tagged w/ News UK
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Researchers found that women who come into contact with the hair product during early pregnancy more than double their chances of giving birth to a son with hypospadias, a genital deformity.
The defect normally affects around one in 250 boys in the UK, causing the urinary opening to be shifted beneath the penis.
Although it can be corrected by surgery before a boy's first birthday, more severe cases can lead to urinary, sexual and fertility problems.
Hormone-disrupting hairspray chemicals called phthalates, which can affect reproductive development, are believed to be behind the connection.
But the same study showed that taking folic acid reduces the risk of giving birth to a child with the condition by 36 per cent.
An increased risk was only seen in women whose jobs led to high exposure to hairspray chemicals, such as hairdressers, beauty therapists, research chemists and factory workers.
The link was made after researchers conducted detailed interviews with 471 women whose sons had been referred to surgeons for hypospadias, and 490 "control" mothers of boys not born with the defect. The women lived across 120 London boroughs and local authority districts.Researchers found that women who come into contact with the hair product during early... more
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Karzai's comments came late Tuesday in a speech to a U.N. Security Council delegation visiting Kabul, the capital, this week. He accused the international community of failing "to fight the Taliban properly" since the U.S.-led war in the country began in 2001.
"This war has gone on for seven years. The Afghans don't understand anymore how come a little force like the Taliban can continue to exist, can continue to flourish, can continue to launch attacks with 40 countries in Afghanistan, with entire NATO force in Afghanistan, with the entire international community behind them," Karzai said. "Still we are not able to defeat the Taliban."
Karzai spoke days after U.S. President-elect Barack Obama promised to put greater emphasis on security in Afghanistan next year. The two men talked for the first time by phone last week.
Karzai, whose five-year term ends next year, has become increasingly critical of the international community. He has complained bitterly about mounting civilian casualties caused by U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan and has called for a halt to NATO raids on Afghan villages. In recent weeks, he has become more forceful in his calls for negotiations with the Taliban, saying he would guarantee safe passage to Taliban leader Mohammad Omar if he agreed to talks with the government.
"If there is no deadline, we have the right to find another solution for peace and security, which is negotiations," Karzai said.
Karzai, who was elected in 2004 after serving as interim president following the fall of the Taliban in 2002, is facing stiff political competition ahead of the presidential election set for September. With insurgents and criminal groups in control of parts of the country, his political foes have seized on the failure to effectively counter the threat, with some calling for an earlier election.
According to the constitution, the presidential election must be held 30 to 60 days before the end of the incumbent's term. Karzai's term ends April 22. But the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan decided this year to delay the vote by six months because harsh winter weather and a lack of security would make it difficult to organize polls in remote provinces.Karzai's comments came late Tuesday in a speech to a U.N. Security Council... more
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What did you do on Thanksgiving Day?
President-elect Barack Obama and his family spent an hour handing out chickens, potatoes, bread and other Thanksgiving food to poor families on Chicago's South Side Wednesday morning after Obama introduced his latest economic advisors. Then he shook hands with Catholic grade school students ecstatic to see him.
Many of the poor and homeless - some of whom come for food every Wednesday - screamed in disbelief as they entered the parking lot of St. Columbanus church at 71st and Calumet and realized the reason they had been wanded by the U.S. Secret Service was because Obama, his wife and daughters, were standing there ready to pass out the food usually handed out by volunteers.
"At Thanksgiving, it's important for us to remember people in need," Obama said. "They told me the number of people coming here is up 33 percent from last year."
About 600 families got food, said Kate Maehr, executive director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. That's up from 270 families last year, said the Rev. Matt Eyerman.
This is the fourth year in a row Obama has handed out food before Thanksgiving. Last year, he did it in New Hampshire.
"We started seeing increases as early as last year January," Maehr said. "In April, we started seeing double-digit increases.
"Happy Thanksgiving - hey, don't forget your chicken," Obama said after hugging one woman who screamed when she saw him. Declining to give an autograph, he said, "If I sign autographs, I can't pass out my chickens."
Michelle Obama and their daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 , stood beside their father also handing out food in the 43-degree weather beneath the elaborate 99-year-old stained glass windows of St. Columbanus church. Obama wore a leather jacket while Michelle and the girls were bundled in winter coats and hats.
Obama said it was important to bring his daughters because, "I want them to know how fortunate they are and that they have to give back," Obama said.
As he finished handing out the chickens, Obama turned and looked up at the windows of St. Columbanus School where the pre-K through 8th graders were furiously waving and screaming from their second- and third-floor windows, their screams barely audible through the closed windows.
"Hey Michelle, look," he pointed as she waved back.
"We've got to go in there and say 'hi' to those kids," he told his wife, much to the chagrin of the Secret Service, which frowns on spontaneity.What did you do on Thanksgiving Day?
President-elect Barack Obama and his family... more
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The Iraqi parliament has voted to accept a deal on the future presence of US troops in the country.
The decision, praised by US President George Bush, means US troops will leave Iraqi streets by mid-2009 and will quit Iraq entirely by the end of 2011.
The agreement is the result of a year of negotiations with the US, with the Iraqis requesting several changes.
Some groups fiercely opposed the pact in parliament and at mass rallies, demanding that US troops leave earlier.
Iraq's Presidential Council must still ratify the deal but its approval is expected.
Iraq's government has hailed the parliamentary session as the prelude to the return of full sovereignty to the country.
After last-minute negotiations that had delayed the vote for a day, MPs passed it on one significant condition: that a referendum is held on the pact in the middle of next year.
If that fails to endorse the withdrawal plan, US troops may have to leave earlier, possibly by the middle of 2010, our correspondent says.The Iraqi parliament has voted to accept a deal on the future presence of US troops in... more
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An American woman who was recognised as the world's oldest person for a year has died at the age of 115.
Edna Parker died at a nursing home in Indiana, her family said.
Mrs Parker had been a widow since 1939 and had lived alone in her farmhouse until she was 100. She outlived her two sons, and had 31 other descendants.
With Mrs Parker's death, Maria de Jesus of Portugal, born in 1893, is the world's oldest person, according to the Gerontology Research Group.
Stephen Coles, who maintains the centre's list of centenarians, said Mrs Parker's great-nephew told him she died on Wednesday.
She did not drink alcohol or smoke, and led an active life.
Mrs Parker, a teacher before she became a farmer's wife in 1913, advised people to get "more education," the Associated Press news agency reported.An American woman who was recognised as the world's oldest person for a year has... more
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Batman's Demise? How do you think Bruce Wayne will end?
Last Updated: 1:12PM GMT 25 Nov 2008
Batman: Speculation is rife the super hero is to be killed off after 70 years
'Batman RIP' will see "the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman", according to Grant Morrison.
There are rumours that Batman will suffer a gruesome end when his sidekick Robin goes over to "the dark side" and destroys him in a terrible betrayal.
Batman, alter ego of Bruce Wayne a wealthy industrialist, operates in the American Gotham City.
Others speculate that Wayne may either retire from his duties or be killed by a mystery villain known as the Black Glove.
His fate will be revealed in the latest issue of DC Comic's Batman, published on 26 November.
Either way, his demise will lead to a hunt for a replacement.
"What I am doing is a fate worse than death, things that no one would expect to happen to these guys at all," Mr Morrison told Comic Book Resources.
Mr Morrison, the Scottish writer, has written storylines for comics including X-Men for Marvel and Superman for DC Comics. He took over writing the Batman series for DC in 2006.
Bruce Wayne has given up the Caped Crusader mantle once before. In the 'Knightfall' storyline, Batman's back was broken by villain Bane, causing Wayne to recruit Jean-Paul Valley to replace him.
Mr Morrison declined to reveal who the new Batman would be, but the frontrunners include Tim Drake who has been Robin since 1991 and Dick Grayson - the original Boy Wonder.
It is not the first time a superhero has met an unfortunate end in the comic world.
Last year, Captain America was killed after being shot by a sniper in New York.
Superman's death in 1992 at the hands of Doomsday became the biggest selling Superman comic in history. He was later resurrected.
Batman was co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger for DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics in May 1939.Batman's Demise? How do you think Bruce Wayne will end?
Last Updated:... more
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US President-elect Barack Obama has named former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker to chair a new panel advising him on the economy.
Mr Volcker, 81, who advised Mr Obama on the economy during the election campaign, led the Fed under presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Regan.
The President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board is part of efforts to tackle problems in the ailing economy.
Mr Obama has pledged to focus on the US economic slowdown as his top priority.
He as also said he will cut billions of dollars in "wasteful spending".
This is designed to partially offset costly stimulus packages aimed at reviving the US economy.
Paul Volcker with Barack Obama
Analysis: Economic appointments
'Historic proportions'
The panel's staff director will be the University of Chicago economist, Austan Goolsbee, another Obama economic advisor.
It will bring in outside expertise so that the president-elect can build a consensus as he seeks to stabilise the financial markets.
Mr Obama said he hoped the new board would provide fresh thinking and detailed reports about what was happening across the country.
"It has become increasingly clear in recent months that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions," Mr Obama said.
"At this defining moment for our nation, the old ways of thinking and acting just won't do."
New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner has already been named as the President-elect's treasury secretary.US President-elect Barack Obama has named former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker... more
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Roger Boyes in Crakow, Poland
For a brief moment yesterday Cracow’s ancient Royal cathedral, resting place of Polish kings, queens, saints and heroes, came to resemble a crime scene investigation.
Gloved and masked forensic scientists lifted the fragile skeleton of General Wladyslaw Sikorski, Poland’s wartime leader, out of his marble tomb, wrapped him in foil and subjected the body to the latest tests available to modern science – tomography scans, DNA samples, a search for trace elements of poisons.
The aim was to shed light on one of the enduring secrets of the Second World War. Was General Sikorski, whose body was recovered after an air crash in the Straits of Gibraltar in July 1943, murdered by the Russians? Or even by the British?
The coffin, draped in the red-and-white Polish flag, was carried out of St Leonard’s crypt on the Wawel Hill, out of a cathedral door inscribed with the Latin motto Corpora dormiunt vigilant animae – the bodies are asleep, the souls are awake – and into a dark-windowed hearse for the short journey to the Cracow Institute of Radiology. Overhead, a helicopter hovered as if to shield the dead general from yet another assault. It was an extraordinary episode, a token of how deeply disturbed the relationship between Poland and Russia has become. The day before the exhumation of Sikorski, Lech Kaczynski, the Polish President, was attacked in Georgia while in a convoy with Mikheil Saa-kashvili, his Georgian counterpart, who promptly blamed the Russians for trying to shoot him.Roger Boyes in Crakow, Poland
For a brief moment yesterday Cracow’s ancient... more
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· This week's new study showing that a cholesterol-lowering statin drug can cut the risk of heart attack or stroke has opened up a debate over how aggressive doctors and patients should be when it comes to using statins — and who should take them.
The study, which involved nearly 18,000 volunteers, found that people with normal cholesterol levels who took Crestor for a little less than two years had nearly half the chance of a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death.
The downside: A slightly increased risk of diabetes.
Doctors say the study helps explain why so many people with normal cholesterol levels end up having a heart attack or stroke — people who were considered healthy up to that point. Experts say about half of all heart attack patients fall into this category.
"This trial really shows us that it's quite reasonable to consider using statin therapy, and that getting our cholesterol levels to levels we've never seen this low before might actually be beneficial," says Dr. Lori Mosca of Columbia University, who is the director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Medical Center.
The question is how do you tell which people with normal cholesterol levels might benefit?
The study suggests that a highly sensitive blood test for "C-reactive protein" — a protein that is found in greater quantities in the blood when there's inflammation of the vessels around the heart and other parts of the body — is the best way to sort out who needs statins and who doesn't when their cholesterol is normal.
Having high levels of CRP in the blood may mean there's inflammation in the arteries that sets the stage for a heart attack or stroke.
But the new results have only intensified an ongoing debate about the CRP test. Some doctors are enthusiastic and plan to start testing more patients.
They think CRP tests should be done routinely in millions of people at "intermediate" risk of cardiovascular disease.
In the study, people who benefited were mainly in their 50s, 60s and 70s. They were in good health and had desirable cholesterol levels without any kind of treatment before they entered the study.
Mosca says she usually doesn't need to order a CRP to tell who's at risk and needs a statin.· This week's new study showing that a cholesterol-lowering statin drug... more
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned of a "severe" economic downturn in the UK in 2009.
The Paris-based body has predicted that economic output in the UK will fall by 1.1% next year, more than any other major G7 country.
The US economy is forecast to decline by 0.9% in 2009, and Germany by 0.8%.
Economic growth in the 30 countries of the OECD is forecast to fall by 0.4%, before growing by 1.5% in 2010.
As well as the UK, the OECD identifies Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Turkey as being the countries most affected by the economic slowdown.
"These economies are most directly affected by the financial crisis, which in some cases exposed other vulnerabilities, or by severe housing downturns," it says.
In the pre-Budget report, the chancellor accepted that the UK economy would decline by 0.75% to 1.25% next year, but said that the UK was "better placed" than other countries to cope with the downturn.
The OECD warns that any recovery in the US is likely to be "languid" as consumption is held back by the large losses in household wealth.
And it says that the risks are still on the downside, suggesting that economic conditions could worsen significantly.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned of a... more
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New Orleans has been ranked as the most violent US city, with more than 19,000 reported crimes and 208 murders in 2007, according to a study.
Last Updated: 11:47PM GMT 24 Nov 2008
the forgotten city......by Bush Administration,, Thank God for people like Brad Pitt etc....
The study published by CQ Press, the book publishing arm of Congressional Quarterly, examined six categories – homicide, rape, burglary, robbery, aggravated assault and motor vehicle theft.
The rankings include all cities of at least 75,000 residents that reported crime data to the FBI in those crime categories for 2007.
"Based on a per-capita basis, New Orleans has the No. 1 crime ranking using FBI statistics," said CQ spokesman Ben Krasney.
New Orleans was well ahead of second-place Camden, New Jersey, and third-place Detroit, according to the study.
St Louis, Missouri and Oakland, California, rounded out the top five.
In homicides, New Orleans had 94.7 per 100,000 population, compared to the overall national average of 5.6 per 100,000 and to Gary, Indiana, ranked second with 73.2 per 100,000.New Orleans has been ranked as the most violent US city, with more than 19,000... more
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AKHMAJI, Georgia – Russia's foreign minister has suggested that Georgia's U.S.-backed government staged a shooting incident near a motorcade carrying the presidents of Poland and Georgia in order to discredit Russia and South Ossetia.
The shooting late Sunday stoked anger months after Georgia and Russia fought a brief war over the separatist region of South Ossetia. The August conflict worsened Moscow's relations with the West.
It also left South Ossetia entirely under the control of separatist forces and Russian troops. Before the war, Georgian forces held parts of South Ossetia.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has blamed Russian troops for the gunfire that broke out as he and Polish President Lech Kaczynski were traveling near a roadblock at the edge of South Ossetia.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has blamed Russian troops for the gunfire that broke out as he and Polish President Lech Kaczynski were traveling near a roadblock at the edge of South Ossetia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there was no gunfire from Russian or South Ossetian positions, and he suggested Georgia engineered the incident to discredit Russia and South Ossetia, Russian news agencies reported.
"This is a provocation, clearly," Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying late Sunday in Peru, where he was accompanying President Dmitry Medvedev. "It's not the first time something like this has happened: They organize everything themselves and then blame the Russian or Ossetian side."
Russia and Georgia have accused each other of starting the August war, which began with a Georgian artillery barrage on the South Ossetian capital.
Georgia says the assault was prompted by Russia sending a massive troop contingent into South Ossetia. But Russia denies that and in turn accuses Georgia of a brutal action targeting civilians.
"Georgia's authorities thought it possible to resolve this country's territorial integrity problem by using Stalin's principle that is well known in our country: 'no man, no problem'," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Monday.
cont...AKHMAJI, Georgia – Russia's foreign minister has suggested that... more
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Chinese archaeologists have claimed that a 1,000-year-old miniature pagoda, unearthed in Banjing, holds a piece of skull belonging to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.
The pagoda was wedged tightly inside an iron case that was discovered at the site of a former temple in the city in August.
The four-storey pagoda, which is almost four feet high and one-and-a-half feet wide, is thought by archaeologists to be one of the 84,000 pagodas commissioned by Ashoka the Great in the second century BC to house the remains of the Buddha.
Ashoka, one of India's greatest emperors, converted to Buddhism after waging a bloody war in the eastern state of Orissa. He is widely credited with spreading Buddhism throughout Asia, and across his kingdom, which stretched from Pakistan through Afghanistan and into Iran.
The pagoda found in Nanjing is crafted from wood, gilded with silver and inlaid with gold, coloured glass and amber. It matches a description of another of Ashoka's pagodas which used to be housed underneath the Changgan Buddhist temple in Nanjing.
A description of the contents of the pagoda was also found: a gold coffin bearing part of Buddha's skull inside a silver box. Although scans have confirmed that there are two small metal boxes inside the pagoda, experts have not yet peered inside. The pagoda is currently on display in the museum.
Qi Haining, the head of archaeology at Nanjing Museum, told state media: "This pagoda may be unique, the only one known to contain parts of Buddha's skull".
But he said there would be a lengthy process before the cases could be opened. In 2001, Chinese authorities found a case that was said to contain a relic of Buddha's hair, but declined to open the welded box in case it damaged the contents.
De Qing, an expert in Buddhism in Nanjing, said: “The discovery of the relic will have a huge influence on the cultural history of Buddhism in China and will establish Nanjing as a premier site. It will be a great encouragement for Buddhists as well as for future studies. It is important for Buddhism as a religion to have these sarira, or relics, to show its followers. The more a Buddhist practises, the more relics will remain of him after his death. I am hugely excited. I think they should take the skull outside of the container, it is a sacred item, but it is not an untouchable item.”
CONT...
photo via http://www.flickr.com/photos/h-k-d/Chinese archaeologists have claimed that a 1,000-year-old miniature pagoda, unearthed... more
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