering from some sort of illness.
Boys are slightly more likely to experience mental health problems than girls and depression is one of the most common conditions in young people and increases during adolescence, the website of mental health group Mindframe said.
(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Bra for the boys an online bestseller in Japan...
Reuters
Fri Nov 21,2008. TOKYO (Reuters) - Who said bras are only for women? A Japanese online lingerie retailer is selling bras for cross-dressing men and they've quickly become one of its most popular items.
Since launching two weeks ago on Rakuten, a major Japanese web shopping mall, the Wishroom shop has sold over 300 men's bras for 2,800 yen ($30) each. The shop also stocks men's panties, as well as lingerie for women.
"I like this tight feeling. It feels good," Wishroom representative Masayuki Tsuchiya told Reuters as he modeled the bra, which can be worn discreetly under men's clothing.
Wishroom Executive Director Akiko Okunomiya said she was surprised at the number of men who were looking for their inner woman.
"I think more and more men are becoming interested in bras. Since we launched the men's bra, we've been getting feedback from customers saying 'wow, we'd been waiting for this for such a long time'," she said.
But the bra, available in black, pink and white, is not an easy sell for all men.
The underwear has stirred a heated debate online with more than 8,000 people debating the merits of men wearing bras in one night on Mixi, Japan's top social network website.
($1=94.34 Yen)
(Reporting by Toshi Maeda, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Fri Nov 21,2008. TOKYO (Reuters) - Who said bras are only for women? A Japanese online lingerie retailer is selling bras for cross-dressing men and they've quickly become one of its most popular items.Since launching two weeks ago on Rakuten, a major Japanese web shopping mall, the Wishroom shop has sold over 300 men's bras for 2,800 yen ($30) each. The shop also stocks men's panties, as well as lingerie for women.
"I like this tight feeling. It feels good," Wishroom representative Masayuki Tsuchiya told Reuters as he modeled the bra, which can be worn discreetly under men's clothing.
Wishroom Executive Director Akiko Okunomiya said she was surprised at the number of men who were looking for their inner woman.
"I think more and more men are becoming interested in bras. Since we launched the men's bra, we've been getting feedback from customers saying 'wow, we'd been waiting for this for such a long time'," she said.
But the bra, available in black, pink and white, is not an easy sell for all men.
The underwear has stirred a heated debate online with more than 8,000 people debating the merits of men wearing bras in one night on Mixi, Japan's top social network website.
($1=94.34 Yen)
(Reporting by Toshi Maeda, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Top anti-drink cop caught drunk driving...
Reuters
Tue Nov 18, TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior Tokyo police official tasked with keeping the city's roads clear of drunk drivers has been arrested for driving under the influence, police said on Tuesday.
The deputy inspector, on his way home from a camping site, was caught late on Monday after bumping into another car and veering off the road, said a police official in Ibaraki.
"He smelled of alcohol and he couldn't walk straight," the official said.
Local media said the arrested official had been in charge of a campaign to stop drunk driving, handing out stickers to bars and restaurants around the city.
"It is inexcusable for a member of the police to have caused this case and we plan to deal with it strictly," Tsutomu Sato, the head of the National Public Safety Commission told reporters.
(Reporting by Chisa Fujioka' Editing by David Fox)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tue Nov 18, TOKYO (Reuters) - A senior Tokyo police official tasked with keeping the city's roads clear of drunk drivers has been arrested for driving under the influence, police said on Tuesday.
The deputy inspector, on his way home from a camping site, was caught late on Monday after bumping into another car and veering off the road, said a police official in Ibaraki.
"He smelled of alcohol and he couldn't walk straight," the official said.
Local media said the arrested official had been in charge of a campaign to stop drunk driving, handing out stickers to bars and restaurants around the city.
"It is inexcusable for a member of the police to have caused this case and we plan to deal with it strictly," Tsutomu Sato, the head of the National Public Safety Commission told reporters.
(Reporting by Chisa Fujioka' Editing by David Fox)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Too little sleep tied to increased cancer risk | Health |
Health Reuters By Will Dunham
Mon Nov 17, 2008. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regular exercise can reduce a woman's risk of cancer, but the benefits may slip away if she gets too little sleep, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study involving 5,968 women in Maryland confirmed previous findings that people who do regular physical activity are less likely to develop cancer.
But when the researchers looked at the women ages 18 to 65 who were in the upper half in terms of the amount of physical exercise they got per week, they found that sleep appeared to play an important role in cancer risk.
Those who slept less than seven hours nightly had a 47 percent higher risk of cancer than those who got more sleep among the physically active women, the researchers reported at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
"We think it's quite interesting and intriguing. It's kind of a first look into this. It isn't something that has been widely studied," James McClain of the National Cancer Institute, part of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health, said in a telephone interview.
McClain, who led the study, said it is unclear exactly how getting too little sleep may make one more susceptible to cancer. "Getting adequate sleep has been long associated with health," McClain said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls sleep loss an under-recognized public health problem, saying Americans are getting less and less slumber. The CDC said the percentage of adults reporting sleeping six hours or fewer a night increased from 1985 to 2006.
Sleep experts say chronic sleep loss is associated with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking.
In addition, research had shown that people who get regular exercise have a reduced risk of breast, colon and other types of cancer. Experts think the effects of exercise on the body's hormone levels, immune function and body weight may play an important role.
(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Mon Nov 17, 2008. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Regular exercise can reduce a woman's risk of cancer, but the benefits may slip away if she gets too little sleep, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
The study involving 5,968 women in Maryland confirmed previous findings that people who do regular physical activity are less likely to develop cancer.
But when the researchers looked at the women ages 18 to 65 who were in the upper half in terms of the amount of physical exercise they got per week, they found that sleep appeared to play an important role in cancer risk.
Those who slept less than seven hours nightly had a 47 percent higher risk of cancer than those who got more sleep among the physically active women, the researchers reported at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
"We think it's quite interesting and intriguing. It's kind of a first look into this. It isn't something that has been widely studied," James McClain of the National Cancer Institute, part of the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health, said in a telephone interview.
McClain, who led the study, said it is unclear exactly how getting too little sleep may make one more susceptible to cancer. "Getting adequate sleep has been long associated with health," McClain said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls sleep loss an under-recognized public health problem, saying Americans are getting less and less slumber. The CDC said the percentage of adults reporting sleeping six hours or fewer a night increased from 1985 to 2006.
Sleep experts say chronic sleep loss is associated with obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cardiovascular disease, depression, cigarette smoking and excessive drinking.
In addition, research had shown that people who get regular exercise have a reduced risk of breast, colon and other types of cancer. Experts think the effects of exercise on the body's hormone levels, immune function and body weight may play an important role.
(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Resort plans nude anything goes party...
Reuters
<---Tony Fox, the owner of the White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, in tropical Queensland state, and his wife Lenore pose in this undated handout photo at the resort. REUTERS/White Cockatoo/Handout
Thu Nov 13, 2008. CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian holiday resort will hold a month-long, nude "anything goes" party to combat an expected economic downturn, media reports said on Thursday.
"Tough economic times call for stiff measures," Tony Fox, the owner of the White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, in tropical Queensland state, told the Courier-Mail newspaper.
"It will be a hedonism resort, where anything goes for a month. It doesn't take rocket science to work out what it means," Fox said, naming March as the risque party month.
The controversial "clothes optional" resort made headlines three years ago when police were called to end partner-swapping parties after a swathe of public complaints.
"You've got to wonder what sort of people go and why. Where is the moral code of behavior and how do you stop jealousies and fights?" Cairns Catholic Bishop James Foley said after Fox's announcement.
But local regional Mayor Val Schier said she was not opposed to the event as long as no laws were broken.
"People in tropical north Queensland are extraordinarily creative," Schier said. "It is tough economic times and as long as it is with consenting adults, then there is no problem."
Australia's tourism in industry is being hit hard by global economic turmoil with official figures showing a 7.6 percent decline in overseas visitors in September.
Industry leaders expect holiday bookings may drop by up to a third in early 2009 and are planning a new international advertising campaign to coincide with the movie "Australia" starring Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman.
Fox said his resort was almost fully booked for the month-long rainforest party.
(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by Miral Fahmy
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
<---Tony Fox, the owner of the White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, in tropical Queensland state, and his wife Lenore pose in this undated handout photo at the resort. REUTERS/White Cockatoo/HandoutThu Nov 13, 2008. CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian holiday resort will hold a month-long, nude "anything goes" party to combat an expected economic downturn, media reports said on Thursday.
"Tough economic times call for stiff measures," Tony Fox, the owner of the White Cockatoo resort in Mossman, in tropical Queensland state, told the Courier-Mail newspaper.
"It will be a hedonism resort, where anything goes for a month. It doesn't take rocket science to work out what it means," Fox said, naming March as the risque party month.
The controversial "clothes optional" resort made headlines three years ago when police were called to end partner-swapping parties after a swathe of public complaints.
"You've got to wonder what sort of people go and why. Where is the moral code of behavior and how do you stop jealousies and fights?" Cairns Catholic Bishop James Foley said after Fox's announcement.
But local regional Mayor Val Schier said she was not opposed to the event as long as no laws were broken.
"People in tropical north Queensland are extraordinarily creative," Schier said. "It is tough economic times and as long as it is with consenting adults, then there is no problem."
Australia's tourism in industry is being hit hard by global economic turmoil with official figures showing a 7.6 percent decline in overseas visitors in September.
Industry leaders expect holiday bookings may drop by up to a third in early 2009 and are planning a new international advertising campaign to coincide with the movie "Australia" starring Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman.
Fox said his resort was almost fully booked for the month-long rainforest party.
(Reporting by Rob Taylor, editing by Miral Fahmy
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Canadian prisoner, too fat for cell, released early | Oddly Enough | Reuters
Reuters
Wed Nov 12, 2008. OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian prison authorities were forced to release a 450-pound (205 kg) drug gang member this week because he was too large for his cell, the Journal de Montreal newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Michel Lapointe -- known as Big Mike -- was arrested in September 2006 and received a five-year sentence in May this year. The paper said he could not fit on the chair in his Montreal prison cell and when he went to bed, his body protruded six inches on either side.
A letter from the authorities to Lapointe said: "You have been detained for more than 25 months and your prison conditions are difficult because of your health".
The authorities also cited the refusal of two other facilities to accept the 37-year-old. He was freed late on Tuesday.
"I'm going to have a proper bed and finally have a chair I can sit in," he told the paper outside the prison.
"I want a normal life. I've done some stupid things and I've paid for them," he said.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Frank McGurty)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wed Nov 12, 2008. OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian prison authorities were forced to release a 450-pound (205 kg) drug gang member this week because he was too large for his cell, the Journal de Montreal newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Michel Lapointe -- known as Big Mike -- was arrested in September 2006 and received a five-year sentence in May this year. The paper said he could not fit on the chair in his Montreal prison cell and when he went to bed, his body protruded six inches on either side.
A letter from the authorities to Lapointe said: "You have been detained for more than 25 months and your prison conditions are difficult because of your health".
The authorities also cited the refusal of two other facilities to accept the 37-year-old. He was freed late on Tuesday.
"I'm going to have a proper bed and finally have a chair I can sit in," he told the paper outside the prison.
"I want a normal life. I've done some stupid things and I've paid for them," he said.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Frank McGurty)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, November 14, 2008
Preacher with 86 wives gets court reprieve...
Reuters By Tume Ahemba
Thu Nov 13, 2008. LAGOS (Reuters) - A Nigerian court said an 84-year-old Islamic preacher with 86 wives should be released from jail after he was held for failing to heed a call by local leaders to divorce all but four of the women, his lawyer said.
The authorities in central Niger state had charged Mohammed Bello with "insulting religious" creed and "unlawful marriages" after local chiefs and Muslim leaders gave him a September 7, 2008 deadline to comply with sharia, Islamic law, which allows a man to have no more than four wives.
He was jailed after he failed to comply.
"The Federal High Court granted Bello unconditional release yesterday," defense lawyer David Ikotun told Reuters by phone from Abuja.
Niger is one of 12 predominantly Islamic northern states that started a stricter enforcement of sharia eight years ago.
Bello, who lives with his wives and about 170 children in the town of Bida, had pleaded not guilty to the charges at an Upper Sharia Court in the state capital Minna. But the judge refused him bail and ordered he be remanded in prison.
Before his detention, the preacher had filed a petition at a Federal High Court in the Nigerian capital Abuja seeking to enforce his rights and to be protected from local chiefs and Muslim leaders who threatened to banish him if he failed to divorce 82 of his wives.
"The judge also ordered that the inspector general of police provide him with adequate protection to ensure that his fundamental human rights are not infringed," Ikotun said, adding that Bello was still in custody.
The Niger state government said it will appeal the judgment, the lawyer said.
The court adjourned Bello's hearing to December 12.
His case has stirred controversy in Africa's most populous country of 140 million people, roughly half of whom are Muslims.
The preacher had received a number of death threats after Nigerian media began reporting on his situation in September, his spokesman said.
(Editing by Randy Fabi and Matthew Jones)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Thu Nov 13, 2008. LAGOS (Reuters) - A Nigerian court said an 84-year-old Islamic preacher with 86 wives should be released from jail after he was held for failing to heed a call by local leaders to divorce all but four of the women, his lawyer said.
The authorities in central Niger state had charged Mohammed Bello with "insulting religious" creed and "unlawful marriages" after local chiefs and Muslim leaders gave him a September 7, 2008 deadline to comply with sharia, Islamic law, which allows a man to have no more than four wives.
He was jailed after he failed to comply.
"The Federal High Court granted Bello unconditional release yesterday," defense lawyer David Ikotun told Reuters by phone from Abuja.
Niger is one of 12 predominantly Islamic northern states that started a stricter enforcement of sharia eight years ago.
Bello, who lives with his wives and about 170 children in the town of Bida, had pleaded not guilty to the charges at an Upper Sharia Court in the state capital Minna. But the judge refused him bail and ordered he be remanded in prison.
Before his detention, the preacher had filed a petition at a Federal High Court in the Nigerian capital Abuja seeking to enforce his rights and to be protected from local chiefs and Muslim leaders who threatened to banish him if he failed to divorce 82 of his wives.
"The judge also ordered that the inspector general of police provide him with adequate protection to ensure that his fundamental human rights are not infringed," Ikotun said, adding that Bello was still in custody.
The Niger state government said it will appeal the judgment, the lawyer said.
The court adjourned Bello's hearing to December 12.
His case has stirred controversy in Africa's most populous country of 140 million people, roughly half of whom are Muslims.
The preacher had received a number of death threats after Nigerian media began reporting on his situation in September, his spokesman said.
(Editing by Randy Fabi and Matthew Jones)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Police chief arrests 48 relatives...
Reuters
Tue Nov 11, 2008. BEIJING (Reuters) - A police chief in a remote county of southwestern China has taken down 48 of his relatives, including brothers, cousins and a number of his wife's family, for various crimes, local media said on Tuesday.
Laobulaluo, a police chief in Heizhugou township, Sichuan province, had seen 25 relatives either jailed, sent for "re-education through labor," or punished in other ways, according to a report posted on state news portal Chinanews.com ( www.chinanews.com.cn ).
The police chief, who is in his 30s, is a member of China's Yi ethnic minority. Over a 10-year career, He had personally arrested a brother and two cousins after finding they had beaten local teachers at a primary school while drunk.
Other family members were arrested after stealing a woman's handbag.
The policeman's sense of duty had inflamed his relatives, some of whom had taken turns threatening his parents, and had "even secretly cut off the tails and slashed the legs of their cows," the report said.
"In the first few years, I did not dare head back to my hometown to pass the New Year holiday, but now it's all right. Everyone understands and supports what I was doing at the time," the report quoted him as saying.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.
Tue Nov 11, 2008. BEIJING (Reuters) - A police chief in a remote county of southwestern China has taken down 48 of his relatives, including brothers, cousins and a number of his wife's family, for various crimes, local media said on Tuesday.
Laobulaluo, a police chief in Heizhugou township, Sichuan province, had seen 25 relatives either jailed, sent for "re-education through labor," or punished in other ways, according to a report posted on state news portal Chinanews.com ( www.chinanews.com.cn ).
The police chief, who is in his 30s, is a member of China's Yi ethnic minority. Over a 10-year career, He had personally arrested a brother and two cousins after finding they had beaten local teachers at a primary school while drunk.
Other family members were arrested after stealing a woman's handbag.
The policeman's sense of duty had inflamed his relatives, some of whom had taken turns threatening his parents, and had "even secretly cut off the tails and slashed the legs of their cows," the report said.
"In the first few years, I did not dare head back to my hometown to pass the New Year holiday, but now it's all right. Everyone understands and supports what I was doing at the time," the report quoted him as saying.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Ken Wills and Sanjeev Miglani)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.
Philips - Eindhoven develops intelligent pill...
Technology Reuters
Wed Nov 12, 2008. AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch group Philips has developed an "intelligent pill" that contains a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir to release medication in a specific area in the body.
Philips, one of the world's biggest hospital equipment makers, said Tuesday that the "iPill" capsule, measures acidity with a sensor to determine its location in the gut, and can then release drugs where they are needed.
Delivering drugs to treat digestive tract disorders such as Crohn's disease directly to the location of the disease means doses can be lower, reducing side effects, Philips said.
While capsules containing miniature cameras are already used as diagnostic tools, those lack the ability to deliver drugs, Philips said.
The "iPill" can also measure the local temperature and report it wirelessly to an external receiver.
The company plans to present the "iPill" at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in Atlanta this month.
The iPill is a prototype but suitable for serial manufacturing, Philips said.
(Reporting by Niclas Mika; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wed Nov 12, 2008. AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch group Philips has developed an "intelligent pill" that contains a microprocessor, battery, wireless radio, pump and a drug reservoir to release medication in a specific area in the body.Philips, one of the world's biggest hospital equipment makers, said Tuesday that the "iPill" capsule, measures acidity with a sensor to determine its location in the gut, and can then release drugs where they are needed.
Delivering drugs to treat digestive tract disorders such as Crohn's disease directly to the location of the disease means doses can be lower, reducing side effects, Philips said.
While capsules containing miniature cameras are already used as diagnostic tools, those lack the ability to deliver drugs, Philips said.
The "iPill" can also measure the local temperature and report it wirelessly to an external receiver.The company plans to present the "iPill" at the annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) in Atlanta this month.
The iPill is a prototype but suitable for serial manufacturing, Philips said.
(Reporting by Niclas Mika; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Google adds video and voice chat to Gmail...
Gmail Technology Reuters
Tue Nov 11, 2008. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc added a voice and video chat feature to its Gmail email service on Tuesday, launching a free Web-based service that competes with the likes of eBay's Skype.
Gmail and Google App subscribers can now choose to speak with friends on a video screen and simultaneously instant message them in a Google Chat box.
The video screen can be popped out of the chat box and moved around a user's computer screen. Users can also change the size of the screen and expand it to full-screen size.
"The idea was to make it quicker and easier to communicate with other people by whatever means is best convenient," said Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds.
"It's a nice alternative for businesses looking for another way for people to connect," he added.
The feature is available for both PC and Apple computer users.
A webcam and small web browser plug-in are required to use the video chat. Users who do not have a webcam will still be able to chat with friends by voice.
(Reporting by Jennifer Martinez; Editing by Brian Moss)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tue Nov 11, 2008. SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc added a voice and video chat feature to its Gmail email service on Tuesday, launching a free Web-based service that competes with the likes of eBay's Skype.Gmail and Google App subscribers can now choose to speak with friends on a video screen and simultaneously instant message them in a Google Chat box.
The video screen can be popped out of the chat box and moved around a user's computer screen. Users can also change the size of the screen and expand it to full-screen size.
"The idea was to make it quicker and easier to communicate with other people by whatever means is best convenient," said Google spokesman Jason Freidenfelds.
"It's a nice alternative for businesses looking for another way for people to connect," he added.
The feature is available for both PC and Apple computer users.
A webcam and small web browser plug-in are required to use the video chat. Users who do not have a webcam will still be able to chat with friends by voice.
(Reporting by Jennifer Martinez; Editing by Brian Moss)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, November 07, 2008
Ballmer cracks Telstra jokes...
News - Communications - ZDNet Australia By: Suzanne Tindal, ZDNet.com.au
<--Steve Ballmer at Telstra's investor day this morning(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)
Sydney 06 November 2008. 02:08 Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer cracked jokes at a Telstra event today as the telco's live demonstration of 21Mbps speeds on its Next G network came unravelled.
"I do have to say, I think I probably did it," laughed Ballmer, pointing out Telstra had already demonstrated the devices involved (which will launch in early 2009) to him privately.
"[Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo] wondered whether we were competing for all those years and we finally got things in constructive partnership and I went and ruined the first 21Mbps wireless demonstration ever. You're going to wonder about me again Sol I'm pretty sure," the Microsoft supremo added, referring to a partnership unveiled yesterday between his company and Telstra.
The telco has been upgrading its Next G network from its current 14.4 Mbps to 21Mbps, work which it hopes to finish by the end of this year. However, despite the high maximum theoretical speeds of the network, until now, devices have only been able to achieve speeds of 7.2Mbps.
The telco had recently announced that it was working together with Sierra Wireless, Qualcomm and Ericsson towards bringing out a faster device. Now Telstra will enjoy the fruits of the collaboration, with what it calls "the world's fastest mobile device" set to come out early next year.
When asked about when handsets might come out capable of 21Mbps speeds, Trujillo was coy. "That's clearly on the road map," he said.
"We're not only working with companies like Sierra and working on the dongle data card side of things, but we're also working with the companies that are in the handset side of things," he said. "Yes we will have devices ... but I'm not going to tell you when, because we like competing to win."
Later on this afternoon Ballmer will address an audience of software developers and Microsoft partners at Sydney's Darling Harbour conference centre; the speech will be broadcast live on ZDNet.com.au from 3:30pm AEST.
Tomorrow the executive is slated to address a business lunch hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney.
<--Steve Ballmer at Telstra's investor day this morning(Credit: Suzanne Tindal/ZDNet.com.au)Sydney 06 November 2008. 02:08 Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer cracked jokes at a Telstra event today as the telco's live demonstration of 21Mbps speeds on its Next G network came unravelled.
"I do have to say, I think I probably did it," laughed Ballmer, pointing out Telstra had already demonstrated the devices involved (which will launch in early 2009) to him privately.
"[Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo] wondered whether we were competing for all those years and we finally got things in constructive partnership and I went and ruined the first 21Mbps wireless demonstration ever. You're going to wonder about me again Sol I'm pretty sure," the Microsoft supremo added, referring to a partnership unveiled yesterday between his company and Telstra.
The telco has been upgrading its Next G network from its current 14.4 Mbps to 21Mbps, work which it hopes to finish by the end of this year. However, despite the high maximum theoretical speeds of the network, until now, devices have only been able to achieve speeds of 7.2Mbps.
The telco had recently announced that it was working together with Sierra Wireless, Qualcomm and Ericsson towards bringing out a faster device. Now Telstra will enjoy the fruits of the collaboration, with what it calls "the world's fastest mobile device" set to come out early next year.
When asked about when handsets might come out capable of 21Mbps speeds, Trujillo was coy. "That's clearly on the road map," he said.
"We're not only working with companies like Sierra and working on the dongle data card side of things, but we're also working with the companies that are in the handset side of things," he said. "Yes we will have devices ... but I'm not going to tell you when, because we like competing to win."
Later on this afternoon Ballmer will address an audience of software developers and Microsoft partners at Sydney's Darling Harbour conference centre; the speech will be broadcast live on ZDNet.com.au from 3:30pm AEST.
Tomorrow the executive is slated to address a business lunch hosted by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney.
Victim drives sleeping rapist to police station...
Reuters
Wed Nov 5, 2008. WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand rape victim drove her rapist to a police station when he fell asleep in his car after assaulting the woman, local media reported on Wednesday.
Vipul Sharma, 22, was found guilty of abduction and two charges of rape by the Auckland District Court Tuesday, court officials told Reuters Wednesday.
The New Zealand newspaper said Sharma met the woman at an Auckland bar in 2006 and later drove her first to a park where he raped her in the back seat of his car.
After the attack Sharma allowed the woman to drive and fell asleep in the passenger seat, so the woman drove him to Auckland Central police station where he was arrested, said the newspaper.
"She showed a lot of bravery and common sense. I have nothing but respect for what she has endured," police detective Simon Welsh told the newspaper.
(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wed Nov 5, 2008. WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand rape victim drove her rapist to a police station when he fell asleep in his car after assaulting the woman, local media reported on Wednesday.
Vipul Sharma, 22, was found guilty of abduction and two charges of rape by the Auckland District Court Tuesday, court officials told Reuters Wednesday.
The New Zealand newspaper said Sharma met the woman at an Auckland bar in 2006 and later drove her first to a park where he raped her in the back seat of his car.
After the attack Sharma allowed the woman to drive and fell asleep in the passenger seat, so the woman drove him to Auckland Central police station where he was arrested, said the newspaper.
"She showed a lot of bravery and common sense. I have nothing but respect for what she has endured," police detective Simon Welsh told the newspaper.
(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Doctor sparks immigration controversy...
Reuters By Rob Taylor
Fri Oct 31, 2008. CANBERRA (Reuters) - A German doctor refused permission to live permanently in Australia because his son has Down Syndrome, on Friday promised to fight the decision as an immigration row erupted over his future.
Bernhard Moeller came to Australia two years ago with wife Isabella and three children to work at the Wimmera Base Hospital in rural Victoria state, and was given a temporary visa to help plug a critical doctor shortage in Australia.
But immigration officials refused permission for the Moellers to settle permanently because youngest son Lukas, 13, failed health tests and was judged by officials as likely to be a permanent drain on taxpayer funding due to his condition.
"I think they just use my skills as long as it is necessary, but they don't welcome my family," Moeller told Reuters.
Moeller, from Bad Driburg near Cologne, supervises intensive care for a community of 54,000 people. He said he was told by officials he was unwelcome because he had a mildly disabled son. Lukas is able to attend a normal school and play sports including cricket and football.
Moeller is the second German doctor to run into recent difficulties with Australian officials.
Thomas Kossman, chief trauma surgeon at a major Melbourne hospital, was suspended last year and accused of over-billing and carrying out complex surgery he was untrained for. Kossman says he is the victim a witch-hunt orchestrated by jealous rivals.
Australia has a critical doctor shortage, particularly in regional and rural areas. Many foreign doctors and nurses have been employed in the over-stretched health system.
Moeller's plight prompted thousands of public Internet and radio complaints from across Australia on Friday. Immigration officials defended their handling of the case, saying the family could seek intervention from Immigration Minister Chris Evans.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said she would immediately speak to Evans about reversing the decision, and was supported by powerful Victoria state government Premier John Brumby.
"We understand the importance of having doctors working in our rural and regional communities," Roxon said.
(Editing by Valerie Lee)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Fri Oct 31, 2008. CANBERRA (Reuters) - A German doctor refused permission to live permanently in Australia because his son has Down Syndrome, on Friday promised to fight the decision as an immigration row erupted over his future.
Bernhard Moeller came to Australia two years ago with wife Isabella and three children to work at the Wimmera Base Hospital in rural Victoria state, and was given a temporary visa to help plug a critical doctor shortage in Australia.
But immigration officials refused permission for the Moellers to settle permanently because youngest son Lukas, 13, failed health tests and was judged by officials as likely to be a permanent drain on taxpayer funding due to his condition.
"I think they just use my skills as long as it is necessary, but they don't welcome my family," Moeller told Reuters.
Moeller, from Bad Driburg near Cologne, supervises intensive care for a community of 54,000 people. He said he was told by officials he was unwelcome because he had a mildly disabled son. Lukas is able to attend a normal school and play sports including cricket and football.
Moeller is the second German doctor to run into recent difficulties with Australian officials.
Thomas Kossman, chief trauma surgeon at a major Melbourne hospital, was suspended last year and accused of over-billing and carrying out complex surgery he was untrained for. Kossman says he is the victim a witch-hunt orchestrated by jealous rivals.
Australia has a critical doctor shortage, particularly in regional and rural areas. Many foreign doctors and nurses have been employed in the over-stretched health system.
Moeller's plight prompted thousands of public Internet and radio complaints from across Australia on Friday. Immigration officials defended their handling of the case, saying the family could seek intervention from Immigration Minister Chris Evans.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon said she would immediately speak to Evans about reversing the decision, and was supported by powerful Victoria state government Premier John Brumby.
"We understand the importance of having doctors working in our rural and regional communities," Roxon said.
(Editing by Valerie Lee)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Soup kitchen opens for dogs...
Reuters
Mon Nov 3, 2008. BERLIN (Reuters) - A soup kitchen exclusively for dogs has opened its doors in Berlin providing pets of the homeless and unemployed with a free meal, the director of the establishment said on Friday.
Despite the looming financial crisis, director Claudia Hollm dismissed criticism that it may be more sensible to collect money for humans than for dogs.
"Nowadays people underestimate dogs. They are incredibly important for those who lack social contact with other humans," Hollm told Reuters.
"Making sure dogs don't go hungry is just as important as making sure that people don't starve," she added.
Hollm, and her company "Animal Board," gets sponsorship from companies, including animal food manufacturers.
One woman who uses the free service said she had two dogs, four cats, a rabbit and some guinea pigs.
"Without this animal bread line, I'd probably starve to death," the 20-year old told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The opening of the soup kitchen follows last month's launch of a new bus service in Berlin for dogs, which shuttles their furry friends to a luxury dog day-care center.
(Reporting by Josie Cox)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Mon Nov 3, 2008. BERLIN (Reuters) - A soup kitchen exclusively for dogs has opened its doors in Berlin providing pets of the homeless and unemployed with a free meal, the director of the establishment said on Friday.Despite the looming financial crisis, director Claudia Hollm dismissed criticism that it may be more sensible to collect money for humans than for dogs.
"Nowadays people underestimate dogs. They are incredibly important for those who lack social contact with other humans," Hollm told Reuters.
"Making sure dogs don't go hungry is just as important as making sure that people don't starve," she added.
Hollm, and her company "Animal Board," gets sponsorship from companies, including animal food manufacturers.
One woman who uses the free service said she had two dogs, four cats, a rabbit and some guinea pigs.
"Without this animal bread line, I'd probably starve to death," the 20-year old told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
The opening of the soup kitchen follows last month's launch of a new bus service in Berlin for dogs, which shuttles their furry friends to a luxury dog day-care center.
(Reporting by Josie Cox)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, October 31, 2008
Microsoft: We’re Sorry, but We’ll Make it Up to You...
PC Pitstop by Dave in The Pit Blog
October 28, 2008 When Steve Sinofsky took the stage on Tuesday at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference, the senior vice president was willing to confess some past sins with Vista. His presentation was the first public demonstration of the new Windows 7 user interface, and showed how Microsoft intends to change Windows 7 to fix the problems that exist in Vista, and indeed in earlier versions of Windows.
Even Microsoft can’t hide or ignore the cold reception that Vista has received. Sinofsky identified a few key things that caused problems. First, the Windows “ecosystem”, the third-party software, hardware, and user training, wasn’t ready for the extensive changes that came in Vista. The driver model changed, which caused lots of hardware headaches at launch. The User Account Control (UAC) feature broke applications and frustrated users who hadn’t seen the behavior in XP. Windows 7 doesn’t make any changes to the ecosystem, and provides additional ways that users can reduce the number of UAC prompts without turning it off completely.
Sinofsky introduced Julie Larson-Green, who demonstrated some of the most visible changes in the Windows 7 user interface. There’s a new taskbar that combines icons for running programs, non-running programs, and recently-used programs. It’s similar in some ways to the Apple dock, but has a few other features such as window preview. The taskbar now lets you drag and drop icons to reorder them to suit your taste, rather than being grouped by type or in left-to-right order based on when you started them. Users now have a lot more control over the notification area, those annoying little icons next to the clock at the right side of the tray. You can now select not only whether the icon itself appears, but how and whether its message balloons pop up.
Vista got a reputation for being bloated and slow. Sinofsky says Microsoft is addressing that by focusing on fundamentals. The development group is working to decrease memory usage, disk I/O, and power consumption, and to increase boot speed, responsiveness, and CPU scalability. He held up a tiny netbook with a 1GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM, and said that the current Windows 7 beta runs well on that hardware using only about half the available RAM.
At this point, Microsoft still can’t be nailed down on release dates. A pre-beta will be handed out to PDC attendees, but Sinofsky wouldn’t go any further than to say that the feature-complete public beta will be available “early next year” and the final product will be shipped “approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista.” That would put the ship date in late 2009 or early 2010, although a ship date any later than about September of this year would mean Microsoft would again miss the critical holiday sales season, just like they did with Vista.
October 28, 2008 When Steve Sinofsky took the stage on Tuesday at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference, the senior vice president was willing to confess some past sins with Vista. His presentation was the first public demonstration of the new Windows 7 user interface, and showed how Microsoft intends to change Windows 7 to fix the problems that exist in Vista, and indeed in earlier versions of Windows.
Even Microsoft can’t hide or ignore the cold reception that Vista has received. Sinofsky identified a few key things that caused problems. First, the Windows “ecosystem”, the third-party software, hardware, and user training, wasn’t ready for the extensive changes that came in Vista. The driver model changed, which caused lots of hardware headaches at launch. The User Account Control (UAC) feature broke applications and frustrated users who hadn’t seen the behavior in XP. Windows 7 doesn’t make any changes to the ecosystem, and provides additional ways that users can reduce the number of UAC prompts without turning it off completely.
Sinofsky introduced Julie Larson-Green, who demonstrated some of the most visible changes in the Windows 7 user interface. There’s a new taskbar that combines icons for running programs, non-running programs, and recently-used programs. It’s similar in some ways to the Apple dock, but has a few other features such as window preview. The taskbar now lets you drag and drop icons to reorder them to suit your taste, rather than being grouped by type or in left-to-right order based on when you started them. Users now have a lot more control over the notification area, those annoying little icons next to the clock at the right side of the tray. You can now select not only whether the icon itself appears, but how and whether its message balloons pop up.
Vista got a reputation for being bloated and slow. Sinofsky says Microsoft is addressing that by focusing on fundamentals. The development group is working to decrease memory usage, disk I/O, and power consumption, and to increase boot speed, responsiveness, and CPU scalability. He held up a tiny netbook with a 1GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM, and said that the current Windows 7 beta runs well on that hardware using only about half the available RAM.
At this point, Microsoft still can’t be nailed down on release dates. A pre-beta will be handed out to PDC attendees, but Sinofsky wouldn’t go any further than to say that the feature-complete public beta will be available “early next year” and the final product will be shipped “approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista.” That would put the ship date in late 2009 or early 2010, although a ship date any later than about September of this year would mean Microsoft would again miss the critical holiday sales season, just like they did with Vista.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Prostate cancer not warded off by supplements: study...
Health Reuters
Mon Oct 27, 2008. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Selenium and vitamin E supplements do not prevent prostate cancer and may in fact be a little bit dangerous, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
The study of 35,000 men showed the supplements did not work together or alone to prevent prostate cancer, the most common type of cancer in men in the United States.
"As we continue to monitor the health of these 35,000 men, this information may help us understand why two nutrients that showed strong initial evidence to be able to prevent prostate cancer did not do so," Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, who worked on the study, said in a statement.
Other, earlier studies had suggested that the two supplements might prevent prostate cancer. Both are antioxidants -- compounds that interfere with chemical reactions that can damage cells and DNA.
The National Cancer Institute, which helped organize the study, said men taking part are being told to stop taking the supplements they had been given but will continue to have their health monitored for about three more years.
"The data also showed two concerning, but not statistically significant, trends: there were slightly more cases of prostate cancer in men taking only vitamin E and slightly more cases of diabetes in men taking only selenium," the NCI, one of he National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.
"Neither of these findings proves an increased risk from the supplements and may be due to chance. "
The men in the study were randomly assigned to take one of four sets of supplements or placebos, with one group taking both selenium and vitamin E; one taking selenium and a placebo; one taking vitamin E and a placebo; and the final group getting two dummy pills.
The American Cancer Society predicts that in 2008, an estimated 186,320 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and 28,660 will die from it in the United States alone.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Cynthia Osterman)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Mon Oct 27, 2008. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Selenium and vitamin E supplements do not prevent prostate cancer and may in fact be a little bit dangerous, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
The study of 35,000 men showed the supplements did not work together or alone to prevent prostate cancer, the most common type of cancer in men in the United States.
"As we continue to monitor the health of these 35,000 men, this information may help us understand why two nutrients that showed strong initial evidence to be able to prevent prostate cancer did not do so," Dr. Eric Klein of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, who worked on the study, said in a statement.
Other, earlier studies had suggested that the two supplements might prevent prostate cancer. Both are antioxidants -- compounds that interfere with chemical reactions that can damage cells and DNA.
The National Cancer Institute, which helped organize the study, said men taking part are being told to stop taking the supplements they had been given but will continue to have their health monitored for about three more years.
"The data also showed two concerning, but not statistically significant, trends: there were slightly more cases of prostate cancer in men taking only vitamin E and slightly more cases of diabetes in men taking only selenium," the NCI, one of he National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.
"Neither of these findings proves an increased risk from the supplements and may be due to chance. "
The men in the study were randomly assigned to take one of four sets of supplements or placebos, with one group taking both selenium and vitamin E; one taking selenium and a placebo; one taking vitamin E and a placebo; and the final group getting two dummy pills.
The American Cancer Society predicts that in 2008, an estimated 186,320 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and 28,660 will die from it in the United States alone.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Cynthia Osterman)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
The woman in red drives the men crazy, study finds...
By Will Dunham
Tue Oct 28, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If a woman wants to drive the men wild, she might want to dress in red. Men rated a woman shown in photographs as more sexually attractive if she was wearing red clothing or if she was shown in an image framed by a red border rather than some other color, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.
The study led by psychology professor Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, seemed to confirm red as the color of romance -- as so many Valentine's Day card makers and lipstick sellers have believed for years.
Although this "red alert" may be a product of human society associating red with love for eons, it also may arise from more primitive biological roots, Elliot said.
Noting the genetic similarity of humans to higher primates, he said scientists have shown that certain male primates are especially attracted to females of their species displaying red. For example, female baboons and chimpanzees show red coloring when nearing ovulation, sending a sexual signal that the males apparently find irresistible.
"It could be this very deep, biologically based automatic tendency to respond to red as an attraction cue given our evolutionary heritage," Elliot, whose findings appear in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, said in a telephone interview.
The study involved more than 100 men, mostly college undergraduates, who were shown pictures of women and asked to rate how pretty they were, how much the men would like to kiss them and how much the men would like to have sex with them.
Men were shown a woman, with some of the pictures bordered in red and some bordered in white, gray or green. Even though it was the same picture of the same woman, when she was framed in red the men rated her as more attractive than when she was bordered by another color.
Men were then shown photographs of a woman that were identical except that the researchers digitally made her shirt red in some versions or blue in others. And once again, the men strongly favored the woman in red.
The men also were asked, "Imagine that you are going on a date with this person and have $100 in your wallet. How much money would you be willing to spend on your date?" When she was clad in red, the men said they would spend more money on her.
The researchers noted that the color red did not alter how men rated the women in the photographs in terms of likeability, intelligence or kindness -- only attractiveness.
The researchers then had a group of young women rate whether the pictured woman was pretty. Red had no impact on whether women rated other women as pretty, they found.
Gay men and color blind men were excluded from the study.
(Editing by Maggie Fox)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tue Oct 28, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If a woman wants to drive the men wild, she might want to dress in red. Men rated a woman shown in photographs as more sexually attractive if she was wearing red clothing or if she was shown in an image framed by a red border rather than some other color, U.S. researchers said Tuesday.
The study led by psychology professor Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, seemed to confirm red as the color of romance -- as so many Valentine's Day card makers and lipstick sellers have believed for years.
Although this "red alert" may be a product of human society associating red with love for eons, it also may arise from more primitive biological roots, Elliot said.
Noting the genetic similarity of humans to higher primates, he said scientists have shown that certain male primates are especially attracted to females of their species displaying red. For example, female baboons and chimpanzees show red coloring when nearing ovulation, sending a sexual signal that the males apparently find irresistible.
"It could be this very deep, biologically based automatic tendency to respond to red as an attraction cue given our evolutionary heritage," Elliot, whose findings appear in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, said in a telephone interview.
The study involved more than 100 men, mostly college undergraduates, who were shown pictures of women and asked to rate how pretty they were, how much the men would like to kiss them and how much the men would like to have sex with them.
Men were shown a woman, with some of the pictures bordered in red and some bordered in white, gray or green. Even though it was the same picture of the same woman, when she was framed in red the men rated her as more attractive than when she was bordered by another color.
Men were then shown photographs of a woman that were identical except that the researchers digitally made her shirt red in some versions or blue in others. And once again, the men strongly favored the woman in red.
The men also were asked, "Imagine that you are going on a date with this person and have $100 in your wallet. How much money would you be willing to spend on your date?" When she was clad in red, the men said they would spend more money on her.
The researchers noted that the color red did not alter how men rated the women in the photographs in terms of likeability, intelligence or kindness -- only attractiveness.
The researchers then had a group of young women rate whether the pictured woman was pretty. Red had no impact on whether women rated other women as pretty, they found.
Gay men and color blind men were excluded from the study.
(Editing by Maggie Fox)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Saudi luxury car sales strong despite global crisis...
Reuters By Asma Alsharif
Tue Oct 28, 2008 JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Recession fears may be gripping much of the global economy, but in the world's largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia car manufacturers are betting on more big spending.
Traders at a luxury car exhibition in the Red Sea city of Jeddah said sales are holding up and are expected to increase in a country of 25 million, whose economy has boomed in recent years as the oil price soared to record levels.
"The luxury car market in Saudi Arabia is the biggest one in the Gulf region, so for the BMW group it is the potential market focus," said Reiner Braun, sales director at Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors which imports BMW and other cars.
"The global crisis will certainly have an impact on all markets worldwide but ... the Middle East will probably be the most stable (market)."
The price of oil dipped below $70 a barrel this month, 50 percent down from record levels earlier this year, raising concerns about reduced Saudi revenues. But the government is still forecasting growth for this year and 2009.
"Most of our customers in the region are not influenced by such trends," said Christian von Koenigsegg, head of Sweden's Koenigsegg Automotive, who was in Jeddah to display a car with a 1.5 million euro ($1.87 million) price tag.
"I think the market will stabilize in the next few months and this segment is hopefully kept untouched by the situation," von Koenigsegg said.
While ordinary Saudis have suffered over the past year as inflation soared to 30-year highs, the kingdom's elite have continued to prosper.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's second biggest and most liberal city, the rich live fast and consumption is conspicuous.
Exhibition organizers say that Mercedes and BMW are among the most popular cars in the super-expensive range. Rolls-Royce cars were also on display in the exhibition, where colors extended to orange and lurid green.
An increasing number of young Saudis are driving brands like Lexus and Porsche. Harley Davidson motorbikes have also taken off, with clubs for aficionados in Riyadh and Jeddah.
Mamdouh Khayyat, managing director of Fast Auto Technic Co. which imports Ferrari and Maserati sports cars, said he was expecting luxury sales to hold up.
This year, the firm sold 118 Maseratis, costing at least 700,000 riyals ($186,700) each, and expects to sell 120 in 2009, he said.
Organizer Abdullah Al-Shamasi said the Saudi market will remain strong even if oil hits $40 a barrel.
"The current global crisis has an effect on exhibitions of luxury cars in Europe or the U.S. but has not affected the Gulf yet, and that's because the income level in the Gulf remains high," said Shamasi, head of conference organiser EXCS.
(Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Dominic Evans and Catherine Bosley)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tue Oct 28, 2008 JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Recession fears may be gripping much of the global economy, but in the world's largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia car manufacturers are betting on more big spending.
Traders at a luxury car exhibition in the Red Sea city of Jeddah said sales are holding up and are expected to increase in a country of 25 million, whose economy has boomed in recent years as the oil price soared to record levels.
"The luxury car market in Saudi Arabia is the biggest one in the Gulf region, so for the BMW group it is the potential market focus," said Reiner Braun, sales director at Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors which imports BMW and other cars.
"The global crisis will certainly have an impact on all markets worldwide but ... the Middle East will probably be the most stable (market)."
The price of oil dipped below $70 a barrel this month, 50 percent down from record levels earlier this year, raising concerns about reduced Saudi revenues. But the government is still forecasting growth for this year and 2009.
"Most of our customers in the region are not influenced by such trends," said Christian von Koenigsegg, head of Sweden's Koenigsegg Automotive, who was in Jeddah to display a car with a 1.5 million euro ($1.87 million) price tag.
"I think the market will stabilize in the next few months and this segment is hopefully kept untouched by the situation," von Koenigsegg said.
While ordinary Saudis have suffered over the past year as inflation soared to 30-year highs, the kingdom's elite have continued to prosper.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia's second biggest and most liberal city, the rich live fast and consumption is conspicuous.
Exhibition organizers say that Mercedes and BMW are among the most popular cars in the super-expensive range. Rolls-Royce cars were also on display in the exhibition, where colors extended to orange and lurid green.
An increasing number of young Saudis are driving brands like Lexus and Porsche. Harley Davidson motorbikes have also taken off, with clubs for aficionados in Riyadh and Jeddah.
Mamdouh Khayyat, managing director of Fast Auto Technic Co. which imports Ferrari and Maserati sports cars, said he was expecting luxury sales to hold up.
This year, the firm sold 118 Maseratis, costing at least 700,000 riyals ($186,700) each, and expects to sell 120 in 2009, he said.
Organizer Abdullah Al-Shamasi said the Saudi market will remain strong even if oil hits $40 a barrel.
"The current global crisis has an effect on exhibitions of luxury cars in Europe or the U.S. but has not affected the Gulf yet, and that's because the income level in the Gulf remains high," said Shamasi, head of conference organiser EXCS.
(Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Dominic Evans and Catherine Bosley)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Computerworld - Hackers renew airline-ticket scam spam
Computerworld By Greg Kaiser
Targets Continental Airlines, raises price of bogus ticket to stay up to date
21/10/2008. In a reprise of a summer tactic, hackers are trying to trick people into infecting their PCs with malware by sending them e-mail that poses as bogus airline ticket invoices and boarding passes, a security company said Monday.
The spam, which claims to be from Continental Airlines, thanks the recipient for using a new "Buy flight ticket Online" service, provides a log-in username and password, and says the recipient's credit card has been charged more than US$900, according to Trend Micro's research.
An attached .zip file, the message says, includes an invoice and "flight ticket." In fact, noted Trend Micro, the archive file contains an executable file "e-ticket.doc.exe," that is actually a Windows worm that downloads and installs other attack code to the PC.
"It's the old double-extension trick to hopefully fool the user to double-click the attachment," said Joey Costoya, a Trend Micro researcher, in an entry to the company's security blog . "The phrase'Your credit card has been charged ...' will just add more worry for the user, convincing him more to examine [and] double-click the'flight details'," Costoya added.
An almost-identical attack hit consumers last July when hackers sent spam that masqueraded as mail from Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines. Among the few differences: The current campaign has dramatically bumped up the amount supposedly charged to recipients' credit cards. In July, the figures were often in the US$400 range.
Airline ticket prices jumped this summer as fuel costs climbed, a fact Continental recognized when it posted its third-quarter earnings last Friday. The airline, which reported a net loss of US$236 million for the quarter, blamed both high fuel prices and Hurricane Ike for its poor performance.
According to Continental, its jet fuel averaged US$3.49 per gallon during the quarter, up from US$2.16, a 62 percent increase. Fuel prices peaked at US$4.21 per gallon during the period, Continental said.
The malware used in July also differed from the attack code spotted by Trend Micro. Three months ago, hackers tried to plant an identity-stealing Trojan horse on users' Windows PCs. The Trojan had made a name for itself in 2007 as the malware used to rip off more than 1.6 million customer records from Monster Worldwide, the company that runs the popular Monster.com job site
Targets Continental Airlines, raises price of bogus ticket to stay up to date
21/10/2008. In a reprise of a summer tactic, hackers are trying to trick people into infecting their PCs with malware by sending them e-mail that poses as bogus airline ticket invoices and boarding passes, a security company said Monday.
The spam, which claims to be from Continental Airlines, thanks the recipient for using a new "Buy flight ticket Online" service, provides a log-in username and password, and says the recipient's credit card has been charged more than US$900, according to Trend Micro's research.
An attached .zip file, the message says, includes an invoice and "flight ticket." In fact, noted Trend Micro, the archive file contains an executable file "e-ticket.doc.exe," that is actually a Windows worm that downloads and installs other attack code to the PC.
"It's the old double-extension trick to hopefully fool the user to double-click the attachment," said Joey Costoya, a Trend Micro researcher, in an entry to the company's security blog . "The phrase'Your credit card has been charged ...' will just add more worry for the user, convincing him more to examine [and] double-click the'flight details'," Costoya added.
An almost-identical attack hit consumers last July when hackers sent spam that masqueraded as mail from Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines. Among the few differences: The current campaign has dramatically bumped up the amount supposedly charged to recipients' credit cards. In July, the figures were often in the US$400 range.
Airline ticket prices jumped this summer as fuel costs climbed, a fact Continental recognized when it posted its third-quarter earnings last Friday. The airline, which reported a net loss of US$236 million for the quarter, blamed both high fuel prices and Hurricane Ike for its poor performance.
According to Continental, its jet fuel averaged US$3.49 per gallon during the quarter, up from US$2.16, a 62 percent increase. Fuel prices peaked at US$4.21 per gallon during the period, Continental said.
The malware used in July also differed from the attack code spotted by Trend Micro. Three months ago, hackers tried to plant an identity-stealing Trojan horse on users' Windows PCs. The Trojan had made a name for itself in 2007 as the malware used to rip off more than 1.6 million customer records from Monster Worldwide, the company that runs the popular Monster.com job site
As layoffs loom, Yahoo comes under fire from users...
Computerworld By Heather Havenstein
Yahoo Profile features not disclosed by company, angry users say...
21/10/2008 Yahoo, already under fire for changing user profiles, is reportedly planning to cut more than 1,000 jobs. The layoff announcement could come as soon as Tuesday, when the company is slated to report its third quarter financial results.
Monday's Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo will disclose in several weeks which jobs are to be cut. The report said the layoffs are expected to span the entire company.
A Yahoo representative Monday declined to comment on the reported cost-cutting measures.
The talk of job cuts comes on the heels of a user brouhaha prompted by the company's unveiling of Yahoo Profiles , a centralized control panel that allows users to manage their activities, interests and social connections across Yahoo -- and eventually all of the Web -- from one place.
Some users contend that Yahoo did not fully explain Yahoo Profiles, including the fact that old profiles would be completely erased, according to hundreds of angry messages to Yahoo on user forums and company blogs.
User Bill Simpson, for example, wrote that the changes to the profiles were a surprise with no real notice. "Data lost. The usual Yahoo 'To heck with the user' attitude," Simpson wrote. "How do you folks stay in business?"
User "Will" said he had been using Yahoo since the 1990s and was happy with his profile the way it was. "Please restore the original."
Finally, Roamer questioned why Yahoo forced the profile change that was "not sought by any of the users, is far too difficult for the basic user to get into and adjust."
For its part, Yahoo last Friday apologized for not being more "proactive" in announcing in advance the user profile changes.
"Many of you have expressed your concern with the newest version of profiles, and believe me, we're reading and hearing your comments and are committed to helping you maximize your experience with the new profiles," wrote Melissa Daniels, a Yahoo community manager, in a blog post. "We also know lots of you worked hard on your old profiles and want your data."
She went on to note that Yahoo has saved a copy of the data contained in the old profiles, which can be retrieved by Yahoo customer service personnel. However, users cannot to revert to their old profiles, Daniels added.
Daniels also addressed user concerns that the changes don't allow them to have more than one alias, or user name. She pointed out that users can choose to merge multiple aliases into their main ID, which will allow users to search for that alias and full profile details.
The latest development at Yahoo come while the company is actively negotiating with the US Department of Justice to avoid an antitrust challenge to its proposed search advertising deal with Google.
The proposed Google-Yahoo partnership has been under fire from major advertiser groups since it was announced. The proposal prompted the DOJ to hire a high-profile litigator to determine whether the deal warranted an anti-trust investigation.
An antitrust think tank called for an antitrust investigation, arguing that such a partnership could end up as a "black hole that swallows up Yahoo," thus justifying an antitrust injunction.
Earlier this month, the chairman of the US Senate's antitrust subcommittee publicly urged the DOJ to closely examine the proposed partnership , noting that it could lead to higher advertising prices and create unfair market conditions.
At the time, Senator Herb Kohl said that many advertisers and competitors have expressed concern that the deal could let Google control a dominant share of the search advertising market. Under the deal, Yahoo would have less incentive to compete against Google, and could even opt to exit the market altogether, Kohl asserted.
Google has contended that a partnership with Yahoo would not cause huge online advertising cost increases and would not give it a monopolistic hold on the market.
For its part, Yahoo late last month launched a digital advisory council to help it answer some of the questions that its advertisers have concerning the proposed deal.
Yahoo Profile features not disclosed by company, angry users say...
21/10/2008 Yahoo, already under fire for changing user profiles, is reportedly planning to cut more than 1,000 jobs. The layoff announcement could come as soon as Tuesday, when the company is slated to report its third quarter financial results.
Monday's Wall Street Journal reported that Yahoo will disclose in several weeks which jobs are to be cut. The report said the layoffs are expected to span the entire company.
A Yahoo representative Monday declined to comment on the reported cost-cutting measures.
The talk of job cuts comes on the heels of a user brouhaha prompted by the company's unveiling of Yahoo Profiles , a centralized control panel that allows users to manage their activities, interests and social connections across Yahoo -- and eventually all of the Web -- from one place.
Some users contend that Yahoo did not fully explain Yahoo Profiles, including the fact that old profiles would be completely erased, according to hundreds of angry messages to Yahoo on user forums and company blogs.
User Bill Simpson, for example, wrote that the changes to the profiles were a surprise with no real notice. "Data lost. The usual Yahoo 'To heck with the user' attitude," Simpson wrote. "How do you folks stay in business?"
User "Will" said he had been using Yahoo since the 1990s and was happy with his profile the way it was. "Please restore the original."
Finally, Roamer questioned why Yahoo forced the profile change that was "not sought by any of the users, is far too difficult for the basic user to get into and adjust."
For its part, Yahoo last Friday apologized for not being more "proactive" in announcing in advance the user profile changes.
"Many of you have expressed your concern with the newest version of profiles, and believe me, we're reading and hearing your comments and are committed to helping you maximize your experience with the new profiles," wrote Melissa Daniels, a Yahoo community manager, in a blog post. "We also know lots of you worked hard on your old profiles and want your data."
She went on to note that Yahoo has saved a copy of the data contained in the old profiles, which can be retrieved by Yahoo customer service personnel. However, users cannot to revert to their old profiles, Daniels added.
Daniels also addressed user concerns that the changes don't allow them to have more than one alias, or user name. She pointed out that users can choose to merge multiple aliases into their main ID, which will allow users to search for that alias and full profile details.
The latest development at Yahoo come while the company is actively negotiating with the US Department of Justice to avoid an antitrust challenge to its proposed search advertising deal with Google.
The proposed Google-Yahoo partnership has been under fire from major advertiser groups since it was announced. The proposal prompted the DOJ to hire a high-profile litigator to determine whether the deal warranted an anti-trust investigation.
An antitrust think tank called for an antitrust investigation, arguing that such a partnership could end up as a "black hole that swallows up Yahoo," thus justifying an antitrust injunction.
Earlier this month, the chairman of the US Senate's antitrust subcommittee publicly urged the DOJ to closely examine the proposed partnership , noting that it could lead to higher advertising prices and create unfair market conditions.
At the time, Senator Herb Kohl said that many advertisers and competitors have expressed concern that the deal could let Google control a dominant share of the search advertising market. Under the deal, Yahoo would have less incentive to compete against Google, and could even opt to exit the market altogether, Kohl asserted.
Google has contended that a partnership with Yahoo would not cause huge online advertising cost increases and would not give it a monopolistic hold on the market.
For its part, Yahoo late last month launched a digital advisory council to help it answer some of the questions that its advertisers have concerning the proposed deal.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Disco tune Stayin' Alive could save your life...
Health Reuters
<--- The music group The Bee Gees (L-R) Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb are pictured in this undated publicity photograph. REUTERS/Randee St.
Thu Oct 16, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. doctors have found the Bee Gees 1977 disco anthem "Stayin' Alive" provides an ideal beat to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim.
The American Heart Association calls for chest compressions to be given at a rate of 100 per minute in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). "Stayin' Alive" almost perfectly matches that, with 103 beats per minute.
CPR is a lifesaving technique involving chest compressions alone or with mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing. It is used in emergencies such as cardiac arrest in which a person's breathing or heartbeat has stopped.
CPR can triple survival rates, but some people are reluctant to do it in part because they are unsure about the proper rhythm for chest compressions. But research has shown many people do chest compressions too slowly during CPR.
In a small study headed by Dr. David Matlock of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, listening to "Stayin' Alive" helped 15 doctors and medical students to perform chest compressions on dummies at the proper speed.
Five weeks after practicing with the music playing, they were asked to perform CPR again on dummies by keeping the song in their minds, and again they kept up a good pace.
"The theme 'Stayin' Alive' is very appropriate for the situation," Matlock said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "Everybody's heard it at some point in their life. People know the song and can keep it in their head."
The findings will be presented this month at a meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians in Chicago.
(Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by David Storey)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
<--- The music group The Bee Gees (L-R) Robin, Barry and Maurice Gibb are pictured in this undated publicity photograph. REUTERS/Randee St.Thu Oct 16, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. doctors have found the Bee Gees 1977 disco anthem "Stayin' Alive" provides an ideal beat to follow while performing chest compressions as part of CPR on a heart attack victim.
The American Heart Association calls for chest compressions to be given at a rate of 100 per minute in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). "Stayin' Alive" almost perfectly matches that, with 103 beats per minute.
CPR is a lifesaving technique involving chest compressions alone or with mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing. It is used in emergencies such as cardiac arrest in which a person's breathing or heartbeat has stopped.
CPR can triple survival rates, but some people are reluctant to do it in part because they are unsure about the proper rhythm for chest compressions. But research has shown many people do chest compressions too slowly during CPR.
In a small study headed by Dr. David Matlock of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, listening to "Stayin' Alive" helped 15 doctors and medical students to perform chest compressions on dummies at the proper speed.
Five weeks after practicing with the music playing, they were asked to perform CPR again on dummies by keeping the song in their minds, and again they kept up a good pace.
"The theme 'Stayin' Alive' is very appropriate for the situation," Matlock said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "Everybody's heard it at some point in their life. People know the song and can keep it in their head."
The findings will be presented this month at a meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians in Chicago.
(Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by David Storey)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Aspirin no heart protection for diabetics: study...
Reuters
Fri Oct 17, 2008. LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors should not routinely give aspirin to people with diabetes to help guard against a heart attack or stroke, a British study found on Friday.
While it was effective for those who had already developed heart disease or suffered a stroke, regular aspirin offered no benefit for patients with diabetes and a common circulatory problem, researchers said.
"Although aspirin is cheap and universally available, practitioners and authors of guidelines need to heed the evidence that aspirin should be prescribed only in patients with established symptomatic cardiovascular disease," William Hiatt of the University of Colorado wrote in an editorial.
Hiatt was writing in the British Medical Journal, which published the findings.
The study led by Jill Belch and colleagues at the University of Dundee in Scotland included data on 1,276 men and women who had never had a heart attack or stroke but were at high risk because they had diabetes or peripheral arterial disease.
The researchers gave some people either aspirin or a placebo and others an antioxidant or placebo. They found that after eight years the number of heart attacks and strokes was about the same.
The researchers noted that aspirin remains effective for reducing risk among men and women who have already had a heart attack or stroke.
"We found no evidence to support the use of either aspirin or antioxidants in the primary prevention of cardiovascular events and mortality in people with diabetes," Belch and colleagues wrote.
"Aspirin should, however, still be given for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes."
While aspirin can cause stomach bleeding, the benefits still outweigh the risks for certain people, researchers said.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Charles Dick)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Fri Oct 17, 2008. LONDON (Reuters) - Doctors should not routinely give aspirin to people with diabetes to help guard against a heart attack or stroke, a British study found on Friday.
While it was effective for those who had already developed heart disease or suffered a stroke, regular aspirin offered no benefit for patients with diabetes and a common circulatory problem, researchers said.
"Although aspirin is cheap and universally available, practitioners and authors of guidelines need to heed the evidence that aspirin should be prescribed only in patients with established symptomatic cardiovascular disease," William Hiatt of the University of Colorado wrote in an editorial.
Hiatt was writing in the British Medical Journal, which published the findings.
The study led by Jill Belch and colleagues at the University of Dundee in Scotland included data on 1,276 men and women who had never had a heart attack or stroke but were at high risk because they had diabetes or peripheral arterial disease.
The researchers gave some people either aspirin or a placebo and others an antioxidant or placebo. They found that after eight years the number of heart attacks and strokes was about the same.
The researchers noted that aspirin remains effective for reducing risk among men and women who have already had a heart attack or stroke.
"We found no evidence to support the use of either aspirin or antioxidants in the primary prevention of cardiovascular events and mortality in people with diabetes," Belch and colleagues wrote.
"Aspirin should, however, still be given for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease in people with diabetes."
While aspirin can cause stomach bleeding, the benefits still outweigh the risks for certain people, researchers said.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Charles Dick)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, October 17, 2008
Swiss find Picasso sketches worth up to $1.5 million....
Reuters
<--Art lovers walk past Pablo Picasso's "Femme dans un rocking-chair" at the Art Basel Miami Beach at the Miami Beach Convention Center, in this December 7, 2007 file photo. By: REUTERS/Hans Deryk
Wed Oct 15, 2008. ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss customs found a book of sketches by Pablo Picasso which could be worth 1.2-1.7 million Swiss francs ($1.06-$1.50 million) in a passenger's luggage at Zurich airport, the government said on Wednesday.
The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, used the green "nothing to declare" customs channel and the 14 original drawings were discovered during a baggage search.
The passenger, who according to Swiss law should have declared the sketch book to customs authorities, can expect to be fined, the government statement said.
Swiss authorities will also investigate if the incident is part of a wider plot to smuggle cultural goods.
An auction house dated the drawings to May and June 1971.
(Reporting by Sam Cage)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
<--Art lovers walk past Pablo Picasso's "Femme dans un rocking-chair" at the Art Basel Miami Beach at the Miami Beach Convention Center, in this December 7, 2007 file photo. By: REUTERS/Hans DerykWed Oct 15, 2008. ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss customs found a book of sketches by Pablo Picasso which could be worth 1.2-1.7 million Swiss francs ($1.06-$1.50 million) in a passenger's luggage at Zurich airport, the government said on Wednesday.
The passenger, whose identity was not disclosed, used the green "nothing to declare" customs channel and the 14 original drawings were discovered during a baggage search.
The passenger, who according to Swiss law should have declared the sketch book to customs authorities, can expect to be fined, the government statement said.
Swiss authorities will also investigate if the incident is part of a wider plot to smuggle cultural goods.
An auction house dated the drawings to May and June 1971.
(Reporting by Sam Cage)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Boxer soothes fists with son's wet diapers...
Reuters
Tue Oct 14, 2008. BERLIN (Reuters) - Vitali Klitschko used his son's wet diapers to keep his fists from swelling up after winning his WBC heavyweight title bout against Nigeria's Samuel Peter, the Ukrainian told a German newspaper on Tuesday.
Klitschko said he wrapped them around his hands and it helped him recover.
"Baby wee is good because it's pure, doesn't contain toxins and doesn't smell," the 37-year old boxer told Bild after he won back the WBC title on Saturday.
"I wrap nappies filled with my three-year-old son Max's wee around my fists," he said, adding he got the idea from his grandmother. "The nappies hold the liquid and the swelling stays down."
Klitschko said Peter should try the diaper trick as well.
(Reporting by Josie Cox, editing by Alan Baldwin)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tue Oct 14, 2008. BERLIN (Reuters) - Vitali Klitschko used his son's wet diapers to keep his fists from swelling up after winning his WBC heavyweight title bout against Nigeria's Samuel Peter, the Ukrainian told a German newspaper on Tuesday.Klitschko said he wrapped them around his hands and it helped him recover.
"Baby wee is good because it's pure, doesn't contain toxins and doesn't smell," the 37-year old boxer told Bild after he won back the WBC title on Saturday.
"I wrap nappies filled with my three-year-old son Max's wee around my fists," he said, adding he got the idea from his grandmother. "The nappies hold the liquid and the swelling stays down."
Klitschko said Peter should try the diaper trick as well.
(Reporting by Josie Cox, editing by Alan Baldwin)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Red wine may ward off lung cancer....
Health Reuters
<--A woman smells a glass of red wine from Spain during a tasting session at Vinexpo Asia-Pacific, the International Wine and Spirits Exhibition for the Asia-Pacific region, in Hong Kong May 28,
2008. REUTERS/Victor Fraile
Thu Oct 9, 2008. NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drinking red wine, but not white wine, may reduce lung cancer risk, especially among current and ex-smokers, new research indicates.
People who had ever smoked and who drank at least a glass of red wine daily were 60 percent less like to develop lung cancer than ever-smokers who didn't drink alcohol, Dr. Chun Chao of Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena and colleagues found.
But white wine didn't reduce risk, suggesting it could be compounds contained in red wine, such as resveratrol and flavonoids, rather than the healthier lifestyle associated with wine drinking, that may be protective, the researchers say.
Studies examining the relationship between lung cancer and alcohol consumption have had mixed results, they note in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. Much of this research has failed to adjust for factors like socioeconomic status that can influence both alcohol use and lung cancer risk.
In the current study, Chao and her colleagues looked at 84,170 men 45 to 69 years old covered by Kaiser Permanente California health plans. Between 2000 and 2006, 210 of them developed lung cancer.
After accounting for the influence of age, education, income, exposure to second-hand smoke, body weight, and other relevant factors, the researchers found that lung cancer risk steadily decreased with red wine drinking, with a 2 percent drop seen with each additional glass of red wine a man drank per month. No other type of alcoholic beverage, including white wine, was associated with lung cancer risk.
For men who were heavy smokers, the reduction in risk was greater, with a 4 percent lower likelihood of developing lung cancer seen for each glass of red wine consumed per month.
Research has shown that wine drinkers may have healthier lifestyles and tend to have more education and higher income than non-wine drinkers, the researchers note. But the fact that reduced lung cancer risk was seen only with red wine, not white, "lends support to a causal association for red wine and suggests that compounds that are present at high concentrations in red wine but not in white wine, beer or liquors may be protective against lung carcinogenesis," Chao and her team say.
SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, October 2008.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
<--A woman smells a glass of red wine from Spain during a tasting session at Vinexpo Asia-Pacific, the International Wine and Spirits Exhibition for the Asia-Pacific region, in Hong Kong May 28,2008. REUTERS/Victor Fraile
Thu Oct 9, 2008. NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Drinking red wine, but not white wine, may reduce lung cancer risk, especially among current and ex-smokers, new research indicates.
People who had ever smoked and who drank at least a glass of red wine daily were 60 percent less like to develop lung cancer than ever-smokers who didn't drink alcohol, Dr. Chun Chao of Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Pasadena and colleagues found.
But white wine didn't reduce risk, suggesting it could be compounds contained in red wine, such as resveratrol and flavonoids, rather than the healthier lifestyle associated with wine drinking, that may be protective, the researchers say.
Studies examining the relationship between lung cancer and alcohol consumption have had mixed results, they note in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. Much of this research has failed to adjust for factors like socioeconomic status that can influence both alcohol use and lung cancer risk.
In the current study, Chao and her colleagues looked at 84,170 men 45 to 69 years old covered by Kaiser Permanente California health plans. Between 2000 and 2006, 210 of them developed lung cancer.
After accounting for the influence of age, education, income, exposure to second-hand smoke, body weight, and other relevant factors, the researchers found that lung cancer risk steadily decreased with red wine drinking, with a 2 percent drop seen with each additional glass of red wine a man drank per month. No other type of alcoholic beverage, including white wine, was associated with lung cancer risk.
For men who were heavy smokers, the reduction in risk was greater, with a 4 percent lower likelihood of developing lung cancer seen for each glass of red wine consumed per month.
Research has shown that wine drinkers may have healthier lifestyles and tend to have more education and higher income than non-wine drinkers, the researchers note. But the fact that reduced lung cancer risk was seen only with red wine, not white, "lends support to a causal association for red wine and suggests that compounds that are present at high concentrations in red wine but not in white wine, beer or liquors may be protective against lung carcinogenesis," Chao and her team say.
SOURCE: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, October 2008.
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Crackdown on tight trousers cancelled...
Reuters
Wed Oct 8, 2008. JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudan's president shut down a police investigation Wednesday that saw scores of young women arrested for "disturbing the peace" by wearing tight trousers.
The women were arrested over the past week by police who said they suspected them of belonging to youth gangs known for drinking, fighting and public nudity.
But government officials, including the south's gender minister, said they were angry at the way the women had been targeted and treated after arrest.
President Salva Kiir had ordered a "serious investigation" into the police crackdown, said a government minister.
Kiir also ordered the immediate release of any woman arrested under the operation in the south's capital Juba, and said there were questions over its legality, Southern Minister for Presidential Affairs Luka Biong added in a statement.
Police arrested more than 35 women Sunday night alone, angering bystanders by the way they pushed them into two trucks.
The deputy police commissioner of Juba County, Raiman Lege, said they were disturbing the peace by wearing trousers that were too tight. The group was freed Monday without charge after appearing in court.
Sudan's semi-autonomous south generally has a much more relaxed approach to women's dress than the country's Muslim north, with which it fought a two-decade war that was ended by a 2005 peace deal.
(Reporting by Skye Wheeler; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wed Oct 8, 2008. JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - South Sudan's president shut down a police investigation Wednesday that saw scores of young women arrested for "disturbing the peace" by wearing tight trousers.
The women were arrested over the past week by police who said they suspected them of belonging to youth gangs known for drinking, fighting and public nudity.
But government officials, including the south's gender minister, said they were angry at the way the women had been targeted and treated after arrest.
President Salva Kiir had ordered a "serious investigation" into the police crackdown, said a government minister.
Kiir also ordered the immediate release of any woman arrested under the operation in the south's capital Juba, and said there were questions over its legality, Southern Minister for Presidential Affairs Luka Biong added in a statement.
Police arrested more than 35 women Sunday night alone, angering bystanders by the way they pushed them into two trucks.
The deputy police commissioner of Juba County, Raiman Lege, said they were disturbing the peace by wearing trousers that were too tight. The group was freed Monday without charge after appearing in court.
Sudan's semi-autonomous south generally has a much more relaxed approach to women's dress than the country's Muslim north, with which it fought a two-decade war that was ended by a 2005 peace deal.
(Reporting by Skye Wheeler; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Spermicide Coke, stale chips research wins Ig Nobels prize....
Reuters By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
Fri Oct 3, 2008.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A researcher who figured out that Coke explodes sperm and scientists who discovered that people will happily eat stale chips if they crunch loudly enough won alternative "Ig Nobel" prizes Thursday.
Other winners included physicists who found out that anything that can tangle, will tangle and a team of biologists who ascertained that dog fleas jump farther than cat fleas.
The Ig Nobels honor real research, but are meant as a funny alternative to next week's deadly serious Nobel prizes for medicine, chemistry, physics, economics, literature and peace.
Awarded by the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research, a scientific humor magazine, the prizes are based on published research, some intended to be humorous but often not. Usually the "honored" researchers go along with the joke.
Deborah Anderson of Boston University Medical Center and colleagues were awarded the chemistry prize for a 1985 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found Coca-Cola kills sperm.
She said she was serious in testing the soft drink because women were using it in a douche as a contraceptive and, later, to try to protect themselves from the AIDS virus.
"It definitely wouldn't work as a contraceptive because sperm swims so fast," Anderson said. But Coke made with sugar quickly kills sperm, she said, probably because sperm soak it up. "The sperm just kind of explode," she said in a telephone interview.
It kills the AIDS virus too, she said.
The Ig Nobel committee made up a "nutrition prize" to go to Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and Charles Spence of Britain's Oxford University, who tricked people into thinking they were eating fresh potato chips by playing them loud, crunching sounds when they bit one.
The biology prize goes to a French team that found dog fleas can jump higher than cat fleas, while the medicine prize was awarded to a team at Duke University in North Carolina who showed that high-priced placebos work better than cheap fake medicine.
Dorian Raymer of the Scripps Institution in San Diego and a colleague won the physics prize for demonstrating mathematically why hair or a ball of string will inevitably tangle itself in knots.
The peace prize was given to the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology for adopting the legal principle that plants have moral standing and dignity. There is a website explaining this: here
A team at The University of Sao Paulo in Brazil won a special archaeology prize for showing how an armadillo can mess up an archaeological dig.
The economics prize went to researchers at the University of New Mexico who learned that a professional lap dancer earns bigger tips when she is most fertile, while David Sims of Cass Business School in London won the literature prize "for his lovingly written study 'You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations'," the committee said.
Past winners include the creator of the plastic pink flamingo, a researcher who recorded a mallard duck sodomizing a dead drake and a doctor who cured hiccups by applying digital rectal massage.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Anthony Boadle)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Fri Oct 3, 2008.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A researcher who figured out that Coke explodes sperm and scientists who discovered that people will happily eat stale chips if they crunch loudly enough won alternative "Ig Nobel" prizes Thursday.Other winners included physicists who found out that anything that can tangle, will tangle and a team of biologists who ascertained that dog fleas jump farther than cat fleas.
The Ig Nobels honor real research, but are meant as a funny alternative to next week's deadly serious Nobel prizes for medicine, chemistry, physics, economics, literature and peace.
Awarded by the editors of the Annals of Improbable Research, a scientific humor magazine, the prizes are based on published research, some intended to be humorous but often not. Usually the "honored" researchers go along with the joke.
Deborah Anderson of Boston University Medical Center and colleagues were awarded the chemistry prize for a 1985 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found Coca-Cola kills sperm.
She said she was serious in testing the soft drink because women were using it in a douche as a contraceptive and, later, to try to protect themselves from the AIDS virus.
"It definitely wouldn't work as a contraceptive because sperm swims so fast," Anderson said. But Coke made with sugar quickly kills sperm, she said, probably because sperm soak it up. "The sperm just kind of explode," she said in a telephone interview.
It kills the AIDS virus too, she said.
The Ig Nobel committee made up a "nutrition prize" to go to Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and Charles Spence of Britain's Oxford University, who tricked people into thinking they were eating fresh potato chips by playing them loud, crunching sounds when they bit one.
The biology prize goes to a French team that found dog fleas can jump higher than cat fleas, while the medicine prize was awarded to a team at Duke University in North Carolina who showed that high-priced placebos work better than cheap fake medicine.
Dorian Raymer of the Scripps Institution in San Diego and a colleague won the physics prize for demonstrating mathematically why hair or a ball of string will inevitably tangle itself in knots.
The peace prize was given to the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology for adopting the legal principle that plants have moral standing and dignity. There is a website explaining this: here
A team at The University of Sao Paulo in Brazil won a special archaeology prize for showing how an armadillo can mess up an archaeological dig.
The economics prize went to researchers at the University of New Mexico who learned that a professional lap dancer earns bigger tips when she is most fertile, while David Sims of Cass Business School in London won the literature prize "for his lovingly written study 'You Bastard: A Narrative Exploration of the Experience of Indignation within Organizations'," the committee said.
Past winners include the creator of the plastic pink flamingo, a researcher who recorded a mallard duck sodomizing a dead drake and a doctor who cured hiccups by applying digital rectal massage.
(Reporting by Maggie Fox, editing by Anthony Boadle)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, October 03, 2008
Playboy looks for bare market on Wall Street | Oddly Enough | Reuters
Reuters By Robert MacMillan
Thu Oct 2, 2008. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Playboy magazine is offering a new way to lose your shirt on Wall Street.
The adult entertainment magazine, long famous for its photo spreads of nude women and lessons in living the urbane life of the well-heeled bachelor, is launching a search for models to pose for its upcoming feature, "Women of Wall Street."
Playboy came up with the idea for the feature after the onset of the global financial crisis, which has vaporized fortunes and left Wall Street reeling. It is planned for the February 2009 edition of the monthly magazine and on its website.
"When the news gets bad, then maybe that's a chance to make people smile by coming up with something that puts a different twist on it," said Gary Cole, Playboy's photo editor.
Playboy and Playboy.com frequently run specials such as "Girls of Olive Garden" and "Women of Home Depot," but in the past it has garnered attention for big business news themes.
It published "Women of Enron" and "Women of WorldCom" after the companies' spectacular failures. The magazine ran a "Women of Wall Street" feature nearly 20 years ago.
Playboy is seeking current and former employees of the financial world, and is especially interested in those with more senior job experience.
"It would be more interesting to have someone who's a financial analyst," said Cole.
Models must work for a financial institution or have recently worked for one, and prove that they are at least 18 years old.
"How many attractive women do you ... think there are working on Wall Street and the affiliated companies?" Cole said when asked how much success he thought Playboy would have in finding candidates. "There has to be thousands and thousands."
Playboy likely will photograph about 20 women, he said, adding that compensation would depend partly on how many women apply.
"Whether you offer them $500 or $1,000 or $2,000 a piece, that's probably not going to change anybody's mind," he said. "The reason they do this is because they want the attention, the opportunity, the experience of doing it. It's not really for the money."
Playboy is soliciting applications at www.playboy.com/wallstreet
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Thu Oct 2, 2008. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Playboy magazine is offering a new way to lose your shirt on Wall Street.
The adult entertainment magazine, long famous for its photo spreads of nude women and lessons in living the urbane life of the well-heeled bachelor, is launching a search for models to pose for its upcoming feature, "Women of Wall Street."
Playboy came up with the idea for the feature after the onset of the global financial crisis, which has vaporized fortunes and left Wall Street reeling. It is planned for the February 2009 edition of the monthly magazine and on its website.
"When the news gets bad, then maybe that's a chance to make people smile by coming up with something that puts a different twist on it," said Gary Cole, Playboy's photo editor.
Playboy and Playboy.com frequently run specials such as "Girls of Olive Garden" and "Women of Home Depot," but in the past it has garnered attention for big business news themes.
It published "Women of Enron" and "Women of WorldCom" after the companies' spectacular failures. The magazine ran a "Women of Wall Street" feature nearly 20 years ago.
Playboy is seeking current and former employees of the financial world, and is especially interested in those with more senior job experience.
"It would be more interesting to have someone who's a financial analyst," said Cole.
Models must work for a financial institution or have recently worked for one, and prove that they are at least 18 years old.
"How many attractive women do you ... think there are working on Wall Street and the affiliated companies?" Cole said when asked how much success he thought Playboy would have in finding candidates. "There has to be thousands and thousands."
Playboy likely will photograph about 20 women, he said, adding that compensation would depend partly on how many women apply.
"Whether you offer them $500 or $1,000 or $2,000 a piece, that's probably not going to change anybody's mind," he said. "The reason they do this is because they want the attention, the opportunity, the experience of doing it. It's not really for the money."
Playboy is soliciting applications at www.playboy.com/wallstreet
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Monday, September 29, 2008
Trojan can grab extra personal banking data...
Computerworld Stephen Lawson (IDG News Service)
29/September/2008 A Trojan can add data entry fields to legitimate online banking sites and entice consumers to give up additional information.
As your business becomes more collaborative and global, the risks to your company’s trade secrets rise proportionally. Fortunately, there are new strategies to protect the data that allows you to compete
The call to Bob Bailey, an IT executive with a major US government contractor, came on an otherwise ordinary day in October 2003. "Why are you attacking us?" demanded the caller, an IT leader with a Silicon Valley manufacturer. He wanted to know why Bailey's company had launched a denial-of-service attack against his networkAdditional Resources
Executive Guides
A Trojan horse program now available to a growing number of fraudsters can add data entry fields to legitimate online banking sites and entice consumers to give up sensitive information such as bank card numbers and PINs (personal identification numbers).
The Limbo malware integrates itself into a Web browser using a technique called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) injection, said Uri Rivner, head of new technologies at RSA Consumer Solutions, a division of EMC. Because it's so closely integrated in the browser, it can operate even while the user is at the real bank site and can actually change the layout of that site, he said.
"If phishing were a stock, I would invest in it
"Nothing tells you that something is wrong here, with one exception: You're being asked to provide some information that you were never asked to do before," Rivner said during a briefing for reporters and analysts earlier this week. "If you are convinced that you are now communicating with the bank, the fraudsters can get away with anything they like."
Limbo can get onto a user's computer through many paths, including both pop-up messages that ask you to download an add-on program and methods that are invisible to the user, he said. They sometimes get on to PCs in conjunction with other phishing attacks.
And like other malware programs, Limbo is becoming available to more fraudsters through an underground market that includes a complex supply chain and falling prices, according to Rivner. Limbo costs about US$350, down from about $1,000 a year ago and $5,000 two years ago, he said.
"The big trend here is that it's becoming affordable," Rivner said.
The online fraud marketplace consists of "harvesters" who collect user information and "cashout" operations that use the information to do whatever has to be done to translate that information into money. For example, harvesters may capture credit-card numbers and cashout operations may use those cards to buy products online, have them delivered to an address, and sell them on the black market, he said. The two classes of fraudsters typically meet and do business with each other in IRC chatrooms and dedicated Web forums, where the most successful fraudsters are the ones who develop a reputation for working reliably and honestly with other participants, Rivner said.
Now, some fraudsters are taking a SaaS (software-as-a-service) approach, selling malware, access to botnets and everything else a person needs to become a harvester of data on unsuspecting consumers, according to Rivner. Having paid the price for this service, the harvesters can then take the identities stolen with it and sell them at a profit. The ease of going into business with this model may dramatically increase the volume of online fraud, he said.
"If phishing were a stock, I would invest in it," Rivner said.
At RSA, the encryption giant that became EMC's security business through a US$2.1 billion acquisition in 2006, the target for combatting online banking fraud is the cashing-out step. The company sells software that looks at every transaction a customer makes and assesses the level of risk, Rivner said. It may look at the IP (Internet Protocol) address from which the site is being accessed, as well as that user's typical pattern of transactions. If the risk level is high, the bank can block the transaction and contact the customer directly, he said.
This approach is increasingly being used by banks because of the difficulty of tracking down and eradicating malware and phishing, Rivner said. There may be numerous Trojans on a customer's computer, but the bank isn't hurt by any of them until a fraudster tries to use them to divert money from an account, he said.
29/September/2008 A Trojan can add data entry fields to legitimate online banking sites and entice consumers to give up additional information.
As your business becomes more collaborative and global, the risks to your company’s trade secrets rise proportionally. Fortunately, there are new strategies to protect the data that allows you to compete
The call to Bob Bailey, an IT executive with a major US government contractor, came on an otherwise ordinary day in October 2003. "Why are you attacking us?" demanded the caller, an IT leader with a Silicon Valley manufacturer. He wanted to know why Bailey's company had launched a denial-of-service attack against his networkAdditional Resources
Executive Guides
A Trojan horse program now available to a growing number of fraudsters can add data entry fields to legitimate online banking sites and entice consumers to give up sensitive information such as bank card numbers and PINs (personal identification numbers).
The Limbo malware integrates itself into a Web browser using a technique called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) injection, said Uri Rivner, head of new technologies at RSA Consumer Solutions, a division of EMC. Because it's so closely integrated in the browser, it can operate even while the user is at the real bank site and can actually change the layout of that site, he said.
"If phishing were a stock, I would invest in it
"Nothing tells you that something is wrong here, with one exception: You're being asked to provide some information that you were never asked to do before," Rivner said during a briefing for reporters and analysts earlier this week. "If you are convinced that you are now communicating with the bank, the fraudsters can get away with anything they like."
Limbo can get onto a user's computer through many paths, including both pop-up messages that ask you to download an add-on program and methods that are invisible to the user, he said. They sometimes get on to PCs in conjunction with other phishing attacks.
And like other malware programs, Limbo is becoming available to more fraudsters through an underground market that includes a complex supply chain and falling prices, according to Rivner. Limbo costs about US$350, down from about $1,000 a year ago and $5,000 two years ago, he said.
"The big trend here is that it's becoming affordable," Rivner said.
The online fraud marketplace consists of "harvesters" who collect user information and "cashout" operations that use the information to do whatever has to be done to translate that information into money. For example, harvesters may capture credit-card numbers and cashout operations may use those cards to buy products online, have them delivered to an address, and sell them on the black market, he said. The two classes of fraudsters typically meet and do business with each other in IRC chatrooms and dedicated Web forums, where the most successful fraudsters are the ones who develop a reputation for working reliably and honestly with other participants, Rivner said.
Now, some fraudsters are taking a SaaS (software-as-a-service) approach, selling malware, access to botnets and everything else a person needs to become a harvester of data on unsuspecting consumers, according to Rivner. Having paid the price for this service, the harvesters can then take the identities stolen with it and sell them at a profit. The ease of going into business with this model may dramatically increase the volume of online fraud, he said.
"If phishing were a stock, I would invest in it," Rivner said.
At RSA, the encryption giant that became EMC's security business through a US$2.1 billion acquisition in 2006, the target for combatting online banking fraud is the cashing-out step. The company sells software that looks at every transaction a customer makes and assesses the level of risk, Rivner said. It may look at the IP (Internet Protocol) address from which the site is being accessed, as well as that user's typical pattern of transactions. If the risk level is high, the bank can block the transaction and contact the customer directly, he said.
This approach is increasingly being used by banks because of the difficulty of tracking down and eradicating malware and phishing, Rivner said. There may be numerous Trojans on a customer's computer, but the bank isn't hurt by any of them until a fraudster tries to use them to divert money from an account, he said.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Twins who swapped roles charged with fraud...
Reuters
Fri Sep 26, 2008. ROME (Reuters) - An Italian woman who worked as a part-time judge as well as a lawyer was substituted by her identical twin sister in court so she would not lose out on legal fees when she had two simultaneous engagements.
The 54-year-old twins from northern Italy have now been charged with fraud and will go on trial in January, Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reported Friday on its website.
One of the twins, identified only as Gabriella, worked primarily as a lawyer but also as an honorary judge, a part-time, paid position that entails helping full-time judges when their case load is heavy.
When Gabriella was called to be a substitute judge she sent her sister twin Patrizia to stand in for her at an existing engagement as a defense lawyer elsewhere in the Milan area.
The problem was that sister Patrizia was not a lawyer like sister Gabriella but charged the clients anyway.
The clients discovered the sister act and are now suing both for damages. Prosecutors have charged both with fraud, the paper said.
(Editing by Jon Boyle)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserve
Fri Sep 26, 2008. ROME (Reuters) - An Italian woman who worked as a part-time judge as well as a lawyer was substituted by her identical twin sister in court so she would not lose out on legal fees when she had two simultaneous engagements.
The 54-year-old twins from northern Italy have now been charged with fraud and will go on trial in January, Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, reported Friday on its website.
One of the twins, identified only as Gabriella, worked primarily as a lawyer but also as an honorary judge, a part-time, paid position that entails helping full-time judges when their case load is heavy.
When Gabriella was called to be a substitute judge she sent her sister twin Patrizia to stand in for her at an existing engagement as a defense lawyer elsewhere in the Milan area.
The problem was that sister Patrizia was not a lawyer like sister Gabriella but charged the clients anyway.
The clients discovered the sister act and are now suing both for damages. Prosecutors have charged both with fraud, the paper said.
(Editing by Jon Boyle)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserve
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Chocolate Helps Heart Stay Healthy...
Yahoo! News
LiveScience.com Tue Sep 23 2008. A small square of dark chocolate daily protects the heart from inflammation and subsequent heart disease, a new study of Italians suggests. Milk chocolate might not do the job.
However, this guilty pleasure has a limit.
Specifically, only 6.7 grams of chocolate per day (or 0.23 ounces) represents the ideal amount, according to results from the Moli-sani Project, one of the largest health studies ever conducted in Europe. For comparison, a standard-sized Hershey's kiss is about 4.5 grams (though they are not made of dark chocolate) and one Hershey's dark chocolate bar is about 41 grams (so a recommendation might be one of those weekly).
Chronic inflammation of tissues in the circulatory system is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, such as myocardial infarction or stroke. So doctors strive to keep patients' inflammation under control. One marker for inflammation in the blood is called C-reactive protein.
The researchers found a relationship between dark chocolate intake and levels of this protein in the blood of 4,849 subjects in good health and free of risk factors (such as high cholesterol or blood pressure, and other parameters). The findings are detailed in the latest issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
"We started from the hypothesis that high amounts of antioxidants contained in the cocoa seeds, in particular flavonoids and other kinds of polyphenols, might have beneficial effects on the inflammatory state," said Romina di Giuseppe, lead author of the study. "Our results have been absolutely encouraging: People having moderate amounts of dark chocolate regularly have significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein in their blood. In other words, their inflammatory state is considerably reduced."
The inflammation reduction that the researchers observed controlled for other confounding variables such as wine or produce intake.
Previous studies have found that chocolate might be good for you, though doctors usually warn that it is more important to focus on one's overall diet when it comes to health. One health study found that blood platelets among chocolate-lovers were less likely to clot together in dangerous clumps.
Other studies have found a host of diet and exercise changes that can help a person beat the odds of death. Clearly, no single change is a guarantee of long life.
With chocolate, moderation is key, the new study found.
"The best effect is obtained by consuming an average amount of 6.7 grams of chocolate per day, corresponding to a small square of chocolate twice or three times a week. Beyond these amounts the beneficial effect tends to disappear," di Giuseppe said.
The milk in milk chocolate interferes with polyphenols, so the team kept that out of the study.
"We consider this outcome as the beginning of a large series of data which will give us an innovative view on how [to achieve] prevention in everyday life, both against cardiovascular disease and tumors," said Licia Iacoviello, head of the Laboratory of Genetic and Environmental Epidemiology at the Catholic University of Campobasso and responsible for the Moli-sani Project.
The Moli-sani Project is funded by the Pfizer Foundation
LiveScience.com Tue Sep 23 2008. A small square of dark chocolate daily protects the heart from inflammation and subsequent heart disease, a new study of Italians suggests. Milk chocolate might not do the job.However, this guilty pleasure has a limit.
Specifically, only 6.7 grams of chocolate per day (or 0.23 ounces) represents the ideal amount, according to results from the Moli-sani Project, one of the largest health studies ever conducted in Europe. For comparison, a standard-sized Hershey's kiss is about 4.5 grams (though they are not made of dark chocolate) and one Hershey's dark chocolate bar is about 41 grams (so a recommendation might be one of those weekly).
Chronic inflammation of tissues in the circulatory system is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, such as myocardial infarction or stroke. So doctors strive to keep patients' inflammation under control. One marker for inflammation in the blood is called C-reactive protein.
The researchers found a relationship between dark chocolate intake and levels of this protein in the blood of 4,849 subjects in good health and free of risk factors (such as high cholesterol or blood pressure, and other parameters). The findings are detailed in the latest issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
"We started from the hypothesis that high amounts of antioxidants contained in the cocoa seeds, in particular flavonoids and other kinds of polyphenols, might have beneficial effects on the inflammatory state," said Romina di Giuseppe, lead author of the study. "Our results have been absolutely encouraging: People having moderate amounts of dark chocolate regularly have significantly lower levels of C-reactive protein in their blood. In other words, their inflammatory state is considerably reduced."
The inflammation reduction that the researchers observed controlled for other confounding variables such as wine or produce intake.
Previous studies have found that chocolate might be good for you, though doctors usually warn that it is more important to focus on one's overall diet when it comes to health. One health study found that blood platelets among chocolate-lovers were less likely to clot together in dangerous clumps.
Other studies have found a host of diet and exercise changes that can help a person beat the odds of death. Clearly, no single change is a guarantee of long life.
With chocolate, moderation is key, the new study found.
"The best effect is obtained by consuming an average amount of 6.7 grams of chocolate per day, corresponding to a small square of chocolate twice or three times a week. Beyond these amounts the beneficial effect tends to disappear," di Giuseppe said.
The milk in milk chocolate interferes with polyphenols, so the team kept that out of the study.
"We consider this outcome as the beginning of a large series of data which will give us an innovative view on how [to achieve] prevention in everyday life, both against cardiovascular disease and tumors," said Licia Iacoviello, head of the Laboratory of Genetic and Environmental Epidemiology at the Catholic University of Campobasso and responsible for the Moli-sani Project.
The Moli-sani Project is funded by the Pfizer Foundation
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
500,000 Women die in pregnancy at childbirth....
Health Reuters By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - More than half a million women still die each year in pregnancy and childbirth, often bleeding to death because no emergency obstetrical care is available, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.
Despite modest progress, particularly in Asia, the global maternal mortality toll remains stubbornly stable due to a lack of financial resources and political will, it said.
More than 99 percent of the estimated 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2005 occurred in developing countries, half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, it said in a report entitled "Progress for Children: A Report Card on Maternal Maternity".
"One of the critical bottlenecks has always been access to highly skilled health workers required to deliver emergency obstetrical care, particularly caesarian sections," Peter Salama UNICEF's chief of health, told a news briefing.
Around 50 million births in the developing world, or about 4 in 10 of all births worldwide, are not attended by trained personnel, according to the report.
Hemorrhaging is the leading cause of maternal death in Africa and Asia, causing one in three deaths, it said. Infections, hypertensive disorders, complications of abortion, obstructed labor or HIV/AIDS are other causes.
Such complications can be easily treated in a health system whose facilities are staffed with skilled personnel to handle emergencies around the clock, but disparities persist, it said.
"The lifetime risk of maternal death in the developing world as a whole is 1 in 76, compared with 1 in 8,000 in the industrialized world," UNICEF said.
The riskiest place to give birth is Niger, where the risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth over the course of a woman's lifetime is one in seven, it said. In Sierra Leone it is 1 in 8.
But developing countries including Sri Lanka and Mozambique have succeeded in reducing maternal mortality rates, it said.
A combination of family planning, training skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetrical care and post-natal care is the key to reducing maternal mortality, according to the agency.
At the current average reduction rate of less than one per cent a year, the world will miss the goal of reducing maternal mortality rates by 75 percent between 1990 and 2015, to less than 150,000, one of the Millennium Development Goals, it said.
"The time is right. We now know exactly what to do for maternal mortality reduction to make this one of the next big issues in global health," Salama said.
Programs to combat three major epidemics -- HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- now receive the required international attention and billions in funding, he said.
"But maternal mortality and child mortality do not yet receive the attention that the scale of the problem deserves," he said. An additional $10 billion would be needed each year to combat both child and maternal mortality, according to Salama.
UNICEF said last week that more than 9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2007, down slightly from a year before, but a huge gap remains between rich and poor countries.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Richard Balmforth)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
GENEVA (Reuters) - More than half a million women still die each year in pregnancy and childbirth, often bleeding to death because no emergency obstetrical care is available, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.Despite modest progress, particularly in Asia, the global maternal mortality toll remains stubbornly stable due to a lack of financial resources and political will, it said.
More than 99 percent of the estimated 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide in 2005 occurred in developing countries, half of them in sub-Saharan Africa, it said in a report entitled "Progress for Children: A Report Card on Maternal Maternity".
"One of the critical bottlenecks has always been access to highly skilled health workers required to deliver emergency obstetrical care, particularly caesarian sections," Peter Salama UNICEF's chief of health, told a news briefing.
Around 50 million births in the developing world, or about 4 in 10 of all births worldwide, are not attended by trained personnel, according to the report.
Hemorrhaging is the leading cause of maternal death in Africa and Asia, causing one in three deaths, it said. Infections, hypertensive disorders, complications of abortion, obstructed labor or HIV/AIDS are other causes.
Such complications can be easily treated in a health system whose facilities are staffed with skilled personnel to handle emergencies around the clock, but disparities persist, it said.
"The lifetime risk of maternal death in the developing world as a whole is 1 in 76, compared with 1 in 8,000 in the industrialized world," UNICEF said.
The riskiest place to give birth is Niger, where the risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth over the course of a woman's lifetime is one in seven, it said. In Sierra Leone it is 1 in 8.
But developing countries including Sri Lanka and Mozambique have succeeded in reducing maternal mortality rates, it said.
A combination of family planning, training skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetrical care and post-natal care is the key to reducing maternal mortality, according to the agency.
At the current average reduction rate of less than one per cent a year, the world will miss the goal of reducing maternal mortality rates by 75 percent between 1990 and 2015, to less than 150,000, one of the Millennium Development Goals, it said.
"The time is right. We now know exactly what to do for maternal mortality reduction to make this one of the next big issues in global health," Salama said.
Programs to combat three major epidemics -- HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria -- now receive the required international attention and billions in funding, he said.
"But maternal mortality and child mortality do not yet receive the attention that the scale of the problem deserves," he said. An additional $10 billion would be needed each year to combat both child and maternal mortality, according to Salama.
UNICEF said last week that more than 9 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2007, down slightly from a year before, but a huge gap remains between rich and poor countries.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Richard Balmforth)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, September 19, 2008
Storm over Spanish politician's brothel...
Reuters
18 September 2008. MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish politician's public description of how he lost his virginity in a brothel has angered his female counterparts, who accused him of encouraging prostitution.
Miguel Angel Revilla, head of the government of the northern region of Cantabria, told a television interviewer earlier this week that he had paid the first time he had sex at the age of 18.
Female members of the regional parliament from the opposition conservative Popular Party were outraged. "As the head of the regional government, he should be an example for the young people of Cantabria," they said in a communique.
"Instead he encourages them to pay for their first sexual experience."
Thursday, Revilla, a member of a regional party, accused his critics of hypocrisy and said they were unable to find matters of substance on which to attack him.
"There are major problems which need to be addressed now, not what a poor 18-year-old did," said Revilla, who is now 65, adding: " Ninety-nine percent of Spanish men did it back then."
(Reporting by Jason Webb; editing by Robert Hart)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
18 September 2008. MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish politician's public description of how he lost his virginity in a brothel has angered his female counterparts, who accused him of encouraging prostitution.
Miguel Angel Revilla, head of the government of the northern region of Cantabria, told a television interviewer earlier this week that he had paid the first time he had sex at the age of 18.
Female members of the regional parliament from the opposition conservative Popular Party were outraged. "As the head of the regional government, he should be an example for the young people of Cantabria," they said in a communique.
"Instead he encourages them to pay for their first sexual experience."
Thursday, Revilla, a member of a regional party, accused his critics of hypocrisy and said they were unable to find matters of substance on which to attack him.
"There are major problems which need to be addressed now, not what a poor 18-year-old did," said Revilla, who is now 65, adding: " Ninety-nine percent of Spanish men did it back then."
(Reporting by Jason Webb; editing by Robert Hart)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Officials call off controversial autism study...
Health Reuters By Will Dunham
Wed Sep 17, 2008. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health officials have called off plans for a study examining a controversial type of treatment that some autism activists have touted as alternative medical therapy for children with the condition.
The National Institute of Mental Health, or NIMH, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has canceled a study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a treatment called chelation.
Chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) is a type of therapy in which a man-made amino acid, called EDTA, is added to the blood, and it has been used to treat heavy metal poisoning.
Some autism activists have advocated it on the theory -- rejected by most scientists -- that autism is triggered by exposure to mercury, a heavy metal, from childhood vaccines.
Many studies and medical experts have dismissed the notion that mercury used in a vaccine preservative causes autism, but some parents of autistic children strongly believe it does.
Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza vaccines, the mercury-containing preservative has not been used in routinely recommended childhood vaccines, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"NIMH has decided that resources are better directed at this time to testing other potential therapies for autism spectrum disorders, and is not pursuing the additional review required to begin the study," the institute said.
The study was given initial permission to proceed in 2006, according to NIMH's statement.
"No subjects were recruited for this clinical trial," according to the statement.
"In February 2007, based on new scientific data, an NIH Institutional Review Board reassessed the risk-benefit ratio of the proposed study. The board determined that there was no clear evidence for direct benefit to the children who would participate in the chelation trial and that the study presents more than a minimal risk," it added.
The institute said the only way that the study could go forward would be through an additional governmental approval process, and it decided not to pursue this.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Wed Sep 17, 2008. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health officials have called off plans for a study examining a controversial type of treatment that some autism activists have touted as alternative medical therapy for children with the condition.
The National Institute of Mental Health, or NIMH, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said in a statement on Wednesday that it has canceled a study aimed at assessing the effectiveness of a treatment called chelation.
Chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) is a type of therapy in which a man-made amino acid, called EDTA, is added to the blood, and it has been used to treat heavy metal poisoning.
Some autism activists have advocated it on the theory -- rejected by most scientists -- that autism is triggered by exposure to mercury, a heavy metal, from childhood vaccines.
Many studies and medical experts have dismissed the notion that mercury used in a vaccine preservative causes autism, but some parents of autistic children strongly believe it does.
Since 2001, with the exception of some influenza vaccines, the mercury-containing preservative has not been used in routinely recommended childhood vaccines, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"NIMH has decided that resources are better directed at this time to testing other potential therapies for autism spectrum disorders, and is not pursuing the additional review required to begin the study," the institute said.
The study was given initial permission to proceed in 2006, according to NIMH's statement.
"No subjects were recruited for this clinical trial," according to the statement.
"In February 2007, based on new scientific data, an NIH Institutional Review Board reassessed the risk-benefit ratio of the proposed study. The board determined that there was no clear evidence for direct benefit to the children who would participate in the chelation trial and that the study presents more than a minimal risk," it added.
The institute said the only way that the study could go forward would be through an additional governmental approval process, and it decided not to pursue this.
(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
Friday, September 12, 2008
Deaths make 2008 deadliest for US in Afghanistan...
Yahoo! News By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
12 Sept. 2008. KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents killed two U.S. troops in Afghanistan on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Thursday, making 2008 the deadliest year for American forces since U.S. troops invaded the country in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden.
The deaths brought the number of troops who have died in Afghanistan this year to 113, according to an Associated Press tally, surpassing last year's record toll of 111.
Afghanistan was the launching pad for al-Qaida's terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. forces invaded in October 2001 in response and quickly drove the Taliban out of power.
Across Afghanistan, U.S. troops paused in silence Thursday to commemorate the 9/11 attacks. At a U.S. base in Kabul, members of the New York National Guard, many of whom served at the site of the World Trade Center after the towers came down, remembered the attack on their home state.
"For those of us who were there, served at Ground Zero, 9/11 is deeply personal," said Col. Brian K. Bale, the commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
Maj. Stephen Bousquet, 34, of Buffalo, N.Y., provided security at Ground Zero for three weeks after the attack. He now trains and mentors Afghan police, he said, "so American and coalition forces can leave one day."
Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida network, is believed to be in the lawless tribal belt on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He had been sheltered by Taliban leader Mullah Omar before 9/11.
Taliban fighters folded in easy defeat in fall 2001 in what at first appeared to be a resounding U.S. victory. But militants that U.S. commanders once derided as ragtag amateurs have transformed into a fighting force advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks. Suicide and roadside bombs have turned bigger and deadlier than ever.
The number of Arab, Chechen and Uzbek militants flowing into the Afghan-Pakistan region has increased this year, bringing with them command expertise the Taliban lacked.
U.S. death tolls have climbed sharply from the first years of the war. Only five American service members died in 2001. Thirty service members died in both 2002 and 2003; the toll climbed to 49 in 2004, then 93 in 2005 and 88 in 2006.
Last year 111 troops died, including one killed by a sniper while meeting with Pakistani officers in Pakistan. That mark was surpassed Thursday — with more than three months left in the year — reflecting both the increased number of American troops deployed to Afghanistan as well as the insurgency's increasing potency.
Top U.S. generals, European leaders and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour.
"What you have is a broad expansion on the front, and because of this you have expansion in areas of the Taliban. Even in areas where there is no substantial fighting, the presence of insurgents has increased," said Anthony Cordesman, a security expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"You have less cooperation from Pakistan, and there's political disarray," which creates a situation where there is little security and stability, Cordesman said. "You also have a weak government that is incapable of maintaining a significant presence in high threat areas."
Since the 2001 invasion, a total of 519 U.S. troops have died in the Afghan war, including those killed in border areas of Pakistan and in Uzbekistan, which was a staging area in 2001. An additional 65 more have died outside the Afghan region in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to the Defense Department.
The Pentagon says 117 U.S. service members died last year in Operation Enduring Freedom, but that includes six deaths outside the Afghan region: two in the Philippines, two in Ethiopia, one in Somalia and one in the Gulf.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said one soldier was killed Thursday in the east when insurgents attacked a compound. The separate U.S.-led coalition said a second service member died while conducting combat operations. No other details were released, but a Western military official told The Associated Press that both troops were American.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense, noted the militants aren't just targeting U.S. forces. He said Afghan soldiers and police have also suffered a record number of casualties over the past year. Figures weren't immediately available.
President Bush announced this week that he was sending an Army brigade and a Marine battalion to Afghanistan in November to replace two that are scheduled to leave.
Some 33,000 U.S. troops are now stationed in the country, the highest level since 2001. Overall, more than 65,000 troops from 40 nations are deployed in Afghanistan.
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan say they need another 10,000 troops — even more than the deployment plan Bush announced. The commanders also urge more nonmilitary aid and say the Afghan government must perform better.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee this week that, "I'm not convinced we're winning in Afghanistan. I'm convinced we can."
___
Associated Press reporters Amir Shah and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul and Carley Petesch in New York contributed to this report
12 Sept. 2008. KABUL, Afghanistan - Insurgents killed two U.S. troops in Afghanistan on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Thursday, making 2008 the deadliest year for American forces since U.S. troops invaded the country in 2001 for sheltering Osama bin Laden.
The deaths brought the number of troops who have died in Afghanistan this year to 113, according to an Associated Press tally, surpassing last year's record toll of 111.
Afghanistan was the launching pad for al-Qaida's terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. forces invaded in October 2001 in response and quickly drove the Taliban out of power.
Across Afghanistan, U.S. troops paused in silence Thursday to commemorate the 9/11 attacks. At a U.S. base in Kabul, members of the New York National Guard, many of whom served at the site of the World Trade Center after the towers came down, remembered the attack on their home state.
"For those of us who were there, served at Ground Zero, 9/11 is deeply personal," said Col. Brian K. Bale, the commander of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
Maj. Stephen Bousquet, 34, of Buffalo, N.Y., provided security at Ground Zero for three weeks after the attack. He now trains and mentors Afghan police, he said, "so American and coalition forces can leave one day."
Osama bin Laden, leader of the al-Qaida network, is believed to be in the lawless tribal belt on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He had been sheltered by Taliban leader Mullah Omar before 9/11.
Taliban fighters folded in easy defeat in fall 2001 in what at first appeared to be a resounding U.S. victory. But militants that U.S. commanders once derided as ragtag amateurs have transformed into a fighting force advanced enough to mount massive conventional attacks. Suicide and roadside bombs have turned bigger and deadlier than ever.
The number of Arab, Chechen and Uzbek militants flowing into the Afghan-Pakistan region has increased this year, bringing with them command expertise the Taliban lacked.
U.S. death tolls have climbed sharply from the first years of the war. Only five American service members died in 2001. Thirty service members died in both 2002 and 2003; the toll climbed to 49 in 2004, then 93 in 2005 and 88 in 2006.
Last year 111 troops died, including one killed by a sniper while meeting with Pakistani officers in Pakistan. That mark was surpassed Thursday — with more than three months left in the year — reflecting both the increased number of American troops deployed to Afghanistan as well as the insurgency's increasing potency.
Top U.S. generals, European leaders and analysts say the blame lies to the east, in militant sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan. As long as those areas remain havens where fighters arm, train, recruit and plot increasingly sophisticated ambushes, the Afghan war will continue to sour.
"What you have is a broad expansion on the front, and because of this you have expansion in areas of the Taliban. Even in areas where there is no substantial fighting, the presence of insurgents has increased," said Anthony Cordesman, a security expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"You have less cooperation from Pakistan, and there's political disarray," which creates a situation where there is little security and stability, Cordesman said. "You also have a weak government that is incapable of maintaining a significant presence in high threat areas."
Since the 2001 invasion, a total of 519 U.S. troops have died in the Afghan war, including those killed in border areas of Pakistan and in Uzbekistan, which was a staging area in 2001. An additional 65 more have died outside the Afghan region in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, according to the Defense Department.
The Pentagon says 117 U.S. service members died last year in Operation Enduring Freedom, but that includes six deaths outside the Afghan region: two in the Philippines, two in Ethiopia, one in Somalia and one in the Gulf.
The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said one soldier was killed Thursday in the east when insurgents attacked a compound. The separate U.S.-led coalition said a second service member died while conducting combat operations. No other details were released, but a Western military official told The Associated Press that both troops were American.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense, noted the militants aren't just targeting U.S. forces. He said Afghan soldiers and police have also suffered a record number of casualties over the past year. Figures weren't immediately available.
President Bush announced this week that he was sending an Army brigade and a Marine battalion to Afghanistan in November to replace two that are scheduled to leave.
Some 33,000 U.S. troops are now stationed in the country, the highest level since 2001. Overall, more than 65,000 troops from 40 nations are deployed in Afghanistan.
U.S. commanders in Afghanistan say they need another 10,000 troops — even more than the deployment plan Bush announced. The commanders also urge more nonmilitary aid and say the Afghan government must perform better.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee this week that, "I'm not convinced we're winning in Afghanistan. I'm convinced we can."
___
Associated Press reporters Amir Shah and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul and Carley Petesch in New York contributed to this report
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