Willpower and desires: Turning up the volume on what you want most

ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2012) ? Trying to resist that late-night tweet or checking your work email again? The bad news is that desires for work and entertainment often win out in the daily struggle for self-control, according to a new study that measures various desires and their regulation in daily life.

"Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success," says Wilhelm Hofmann of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Determining how to best resist desires is not as easy as it seems, according to personality and social psychologists who recently presented new research in San Diego about willpower and food psychology.

Resisting desires

In the new study of desire regulation, 205 adults wore devices that recorded a total of 7,827 reports about their daily desires. Desires for sleep and sex were the strongest, while desires for media and work proved the hardest to resist. Even though tobacco and alcohol are thought of as addictive, desires associated with them were the weakest, according to the study. Surprisingly to the researchers, sleep and leisure were the most problematic desires, suggesting "pervasive tension between natural inclinations to rest and relax and the multitude of work and other obligations," says Hofmann, the lead author of the study forthcoming in Psychological Science.

Moreover, the study supported past research that the more frequently and recently people have resisted a desire, the less successful they will be at resisting any subsequent desire. Therefore as a day wears on, willpower becomes lower and self-control efforts are more likely to fail, says Hofmann, who co-authored the paper with Roy Baumeister of Florida State University and Kathleen Vohs of the University of Minnesota.

Scientists who study the complex interplay between desires and self control say that passing up on temptation is made ever more difficult by the idea that there is no single or clear feeling that alerts us to when our willpower is low. "But we find that when willpower is low, everything is felt more intensely," says Baumeister, author of Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. "Low willpower seems to turn up the volume on life."

In a series of experiments, Baumeister and his colleagues found that people with low willpower reported more distress in response to an upsetting film and rated cold water as more painful during a cold-water immersion test. They also had stronger desires to open a gift and to keep eating cookies.

Postponing a snack

The effects of willpower depletion explain why so many people have trouble resisting unhealthy food -- the more they resist the food, the more they crave it. That's why one group of researchers is looking at ways people can alter their physical cravings. Nicole Mead of Catolica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics and her colleagues tested the notion that postponing consumption of a unhealthy snack to an unspecified future time would reduce the desire for, and therefore consumption of, that snack.

In one experiment, Mead's team gave 105 high school students in the Netherlands a bag of potato chips. Some participants received instructions to either postpone, restrain, or consume the potato chips, while others could choose among the three eating strategies. Over the course of one week, students who initially postponed eating the chips subsequently ate the least amount of the chips, regardless of whether they chose or were given the strategy. They ate even more than those who were instructed to not eat them at all.

"Postponing consumption is an effective strategy that consumers can use for controlling unwanted food-related desires," Mead says. "In modern society, people are absolutely inundated with opportunities to consume, and this strategy may be particularly helpful because it primarily works through desire reduction rather than willpower enhancement." Future research will examine whether the strategy works for other transient impulses, such as spending and sexual desires.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130094353.htm

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Don't blame C-sections for fat children: study (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Children born by Cesarean section are no more likely to become obese than if they are born vaginally, according to a Brazilian study.

Past research from Brazil had found a link between excessive weight and C-sections, leading some scientists to suggest that not being exposed to bacteria from the birth canal could make children fatter, but the latest findings -- published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition -- suggest this doesn't appear to be the case.

The research is of particular interest in Brazil, because in 2009 more than half of the babies there were born by C-section. In the United States, the number has been on the rise for years and is now over 30 percent.

"We thought from the beginning that probably what happened with the previous study is that they didn't adjust for all of the confounders," said Fernando Barros of the Catholic University of Pelotas, who worked on the study, referring to factors such as the mother's height and weight.

Barros and his colleagues used data on three groups of several thousand people born in Southern Brazil in 1982, 1993 or 2004.

Researchers contacted the children at different ages until the oldest had turned 23. Those born by C-section were more likely to be heavy, with obesity rates between nine and 16 percent, compared to rates of seven to 10 percent of children born vaginally.

However, that difference vanished once the researchers accounted for factors such as family income, birth weight, schooling and the mother's weight, height, age and smoking habits.

"When you factor in all of these other factors, the relationship between obesity and Cesarean sections disappears," said Barros.

The earlier Brazilian study left out many of those factors, including maternal height and weight, Barros's team wrote in its report.

"The really simple explanation would be that more obese women require more Cesarean sections than lean women... and it's really not the C-section itself," said David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life Clinic at Children's Hospital, Boston, who was not involved in the study.

He said that things such as a pregnant woman's diet and smoking habits, and whether or not she has diabetes, might influence a developing fetus.

Some believe that C-section babies are different because they are not exposed to bacteria in the birth canal like babies born vaginally. The theory is part of a hypothesis which suggests that a person's immune system develops differently when they're not exposed to beneficial bacteria early in life.

"We're not saying this hypothesis is not interesting. It is. We're just saying, right now, without data, we cannot confirm the finding," Barros said. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/zjs00B

(Reporting from New York by Andrew Seaman; editing by Elaine Lies)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/hl_nm/us_c_section

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What's next for Occupy Wall Street? Activists target foreclosure crisis.

As the protest movement heads into spring, Occupy Wall Street activists are interrupting foreclosure auctions and helping families re-occupy their homes.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which cut its teeth last fall by occupying streets and parks across the country, is moving into a new phase as it gears up for spring: occupying homes.

Skip to next paragraph

The movement that claimed to speak for ?the 99 percent? and made income inequality part of the national discussion now is organizing protests at housing auctions to support those affected by the foreclosure crisis.

?At first, we were occupying parks, then homes,? says Sofia Teona, an organizer with Occupy Atlanta, of the movement?s evolution. ?We are starting locally, but it?s a national movement.?

On Thursday, dozens were arrested when a group in New York interrupted a foreclosure auction in a courtroom, and Occupy organizers say more events are planned nationally in coming weeks.

According to Michael Premo, an organizer for ?Occupy Our Homes? in New York, ?the movement has carried out 50 similar actions nationally in the past month, including foreclosure disruptions, eviction defense actions, and home re-occupations.

Although sales by banks of foreclosed houses were down in the third quarter of 2011, they still made up 20 percent of all homes sold. At the height of the housing boom in 2005 and 2006, that number was less than five percent.

Foreclosure sales lower property values, and many economists don?t think that the economy will restart without dealing with the issue, says John Taylor, president and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a Washington-based nonprofit that urges banks to provide credit and investment capital to low-income communities.

?I think that it?s good that they are focusing on something the average person can understand and something specific like foreclosures,? Mr. Taylor says of the Occupy activists. ?It makes sense because foreclosures are the smoking gun. They are evidence of the malfeasance of predatory lending.?

At the foreclosure auction in Brooklyn on Thursday, nearly 100 protesters started singing to disrupt bidding on foreclosed homes. Approximately 35 people were arrested, according to the National Lawyers Guild. A video of the event posted on the Internet shows the protesters singing slightly off-key and out of sync as some are arrested and led out of the auction.

Websites organized by Occupy activists have sprouted up to help connect people across the country who are battling foreclosure, providing such information as where supporters can donate money. But some of the actions are very specific and center on saving one family home at a time.

In one such case in Hawaii, a letter-writing campaign organized by members of a family to stay in their home has met with some limited success. Wells-Fargo, the bank that issued the loan, has agreed to let them stay until mid-February.

Another case in Atlanta illustrates both the wrenching nature, and the complexity, of the foreclosure process.

The Pittman family thought they were going to inherit the house that their grandmother had lived in since 1953. Instead, they are now occupying it.

Eloise Pittman?s house in Atlanta was foreclosed on early last fall, but her family didn?t find out until shortly before she died in November.

In 2006, Pittman, a retired school secretary whose only source of income was her retirement checks, refinanced her house and got a loan of $300,000, according to her granddaughter. Pittman couldn?t keep up with the high payments and she avoided telling her family.

For the past 51 days, the Pittman family and members of the Occupy Atlanta movement have camped in a tent outside the house and stayed in the house to protest what they call Chase?s policy of predatory lending.

A spokesman for Chase has a different story, saying the bank did not originate the loan.

?We worked with Ms. Eloise Pittman in 2009 to modify her loan, and when her payments stopped in mid-2010, the foreclosure process started,? says Greg Hassell, a spokesman for Chase. According to Mr. Hassell, Chase is offering to let the family buy the house back for the market rate.

According to the Pittmans, the bank offered the family two options. Either they pay $100,000 to keep the house, or else accept $2,500 to leave.

They are choosing a third option ? joining Occupy Atlanta to march to the bank to demand the deed back.

?We are going to march to Chase to demand that they give back the deed,? says Carmen Pittman, Eloise Pittman?s granddaughter. ?We won?t stop fighting until justice is served.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/cXojlR6yuvw/What-s-next-for-Occupy-Wall-Street-Activists-target-foreclosure-crisis

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Kenya police arrest imam over weapons cache (AP)

MOMBASA, Kenya ? Kenyan police say they have arrested an imam after they found a cache of weapons in his house.

The chief of police for the coastal region says that the suspect is a sympathizer with Somalia's al-Shabab militia. Deputy Commissioner Aggrey Adoli says that the haul included a pistol, a rifle, bomb detonators and some hand grenades.

Aboud Rogo was named in a U.N. report last year as having links to al-Shabab. He is currently on bail for possession of weapons.

But Rogo's wife Khania Saidi Sagar says that police framed her husband. She says the house was searched in front of Rogo's mother and children and nothing was found.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_re_af/af_kenya_arrest

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Social gaming news roundup: Amazon, Tagged and DeNA

Tagged sunsetting hi5?s gaming network ? Social network Tagged has revealed what it will be doing with hi5, the rival social network it acquired in December. According to an interview on TechCrunch, the company will be sunsetting hi5?s gaming platform and replacing it with games developed by the Tagged team.

Zynga to release fourth quarter results on Valentines Day ? Zynga has announced it will hold its first earnings call as a public company on Tuesday, February 14th. The company will discuss its financial results for the full year of 2011 and its fourth quarter. The call is scheduled for 2:00 pm pacific, after the close of the stock market.

Amazon still hiring for mobile, social gaming - Amazon is ramping up its hiring of game developers for both mobile and social games, according to job postings spotted by Xconomy. The company?s a2z arm has positions open for mobile game developers, and in Seattle the company is recruiting specifically for social game positions. Last May Amazon posted a job for a game designer to lead the company in creating mobile and social games, which lead to the hiring of game industry vet Jonathan Tweet. While Amazon has been working on its gaming project for a number of months, so far no details have emerged.

Social game school opening in Japan ? Japan is getting a school specifically designed to help developers create social games according to Japanese industry watcher Serkan Toto. The aptly named Social Game Academy will open in April in Tokyo?s trendy Roppongi Hills district.

The Sims Social is surprisingly sexy ? According to some fun statistics released by EA, since the Sims Social debuted on Facebook, more than 11 million dirty jokes have been told and more than 70 million love confessions have been made. EA also noted that Sims in the game ?woohoo? more than 680,000 times a day.

Konami releasing Star Wars social game ? Siliconera is reporting Konami will be releasing a social game based on the Star Wars franchise, but only in Japan. The game will be called Star Wars Collection and will be on GREE?s mobile social network.

Virgin Gaming platform now has 1 million members ? According to Virgin, the company?s foray into a social gaming with its VirginGaming.com platform has paid off. The service has gathered more than 1 million members since it launched in June 2010.

Google+ now allowing nicknames and online handles ? Google+ has added support for alternate nicknames to its service. While it will still require users to register their real names, alternate names will now appear alongside a user?s name.

DeNA partnering with Mixi to open virtual shopping mall - Mobile social games company DeNA has signed a partnership with Japanese social network Mixi to open an online shopping mall on the Mixi platform. Penn Olson is reporting the virtual mall will open in late march.

Andreessen Horowitz looking for $1.5 billion more for VC funds ? The New York Times is reporting that Marc Andreessen is raising $1.5 billion to fuel two new funds at his high-profile venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The firm currently holds stakes in a number of well known social and mobile companies such as Zynga and Instagram.

Source: http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/01/27/social-gaming-news-roundup-amazon-tagged-and-dena/

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Senegal Elections: President Cleared To Run For 3rd Term, Pop Star Not On Ballot

DAKAR, Senegal ? Senegal's opposition called on the population Saturday to rise up against President Abdoulaye Wade's decision to run for a third term, a move that foreshadows more unrest after a night of clashes that saw a policeman stoned to death in the normally peaceful nation on Africa's west coast.

The streets of the capital were strewn with debris, sign of the riots that spread from a downtown square to the interior of the country late Friday after the country's constitutional court approved Wade's candidacy in next month's election.

The constitution was changed soon after the 85-year-old Wade took office in 2000 in order to impose a two-term limit. He argues that because the law was not in effect when he was elected, it should not apply to him.

In a statement Saturday, the M23 coalition representing all the major opposition candidates running in the election said the court had betrayed the people.

"A black page has been written in the history of our country by the decision to validate the candidacy of Abdoulaye Wade," the statement said. "We are inviting the population to organize and mobilize themselves to face Wade. The combat has started."

Opposition candidate Macky Sall, a former prime minister under Wade who is now running to unseat him, said they had given "the order" for people to take to the streets. He denied that future protests could turn violent.

Police spokesman Col. Alioune Ndiaye said an officer had been killed late Friday during the riots that followed the court's verdict. A graphic video posted on YouTube shows a body lying on the ground, a cinderblock lying near his head, as a group of young men hurl more rocks.

"I can confirm that one policeman was killed," Ndiaye said. "He was attacked and he was hit in the head by a brick. He was stoned to death," he said.

On Saturday, police detained Alioune Tine, a leading opposition figure who was the organizer of Friday's protest. The other members of the M23 coalition attempted to visit him at the Criminal Investigations Division ? including international pop star Youssou Ndour. The Grammy-award winning singer tussled with police after they barred him from entering by shoving him back.

Fourteen candidates were cleared by the court to run in the Feb. 26 election. Among those whose applications was not validated is Ndour, who according to the court did not turn in enough valid signatures on his petition. Ndour is appealing the decision, and after the fracas at the police station, he told reporters that the government is afraid of him.

"They are afraid of me because they know that Senegal was asleep, and I woke it up," he said. "Senegal is not a deed for a house belonging to Abdoulaye Wade."

Senegal finds itself at a crossroads before the Feb. 26 election. The dispute over the legality of Wade's candidacy is compounded by the worsening economic situation, including spiraling prices and grinding unemployment.

Wade has alienated many former allies as well as the population by giving an increasing share of power to his unpopular son. Corruption scandals have erupted at regular intervals, detracting from the government's achievements which include the building of numerous roads and bridges.

In 2008, an audit of the Ministry of the Family discovered that officials there had billed the government for coffee spoons costing $74 a piece. The entire cutlery set cost Senegal nearly $30,000.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/28/senegal-elections_n_1239159.html

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Canadian commander by day; sexual killer by night

During cocktail hour at a Manhattan art gallery in May 2008, German-born Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter politely introduced himself to socialite Roxane West as someone he was not.

"I was standing there looking at a painting and he came over ... a gentleman," West remembered. He introduced himself as Clark Rockefeller, a member of the storied New York family, charming West as he had done many other women, mostly wealthy but sometimes not.

For despite his smooth demeanor, prosecutors say, Gerhartsreiter was a serial con artist and a rough customer.

This week, Gerhartsreiter and his defense lawyers have attended a preliminary hearing in Alhambra Superior Court, where he was ordered Wednesday to stand trial in the 1985 murder of John Sohus. The victim?s remains were unearthed in 1994 at a San Marino, Calif., property owned by Sohus' mother, where Gerhartsreiter once lived in a guest house.

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"Dateline NBC" details the new developments in the decades-old case in a one-hour special report Friday at 10 p.m. ET. NBC News' Mike Tabibi retraces Gerhartsreiter?s shape-shifting cross-country journey and the new evidence that has surfaced after so many years.

"He's always maintained his innocence," said attorney Jeffrey Denner. "At the end of the day he believes he will be vindicated."

When he first arrived in San Marino in the 1980s, Gerhartsreiter identified himself as ?Christopher Chichester, the 13th baronet of Chichester.? Meredith Brucker, who became a regular acquaintance of Chichester's, told NBC News that he tempered his alleged aristocracy with a quick likeability.

"I just called him Chichester," Brucker said. "He even laughed about it being pretentious, so he was self-deprecating."

By day, he claimed to take filmmaking classes at the University of Southern California, even starring in his own student horror film. By night, he enchanted wealthy widows at San Marino's Church of Our Savior social events.

"My father introduced us,? said Carol Campbell, who was then a college student, describing a date with Chichester. "I assumed it was lunch, but instead we went on a series of errands, like to the post office. It didn't add up.?

His story further unraveled when he asked Cori Woods out on a date to the movies. Woods was 12 years old at the time.

"My mom said a very definitive 'no,' and then after that, it got a little weird," Woods said. "He started asking other inappropriate girls out ... not age-appropriate."

Chichester was living at the time in the guest house of Ruth Sohus, the divorced mother of an only son, John.

John and his wife, Linda, suddenly packed up one day in 1985 and left to pursue secretive government jobs in Paris, leaving Ruth alone with Chichester.

Chichester, who, it turned out, had been the point of contact for the overseas jobs, continually reassured Ruth that John and Linda were alive and doing fine. Detectives later speculated that he also assumed the role of surrogate son to Ruth Sohus while John had been away.

But in spring 1985, John and Linda Sohus were reported missing, and a few months later Christopher Chichester left San Marino, heading East. He discarded his business card emblazoned with the Chichester heraldic arms and put on "the Rockefeller Suit," as reporter Mark Seal characterized it in his book "The Man in the Rockefeller Suit."

Clark Rockefeller was every bit as charming as Christopher Chichester, and just as quirky.

Socialite Roxane West showed NBC News several coy and strange text messages she received from him:

?I did want to tell you that I find you superbly ... never mind,? read one. ?Perhaps go to Central Park and kiss for an hour or so??

?In a submarine. Crowded. Strange ? thought of you just a minute ago.?

"The texts were so wild and so farfetched," said West. "You would giggle and go, 'Where does he come up with this stuff?'"

Rockefeller settled on Boston's Beacon Hill, where he lived as husband to Harvard MBA Sandra Boss and as a loving father to their daughter.

The con artist appeared genuinely happy, said neighbor Amy Patt. "I saw Clark as a doting father,? she said. ?He would carry her on his shoulder. He would gloat about how smart she was."

But when Boss divorced Rockefeller in 2008, taking their daughter with her, Clark Rockefeller kidnapped the girl. He was quickly caught, and his trail of lies tracked back to California.

While he was convicted of his daughter?s kidnapping in 2008, Gerhartsreiter maintains he is innocent of killing John Sohus.

As for his years posing as Chichester and Rockefeller, Gerhartstreiter gave a simple reply to the FBI in trancsripts obtained by The Boston Globe:

"If you're born short, you want to be bigger."

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   2. Romney revising disclosures for overseas accounts
   3. No, President Obama isn't actually proposing to cut defense spending
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   5. Banks may not like new mortgage task force
   6. Jerry Brown aims for California comeback
   7. Sorry I'm late, boss, my cat had the hiccups

? 2011 msnbc.com Reprints

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46162610/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Ice Cream Sandwich gets ready for its closeup, would like to thank Kinect for big screen break (video)

Using Microsoft hardware to augment Android? Surely, you can't be serious? Well, confounding as this may be, it is indeed true... and don't call us Shirley. All fanboy-ism and Airplane! references aside, this Kinect hack (yes, another one) manages to move Ice Cream Sandwich out of its 4.65-inch confines and onto the big screen wall. The inventive and involved mod, borne from hacker Recursive Penguin's desire to demo in-development apps at business meetings, allows for gestures made on a projected interface to be deciphered by MS' famous add-on, resulting in real-time responses. While this particular pico-friendly bit looks simple (not to mention fun to use), it's actually a bit daunting: AOSP ROMs, TUIO protocol and multi-touch software, anyone? While there are, undoubtedly, some of you that could pull off such techie gee whizzery, we'll just sit and wait for Google to implement this in version 5.0. Check out the brief video after the break.

Continue reading Ice Cream Sandwich gets ready for its closeup, would like to thank Kinect for big screen break (video)

Ice Cream Sandwich gets ready for its closeup, would like to thank Kinect for big screen break (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Business & Sports: Secret Indicator?

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Buffett sings in video for China's New Year gala (AP)

BEIJING ? A hugely popular Chinese Lunar New Year variety show has a special guest star playing the ukulele: American billionaire Warren Buffett.

Buffett is shown wearing a dark sweat shirt and singing the folk song "I've Been Working On The Railroad" in the video posted on state broadcaster CCTV's "Spring Festival Gala" website Sunday.

There are no details on the website about where the 45-second clip was shot, but Buffett appears to be sitting in a small room with an elaborate model railroad set up in the background.

The video's simplicity contrasts with other performances posted on the website of the gala, which is usually a flashy extravaganza that draws 800 million viewers.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_buffett

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Weaker sun will not delay global warming: study (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? A weaker sun over the next 90 years is not likely to significantly delay a rise in global temperature caused by greenhouse gases, a report said Monday.

The study, by Britain's Meteorological Office and the university of Reading, found that the Sun's output would decrease up until 2100 but this would only lead to a fall in global temperatures of 0.08 degrees Celsius.

Scientists have warned that more extreme weather is likely across the globe this century as the Earth's climate warms.

The world is expected to heat up by over 2 degrees Celsius this century due to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Current global pledges to cut carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are not seen as sufficient to stop the planet heating up beyond 2 degrees, a threshold scientists say risks an unstable climate in which weather extremes are common.

"This research shows that the most likely change in the sun's output will not have a big impact on global temperatures or do much to slow the warming we expect from greenhouse gases," said Gareth Jones, climate change detection scientist at the Met Office.

"It's important to note this study is based on a single climate model, rather than multiple models which would capture more of the uncertainties in the climate system," he added.

During the 20th century, solar activity increased to a maximum level and recent studies have suggested this level of activity has reached, or is nearing, an end.

The scientists used this maximum level as a starting point to project possible changes in the sun's activity over this century.

The study also showed that if the sun's output went below a threshold reached between 1645 and 1715 - called the Maunder Minimum when solar activity was at its lowest observed level - global temperature would fall by 0.13 degrees Celsius.

"The most likely scenario is that we'll see an overall reduction of the sun's activity compared to the 20th Century, such that solar outputs drop to the values of the Dalton Minimum (around 1820)," said Mike Lockwood, solar studies expert at the university of Reading.

"The probability of activity dropping as low as the Maunder Minimum - or indeed returning to the high activity of the 20th Century - is about 8 percent."

(Reporting by Nina Chestney, editing by William Hardy)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120123/sc_nm/us_sun_global_warming

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Official: EU open to Iran talks as embargo looms (AP)

BRUSSELS ? The EU's foreign policy chief said Monday that the international community remains open to talks with Iran, even as an EU embargo on Iranian oil seems set to be approved Monday.

Catherine Ashton said in a statement that the international community ? specifically, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the U.S., Russia and China ? have "a continued willingness to engage" with Iran regarding that country's nuclear program.

Ashton also released the text of a letter she sent in October to Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator. The letter said Ashton's overall goal is a negotiated solution that "restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program."

The letter was dated Oct. 21. Ashton said she has received no reply. Officials in many other countries fear Iran is working to develop nuclear weapons ? something Iran denies.

Meanwhile, diplomats said Friday that EU foreign ministers meeting Monday in Brussels will likely approve a ban on buying Iranian oil, even though working out the details of the embargo will be left for later. The embargo would immediately prohibit the signing of any new oil contracts with Iran.

However, important details on the embargo would likely still remain to be negotiated. Those include the date by which existing contracts to buy Iranian oil would no longer be held to be valid, and the nature of a review of the effects so far of the embargo prior to that date.

The U.K., Germany and France are eager for a strong embargo on Iranian oil to be implemented quickly. But Greece, which has deep financial troubles, benefits from low prices it pays for Iranian oil, and it wants assurances that the embargo will not become a financial burden it cannot bear.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_eu/eu_iran_embargo

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Video: ?Cupid? survives arrow attack

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Sex poses surprisingly low risk to heart patients (AP)

CHICAGO ? Good news: Sex is safe for most heart patients. If you're healthy enough to walk up two flights of stairs without chest pain or gasping for breath, you can have a love life.

That advice from a leading doctors' group on Thursday addresses one of the most pressing, least discussed issues facing survivors of heart attacks and other heart patients.

In its first science-based recommendations on the subject, the American Heart Association says having sex only slightly raises the chance for a heart attack. And that's true for people with and without heart disease.

Surprisingly, despite the higher risk for a heart patient to have a second attack, there's no evidence that they have more sex-related heart attacks than people without cardiac disease.

Many heart patients don't think twice about climbing stairs, yet many worry that sexual activity will cause another heart attack, or even sudden death, said Dr. Glenn Levine, lead author of a report detailing the recommendations and a professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

The report says sex is something doctors should bring up with all heart patients. Yet few do because they're uncomfortable talking about it or they lack information, Levine said. The new guidance is designed to fill that gap.

Heart patients should get a doctor's OK before engaging in sexual activity. Many may be advised first to do cardiac rehab ? exercise while being monitored for heart symptoms, to improve heart strength and increase physical fitness. But the heart association says most eventually will be cleared to resume sexual activity.

The doctors' group offers advice for heart patients based on scientific research involving sometimes provocative sex-related topics:

_Who's most at risk for sudden death related to sex? Married men having affairs, often with younger women in unfamiliar settings. Those circumstances can add to stress that may increase the risks, evidence from a handful of studies suggests.

_Sex may be OK as soon as one week after a relatively mild heart attack, if patients can walk up a few flights of stairs without discomfort.

_Viagra and other drugs for erectile dysfunction are generally safe for men with stable heart disease.

"The risk of having a heart attack during sexual activity is two to three times higher than when not having sexual activity. However, this increased risk of heart attack during sexual activity represents only a very small part of a person's overall risk of having a heart attack, and sexual activity is the cause of less than 1 percent of all heart attacks," Levine said.

Among heart attack survivors, average risks for another heart attack or sudden death are about 10 in 1 million per hour; having sex increases that to about 20 to 30 in 1 million per hour of sexual activity, the new report says. People without heart disease face lower overall risks for a heart attack, but similar risks for a sex-related attack.

The updated advice was released online Thursday in the heart association journal, Circulation.

Dr. Keith Churchwell, chief medical officer of Vanderbilt University's Heart and Vascular Institute, said the guidance is important for patients, and that questions about sex are the most common ones he hears from heart patients.

Ohio State University heart specialist Martha Gulati praised the recommendations for emphasizing that sexual counseling is important not just for patients but also their partners, who she says are often just as nervous about resuming sexual activity.

Day-care operator Tammy Collins of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, one of Gulati's patients, says the advice is reassuring.

She had a heart attack last year on Sept. 11, during a trip to Cincinnati to celebrate her wedding anniversary.

Collins' mother died of a heart attack at the same age, on her 51st birthday. With high blood pressure and high cholesterol, Collins knew she was at risk. She developed symptoms a few hours after having sex. She dismissed it at first, until she felt a sharp pain in her upper back and had trouble breathing. She was rushed to the hospital and doctors used stents to open blocked arteries.

Collins said she wasn't embarrassed to ask Gulati about sex, who told her it was unlikely that her night of romance had caused the heart attack. After several weeks of cardiac rehab, she was cleared to resume sexual activity ? advice that surprised her friends. But Collins said the exercise sessions have made her feel fitter than ever.

"A heart attack does not have to be the end of living," Collins said.

Chicago cardiologist Dan Fintel, a professor of medicine at Northwestern University, said he routinely gives heart patients a sex talk on their last day in the hospital, knowing that it's likely on their minds.

"Resuming sexual activity is safe and emotionally part of the healing process, with a few caveats," he tells patients.

Those caveats elicit nervous chuckles when he explains that includes no philandering, given evidence about that causing extra stress.

___

Online:

Circulation: http://bit.ly/1mt2UY

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_he_me/us_med_sex_hearts

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Six more killed in Syria despite Arab monitors (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Five civilians were killed in Syria and a brigadier was assassinated on Monday in violence that has not abated despite an Arab peace plan monitored by Arab League observers.

Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Sunday to discuss the future of the mission sent last month to check if Syria is abiding by the Arab plan it accepted on November 2.

The plan required Syria to halt the bloodshed, withdraw the military from cities, free detainees and hold a dialogue.

Hundreds of people have been reported killed in Syria even since the monitors deployed on December 26 as forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad try to crush peaceful protests that began 10 months ago, as well as armed resistance to his rule.

Random gunfire from pro-Assad militiamen killed five people, including a woman, and wounded nine in the restive city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The state news agency SANA said an "armed terrorist group" had shot dead Brigadier-General Mohammed Abdul-Hamid al-Awad and wounded his driver in the countryside near Damascus.

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For graphic on Arab League http://link.reuters.com/pev65s

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The latest violence erupted a day after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Assad to "stop killing your people."

Assad's harsh response to the uprising has killed more than 5,000 people, by a U.N. count. The Syrian authorities say 2,000 members of the security forces have also been killed. The deaths of 32 civilians and soldiers were reported on Sunday.

"STOP KILLING YOUR PEOPLE"

"Today, I say again to President Assad of Syria: stop the violence, stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end," Ban told a conference in Lebanon on Sunday.

The head of the Arab monitoring mission is due to report to an Arab League committee on Thursday, ahead of a wider meeting of Arab foreign ministers to consider their next step on Syria.

Qatar, which heads the League committee on Syria, has suggested Arab troops step in to stop the killing, an idea which is anathema to Damascus and which several Arab countries, including Iraq, Lebanon and Algeria, are likely to oppose.

An Arab representative to the Cairo-based League said it had received no formal proposal for such military intervention.

The League also has the option of referring Syria to the U.N. Security Council, which has so far failed to take any action due to opposition from Russia and China to any resolution that could lead to U.N. sanctions or Western military action.

There is little Western appetite for any Libya-style intervention. The United States, the European Union, Turkey and the Arab League have announced economic sanctions against Syria.

Assad proclaimed an amnesty on Sunday for "crimes" committed during the uprising and some detainees were later freed in the presence of Arab monitors in Damascus.

Kinan al-Shami, of the Syrian Revolution Coordination Union, said hundreds of detainees appeared to have been released, but they represented only a fraction of at least 40,000 people he said had been jailed without charge since March, many of whom have been held in secret police buildings or makeshift prisons.

Among those freed, Shami said, was Syrian actor Jalal al-Tawil who was shot and captured while trying to flee to Jordan two weeks ago. He had earlier been beaten in a Damascus protest.

Assad has issued several amnesties in recent months, but opposition groups say thousands of people remain behind bars and many have been tortured or abused, with some killed in custody.

The movement to end more than four decades of Assad family rule began with largely peaceful demonstrations, but after months of violence by the security forces, army deserters and insurgents started to fight back, prompting fears of civil war.

Assad, who retains the support of core military units, is backed by his own Alawite minority as well as some minority Christians and some majority Sunni Muslims who fear chaos, civil war and the rise of Islamist militancy if he is toppled.

The president, 46, who appeared in public twice in as many days last week, is eager to show that his people love him.

SANA, the state news agency, reported on Sunday that a 10 km (six mile) long letter, which it billed as the world's longest, was being written and signed by Syrians across the country as a "message of loyalty to the homeland and its leader."

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman and Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon in Beirut)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/wl_nm/us_syria

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Fuel transfer begins at iced-in Alaska city

In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, two fuel transfer hoses run side-by-side from the Russian tanker Renda to the Nome harbor Jan. 16, 2012. The hoses began transferring more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel from the tanker to the town later that day. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 3rd Class Grant DeVuyst)

In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, two fuel transfer hoses run side-by-side from the Russian tanker Renda to the Nome harbor Jan. 16, 2012. The hoses began transferring more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel from the tanker to the town later that day. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 3rd Class Grant DeVuyst)

In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Russian tanker Renda sits just off the coast of Nome with two fuel transfer hoses running to a causeway in the Nome harbor Monday Jan. 16, 2012. After being escorted through the ice by the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the Renda began delivering more than 1.3 million gallons of fuel Monday. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 3rd Class Grant DeVuyst)

In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fuel hoses bridge the gap between the tanker vessel Renda and the shoreside fuel transfer connection in Nome harbor Jan. 16, 2012. The fuel transfer of more than 1.3 million gallons began later that day. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 3rd Class Grant DeVuyst)

In a photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, two hose lines run from the Russian tanker Renda as they prepare for pressure tests Monday Jan. 16, 2012 in Nome, Alaska. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy has been escorting and breaking ice for the Renda since Jan. 3, 2012, to help deliver approximately 1.3 million gallons of gasoline and diesel to Nome, Alaska. (AP Photo/U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric J. Chandler.)

A photo provided by Vitus Marine shows David Gains, second from right, from intertek holding a sample of gasoline pumped from the Russian Tanker Renda. background right, in Nome Alaska Monday Jan. 16, 2012. With Gains are from left, Mark Smith of Vitus Marine, Scot Henderson of Bonanza Fuel, and Joy Baker, Nome Harbor Master. The U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker Healy is in the background at left. (AP Photo/Vitus Marine)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) ? After a 5,000-mile journey through high seas and thick ice, a Russian tanker and its crew are offloading more than a million gallons of fuel to an iced-in city along the western coast of Alaska.

Two parallel hoses, 700 yards long each, are stretched between the tanker Renda and a pipeline that will deliver the fuel to storage tanks in the city of Nome. The hoses were first offloading gasoline, and later were to transfer diesel fuel.

The transfer could take from 36 hours to five days. It started near sundown Monday, after crews laid the hoses along a stretch of Bering Sea ice to the pipeline that begins on a rock causeway 550 yards from the tanker, said Jason Evans, board chairman of the Sitnasuak Native Corp.

Sitnasuak owns the local fuel company, Bonanza Fuel, and has been working closely with Vitus Marine, the supplier that arranged for the delivery of the 1.3 million gallons of fuel.

State officials said the transfer had to start during daylight, but can continue in darkness. Nome has just five hours of daylight this time of year.

The city of 3,500 didn't get its last pre-winter barge fuel delivery because of a massive November storm. Without the Renda's delivery, Nome would run out of fuel by March or April, long before the next barge delivery is possible.

Alaska has had one of the most severe winters in decades. Snow has piled up 10 feet or higher against the wood-sided buildings in Nome, a former gold rush town that is the final stop on the 1,150-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The Renda began its journey from Russia in mid-December, picking up diesel fuel in South Korea before heading to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, where it took on unleaded gasoline. It arrived last week off Nome on Alaska's west coast, more than 500 miles from Anchorage.

A Coast Guard icebreaker cleared a path for the 370-foot tanker through hundreds of miles of a slow journey stalled by thick ice and strong ocean currents. In total, the tanker traveled an estimated 5,000 miles, said Rear Adm. Thomas Ostebo, commander of District Seventeen with the Coast Guard.

"It's just been an absolutely grand collaboration by all parties involved," said Stacey Smith of Vitus Marine, the fuel supplier.

Smith said the effort is a third of the way over with the arrival of the Renda near Nome. Pumping the fuel from the tanker will be the second part. The third part will be the exiting through ice by the two ships.

Personnel will walk the entire length of hosing every 30 minutes to check for leaks, Evans said. Each segment has its own containment area, and extra absorbent boom will be on hand.

The Coast Guard is monitoring the effort, working with state, federal, local and tribal representatives, Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow said. The fuel participants had to submit a plan to state environmental regulators on how they intended to get the fuel off the Renda, he said.

"We want to make sure the fuel transfer from the Renda to the onshore storage facility is conducted in as safe a manner as possible," he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-17-Nome%20Iced%20In/id-2092b3bd0ed64d6287b83680e75e68b3

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Hackers disrupt Israel airline, stock market sites (AP)

JERUSALEM ? Hackers disrupted the websites of Israel's stock exchange and national air carrier El Al on Monday in a deepening cyber war launched earlier this month by a group claiming to be Saudis.

Neither website contains sensitive information and trading and flights were not affected. But the ongoing salvos by hackers who use anti-Israel language in their posts has revealed how vulnerable Israel is to cyber warfare, despite its sophisticated computer security units in the military and advanced high-tech sector.

The attacks began earlier this month when hackers identifying themselves as group-xp, a known Saudi hacking group, claimed on an Israeli sports website to have gained access to 400,000 Israeli credit card accounts. The group called it a "gift to the world for the New Year" designed to "hurt the Zionist pocket."

Israeli authorities said 15,000 accounts were hacked in that episode and credit card information about 6,000 other Israelis was disclosed online a few days later by the same network.

Last week, an Israeli hacker identifying himself as a soldier in an Israeli intelligence unit retaliated by posting information online about hundreds of Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians and others.

El Al Israel Airlines took down its website after the alleged Saudi network linked to previous attacks warned that both sites would be targeted by allied pro-Palestinian hackers, a source close to the company said. The source asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The company said in a statement that it was taking security measures to protect the website and that disruptions on the site were to be expected.

Orna Goren, a spokeswoman for the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, said the site was overwhelmed by electronic requests that slowed it down dramatically but it was still operating. Trading was not affected, she said.

Cyber experts say Israel is a common target for online attackers who oppose the Jewish state and its policies toward the Palestinians.

There have been no confirmed reports of sensitive Israeli government sites being hacked. Several weeks ago, websites of Israeli spy services and other official sites briefly went down, but the government denied hackers were to blame and characterized the event as a technical malfunction.

Israel is a world leader in cyber security, and the Shin Bet internal security agency provides advisory services to sensitive business sectors such as banks and public utilities.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_hackers

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Ridiculous $1,500 Diamond Studded Business Cards [Luxury]

Business cards have become more of a hassle in a time when contact details can be shared electronically. But one company has chosen to ignore this obvious trend with a luxury card that tells people you're an arrogant ass. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/vgxfvtIlxko/ridiculous-1500-diamond-studded-business-cards

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Gingrich defends Bain criticisms in SC GOP forum (The Arizona Republic)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/186795624?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Remembering the 'Miracle on Hudson'

Steven Day / AP file

In this Jan. 15, 2009, file photo, airline passengers wait to be rescued on the wings of a US Airways Airbus 320 jetliner that safely ditched in the frigid waters of the Hudson River in New York after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines.

By Harriet Baskas, msnbc.com contributor

This Sunday marks the third anniversary of the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River near Manhattan. Several survivors will visit the airplane now housed at an aviation museum in Charlotte, N.C.,?some for the first time since the crash landing, and share memories of their experience.

On Jan.15, 2009, the Airbus A320 was beginning a trip from New York?s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport when it was disabled after striking a flock of Canada geese. Unable to return safely to an airfield, the crew ditched the airplane in the river and the incident became known as the ?Miracle on the Hudson? after the safe evacuation of all 155 occupants from the still intact, but sinking, airplane.?

Courtesy Beth McHugh

Beth McHugh, pictured with Capt. Chesley B. 'Sully' Sullenberger, right, and co-pilot Jeff Skiles.

?I was one of those people who really thought we were going to die,? Beth McHugh, one of the passengers aboard Flight 1549, told msnbc.com from her home in Lake Wylie, N.C. ?I was in the back of the plane where the water was coming in quickly and didn?t realize that the front of the plane wasn?t underwater yet. When I got to the front of the plane, I thought I wouldn?t drown but maybe die of hypothermia instead.?

All aboard the flight survived, and the pilot, Capt. Chesley B. ?Sully? Sullenberger was hailed as a hero.

The plane was recovered from the river, and since last June, the fuselage has been on display in a hangar at the Carolinas Aviation Museum, which is adjacent to the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. Attendance at the museum has tripled, to about 3,800 visitors a month.

The airplane?s wings, where many passengers waited to be rescued, are now also at the museum.?Executive director Wally Coppinger said the museum is ?displaying and preserving the airplane, not trying to re-build it? so, for now, has placed the left wing on the hangar floor next to the plane. ?The wing will be connected to the fuselage later.? The right wing, currently on a ramp outside the hangar doors in an area with limited viewing, will also be put in place next to the fuselage, Coppinger said, but not in time for this weekend?s anniversary.

On Saturday, McHugh will join a panel of passengers from US Airways Flight 1549 at the museum between 1 and 4 p.m. to share their memories of the experience and to answer questions from museum visitors. ?People don?t always get to talk to survivors of a plane crash,? said McHugh. ?They have a need to ask questions. They wonder how they?d behave in a similar situation.?

Courtesy Carolinas Aviation Museum

The partially reassembled Miracle on the Hudson plane is on display at the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, N.C.

The museum is expecting a large crowd, Coppinger said: ?There were 155 people on that flight, and there are 155 different stories.?

On Sunday, the museum will be closed for a private event as part of a reunion for passengers. ?It will be the first time a lot of them will be seeing the aircraft,? Coppinger said. ?We?re going to allow them to go into the plane and sit in ?their? seats if they want to.?

More on Itineraries

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Source: http://itineraries.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/11/10120131-remembering-the-miracle-on-hudson

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