G20 defuses talk of "currency war", no accord on debt

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Group of 20 nations declared on Saturday there would be no 'currency war' and deferred plans to set new debt-cutting targets in an indication of concern about the fragile state of the world economy.

Japan's expansive policies, which have driven down the yen, escaped criticism in a statement thrashed out in Moscow by financial policymakers from the G20, which groups developed and emerging markets and accounts for 90 percent of the world economy.

After late night talks, finance ministers and central bankers agreed on wording closer than expected to a joint statement issued last Tuesday by the Group of Seven rich nations backing market-determined exchange rates.

A draft communique seen by delegates on Friday had steered clear of the G7's call for economic policy not to be targeted at exchange rates. But the final version included a G20 commitment to refrain from competitive devaluations and stated monetary policy would be directed at price stability and growth.

"The language has been strengthened since our discussions last night," Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters. "It's stronger than it was, but it was quite clear last night that everyone around the table wants to avoid any sort of currency disputes."

The communique did not single out Japan for aggressive monetary and fiscal policies that have seen the yen drop 20 percent, a trend that may now continue.

"The market will take the G20 statement as an approval for what it has been doing -- selling of the yen," said Neil Mellor, currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon in London. "No censure of Japan means they will be off to the money printing presses."

The statement reflected a substantial, but not complete, endorsement of Tuesday's statement by the G7 nations - the United States, Japan, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Italy.

"We all agreed on the fact that we refuse to enter any currency war," French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters.

NO FISCAL TARGETS

The text also contained a commitment to credible medium-term fiscal strategy, but stopped short of setting specific goals.

A debt-cutting pact struck in Toronto in 2010 will expire this year if leaders fail to agree to extend it at a G20 summit of leaders in St Petersburg in September.

European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said he expected concrete debt targets to be agreed at the September meeting.

"We have a common view on the need to have a credible medium-term plans for fiscal consolidation, which is also essential so we have foundation for sustainable growth," he told Reuters.

The United States says it is on track to meet its Toronto pledge but argues that the pace of future fiscal consolidation must not snuff out demand. Germany and others are pressing for another round of binding debt-cutting goals.

Backing in the communique for the use of domestic monetary policy to support economic recovery reflected the U.S. Federal Reserve's commitment to monetary stimulus through quantitative easing, or QE, to promote recovery and jobs.

QE entails large-scale bond buying -- $85 billion a month in the Fed's case -- that helps economic growth but creates money, much of which has leaked into emerging markets, threatening to destabilize them.

That was offset in the communique by a commitment to minimize "negative spillovers" of the resulting financial flows that emerging markets fear may pump up asset bubbles and ruin their export competitiveness.

"Major developed nations (should) pay attention to their monetary policy spillover," Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao was quoted by state news agency Xinhua as saying in Moscow.

"Major developed countries' implementation of excessively relaxed currency policy has an influence on the world economy."

Russia, this year's chair of the G20, said the group had failed to reach agreement on medium-term budget deficit levels and also expressed concern about ultra-loose policies that it and other big emerging economies say could store up trouble for later.

Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said a rebalancing of global growth required more than an adjustment of exchange rates.

"Structural reforms in all countries, either with a positive or negative balance of payments, should play a bigger role," he said in an address to Saturday's talks.

The G20 put together a huge financial backstop to halt a market meltdown in 2009 but has failed to reach those heights since. At successive meetings, Germany has pressed the United States and others to do more to tackle their debts. Washington in turn has urged Berlin to do more to increase demand.

On currencies, the G20 text reiterated its commitment last November, "to move more rapidly toward mores market-determined exchange rate systems and exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying fundamentals, and avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments".

It said disorderly exchange rate movements and excess volatility in financial flows could harm economic and financial stability.

(Additional reporting by Gernot Heller, Lesley Wroughton, Maya Dyakina, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Jan Strupczewski, Lidia Kelly, Katya Golubkova, Jason Bush, Anirban Nag and Michael Martina. Writing by Douglas Busvine. Editing by Timothy Heritage/Mike Peacock)

Read More..

IHT Rendezvous: How Much Do You Trust Journalists?

LONDON — Another poll came out this week showing that in the hierarchy of trust, journalists figure near the bottom of the heap.

Some of us take a perverse pride in being down there with the money-changers and the harlots (actually, the latter sometimes rate rather highly in these surveys.)

The comforting theory is that if everybody hates us, we must be doing something right.

The Ipsos MORI poll published on Friday found that among 1,018 British respondents, only one-in-five trusted journalists to tell the truth — on a par with bankers and below real estate agents.

Bizarrely, almost 70 percent trusted television news presenters — ahead of priests and other clergymen.

The only small consolation for the derided scribes was that they came out just ahead of politicians. Only 18 percent of respondents believed politicians could be relied on to tell the truth.

Now, the results may just reflect the current state of British journalism, and indeed of British politics.

In the latest development in a long-running phone-hacking scandal, Scotland Yard on Wednesday arrested six more journalists who previously worked for Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World.

The scandal already led to a months-long inquiry by Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson, who concluded with an excoriating critique of the press as a whole for displaying “significant and reckless disregard for accuracy.”

Media-watchers believe, however, that in an era of rapid technological change, the trust issue goes wider than the morally dubious practices of some of the British red-top press.

As my colleague David Carr wrote at the height of the phone-hacking scandal last year: “Journalism’s ills don’t live exclusively on Fleet Street or stop at British shores.”

“Economic pressures have increased the urgency to make news and drive traffic, even as budgets have been cut and experienced news professionals tossed overboard,” David wrote.

He said part of the reason the public had lost confidence was that the product sometimes did not merit it. “If journalism is losing its way, that’s a story that needs to be told over and over,” he wrote.

An American student journal this week quoted Ron F. Smith, author of Ethics in Journalism, as saying the reputation of journalists was continually being questioned.

“Nearly every public opinion poll shows that people have lost respect for journalists and lost faith in the news media,” according to the introduction to his 2003 ethics manual.

Mariah Young, an aspiring journalist who writes for The Bullet, a student newspaper at Virginia’s University of Mary Washington, used the citation to ask whether journalists had lost a once cherished sense of ethics.

In an era of Twitter and the Internet, it was becoming harder for journalists to break news, papers to publish and people to trust the media, Ms. Young concluded.

There was similar soul-searching last month by John Lloyd, a veteran British commentator and Reuters columnist.

“The trend in a lot of the media is toward more scandal, more controversy and more opining,” he wrote, lamenting that news organizations wedded to objective reporting, investigation and rational analysis were now in a minority, “and a lot of them are finding it hard to make a living.”

He called for greater focus on long-term strategic issues such as global warming, dwindling resources and social change. “We should find some way of making this stuff part of a real global conversation — one that is vivid, comprehensible and more democratic,” he wrote.

In a comment to Mr. Lloyd, one anonymous news editor wrote, “Journalism has always attracted the self-righteous, opinionated and egotistical and with the new Facebook generation now in the workforce that bar is already at an all-time high.”

Has journalism really lost its way? Or does the public always get the press it deserves? And is the impact of citizen journalism a plus or a minus? Tell us what you think.

Read More..

Beyoncé's Life Is But a Dream: What to Serve at Your Viewing Party

TV Watch

By Aaron Parsley

02/16/2013 at 08:15 AM EST

Beyoncé in Life Is But a Dream

HBO

The "Countdown" has begun!

Beyoncé's HBO documentary, Life Is But a Dream, airs Saturday night (9 p.m. ET) – and we can't think of a better time or occasion to throw a "Party."

If you're hosting friends, you're going to need the following: dance moves, Kleenex and something to munch on (doing the "Uh-Oh," after all, works up an appetite).

Though we can't really help you with the first one and tissue is easy to come by, we do have suggestions on what to serve your guests on Beyoncé Night:

You can take the girl out of Texas but you can't take the Texas out of the girl, which is probably why Houston native is a fan of guacamole, a Tex-Mex staple. "I love avocado," she has said. "It's one of my healthy snack favorites." USA Today has her super-easy recipe.

It's no secret that Beyoncé sticks to lean protein like egg whites, turkey and Yellowtail sashimi and healthy snacks like edamame to keep her incredible figure, but we also know she likes to enjoy more indulgent meals. In her PEOPLE cover story as World's Most Beautiful Woman, the superstar revealed her perfect Sunday – and it includes pizza, red wine and watching HBO. Perfect for your party!

When she's on tour, her hospitality rider offers another option: juicy baked chicken legs, wings and breasts, heavily seasoned with fresh garlic, season salt, black and cayenne pepper. She also requests a turkey deli tray with assorted cheeses and veggies with low fat dip to snack on.

As for side dishes, why not make another favorite, her mom's "life-changing" green beans. "It is the most tasty, delicious dish," she says. "And it's green beans, so you don’t feel too guilty about eating them. They taste like steak!"

And if you're not into pizza or cooking on a Saturday night, there's always her favorite fast food: Popeyes chicken and biscuits.

Take your pick when it comes to desserts. Beyonce told Cosmo she loves butter pecan ice cream. She's also posted pictures of cake and other decadent sweets on her Tumblr blog, as well as healthy options like strawberries and watermelon.

Also featured in photos on her site? Booze. In addition to wine, Beyoncé, who was seen sipping champagne at a Grammys bash, apparently likes beer (at basketball games) and margaritas. What Texas girl wouldn't?

Have fun eating, drinking and watching Life Is But a Dream!

Read More..

UN warns risk of hepatitis E in S. Sudan grows

GENEVA (AP) — The United Nations says an outbreak of hepatitis E has killed 111 refugees in camps in South Sudan since July, and has become endemic in the region.

U.N. refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says the influx of people to the camps from neighboring Sudan is believed to be one of the factors in the rapid spread of the contagious, life-threatening inflammatory viral disease of the liver.

Edwards said Friday that the camps have been hit by 6,017 cases of hepatitis E, which is spread through contaminated food and water.

He says the largest number of cases and suspected cases is in the Yusuf Batil camp in Upper Nile state, which houses 37,229 refugees fleeing fighting between rebels and the Sudanese government.

Read More..

Buffett, Brazil's 3G team up for $23 billion Heinz buyout

(Reuters) - Warren Buffett and Brazilian financier Jorge Paulo Lemann are teaming up to buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $23.2 billion, in what could be the first step of a wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.

Analysts and people close to the deal said Heinz could be a good starting point to consolidate similar staple food companies, particularly given the larger ambitions of Lemann's private equity firm 3G Capital.

Including debt assumption, Heinz valued the transaction, which it called the largest in its industry's history, at $28 billion. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G will pay $72.50 per share, a 19 percent premium to the stock's previous all-time high.

Heinz shares initially rose slightly above the offer price, although Buffett cautioned he had no intention of raising his bid and the stock fell back below that mark by midday. The stock has been on a tear, almost doubling over the last four years, though analysts said the price seemed fair.

They also said the deal could be the first step in a broader wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.

"Maybe for the consumer staples group in general this may start some talk about consolidation. Even corporate entities are flush with cash, interest rates are low, it would seemingly make sense," Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.

Companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup - itself long seen as a potential Heinz merge partner - rose on the news.

Any acquisition could help Heinz further diversify and broaden its international profile. It already dominates the ketchup business, with a nearly 26 percent share of the global market and a 59 percent share domestically, according to Euromonitor International.

The company actually generates the largest portion of its sales in Europe, though its traditional North American consumer products business is the most profitable.

But its real growth engine has been the Asia/Pacific region, where sales increased nearly 11 percent in the last fiscal year, in part on demand for sauces and infant foods in China.

BUFFETT HUNTING GROWTH

The surprise purchase satisfies, at least in part, Buffett's hunt for growth through acquisition. He was frustrated in 2012 by the collapse of at least two unnamed deals in excess of $20 billion and said he might have to do a $30 billion deal this year to help fuel Berkshire's growth engine.

In a regulatory filing late on Thursday, Berkshire said it was providing $12.12 billion in equity, including common stock, warrants and preferred shares with a liquidation preference of $8 billion and a 9 percent dividend.

Barclays Capital's Jay Gelb the deal's valuation appeared high at 19 times Heinz's expected 2014 earnings per share, but that it would enhance Berkshire's consumer portfolio.

Berkshire Hathaway already has a variety of food assets, including Dairy Queen ice cream chain, chocolatier See's Candies and food distributor McLane. Buffett, famed for a love of cheeseburgers, joked he was well acquainted with Heinz's products already and that this was "my kind of deal."

It does represent an unusual teaming of Berkshire with private equity, though; historically, Buffett's purchases have been outright his own. He and 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann have known each other for years, and Buffett said Lemann approached him with the Heinz idea in December.

One Berkshire investor said he had mixed feelings about the deal because of the limited growth prospects domestically.

"We're a little hesitant on the staple companies because they don't have any leverage in the United States," said Bill Smead, chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. But at the same time, he said, Buffett was likely willing to accept a bond-like steady return even if it was not necessarily a "home run."

A second investor, Michael Yoshikami of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said he liked the purchase because it provided cash flow for other deals.

"This is a better use of cash than current money market instruments," said Yoshikami, the firm's CEO and chairman of its investment committee.

3G EXPANDS

For 3G, a little-known firm with Brazilian roots, the purchase is something of a natural complement to its investment in fast-food chain Burger King, which it acquired in late 2010 and in which it still holds a major stake.

Historically, 3G was more of an investor than an acquirer. Its biggest shareholdings include Delphi Automotive, Newell Rubbermaid and Anadarko Petroleum.

Lemann, a globe-trotting financier with Swiss roots, made his money in banking and gained notoriety for helping to pull together the deals that ultimately formed the beer brewing giant AB InBev. Forbes ranks him as the world's 69th-richest billionaire, with a fortune of $12 billion.

3G's Alex Behring runs the fund out of New York. He appeared at a Pittsburgh news conference on Thursday with Heinz management to discuss the deal - and to reassure anxious local crowds that the company will remain based there and will continue to support local philanthropy.

But at the same time, Behring said it was too soon to talk about cost cuts at the company. Unlike Berkshire, which is a hands-off operator, 3G is known for aggressively controlling costs at its operations.

PITTSBURGH ROOTS

Also to be determined is whether CEO Bill Johnson would stay on. Only the fifth chairman in the company's history, Johnson is widely credited with Heinz's recent strong growth.

"I am way too young to retire," he told the news conference, adding that discussions had not yet started with 3G over the details of Heinz's future management.

The company, known for its iconic ketchup bottles, Heinz 57 sauces as well as other brands including Ore-Ida frozen potatoes, has increased net sales for the last eight fiscal years in a row.

Heinz said the transaction would be financed with cash from Berkshire and 3G, debt rollover and debt financing from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire and 3G would be equal equity partners.

That would imply roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of new debt needs to be raised.

Heinz shares soared 19.9 percent, or $12.02, to $72.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

A week ago the stock hit a long-term high of $61 a share - near records it set in 1998 - having risen almost 5 percent this year and nearly 12 percent since the beginning of 2012.

The Heinz Endowments, a pillar in Pennsylvania philanthropy, said the sale of the company would have virtually no impact on their work. Heinz shares represent just over 1 percent of the endowment's $1.4 billion in holdings.

The deal is also a potential boon for new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, whose wife, Teresa, is the widow of H.J. Heinz Co heir John Heinz. Kerry's most recent financial disclosures from his time in the U.S. Senate show a position in Heinz shares of more than $1 million, although the precise size is unclear.

Centerview Partners and BofA Merrill Lynch were financial advisers to Heinz, with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP the legal adviser. Moelis & Company was financial adviser to the transaction committee of Heinz's board and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as its legal adviser.

Lazard served as lead financial adviser. J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo also served as financial advisers to the investment consortium. Kirkland & Ellis LLP was legal adviser to 3G Capital, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP was legal adviser to Berkshire Hathaway.

(Additional reporting by Olivia Oran and IFR's Stephen Carter in New York and Drew Singer in Pittsburgh; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Gevirtz)

Read More..

Meteorite Fragments Are Said to Rain Down on Siberia; 500 Injuries Reported

MOSCOW — Bright objects, apparently debris from a meteorite, streaked through the sky in western Siberia early on Friday, accompanied by a boom that damaged buildings across a vast area of territory. Around 500 people were reported to have been injured, most from breaking glass.

Emergency officials had reported no deaths by Friday afternoon but said that 14 people had been hospitalized.

Russian experts believe the blast was caused by a 10-ton meteor known as a bolide, which created a powerful shock wave when it reached the Earth’s atmosphere, the Russian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. Scientists believe the bolide exploded and evaporated at a height of around 20 to 30 miles above the Earth’s surface, but that small fragments may have reached the ground, the statement said.

The governor of the Chelyabinsk district reported that a search team had found an impact crater on the outskirts of a city about 50 miles west of Chelyabinsk. An official from the Interior Ministry told the Russian news agency Interfax that three large pieces of meteorite debris had been retrieved in the area and that 10,000 police officers are searching for more.

A small asteroid, known as 2012 DA14, is expected to pass close to Earth later on Friday, NASA reported on its Web site. Aleksandr Y. Dudorov, a physicist at Chelyabinsk State University, said it was possible that the meteorite may have been flying alongside the asteroid.

“What we witnessed today may have been the precursor of that asteroid,” said Mr. Dudorov in a telephone interview. Video clips from the city of Chelyabinsk showed an early morning sky illuminated by a brilliant flash, followed by the sound of breaking glass and multiple car alarms. Meteorites typically cause sonic booms as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere. On Friday, the force was powerful enough to shatter dishes and televisions in people’s homes.

“I saw a flash in the window, turned toward it and saw a burning cloud, which was surrounded by smoke and was going downward — it reminded me of what you see after an explosion,” said Maria Polyakova, 25, head of reception at the Park-City Hotel in Chelyabinsk, which is 950 miles east of Moscow. A video made outside a building in Chelyabinsk captured the astonished voices of witnesses who were uncertain what it was they had just seen.

“Maybe it was a rocket,” said one man, who rushed outside onto the street along with his co-workers when the object hit, far out of sight. A man named Artyom, who spoke to the Moscow FM radio station, said the explosion was enormous.

“I was sitting at work and the windows lit up and it was as if the whole city was illuminated, and I looked out and saw a huge streak in the sky and it was like that for two or three minutes and then I heard these noises, like claps,” he said. “And then all the dogs started barking.”

He said that there was a blast that caused balconies to shake and windows to shatter. He said he did not believe it was a meteorite. “We are waiting for a second piece, that is what people are talking about now,” the man said.

The object was visible from the city of Nizhniy Tagil, around 220 miles north of Chelyabinsk, where so many people called an emergency assistance number that it stopped working, the Novy Region news service reported.

The government response on Friday was huge. Seven airplanes were deployed to search for places where meteorites might have fallen and more than 20,000 people dispatched to comb the area on foot, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations. There were also 28 sites designated to monitor radiation. No unusual readings had been detected, the ministry reported.

The area around Chelyabinsk is also home to “dozens of defense factories, including nuclear factories and those involved in production of thermonuclear weapons,” said Vladimir Lipunov, an astrophysicist at the Shternberg State Astronomy Institute.

“No one needs to be told what the Urals is,” Mr. Lipunov told the NTV television station. “A second hit in the same area is unlikely and everything could have been much, much worse.”

Siberia stretches the length of Asia, and there is a history of meteor and asteroid showers there. In 1908 a powerful explosion was reported near the Tunguska River in central Siberia, its impact so great that trees were flattened for 25 miles around. Generations of scientists have studied that event, analyzing particles that were driven into the Earth’s surface as far away as the South Pole. A study published in the 1980s concluded the object weighed a million tons.

In the United States, NASA alluded to the Tunguska incident when it said that it was watching closely an asteroid 150 feet in diameter expected to whiz past Earth on Friday at a distance of around 17,200 miles, the closest for many decades.

In a statement on its Web site, NASA said on Friday that there was no risk that the asteroid, 2012 DA14, would collide with Earth. But it would pass within “the belt of satellites in geostationary orbit, which is 22,200 miles above Earth’s surface.”

The asteroid is set to pass Earth at around 2:25 p.m. Eastern time, NASA said. “At the time of closest approach, the asteroid will be over the eastern Indian Ocean, off Sumatra,” the agency said.

“Asteroid 2012 DA14 will not impact Earth, but if another asteroid of a size similar to that of 2012 DA14 were to impact Earth, it would release approximately 2.5 megatons of energy in the atmosphere and would be expected to cause regional devastation,” NASA said. The asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye, the agency added.

Referring to the “Tunguska Event,” NASA said the impact of an asteroid just smaller than 2012 DA14 “is believed to have flattened about 825 square miles of forest in and around the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.”

Viktor Klimenko contributed reporting from Moscow, and Alan Cowell from London.

Read More..

Oscar Pistorius Weeps in Court as Prosecutors Seek Murder Charges

By Andrea Billups

02/15/2013 at 08:15 AM EST

Oscar Pistorius

Antonie de Ras/Reuters/Landov

Oscar Pistorius, the South African track star known as the Blade Runner, put his head in his hands and wept Friday as prosecutors said they would seek a charge of premeditated murder in the shooting of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, the New York Times reports.

Pistorius, 26, appearing in a Pretoria courtroom, is accused of shooting Steenkamp, 30, whose body was found in a pool of blood in his gated home in Pretoria on Thursday. She was reportedly shot four times. He did not enter a plea on the murder charges and police said they would oppose any application for bail.

Pistorius rose to fame and became a national hero as a world-class sprinter while running in the London Olympics on carbon fiber blades. He was born without fibula bones and had amputations below the knees when he was an infant. He was the first Paralymic champion to run with able-bodied athletes in an Olympic games, making his debut last summer in London.

The murder charge has shocked South Africans who held the athlete up as a national hero. A grim Pistorious sat with his jaw clenched in the courtroom. At one point, his father Henke reached out to him, but Pistorius just walked on, teary-eyed.

Steenkamp had posted Valentine's Day messages of love on her Twitter account just hours before her death. "It should be a day of love for everyone," she Tweeted. Her family said they had no clue of trouble between the couple before her death.

Reeva Steenkamp and Oscar Pistorius

Gallo Images / REX USA

Police told reporters said they were interviewing witnesses, including neighbors. A 9 mm handgun was removed from the home by police.

Initial news accounts suggest that Pistorius, a gun enthusiast, had reportedly mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder. But police countered that story by disclosing previous police complaints of domestic problems at his home.

The court case will resume on Tuesday. Pistorius competed in the 2012 Olympics, running in the 400-meter race, where he reached the semi-finals. He also competed as a part of his country's 4x400 meter relay team. He has previously won two gold medals and a silver at the Paralympic Games, also held in London.

• With reporting by MIKE BEHR

Read More..

Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.

It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.

The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Science, add to the mounting evidence that minuscule amounts of medicines in rivers and streams can alter the biology and behavior of fish and other marine animals.

"I think people are starting to understand that pharmaceuticals are environmental contaminants," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey who is familiar with the study.

Calling their results alarming, the Swedish researchers who did the study suspect the little drugged fish could become easier targets for bigger fish because they are more likely to venture alone into unfamiliar places.

"We know that in a predator-prey relation, increased boldness and activity combined with decreased sociality ... means you're going to be somebody's lunch quite soon," said Gregory Moller, a toxicologist at the University of Idaho and Washington State University. "It removes the natural balance."

Researchers around the world have been taking a close look at the effects of pharmaceuticals in extremely low concentrations, measured in parts per billion. Such drugs have turned up in waterways in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere over the past decade.

They come mostly from humans and farm animals; the drugs pass through their bodies in unmetabolized form. These drug traces are then piped to water treatment plants, which are not designed to remove them from the cleaned water that flows back into streams and rivers.

The Associated Press first reported in 2008 that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans carries low concentrations of many common drugs. The findings were based on questionnaires sent to water utilities, which reported the presence of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones and other drugs.

The news reports led to congressional hearings and legislation, more water testing and more public disclosure. To this day, though, there are no mandatory U.S. limits on pharmaceuticals in waterways.

The research team at Sweden's Umea University used minute concentrations of 2 parts per billion of the anti-anxiety drug oxazepam, similar to concentrations found in real waters. The drug belongs to a widely used class of medicines known as benzodiazepines that includes Valium and Librium.

The team put young wild European perch into an aquarium, exposed them to these highly diluted drugs and then carefully measured feeding, schooling, movement and hiding behavior. They found that drug-exposed fish moved more, fed more aggressively, hid less and tended to school less than unexposed fish. On average, the drugged fish were more than twice as active as the others, researcher Micael Jonsson said. The effects were more pronounced at higher drug concentrations.

"Our first thought is, this is like a person diagnosed with ADHD," said Jonsson, referring to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. "They become asocial and more active than they should be."

Tomas Brodin, another member of the research team, called the drug's environmental impact a global problem. "We find these concentrations or close to them all over the world, and it's quite possible or even probable that these behavioral effects are taking place as we speak," he said Thursday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Most previous research on trace drugs and marine life has focused on biological changes, such as male fish that take on female characteristics. However, a 2009 study found that tiny concentrations of antidepressants made fathead minnows more vulnerable to predators.

It is not clear exactly how long-term drug exposure, beyond the seven days in this study, would affect real fish in real rivers and streams. The Swedish researchers argue that the drug-induced changes could jeopardize populations of this sport and commercial fish, which lives in both fresh and brackish water.

Water toxins specialist Anne McElroy of Stony Brook University in New York agreed: "These lower chronic exposures that may alter things like animals' mating behavior or its ability to catch food or its ability to avoid being eaten — over time, that could really affect a population."

Another possibility, the researchers said, is that more aggressive feeding by the perch on zooplankton could reduce the numbers of these tiny creatures. Since zooplankton feed on algae, a drop in their numbers could allow algae to grow unchecked. That, in turn, could choke other marine life.

The Swedish team said it is highly unlikely people would be harmed by eating such drug-exposed fish. Jonsson said a person would have to eat 4 tons of perch to consume the equivalent of a single pill.

Researchers said more work is needed to develop better ways of removing drugs from water at treatment plants. They also said unused drugs should be brought to take-back programs where they exist, instead of being flushed down the toilet. And they called on pharmaceutical companies to work on "greener" drugs that degrade more easily.

Sandoz, one of three companies approved to sell oxazepam in the U.S., "shares society's desire to protect the environment and takes steps to minimize the environmental impact of its products over their life cycle," spokeswoman Julie Masow said in an emailed statement. She provided no details.

___

Online:

Overview of the drug: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682050.html

Read More..

Stock futures dip on Europe, Japan growth data; Cisco weighs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures fell on Thursday in the wake of weaker-than-expected growth data from Europe and Japan and a disappointing outlook from technology bellwether Cisco Systems .

Though weakness in Europe has persisted over recent quarters, underwhelming economic growth data from the region and from Japan, which could impact global growth and U.S. corporate profits, may spur profit-taking in U.S. equities.

The French and German economies shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter of 2012, and a 0.6 percent contraction in the euro zone was the steepest for the bloc since the first quarter of 2009.

Japan's GDP shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, crushing expectations of a modest return to growth and adding weight to the new government's push for radical policy steps to revive growth.

The S&P 500 is up 6.6 percent so far this year, though a dearth of fresh incentives has kept trading thin over the past few sessions.

"We've had a real absence of news in the marketplace and any bit of information that suggests the recovery is not underway is probably being given more significance that it might have," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He said that following a mild climb on the S&P 500, traders were "cashing in a little bit."

Shrinking European economies translated to a 5-percent drop in revenue from the region for Cisco Systems, which reported its results Wednesday. The company's shares fell 1.6 percent in premarket trading.

S&P 500 futures fell 4 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 62 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 11 points.

H.J. Heinz Co shares jumped 20 percent in premarket trading after it said that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital will buy the company for $72.50 a share, or $28 billion including debt.

American Airlines and US Airways Group said they plan to merge in a deal that will form the world's biggest air carrier, with an equity valuation of about $11 billion. US Airways shares rose 1.3 percent in premarket trading.

Nvidia shares fell 1.5 percent in premarket trading after the chip maker's revenue outlook missed expectations on Wednesday, pointing to a slowing PC industry and slower production of tablets using its chips.

On the other hand, shares of the world's largest chip gear maker Applied Materials rose Wednesday after the closing bell following a better-than-expected earnings report and outlook.

Best Buy shares fell 2.8 percent in premarket trading; sources said on Wednesday the electronics retailer's founder may scrap a buyout bid and instead line up investors to take a minority position.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Read More..

Britain Says Equine Drug May Have Entered Food Chain

LONDON — A crisis over horse meat in European food products deepened Thursday when British officials said tests showed that a powerful equine drug, potentially harmful to human health, may have entered the food chain in small quantities.

Until now, the crisis had been seen primarily as an issue of fraud after products containing horse meat were labeled beef, with politicians insisting that, even if millions of products sold as beef contained up to 100 percent horse meat, food safety was not at issue.

But on Thursday came the first admission that a banned substance, phenylbutazone – known as bute – could have entered the food chain in horse meat.

The British Food Standards Agency said that it had checked the carcasses of 206 horses slaughtered in Britain between January 30 and February 7. “Of these, eight tested positive for the drug,” it said in a statement.

Because there is little demand for horse meat in Britain, the carcasses are thought to have been exported to France where they were likely to have been used by the meat industry. The British and French authorities were trying to trace the meat but as yet have not identified any products directly affected.

The scandal has already plunged the British food industry into crisis with millions of products being withdrawn from supermarket freezer counters, initially in Britain and Ireland. But other countries, including Sweden and Germany, have been affected too.

Officials in Britain tried to reassure the public.  "Horse meat containing phenylbutazone presents a very low risk to human health,” Britain’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, said in a statement Thursday.

"Phenylbutazone, known as bute, is a commonly used medicine in horses. It is also prescribed to some patients who are suffering from a severe form of arthritis. At the levels of bute that have been found, a person would have to eat 500- 600 100 one hundred percent horse meat burgers a day to get close to consuming a human’s daily dose,” she said.

“And it passes through the system fairly quickly, so it is unlikely to build up in our bodies,” she added.

"In patients who have been taking phenylbutazone as a medicine there can be serious side effects but these are rare. It is extremely unlikely that anyone who has eaten horse meat containing bute will experience one of these side effects."

The widening scandal began when beef products on sale in several European Union countries were found to contain horse meat. Suppliers have said that the questionable meat originated at processing plants in Romania.

Read More..

Newark mayor says beating, witness silence are “evil”

(Reuters) – Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Wednesday condemned the failure of witnesses to alert police after seeing a young man forced to strip naked and whipped over a $ 20 debt – violence revealed only after a cell phone video went viral on the Internet.

The two and a half minute video of the beating, which took place in Newark in August, got 40,000 views on YouTube before it was removed from the website, according to the Star-Ledger newspaper, which posted it on its own site.

“We have strong reason to believe there were others who saw this crime happen” but said nothing, never calling 911 or alerting police, the mayor said at a news conference on Wednesday to announce arrests in the case.

“In the face of evil, those who remain quiet are participants in that evil,” Booker said.

The video shows the victim complying with a man’s orders to strip naked, admit he owes $ 20 and repeatedly say “(It’s a) dog eat dog world.” The man then whips the victim, using a belt borrowed from another man, the video shows. Laughter from those watching the beating is heard throughout the video.

“This is not who we are. We are Newark, New Jersey. We do not tolerate this level of cruelty, of callous disregard for the dignity of humanity,” Booker said at the press conference.

Four people responsible for “this heinous, vicious, cruel crime” were recently apprehended and charged with robbery, assault and other crimes, Booker said.

Charged in the violence were Ahmad Holt, 22, who is believed to have carried out the whipping, Raheem Clark, 31, who is believed to have supplied the belt, Jamaar Grey, 23, accused as the cameraman, and Nicole Smith, 25, according to Booker’s office.

Newark, eight miles from Manhattan and New Jersey’s largest city, was once a thriving manufacturing center, but in recent decades it has battled an image of urban blight and high crime.

Since becoming mayor in 2006, Booker – a likely candidate for U.S. Senate next year – has made crime reduction a central priority. In March 2010, Newark experienced its first murder-free month since 1944.

But since then, amid cuts to the police force, crime has remained a significant problem in the city.

(Additional reporting by Paul Thomasch; Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Bernard Orr)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Newark mayor says beating, witness silence are “evil”
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/newark-mayor-says-beating-witness-silence-are-evil/
Link To Post : Newark mayor says beating, witness silence are “evil”
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

Kim Kardashian & Kanye West Involved in Security Breach at JFK

By Tim Nudd

02/14/2013 at 08:00 AM EST

Kim Kardashian and Kayne West

Splash News Online

Sorry, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. You'll have to endure the normal hassles of air travel, too.

The couple, returning from Brazil, were involved in a security breach at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday morning, when a TSA employee allowed them to skip a security checkpoint while transferring flights.

"An airline employee escorted the two travelers through a non-public area in order to provide expedited access to their domestic flight," a TSA spokesman said, according to New York's Daily News.

The spokesman said the employee was to blame – not Kardashian, 32, and West, 35.

The couple, who are expecting a baby, had returned from Carnival in Brazil and were transferring to a flight to Los Angeles. They made the connection but were forced to disembark and be screened privately, delaying the flight for an hour.

TMZ.com first reported the incident.

Read More..

Morning-after pill use up to 1 in 9 younger women

NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 9 younger women have used the morning-after pill after sex, according to the first government report to focus on emergency contraception since its approval 15 years ago.

The results come from a survey of females ages 15 to 44. Eleven percent of those who'd had sex reported using a morning-after pill. That's up from 4 percent in 2002, only a few years after the pills went on the market and adults still needed a prescription.

The increased popularity is probably because it is easier to get now and because of media coverage of controversial efforts to lift the age limit for over-the-counter sales, experts said. A prescription is still required for those younger than 17 so it is still sold from behind pharmacy counters.

In the study, half the women who used the pills said they did it because they'd had unprotected sex. Most of the rest cited a broken condom or worries that the birth control method they used had failed.

White women and more educated women use it the most, the research showed. That's not surprising, said James Trussell, a Princeton University researcher who's studied the subject.

"I don't think you can go to college in the United States and not know about emergency contraception," said Trussell, who has promoted its use and started a hot line.

One Pennsylvania college even has a vending machine dispensing the pills.

The morning-after pill is basically a high-dose version of birth control pills. It prevents ovulation and needs to be taken within a few days after sex. The morning-after pill is different from the so-called abortion pill, which is designed to terminate a pregnancy.

At least five versions of the morning-after pills are sold in the United States. They cost around $35 to $60 a dose at a pharmacy, depending on the brand.

Since it is sold over-the-counter, insurers generally only pay for it with a doctor's prescription. The new Affordable Care Act promises to cover morning-after pills, meaning no co-pays, but again only with a prescription.

The results of the study were released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's based on in-person interviews of more than 12,000 women in 2006 through 2010. It was the agency's first in-depth report on that issue, said Kimberly Daniels, the study's lead author.

The study also found:

—Among different age groups, women in their early 20s were more likely to have taken a morning-after pill. About 1 in 4 did.

—About 1 in 5 never-married women had taken a morning-after pill, compared to just 1 in 20 married women.

—Of the women who used the pill, 59 percent said they had done it only once, 24 percent said twice, and 17 percent said three or more times.

A woman who uses emergency contraception multiple times "needs to be thinking about a more regular form" of birth control, noted Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that does research on reproductive health.

Also on Thursday, the CDC released a report on overall contraception use. Among its many findings, 99 percent of women who've had sex used some sort of birth control. That includes 82 percent who used birth control pills and 93 percent whose partner had used a condom.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

Emergency contraception info: http://ec.princeton.edu/index.html

Read More..

Stock futures point to modest gains at open

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to slight gains at the open on Wednesday, suggesting the market would continue a recent advance that lifted benchmark indexes to multi-year highs.

Equities have been strong performers of late, buoyed largely by healthy growth in corporate earnings, with the S&P 500 gaining 6.5 percent so far this year. The Dow is about 1 percent from an all-time intraday high, reached in October 2007.

Those gains could leave the market vulnerable to a pullback as investors take profit amid a dearth of new trading catalysts. While analysts continue to see an upward bias in markets, recent daily moves have been small and trading volumes have been light, with the S&P near its highest since November 2007.

"This is a market that refuses to go down, and the trend suggests that we'll not only hit a new high on the Dow, but move well beyond it," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.

The S&P 500 was well over its 50-day moving average of 1,460.92, which was a sign the market was overbought, he said.

"A light-volume pullback should be expected and embraced at these levels," Sarhan said.

Industrial and construction shares will be in focus following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday, during which he called for a $50 billion spending plan to create jobs by rebuilding degraded roads and bridges. He also backed higher taxes for the wealthy.

Investors have cheered strength in recent company results, even as economic data, including recent reads on gross domestic product, have indicated weakening conditions.

Deere & Co reported earnings that beat expectations and raised its full-year profit outlook. After initially rallying in premarket trading, the stock turned 0.9 percent lower to $93.15.

S&P 500 futures rose 2.5 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 13 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 8 points.

Comcast Corp agreed late Tuesday to buy General Electric Co's remaining 49 percent stake in NBC Universal for $16.7 billion. Comcast jumped 8.9 percent to $42.43 in premarket trading while Dow component GE was up 3.1 percent to $23.27.

Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said Tuesday the company's search partnership with Microsoft Corp was not delivering the market share gains or the revenue boost that it should.

Companies scheduled to report quarterly results on Wednesday include MetLife Inc , Applied Materials and Whole Foods Market .

According to the latest Thomson Reuters data, of 353 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 70.3 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.

Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 5.3 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

Retail sales rose 0.1 percent in January, as expected, as tax increases and higher gasoline prices restrained spending. The data barely moved the futures market.

Also in economic news, business inventories are seen rising 0.3 percent in December, a repeat of the November increase. The data will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT).

U.S. stocks closed modestly higher Tuesday as investors awaited President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Read More..

IHT Rendezvous: Mario Draghi Takes the E.C.B.'s Message to Spain

MADRID—The European Central Bank and its president, Mario Draghi, want to ensure that their voices get heard beyond the financial district of Frankfurt.

But their efforts to travel around Europe and spread their message more directly to its citizens have ended up backfiring, at least when it comes to visiting Spain, one of the countries at the center of the Continent’s debt crisis.

Last May, the E.C.B. held one of its regular meetings in Barcelona, under the kind of police surveillance worthy of a city at war and in a convention center on the outskirts of the city, in order to shield Mr. Draghi and his fellow central bankers from anti-austerity street protests. About 7,500 police officers were deployed around Barcelona, with helicopters hovering above, while only a few hundred students gathered in the city center to protest spending cuts by the Spanish government in areas like health and education.

On Tuesday, Mr. Draghi was again in Spain, this time in Madrid to address lawmakers in Congress. The security was less fearsome, but the meeting was held behind closed doors, and Parliament did not provide the usual transcript of such an official session. As a result, regardless of what was said inside, Mr. Draghi’s visit ended up generating more controversy because of its format than its content.

Afterward, Spain’s opposition lawmakers lambasted the president of the Parliament, Jesús Posada, for using frequency-scrambling technology to block any cellphone transmissions within the chamber during Mr. Draghi’s session, to thwart the plans of some parliamentarians who had promised to send Twitter messages and upload videos to keep people informed about what Mr. Draghi was saying.

Valeriano Gómez, the spokesman on the economy for lawmakers from the main opposition group, the Socialist Party, said the restrictions surrounding Mr. Draghi’s appearance had done “no favor to the E.C.B., nor to the prestige of our chamber.” Other leftist lawmakers denounced the format of the event as a violation of parliamentary rules and an insult to democracy.

Mr. Draghi, meanwhile, later spoke to reporters to detail his views on the Spanish economy, while the E.C.B. also published the text of Mr. Draghi’s opening speech to Spanish lawmakers.

Asked about the lack of transparency, Mr. Draghi insisted that that he had not set the rules and would have had no problem speaking more openly before lawmakers if the Spanish Parliament had wanted. Given that videos of his session were eventually released by some frustrated lawmakers, Mr. Draghi concluded that, “I don’t believe anybody missed out on anything.”

Except perhaps Mr. Posada, the Parliament president, who may have hoped to see Mr. Draghi showing a bit more solidarity and helping to justify his communications strategy.

Read More..

Telenor ramps up investments to support shift to data

OSLO (Reuters) – Mobile telecoms firm Telenor expects to accelerate investments in data and digital services this year as customers flock to its higher margin products, it said on Wednesday.

Telenor, which has around 150 million customers in Europe and Asia, will continue to roll out its third generation (3G) service in Thailand and fibre network in Norway to take advantage of “exploding” demand, and could also invest in 3G services elsewhere in Asia and in Denmark.

“The world is going all out on data. There are new digital concepts on every corner. It will be all about data in the future,” Chief Executive Jon Fredrik Baksaas told Reuters.

“People are becoming more dependent on data access; I compare it to electricity, people will take it for granted,” Baksaas said after the firm published quarterly results and released its initial 2013 guidance.

The transition to data, particularly in Thailand and Norway, the firm’s biggest markets, could push capital spending to between 12 and 14 percent of revenues this year from 12 percent in 2012, Baksaas said.

The shift to data, along with smaller losses in India, will allow Telenor to improve margins this year and the firm sees its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin widening to 34 percent from 32 percent.

The margin increase and a record 20 billion crown ($ 3.64 billion) cash flow in 2012 gives Telenor ample cash and it plans to pay a record dividend of 6 crowns per share after the previous year’s 5 crowns, it said.

UPSIDE

“We believe few investors will argue with the company’s decision to accelerate investment to support growth and the excellent returns in robust markets where demand for smartphones and data is accelerating,” Nomura said in a note to clients.

“The case for generating a positive return on this type of investment is more secure,” it said, maintaining a buy rating on the stock.

At 0942 GMT, Telenor shares were 2.2 percent higher at 121.7 crowns, outperforming a 0.1 percent fall by the broader telecom index.

Still, Morgan Stanley said the upside was limited given that Telenor has outperformed the telecom index by 30 percent over the past year and its valuation at 6 times it EBITDA puts it above the sector’s ratio of 5.

Fourth-quarter results, though short of expectations, had only a muted impact on valuation, particularly as they contained several one-off items, analysts said.

Analysts said they would be watching out for further clarity on Telenor’s Indian operations, as it may still seek to buy further licenses, or plans for its stake in Russia-focused Vimpelcom.

(Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters and Helen Massy-Beresford)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Telenor ramps up investments to support shift to data
Url Post: http://www.news.fluser.com/telenor-ramps-up-investments-to-support-shift-to-data/
Link To Post : Telenor ramps up investments to support shift to data
Rating:
100%

based on 99998 ratings.
5 user reviews.
Author: Fluser SeoLink
Thanks for visiting the blog, If any criticism and suggestions please leave a comment

Read More..

One Direction, Taylor Swift Among Kids' Choice Awards Nominees

By Andrea Billups

02/13/2013 at 08:50 AM EST

One Direction, (from left) Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Harry Styles

Jon Furniss/AP

Time to get slimed!

Wednesday brought the nominations for Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards, set to air March 23 with Josh Duhamel as host.

For favorite musical group, nominees include Big Time Rush, Bon Jovi, Maroon 5 and One Direction. Favorite Song nominees include: "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, "Gagnan Style" by PSY, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift, and "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction.

"We are delighted with our nominations for the Kids' Choice Awards," One Direction's Harry Styles said in a statement to PEOPLE. "It was amazing to perform 'What Makes You Beautiful' at last year’s show. Thank you as always to our incredible fans and supporters!"

Voting opens in 22 categories on nick.com on Thursday, allowing for a little Valentine's Day love for your favorite TV actors, musicians, sports and film stars. New categories added this year include favorite app and favorite villain.

Voters may also mark their ballots on Facebook using embeddable wall posts and on Twitter with custom hashtags.

This year mark's Nickelodeon's 26th annual awards. The show will be broadcast live from the University of Southern California's Galen Center on March 23, starting at 8 p.m. ET, on Nickelodeon, of course.

Read More..

Study questions kidney cancer treatment in elderly

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.

Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk of developing heart problems or dying of other causes, doctors found.

After five years, 24 percent of those who had surgery had died, compared to only 13 percent of those who chose monitoring. Just 3 percent of people in each group died of kidney cancer.

The study only involved people 66 and older, but half of all kidney cancers occur in this age group. Younger people with longer life expectancies should still be offered surgery, doctors stressed.

The study also was observational — not an experiment where some people were given surgery and others were monitored, so it cannot prove which approach is best. Yet it offers a real-world look at how more than 7,000 Medicare patients with kidney tumors fared. Surgery is the standard treatment now.

"I think it should change care" and that older patients should be told "that they don't necessarily need to have the kidney tumor removed," said Dr. William Huang of New York University Langone Medical Center. "If the treatment doesn't improve cancer outcomes, then we should consider leaving them alone."

He led the study and will give results at a medical meeting in Orlando, Fla., later this week. The research was discussed Tuesday in a telephone news conference sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and two other cancer groups.

In the United States, about 65,000 new cases of kidney cancer and 13,700 deaths from the disease are expected this year. Two-thirds of cases are diagnosed at the local stage, when five-year survival is more than 90 percent.

However, most kidney tumors these days are found not because they cause symptoms, but are spotted by accident when people are having an X-ray or other imaging test for something else, like back trouble or chest pain.

Cancer experts increasingly question the need to treat certain slow-growing cancers that are not causing symptoms — prostate cancer in particular. Researchers wanted to know how life-threatening small kidney tumors were, especially in older people most likely to suffer complications from surgery.

They used federal cancer registries and Medicare records from 2000 to 2007 to find 8,317 people 66 and older with kidney tumors less than 1.5 inches wide.

Cancer was confirmed in 7,148 of them. About three-quarters of them had surgery and the rest chose to be monitored with periodic imaging tests.

After five years, 1,536 had died, including 191 of kidney cancer. For every 100 patients who chose monitoring, 11 more were alive at the five-year mark compared to the surgery group. Only 6 percent of those who chose monitoring eventually had surgery.

Furthermore, 27 percent of the surgery group but only 13 percent of the monitoring group developed a cardiovascular problem such as a heart attack, heart disease or stroke. These problems were more likely if doctors removed the entire kidney instead of just a part of it.

The results may help doctors persuade more patients to give monitoring a chance, said a cancer specialist with no role in the research, Dr. Bruce Roth of Washington University in St. Louis.

Some patients with any abnormality "can't sleep at night until something's done about it," he said. Doctors need to say, "We're not sticking our head in the sand, we're going to follow this" and can operate if it gets worse.

One of Huang's patients — 81-year-old Rhona Landorf, who lives in New York City — needed little persuasion.

"I was very happy not to have to be operated on," she said. "He said it's very slow growing and that having an operation would be worse for me than the cancer."

Landorf said her father had been a doctor, and she trusts her doctors' advice. Does she think about her tumor? "Not at all," she said.

___

Online:

Kidney cancer info: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/kidney-cancer

and http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/kidney

Study: http://gucasym.org

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Read More..

Stock futures dip before Obama speech, Coca-Cola shares off

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures dipped in low volume on Tuesday, hovering near multi-year highs as traders awaited President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.

The economy will be one of the main themes of Obama's speech at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT Wednesday). Investors will listen for any clues on a deal with Republicans in Congress to avert automatic spending cuts due to take effect March 1.

"Things are really quiet, waiting to see what the marching orders are for the next four years," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

Equities were mostly flat on Monday but the trend for the S&P 500, after six straight weeks of gains, has been upward. The index is up 6.4 percent so far this year.

S&P 500 futures fell less than 1 point and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures dipped 4 point and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 3 points.

Coca-Cola Co shares dipped 0.5 percent to $38.42 in premarket trading after the world's largest soft drink maker reported quarterly earnings that were slightly better than expected as strength in emerging markets offset a decline in its European business.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber shares fell 1.9 percent in premarket trading after it posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit but cut its 2013 forecast due to weakness in the European automotive market.

Fossil Inc shares rose 3.5 percent after the fashion accessory maker and retailer reported a rise in quarterly profit.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> fell 21.81 points, or 0.16 percent, to 13,971.16. The S&P 500 <.spx> dipped 0.92 points, or 0.06 percent, to 1,517.01 and the Nasdaq Composite <.ixic> edged down 1.87 points, or 0.06 percent, to 3,192.00.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)

Read More..

The Female Factor: Dancing on Behalf of a Billion

LONDON — Anyone who happens to be passing through Westminster at 11 o’clock on Valentine’s Day may — if things go as planned — catch an unusual glimpse of a few members of Parliament gathered somewhere in the shadow of Big Ben, dancing along the footpath.

The actress Thandie Newton will be leading members of the public and a few politicians in a flash mob dance on Thursday to mark the One Billion Rising day of action, highlighting violence against women. Rossana Abueva, the British event’s organizer, says she hopes a couple of baronesses from the House of Lords will also take part.

Some participants have been rehearsing moves for the newly composed anthem, “Break the Chain,” for weeks, but the occasion is meant to be inclusive. “People who don’t know the moves can sway,” Ms. Abueva said. Demonstrators will release 109 red balloons in memory of the 109 women killed in Britain last year as a result of male violence.

Elsewhere in London, volunteer dance troupes will be popping up in museums, at a spot near the London Eye, at theaters and at train stations, performing bursts of flamenco and contemporary dance, wearing One Billion Rising T-shirts, and trying to educate passers-by about the scale of domestic violence in Britain and abroad. Dancers aim to draw attention to the United Nations’ assessment that one in three women in the world suffers some kind of violence at the hands of men during her lifetime (a figure they have loosely rounded down to a billion).

While supermarket shelves bend beneath the weight of heart-shaped, praline-filled chocolates, campaigners internationally have co-opted Feb. 14 to highlight the global problem of violence against women. If the link between Valentine’s Day and violence seems somewhat puzzling, organizers explain that campaigning against violence toward women is a good way of showing women you like them.

The initiative comes from Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues,” and aims to be a “feminist tsunami.” There will be events all over Britain, as well as 190 countries across the world, places as varied as the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Philippines and the United States. In India, the raw anger over the gang rape of a 23-year-old physical therapy student has given extra energy to the campaign. In Los Angeles, Jane Fonda will be dancing; Yoko Ono is also on board.

Ms. Ensler describes dancing as “a way of being very powerful and a little dangerous without being violent.” Promotional material promises that by participating in the Valentine’s Day dance, women “will join in solidarity, purpose and energy and shake the world into a new consciousness,” adding that dance is “contagious, and it spreads quickly.”

It is easy to feel dubious about whether this optimistic vision of the transformative power of dance will take off in London, which remains at heart reserved and staid in character. It is possible that, rather than making the not-totally-obvious connection between flash mobs and the complex issue of violence against women, most bystanders here will not be shaken into a new consciousness but will simply be bemused by the spectacle.

Organizers have thought about this. While they are cheerfully enthusiastic about the impact of celebratory dancing, there is also a drive to make sure the occasion ends up being more than an ephemeral day of protest, and a determination to combine the event with something practical and more enduring. Campaigners in most participating countries are also attempting to improve legislation protecting women against violence.

A Labour member of Parliament, Stella Creasy, who will be dancing outside the House of Commons on Thursday morning, has joined colleagues from all parties to organize a debate in Parliament later that day, calling for compulsory sex and relationship education in British schools.

“We need to do more than simply wring our hands and say violence against women is wrong. We need to do something about it,” Ms. Creasy said. After workshops held here in the autumn by the One Billion Rising campaign, there was agreement that a concerted effort to improve and expand sex education in Britain would be a pragmatic step toward preventing future violence.

The motion calls on the British government to “make personal, social and health education, including a zero-tolerance approach to violence and abuse in relationships, a requirement in schools.”

Currently, sex education does not embrace any discussion of relationships, and parents are at liberty to request that their children opt out of classes. Campaigners are proposing that lessons should include mandatory discussion not only of biology, but of relationships, discussing with children what kind of behavior is and is not acceptable, spelling out that there should be zero tolerance of violence in relationships.

Explaining why the vote matters, the campaign Web site says recent academic research has uncovered “worrying trends of increased sexual exploitation of young people by their peers.” It cites a 2010 YouGov poll that found that almost a third, or 29 percent, of 16- to 18-year-old girls said they had been “subjected to unwanted sexual touching at school,” as well as a finding by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children that a third of girls in relationships ages 13 to 17 had “experienced physical or sexual violence in relationships.”

The debate will not have the power to bring about legislation, but campaigners hope it will help focus politicians’ minds on a part of the curriculum that is due to be reviewed.

Will dance protests and the global day of action make a difference? The answer may be clearer on Friday. But as a romantic gesture, 10 minutes’ participation in a flash mob is certainly more original than a dozen roses.

Amelia Gentleman is a journalist with The Guardian. Katrin Bennhold is on sabbatical leave.

Read More..

The Bachelor's Sean Lowe Blogs About His Dates in St. Croix

Sean Lowe and Tierra on The Bachelor

Sean Lowe is the star of season 17 of The Bachelor, which airs Mondays on ABC. The hunky Dallas businessman and entrepreneur is blogging about his romantic journey for PEOPLE.com.

I'd developed really strong feelings for the final six women on The Bachelor – and I could hardly wait to take them to St. Croix. Our previous week in Canada was great! My heart and head were back on track, and I felt as though the women put their focus back on me. And because of that, each of my relationships grew stronger.

But it was time to leave the cold weather behind and move on to some sandy beaches. This was a huge week for all of us because I would have to decide whose family I was ready to meet.

I had three one-on-one dates and one group date in St. Croix. I decided to give the one-on-one dates to women I had questions for – and the group date went to the women whose hometowns I was ready to visit.

My first date was with AshLee, who was a front-runner in my mind since we visited the theme park back in Los Angeles. She is sweet, loving and compassionate, and I knew she truly wanted to give her heart over to me. But I was still left with doubts about our relationship because I didn't seem to have as much fun with her as I did with the other women.

Given her traumatic childhood, it's understandable why AshLee has control issues. But I think that was preventing her from really letting go and allowing herself to have fun. I really want a partner that I can laugh uncontrollably with and someone who can make even mundane tasks feel exciting. I hoped AshLee had that quality in her, or that I brought it out in her, and I was ready to find out.

After taking the catamaran to the island, AshLee decided to take one for the team and tell me everything I needed to know about Tierra. Until that point, I had only heard the women say they didn't like Tierra, but they never gave specific reasons. It was actually a huge relief to hear all that AshLee had to say. It took a lot of courage for her to bring it up.

That evening, we ended our date with an oceanside dinner where she screamed her love for me while standing on a chair. For the first time, I felt like AshLee was finally letting go and stepping out of her comfort zone for me. I left that date thinking once again that AshLee might be the woman for me.

Connecting with Tierra

Next was my long-awaited date with Tierra. I had a lot of fun with her that day walking around the streets of St. Croix, but I couldn't shake what AshLee had told me. That night, as we had a romantic dinner in an old sugar mill, I tried to really figure out what my feelings were for Tierra, and if I could see a future for us.

I was nervous that if I ended up with Tierra, drama would follow her into our everyday lives. But when she told me she was falling in love with me, I softened a bit. She was always kind when she was with me, and I wanted to believe that the drama was circumstantial and that once she wasn't around a bunch of girls dating the same guy, she would be drama-free. I still ended the evening with questions, but remembering that my connection with Tierra was strong.

Group Date

The following day was the group date with Des, Lindsay and Catherine. I didn't have a lot of questions for these three women. They all have one thing in common: I always have fun with them. Since the beginning I've said that I want to marry my best friend, and they definitely fit that criterion.

We spent the day traveling and touring the island in a Jeep. At the end of the day, I really didn't know who I would give the rose to because they were all so deserving. But I decided to give it to Lindsay because she was so supportive, patient and encouraging throughout this entire journey.

My last date of the week was with Lesley. She was another person who fit the best-friend criteria, but I needed to see more from her. Lesley had a wall up and I always felt like she couldn't be completely vulnerable with me.

Our date was fun, but I needed more than fun. I desperately wanted to see her open up emotionally and allow me to see her true feelings, but that never happened. I was shocked to hear her say on TV that she loved me, and I was left confused as to why she didn't tell me that during our date. Had she told me, it could have changed everything.

Sisterly Advice

I flew my sister, Shay, to St. Croix for her birthday. She loves the show (she signed me up for The Bachelorette!), and I thought it would be a cool present for her. She is also a great judge of character and she knows me better than anyone else.

My sister's advice before I left Dallas for L.A. was to avoid the girl whom drama surrounded. After hearing everything that AshLee had to say about Tierra, I thought it would be a good idea to have my sister sit down and visit with Tierra so I could get her opinion.

I had no idea what I was walking into upon entering the women's suite. I was not aware of the big blowout AshLee and Tierra just had. I found Tierra crying on her bed with her head in her hands. I had already figured by this point that Tierra was not the woman I was going to marry, so when I saw how distraught she was, I knew I had to end it right then and there.

I still believe Tierra has more good in her than people see, but I also recognize that she doesn't have the maturity or social skills necessary to make it on The Bachelor.

When it came time to send someone home at the rose ceremony, I felt confident in my decision. As much as I enjoyed spending time with Lesley, I knew I had to send her home because she never allowed herself to open up emotionally.

I was sad to see Lesley leave, but I felt so confident in my final four. Knowing hometown dates were right around the corner, I was incredibly excited. I loved bringing Emily home to meet my family, and it changed everything for me, so I had really high hopes for the coming week. On to hometowns!

Thanks for watching!
Sean

Read More..

Pope shows lifetime jobs aren't always for life

The world seems surprised that an 85-year-old globe-trotting pope who just started tweeting wants to resign, but should it be? Maybe what should be surprising is that more leaders his age do not, considering the toll aging takes on bodies and minds amid a culture of constant communication and change.

There may be more behind the story of why Pope Benedict XVI decided to leave a job normally held for life. But the pontiff made it about age. He said the job called for "both strength of mind and body" and said his was deteriorating. He spoke of "today's world, subject to so many rapid changes," implying a difficulty keeping up despite his recent debut on Twitter.

"This seemed to me a very brave, courageous decision," especially because older people often don't recognize their own decline, said Dr. Seth Landefeld, an expert on aging and chairman of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Age has driven many leaders from jobs that used to be for life — Supreme Court justices, monarchs and other heads of state. As lifetimes expand, the woes of old age are catching up with more in seats of power. Some are choosing to step down rather than suffer long declines and disabilities as the pope's last predecessor did.

Since 1955, only one U.S. Supreme Court justice — Chief Justice William Rehnquist — has died in office. Twenty-one others chose to retire, the most recent being John Paul Stevens, who stepped down in 2010 at age 90.

When Thurgood Marshall stepped down in 1991 at the age of 82, citing health reasons, the Supreme Court justice's answer was blunt: "What's wrong with me? I'm old. I'm getting old and falling apart."

One in 5 U.S. senators is 70 or older, and some have retired rather than seek new terms, such as Hawaii's Daniel Akaka, who left office in January at age 88.

The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix, who just turned 75, recently said she will pass the crown to a son and put the country "in the hands of a new generation."

In Germany, where the pope was born, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is 58, said the pope's decision that he was no longer fit for the job "earns my very highest respect."

"In our time of ever-lengthening life, many people will be able to understand how the pope as well has to deal with the burdens of aging," she told reporters in Berlin.

Experts on aging agreed.

"People's mental capacities in their 80s and 90s aren't what they were in their 40s and 50s. Their short-term memory is often not as good, their ability to think quickly on their feet, to execute decisions is often not as good," Landefeld said. Change is tougher to handle with age, and leaders like popes and presidents face "extraordinary demands that would tax anybody's physical and mental stamina."

Dr. Barbara Messinger-Rapport, geriatrics chief at the Cleveland Clinic, noted that half of people 85 and older in developed countries have some dementia, usually Alzheimer's. Even without such a disease, "it takes longer to make decisions, it takes longer to learn new things," she said.

But that's far from universal, said Dr. Thomas Perls, an expert on aging at Boston University and director of the New England Centenarians Study.

"Usually a man who is entirely healthy in his early 80s has demonstrated his survival prowess" and can live much longer, he said. People of privilege have better odds because they have access to good food and health care, and tend to lead clean lives.

"Even in the 1500s and 1600s there were popes in their 80s. It's remarkable. That would be today's centenarians," Perls said.

Arizona Sen. John McCain turned 71 while running for president in 2007. Had he won, he would have been the oldest person elected to a first term as president. Ronald Reagan was days away from turning 70 when he started his first term as president in 1981; he won re-election in 1984. Vice President Joe Biden just turned 70.

In the U.S. Senate, where seniority is rewarded and revered, South Carolina's Strom Thurmond didn't retire until age 100 in 2002. Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia was the longest-serving senator when he died in office at 92 in 2010.

Now the oldest U.S. senator is 89-year-old Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey. The oldest congressman is Ralph Hall of Texas who turns 90 in May.

The legendary Alan Greenspan was about to turn 80 when he retired as chairman of the Federal Reserve in 2006; he still works as a consultant.

Elsewhere around the world, Cuba's Fidel Castro — one of the world's longest serving heads of state — stepped down in 2006 at age 79 due to an intestinal illness that nearly killed him, handing power to his younger brother Raul. But the island is an example of aged leaders pushing on well into their dotage. Raul Castro now is 81 and his two top lieutenants are also octogenarians. Later this month, he is expected to be named to a new, five-year term as president.

Other leaders who are still working:

—England's Queen Elizabeth, 86.

—Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz al-Saud, king of Saudi Arabia, 88.

—Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, emir of Kuwait, 83.

—Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, 79.

__

Associated Press writers Paul Haven in Havana, Cuba; David Rising in Berlin; Seth Borenstein, Mark Sherman and Matt Yancey in Washington, and researcher Judy Ausuebel in New York contributed to this report.

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Read More..

Stock futures higher in low volume, Fed's Yellen to speak

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were set to open little changed on Monday as investor scrambled to find catalysts for trading, while low volume could make trading volatile and exaggerate moves.

Upbeat U.S. and Chinese data last week helped extend the winning streak of the S&P 500 index to six weeks. The benchmark is up 6.4 percent so far this year after a steep rally in January that has stalled as the S&P and Dow industrials near record highs.

No economic data or major earnings reports are scheduled, but Federal Reserve Vice Chair Janet Yellen is due to speak about the economic recovery at 1 p.m.

Technical indicators are "looking very good" and could give the market a floor Monday, according to Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

He said the market will pay attention to Yellen's speech, but he doesn't expect any deviation from her traditionally dovish monetary policy stance.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.6 point but were slightly below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 29 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 1.6 points.

Google shares dipped 0.8 percent in premarket trading after it said in a filing former chief executive Eric Schmidt is selling roughly 42 percent of his stake in the Internet search company, a move that could potentially net him $2.51 billion.

Celgene Corp shares rose 1.7 percent in premarket trading to $101.80 after U.S. regulators approved its new drug for patients with multiple myeloma whose condition worsened after being treated with other cancer drugs.

US Airways shares gained 2 percent to $15.04 as people familiar with the matter said an $11 billion merger with AMR Corp appeared closer. The deal would create the world's largest airline by passenger traffic.

Opposition grew to the $24.4 billion buyout of Dell Inc , the No. 3 personal computer maker, as three of the largest investors joined Southeastern Asset Management on Friday in raising objections. Dell said in a regulatory filing it had considered many strategic options before opting to go private in a buyout led by Chief Executive Michael Dell.

Loews Corp could be hit after the hotels, energy and financial services conglomerate reported a fourth-quarter loss. CNA Financial Corp , its largest holding, suffered losses linked to superstorm Sandy.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)

Read More..