Cycling-Eurosport
28 July, 2006. Cycling's anti-doping programme was criticised by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) leader Dick Pound on Thursday after Tour de France winner Floyd Landis tested positive for the hormone testosterone.
"We have given suggestions to UCI (the world cycling governing body) of what we think are serious gaps in their testing protocols," Pound told Reuters in a telephone interview from his Montreal office.
"We said that maybe one of the reasons you are not getting the number of positive tests you should is that you have got defects in the process."
Cycling was rocked again on Thursday when Landis's Phonak team said the American had tested positive for the male sex hormone.
If Landis's B sample confirms the result, the 30-year-old is certain to be stripped of his victory, becoming the first Tour winner to be disqualified for doping.
Even before the race, favourites Jan Ullrich of Germany and Italian Ivan Basso and several riders were forced to pull out because of links to a Spanish doping investigation.
Pound would not say WADA had lost confidence in the sport, but he said changes must be made.
"The first thing is for them to acknowledge that there is a problem that they have not be able to control," he said.
"There is no sport that is immune but cycling certainly has a high proportion of doping."
He also placed weightlifting, athletics, football and swimming in a troublesome category.
Asked whether high-profile doping cases had left the public to wonder whether it can believe any sports performance, Pound said, "We are in the process of reaping what we sowed.
"We let this (doping) problem get out of hand in the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s, and now you pay the price of when great performances occur, people ask questions.
"We have got to win back the public's confidence."
Pound said anti-doping leaders should not quit the fight: "What that means is your kids and my grandchildren are going to be reconciled to becoming chemical stockpiles in order to be good at sport," Pound said.
"Sport then faces a downward spiral where your sportspersons become increasingly gladiatorial, doing exercises that mean nothing and becoming increasing violent.
"If that is the price for being good in sport, I would encourage them to go mountain climbing or fishing instead."
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Australian study finds fish oil helps weight loss...
Health News Reuters.com
Fri Jul 28, 2006. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Fatty acids, which are found in fish, can help in weight loss when combined with moderate exercise, an Australian study found.
The University of South Australia study found that daily doses of fish oil containing omega-3 fatty acids helped obese people burn off excess weight.
"The omega-3 found in fish oil increases fat-burning ability by improving the flow of blood to muscles during exercise," university researcher Alison Hill told Reuters.
The university's study monitored 68 overweight and obese people, divided into four groups, over three months.
One group took small daily doses of fish oil and another was given sunflower oil with no other alteration to their normal diet. Both groups undertook moderate exercise programs of a 45-minute walk or run three times a week. Another two groups received either fish oil or sunflower oil but did no exercise.
The study found that those who took the fish oil doses and exercised lost an average of 2 kg (4.5 lb.) over the three months.
The groups that took sunflower oil, which does not contain omega-3 fatty acids, and exercised did not lose any weight. The two groups that did not exercise also lost no weight, the study found.
"We were very surprised to see it was so effective, especially since these people were still eating whatever they wanted," Hill said.
A six-year study by the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found last year that omega-3 fatty acids helped boost brain functioning as well as cut the risk of stroke. It also helped protect the brain as people age, the Chicago study found.
Hill said future studies were planned that would take place over longer periods and with increased exercise.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Fri Jul 28, 2006. SYDNEY (Reuters) - Fatty acids, which are found in fish, can help in weight loss when combined with moderate exercise, an Australian study found.
The University of South Australia study found that daily doses of fish oil containing omega-3 fatty acids helped obese people burn off excess weight.
"The omega-3 found in fish oil increases fat-burning ability by improving the flow of blood to muscles during exercise," university researcher Alison Hill told Reuters.
The university's study monitored 68 overweight and obese people, divided into four groups, over three months.
One group took small daily doses of fish oil and another was given sunflower oil with no other alteration to their normal diet. Both groups undertook moderate exercise programs of a 45-minute walk or run three times a week. Another two groups received either fish oil or sunflower oil but did no exercise.
The study found that those who took the fish oil doses and exercised lost an average of 2 kg (4.5 lb.) over the three months.
The groups that took sunflower oil, which does not contain omega-3 fatty acids, and exercised did not lose any weight. The two groups that did not exercise also lost no weight, the study found.
"We were very surprised to see it was so effective, especially since these people were still eating whatever they wanted," Hill said.
A six-year study by the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found last year that omega-3 fatty acids helped boost brain functioning as well as cut the risk of stroke. It also helped protect the brain as people age, the Chicago study found.
Hill said future studies were planned that would take place over longer periods and with increased exercise.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Health experts want trans fat levels on food labels...
Health News Reuters.com By Patricia Reaney
Fri Jul 28, 2006.LONDON (Reuters) - Food labels should list the amount of trans fat along with cholesterol and saturated fat so consumers can make healthier choices to reduce their risk of heart disease, British public health experts said on Friday.
Trans fat, which is found in some margarines, fast food, biscuits, cakes and pastry, increases the shelf life of foods.
But it also raises low density lipoprotein (LDL), or bad cholesterol, in the blood and cuts the amount of high density lipoprotein or good cholesterol.
Robert Clarke and Sarah Lewington, of the University of Oxford in England, believe Britain and other European countries should follow the example of the United States where the content of trans fat and cholesterol content is provided on food labels.
"If consumers knew what was in their food it would help them make more healthier food choices that could lower their LDL and reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke," Clarke said in an interview.
"There should be mandatory information about the content of the food we eat," he added.
Consumers are advised to eat a healthy, balanced diet consisting of plenty of fruits and vegetables and to cut down on foods high in saturated and trans fat to reduce their odds of developing coronary heart disease.
The majority of trans fat is produced when liquid oils are made into solid fats such as shortening and hard margarine. Saturated fats also raise LDL and are important in determining blood cholesterol levels.
Meat products, butter and lard, hard cheese, cream, and coconut and palm oil are high in saturated fats.
In an editorial in the British Medical Journal Clarke and Lewington said Denmark introduced legislation in 2004 that virtually eliminated trans fat and had no effect on the quality, cost or availability of foods.
"The UK Food Standards Agency is currently pressing for revision of the European directive that governs the content and format of nutrition labels on foods marketed in the United Kingdom and other European countries, so that these fats are labeled," they added.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Fri Jul 28, 2006.LONDON (Reuters) - Food labels should list the amount of trans fat along with cholesterol and saturated fat so consumers can make healthier choices to reduce their risk of heart disease, British public health experts said on Friday.
Trans fat, which is found in some margarines, fast food, biscuits, cakes and pastry, increases the shelf life of foods.
But it also raises low density lipoprotein (LDL), or bad cholesterol, in the blood and cuts the amount of high density lipoprotein or good cholesterol.
Robert Clarke and Sarah Lewington, of the University of Oxford in England, believe Britain and other European countries should follow the example of the United States where the content of trans fat and cholesterol content is provided on food labels.
"If consumers knew what was in their food it would help them make more healthier food choices that could lower their LDL and reduce their risk of heart disease and stroke," Clarke said in an interview.
"There should be mandatory information about the content of the food we eat," he added.
Consumers are advised to eat a healthy, balanced diet consisting of plenty of fruits and vegetables and to cut down on foods high in saturated and trans fat to reduce their odds of developing coronary heart disease.
The majority of trans fat is produced when liquid oils are made into solid fats such as shortening and hard margarine. Saturated fats also raise LDL and are important in determining blood cholesterol levels.
Meat products, butter and lard, hard cheese, cream, and coconut and palm oil are high in saturated fats.
In an editorial in the British Medical Journal Clarke and Lewington said Denmark introduced legislation in 2004 that virtually eliminated trans fat and had no effect on the quality, cost or availability of foods.
"The UK Food Standards Agency is currently pressing for revision of the European directive that governs the content and format of nutrition labels on foods marketed in the United Kingdom and other European countries, so that these fats are labeled," they added.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Man saves dog thrown from window...
Reuters.com
Thu Jul 27, 2006. WARSAW (Reuters) - A man was bruised but alive on Wednesday after a Saint Bernard dog thrown out a two-story window landed on him as he was walking down the street in the southern-Polish city of Sosnowiec.
The 110-pound dog was pushed out of the window by its drunken owner Monday, police said.
"The dog had a soft landing because it fell on a man," said police spokesman Grzegorz Wierzbicki. "The dog escaped with just a few scratches."
"The man was also more in a psychological state of shock than physically hurt," Wierzbicki added.
The one-year-old dog, named Oskar, was placed in an animal shelter while police investigate its owners for animal abuse.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Thu Jul 27, 2006. WARSAW (Reuters) - A man was bruised but alive on Wednesday after a Saint Bernard dog thrown out a two-story window landed on him as he was walking down the street in the southern-Polish city of Sosnowiec.
The 110-pound dog was pushed out of the window by its drunken owner Monday, police said.
"The dog had a soft landing because it fell on a man," said police spokesman Grzegorz Wierzbicki. "The dog escaped with just a few scratches."
"The man was also more in a psychological state of shock than physically hurt," Wierzbicki added.
The one-year-old dog, named Oskar, was placed in an animal shelter while police investigate its owners for animal abuse.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Police arrest "Viagra gang" suspect...
Reuters.com
Thu Jul 27, 2006. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing anti-impotence drugs from dozens of pharmacies in the past year and were seeking his accomplice in what they are calling the "Viagra gang."
"One was arrested and we know the other one's identity and are looking for him," a Rio de Janeiro police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The men are suspected of holding up more than 35 pharmacies in the same drugstore chain. Police said they stole anti-impotence drugs such as Viagra as well as money from registers. The chain estimated its losses at some $220,000.
Police said the partners sold the drugs on the black market and were so successful that they drew criticism from an unlikely source -- the criminal underworld.
Taped phone conversations show members of a powerful drug gang from the same slum where the two lived complaining that their illicit business was drawing too much police attention to the shantytown near Rio's famed Copacabana Beach.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Thu Jul 27, 2006. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Police have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing anti-impotence drugs from dozens of pharmacies in the past year and were seeking his accomplice in what they are calling the "Viagra gang."
"One was arrested and we know the other one's identity and are looking for him," a Rio de Janeiro police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The men are suspected of holding up more than 35 pharmacies in the same drugstore chain. Police said they stole anti-impotence drugs such as Viagra as well as money from registers. The chain estimated its losses at some $220,000.
Police said the partners sold the drugs on the black market and were so successful that they drew criticism from an unlikely source -- the criminal underworld.
Taped phone conversations show members of a powerful drug gang from the same slum where the two lived complaining that their illicit business was drawing too much police attention to the shantytown near Rio's famed Copacabana Beach.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Cross-dressing lawyer skirts dress code...
Reuters.com
Tue Jul 25, 2006. WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A male lawyer who appeared in a New Zealand court dressed in an ankle-length skirt, lace stockings and a diamond brooch said Tuesday he was protesting against a male bias in the country's justice system.
Rob Moodie, a former New Zealand Police union secretary, stunned the courtroom Monday when he appeared in women's clothing at a hearing related to a long-running case involving the death of a man in a bridge collapse on a North Island farm.
Moodie said he wore the two-piece women's suit because of what he described as a boys' network in the court room.
"I'm objecting to the male ethos that is dominating this case and from now on I'm going to be dressing as a girl in my daily life," Moodie told Reuters.
"It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't seen the gung-ho attitude in this case. The more this goes on and the deeper the cover-up gets, the frocks will get prettier," he said.
Moodie, who said he was wearing a skirt while talking to Reuters by telephone, is married with three children but said he had a strong female gender bias.
"The sexes are not opposite, they're complementary," he said, drawing comparisons with New Zealand's hugely popular All Blacks rugby side.
"The front row of the All Blacks is a very important part of maleness and is not to be disparaged at all, but neither should the guy who wants to do ballet," Moodie said.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Tue Jul 25, 2006. WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A male lawyer who appeared in a New Zealand court dressed in an ankle-length skirt, lace stockings and a diamond brooch said Tuesday he was protesting against a male bias in the country's justice system.
Rob Moodie, a former New Zealand Police union secretary, stunned the courtroom Monday when he appeared in women's clothing at a hearing related to a long-running case involving the death of a man in a bridge collapse on a North Island farm.
Moodie said he wore the two-piece women's suit because of what he described as a boys' network in the court room.
"I'm objecting to the male ethos that is dominating this case and from now on I'm going to be dressing as a girl in my daily life," Moodie told Reuters.
"It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't seen the gung-ho attitude in this case. The more this goes on and the deeper the cover-up gets, the frocks will get prettier," he said.
Moodie, who said he was wearing a skirt while talking to Reuters by telephone, is married with three children but said he had a strong female gender bias.
"The sexes are not opposite, they're complementary," he said, drawing comparisons with New Zealand's hugely popular All Blacks rugby side.
"The front row of the All Blacks is a very important part of maleness and is not to be disparaged at all, but neither should the guy who wants to do ballet," Moodie said.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Are you a woman going solo? Try a blow-up man...
Reuters.com
Tue Jul 25, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - He fits in a car's glove box, appears at a flick of a switch and when a woman has finished using him, she can just pull the plug and he deflates.
He's the "Buddy on Demand," a blow-up man launched on Tuesday with the aim of making solo female motorists feel less nervous about driving at night.
According to research by the inflatable friend's creator, insurer Sheilas' Wheels, 82 percent of women feel safer with someone sitting in the car beside them and nearly a half don't like driving alone in the dark.
"We're not saying that an inflatable man is the only answer but we do hope it will give women extra confidence and make journeys in the dark less fearful," said Jacky Brown, the spokeswoman for Sheilas' Wheels.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Tue Jul 25, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - He fits in a car's glove box, appears at a flick of a switch and when a woman has finished using him, she can just pull the plug and he deflates.He's the "Buddy on Demand," a blow-up man launched on Tuesday with the aim of making solo female motorists feel less nervous about driving at night.
According to research by the inflatable friend's creator, insurer Sheilas' Wheels, 82 percent of women feel safer with someone sitting in the car beside them and nearly a half don't like driving alone in the dark.
"We're not saying that an inflatable man is the only answer but we do hope it will give women extra confidence and make journeys in the dark less fearful," said Jacky Brown, the spokeswoman for Sheilas' Wheels.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Home broadband users will finally get upload boost
PC World Liz Tay, PC World
26/07/2006 Maximum upstream speeds in Australia are expected to more than double within the next three months, as Internode finally breaks through a year-long negotiation process with the Australian Communications Industry Forum over ADSL2+ Annex M.
Driven by a growing demand for sharing photos, music and video over the Internet, the new technology will provide speeds as fast as 2.5Mbps.
With the existing ADSL2+ Annex A, upstream speeds are currently limited to 1Mbps. However, as ADSL2+ is still a non mainstream broadband technology, the majority of Australians are signed up with plans where 256Kbps - dubbed "fraudband" by some -- is the norm.
A 3MB audio file that would typically take two minutes to upload on "fraudband" takes a mere 12 seconds on Annex M, and 24 seconds on Annex A.
Annex M obtains its greater upstream capacity by sacrificing some downstream speed. For a 1Mbps increase in upstream speed, it loses the same amount downstream, resulting in a slightly slower download speed when compared with that of Annex A.
"It's literally just turning the direction around on some of the channels that ADSL uses," explained Simon Hackett, managing director of Internode, expecting that the loss of downstream will be insignificant, especially in light of the upstream speed gained.
One megabit is only 4 per cent of Annex A's 24 megabit per second download speed.
"From a consumer standpoint, we are finally hitting the era of publishing information from home," Hackett said.
The increased upload speed is expected to appeal to: businesses that communicate via Virtual Private Networks over several branches or with employees working from home; to information producers such as Web site managers; and to schools requiring greater computing capability for their students.
Because the two are essentially the same technology, retuned, the transition from ADSL2+ Annex A to M will be achieved with a surprisingly simple "flick of a switch", said Hackett. Internode's two-year-old Annex A infrastructure has long been capable of also supporting Annex M.
Consumers may expect to pay a little more to upgrade from Annex A to M. They also may need to update their ADSL routers, as ADSL routers with Annex M capabilities have only been available for less than a year.
When Annex M is fully ratified for use in Australia, it will be available to those on Internode's Annex A business plans (SOHO and above), for no extra charge.
In the meantime, Internode has called for participants to take part in a national ADSL2+ Annex M trial. The trial, which was announced on a forum (http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=559405) last week, will be carried out in most capital cities, and some rural deployments in South Australia. Participants will be handpicked from an already large pool of volunteers for a good sample of geographical locations and line lengths.
"We want a good spread of people in real world situations to get a realistic expectation of speed... to try a variety of lines and different links to make sure it all works nice and smoothly."
Participants in the trial are expected to cover the cost of their own routers, for which Internode has negotiated an exclusive supply agreement with Billion (www.billion.com.au). In accordance with the agreement, which will expire in three months time, Internode will sell 7404VGP-M routers.
Billion, Open Networks and Cisco will also be releasing new ADSL2+ Annex M routers over the next three months.
26/07/2006 Maximum upstream speeds in Australia are expected to more than double within the next three months, as Internode finally breaks through a year-long negotiation process with the Australian Communications Industry Forum over ADSL2+ Annex M.
Driven by a growing demand for sharing photos, music and video over the Internet, the new technology will provide speeds as fast as 2.5Mbps.
With the existing ADSL2+ Annex A, upstream speeds are currently limited to 1Mbps. However, as ADSL2+ is still a non mainstream broadband technology, the majority of Australians are signed up with plans where 256Kbps - dubbed "fraudband" by some -- is the norm.
A 3MB audio file that would typically take two minutes to upload on "fraudband" takes a mere 12 seconds on Annex M, and 24 seconds on Annex A.
Annex M obtains its greater upstream capacity by sacrificing some downstream speed. For a 1Mbps increase in upstream speed, it loses the same amount downstream, resulting in a slightly slower download speed when compared with that of Annex A.
"It's literally just turning the direction around on some of the channels that ADSL uses," explained Simon Hackett, managing director of Internode, expecting that the loss of downstream will be insignificant, especially in light of the upstream speed gained.
One megabit is only 4 per cent of Annex A's 24 megabit per second download speed.
"From a consumer standpoint, we are finally hitting the era of publishing information from home," Hackett said.
The increased upload speed is expected to appeal to: businesses that communicate via Virtual Private Networks over several branches or with employees working from home; to information producers such as Web site managers; and to schools requiring greater computing capability for their students.
Because the two are essentially the same technology, retuned, the transition from ADSL2+ Annex A to M will be achieved with a surprisingly simple "flick of a switch", said Hackett. Internode's two-year-old Annex A infrastructure has long been capable of also supporting Annex M.
Consumers may expect to pay a little more to upgrade from Annex A to M. They also may need to update their ADSL routers, as ADSL routers with Annex M capabilities have only been available for less than a year.
When Annex M is fully ratified for use in Australia, it will be available to those on Internode's Annex A business plans (SOHO and above), for no extra charge.
In the meantime, Internode has called for participants to take part in a national ADSL2+ Annex M trial. The trial, which was announced on a forum (http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=559405) last week, will be carried out in most capital cities, and some rural deployments in South Australia. Participants will be handpicked from an already large pool of volunteers for a good sample of geographical locations and line lengths.
"We want a good spread of people in real world situations to get a realistic expectation of speed... to try a variety of lines and different links to make sure it all works nice and smoothly."
Participants in the trial are expected to cover the cost of their own routers, for which Internode has negotiated an exclusive supply agreement with Billion (www.billion.com.au). In accordance with the agreement, which will expire in three months time, Internode will sell 7404VGP-M routers.
Billion, Open Networks and Cisco will also be releasing new ADSL2+ Annex M routers over the next three months.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Security Watch: Zero-day Wednesdays...
Security Watch CNET Reviews By Robert Vamosi-Senior editor, CNET Reviews.
July 21, 2006 Somewhere, perhaps in the United States but more likely somewhere in China, a man walks out of a nondescript building, casts his eyes upon the urban landscape around him after spending an eight-hour day staring at a computer screen, and lights a cigarette.
He does not know his bosses by name or by face; he knows only that he is paid, and paid pretty well, for his research. Like a legitimate computer-security researcher, he uses automated testing tools against Microsoft Office software, probing for buffer overflows, pointer errors, or negative integers in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Unlike a legitimate security professional, he does not report what he finds to Microsoft. Instead, either he or his bosses will use this information for corporate espionage, to create what's called a zero-day attack using targeted Trojan horses that exploit an unpublished flaw. Worse, they'll wait until after Microsoft publishes its latest patches on the second Tuesday of the month. They'll release their attacks the day after, when everyone's distracted by the new patches, a day we'll call Zero-day Wednesday.
Patch Tuesday under attack.
Just a few years ago, Microsoft would, out of the blue, announce a handful of patches, some critical, some not. The problem is--well, there are many problems. First, Microsoft found it hard to inform everyone of the critical nature of the more serious vulnerabilities, especially if the announcement went out on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Worse, say someone did notice and hurriedly applied the patch only to find on Saturday morning that it broke some functionality somewhere else in the system. Who would pay the overtime? So Microsoft has, for the last two years with only minor exception, announced its patches on the second Tuesday of each month. System administrators plan on it, and the general public has come to expect it. On rare occasions, Microsoft has reissued a patch or two.
But software vulnerabilities don't follow timetables. In May, the day after Microsoft released three updates, someone released a Trojan based on a previously unknown flaw (known as a zero-day) in Microsoft Word; Microsoft patched this in MS06-027. In June, after Microsoft patched 21 individual flaws, there was a zero-day attack on Excel files; Microsoft patched this in MS06-037. And now in July, after Microsoft patched 18 flaws, someone has released a zero-day attack on PowerPoint files; Microsoft says it'll patch this flaw on the next Patch Tuesday. However, within the last few days, we've seen at least three distinct backdoor Trojans using the PowerPoint flaws, with more Trojans possible before August 8, 2006.
Spear-phishing
Should home users worry? Not yet. These PowerPoint Trojans are not broadcast, scattershot, across the Internet like the large-scale virus attacks we've all grown to expect during the summer; instead, these Trojans are targeted so that the victim companies won't realize they've been hit until after the fact. The bad guys are taking advantage of the common practice of sending and receiving Office files, making their poisoned e-mail look like legitimate interoffice traffic.
These PowerPoint Trojans are not broadcast, scattershot, across the Internet like the large-scale virus attacks we've all grown to expect during the summer.
To do so, the bad guys have to be sophisticated; they have to be organized. One uses Google to research its targets, perhaps identifying legitimate e-mail groups within that target company. Using a process known as spear-phishing, a criminal hacker can fashion an internal e-mail with subject lines like "Here are the Q1 sales figures," and the e-mail might be sent to "sales team alpha" from "sales internal." Someone receiving that e-mail wouldn't necessarily suspect the Excel to be poisoned. Meanwhile, another individual bad guy (or a group of others) looks for unreported vulnerabilities. Not every vulnerability that's found can be exploited, and not every exploit lends itself to the type of crime that's profitable. Yet another person crafts a Trojan horse. And so on. The current crop of PowerPoint Trojans have been broadcasting captured keystrokes and other data to addresses within the 8800.org domain, a Chinese Web hosting site, but that could easily be a dead end.
Conclusion
So is the solution not to open any e-mail attachments? Have the villains finally won? No. Remember the criminal hackers have been sending these to targeted companies, so, unlike the Melissa virus, interoffice Word documents, in general, ought to be safe. The antivirus vendors, with their vast networks of reporting desktops worldwide, are the ones discovering these corporate-espionage Trojans. As long as your antivirus protection is up-to-date, you should get protection within a few hours or days of a new zero-day. As for the companies under attack, they need to be wary of attachments and wait for Microsoft to patch these latest PowerPoint flaws.
July 21, 2006 Somewhere, perhaps in the United States but more likely somewhere in China, a man walks out of a nondescript building, casts his eyes upon the urban landscape around him after spending an eight-hour day staring at a computer screen, and lights a cigarette.
He does not know his bosses by name or by face; he knows only that he is paid, and paid pretty well, for his research. Like a legitimate computer-security researcher, he uses automated testing tools against Microsoft Office software, probing for buffer overflows, pointer errors, or negative integers in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Unlike a legitimate security professional, he does not report what he finds to Microsoft. Instead, either he or his bosses will use this information for corporate espionage, to create what's called a zero-day attack using targeted Trojan horses that exploit an unpublished flaw. Worse, they'll wait until after Microsoft publishes its latest patches on the second Tuesday of the month. They'll release their attacks the day after, when everyone's distracted by the new patches, a day we'll call Zero-day Wednesday.
Patch Tuesday under attack.
Just a few years ago, Microsoft would, out of the blue, announce a handful of patches, some critical, some not. The problem is--well, there are many problems. First, Microsoft found it hard to inform everyone of the critical nature of the more serious vulnerabilities, especially if the announcement went out on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Worse, say someone did notice and hurriedly applied the patch only to find on Saturday morning that it broke some functionality somewhere else in the system. Who would pay the overtime? So Microsoft has, for the last two years with only minor exception, announced its patches on the second Tuesday of each month. System administrators plan on it, and the general public has come to expect it. On rare occasions, Microsoft has reissued a patch or two.
But software vulnerabilities don't follow timetables. In May, the day after Microsoft released three updates, someone released a Trojan based on a previously unknown flaw (known as a zero-day) in Microsoft Word; Microsoft patched this in MS06-027. In June, after Microsoft patched 21 individual flaws, there was a zero-day attack on Excel files; Microsoft patched this in MS06-037. And now in July, after Microsoft patched 18 flaws, someone has released a zero-day attack on PowerPoint files; Microsoft says it'll patch this flaw on the next Patch Tuesday. However, within the last few days, we've seen at least three distinct backdoor Trojans using the PowerPoint flaws, with more Trojans possible before August 8, 2006.
Spear-phishing
Should home users worry? Not yet. These PowerPoint Trojans are not broadcast, scattershot, across the Internet like the large-scale virus attacks we've all grown to expect during the summer; instead, these Trojans are targeted so that the victim companies won't realize they've been hit until after the fact. The bad guys are taking advantage of the common practice of sending and receiving Office files, making their poisoned e-mail look like legitimate interoffice traffic.
These PowerPoint Trojans are not broadcast, scattershot, across the Internet like the large-scale virus attacks we've all grown to expect during the summer.
To do so, the bad guys have to be sophisticated; they have to be organized. One uses Google to research its targets, perhaps identifying legitimate e-mail groups within that target company. Using a process known as spear-phishing, a criminal hacker can fashion an internal e-mail with subject lines like "Here are the Q1 sales figures," and the e-mail might be sent to "sales team alpha" from "sales internal." Someone receiving that e-mail wouldn't necessarily suspect the Excel to be poisoned. Meanwhile, another individual bad guy (or a group of others) looks for unreported vulnerabilities. Not every vulnerability that's found can be exploited, and not every exploit lends itself to the type of crime that's profitable. Yet another person crafts a Trojan horse. And so on. The current crop of PowerPoint Trojans have been broadcasting captured keystrokes and other data to addresses within the 8800.org domain, a Chinese Web hosting site, but that could easily be a dead end.
Conclusion
So is the solution not to open any e-mail attachments? Have the villains finally won? No. Remember the criminal hackers have been sending these to targeted companies, so, unlike the Melissa virus, interoffice Word documents, in general, ought to be safe. The antivirus vendors, with their vast networks of reporting desktops worldwide, are the ones discovering these corporate-espionage Trojans. As long as your antivirus protection is up-to-date, you should get protection within a few hours or days of a new zero-day. As for the companies under attack, they need to be wary of attachments and wait for Microsoft to patch these latest PowerPoint flaws.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
RNW: It's Rembrandt's birthday - join the party!
Radio.Netherlands By Philip Smet
Rembrandt the Musical at Amsterdam's Carré theatre
Saturday 15 July. 2006, marked the 400th birthday anniversary of Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch 17th-century painter - the perfect opportunity for some of the country's most important museums to shine the spotlight on his work throughout the year.
The special Rembrandt exhibitions and events are drawing hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors to the Netherlands, much to the delight of the country's tourism industry.
In addition, dozens of books have been published about the artist, his work and his life, and every school in the county has devoted special projects to him. All this attention will reach a highpoint on his 400th birthday with major festivities in several cities.
Boost to culture
The Rembrandt 400 Year has given a real boost to the cultural life of the Netherlands. On the painter's birthday, on Saturday, dozens of volunteers in Leiden created a tableau vivant of his masterpiece, The Night Watch. Every Dutch citizen with 'Van Rijn' as his or her family name [the same as Rembrandt] was invited to the city's most important museum.
Meanwhile, in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, there was a free breakfast with enough food for thousands of people. But the highpoint of the day came in the evening when Rembrandt himself went on stage in the capital's main theatre, playing the main part in the premiere of a spectacular musical.
Romanticised
Watching the famous painter represented on stage casts a new light on his life. Who would have thought that he could sing masterfully, too? It's a fine example of how Rembrandt and his legend are being romanticised, probably because of the scarce amount of factual information we have about him.
We know much more about his works of art, and this knowledge has been growing in recent years. Studies are underway, by several specialised art historians, into the techniques and materials used by Rembrandt, and also into his development as an artist.
This research has enabled better conservation and restoration of his paintings and has fueled the discussion about whether some of them are genuine Rembrandt's or should be attributed to his apprentices. Tens of thousands of visitors have come to see the latest discoveries in the Rembrandt House Museum, the house where he lived between 1639 and 1658.
Exhibitions
The Rembrandt Year has led to many other high-profile exhibitions focusing on his work and there are more to come. Paintings, drawings and etchings have been shipped to Dutch museums from far and wide. The main exhibitions are in the Rijksmuseum and in the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, but those in The Hague, Rotterdam and, of course, Leiden, are worth visiting, too.
In fact, Rembrandt's birthplace, Leiden, was one of the richest cities in his time, the Dutch Golden Age. For years, Leiden seemed oblivious of the painter's huge potential as a tourist attraction, but now, thousands of people flock to the city to listen to special concerts, watch street performances and join in children's games.
Rembrandt has become a major tourist brand and the total revenue for Dutch hotels, museums, restaurants and bars, including the special Rembrandt merchandising, has been estimated at 700 million euros. It's an amount that would have far exceeded the painter's imagination, as would a career as a musical star. Anything goes, in this Rembrandt year.
Rembrandt the Musical at Amsterdam's Carré theatreSaturday 15 July. 2006, marked the 400th birthday anniversary of Rembrandt, the greatest Dutch 17th-century painter - the perfect opportunity for some of the country's most important museums to shine the spotlight on his work throughout the year.
The special Rembrandt exhibitions and events are drawing hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors to the Netherlands, much to the delight of the country's tourism industry.
In addition, dozens of books have been published about the artist, his work and his life, and every school in the county has devoted special projects to him. All this attention will reach a highpoint on his 400th birthday with major festivities in several cities.
Boost to culture
The Rembrandt 400 Year has given a real boost to the cultural life of the Netherlands. On the painter's birthday, on Saturday, dozens of volunteers in Leiden created a tableau vivant of his masterpiece, The Night Watch. Every Dutch citizen with 'Van Rijn' as his or her family name [the same as Rembrandt] was invited to the city's most important museum.
Meanwhile, in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, there was a free breakfast with enough food for thousands of people. But the highpoint of the day came in the evening when Rembrandt himself went on stage in the capital's main theatre, playing the main part in the premiere of a spectacular musical.
Romanticised
Watching the famous painter represented on stage casts a new light on his life. Who would have thought that he could sing masterfully, too? It's a fine example of how Rembrandt and his legend are being romanticised, probably because of the scarce amount of factual information we have about him.
We know much more about his works of art, and this knowledge has been growing in recent years. Studies are underway, by several specialised art historians, into the techniques and materials used by Rembrandt, and also into his development as an artist.
This research has enabled better conservation and restoration of his paintings and has fueled the discussion about whether some of them are genuine Rembrandt's or should be attributed to his apprentices. Tens of thousands of visitors have come to see the latest discoveries in the Rembrandt House Museum, the house where he lived between 1639 and 1658.
Exhibitions
The Rembrandt Year has led to many other high-profile exhibitions focusing on his work and there are more to come. Paintings, drawings and etchings have been shipped to Dutch museums from far and wide. The main exhibitions are in the Rijksmuseum and in the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, but those in The Hague, Rotterdam and, of course, Leiden, are worth visiting, too.
In fact, Rembrandt's birthplace, Leiden, was one of the richest cities in his time, the Dutch Golden Age. For years, Leiden seemed oblivious of the painter's huge potential as a tourist attraction, but now, thousands of people flock to the city to listen to special concerts, watch street performances and join in children's games.
Rembrandt has become a major tourist brand and the total revenue for Dutch hotels, museums, restaurants and bars, including the special Rembrandt merchandising, has been estimated at 700 million euros. It's an amount that would have far exceeded the painter's imagination, as would a career as a musical star. Anything goes, in this Rembrandt year.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
They're felons, and they've got your number...
Reuters.com By Silvia Aloisi
Fri Jul 21, 2006. ROME (Reuters) - The next time you call directory inquiries in Italy, you may speak to a convicted murderer.
Italy's biggest phone operator, Telecom Italia, Thursday presented its new call-center in Rome's largest prison, where 24 inmates are glued to a computer screen to answer thousands of requests for phone numbers and addresses every day.
"This is a unique initiative in Europe and it helps the detainees get some work experience and prepare for when they'll get out of prison," said Telecom's Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera as he toured the Rebibbia jail, a huge concrete block housing 1,600 inmates on the northern outskirts of Rome.
"Good afternoon, this is Gianluca speaking, how can I help you? Thank you for calling Telecom Italia," said Gianluca Descenzo, who is serving a 13-year sentence for a drug-related murder, politely answering the umpteenth call of the day.
"It's good because people don't know who we are, so we don't feel like we are in a ghetto anymore," he told Reuters as he paused before taking another call.
Rebibbia's call-center follows a similar Telecom operation in Milan's San Vittore jail and runs from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. every day except Sundays.
The detainees get paid 12 cents ($0.15) per call answered and on a normal day each one of them deals with around 200 requests for information.
"Jails should not only be a place for punishment. They need not be a permanent hell, they must also give opportunities to people," said Justice Minister Clemente Mastella as he visited the call-center.
Telecom says there is no security risk in having detainees consult a nationwide database of phone numbers and addresses.
The prisoners cannot dial outside the jail and the company's computerized switchboard randomly directs each call to any one of Telecom's 45 call centers scattered across Italy.
"This may seem like a boring routine job, but for people who would otherwise spend the day sitting in our cells and doing nothing, it actually gives a sense to your life," said 34-year old Salvatore Striano, who has been convicted for Mafia crimes and also works in the call-center.
"It allows us to have some contact with the outside world. And it also makes you feel like you're being useful. People often need the address of a hospital or a pharmacy. Sometimes they'll ask the weirdest questions, like what day is it today or my dog is sick, what should I do?."
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Fri Jul 21, 2006. ROME (Reuters) - The next time you call directory inquiries in Italy, you may speak to a convicted murderer.
Italy's biggest phone operator, Telecom Italia, Thursday presented its new call-center in Rome's largest prison, where 24 inmates are glued to a computer screen to answer thousands of requests for phone numbers and addresses every day.
"This is a unique initiative in Europe and it helps the detainees get some work experience and prepare for when they'll get out of prison," said Telecom's Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera as he toured the Rebibbia jail, a huge concrete block housing 1,600 inmates on the northern outskirts of Rome.
"Good afternoon, this is Gianluca speaking, how can I help you? Thank you for calling Telecom Italia," said Gianluca Descenzo, who is serving a 13-year sentence for a drug-related murder, politely answering the umpteenth call of the day.
"It's good because people don't know who we are, so we don't feel like we are in a ghetto anymore," he told Reuters as he paused before taking another call.
Rebibbia's call-center follows a similar Telecom operation in Milan's San Vittore jail and runs from 8 a.m to 8 p.m. every day except Sundays.
The detainees get paid 12 cents ($0.15) per call answered and on a normal day each one of them deals with around 200 requests for information.
"Jails should not only be a place for punishment. They need not be a permanent hell, they must also give opportunities to people," said Justice Minister Clemente Mastella as he visited the call-center.
Telecom says there is no security risk in having detainees consult a nationwide database of phone numbers and addresses.
The prisoners cannot dial outside the jail and the company's computerized switchboard randomly directs each call to any one of Telecom's 45 call centers scattered across Italy.
"This may seem like a boring routine job, but for people who would otherwise spend the day sitting in our cells and doing nothing, it actually gives a sense to your life," said 34-year old Salvatore Striano, who has been convicted for Mafia crimes and also works in the call-center.
"It allows us to have some contact with the outside world. And it also makes you feel like you're being useful. People often need the address of a hospital or a pharmacy. Sometimes they'll ask the weirdest questions, like what day is it today or my dog is sick, what should I do?."
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Cop censured for under the covers work...
Reuters.com
Thu Jul 20, 2006. WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A woman police officer moonlighting as a prostitute has got off with a caution, New Zealand police said Thursday.
The unidentified officer, stationed in the country's biggest city Auckland, was discovered last year to have been a prostitute for a short time.
"The officer concerned has been counseled. Under police procedures this amounts to a censure," Deputy Police Commissioner Lyn Provost said in a statement.
The police officer, who was understood to be having financial difficulties, had not sought permission to have a second job. Such applications are considered on a case-by-case basis.
"This type of secondary employment would never be approved given that the type of work is inappropriate and incompatible with policing," Provost said.
New Zealand made prostitution legal in 2003.
An Auckland spokeswoman for the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective -- a welfare and lobby group for sex workers -- told the NZ Press Association that a prostitute might earn as much as NZ$500 ($312) on a busy night.
Asked if she had heard of other police officers moonlighting as sex workers, she said: "We have law students that are sex workers, we have doctors that are sex workers. I mean anyone can be a sex worker."
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Thu Jul 20, 2006. WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A woman police officer moonlighting as a prostitute has got off with a caution, New Zealand police said Thursday.
The unidentified officer, stationed in the country's biggest city Auckland, was discovered last year to have been a prostitute for a short time.
"The officer concerned has been counseled. Under police procedures this amounts to a censure," Deputy Police Commissioner Lyn Provost said in a statement.
The police officer, who was understood to be having financial difficulties, had not sought permission to have a second job. Such applications are considered on a case-by-case basis.
"This type of secondary employment would never be approved given that the type of work is inappropriate and incompatible with policing," Provost said.
New Zealand made prostitution legal in 2003.
An Auckland spokeswoman for the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective -- a welfare and lobby group for sex workers -- told the NZ Press Association that a prostitute might earn as much as NZ$500 ($312) on a busy night.
Asked if she had heard of other police officers moonlighting as sex workers, she said: "We have law students that are sex workers, we have doctors that are sex workers. I mean anyone can be a sex worker."
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
MS says WGA has caught 60 million Windows cheaters...
ZDNet.com By Ed Bott
Digg This!
July 18, 2006. Two weeks ago, I reported on a terse e-mail exchange with Microsoft, in which a spokesperson acknowledged that 80% of all computers that fail the Windows Genuine Advantage validation check do so because they are using stolen or pirated volume license keys.
I asked what I thought was a reasonable question: Where do the other 20% come from? According to the same spokesperson, those installations are caused by “various forms of tampering and unauthorized OEM installations.” I couldn’t get any more details.
Two days ago, After looking over this list, the numbers don't add up for me… Microsoft’s Alex Kochis, a member of the WGA product management team, published a blog entry trying to add more details to the discussion. In When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive, he passes along one staggering statistic: “About 1 in 5 of the 300 million PCs that have run WGA validation fail.”
Yow! By my calculations, that’s 60 million people who’ve been informed by Microsoft that they’re running “non-genuine” copies of Windows.
But according to Kochis, Microsoft’s validation tool is nearly perfect, and virtually everyone who’s been tagged by the WGA Validation utility is indeed a pirate or a victim of a pirate:
To be precise, an actual 'false positive' would occur if WGA identified a specific copy of windows installed on a system as non-genuine or unlicensed when in fact it was genuine and licensed. Of the hundreds of millions of WGA validations to date, only a handful of actual false positives have been seen. Most of these were due to data entry errors that were quickly corrected and only occurred for a short period of time.
Given the extremely small number of technical failures of WGA why else might someone think that their system was falsely identified as running counterfeit Windows? If they aren't actual 'false positives' what are they? It turns out there are a number of scenarios that could result in a WGA validation failure that a user might be surprised by or even deny… [emphasis added]
He goes on to point out four scenarios:
Scenario 1: High-quality counterfeit copies of Windows. Apparently this number isn’t very large at all. As Kochis notes, “So far we've provided hundreds of free copies of Windows to users who've been ripped by high-quality counterfeit…”
Scenario 2: The user installs the same copy and key to more than one PC at a time. I don’t understand why this scenario occurs at all. Is the Validation utility really looking at individual keys and identifying people who are reusing a retail or upgrade copy? In this case, shouldn’t activation fail when the user tries to install the second copy?
Scenario 3: A friend or acquaintance offers to “fix” your computer and installs a pirated or “cracked” copy of Windows. I can definitely see this one happening, especially when a system is compromised by a spyware or virus infestation.
Scenario 4: You take your PC in to be repaired and the repair shop takes a shortcut by reinstalling a volume-licensed copy of Windows. Again, I can see exactly why this happens. How many customers bring in their official restore media? Not many, I’d wager. How many repair shops want to take the extra time (and charge the customer) to restore from the official media? What happens when the media that came with the PC is out of date and the shop has to install a service pack and several dozen patches? In that scenario, should the customer have to purchase a brand-new license when they already paid for one?
After looking over this list, the numbers don’t add up for me, and they certainly don’t explain why Microsoft is attacking this problem with such a vengeance. Scenario 1 is rare, and Scenario 2 shouldn’t occur at all if Windows Product Activation is working properly. In scenarios 3 and 4, some of those customers might be “upgrading” from Windows 98 or Windows Me, but I suspect that most already have a valid Windows XP license, and the person doing the repair took a shortcut to avoid the hassle of a manual install using a possibly outdated version of Windows. In those cases, the end result of the validation check is that the user is going to either have to reinstall their legitimate copy or jump through some hoops to change the product key. It’s a bookkeeping change that hassles the customer and doesn’t bring in any money to Microsoft’s bottom line.
Think about it: 60 million people have been hassled by Windows Genuine Validation. And for what? The numbers don’t add up.
Digg This!
July 18, 2006. Two weeks ago, I reported on a terse e-mail exchange with Microsoft, in which a spokesperson acknowledged that 80% of all computers that fail the Windows Genuine Advantage validation check do so because they are using stolen or pirated volume license keys.
I asked what I thought was a reasonable question: Where do the other 20% come from? According to the same spokesperson, those installations are caused by “various forms of tampering and unauthorized OEM installations.” I couldn’t get any more details.
Two days ago, After looking over this list, the numbers don't add up for me… Microsoft’s Alex Kochis, a member of the WGA product management team, published a blog entry trying to add more details to the discussion. In When a 'False Positive' isn't a false positive, he passes along one staggering statistic: “About 1 in 5 of the 300 million PCs that have run WGA validation fail.”
Yow! By my calculations, that’s 60 million people who’ve been informed by Microsoft that they’re running “non-genuine” copies of Windows.
But according to Kochis, Microsoft’s validation tool is nearly perfect, and virtually everyone who’s been tagged by the WGA Validation utility is indeed a pirate or a victim of a pirate:
To be precise, an actual 'false positive' would occur if WGA identified a specific copy of windows installed on a system as non-genuine or unlicensed when in fact it was genuine and licensed. Of the hundreds of millions of WGA validations to date, only a handful of actual false positives have been seen. Most of these were due to data entry errors that were quickly corrected and only occurred for a short period of time.
Given the extremely small number of technical failures of WGA why else might someone think that their system was falsely identified as running counterfeit Windows? If they aren't actual 'false positives' what are they? It turns out there are a number of scenarios that could result in a WGA validation failure that a user might be surprised by or even deny… [emphasis added]
He goes on to point out four scenarios:
Scenario 1: High-quality counterfeit copies of Windows. Apparently this number isn’t very large at all. As Kochis notes, “So far we've provided hundreds of free copies of Windows to users who've been ripped by high-quality counterfeit…”
Scenario 2: The user installs the same copy and key to more than one PC at a time. I don’t understand why this scenario occurs at all. Is the Validation utility really looking at individual keys and identifying people who are reusing a retail or upgrade copy? In this case, shouldn’t activation fail when the user tries to install the second copy?
Scenario 3: A friend or acquaintance offers to “fix” your computer and installs a pirated or “cracked” copy of Windows. I can definitely see this one happening, especially when a system is compromised by a spyware or virus infestation.
Scenario 4: You take your PC in to be repaired and the repair shop takes a shortcut by reinstalling a volume-licensed copy of Windows. Again, I can see exactly why this happens. How many customers bring in their official restore media? Not many, I’d wager. How many repair shops want to take the extra time (and charge the customer) to restore from the official media? What happens when the media that came with the PC is out of date and the shop has to install a service pack and several dozen patches? In that scenario, should the customer have to purchase a brand-new license when they already paid for one?
After looking over this list, the numbers don’t add up for me, and they certainly don’t explain why Microsoft is attacking this problem with such a vengeance. Scenario 1 is rare, and Scenario 2 shouldn’t occur at all if Windows Product Activation is working properly. In scenarios 3 and 4, some of those customers might be “upgrading” from Windows 98 or Windows Me, but I suspect that most already have a valid Windows XP license, and the person doing the repair took a shortcut to avoid the hassle of a manual install using a possibly outdated version of Windows. In those cases, the end result of the validation check is that the user is going to either have to reinstall their legitimate copy or jump through some hoops to change the product key. It’s a bookkeeping change that hassles the customer and doesn’t bring in any money to Microsoft’s bottom line.
Think about it: 60 million people have been hassled by Windows Genuine Validation. And for what? The numbers don’t add up.
Scramble to save lives as heatwave hits Europe...
Health News Article Reuters.com By Tim Castle
Wed Jul 19, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - Authorities scrambled to save lives in a heatwave in northern Europe on Wednesday, hoping to avoid a repeat of the hot weather in 2003 that killed 15,000 people in France and 2,000 in Britain.
In France, an 85-year-old man admitted to hospital and an 81-year-old woman found dead in her home were the first people believed to have died there because of the heat.
"We must be vigilant and still more vigilant," said Health Minister Xavier Bertrand. "And pay more attention to the vulnerable and those who live alone."
The mayor of Paris announced free residential parking and advised people to avoid motorized transport to reduce the danger of ozone pollution.
In Britain, temperatures were expected to top 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), hitting an all-time high for July.
The government launched an emergency plan of extra visits to elderly and vulnerable people.
Bookmakers stopped taking bets that temperatures would soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.77C) for what would be only the second time on record.
At Buckingham Palace, officials laid on plenty of water for 8,000 guests at a garden party for military veterans after several guests at a similar palace event fainted on Tuesday.
"There is shade for them, all the marquees are used, there's lots of helpers on hand for any guests who may feel unwell," a palace spokesman said.
The House of Commons issued a special "shirt-sleeve order" allowing journalists covering parliament to break with convention and enter the chamber without a jacket.
The searing heat and expected storms later in the week threatened to damage northern Europe's wheat crop just days before the harvest, which will push up prices, analysts said.
France and Germany were the main countries affected. The harvests in southern Europe have already finished.
In Holland, organizers canceled a four-day walking event after two participants died of the heat on Tuesday. Firemen have handed out water to drivers stuck in traffic jams.
In Ireland, firefighters battled a gorse blaze close to a popular beach south of Dublin on Tuesday evening after temperatures pushed above 30 degrees Centigrade for the first time in more than a decade.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Wed Jul 19, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - Authorities scrambled to save lives in a heatwave in northern Europe on Wednesday, hoping to avoid a repeat of the hot weather in 2003 that killed 15,000 people in France and 2,000 in Britain.
In France, an 85-year-old man admitted to hospital and an 81-year-old woman found dead in her home were the first people believed to have died there because of the heat.
"We must be vigilant and still more vigilant," said Health Minister Xavier Bertrand. "And pay more attention to the vulnerable and those who live alone."
The mayor of Paris announced free residential parking and advised people to avoid motorized transport to reduce the danger of ozone pollution.
In Britain, temperatures were expected to top 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), hitting an all-time high for July.
The government launched an emergency plan of extra visits to elderly and vulnerable people.
Bookmakers stopped taking bets that temperatures would soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.77C) for what would be only the second time on record.
At Buckingham Palace, officials laid on plenty of water for 8,000 guests at a garden party for military veterans after several guests at a similar palace event fainted on Tuesday.
"There is shade for them, all the marquees are used, there's lots of helpers on hand for any guests who may feel unwell," a palace spokesman said.
The House of Commons issued a special "shirt-sleeve order" allowing journalists covering parliament to break with convention and enter the chamber without a jacket.
The searing heat and expected storms later in the week threatened to damage northern Europe's wheat crop just days before the harvest, which will push up prices, analysts said.
France and Germany were the main countries affected. The harvests in southern Europe have already finished.
In Holland, organizers canceled a four-day walking event after two participants died of the heat on Tuesday. Firemen have handed out water to drivers stuck in traffic jams.
In Ireland, firefighters battled a gorse blaze close to a popular beach south of Dublin on Tuesday evening after temperatures pushed above 30 degrees Centigrade for the first time in more than a decade.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Runaway circus kangaroo on the loose in Ireland...
Reuters.com
Wed Jul 19, 2006.DUBLIN (Reuters) - A kangaroo is roaming the green hills of Ireland after escaping a circus near the picturesque port of Kinsale.
"This kangaroo broke loose just before the show while they were bringing him from the cages to the arena. He decided to take a walk," said local farmer John Walsh on whose land the 2-year-old male, named Sydney, made his break for freedom.
Circus staff launched a fruitless four-hour search following the escape Sunday.
There had since been one unconfirmed sighting of the animal, renamed "Hoppy" by locals and described as two and a half to three feet tall and dark in color.
"He would be happy out there and he'll have plenty of grass, plenty of water and plenty of sunshine," Walsh told Reuters on Wednesday as Ireland basked in near record temperatures more typical of Sydney's native Australia than Ireland's temperate maritime climate.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Wed Jul 19, 2006.DUBLIN (Reuters) - A kangaroo is roaming the green hills of Ireland after escaping a circus near the picturesque port of Kinsale.
"This kangaroo broke loose just before the show while they were bringing him from the cages to the arena. He decided to take a walk," said local farmer John Walsh on whose land the 2-year-old male, named Sydney, made his break for freedom.
Circus staff launched a fruitless four-hour search following the escape Sunday.
There had since been one unconfirmed sighting of the animal, renamed "Hoppy" by locals and described as two and a half to three feet tall and dark in color.
"He would be happy out there and he'll have plenty of grass, plenty of water and plenty of sunshine," Walsh told Reuters on Wednesday as Ireland basked in near record temperatures more typical of Sydney's native Australia than Ireland's temperate maritime climate.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Microsoft says Vista to allow Google search engine...
Technology News Article Reuters.com By Joel Rothstein
Wed Jul 19, 2006. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday said the company was adopting voluntary principles to guide development of its flagship Windows operating system, which will include allowing computer manufacturers to set Google and other non-Microsoft search engines as a default.
Brad Smith, Microsoft senior vice president and general counsel, said the company was committed to creating a transparent system that allows open competition among software developers and computer manufacturers, and wide choice for customers.
"If a manufacturer wants to set competing search services ... by default, they can do so," Smith said in a speech at the New America Foundation, a Washington public policy institute.
Microsoft's plan to include a search service to compete with industry leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) in its new Windows Vista operating system has caused concern that the two companies may engage in the same kind of legal fight as the Microsoft-Netscape browser war in the late 1990s.
Microsoft signed an antitrust settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in 2002. Parts of the settlement will begin expiring next year, although Microsoft agreed in May to extend one key provision involving licensing of technical data.
Microsoft plans to ship the new Vista operating system in early 2007.
"Our goal is to be principled and transparent as we develop new versions of Windows," Smith said.
Earlier this month, the European Commission fined Microsoft 280.5 million euros ($356.6 million) for failing to comply with EU competitiveness requirements.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Wed Jul 19, 2006. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) on Wednesday said the company was adopting voluntary principles to guide development of its flagship Windows operating system, which will include allowing computer manufacturers to set Google and other non-Microsoft search engines as a default.Brad Smith, Microsoft senior vice president and general counsel, said the company was committed to creating a transparent system that allows open competition among software developers and computer manufacturers, and wide choice for customers.
"If a manufacturer wants to set competing search services ... by default, they can do so," Smith said in a speech at the New America Foundation, a Washington public policy institute.
Microsoft's plan to include a search service to compete with industry leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) in its new Windows Vista operating system has caused concern that the two companies may engage in the same kind of legal fight as the Microsoft-Netscape browser war in the late 1990s.
Microsoft signed an antitrust settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in 2002. Parts of the settlement will begin expiring next year, although Microsoft agreed in May to extend one key provision involving licensing of technical data.
Microsoft plans to ship the new Vista operating system in early 2007.
"Our goal is to be principled and transparent as we develop new versions of Windows," Smith said.
Earlier this month, the European Commission fined Microsoft 280.5 million euros ($356.6 million) for failing to comply with EU competitiveness requirements.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Impotence could be sign of heart disease: study
Health News Article Reuters.com By Patricia Reaney
Tue Jul 18, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - Men suffering from impotence should be screened for cardiovascular disease because it could be an early sign of the illness, Italian researchers said on Wednesday.
They believe erectile dysfunction (ED) could be a "sentinel of the heart," enabling doctors to detect heart disease before symptoms occur.
"A strict medical surveillance program should be mandatory in patients with ED, multiple risk factors and no clinical artery disease," said Dr Piero Montorsi of the Institute of Cardiology at the University of Milan.
In a study of almost 300 men who suffered from impotence and clogged arteries, 93 percent reported symptoms of ED between one to three years before experiencing angina -- chest pains and discomfort.
"Many patients with ED and multiple risk factors (for cardiovascular disease) are at a higher risk of developing, sooner or later, a coronary acute event," Montorsi told Reuters.
He and his team suggested that clogged arteries also have an impact on penile circulation. ED may develop earlier than heart disease because the penile artery has a smaller diameter than coronary arteries.
"This is probably the main reason why ED comes before coronary artery disease," said Montorsi whose findings are reported online by the European Heart Journal.
The researchers also discovered that the number of cases of erectile dysfunction was lower in men who had a heart attack involving one clogged blood vessel and higher in patients with many clogged arteries or chronic coronary syndrome (CCS).
"Age, multi-vessel coronary involvement, and CCS were independent predictors of ED," Montorsi said.
Coronary heart disease, a major killer in industrialized countries, occurs when there is a build up of plaque which clogs up the arteries and restricts blood flow.
High blood pressure, raised cholesterol levels, smoking, lack of exercise and diabetes are risk factors.
Cases of erectile dysfunction increase with age. About 5 percent of 40-year-old men and up to 25 percent of 65 year-olds experience ED. It can be caused by an illness or injury that affects the nerves or blood flow or the side effects of drugs.
"All men with ED and no cardiac symptoms need a detailed cardiac assessment, blood pressure measurement, fasting lipid profile and glucose, as well as lifestyle advice regarding weight and exercise," said Dr Graham Jackson, a cardiologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, in a statement.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Tue Jul 18, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - Men suffering from impotence should be screened for cardiovascular disease because it could be an early sign of the illness, Italian researchers said on Wednesday.
They believe erectile dysfunction (ED) could be a "sentinel of the heart," enabling doctors to detect heart disease before symptoms occur.
"A strict medical surveillance program should be mandatory in patients with ED, multiple risk factors and no clinical artery disease," said Dr Piero Montorsi of the Institute of Cardiology at the University of Milan.
In a study of almost 300 men who suffered from impotence and clogged arteries, 93 percent reported symptoms of ED between one to three years before experiencing angina -- chest pains and discomfort.
"Many patients with ED and multiple risk factors (for cardiovascular disease) are at a higher risk of developing, sooner or later, a coronary acute event," Montorsi told Reuters.
He and his team suggested that clogged arteries also have an impact on penile circulation. ED may develop earlier than heart disease because the penile artery has a smaller diameter than coronary arteries.
"This is probably the main reason why ED comes before coronary artery disease," said Montorsi whose findings are reported online by the European Heart Journal.
The researchers also discovered that the number of cases of erectile dysfunction was lower in men who had a heart attack involving one clogged blood vessel and higher in patients with many clogged arteries or chronic coronary syndrome (CCS).
"Age, multi-vessel coronary involvement, and CCS were independent predictors of ED," Montorsi said.
Coronary heart disease, a major killer in industrialized countries, occurs when there is a build up of plaque which clogs up the arteries and restricts blood flow.
High blood pressure, raised cholesterol levels, smoking, lack of exercise and diabetes are risk factors.
Cases of erectile dysfunction increase with age. About 5 percent of 40-year-old men and up to 25 percent of 65 year-olds experience ED. It can be caused by an illness or injury that affects the nerves or blood flow or the side effects of drugs.
"All men with ED and no cardiac symptoms need a detailed cardiac assessment, blood pressure measurement, fasting lipid profile and glucose, as well as lifestyle advice regarding weight and exercise," said Dr Graham Jackson, a cardiologist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, in a statement.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Alzheimer's drug slow brain shrinkage...
Health News Article Reuters.com
Tue Jul 18, 2006. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Alzheimer's drug Aricept not only improves memory and understanding in patients but appears to slow the characteristic shrinkage of the brain, researchers reported on Monday.
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI images of the brains of 131 patients with mild cognitive impairment showed less shrinkage of the hippocampus, a structure key to memory function, in patients who got the drug compared to those who got a placebo, researchers told a meeting.
"No drug has been shown to slow brain atrophy for patients with mild cognitive impairment," said Dr. Clifford Jack of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Aricept, which is known generically as donepezil, is marketed by Pfizer and Japan's Eisai Co. Ltd..
"Our study results seem to imply that donepezil does more than provide symptom relief -- it has an effect on a measure of brain health. Our findings also show that MRI measures can have usefulness in future studies of mild cognitive impairment."
Mild cognitive impairment can lead to Alzheimer's disease, but not always.
Jack's team found the effects only in people with the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE 4) gene, a genetic variation that has long been known to put people at higher risk of Alzheimer's.
Why is unclear, he said.
"One possibility is that APOE 4 carriers were more likely to have definite Alzheimer's disease than noncarriers in the study who appear to have symptoms of early Alzheimer's disease, yet turn out to have a different diagnosis when an autopsy is performed after death," he said.
Jack's study was presented to the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in Madrid, Spain.
An estimated 12 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease, but international researchers predict the number of people suffering from dementia worldwide could reach 81 million by 2040 as the "baby boom" generation ages.
There is no cure for Alzheimer's, which begins as mild memory loss and can progress quickly to complete loss of any ability to care for oneself.
The brain becomes clogged with proteins known as plaques and tangles of nerve fibers. And it shrinks.
"In extreme cases, the brain of an Alzheimer's patient might weigh half of what a normal person's brain does at peak health," Jack said.
Experts are looking for ways to prevent Alzheimer's from developing, or to slow its fatal progression. They are also looking for better ways to diagnose the disease in patients using imaging scans such as MRI or PET.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Tue Jul 18, 2006. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Alzheimer's drug Aricept not only improves memory and understanding in patients but appears to slow the characteristic shrinkage of the brain, researchers reported on Monday.
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI images of the brains of 131 patients with mild cognitive impairment showed less shrinkage of the hippocampus, a structure key to memory function, in patients who got the drug compared to those who got a placebo, researchers told a meeting.
"No drug has been shown to slow brain atrophy for patients with mild cognitive impairment," said Dr. Clifford Jack of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Aricept, which is known generically as donepezil, is marketed by Pfizer and Japan's Eisai Co. Ltd..
"Our study results seem to imply that donepezil does more than provide symptom relief -- it has an effect on a measure of brain health. Our findings also show that MRI measures can have usefulness in future studies of mild cognitive impairment."
Mild cognitive impairment can lead to Alzheimer's disease, but not always.
Jack's team found the effects only in people with the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE 4) gene, a genetic variation that has long been known to put people at higher risk of Alzheimer's.
Why is unclear, he said.
"One possibility is that APOE 4 carriers were more likely to have definite Alzheimer's disease than noncarriers in the study who appear to have symptoms of early Alzheimer's disease, yet turn out to have a different diagnosis when an autopsy is performed after death," he said.
Jack's study was presented to the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in Madrid, Spain.
An estimated 12 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease, but international researchers predict the number of people suffering from dementia worldwide could reach 81 million by 2040 as the "baby boom" generation ages.
There is no cure for Alzheimer's, which begins as mild memory loss and can progress quickly to complete loss of any ability to care for oneself.
The brain becomes clogged with proteins known as plaques and tangles of nerve fibers. And it shrinks.
"In extreme cases, the brain of an Alzheimer's patient might weigh half of what a normal person's brain does at peak health," Jack said.
Experts are looking for ways to prevent Alzheimer's from developing, or to slow its fatal progression. They are also looking for better ways to diagnose the disease in patients using imaging scans such as MRI or PET.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Nijmeegse Vierdaagse van start...
Eindhovens Dagblad
Het legioen wandelaars trekt dinsdag door de Betuwe. Foto ANP/Rick Nederstigt
17 Julie, 2006. NIJMEGEN - Met het vertrek van het laatste peloton wandelaars, voor de afstand van dertig kilometer, waren rond acht uur vanochtend alle 44.015 deelnemers aan de negentigste Nijmeegse Vierdaagse op pad. De start is volgens plan verlopen: wandelaars voor de vijftig kilometer vertrokken al om vier uur, om half zes gevolgd door de veertigkilometerlopers.
Het legioen wandelaars trekt dinsdag door de Betuwe en doet daarbij onder meer Bemmel, Arnhem en Elst aan. Al sinds vanmorgen vroeg worden wandelaars direct bij het passeren van de Waalbrug onthaald op feestelijk aangeklede straten met toeschouwers en muziek in dorpen als Lent en Bemmel.
Het Rode Kruis dat op vier posten aanwezig is, verwacht vooralsnog geen grote problemen met wandelaars vanwege de hoge temperatuur. De hulporganisatie denkt dat mensen zich goed hebben voorbereid. Bij de start vanochtend zijn alle lopers via beeldschermen gewaarschuwd zich vooral goed in te smeren en veel water te drinken. De organisatie verwacht dat de eerste wandelaars rond elf uur aankomen.
De deelname van 44.015 wandelaars betekent volgens de organisatie geen record. In 2003 telde het grootste wandelevenement ter wereld een recordaantal van 44.812 deelnemers. Onder de lopers zijn dit jaar ruim 7000 buitenlanders. In totaal zijn 66 nationaliteiten op de Vierdaagse vertegenwoordigd.
Het legioen wandelaars trekt dinsdag door de Betuwe. Foto ANP/Rick Nederstigt
17 Julie, 2006. NIJMEGEN - Met het vertrek van het laatste peloton wandelaars, voor de afstand van dertig kilometer, waren rond acht uur vanochtend alle 44.015 deelnemers aan de negentigste Nijmeegse Vierdaagse op pad. De start is volgens plan verlopen: wandelaars voor de vijftig kilometer vertrokken al om vier uur, om half zes gevolgd door de veertigkilometerlopers.
Het legioen wandelaars trekt dinsdag door de Betuwe en doet daarbij onder meer Bemmel, Arnhem en Elst aan. Al sinds vanmorgen vroeg worden wandelaars direct bij het passeren van de Waalbrug onthaald op feestelijk aangeklede straten met toeschouwers en muziek in dorpen als Lent en Bemmel.
Het Rode Kruis dat op vier posten aanwezig is, verwacht vooralsnog geen grote problemen met wandelaars vanwege de hoge temperatuur. De hulporganisatie denkt dat mensen zich goed hebben voorbereid. Bij de start vanochtend zijn alle lopers via beeldschermen gewaarschuwd zich vooral goed in te smeren en veel water te drinken. De organisatie verwacht dat de eerste wandelaars rond elf uur aankomen.
De deelname van 44.015 wandelaars betekent volgens de organisatie geen record. In 2003 telde het grootste wandelevenement ter wereld een recordaantal van 44.812 deelnemers. Onder de lopers zijn dit jaar ruim 7000 buitenlanders. In totaal zijn 66 nationaliteiten op de Vierdaagse vertegenwoordigd.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Autism more common than thought...
Health News-Reuters.com
Fri Jul 14, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - Autism and related disorders in Britain may be twice as widespread as previously thought, according to research published on Friday.
The study showed that 116 in every 10,000 children suffer from autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The previous estimate was 44 per 10,000.
"Prevalence of autism and related ASD is substantially higher than previously recognized," said Professor Gillian Baird, of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London.
"Whether the increase is due to better ascertainment, broadening diagnostic criteria, or increased incidence is unclear," she added.
The cause of autism, which usually develops before the age of 30 months, is unknown. In some cases it is apparent from birth. Children with the condition become withdrawn, self-absorbed, are often unable to communicate and do not follow normal patterns of development.
The condition is more prevalent among boys than girls.
ASDs are developmental disorders characterized by different degrees of impairment in communication and social skills and repetitive patterns of behavior.
The researchers calculated the new estimates by looking at cases of autism and ASDs in children aged nine and 10 in south London in 2001. They studied children with all forms of ASD and children with special educational needs.
The study published in The Lancet medical journal revealed 39 children per 10,000 had autism and 77 per 10,000 had ASD.
"Services in health, education and social care will need to recognize the needs of children with some form of ASD, who constitute one percent of the child population," Baird said in the study.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
Fri Jul 14, 2006. LONDON (Reuters) - Autism and related disorders in Britain may be twice as widespread as previously thought, according to research published on Friday.
The study showed that 116 in every 10,000 children suffer from autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The previous estimate was 44 per 10,000.
"Prevalence of autism and related ASD is substantially higher than previously recognized," said Professor Gillian Baird, of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London.
"Whether the increase is due to better ascertainment, broadening diagnostic criteria, or increased incidence is unclear," she added.
The cause of autism, which usually develops before the age of 30 months, is unknown. In some cases it is apparent from birth. Children with the condition become withdrawn, self-absorbed, are often unable to communicate and do not follow normal patterns of development.
The condition is more prevalent among boys than girls.
ASDs are developmental disorders characterized by different degrees of impairment in communication and social skills and repetitive patterns of behavior.
The researchers calculated the new estimates by looking at cases of autism and ASDs in children aged nine and 10 in south London in 2001. They studied children with all forms of ASD and children with special educational needs.
The study published in The Lancet medical journal revealed 39 children per 10,000 had autism and 77 per 10,000 had ASD.
"Services in health, education and social care will need to recognize the needs of children with some form of ASD, who constitute one percent of the child population," Baird said in the study.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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