Israel and Palestinians cautious as Kerry extends peace bid
JERUSALEM: US secretary of state John Kerry extended his Middle East peace mission on Saturday, shuttling between Jerusalem and Amman for more talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on reviving their stalled negotiations.
However, officials on both the feuding sides played down prospects of the bustle bringing about any imminent diplomatic breakthrough that would restart the talks.
Cancelling a trip to Abu Dhabi, Kerry flew from Jerusalem to the Jordanian capital for a second meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He then returned to Jerusalem to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a third time.
Early in the day, an Israeli official said Kerry's visit could yield an announcement that Israeli and Palestinian delegates would meet under US and Jordanian auspices.
But as Kerry headed into a late dinner meeting with Netanyahu and key advisers, a member of Netanyahu's inner circle, civil defence minister Gilad Erdan, sounded less upbeat in a television interview.
Asked whether new direct talks with the Palestinians might be imminent, Erdan told Israel's Channel Two: "To my regret, no, as of now."
"To the best of my understanding, Abu Mazen (Abbas) is still demanding the same preconditions, which we have no intention of meeting," Erdan said.
Peacemaking broke down in 2010 in a dispute over Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want for a future independent state.
Abbas has said that, for new talks to be held, Netanyahu must freeze the settlements and recognize the West Bank's boundary before its capture by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war as the basis for the future Palestine's border.
Israel, seeking to keep settlement blocs under any peace accord, balks at those terms.
Shuttle diplomacy
State department officials said Abbas and Kerry had met privately for about two hours at Abbas's residence in Amman before advisers joined them.
"US efforts are continuing (but) until now no results that can lead to the resumption of negotiations," a Palestinian source, briefed by officials on the talks, told Reuters.
US officials have compared his shuttle diplomacy to Henry Kissinger's Middle East peace efforts in the 1970s.
A senior state department official said Kerry was prepared to "put in the leg-work", even if it meant another meeting with Abbas before his scheduled departure for Asia on Sunday.
However, Kerry ? now on his fifth visit as a peace broker to the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate ? has said he would not have returned to the region so soon if he did not believe he could make progress. He has been guarded about his plans to break the impasse, while warning time is running out.
He is keen to clinch a deal to resume talks before the United Nations General Assembly, which has already granted de facto recognition to a Palestinian state, convenes in September.
Netanyahu is concerned that the Palestinians, in the absence of direct peace talks, could use the UN session as a springboard for further statehood moves circumventing Israel.
With the Middle East engulfed in turmoil from protests in Egypt to the Syrian civil war, which are spilling into neighbouring countries, Kerry has said it is time for "hard decisions" by Israel and the Palestinians.
"It is urgent because time is the enemy of a peace process," he said in Kuwait last week. "The passage of time allows a vacuum to be filled by people who don't want things to happen."
State department officials believe the sides will return to negotiations once there is an agreement on confidence-building measures ? such as a partial Israeli amnesty for Palestinian security prisoners ? and a formula for fresh talks.
As an incentive for talks, Kerry is also working on a $4 billion economic plan led by ex-British prime minister Tony Blair, which would channel new investments in Palestinian areas via the private sector to boost jobs and economic growth.
June 29, 2013 ? University Hospitals (UH) Eye Institute will be one of the first medical centers in the United States to offer the Argus? II Retinal Prosthesis System ("Argus II").
The Argus II is the first and only "bionic eye" to be approved in countries throughout the world, including the U.S. It is used to treat patients with late stage retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Argus II was developed by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., located near Los Angeles.
In preparation for the launch of Argus II later this year, implanting centers, including UH, will soon begin to accept consultations for patients with RP. UH is one of a select number of medical centers in 12 major markets in the nation, and the only one in Cleveland and the state of Ohio, chosen by Second Sight to offer the Argus II, which received FDA approval earlier this year.
Argus II works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera, housed in the patient's glasses, into a series of small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. Patients then learn to interpret these visual patterns thereby regaining some visual function.
"This is a remarkable breakthrough," said Suber S. Huang, MD, MBA, Director, UH Eye Institute's Center for Retina and Macular Disease, who also served as the Independent Medical Safety Monitor for clinical trials of the system and gave the summary closing to the FDA Ophthalmic devices panel.
"The system offers a profound benefit for people who are blind from RP and who currently have no therapy available to them. Argus II allows patients to reclaim their independence and improve their lives."
RP is a rare inherited, degenerative eye disease that often results in profound vision loss to the level of bare light perception or no light perception. It affects nearly 100,000 Americans. Noted Cleveland businessman and professional sports owner Gordon Gund is blind from this disease.
"We are thrilled that several of the nation's top hospitals will be the first to offer Argus II to patients in the U.S.," said Brian Mech, Vice President of Business Development, Second Sight. "After an intensive and difficult selection process, these sites were chosen for their cutting-edge approach to medicine and unparalleled commitment to patient care. We are confident that RP patients seeking treatment at these centers will benefit greatly from the best-in-class services these sites provide."
Argus II had more than 20 years of work in the field, three clinical trials, more than $100 million in public investment by the National Eye Institute, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation, and an additional $100 million in private investment.
STANFORD, Calif. ? Shea Salinas and Alan Gordon scored in second-half stoppage time to give the short-handed San Jose Earthquakes a 3-2 victory against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night.
Salinas knocked in a loose rebound in the 92nd minute and Gordon scored on a header a minute later to give San Jose (5-7-6) a second comeback victory in two seasons against the Galaxy at Stanford. The Earthquakes came from two goals down to beat LA 4-3 last June 30.
Marcelo Sarvas scored in the 20th minute and Hector Jimenez in the 65th for Los Angeles (7-7-3).
Gordon scored his first goal of the season in the 68th minute to pull San Jose to 2-1. The Earthquakes' chances looked dire after defender Victor Bernardez saw two yellow cards in the space of eight minutes and was sent off in the 77th minute, leaving San Jose down to 10 players.
On the tying goal, Salinas pounced on a free ball after Galaxy goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini was unable to corral a deflected flick header from San Jose rookie Adam Jahn.
Gordon got the game-winner moments later off a chipped cross from just inside Los Angeles' penalty area by San Jose midfielder Sam Cronin.
Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane assisted on both goals for the Galaxy, but L.A. was left to deal with failed opportunities after Bernardez's ejection, especially an 88th-minute save by Busch on Jimenez.
A prone Cudicini blocked a 50th-minute rebound shot from 8 yards by San Jose midfielder Marvin Chavez. The veteran keeper, who joined LA this year, was unable to come up with the critical saves in the dying minutes, however.
U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma, not pictured, at the Union Building on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference with South African President Jacob Zuma, not pictured, at the Union Building on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? President Barack Obama met privately Saturday with the family of Nelson Mandela.
The meeting was held in Johannesburg at the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, part of the former South African president's foundation.
It lasted for about a half hour, enough time for a small crowd to gather outside for Obama's departure.
The White House says Obama met with two of Mandela's daughters and several grandchildren.
He will not meet with the ailing 94-year-old Mandela, who is hospitalized with a lung infection. The White House says the decision was made in accordance with the wishes of Mandela's family.
The White House initially said first lady Michelle Obama would attend, but later said she did not accompany the president. Mrs. Obama met Mandela during her trip to Africa in 2011.
Turmoil in the Middle East | Reporting on the Middle East, Science ...
?
Reprinted from Daily Alert, Thursday June 27, 2013?
What?s Really Wrong with the Middle East? ? Aaron David Miller I know it comes as a shocker, but the Middle East really isn?t the center of the world any more. Many in the Middle East still believe that the world sits on the edge of its collective seat 24/7 wondering what?s going to happen next in their region and devising new ways to rescue them. I?m really tired of hammering the United States for not rescuing the peace process and of Arabs waiting for us to punish Israel, which too many ridiculously dismiss as either America?s master or its unruly child. The writer is a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. (Foreign Policy)
Hate, Not Time, Is the Enemy of Peace ? Jonathan S. Tobin With his decision to try to rush the parties into a negotiation with no evidence of common ground for an agreement, Secretary of State Kerry is setting the region up for a blowup that could have been avoided. Instead of listening to the parties and seeing that the Palestinians are not ready to make the sort of sacrifices needed for peace, Kerry is blind to the fact that the real enemy of peace is the hate that fuels the conflict. ??? A failure to negotiate is bad enough, but negotiations that are doomed to failure are even worse. American diplomats should remember the last time they tried to muscle Israel and the Palestinians into an agreement at Camp David in the summer of 2000. That led to the second intifada and over a thousand slaughtered Jews and even more dead Palestinians. (Commentary)
How Qatar Seized Control of the Syrian Revolution ? Roula Khalaf and Abigail Fielding-Smith Two months ago a new embassy for the Syrian Arab Republic was inaugurated in Qatar, run by the Syrian opposition. Whether in terms of armaments or financial support for dissidents, diplomatic maneuvering or lobbying, Qatar has been in the lead, readily disgorging its gas-generated wealth in the pursuit of the downfall of the House of Assad. People close to the Qatar government estimate that Qatar has contributed as much as $3 billion to the rebel cause. (Financial Times-UK)
The Myth of the Inevitable Jewish Minority in Israel ? Jeff Jacoby It?s an old refrain, erroneous but popular: Israel must make peace with the Palestinians before high Arab birthrates turn the Jews into a minority in their own land. This ominous ?demographic argument? rests on an obsolete stereotype of Arab women as baby mills, outbreeding their Jewish sisters. In the 1960s, the fertility rate for Israeli Arabs (9.2 births per woman) soared far above that of Israeli Jews (3.4 births per woman). Within Israel, the birth rate among Muslims is now at 3.5 children per woman. It is even lower for Palestinians in the West Bank ? just 2.9, according to the CIA Factbook. ??? The bottom line is that the 6.3 million Jews living in Israel and the West Bank represent 66% of the area?s population (not including Gaza). (Boston Globe)
Observations:
The Bane of Palestinian Infighting ? Kimberly Marten (New York Times)
The resignation of two Palestinian prime ministers in quick succession has left the PA leadership in limbo. But naming a new prime minister will accomplish little unless the Palestinians can also overcome the patronage, corruption and infighting in their security forces.
As PA prime minister from 2007 until earlier this month, Salam Fayyad made security-sector reform a priority. Fayyad strove to replace the corrupt and intimidating militias of the Arafat era with professional security forces who earned the respect of the population.
But old patronage networks ultimately proved stronger. Fayyad never managed to control the rat?s nest of overlapping Palestinian security agencies, whose constant infighting was encouraged by struggles within President Mahmoud Abbas? Fatah party.
Much of the training supported by the U.S. and EU was conducted in Jordan, away from traditional Palestinian bases. Yet old neighborhood and clan ties continued to be used in recruitment and some of the most powerful Palestinian security organizations remained outside the reform regimen.
Jenin had been a showpiece of security-sector reform. U.S.-funded and Jordanian-trained PA forces swept through in 2008, arresting militias which had long spread terror and extortion among residents. But in May 2012 the home of Jenin?s reformist governor was attacked by gunmen.
When the dust settled, it became clear that factions inside the supposedly reformed security forces had been fighting one another for control over territory and patronage. At least two of the senior officers who were arrested had undergone U.S.-funded training in Jordan. The writer is a professor of political science at Barnard College and acting director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University.
T-Mobile holding a press event July 10th, promises 'boldest moves yet'
We're never ones to turn down a particularly intriguing teaser, so you can bet we'll be be there with bells on. T-Mobile's event's going down on July 10th in New York City. Beyond that, well, your guess is as good as ours. The minimalistic magenta invite promises that the carrier will be delivering its "boldest moves yet," via an image file titled, fittingly, "moonshot." Moon rockets? PlayStation Moves? BlackBerry Bolds? The sky's the limit, apparently.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Iraq's foreign minister says the deadliest and most sustained wave of violence to hit the country since 2008 won't lead to civil war.
Hoshyar Zebari said in an interview with The Associated Press that Iraqis have been close to civil war in the past "and there is no winner, so everybody is pushing the envelope to the limit, but not pushing it over the edge."
More than 2,000 people have been killed in bombings and other violent attacks in Iraq since the start of April, raising fears the nation is returning to the widespread sectarian-charged bloodshed that pushed it to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.
Zebari insisted that a decade after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq is far better off than countries emerging from the Arab spring that are struggling to find a new system of government, build institutions and write constitutions.
"Iraq is not crashing," Zebari said. "The crisis is manageable." He spoke to AP Thursday after addressing the U.N. Security Council.
Zebari said one reason he doesn't think Iraq will go "over the edge" into civil war is the success of recent local elections, where Iraqis "voted conscientiously" and "there has been major, major changes."
Next year, Iraq will hold a general election that could change parliament and the government, now led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
"You will see the next election would be the most significant elections in the new Iraq," Zebari said. "There will be new alliances. The old alliances have crumbled, and there could be cross-sectarian, cross-ethnic alliances."
He also pointed to Iraq's extremely good economic performance that has significantly raised per capita income.
Last year Iraq became the second-largest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and is now churning out more than 3 million barrels of crude a day. The World Bank expects Iraq's economy to grow by 9 percent this year, compared with just over 2 percent for the overall global economy.
"The country is really enjoying an economic boom with investment, with oil companies, with diplomatic representation. What is lacks is really political stability, because as long as you have political discord and division, it would be reflected immediately on the security," he said.
Zebari said the Syrian conflict is also having an impact on Iraq and other neighboring countries, and he urged all countries to support the fight against terrorism, which he called "an international menace."
He said Iraq has been communicating with both sides to try to help end the two-year conflict that has killed more than 93,000 people, "but in an armed conflict preaching doesn't help."
Zebari blamed the paralysis in the deeply divided U.N. Security Council for turning the Syrian conflict into a type of "proxy war, an attrition war that could be dragged on for a long time."
He said Iraq doesn't support any "militarization" of the Syrian conflict, pointing to its inspection of some Iranian flights bound for Syria for arms and its recent halt to all Iraqi flights headed to Damascus to keep volunteers heading to the war from taking advantage of Iraqi transport.
Iraq is also concerned that arms destined for the rebels in Syria ? from the United States and elsewhere ? might make their way to Iraqi militants, he said.
The Iraq-Syria border even before the conflict was "troubled" and the Americans helped build trenches to enhance border security, Zebari said. "But still they are quite open for movement of terrorist groups, or weapons," though Iraqi forces on occasion carry out operations to prevent militant groups from operating in the country.
Zebari flew to New York from Geneva, where he was involved in talks with senior officials from the U.S., Russia and the U.N. on preparations for an international conference that aims to get the Syrian government and the opposition to agree on a transitional government that would prepare for democratic elections.
The conference has been delayed by an upsurge in fighting that has given the government the upper hand, and the opposition's refusal to attend until it gets more arms and regains the initiative. Zebari said "it's not easy" to organize the conference, citing differences on its purpose and problems with unifying the opposition.
The Syrian opposition should have better unified its vision and expelled extremists, he said, "but one should not blame them at the same time for all the failure."
"What the regime is doing is absolutely unacceptable. Who would have imagined five years, six years ago, a regime to bomb its people, shell residential cities in front of the world?" he said.
Pneumonia revealed in a coughPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sophia Grein sophia.grein@springer.com 49-622-148-78414 Springer
Coughs give vital clues to the presence or absence of pneumonia in children
A new method, which analyzes the sounds in a child's cough, could soon be used in poor, remote regions to diagnose childhood pneumonia reliably. According to Udantha Abeyratne from the University of Queensland in Australia and colleagues, this simple technique of recording coughs with a microphone on the patient's bedside table, has the potential to revolutionize the management of childhood pneumonia in remote regions around the world. Their work is published online in Springer's journal Annals of Biomedical Engineering.
Pneumonia is the leading killer of young children around the world. Since it is largely a disease of poverty, the vast majority of deaths occur in resource-poor regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and remote areas of China. The lack of laboratory testing facilities and trained healthcare personnel in these regions mean difficulties in the timely diagnosis and adequate treatment of childhood pneumonia.
At the moment, community workers in these regions use the World Health Organization's simple clinical algorithm to diagnose pneumonia. However there are some limitations, including the high rate of false positive results which lead to over-prescription of rare antibiotic stocks.
Abeyratne and team's work identifies an easy-to-use alternative that addresses these challenges, in the form of new technology which analyzes cough sounds to diagnose pneumonia. Indeed, cough is a main symptom of pneumonia and carries vital information on the lower respiratory tract - consolidation of the lungs and secretions in particular. These markers of infection alter the acoustic properties of coughs helping to identify pneumonia-specific features.
The researchers analyzed 815 cough events recorded from a total of 91 hospitalized children with and without pneumonia, at the Sardjito Hospital of Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia. Cough sounds were collected by microphones placed on nearby bedside tables. Coughs were classified as either pneumonic or non-pneumonic. The researchers used the overall clinical diagnosis provided by pediatric respiratory clinicians - aided with routine diagnostic technologies - to validate the sound analysis. From the analysis of cough sounds alone, this new technique was able to identify pneumonia cases with over 90 percent sensitivity, meaning that it identifies most patients who actually have pneumonia. In addition, it did so with a low false positive rate, outperforming the existing WHO algorithm for resource-poor regions.
The authors conclude: "Our results indicate the feasibility of taking a cough-centered approach to the diagnosis of childhood pneumonia in resource-poor regions. The technology, in its simplest version, will require between 5-10 cough sounds and will automatically and immediately provide a diagnosis without requiring physical contact with patients. Such a system, if successful, is expected to be a paradigm-shifting novelty in the field of pneumonia diagnosis in remote regions."
###
References
1. Abeyratne UR et al (2013). Cough Sound Analysis Can Rapidly Diagnose Childhood Pneumonia. Annals of Biomedical Engineering. DOI: 10.1007/s10439-013-0836-0
2. The researchers acknowledge the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA, for funding this research under its Grand Challenges in Global Health Explorations grant scheme.
The full-text article is available to journalists on request.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Pneumonia revealed in a coughPublic release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Sophia Grein sophia.grein@springer.com 49-622-148-78414 Springer
Coughs give vital clues to the presence or absence of pneumonia in children
A new method, which analyzes the sounds in a child's cough, could soon be used in poor, remote regions to diagnose childhood pneumonia reliably. According to Udantha Abeyratne from the University of Queensland in Australia and colleagues, this simple technique of recording coughs with a microphone on the patient's bedside table, has the potential to revolutionize the management of childhood pneumonia in remote regions around the world. Their work is published online in Springer's journal Annals of Biomedical Engineering.
Pneumonia is the leading killer of young children around the world. Since it is largely a disease of poverty, the vast majority of deaths occur in resource-poor regions such as sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and remote areas of China. The lack of laboratory testing facilities and trained healthcare personnel in these regions mean difficulties in the timely diagnosis and adequate treatment of childhood pneumonia.
At the moment, community workers in these regions use the World Health Organization's simple clinical algorithm to diagnose pneumonia. However there are some limitations, including the high rate of false positive results which lead to over-prescription of rare antibiotic stocks.
Abeyratne and team's work identifies an easy-to-use alternative that addresses these challenges, in the form of new technology which analyzes cough sounds to diagnose pneumonia. Indeed, cough is a main symptom of pneumonia and carries vital information on the lower respiratory tract - consolidation of the lungs and secretions in particular. These markers of infection alter the acoustic properties of coughs helping to identify pneumonia-specific features.
The researchers analyzed 815 cough events recorded from a total of 91 hospitalized children with and without pneumonia, at the Sardjito Hospital of Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia. Cough sounds were collected by microphones placed on nearby bedside tables. Coughs were classified as either pneumonic or non-pneumonic. The researchers used the overall clinical diagnosis provided by pediatric respiratory clinicians - aided with routine diagnostic technologies - to validate the sound analysis. From the analysis of cough sounds alone, this new technique was able to identify pneumonia cases with over 90 percent sensitivity, meaning that it identifies most patients who actually have pneumonia. In addition, it did so with a low false positive rate, outperforming the existing WHO algorithm for resource-poor regions.
The authors conclude: "Our results indicate the feasibility of taking a cough-centered approach to the diagnosis of childhood pneumonia in resource-poor regions. The technology, in its simplest version, will require between 5-10 cough sounds and will automatically and immediately provide a diagnosis without requiring physical contact with patients. Such a system, if successful, is expected to be a paradigm-shifting novelty in the field of pneumonia diagnosis in remote regions."
###
References
1. Abeyratne UR et al (2013). Cough Sound Analysis Can Rapidly Diagnose Childhood Pneumonia. Annals of Biomedical Engineering. DOI: 10.1007/s10439-013-0836-0
2. The researchers acknowledge the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA, for funding this research under its Grand Challenges in Global Health Explorations grant scheme.
The full-text article is available to journalists on request.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Pats player Hernandez taken from home in handcuffs
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) ? New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was taken from his home in handcuffs Wednesday morning, more than a week after a Boston semi-pro football player was found dead in an industrial park a mile from Hernandez's house.
Odin Lloyd, a 27-year-old semi-pro football player for the Boston Bandits, was found slain June 17. Officials ruled the death a homicide but did not say how Lloyd died.
Lloyd's relatives said he was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, that the two men were friends and that both men were out together on the last night of Lloyd's life.
It's unclear why Hernandez was being taken into custody Wednesday before 9 a.m. and put into the back of a police cruiser. He was wearing a white V-neck T-shirt, with his arms inside the shirt and behind his back as he was led from his North Attleborough home. He casually spit into some bushes on his way to the car.
Hernandez was arrested on a state police warrant and was being booked at the North Attleborough police station, state police said on the agency's Twitter account. State police said they won't discuss the charge against Hernandez until it's presented in Attleboro District Court later Wednesday.
The Associated Press emailed a message to his attorney, Michael Fee, who hasn't discussed the investigation beyond acknowledging media reports about it. A message also was left with the Bristol County district attorney's office.
Lloyd's mother, Ursula Ward, declined to comment at her Boston home Wednesday morning.
"Nothing to say, please. Thank you," she said, before shutting the door.
A Patriots team spokesman said Monday morning that the team had no comment.
State police have searched in and around Hernandez's sprawling home in North Attleborough several times. At least three search warrants have been issued in connection with the investigation.
Reporters have been camped for days outside the home on the Rhode Island line, not far from the stadium where the Patriots play. They reported Tuesday that Hernandez got a visit from Boston defense attorney James Sultan.
The Patriots drafted Hernandez, who is originally from Bristol, Conn., out of the University of Florida in 2010. Last summer, the team gave him a five-year contract worth $40 million.
Patriots spokesman Stacey James has said the team did not anticipate commenting publicly during the police investigation.
___
Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy in Boston and Howard Ulman contributed to this story.
Stress: It should never be ignored!Public release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hermann Nabi hermann.nabi@inserm.fr INSERM (Institut national de la sant et de la recherche mdicale)
The Inserm researchers at unit 1018, "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre", working in collaboration with researchers from England and Finland have demonstrated that it is essential to be vigilant about this and to take it very seriously when people say that they are stressed, particularly if they believe that stress is affecting their health. According to the study performed by these researchers, with 7268 participants, such people have twice as much risk of a heart attack, compared with others.
These results have been published in European Heart Journal.
Today, stress is recognized as one of the main health problems. When people face a situation that is considered stressful, they may experience several physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms (anxiety, difficulty in concentrating, skin problems, migraines, etc.). Previous studies, particularly the recent studies performed within the Whitehall II cohort, composed of several thousand British civil servants, have already shown that the physiological changes associated with stress can have an adverse effect on health.
Herman Nabi, Inserm researcher at Unit 1018 "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre", and his team went further and studied people who declared themselves to be stressed, in order to look more closely at whether there was a link between their feeling and the occurrence of coronary disease some years later.
Using a questionnaire prepared for the Whitehall II cohort, the participants were invited to answer the following question: "to what extent do you consider the stress or pressure that you have experienced in your life has an effect on your health", the participants had the following answers to choose from: "not at all", "a little", "moderately", "a lot" or "extremely".
The participants were also asked about their stress level, as well as about other factors that might affect their health, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and levels of physical activity. Arterial pressure, diabetes, body mass index and socio-demographic data such as marital status, age, sex, ethnicity and socio-economic status were also taken into account.
According to the results, the participants who reported, at the start of the study, that their health was "a lot" or "extremely" affected by stress had more than twice the risk (2.12 times higher) of having or dying from a heart attack, compared with those who had not indicated any effect of stress on their health.
From a clinical point of view, these results suggest that the patient's perception of the impact of stress on their health may be highly accurate, to the extent that it can predict a health event as serious and common as coronary disease.
In addition, this study also shows that this link is not affected by differences between individuals related to biological, behavioural or psychological factors. However, capacities for dealing with stress do differ massively between individuals depending on the resources available to them, such as support from close friends and family.
According to Hermann Nabi, "the main message is that complaints from patients concerning the effect of stress on their health should not be ignored in a clinical environment, because they may indicate an increased risk of developing and dying of coronary disease. Future studies of stress should include perceptions of patients concerning the effect of stress on their health".
In the future, as Hermann Nabi emphasizes, "tests will be needed to determine whether the risk of disease can be reduced by increasing the clinical attention given to patients who complain of stress having an effect on their health".
###
Sources
Increased risk of coronary heart disease among individuals reporting adverse impact of stress on their health: The Whitehall II prospective cohort study
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Stress: It should never be ignored!Public release date: 27-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Hermann Nabi hermann.nabi@inserm.fr INSERM (Institut national de la sant et de la recherche mdicale)
The Inserm researchers at unit 1018, "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre", working in collaboration with researchers from England and Finland have demonstrated that it is essential to be vigilant about this and to take it very seriously when people say that they are stressed, particularly if they believe that stress is affecting their health. According to the study performed by these researchers, with 7268 participants, such people have twice as much risk of a heart attack, compared with others.
These results have been published in European Heart Journal.
Today, stress is recognized as one of the main health problems. When people face a situation that is considered stressful, they may experience several physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms (anxiety, difficulty in concentrating, skin problems, migraines, etc.). Previous studies, particularly the recent studies performed within the Whitehall II cohort, composed of several thousand British civil servants, have already shown that the physiological changes associated with stress can have an adverse effect on health.
Herman Nabi, Inserm researcher at Unit 1018 "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre", and his team went further and studied people who declared themselves to be stressed, in order to look more closely at whether there was a link between their feeling and the occurrence of coronary disease some years later.
Using a questionnaire prepared for the Whitehall II cohort, the participants were invited to answer the following question: "to what extent do you consider the stress or pressure that you have experienced in your life has an effect on your health", the participants had the following answers to choose from: "not at all", "a little", "moderately", "a lot" or "extremely".
The participants were also asked about their stress level, as well as about other factors that might affect their health, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and levels of physical activity. Arterial pressure, diabetes, body mass index and socio-demographic data such as marital status, age, sex, ethnicity and socio-economic status were also taken into account.
According to the results, the participants who reported, at the start of the study, that their health was "a lot" or "extremely" affected by stress had more than twice the risk (2.12 times higher) of having or dying from a heart attack, compared with those who had not indicated any effect of stress on their health.
From a clinical point of view, these results suggest that the patient's perception of the impact of stress on their health may be highly accurate, to the extent that it can predict a health event as serious and common as coronary disease.
In addition, this study also shows that this link is not affected by differences between individuals related to biological, behavioural or psychological factors. However, capacities for dealing with stress do differ massively between individuals depending on the resources available to them, such as support from close friends and family.
According to Hermann Nabi, "the main message is that complaints from patients concerning the effect of stress on their health should not be ignored in a clinical environment, because they may indicate an increased risk of developing and dying of coronary disease. Future studies of stress should include perceptions of patients concerning the effect of stress on their health".
In the future, as Hermann Nabi emphasizes, "tests will be needed to determine whether the risk of disease can be reduced by increasing the clinical attention given to patients who complain of stress having an effect on their health".
###
Sources
Increased risk of coronary heart disease among individuals reporting adverse impact of stress on their health: The Whitehall II prospective cohort study
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Kremlin's hammer falls on first 'foreign agent' NGO
Russian authorities have ordered a six-month suspension for the independent election monitoring group Golos, the first of dozens of "political" nongovernmental organizations to be cited for refusing to register as "foreign agents" under a new law.
A statement by the Ministry of Justice Wednesday says the group's six-month shutdown applies to all activities, and if it does not register within that period it will proceed to the next step, which involves criminal penalties and permanent closure.
"Under the federal law on NGOs, an organization acting as a foreign agent whose operations have been suspended also faces the suspension of its rights as a founder of mass media sources. It is also banned from holding rallies or public events and from using bank accounts except for payments pertaining to economic operation, work compensation, damages, taxes, duties and fines," the statement says.
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Golos was the first NGO to be prosecuted under the law, which prescribes an escalating sequence of fines followed by forced closure for groups that receive any degree of foreign funding and that refuse to don the "foreign agent" label ? which, critics say, is effectively a poison pill that implies "spy" and nothing else in the Russian language.
Lined up behind Golos, there are currently over 60 NGOs at various stages along the route to mandatory closure if they continue to reject the self-incriminating "foreign agent" registration.
The pro-Kremlin parliamentarians who drafted the law a year ago explicitly targeted Golos, and a few other groups, which they claimed were deceiving the Russian public by working on behalf of foreign interests under the guise of legitimate civil-society activity.
But activists argue the explanation for putting Golos at the head of the list is simpler: It was some 50,000 citizen election monitors, trained by Golos, who collected overwhelming evidence of mass electoral fraud in December 2011 polls ? which elected the current State Duma ? and in taking aim at the group the pro-Kremlin majority is seeking both revenge and the destruction of Russia's best organized grassroots machine for exposing electoral fraud in the future.
Activists with Golos say they are considering various response strategies, among which is a risky plan to officially disband the organization and recreate it under a new name.
"We are working on what to do," says Grigory Melkonyants, deputy director of Golos.
"We realize that just paying the fines that have been levied on us won't stop the authorities from closing down Golos and prosecuting its leaders. We are suing the prosecutor's office and the Justice Ministry, and we will take that all the way to the Constitutional Court if necessary. We're going to launch an appeal to the European Court," he says.
"But there is no doubt that the closure of Golos is a signal to the whole NGO community. The goal is to scare them," and make them stop any activities that irritate the authorities, in Moscow and around the country, he says.
So far no leading organization has agreed to wear the "foreign agent" badge, which all say would discredit them with the public and close the doors of officialdom to any kind of interaction ? which is the raison d'?tre of most civil society groups.
Among the NGOs on the list and facing suspension in coming weeks are some obvious Kremlin irritants, such as Russia's largest human rights organization Memorial; the Russian branch of the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International; the legal activist group Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms, JURIX; the Nizhni Novgorod-based Interregional Committee Against Torture, which deals mainly with allegations of police brutality; and the Goldman Prize-winning Baikal Environmental Wave, one of the country's most effective grassroots ecological groups.
But it's harder to explain why some completely non-political groups also seem to find themselves in the authorities' sights. These include the St. Petersburg Side-by-Side LGBT film festival; the Yaroslavl Regional Hunters and Fishermen Society; the Saratov-based Center For Social Policy and Gender Studies; the Kostroma branch of the Soldiers' Mothers, a group that has been praised both in Russia and abroad for its work on the painful issues of conscription and military reform; and the country's only independent pollster, the Levada Center.
"This campaign against NGOs is sadly predictable, and its effects are probably irreversible," says Dmitry Oreshkin, head of the Mercator Group, an independent Moscow-based media consultancy.
"The authorities are aiming to discredit, frighten, destroy, and compel obedience from all far-flung sectors of society," he says.
But the net effect of the campaign will be to build up anger and resentment in the public, and remove the very civil society groups that should be dealing with problems at the grassroots level and mediating between authorities and society, he adds.
Mr. Melkonyants says a lot of social progress that's taken place in Russia since the USSR collapsed 22 years ago is being undone in a fit of bureaucratic pique.
"The worst thing here is that the state is driving a wedge between NGOs and society, and trying to convince the public that groups like ours are evil, the devil incarnate," he says. "Many Russian NGOs have worked for dozens of years to gain public trust, and now it's being swept away in a wave of official disinformation. They are making people look at us with suspicion, as though we are Western mercenaries."
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4 Behaviors That Result In Divorce (90 Percent Of The Time)
psychcentral.com:
In any?marriage or long-term, romantic relationship, there are a number of challenges that have the potential to completely wreck your relationship. However, if it?s any consolation at all,?researchers have observed that there are just four behaviors?that, when avoided, greatly improve your chances for the long-term health and happiness of your relationship.
Senators push to suspend trade benefits for Bangladesh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nine U.S. senators on Tuesday urged President Barack Obama to suspend trade benefits for Bangladesh until the country where 1,129 people died in an April garment factory collapse improved its working conditions.
"We urge that the administration suspend Bangladesh's eligibility for GSP (Generalized System of Preferences), and establish a roadmap and timeline for reinstatement based upon tangible improvements in worker safety and related labor law reforms," the group of Democratic senators said.
Obama is expected to decide by the end of June whether to suspend Bangladesh from the GSP program, which waives U.S. import duties on thousands of goods from poor countries to spur economic development.
Suspending Bangladesh from the program would be mostly symbolic since the Asian nation's main export, clothing, is not eligible for GSP tariff cuts, in deference to the U.S. textile and apparel industry.
But it would be another blow to the country's reputation in the wake of the collapse in April of the Rana Plaza commercial building, which housed a number of garment factories, and the Tazreen factory fire in November that killed 112 people.
Last year, the GSP program spared Bangladesh about $2 million in duties on $35 million worth of tents, golf equipment, plates and other items it exported to the United States, said Ed Gresser, a trade analyst with the GlobalWorks Foundation.
Bangladesh paid $732 million in duties on $4.9 billion worth of clothing exports to the United States, he said.
The AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor organization, first filed a petition to suspend Bangladesh from the GSP in 2007.
The U.S. government has put off that decision for six years, hoping the threat would be enough to encourage Bangladesh to make labor reforms.
U.S. trade officials emphasized that suspending trade benefits was seen as "the last resort" while expressing frustration that Bangladesh had made little progress addressing longstanding U.S. concerns over its labor conditions.
"President Obama must do everything in his power to prevent tragedies like the Bangladesh factory collapse from happening again," Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat said in a statement with the other senators.
Earlier this month, an AFL-CIO official said she expected Obama would decide to suspend the benefits.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Bill Trott and Paul Simao)
Well, what do we have here? Okay, let's scrap the faux surprise. The recently confirmed Ascend P6 has landed, and Huawei hopes it will stir interest in the hearts of mobile users. Debuting across Europe, China and Australia in late June / early August with a €449 ($600) price tag, it's asking you to take it seriously, and that's what we'll do.
The mobile market is a fickle place, so it doesn't matter where you are right now; it's all about where you're going. Huawei? Well, it's definitely got its sights set on an upward trajectory. The Ascend P6 is the latest rung on the ladder, intended to elevate the company to mobile greatness. But, with competition stiffer than ever, can it really call a device with a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 720p display and 8-megapixel camera a flagship? (For its P-series at least?) Huawei's certainly giving it a try, and it's hoping that beauty, not brawn, will win the day.
In this Wednesday, May 15, 2013 photo, pedestrians walk in and out of the Walgreens flagship store in the Empire State Building, in New York. The private Conference Board reports on consumer confidence for June, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In this Wednesday, May 15, 2013 photo, pedestrians walk in and out of the Walgreens flagship store in the Empire State Building, in New York. The private Conference Board reports on consumer confidence for June, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans' confidence in the economy rose to its highest level in more than five years, bolstered by a more optimistic outlook for hiring.
The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index jumped to 81.4 in June. That's the best reading since January 2008. And it is up from May's reading of 74.3, which was revised slightly downward from 76.2.
Consumers' confidence in the economy is watched closely because their spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.
The report shows consumers are more positive about current economic conditions and have a more optimistic view of the economy and job market in the next six months.
Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said that "suggests the pace of growth is unlikely to slow in the short-term, and may even moderately pick up."
Employers added 175,000 jobs in May, nearly matching the average monthly gain for the past year. That's enough to slowly lower the unemployment rate. The rate ticked up to 7.6 percent last month but has fallen 0.6 percentage points in the past year.
More Americans see signs of hiring taking place. Nearly 12 percent describe the number of jobs available as "plentiful," the most since September 2008.
And nearly 20 percent of consumers expect there will be more jobs in six months, while only 16.1 percent expect fewer jobs. That's the first time those expecting more jobs have outnumbered those expecting fewer since February 2012.
Rising home prices are also likely making Americans feel wealthier and more confident about spending. Home prices jumped 12.1 percent in April compared with a year ago, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, also released Tuesday.
Slightly more consumers said they planned to buy a car in the next six months. The percentage saying they planned to buy a home also ticked up.
Americans have been resilient this year, despite tax increases and steep government spending cuts. Consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in two years in the first three months of the year. That helped the overall economy grow at a 2.4 percent annual pace during the January-March quarter.
Economists forecast that overall economic growth is slowing to a 2 percent annual pace in the April-June quarter, in part because they expect consumers have eased up on spending from the robust first-quarter pace.
Despite the recent gains, the confidence index remains well below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy ? a level it hasn't reached since the Great Recession began in December 2007.
So far, reports on consumer spending for the second quarter have been mixed. In April, consumer spending fell as income was unchanged. But spending appears to have rebounded in May, based on a preliminary report on retail sales. Americans spent more on cars, home improvements and sporting goods, boosting retail sales 0.6 percent.
The Commerce Department will release a more complete report on May consumer spending and income on Thursday.
The Conference Board survey is conducted in the first half of the month. So the June report didn't capture the impact of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments last week after the Fed's policy meeting.
Bernanke said the Fed could begin to slow its bond purchases by the end of the year. Since then, stocks have plunged and interest rates have spiked.
Conversations with teens about weight linked with increased risk of unhealthy eating behaviors
June 24, 2013 ? Conversations between parents and adolescents that focus on weight and size are associated with an increased risk for unhealthy adolescent weight-control behaviors, according to a study published Online First by JAMA Pediatrics.
The study by University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, researchers also found that overweight or obese adolescents whose mothers engaged in conversations that were focused only on healthful eating behaviors were less likely to diet and use unhealthy weight-control behaviors (UWCBs).
"Because adolescence is a time when more youths engage in disordered eating behaviors, it is important for parents to understand what types of conversations may be helpful or harmful in regard to disordered eating behaviors and how to have these conversations with their adolescents," Jerica M. Berge, Ph.D., M.P.H., L.M.F.T., of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and colleagues write in the study background.
The study used data from two linked population-based studies and included surveys completed by adolescents and parents. The study's final sample consisted of 2,348 adolescents (average age, 14.4 years) and 3,528 parents.
Among overweight adolescents whose mothers engaged in healthful eating conversations compared with those whose mothers did not engage in healthful eating conversations, there was a significantly lower prevalence of dieting (40.1 percent vs. 53.4 percent, respectively) and UWCBs (40.6 percent vs. 53.2 percent, respectively), according to the study results.
The results also indicate that weight conversations from one parent or from both parents were associated with a significantly higher prevalence of dieting relative to parents who engaged in only healthful eating conversations (35.2 percent and 37.1 percent vs. 21.2 percent, respectively). The study also found that adolescents whose fathers engaged in weight conversations were significantly more likely to engage in dieting and UWCBs than adolescents whose fathers did not.
"Finally, for parents who may wonder whether talking with their adolescent child about eating habits and weight is useful or detrimental, results from this study indicate that they may want to focus on discussing and promoting healthful eating behaviors rather than discussing weight and size, regardless of whether their child is nonoverweight or overweight," the authors conclude.
Although there are many sites that claim that they will show you weight training exercises online, in reality this is not the way to go.
If you want to start a weight training exercise program, you really need to be working with someone else. There are many options available. You can go to the gym, use free weights at home with a buddy, or get one of those machines, but if you do not do your weight training exercise with proper safety precautions, it is quite possible for you to get seriously injured.
I recommend doing your weight training exercise at the gym. There are several good reasons for this, and I will go ahead and tell you some of the very best ones. First of all, you can get a spot at the gym. Of all of the weight training exercise injuries, most of them could have been avoided with a proper spotter.
This is especially true with free weights which can injure or even kill you if you are forced to drop them based on muscle fatigue. This is the most important reason to go to the gym, but it is really far from the only one.
The fact is that it is easier to psyche yourself up for your weight training exercise when you do go to the gym. With all of those people around you dedicating their time to getting in shape, there is just no way you will feel like slacking off in your weight training program while you are at the gym. Many gyms even have personal trainers available, who will help you to meet your personal best, by working you harder than you will yourself, and helping to chart your goals. They can even suggest which weight training exercises you should use and how many, to strengthen the muscle groups which interest you.
Before you start doing weight training exercise, however, you should do some cardiovascular stuff. While you can get by quite well without weight training exercise, cardio is absolutely essential to your health. You will live longer, be healthier, and happier, and even have more energy if you do some aerobic activities every day to keep you active. We do not stay young forever, but those of us who get adequate aerobic exercises do stay young for longer than those who do not. Once you start doing that, then you can add your weight training exercise program.
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Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
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