Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti tendered his resignation to the president on Friday after 13 months in office, opening the way to a highly uncertain national election in February.

The former European commissioner, appointed to lead an unelected government to save Italy from financial crisis a year ago, has kept his own political plans a closely guarded secret but he has faced growing pressure to seek a second term.

President Giorgio Napolitano is expected to dissolve parliament in the next few days and has already indicated that the most likely date for the election is February 24.

In an unexpected move, Napolitano said he would hold consultations with political leaders from all the main parties on Saturday to discuss the next steps. In the meantime Monti will continue in a caretaker capacity.

European leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso have called for Monti’s economic reform agenda to continue but Italy’s two main parties have said he should stay out of the race.

Monti, who handed in his resignation during a brief meeting at the presidential palace shortly after parliament approved his government’s 2013 budget, will hold a news conference on Sunday at which he is expected clarify his intentions.

Ordinary Italians are weary of repeated tax hikes and spending cuts and opinion polls offer little evidence that they are ready to give Monti a second term. A survey this week showed 61 percent saying he should not stand.

Whether he runs or not, his legacy will loom over an election which will be fought out over the painful measures he has introduced to try to rein in Italy’s huge public debt and revive its stagnant economy.

His resignation came a couple of months before the end of his term, after his technocrat government lost the support of Silvio Berlusconi‘s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party in parliament earlier this month.

Speculation is swirling over Monti’s next moves. These could include outlining policy recommendations, endorsing a centrist alliance committed to his reform agenda or even standing as a candidate in the election himself.

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) has held a strong lead in the polls for months but a centrist alliance led by Monti could gain enough support in the Senate to force the PD to seek a coalition deal which could help shape the economic agenda.

BERLUSCONI IN WINGS

Senior figures from the alliance, including both the UDC party, which is close to the Roman Catholic Church, and a new group founded by Ferrari sports car chairman Luca di Montezemolo, have been hoping to gain Monti’s backing.

He has not said clearly whether he intends to run, but he has dropped heavy hints he will continue to push a reform agenda that has the backing of both Italy’s business community and its European partners.

The PD has promised to stick to the deficit reduction targets Monti has agreed with the European Union and says it will maintain the broad course he has set while putting more emphasis on reviving growth.

Berlusconi’s return to the political arena has added to the already considerable uncertainty about the centre-right’s intentions and increased the likelihood of a messy and potentially bitter election campaign.

The billionaire media tycoon has fluctuated between attacking the government’s “Germano-centric” austerity policies and promising to stand aside if Monti agrees to lead the centre right, but now appears to have settled on an anti-Monti line.

He has pledged to cut taxes and scrap a hated housing tax which Monti imposed. He has also sounded a stridently anti-German line which has at times echoed the tone of the populist 5-Star Movement headed by maverick comic Beppe Grillo.

The PD and the PDL, both of which supported Monti’s technocrat government in parliament, have made it clear they would not be happy if he ran against them and there have been foretastes of the kind of attacks he can expect.

Former centre-left prime minister Massimo D’Alema said in an interview last week that it would be “morally questionable” for Monti to run against the PD, which backed all of his reforms and which has pledged to maintain his pledges to European partners.

Berlusconi who has mounted an intensive media campaign in the past few days, echoed that criticism this week, saying Monti risked losing the credibility he has won over the past year and becoming a “little political figure”.

(Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Massimiliano Di Giorgio and Paolo Biondi; Writing by Gavin Jones and James Mackenzie; Editing by Michael Roddy)

World News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Italy PM Monti resigns, elections likely in February
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..

Google working on “X Phone”, “X” tablet to take on rivals – WSJ

(Reuters) – Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed “X-phone”, aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Google acquired Motorola in May for $ 12.5 billion to bolster its patent portfolio as its Android mobile operating system competes with rivals such as Apple and Samsung.

The Journal quoted the people saying that Motorola is working on two fronts: devices that will be sold by carrier partner Verizon Wireless, and on the X phone.

Motorola plans to enhance the X Phone with its recent acquisition of Viewdle, an imaging and gesture-recognition software developer. The new handset is due out sometime next year, the business daily said, citing a person familiar with the plans.

Motorola is also expected to work on an “X” tablet after the phone. Google Chief Executive Larry Page is said to have promised a significant marketing budget for the unit, the newspaper said quoting the persons.

Google was not immediately reachable for comments outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Balaji Sridharan in Bangalore; Editing by Richard Chang)

Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Google working on “X Phone”, “X” tablet to take on rivals – WSJ
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..

‘Skyfall’ Will Open January 21 in China, Won’t Face ‘Hobbit’

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Global blockbuster “Skyfall” will open on January 21 in China, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to TheWrap Friday.

A strong run in China will be critical if “Skyfall” is to hit $ 1 billion at the worldwide box office.

The date means that Sony and MGM’s newest 007 film will likely roll out ahead of Warner Bros.‘ Middle-earth epic “The Hobbit,” which is expected to open in February, after China’s February 9 Golden Week holidays are under way.

Chinese officials have aggressively protected their domestic film industry this year, in some case by slotting major U.S. films against each other to reduce their box-office impact.

The studios had been waiting for confirmation from on a release date since opening the 23rd James Bond thriller in the U.K. on October 26.

The two studios had been in a similar situation with two box-office hits earlier this year, when “Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man” both opened on August 27. That cut their grosses, but China still became the No. 1 foreign market for both films, with “Dark Knight Rises” taking in $ 52 million for Warner Bros. and “Spider-Man” taking in $ 48 million for Sony.

“Skyfall,” which stars Daniel Craig, has a good shot at becoming the first Bond movie to hit the billion-dollar mark at the box office. But it will need strong performances in China and Japan where it has taken in more than $ 16.7 million since opening three weeks ago – to get there.

The film has made more at the box office than any of the 22 previous James Bond films, with $ 953 million globally since opening on October 26. The majority of that – $ 678 million – has come from overseas. The top market is the U.K., where “Skyfall” is that country’s biggest movie ever with more than $ 158 million.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: ‘Skyfall’ Will Open January 21 in China, Won’t Face ‘Hobbit’
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..

Ky. court upholds decision in penis removal case

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man lost his bid Friday to force a doctor to pay damages for removing a cancer-riddled section of his penis during what was scheduled to be a simple circumcision.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals found that a jury correctly concluded that 66-year-old Phillip Seaton of Waddy consented to allow Dr. John Patterson to perform any procedure deemed necessary during the Oct. 19, 2007, surgery.

Patterson, a Kentucky-based urologist, maintains he found cancer in the man’s penis during surgery and that it had to be removed. The patient claims the surgery was supposed to be a circumcision and he never authorized the amputation, nor was he given a chance to seek a second opinion.

“Additionally, there is uncontroverted testimony in the record that if Mr. Seaton were not treated for the penile cancer, it would prove fatal in the future,” Judge Janet Stumbo wrote for the court.

Judge Michael Caperton dissented, but did not issue a written opinion.

Clay Robinson, a Lexington-based attorney for Patterson, said the opinion was “very well-reasoned” and fact-based.

“You always appreciate when you see judges at any level go into that amount of detail,” Robinson said.

Seaton and his wife, Deborah, sued Patterson, a Kentucky-based urologist, in Shelby County Circuit Court in 2008. Seaton, now in his 60s, was having the procedure to better treat inflammation. The Seatons also sued Jewish Hospital, where the surgery took place. The hospital settled with the couple for an undisclosed amount.

Both sides agree that Seaton had squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer, in his penis. Patterson concluded that a tumor had overtaken much of the top of the organ, which made it impossible to insert a catheter.

“He also opined that serious complications and additional surgery could result if he did not insert the catheter,” Stumbo wrote.

The main point of contention is whether Patterson acted reasonably in removing the organ immediately or if amputation could have been delayed to let Seaton seek other medical options.

Stumbo and Judge Donna Dixon concluded that, even though Seaton had limited ability to read and write, he never informed the doctor of that fact and signed the consent form in the presence of a witness. The Seatons claimed that the waiver didn’t give Patterson authority to conduct an amputation without further consent.

“They maintain that no harm would have resulted if Dr. Patterson has consulted with either of them before proceeding, or if he had allowed them to consult with another physician to get a second opinion or other treatment options,” Stumbo wrote.

Stumbo wrote that Patterson acted properly because the tumor had consumed such a large section of the organ.

“For this reason alone, the resection of the tumor was ‘necessary and proper’ in the context of inserting a catheter,” Stumbo wrote.

Kevin George of Louisville, the attorney for Seaton, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

______

Follow Associated Press reporter Brett Barrouquere on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BBarrouquereAP

Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Ky. court upholds decision in penis removal case
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..

The Year’s Best & Worst Investments

Winners
Best International Stock (+283%): India consumes more than $ 20 billion worth of whiskey each year—the most in the world—and United Spirits (UNSP) is the nation’s largest distiller. The company’s sales doubled in four years. The United Kingdom’s Diageo (DEO) bought a controlling stake in United Spirits in November.
 
Best U.S. Large-Cap Stock (+224%): The good news for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) shareholders included strong sales for a treatment for eye diseases. Total revenue jumped fourfold last quarter. The Tarrytown (N.Y.)-based company also won approval for a chemotherapy drug and is developing treatments for rheumatoid arthritis and high cholesterol.
 
Best Bond Fund (+26%): The GMO Emerging Country Debt Fund (GMCDX) invests in debt issued by emerging-market countries, a strategy that’s worked in nine of the last 10 years. Its top holding is Venezuelan bonds, a sign that its managers are willing to take risks in particularly unstable countries.
 
Best Initial Public Offering (+105%): Retailer Five Below (FIVE) sells candy, stationery, and beauty products priced at $ 5 or less and aimed at teenagers. Sales are growing 47 percent a year.
 
Best Equity Mutual Fund (+39%): The Fidelity Select Biotechnology Portfolio (FBIOX) spreads $ 2.7 billion in assets over 131 biotechnology stocks. A top holding: Gilead Sciences (GILD), the California-based biopharmaceutical company.
 
Best Commodity (+24%): Wheat prices rose in 2012 as drought cut into supply from the grain belts of Russia, Australia, and the U.S. Wheat is a $ 14.4 billion crop in the U.S., where it ranks fourth behind corn, soybeans, and hay.
 
Best Exchange-Traded Fund (+77%): Signs of a housing recovery sent shares of homebuilders soaring this year, boosting the IShares Dow Jones U.S. Home Construction Index Fund (ITB).
 
Losers
Worst Exchange-Traded Fund (-79%): The ProShares VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (VIXY) holds futures contracts that are profitable when the VIX index, a measure of U.S. stock market volatility, rises. 2012 was a calm year.
 
Worst Commodity (-35%): Abundant supply is depressing coffee prices. Brazil, the world’s largest grower, has almost doubled its output in the past decade, producing another record crop this year.
 
Worst Equity Mutual Fund (-17%): The Federated Prudent Bear Fund (BEARX) holds gold mining stocks and other investments it expects will do well in times of financial stress. That strategy suffers in years such as 2012, when stocks rise.
 
Worst Initial Public Offering (-30%): Facebook (FB) plunged as much as 53 percent after its $ 16 billion debut in May. The stock rallied on news that third-quarter sales rose 32 percent, beating analysts’ estimates.
 
Worst Bond Fund (+.12%): While the GMO U.S. Treasury Fund (GUSTX) may just barely be holding its value at yearend, its extremely cautious strategy means returns aren’t keeping up with inflation. The fund is invested entirely in U.S. Treasury bills, government debt that matures in less than a year.
 
Worst U.S. Large-Cap Stock (-43%): Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ)annus horribilis was marked by a third-quarter loss that was its worst ever, including an $ 8 billion writedown related to the dwindling value of its enterprise services business. HP later took an $ 8.8 billion writedown related to accounting problems at Autonomy, a software maker it acquired last year. In September, HP announced plans for 29,000 job cuts.
 
Worst International Stock (-81%): The biggest target for the European Union’s bailout fund for Spanish banks, Bankia (BKIA), forecasts it will lose $ 25 billion in 2012. The bank, formed last year from the merger of seven regional savings banks damaged by Spain’s real estate downturn, is in the midst of cutting more than a quarter of its workforce.

Data compiled by Bloomberg from Dec. 31, 2011, to Dec. 17, 2012. Criteria – Bond Funds: 725 bond mutual funds based in the U.S. with assets of $ 500 million or more. Commodities: 18 global commodities tracked by Bloomberg. Equity Mutual Funds: 796 U.S.-based equity mutual funds with assets of $ 1 billion or more. Exchange-Traded Funds: 1,062 U.S.-based ETFs, excluding those that use leverage. Initial Public Offerings: 103 U.S. IPOs with an offer size of at least $ 100 million. International Stocks: The MSCI AC World Index. Large-Cap Stocks: 367 stocks on U.S. exchanges with market value of more than $ 10 billion.

Businessweek.com — Top News

Title Post: The Year’s Best & Worst Investments
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..

Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria

ATMEH, Syria (AP) — A baby boy joined the ranks of Syria’s tens of thousands of war wounded when a missile fired by Bashar Assad‘s air force slammed into his family home and shrapnel pierced his skull.

Four-month-old Fahed Darwish suffered brain damage and, like thousands of others seriously hurt in the civil war, he will likely need care well after the fighting is over. That’s something doctors say a post-conflict Syria won’t be able to provide.

Making things worse, there has been a sharp spike in serious injuries since the summer, when the regime began bombing rebel-held areas from the air, and doctors say a majority of the wounded they now treat are civilians.

This week, Fahed was recovering from brain surgery in an intensive care unit, his head bandaged and his body under a heavy blanket, watched over by Mariam, his distraught 22-year-old mother.

She said that after her first-born is discharged from the hospital in Atmeh, a village in an area of relative safety near the Turkish border, they will have to return to their village in a war zone in central Syria.

“We have nowhere else to go,” she said.

Even for those who have escaped direct injury, the civil war is posing a mounting health threat. Half the country’s 88 public hospitals and nearly 200 clinics have been damaged or destroyed, the World Health Organization says, leaving many without access to health care. Diabetics can’t find insulin, kidney patients can’t reach dialysis centers. Towns are running out of water-purifying materials. Many of the hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting are exposed to the cold in tents or unheated public buildings.

“You are talking about a public health crisis on a grand scale,” said Dr. Abdalmajid Katranji, a hand and wrist surgeon from Lansing, Michigan, who regularly volunteers in Syria.

No one knows just how many people have been injured since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, starting out with peaceful protests that turned into an armed insurgency in response to a violent government crackdown.

More than 43,000 have been killed in the past 21 months, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, basing his count on names and details provided by activists in Syria. He said the number of wounded is so large he can only give a rough estimate, of more than 150,000.

Casualties began to rise dramatically at the start of the summer. At the time, the regime, its ground troops stretched thin, began bombing from the air to prevent opposition fighters from gaining more territory.

Seemingly random bombings have razed entire villages and neighborhoods, driving terrified civilians from their homes, with an estimated 3 million Syrians out of the country’s population of 23 million now displaced.

About 10 percent of the wounded suffer serious injuries and many of those will need long-term care and rehabilitation, said Dr. Omar Aswad of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations, an umbrella for 14 aid groups.

This includes artificial limbs and follow-up surgery. “This is of course not available and will be one of the major (health) problems in the months right after the war,” said Mago Tarzian, emergency director for the Paris-based Doctors Without Borders.

For now, aid groups are struggling to provide even emergency treatment in under-equipped clinics.

The two dozen small hospitals and field clinics in rebel-run areas of Idlib province in the north only have a few Intensive Care Unit beds between them, said Aswad. None has a CT scanner, an important diagnostic tool.

“We need generators, we need medical supplies and the most pressing is medicine,” he said.

The challenge has been compounded by new types of injuries.

The regime has begun dropping incendiary bombs that can cause severe burns, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, citing amateur video and witness accounts.

Ole Solvang, a researcher for the group, said he saw remnants of such a bomb on a recent Syria trip. Aswad said doctors in Idlib and nearby Aleppo province reported seeing patients with burns from such weapons.

Doctors and hospitals have also been targeted. Aswad, who fled the city of Idlib in March after regime forces entered it, said five friends in a secret association of anti-regime physicians have been arrested. Hospitals, ambulances and doctors have been attacked, Solvang said, calling it “a worrying trend that makes the medical situation even worse.”

One of the bright spots is a 50-bed emergency care clinic set up six weeks ago in a former elementary school in Atmeh.

Largely funded by a wealthy Syrian expatriate, the Orient clinic, with five ICU beds, handles some of the most serious cases in a radius of some 150 kilometers (90 miles), said its director, orthopedic surgeon Abdel Hamid Dabbak.

In the past, seriously wounded patients had to go to Turkey, risking dangerous delays at the border, he said. Now, once patients are stabilized in Atmeh, they are sent to a sister clinic across the border for follow-up care.

In Orient’s ICU, a 24-year-old rebel fighter was breathing oxygen through a mask. He had been brought in a day earlier, bleeding heavily from stomach wounds and close to death, said Dr. Maen Martini, a volunteer physician from Joliet, Illinois. After surgery, he stabilized and was taken off a respirator. A delayed crossing into Turkey would have killed him, Martini said.

The fighter’s neighbor was little Fahed, whose house had been struck by a missile on Saturday in the village of Kafr Zeita in Hama province. “The roof collapsed on us,” his mother said of the attack. “We ran out … I saw him bleeding from his head, but it was just a small cut.”

The local clinic said the injury was more serious than it seemed and the family rushed to Atmeh, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the north.

Since surgery, Fahed has been nursing and has moved his arms and legs, and the doctor is hoping for a near-complete recovery.

“Clinically, he has improved dramatically,” he said.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Wounded presage health crisis for postwar Syria
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..

Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with ‘Jack Reacher’?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Paramount hopes it’s launching a franchise with “Jack Reacher,” the Tom Cruise action thriller that hits theaters Friday.

It will be tricky in a crowded holiday marketplace, and Cruise isn’t the box-office bonanza he once was. But one need only look back to last year’s “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” to see how it might work. That film opened to $ 12 million on December 16 and went on to make $ 209 million and nearly $ 700 million worldwide for Paramount.

“Jack Reacher” will be in about 3,200 theaters, and it will have plenty of competition. Universal’s Judd Apatow comedy “This Is 40″ opens wide Friday, and Paramount‘s ‘Guilt Trip” and Disney’s 3D re-release of “Monsters Inc.” opened Wednesday.

A slew of limited releases, led by Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” along with this year’s winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes “Amour,” and tsunami survival tale “The Impossible” are also competing for moviegoers’ attention, along with a number of holdover hits.

No movie, though, will come close to catching reigning box-office champ “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” which remains in more than 4,000 theaters. Peter Jackson’s latest Middle-earth epic will take in north of $ 40 million, industry analysts say, with “Jack Reacher” and “This Is 40″ battling for second with less than half of that.

Warner Bros.’ “Hobbit” has rolled to $ 106 million in the U.S. since opening to $ 85 million last weekend. Its international total – $ 188 million as of Thursday – is even bigger.

In “Jack Reacher,” Cruise plays an ex-military investigator; the film is based on bestselling author Lee Child’s novel “One Shot” and written for the screen and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It’s from David Ellison’s Paramount-based Skydance Productions and was produced for about $ 60 million by Cruise, Don Granger, Paula Wagner and Gary Levinsohn.

Robert Duvall and Richard Jenkins co-star in the PG-13 crime thriller, which has a 53 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence.

No is expecting “Jack Reacher” to match “MI:4″ at the box office. The Reacher novels have a following, but nowhere near that of the “Mission Impossible” franchise. Cruise’s recent box-office record has been uneven, and the film’s Facebook and Twitter activity is not particularly strong.

“Jack Reacher” could wind up playing more like Cruise’s “Knight and Day,” which opened to $ 20 million and went on to make $ 76 million for Fox in 2010, or “Valkyrie,” which did $ 83 million in 2008 after opening to $ 21 million. Cruise was critically lauded for his foray earlier this year as an aging rock icon in the musical “Rock of Ages,” but that was one of the year’s bigger box-office duds.

“Jack Reacher” should play strongly with action fans, but Cruise’s personal problems could limit its broader appeal.

“I can’t imagine his divorce from Katie Holmes and the custody battle hasn’t hurt him some with women,” BoxOffice.com vice president and chief analyst Phil Contrino told TheWrap Thursday. “Actions fans will come out, but going beyond that demographic is going to be tough for him.”

On the other hand, Universal says that it tracking suggests “This Is 40″ will do quite well with women — and women over 25 in particular.

“This Is 40,” is, as the marketing campaign points out, a “sort of sequel” to Apatow’s “Knocked Up,” which opened to $ 30 million and went on to make nearly $ 150 million five years ago. Like “This Is 40,” that one was written and directed by Apatow and starred Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.

“40″ is the fourth film Apatow has directed, all for Universal (“Funny People” and “40-Year-Old Virgin” are the other two). The ensemble cast also features Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Megan Fox, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Chris O’Dowd, Jason Segel, Melissa McCarthy and Lena Dunham.

It’s R-rated and has a 62 percent positive rating at Movie Review Intelligence. The production budget was $ 35 million.

“This looks like the strongest comedy of the season,” Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations told TheWrap, “but it’s still a bit of a wild card. It’s going to connect with the New York and L.A. crowds; the key will be whether the Heartland audiences embrace it or see it as a little too hip. It will take time to tell, because of the season.”

Films released at this time of year tend to open lower because the marketplace is so crowded – by Friday, 11 new films will have hit opened this week – and the fact that many potential moviegoers are districted by shopping and other holiday preps. On the other hand, they often show lasting power and make up what they don’t take in on the weekend with stronger showings on the weekdays.

“Things could well come in lower than people are expecting across the board this weekend,” Bock said, “but look for many of these movies to make it up over the holidays.”

Summit will be looking for that kind of slow build on “The Impossible,” the English-language film from Spain based on a true story about a family’s fight to survive the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts, who received a Best Actress nomination from SAG recently, star.

Summit is releasing it Friday in 15 theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Toronto. The plan is to go nationwide early next year.

“The Impossible” already has taken in $ 52 million in Spain, the home of the real-life couple upon whom the story is based as well as director Juan Antonio Bayona (“The Orphanage”) and screenwriter Sergio Sanchez.

Other limited rollouts set for Friday include Paramount‘s 3D concert film “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away,” in 800 theaters; “On the Road,” IFC Films’ adaptation of the Jack Kerouac’s beat generation novel, in four theaters; and “Not Fade Away,” the Paramount Vantage tale of a group of 1960 New Jersey friends launching a rock band, written and directed by “Sopranos” creator David Chase, in three locations.

Sony’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, got off to a terrific start Wednesday. It racked up $ 124,848 from five theaters in its first day of release. That’s an average of $ 24,969, making it one of the biggest limited mid-week openings in history.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Mission Impossible?: Can Tom Cruise Launch a Box-Office Franchise with ‘Jack Reacher’?
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..

New Whole Plant Therapy Shows Promise as an Effective and Economical Treatment for Malaria in Research Led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Research Published Today in PLOS ONE May Point the Way Toward a New Model for Malaria Treatment That Could Also Be a Socioeconomic Stimulus for Developing Nations.

Worcester, Mass. (PRWEB) December 20, 2012

In the worldwide battle to curtail malaria, one of the most prevalent and deadly infectious diseases of the developing world, drug after drug has fallen by the wayside as the malaria parasite has become resistant to it. Only artemisinin, derived from the sweet wormwood plant, Artemisia annua, remains as an effective treatment, but it is expensive to produce (particularly when combined with other antimalarial medications to make it less prone to resistance) and is frequently in short supply.

A new study by scientists at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Massachusetts has shown that the powdered dried leaves from the Artemisia annua plant may be a far more effective antimalarial treatment than purified artemisinin, delivering 40 times more artemisinin to the blood and reducing the level of parasite infection more completely in mice. The effectiveness of the whole plant, versus the purified drug, may be due, in part, to the presence in Artemisia annua leaves of other compounds, including flavonoids also known to have antimalarial abilities, which may create a combination therapy that works synergistically to combat the parasite and ward off resistance.

These are some of the conclusions of a paper titled “Dried whole plant Artemisia annua as an antimalarial therapy,” published online today by the journal PLOS ONE (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052746).

Using the dried whole plant, instead of purified artemisinin, could significantly lower the cost of treating malaria, since it would eliminate the need to extract the drug from the plant and purify it, and could greatly expand access to antimalarial therapy, according to Pamela Weathers, professor of biology and biotechnology at WPI and a co-author of the new study. “Artemisia can be grown readily in most climates,” she says. “It is a relatively simple process to harvest the leaves, pulverize them, test samples for their potency, measure out doses, and put them in capsules. This could become the basis for local businesses and be a wonderful socioeconomic stimulus in developing countries.”

Weathers has been studying the antimalarial abilities of Artemisia annua for more than two decades. She first described the efficacy of using of the whole plant as an antimalarial treatment in a 2011 paper published in Photochemistry Reviews. In the latest study, a high-yield cultivar of the plant developed in her lab was administered to mice by her team, led by Stephen Rich, a molecular parasitologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The effects of the whole plant therapy were compared to the effects of comparable doses of pure artemisinin.

The researchers found that mice receiving a dose of the dried leaves containing a low level of artemisinin showed a significantly greater reduction in blood-borne parasites over the course of 12 to 72 hours than mice receiving the same dose of the pure artemisinin drug. When plant material containing a high level of artemisinin was given to mice, the whole plant was as effective as a high dose of the drug in clearing parasites from the blood. Interestingly, plant material with a low level of artemisinin was as effective in killing parasites as a high dose of the drug, although its effects seemed to wane after 72 hours, suggesting that multiple doses would be necessary to fully treat a malarial infection.

Weathers says the effectiveness of the whole plant treatment seems to be due, in part, to the fact that artemisinin from the dried leaves enters the bloodstream far more readily than the pure drug. “In our 2011 study, we showed that it takes about 40 times less artemisinin to achieve a comparable blood serum level when the compound is administered in the form of the whole plant,” she says. “This is consistent with the results of earlier studies in which people consumed teas made from whole leaves from Artemisia annua.”

Weathers says the effectiveness of using the whole plant as a therapy is likely a product of the plant’s complex biochemistry. “The leaves of Artemisia contain a host of compounds that are of interest for their apparent but lesser antimalarial abilities,” she says. “These include at least six flavonoids that have been shown to work synergistically with artemisinin to kill malaria parasites. This makes the artemisia leaves a combination therapy all by themselves. In fact, we have referred to the whole plant as pACT (plant Artemisinin Combination Therapy), to distinguish it from the Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACT) that are now recommended for malaria treatment by the World Health Organization.

Artemisia annua is classified as a “generally regarded as safe” (GRAS) herb that has been consumed by humans and used as an herbal therapy for thousands of years. Weathers says she has been actively working for several years to establish the foundation for a new model for using whole plant therapy to combat malaria. She said she envisions local operations where farmers would grow the high-producing cultivars of Artemisia she and others have developed as a supplemental crop and deliver the leaves to processing stations, where they would be dried, pulverized, and homogenized, and where the powder would be placed in capsules or compacted into tablets.

“By decentralizing the production of pACT, and giving local farmers and business people the opportunity to earn a living from producing it, we will not only make an effective therapy broadly available at an affordable price, we will help stimulate the economies of developing nations. It is exciting to be involved with a project that can be beneficial in so many ways.

“When you consider that artemisinin and some of the flavonoids in Artemisia annua have been to have a therapeutic effect against host of other diseases, including Leishmania, schistosomiasis, and other ailments that are serious health hazards in the developing world, the long-term possibilities of this research grow exponentially.”

This work was funded by the UMass Medical School Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI was one of the nation’s first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. WPI’s talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university’s innovative Global Perspective Program. There are more than 30 WPI project centers throughout North America and Central America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe.

Contact:

Michael Dorsey, Director of Research Communications

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Worcester, Massachusetts

508-831-5609, mwdorsey(at)wpi(dot)edu

# # #

Michael Dorsey
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
508-831-5609
Email Information

Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: New Whole Plant Therapy Shows Promise as an Effective and Economical Treatment for Malaria in Research Led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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..

Europe Needs Less Financial Integration, Not More

“More Europe” is always the solution when leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk about Europe’s slow-burning financial crisis. To qualify for emergency aid, they say, countries like Greece and Spain must surrender control of their banks and budgets to supra-national authorities. Another brick of the “more Europe” edifice was cemented into place on Dec. 13 when finance ministers of the 17-nation euro zone agreed to unified banking supervision under the European Central Bank. That’s a step toward a banking union, which is a step toward fiscal union, which is a step toward, someday, political union.

But it’s hard to see the way to a United States of Europe when every move in that direction has Europeans at each other’s throats. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Madrid and Barcelona on Dec. 17 in the latest demonstrations against austerity. Germans, meanwhile, complain that they’re being played for suckers by Spain and Greece. In a November poll, 46 percent of Germans favored letting Greece go bankrupt.

If ordinary Europeans balk at forming one happy family, must Europe disintegrate? Or is there a middle ground that would retain many of the advantages of unity while dodging the parts that make everybody mad? The coming year may answer the question of whether Euro Lite is a way out for the union or another false hope.

Some analysts argue that stopping short of full financial integration could make Europe more stable, not less. Avinash Persaud, chairman of Intelligence Capital Limited, a London-based financial adviser, says the real problem regulators need to address is controlling the booms rather than cleaning up after the busts. National regulators, he argues, might do a better job than a single, Europe-wide regulator of stopping excessive lending in one part of Europe. They weren’t vigilant enough in the last bubble, but Persaud is concerned that the European Central Bank will do worse. Its job is to promote commonality, making it “inherently averse” to enforcing tougher lending criteria in boom countries, he says. “Banks would pounce on rules limiting their lending in booming countries, accusing the regulator of fragmenting the single market,” Persaud said in an e-mail message. “The reins holding back the booms, already too loose, have just been loosened further” by the creation of a single banking supervisor, Persaud writes in an as-yet-unpublished article. “The euro,” Persaud says, “needs to be saved from the Europhiles.”

Another “less Europe” proposal would introduce national currencies alongside the euro. Mazen Skaf, a partner and managing director in the consulting firm Strategic Decisions Group, argues in a new white paper that nations such as Greece and Spain should have the option to issue new currencies for domestic transactions, including payment of salaries and benefits. Through a controlled depreciation, the nation’s labor and pension costs would fall. External debts would still be in euros. The plan would give countries “maneuvering space to drive monetary and fiscal policy on a local basis,” Skaf argues.

None of this is easy. Barry Eichengreen, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley who studies financial crises, says investors would regard the partial reintroduction of national currencies as a prelude to leaving the euro entirely—and yank their money out. He’s also skeptical of Persaud’s national-level regulation. He says a single bank supervisor would do a better job of spotting cross-border problems, such as the inflating of Spain’s and Greece’s bubbles by loans from German banks.

Finding the right balance between national sovereignty and a tighter union for Europe is the trick. Take banking regulation. Once the euro was introduced, a banking union with a lender of last resort became the logical next step: National central banks can’t bail out their economies once they don’t have their own currencies to lend. But Merkel and the Germans won’t go along with a bank bailout mechanism financed by euro-zone governments unless there’s fiscal union—i.e., shared budgets. Right now Europe is very far from sharing a budget. Spending by the European Union accounts for only 1 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product, vs. 23 percent for federal spending in the U.S. Eichengreen suggests the EU’s budget might expand to perhaps 4 percent of GDP—enough to shore up national unemployment insurance funds in times of severe recession or to fix or close banks as needed. Spending on that scale probably wouldn’t require approval by “a European Parliament that acquires all the powers of a full parliament,” he says.

Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, sees both sides. He says Europe’s monetary union is unstable without banking and fiscal union. He also says believers in more integration “shouldn’t use any opportunity to push for … building a federal Europe. You should look at what is necessary for the euro to work.” For Europe, that balancing act isn’t going away.

The bottom line: Economists on both sides of the Atlantic are searching for a middle ground that would save the euro without going all the way to full union.

Businessweek.com — Top News

Title Post: Europe Needs Less Financial Integration, Not More
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..

Worries grow in east Congo with fighter buildup

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Aid workers warned Wednesday that armed groups are setting up new front lines in and around the city of Goma in eastern Congo, where the U.N. said it now has documented at least 126 rape cases last month.

Thousands of fighters from the M23 rebel group withdrew several weeks ago from Goma, and the fighters have since taken steps toward negotiating with the Congolese government.

However, residents in Goma say M23 and other armed fighters are now positioning themselves in an around the city — including inside camps for people displaced by the violence.

The arrival of several thousand fighters within the last week is prompting fear among civilians, who already have experienced years of fighting and rebellions, said Tariq Riebl, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator there.

“They are very concerned — people are seeing this and they don’t know what it means,” he said. “I think what everyone is scared about is that it seems like people are ramping up, ramping up but for what purpose?”

Oxfam warns that more than 1 million people could come under attack if violence again flares in Goma, where more than 100,000 people already have fled from elsewhere in the region.

“Goma is typically the last refuge safe haven and now it’s being directly called into question. If Goma falls in a big battle, where are people going to go?” Riebl said.

“This is very, very disconcerting because you have a population of over 1 million people and if war were to break out, we’re looking at a horrific situation.”

The M23 rebel group, which is believed to be backed by neighboring Rwanda, is made up of hundreds of soldiers who deserted the Congolese army in April.

They took control of many villages and towns in the mineral-rich east over the last seven months, culminating in the seizure of Goma on Nov. 20. It took days of negotiations and intense international pressure, including from the U.N., for the thousands of fighters from M23 to finally withdraw from the regional capital.

The U.N. mission says it’s received allegations of serious rights violations, including killings and wounding of civilians, rape, looting, and forced recruitment of children, by elements of the M23 rebels in Goma and neighboring areas.

Congo’s armed forces are also blamed for a series of attacks as they fled Goma in retreat in late November.

The U.N. said Tuesday it now has been able to document at least 126 rapes during that period in the Minova area, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Goma.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said that two Congolese soldiers so far have been arrested in connection with the rapes, while seven others had been implicated in looting in the area.

“The Congolese Armed Forces have started investigating those human rights violations,” he said. “The U.N. Mission is supporting the military justice procedure in conducting thorough investigations into these allegations to ensure that the perpetrators are identified and held accountable.”

Rape has long been used as a brutal weapon of war in eastern Congo, where both soldiers and various armed groups use sexual violence to intimidate, punish and control the population.

Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Title Post: Worries grow in east Congo with fighter buildup
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..