When the country is grappling with thousands of sexual assault cases against women reported daily, trust Kiran Bedi to come up with one of the most holistic plans to combat these crimes. The former IPS officer and India Against Corruption member presented her 6Ps plan ? Crime Prevention Plan within police, people (society), prosecution, politician, prison and press (news media and film industry) ? on CNN-IBN.
Bedi was confident that if this plan of hers is implemented, police administration can be improved and crime rate can be reduced to a considerable extent.
There is widespread distrust of the police among the common man. But that will not help combat crimes against women in the long run. PTI
She said, ?6Ps means crime prevention plan within police, within people because community has a very major role to play. So the people, the police, the prosecution; then comes the role of the politician, the prisons and the media, which is the press and press also includes the films, and then comes the jail. So it is the 6Ps and a J.?
Kiran Bedi also stressed on the need to devise a community plan because the plan would fail without the support of the community. ?You can?t have sons of mothers, who have no control over their boys. So you need social, primary education at the family level, ?she added.
Though there is widespread skepticism over the role of the police, Bedi said, that can only be solved if there is community policing irrespective of beat policing. Community policing ? a system in which police officers of an area kept in touch with all the members and activities of that area, was a system that Kiran Bedi had put into place when she was a top cop in Delhi.
She stressed the fact that the police must build relationships with families in the neighbourhood for effective policing. She said, ?You see, when a beat officer goes, he is walking his beat, he is building relationships. He is also preventing crimes because he is collecting intelligence. He is also visiting past criminals and doing rehabilitation.?
DETROIT (AP) ? Spoiler alert: This story contains words and phrases that some people want to ban from the English language. "Spoiler alert" is among them. So are "kick the can down the road," ''trending" and "bucket list."
A dirty dozen have landed on the 38th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. The nonbinding, tongue-in-cheek decree released Monday by northern Michigan's Lake Superior State University is based on nominations submitted from the United States, Canada and beyond.
"Spoiler alert," the seemingly thoughtful way to warn readers or viewers about looming references to a key plot point in a film or TV show, nevertheless passed its use-by date for many, including Joseph Foly, of Fremont, Calif. He argued in his submission the phrase is "used as an obnoxious way to show one has trivial information and is about to use it, no matter what."
At the risk of further offense, here's another spoiler alert: The phrase receiving the most nominations this year is "fiscal cliff," banished because of its overuse by media outlets when describing across-the-board federal tax increases and spending cuts that economists say could harm the economy in the new year without congressional action.
"You can't turn on the news without hearing this," said Christopher Loiselle, of Midland, Mich., in his submission. "I'm equally worried about the River of Debt and Mountain of Despair."
Other terms coming in for a literary lashing are "superfood," ''guru," ''job creators" and "double down."
University spokesman Tom Pink said that in nearly four decades, the Sault Ste. Marie school has "banished" around 900 words or phrases, and somehow the whole idea has survived rapidly advancing technology and diminishing attention spans.
Nominations used to come by mail, then fax and via the school's website, he said. Now most come through the university's Facebook page. That's fitting, since social media has helped accelerate the life cycle of certain words and phrases, such as this year's entry "YOLO" ? "you only live once."
"The list surprises me in one way or another every year, and the same way every year: I'm always surprised how people still like it, love it," he said.
Rounding out the list are "job creators/creation," ''boneless wings" and "passion/passionate." Those who nominated the last one say they are tired of hearing about a company's "passion" as a substitute for providing a service or product for money.
Andrew Foyle, of Bristol, England, said it's reached the point where "passion" is the only ingredient that keeps a chef from preparing "seared tuna" that tastes "like dust swept from a station platform."
"Apparently, it's insufficient to do it ably, with skill, commitment or finesse," Foyle said. "Passionate, begone!"
As usual, the etymological exercise ? or exorcise ? only goes so far. Past lists haven't eradicated "viral," "amazing," ''LOL" or "man cave" from everyday use.
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Follow Jeff Karoub on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub
Authored by Michael Pettis, originally posted at China Financial Markets,
The IMF?s Il Houng Lee, Murtaza Syed, and Liu Xueyan have published a very interesting and widely noticed?study?called ?Is China Over-Investing and Does it Matter?? In it they argue that there is strong evidence that China is overinvesting significantly. According to the abstract:
Now close to 50 percent of GDP, this paper assesses the appropriateness of China?s current investment levels. It finds that China?s capital-to-output ratio is within the range of other emerging markets, but its economic growth rates stand out, partly due to a surge in investment over the last decade. Moreover, its investment is significantly higher than suggested by cross-country panel estimation.
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This deviation has been accumulating over the last decade, and at nearly 10 percent of GDP is now larger and more persistent than experienced by other Asian economies leading up to the Asian crisis. However, because its investment is predominantly financed by domestic savings, a crisis appears unlikely when assessed against dependency on external funding. But this does not mean that the cost is absent. Rather, it is distributed to other sectors of the economy through a hidden transfer of resources, estimated at an average of 4 percent of GDP per year.
The article is well worth reading because it makes a very strong case, perhaps a little late, for what many of us have been arguing for the past seven or eight years. China?s investment rate is so high, we have argued, that even ignoring the tremendous evidence of misallocated investment, unless we can confidently propose that Beijing has uncovered a secret formula that allows it (and the tens of thousands of minor government officials and SOE heads who can unleash investment without much oversight) to identify high quality investment in a way that no other country in history has been able, there is likely to be a systematic tendency to wasted investment.
Interestingly enough, while two of the authors of the study work for the IMF, Liu Xueyan, the third, is a Senior Fellow in the Institute of Economic Research at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China. I don?t know how much we should read into this, but it is worth noting that both the World Bank report in March and this IMF study have involved input from important mainland think tanks.
This is noteworthy because both the World Bank report and this study have come out very strongly in the direction that the China ?skeptics? have been arguing for many years. They identify the urgent need for adjustment and suggest ? very delicately ? how difficult it will be. I assume that this is all part of the tough debate that is taking place within policy-making circles over the need to implement the very difficult political reforms that will be a necessary part of the economic rebalancing, and I guess the reformers are eager to recruit the World Bank and the IMF to their points of view.
How much overinvestment?
One of the implications of the study is that households and SMEs have been forced to subsidize growth at a cost to them of well over 4% of GDP annually. My own back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the cost to households is actually 5-8% of GDP ? perhaps because I also include the implicit subsidy to recapitalize the banks in the form of the excess spread between the lending and deposit rates ? but certainly I agree with the IMF study that this has been a massive transfer to subsidize growth.
This subsidy also explains most of the collapse in the household share of GDP over the past twelve years. With household income only 50% of GDP, a transfer every year of 4% of GDP requires ferocious growth in household income for it just to keep pace with GDP, something it has never done until, possibly, this year.
The size of the transfer makes it very clear that without eliminating this subsidy ? which basically means abandoning the growth model ? it will be almost impossible to get the household and consumption shares of GDP to rise if China still hopes to maintain high GDP growth. The transfer of wealth from the household sector to maintain high levels of investment is simply too great, and this will be made all the more clear as the growth impact per unit of investment declines.
Another implication of the IMF study is that to get into line with other equivalent countries at this stage of its economic takeoff, China would have to reduce the investment share of GDP by at least ten percentage points and perhaps as much as twenty. Aside from pointing out that the sectors of the economy that have benefitted from such extraordinarily high investments are unlikely to celebrate such a finding, I have three comments. First, after many years in which China has invested far more than other countries at its stage of development, one could presumably argue that in order to get back to the ?correct? ratio, investment should be lower than the peer group, not equal to the peer group. In that case investment has to drop by a lot more than ten percentage points.
After all if China?s deviation from the experience of other countries is meaningful, then after a few years of substantial deviation, it cannot be enough for China simply to return to the mean. It must come in lower than the mean for a few years so that on average the deviation is eliminated.
Second, even if China had kept investment at the ?correct? level, as measured by the peer group, this would not imply that China has not overinvested. I haven?t been able to dig deeply into the comparison countries, but the study does list them, and a very quick glance suggests that many of these countries, after years of very high investment, themselves experienced deep crises or ?lost decades?.
This implies to me that these countries themselves overinvested, and so even if Chinese investment levels were not much higher than that of the peer group (and it was mainly in the past decade that Chinese investment rose to much higher levels than that of the peer group, and not in the 1990s, exactly as we have been suggesting using more qualitative measures), this could nonetheless be worrying. China would still have a difficult adjustment for the same reasons that many if not most of the peer group countries also had difficult adjustments.
The average number driven by the peer group sample, in other words, is not in itself an ?optimal? level of investment. It might already be too high. That Chinese investment levels have been so much higher than theirs is all the more worrying.
How much would growth have to slow?
My third point is more technical. If Chinese investment levels are much higher than optimal (assuming the peer group average is indeed optimal), of course the best solution for China is immediately to reduce investment until it reaches the right level. The longer investment rates are too high, the greater the impact of losses that have eventually to be amortized, and the worse off China is likely to be.
But it will be very hard for China to bring investment down as a share of GDP by ten full percentage points very quickly. Let us assume instead that China has five years to bring investment levels down to the ?correct? level, and let us assume further that the ?correct? level is indeed ten percentage points below where it is today. Both assumptions are, I think, dangerous because I am not convinced that an investment level of 40% of GDP is the ?correct? level for China going forward (I think it must be much lower) and I don?t think China has five years to make the necessary adjustment without running a serious risk of a financial crisis.
But let us ignore both objections and give China five years to bring investment down to 40% of GDP from its current level of 50%. Chinese investment must grow at a much lower rate than GDP for this to happen. How much lower? The arithmetic is simple. It depends on what we assume GDP growth will be over the next five years, but investment has to grow by roughly 4.5 percentage points or more below the GDP growth rate for this condition to be met.
If Chinese GDP grows at 7%, in other words, Chinese investment must grow at 2.3%.??If China grows at 5%, investment must grow at 0.4%. And if China grows at 3%, which is much closer to my ten-year view, investment growth must actually contract by 1.5%. Only in this way will investment drop by ten percentage points as a share of GDP in the next five years.
The conclusion should be obvious, but to many analysts, especially on the sell side, it probably needs nonetheless to be spelled out. Any meaningful rebalancing in China?s extraordinary rate of overinvestment is only consistent with a very sharp reduction in the growth rate of investment, and perhaps even a contraction in investment growth.
In fact I think over the next few years China will indeed undergo a sharp contraction in investment growth, but my point here is simply to suggest that even under the most optimistic of scenarios it will be very hard to keep investment growth high. Either Beijing moves quickly to bring investment growth down sharply, or overinvestment will contribute to further financial fragility leading, ultimately, to the point where credit cannot expand quickly enough and investment will collapse anyway.
This is just arithmetic. The extent of Chinese overinvestment ? even if we assume that it has not already caused significant fragility in the banking system and enormous hidden losses yet to be amortized ? requires a very sharp contraction just to get back to a ?normal? which, in the past, was anyway associated with difficult economic adjustments. It is hard to imagine how such a sharp contraction in investment will itself not lead to a sharp drop in GDP growth, and the IMF paper recognizes this:
To the extent that elevated levels of investment during the post-crisis period in China were somehow abnormal and necessitated by the sharp external slowdown, the challenge now is how to return to a more ?normal? level of investment without compromising growth and macroeconomic stability.
The people who lived in eastern Germany around 7,000 years ago are thought to have been some of the first farmers. Now, new archaeological evidence suggests they were also surprisingly skilled woodworkers, crafting intricate water wells some two thousand years before metal tools were forged in Europe.
Sophisticated in construction, four wells discovered near Leipzig were built using stone carving implements and wooden mauls and wedges, said Willy Tegel, a researcher at the Institute for Forest Growth at the University of Freiburg in Germany.
"The first farmers were also the first carpenters," Tegel and his colleagues wrote in a study published this week in the journal PLoS One.
The people who built the wells were members of the so-called Linear Pottery Culture, which produced pottery with distinctive incised lines more than 6,500 years ago. Archaeologists believe these ancient people migrated from areas that are now the Ukraine and Slovakia through the fertile regions of Central Europe.
The wells were discovered as part of an ongoing excavation of areas about 120 miles southwest of Berlin. The wood was intact because it was buried in waterlogged soil where fungi and bacteria ? organisms that usually cause wood to decay ? could not survive.
Tegel is an expert in a technique known as dendrochronology, which takes advantage of distinctive patterns in tree rings to determine the ages of wooden objects. The method involves comparing the ring patterns in ancient wood to historical reference patterns for a certain region; each time period is unique because the shape and width of the rings varies due to climate and other environmental factors. By establishing a historical match for the outermost ring under the bark, scientists can surmise the year when a tree was chopped down.
The method provides a more precise age for wooden objects than carbon-14 dating, which relies on measurements of a radioactive isotope and can pinpoint the time of a tree's death to only within about 100 years, Tegel said.
Most of Tegel's research involves analyzing ancient tree rings to understand climate conditions long ago. Although dendrochronology is being used more and more by archaeologists, it can't be used in all cases because it's relatively rare to find wood preserved well enough to be analyzed, he said.
Tegel and his collaborators examined 151 oak timbers used to make the newly discovered wells and concluded that the trees were felled between 5469 and 5098 B.C. They also determined that at least 46 trees contributed to the material. These trees were up to 300 years old when harvested, and some were up to 3 feet in diameter.
The builders of the wells chopped the trees down with a stone adz, a wedge used in the manner of an ax, making cuts just above breast height, the team wrote. They then used wooden mauls and wedges to split the wood into planks and further shaped it using fire and tools.
The wells were constructed with "tube-like" sections made from hollowed-out tree trunks. They also had body chambers that were built out of carefully engineered interlocking logs.
"These kinds of corner joints and connections between the wood were very sophisticated," Tegel said.
Such complexity had been unexpected, he added, because the early farmers who built them did not have metal tools.
Princeton archaeologist Peter Bogucki was enthusiastic about the find. "This is a super discovery that give us a whole new insight into the lives on these early farming settlements," he said.
Bogucki and other experts in European prehistory noted that similar wells had been found before. But Bogucki said those had not been as closely studied, and didn't reveal such "amazing contents."
The researchers found items that had been cast into the wells, including wheat and remnants of peas, lentils, apples, raspberries and hazelnuts. They also unearthed bone and stone tools and a large amount of pottery. Some of the ceramic items had been repaired and decorated with a resin material, suggesting the vessels were reused for many years.
The team also discovered the remains of two young pigs that appeared to have been deliberately placed ? both were found in the exact same position ? in the excavation pit of one of the wells, Tegel said.
"The stuff in the bottom of the well is a nice little time capsule," Bogucki said. "To be able to find traces of these plants and organic materials and repaired pottery is astonishing."
Alan Greaves, who was killed on his way to a midnight mass service at the Yorkshire church at which he was an organist. Photograph: South Yorkshire police/PA
The bishop of Sheffield has spoken of his shock and outrage over the murder of Alan Greaves, the church organist who was killed on his way to a Christmas Eve midnight mass.
Speaking at St Saviour's church, High Green, where Greaves was a member and also a lay preacher, Steven Croft said Sheffield had lost a "shining light".
"There is a sense of shock and a sense of outrage, not just in this community but across the whole city of Sheffield," he said. "Alan was the victim of a brutal attack as he was on his way to church on Christmas Eve, as he was walking to this church to bear witness to his deep Christian faith. There will be immense grief for those who knew Alan well, which includes many in this church and community."
He went on to speak of the love and support that has been offered to the family and also appreciation for the medical teams that tried to save Greaves's life.
"And in the midst of all this, I am sure, many will be giving thanks for Alan himself, for all he showed us of God's grace and love," he said. "There will be occasions in the future for many generous tributes to be given. Goodness is not as common as it should be and this community and this city have lost a shining light."
Two men are in custody after being arrested on Saturday on suspicion of Greaves's murder. The 68-year-old, a grandfather and father of four, died after sustaining serious head injuries after leaving his home to go to the church. Police said the motive for the attack was unclear.
During the service, Greaves's widow, Maureen, told the congregation: "I won't be able to contact you over the next few days, but I want to thank you for the support you have given me.
"I have prayed constantly for Alan and I know you have too. I have not stopped crying for him and I know you have not stopped either. I have wept over the evil that has been done. I have prayed for you and I know you have prayed for me. You were Alan's Christian family and he loved belonging to this church. I have felt your love towards me."
Dmitry Kratov, sits in a court, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The Tverskoy court on Friday will rule in the case of Dmitry Kratov, formerly deputy chief physician in the Butyrskaya prison, the only official charged with the lawyer?s death. The Moscow court is expected to hand down a verdict on Friday for the first and only official charged with the death of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a case his family dismissed as sham and humiliation. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
Dmitry Kratov, sits in a court, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The Tverskoy court on Friday will rule in the case of Dmitry Kratov, formerly deputy chief physician in the Butyrskaya prison, the only official charged with the lawyer?s death. The Moscow court is expected to hand down a verdict on Friday for the first and only official charged with the death of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a case his family dismissed as sham and humiliation. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
Dmitry Kratov, sits in a courtroom, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 28, 2012. The Tverskoy court on Friday will rule in the case of Dmitry Kratov, formerly deputy chief physician in the Butyrskaya prison, the only official charged with the lawyer?s death. The Moscow court is expected to hand down a verdict on Friday for the first and only official charged with the death of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a case his family dismissed as sham and humiliation. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
FILE In this Monday, Nov. 30, 2009 file photo Nataliya Magnitskaya, mother of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who died in jail, holds a photo of her son as she speaks during an interview with the AP in Moscow. The Moscow court is expected to hand down a verdict on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, for the first and only official charged with the death of whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a case his family dismissed as sham and humiliation. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
MOSCOW (AP) ? The only official charged with the death of a Russian whistleblowing lawyer walked free on Friday after a Moscow court acquitted him of negligence, in a case that has become a rallying point for human rights advocates and sparked escalating legislation in the U.S. and Russia.
Sergei Magnitsky died in jail in 2009 after his pancreatitis went untreated, and an investigation by Russia's presidential council on human rights concluded he was severely beaten and denied medical treatment. Prison doctor Dmitry Kratov was the only person to face trial in the case.
Judge Tatyana Neverova said she found no evidence that Kratov's negligence could have caused the lawyer's death. The acquittal was widely expected after prosecutors earlier this week dropped their accusations, saying they had decided there was no connection between Kratov's actions and Magnitsky's death.
The case has angered both Russian activists and the West. The U.S. Congress passed legislation this month in Magnitsky's name, calling for sanctions against officials ? including Kratov ? deemed to be connected with human rights abuses. The bill provoked retaliation from Moscow, including a measure barring Americans from adopting Russian children that President Vladimir Putin signed on Friday.
Magnitsky, a lawyer for the Hermitage Capital fund, was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of tax evasion by the same Interior Ministry officials he accused of using false tax documents to steal $230 million from the state. He died while in custody awaiting trial.
Government officials have dismissed calls to investigate police officials and the only official charged in his death was Kratov, who was deputy chief physician at the Butyrskaya prison where Magnitsky was held.
Hermitage's owner, Bill Browder, said the outcome of the trial shows the government's unwillingness to find and try the culprits.
"Even though Kratov was only a minor player in the overall persecution of Sergei, the fact that the Russian authorities can't even scapegoat their one scapegoat says everything about this case," Browder said.
Kratov pleaded not guilty to charges of negligence leading to death, saying he was unable to ensure medical care for Magnitsky because of a shortage of staff.
The prison doctor thanked "everyone who believed in me and my innocence" after the verdict.
The lawyer's family has described the trial as a sham, maintaining that Kratov played a minor role in the man's death and that officials responsible must face justice.
The lawyer's mother and attorney did not attend the ruling in protest.
"Participation in this court hearing would have been humiliating for me," Nataliya Magnitskaya said in a statement. "I understand that everything has been decided in advance and everything has been pre-determined."
Browder said that he does not doubt that "people responsible for Magnitsky's death are being protected by the president of Russia.
"In this case, there was overwhelming evidence of Kratov's involvement and his acquittal goes against any logic or concept of justice," he said
Valery Borshchev, a human rights advocate who spearheaded the presidential commission's investigation into Magnitsky's death, was outraged with the court's decision. Borshchev insisted that authorities must investigate overwhelming evidence collected by his commission that points to the fact that Magnitsky was tortured.
"Kratov and others are guilty because there were inadequate conditions to treat Magnitsky," he told the Interfax news agency. "The conditions in jail were torturous, and doctors didn't do anything to change that."
Alcohol ignition interlocks in Washington will soon have a feature designed to prevent others from performing breath tests for the driver. Starting January 1, 2013, a camera will snap a picture every time the machine is used, verifying that the driver is the person who took the test.
Interlocks are required on the vehicles of those who?ve been accused or convicted of impaired driving. The machine requires a legal breath sample from the driver before allowing a car to start.
?We?ve had cases where impaired drivers asked passengers, friends or even children to take the test for them,? said Lt. Rob Sharpe, commander of the Washington State Patrol?s Impaired Driving Section. ?We?ve even heard stories of people trying to use portable air compressors to take the test.?
Failures or attempts to tamper with the device get recorded by the machine?s software. The company which leases the interlocks downloads the information and in turn contacts the State Patrol.
?We do make personal visits to drivers if we have evidence they have tried to fool the machine,? Sharpe said. ?Having a picture will be the best possible evidence that someone was trying to cheat.?
Washington has what?s called an Ignition Interlock License, allowing those whose drivers? licenses would normally be suspended to drive legally with an interlock. It was an acknowledgment that those accused or convicted of impaired driving have jobs and family obligations that require a car.
?History taught us that these people were going to drive anyway,? said Captain Rob Huss, commander of WSP?s Office of Government and Media Relations. ?The Ignition Interlock License gives them a way to drive legally, but gives the rest of us some assurance that they?re sober and safe.?
Drivers can lose their Ignition Interlock License by attempting to fool the machine, and the photographs will provide new accountability for those trusted with the license.
NEW YORK --?An unknown illness, suspected of being a norovirus, has sickened 194 passengers and 11 crew members aboard the luxury cruise ship Queen Mary 2, causing vomiting and diarrhea, federal health officials said on Friday.
Earlier in the week, 189 passengers and 31 crew members on the Emerald Princess came down with the same symptoms.
The symptoms are those of norovirus, a contagious microorganism that can be acquired from an infected person, contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Norovirus causes an inflammation of the stomach or intestines called acute gastroenteritis, producing stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea, and is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States.
Each year, norovirus causes some 21 million illnesses, of which 70,000 require hospitalization. It kills about 800 people a year, the CDC says.
The Queen Mary 2, with 2,613 passengers and 1,255 crew members, is now docked in Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, according to ship owner Cunard Line, which is owned by Carnival Corp. The cruise left Brooklyn, New York, last Saturday and is due to return there next Thursday.
The CDC learned of the illnesses on the QM2 on Christmas Day on Tuesday, and of those on the Emerald Princess last Saturday. Vessels are required to notify the agency when 2 percent of those on board develop a gastrointestinal illness.
Although the microbial culprit remains unclear In both cases, another reason to suspect norovirus is that the pathogen "has affected a number of schools, hospitals, nursing homes and children's day care centers this winter" in the United Kingdom, Cunard said in a statement.
The UK's Health Protection Agency reports that norovirus activity in the country is 83 per cent higher than last year.
The QM2 sails regularly scheduled crossings between New York and Southampton, England, between April and late November, Cunard spokeswoman Jackie Chase said in an email. "In addition, many of our guests come from the UK."
The QM2's captain is advising passengers with gastrointestinal symptoms to report to the medical center, Chase said. Those sickened are asked to "isolate themselves in their cabin until non-contagious. They are also asked not to proceed ashore, and any shore excursion costs will be refunded. Room service is provided to affected passengers and every effort is made to make them as comfortable as possible."
Of the 194 QM2 passengers who had fallen sick, said Chase, all but 12 had recovered as of Friday.
'Norovirus?active on board' In a post on the message board cruisecritic.com on Wednesday, a woman who said her daughter was on the QM2 said she "just received a message from her indicating that the Norovirus is active on board."
On Thursday, someone reporting being on the ship posted that "the restaurants are still full. The Captain last night recommended that people take all of their meals in the full-service restaurants rather than the buffet, but the buffet remains open as of this morning. We've been kept informed daily of the persistent cases."
Another post said: "The crew are working like crazy to service all the guests. At lunch today I noticed the hand rails on the promenade deck were wiped three times in about 1 hour."
In response to the outbreak, the QM2 crew has increased cleaning and disinfection procedures, the CDC said, and is asking passengers and crew to report cases of illness and "encourage hand hygiene."
Medical personnel are also collecting stool specimens from ill passengers and crew, which a CDC lab will analyze to make a definitive diagnosis.
When the QM2 docks in Brooklyn, an officer from the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program and an epidemiologist will board, conduct an environmental health assessment "and evaluate the outbreak and response activities," the CDC said.
Two officers boarded the Emerald Princess, also owned by Carnival, when it arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday and are conducting an environmental assessment.
The Vessel Sanitation Program has authority to inspect cruise ships that carry 13 or more passengers and call at U.S. ports. It gave the Queen Mary 2 a perfect 100 on its most recent inspection this past summer, but found a few minor infractions, including a lack of serving utensils with breakfast pastries at a buffet.
Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
BANGKOK (AP) ? The price of crude rose Friday, following stock markets in Asia higher hours ahead of a last-ditch effort in Washington for political leaders to strike a budget deal before the year-end deadline.
Benchmark crude for February delivery rose 13 cents at late afternoon Bangkok time to $91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The contract fell Thursday following a reported drop in U.S. consumer confidence and growing pessimism that President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers will reach a compromise on ways to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff ? hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending cuts and tax increases that take effect automatically in 2013 unless lawmakers act.
Hopes that a compromise might be reached were raised after Obama, who cut his Hawaii vacation short, invited congressional leaders to the White House for talks Friday.
In other energy futures trading:
? Wholesale gasoline fell 0.5 cents to $2.8166 a gallon.
? Brent crude, used to price various kinds of foreign oil, fell 12 cents to $110.68 per barrel in London.
? Heating oil fell 0.7 cent to $3.0417 a gallon.
? Natural gas lost 3.6 cents to $3.376 per 1,000 cubic feet.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Police held a man for questioning on Tuesday to determine if he may have been the person who pushed a 58-year-old man onto a track where he was killed by a New York City subway train on Monday.
The train killed Ki-Suck Han, 58, in front of horrified commuters after he was shoved onto the track as a southbound train pulled into the station at 49th Street near Times Square.
The assailant's image was captured on subway security cameras.
"We have an individual we're questioning that resembles the individual captured in the video. He was taken into custody by detectives who were canvassing video and found an image that resembled this individual at the vicinity of 50th Street and Seventh Avenue," police spokesman Paul Browne said. "He's being questioned now."
Police were preparing line-ups for witnesses of the subway attack, Browne said.
Witnesses saw the man thought to have pushed Han talking to himself before the altercation, leading to suspicion he may have been mentally disturbed, police said.
(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Daniel Trotta, Philip Barbara and Steve Orlofsky)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two Mexican nationals were charged on Monday in the death of a U.S. Coast Guard petty officer who was thrown from his search vessel when it was rammed by a suspected drug-smuggling boat off the California coast.
Jose Meija-Leyva and Manuel Beltran-Higuera were each charged in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles with killing an officer of the United States, U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek said.
Meija-Leyva and Beltran-Higuera were both ordered held without bond during a brief court appearance on Monday afternoon, Mrozek said. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for December 17.
Defense attorneys for Meija-Leyva and Beltran-Higuera could not immediately be reached for comment.
Prosecutors say the two men were aboard a 30-foot (9-metre) fishing boat known as a "panga" in an inlet of California's Santa Cruz Island called Smuggler's Cove when it was approached by a small, inflatable Coast Guard search vessel early on Sunday morning.
According to an affidavit filed by prosecutors, when the Coast Guard boat was about 20 feet away, the panga boat turned and rammed it, throwing Chief Petty Officers Terrell Horne III and Brandon Langdon overboard.
Horne, a 34-year-old, 14-year Coast Guard veteran, was struck in the head by a propeller blade, suffering a traumatic head injury. He was later pronounced dead. Langdon sustained an knee injury.
A Coast Guard cutter intercepted the panga about 20 miles north of the Mexican border, the affidavit said, and took Meija-Leyva and Beltran-Higuera into custody. Both men were suspected of having entered the country illegally.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman, Petty Officer Seth Johnson, has said that in the past year patrols have seen a surge in drug smuggling activity employing panga-style boats off the Southern California coast.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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Women with sleep apnea have higher degree of brain damage than men, UCLA study shows Public release date: 3-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Laura Perry lperry@sonnet.ucla.edu 310-794-4022 University of California - Los Angeles
Women suffering from sleep apnea have, on the whole, a higher degree of brain damage than men with the disorder, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing. The findings are reported in the December issue of the peer-reviewed journal SLEEP.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious disorder that occurs when a person's breathing is repeatedly interrupted during sleep, sometimes hundreds of times. Each time, the oxygen level in the blood drops, eventually resulting in damage to many cells in the body. If left untreated, it can lead to high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure, diabetes, depression and other serious health problems.
Approximately 10 years ago, this UCLA research team was the first to show that men with obstructive sleep apnea have damage to their brain cells.
For this latest, multi-year study, "Sex Differences in White Matter Alterations Accompanying Obstructive Sleep Apnea," the researchers looked at patients who were diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea at the UCLA Sleep Laboratory. They compared the nerve fibers in these patients' brains known as white matter to fibers of individuals without sleep problems and focused on unearthing the difference in brain damage between men and women with sleep apnea.
"While there are a great many brain studies done on sleep apnea and the impact on one's health, they have typically focused on men or combined groups of men and women, but we know that obstructive sleep apnea affects women very differently than men," said chief investigator Paul Macey, assistant professor and associate dean of information technology and innovations at the UCLA School of Nursing. "This study revealed that, in fact, women are more affected by sleep apnea than are men and that women with obstructive sleep apnea have more severe brain damage than men suffering from a similar condition."
In particular, the study found that women were impacted in the cingulum bundle and the anterior cingulate cortex, areas in the front of the brain involved in decision-making and mood regulation. The women with sleep apnea also showed higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, the researchers said.
"This tells us that doctors should consider that the sleep disorder may be more problematic and therefore need earlier treatment in women than men," Macey said.
With this finding as a foundation, Macey said that the next step is for researchers to "untangle the timing of the brain changes" and find out if treating sleep apnea can help the brain.
"What we don't yet know," he said, "is, did sleep apnea cause the brain damage, did the brain damage lead to the sleep disorders, or do the common comorbidities, such as depression, dementia or cardiovascular issues, cause the brain damage, which in turn leads to sleep apnea."
###
Co-investigators on the study included Rajesh Kumar, Ronald Harper and Dr. Frisca Yan-Go of UCLA's Brain Research Institute and the departments of neurobiology and neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Mary Woo of the UCLA School of Nursing. All of the work for the study was performed at UCLA, with financial support provided by a grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research.
The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. For more information, visit nursing.ucla.edu.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
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Women with sleep apnea have higher degree of brain damage than men, UCLA study shows Public release date: 3-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Laura Perry lperry@sonnet.ucla.edu 310-794-4022 University of California - Los Angeles
Women suffering from sleep apnea have, on the whole, a higher degree of brain damage than men with the disorder, according to a first-of-its-kind study conducted by researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing. The findings are reported in the December issue of the peer-reviewed journal SLEEP.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious disorder that occurs when a person's breathing is repeatedly interrupted during sleep, sometimes hundreds of times. Each time, the oxygen level in the blood drops, eventually resulting in damage to many cells in the body. If left untreated, it can lead to high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure, diabetes, depression and other serious health problems.
Approximately 10 years ago, this UCLA research team was the first to show that men with obstructive sleep apnea have damage to their brain cells.
For this latest, multi-year study, "Sex Differences in White Matter Alterations Accompanying Obstructive Sleep Apnea," the researchers looked at patients who were diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea at the UCLA Sleep Laboratory. They compared the nerve fibers in these patients' brains known as white matter to fibers of individuals without sleep problems and focused on unearthing the difference in brain damage between men and women with sleep apnea.
"While there are a great many brain studies done on sleep apnea and the impact on one's health, they have typically focused on men or combined groups of men and women, but we know that obstructive sleep apnea affects women very differently than men," said chief investigator Paul Macey, assistant professor and associate dean of information technology and innovations at the UCLA School of Nursing. "This study revealed that, in fact, women are more affected by sleep apnea than are men and that women with obstructive sleep apnea have more severe brain damage than men suffering from a similar condition."
In particular, the study found that women were impacted in the cingulum bundle and the anterior cingulate cortex, areas in the front of the brain involved in decision-making and mood regulation. The women with sleep apnea also showed higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms, the researchers said.
"This tells us that doctors should consider that the sleep disorder may be more problematic and therefore need earlier treatment in women than men," Macey said.
With this finding as a foundation, Macey said that the next step is for researchers to "untangle the timing of the brain changes" and find out if treating sleep apnea can help the brain.
"What we don't yet know," he said, "is, did sleep apnea cause the brain damage, did the brain damage lead to the sleep disorders, or do the common comorbidities, such as depression, dementia or cardiovascular issues, cause the brain damage, which in turn leads to sleep apnea."
###
Co-investigators on the study included Rajesh Kumar, Ronald Harper and Dr. Frisca Yan-Go of UCLA's Brain Research Institute and the departments of neurobiology and neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and Mary Woo of the UCLA School of Nursing. All of the work for the study was performed at UCLA, with financial support provided by a grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research.
The UCLA School of Nursing is redefining nursing through the pursuit of uncompromised excellence in research, education, practice, policy and patient advocacy. For more information, visit nursing.ucla.edu.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
LONDON (Reuters) - Coffee chain Starbucks said it was considering changes to its UK tax practices, which allowed it to make billions in revenue while paying little in income taxes, following criticism from lawmakers, tax campaigners and the media.
A Reuters examination of Starbucks accounts published in October showed the company had reported 13 years of losses at its UK unit, even as it told investors the operation was profitable and among the best performing of its overseas markets.
The chain's UK unit paid no corporation tax - a tax on a company's income - in the last three years for which figures are available and has only paid 8.6 million pounds income tax since 1998, despite racking up 3 billion pounds ($4.8 billion) of sales.
The revelations led to calls for a boycott of the store and protests at its branches, and the company's Chief Financial Officer Troy Alstead was called to give evidence to a parliamentary committee.
Starbucks repeated on Sunday that it had always complied with British tax laws and blamed its low tax payments on a tough operating environment in the UK.
However, a spokeswoman added in an emailed statement that the public mood had caused the company to reconsider its tax arrangements, which include intercompany royalty and interest payments that reduce the UK unit's taxable profit.
"We have listened to feedback from our customers and employees, and understand that to maintain and further build public trust we need to do more," she said.
"As part of this we are looking at our tax approach in the UK. The company has been in discussions with HMRC for some time and is also in talks with The Treasury," she added.
The company, the largest coffee chain in the world, with a market value of $39 billion, said it would release more details later this week.
The Public Accounts Committee, which grilled Alstead and managers from Google and Amazon over their tax planning, is due to release its report on corporate taxation in the UK on Monday.
($1 = 0.6240 British pounds)
(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Will Waterman)
PAULSBORO, N.J. (AP) ? More than 100 southern New Jersey residents will be kept out of their homes for several more days as crews work to clear a hazardous gas that spewed from a ruptured freight train car.
Noting that the hazardous material is still in the area, officials said Sunday that the Paulsboro, N.J. residents won't be able to return to their homes in the 12-block evacuation zone until at least Saturday.
Officials hoped to start removing the hazardous material, vinyl chloride, from the ruptured tanker sometime Sunday. It was not clear how long that would take to complete.
Public schools in the southern Jersey town will be open on Monday, and officials said air testing quality will be conducted to ensure students' safety. However, a day care center and the municipal courts will be closed.
The derailment Friday sent dozens of people to a hospital, but no serious injuries have been reported.
Federal investigators said Sunday that Conrail crews had studied reported signal problems at the railroad bridge where the derailment occurred.
The National Transportation Safety Board cannot examine the scene until the chemicals are removed. But the agency has begun reviewing records with a focus on both the signal problems reported recently and a 2009 train derailment on the same bridge.
Conrail regularly moves tons of hazardous material over the low bridge, which was originally built in 1873. The bridge straddles Mantua Creek, a tributary near the Delaware River in the industrial town of Paulsboro. The bridge operates like a garden fence, with a section that swings sideways to open for boat traffic, then closes and locks into place for freight trains.
The NTSB expects to focus its probe on that locking mechanism along with the signal devices, which are triggered by sensors on the bridge, not by dispatchers.
"This is a very complex (bridge) operation," Hersman said at a news conference Sunday. "There is a lot of tonnage that goes over this bridge and a lot of hazardous materials."
Conrail crews in recent days and weeks had been reporting problems with the signal, and the rail company had been looking into the problem only the day before, she said.
The veteran two-person crew was familiar with the route and had run it on the three previous nights. They had started their shift at 3 a.m. Friday and were surprised to get a yellow signal when they approached the bridge at about 7 a.m. They used a keypad device, similar to a garage door opener, to try to get a green light, but were unsuccessful. The pair stopped the train for several minutes, examined the tracks, and then got permission from a dispatcher to proceed, Hersman said.
The two locomotives and five cars made it across before the crew looked back to see the bridge "collapse" and a pileup of cars in the creek. The one that ruptured had been damaged by another tanker, Hersman said.
Recordings of various data so far support the crew's account, investigators said. However, authorities are not yet sure whether the bridge deck actually collapsed or shifted.
A team of NTSB investigators arrived in the region Saturday with scanners and other equipment to study the wreckage site, but they cannot get to the scene until the vinyl chloride is removed. The Coast Guard and other authorities were coordinating the cleanup.
The NTSB also plans to review how the bridge was rebuilt after the coal train derailed there in 2009.
Investigators also want to learn if the tidal surge or debris from Superstorm Sandy may have caused problems at the bridge, although the area was not among those hardest hit by the storm.
About 100 people are staying in motels due to the 12-block evacuation, while an unknown number are with friends and family, said state Assemblyman John Burzichelli, a former mayor of Paulsboro.
The bridge usually supports at least three major trains each day serving refineries and other customers in the area. The August 2009 derailment was believed to have been caused by a bridge misalignment.
The tanker that ruptured Friday contained 25,000 gallons of vinyl chloride, some of which spewed into the air, sickening dozens of people. About 70 people went to a nearby hospital complaining of respiratory problems and eye irritation. None of the injuries was believed to be serious.
The remaining gas in the tanker had turned into a solid and settled at the bottom of the tanker.
The removal of the vinyl chloride and the seven wrecked rail cars is expected to be a delicate operation. A huge crane was brought in from New York Harbor to pick up the tanker cars.
The state of Massachusetts recently showed the transformative power of law when applied thoughtfully and compassionately to real-life situations. New legislation was enacted allowing restraining orders created to protect abuse victims to include the protection of their pets as well.
This week, ?Panzer? a 6-year-old Labrador mix was the first to benefit from this new law. His female owner and her child were sent to live in a shelter after the state ruled she had been battered by her live-in partner. Panzer too was also reportedly abused and in order to protect him, the dog was sent to a foster home until his owner can find permanent housing.
MORE: In NYC, Animal Abusers May Have to Register Like Sex Offenders
According to CBS Boston, Marshfield Police Chief Phil Tavares explained why domestic abuse laws that include animals are so crucial to public safety: ?Animals are often used as a tool for emotional abuse?the abuser will use an animal to seek revenge on or try to control one of the victims.? ?
The news agency also reports that more than 70 percent of abused women confirm their attackers threatened or actually carried out violent threats against their pets. And 50 percent report they delayed leaving their homes out of fear for their animals.
The acknowledgement of law enforcement that animal and human abuse go hand in hand is a welcome change from just a few years ago when animal abuse was waived off as a peripheral concern, the domain of humane agencies, not police officers and judges.
According to Sgt. David Hunt who spoke to The New York Times, ?With traditional law enforcement, the attitude has been that we have enough on our plate, let others worry about Fluffy and Muffy.? But Hunt reveals that research and experience prove the strong link between animal cruelty and other serious offenses like drug trafficking, child abuse, rape and homicide. And the punitive branches of our government are taking note; Hunt now travels the country teaching law-enforcement personnel about those connections and how to identify their warning signs.
But the concern with animal abuse isn't only that it's a red flag for other crimes, but that these animals are suffering. An abuser's predatory nature seeks out animals because they can be overpowered, they don't have a voice, and if properly restrained, they can't fight back. It's the worst form of abuse because its victim is truly powerless.
According to The Week, though Massachusetts is currently receiving a heightened amount of attention because of its animal protection law, 22 other states and Washington D.C. already have such legislation on their books.
It?s an encouraging number, though the need for a nationwide mandate is evident. As our pets, we are the only "voice" these creatures have and it's our responsibility to insist that they're kept healthy and safe.
What do you think is a fair punishment for people who abuse animals? Let us know what you think in the Comments.
Related Stories on TakePart:
??Drugged Out Texan Attempts to Kill Family Dogs as ?Sacrifice to God?
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A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.??In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a web editor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for?TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets?| TakePart.com
WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) ? Cadet Chapel, the landmark gothic church that is a center for spiritual life at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was hosting its first same-sex wedding Saturday.
Penelope Gnesin and Brenda Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate, were exchanging vows in the regal church in an afternoon ceremony attended by around 250 guests and conducted by a senior Army chaplain.
The two have been together for 17 years. They had a civil commitment ceremony that didn't carry any legal force in 1999 but had longed hoped to formally tie the knot. The way was cleared last year, when New York legalized same-sex marriage and President Barack Obama lifted the "Don't ask, don't tell," policy prohibiting openly gay people from serving in the military.
The brides both live in New Jersey and would have preferred to have the wedding there, but the state doesn't allow gay marriage.
"We just couldn't wait any longer," Fulton told The Associated Press in a phone interview Saturday.
Cadet Chapel, she said, was a more-than-adequate second choice.
"It has a tremendous history, and it is beautiful. That's where I first heard and said the cadet prayer," Fulton said, referring to the invocation that says, "Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won."
The ceremony will be the second same-sex wedding at West Point. Last weekend, two of Fulton's friends, a young lieutenant and her partner, got married in another campus landmark, the small Old Cadet Chapel in West Point's cemetery.
Fulton has campaigned against the ban on gays in the military as a board member of two groups representing gay and lesbian servicemen and servicewomen. She was part of the first West Point class to include women.
Fulton said the only hassle involved in arranging her ceremony came when she was initially told that none of West Point's chaplains were authorized by their denominations to perform same-sex weddings.
Luckily, she said, they were able to call on a friend, Army Chaplain Col. J. Wesley Smith. He is the senior Army chaplain at Dover Air Force Base, where he presides over the solemn ceremonies held when the bodies of soldiers killed in action oversees return to U.S. soil.
The couple planned on adding other military trappings to their wedding, including a tradition called the saber arch, where officers or cadets hold their swords aloft over the newlyweds as they emerge from the church.
That saying, ?A picture is worth a thousand words?? ?That is true, to a point. ?The ?point? enters the ?picture? when the consumer thinks they have been mislead by the photograph being taken at a clever angle, hiding something that most buyers may not want to deal with. ?Such as ?high frequency power lines?. ?We have several areas in the Santa Clarita Valley with high frequency power lines. It is a hard thing for some real estate buyers to get over when it comes to buying a home with them in their back yards.
As a real estate agent, it is best to be upfront with both the sellers and buyers of real estate. ?That includes taking photographs of the area and surrounding neighborhood to make sure the Buyer knows what they are getting into. ?When we have a real estate seller that has some ?issue? that most buyers are going to have a hard time overcoming ? we tell them to put it out there. ?Display that ?issue? in all of it?s glory. ?They?d be surprised as to how many buyers can then accept something they would not have been able to accept before because of it being hidden on purpose.
Photos make a difference when selling Santa Clarita real estate. When you make the decision to sell your home you will most likely choose a REALTOR to work with. Recommendations, a number of conversations, or perhaps a history of working with a certain real estate professional in your area will help you choose the person you want to list your home but perhaps you want to consider throwing photos in the mix as well. Have you noticed some great photo ads in your local paper or perhaps on a real estate website? Perhaps speaking with one of these companies can help you get the results that you are looking for.
When you are interviewing realtors about selling your home you will no doubt be presented with a marketing plan. Make sure quality photos are a part of the plan and if they are absent request professional photos. Photos are typically the first exposure that a buyer has to your home, and good, clear, sharp photos are going to hook potential buyers from the get-go.
Photos can actually improve the look of a home and are an amazing marketing tool, getting potential buyers to want to come and look at your home. So, before you start to dust off your camera and do the job yourself consider hiring a professional. Great photos could get your home a lot of traffic which will bring you a contract before you know it.
When listing you home for sale ? it is paramount that you are working with a Professional and Local Santa Clarita Real Estate agent. ?In fact, during the process of procuring one, you are going to want to interview several real estate agents. ?You can do this in their offices or in your home. ?Eventually, the agent you select is going to have to see the home you are selling in person, why not start at this step? ?That way you can size up the agent and see if they listen to your needs while being in your territory.
Please subscribe to our Bi Monthly Real estate news below ? enter your email address and you will be included on our list. ?The First is approaching fast ? that will be the next release date of our News Letter for Santa Clarita real estate. ?Be Safe ? Hire smart ? S. Smart (sorry, if you have seen that movie then you will get this reference
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A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.??In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a web editor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for?TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets?| TakePart.com
