Tuesday, August 31, 2010

AOL to sell or close Bebo amicable networking site

Struggling Internet association America Online pronounced Tuesday it plans to sell or close Bebo, the amicable networking site it acquired dual years ago, by the finish of May.

"As we weigh the portfolio of brands opposite the strategy, it is transparent that amicable networking is a space with complicated competition, and where scale defines success. Bebo, unfortunately, is a commercial operation that has been declining," AOL pronounced in a statement.

In sequence for Bebo to go on underneath AOL ownership, the association said, it would "require poignant investment in sequence to contest in the rival amicable networking space," alluding to the success of such amicable networking sites as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster.

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AOL pronounced Tuesday it "is not in a on all sides at this time to serve account and await Bebo in posterior a turnaround in amicable networking."

The association paid for Bebo in Mar 2008 for $850 million from primogenitor Time-Warner. At that time, Bebo was one of the largest amicable networks in Britain, and was ranked initial in Ireland and New Zealand and third in the United States, according to AOL.

"Bebo has never had an assembly that came close to MySpace and Facebook, solely for in the United Kingdom," pronounced Andrew Lipsman, comparison executive of industry research for comScore, that does Web site analytics.

In the last dual years, Facebooks expansion has been bomb compared to alternative amicable networking sites, that are struggling to reinvent themselves in sequence to pull new users. Bebo had 12.8 million singular visitors in February, according to comScore. That represented a 45 percent decrease from Feb 2009.

In contrast, Facebook had 462 million singular visitors in Feb 2010, up 68 percent from the year before.

After Facebook, the amicable networking sites with the majority visitors in Februarywere: MySpace, with scarcely 110 million; Twitter, with 69.5 million; Orkut, with 49.8 million; HI5.com, with 39.6 million, according to comScore.

Facebook has some-more than 400 million active members worldwide, with about thirty percent of those in the United States.

Launched in 2005Bebo was launched in mid-2005, and the offices are in San Francisco. In 2006, the site won a "Webby" endowment for most appropriate amicable networking site from the classification that annual recognizes Web sites and online achievements. Bebo has about 40 employees now, compared to 100 or so when the site was paid for by AOL.

At the time of the purchase, AOL authority Randy Falco pronounced the amicable networking site was "the undiluted element to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a heading on all sides in amicable media."

Yesterdays association matter was utterly different. AOL "is committed to operative fast to establish if there are any meddlesome parties for Bebo and the company’s stream expectancy is to finish the vital analysis by the finish of May 2010."

Was poignant squeeze for AOLThe $850 million in money that AOL paid Bebo done it AOLs largest understanding given it paid for MapQuest for $1 billion in 2000 (not counting AOLs $106 billion squeeze of Time Warner in 2001). At the time, AOL was still assimilated with Time Warner Inc., but it distant from the media firm late last year.

Since spinning off from Time Warner, AOL has sole one property: associate selling commercial operation Buy.at, that it sole in Mar to Digital Window Ltd. for an undisclosed price. Digital Window runs a network of associate selling sites, that drive commercial operation to e-commerce sites in sell for a cut of sales.

AOL, a colonize in the dial-up Internet commercial operation during the "90s, has been perplexing to streamline and concentraterebuilding itself as a calm and promotion business. It runs dozens of Web sites, together with renouned tech blog Engadget and personal financial site WalletPop.

Clayton Moran, an researcher at The Benchmark Co., pronounced the cost AOL paid for Bebo was questioned from the start.

Click for associated contentAOL to buy tellurian amicable media network BeboFacebook, states set predator safeguardsFacebooks user bottom hits 200 million

"It done a lot of industry watchers blemish their heads," Moran said. "At this point they probably would confess they overpaid for it and right away they"re only cleaning it up."

He pronounced that if AOL does sell Bebo, it would expected fetch a fragment of the strange squeeze price.

Msnbc.com staff bard Alex Johnson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sunday, August 29, 2010

Haiti assist bid injured by delayed U.N. reply

Tom Brown PORT-AU-PRINCE Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:13pm EST Related News Haiti preserve puncture as sleet turns camps to mudThu, Feb eighteen 2010U.N. assist arch chides agencies on Haiti reliefThu, Feb eighteen 2010Sarkozy visits Haiti, unveils vital assist packageWed, Feb seventeen 2010Tarps, toilets are priorities for quake-hit Haiti: U.N.Mon, Feb fifteen 2010One month after quake, Haitians stick on to weep deadFri, Feb twelve 2010 < 1 / 7 > People travel at a temporary tent stay in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince Feb 26, 2010. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Clutching involuntary attack rifles, truckloads of U.N. infantry patrolled the streets of Haiti"s cracked collateral on the day after the trembler strike last month, clearly preoccupied to the wretchedness around them.

World&&&&Natural Disasters

Cries for assistance from people digging for survivors in collapsed buildings were drowned out by the bark of heavy-duty engines as the infantry plowed by Port-au-Prince but interlude to stick on rescue efforts, majority less lead them.

A usual steer since they were deployed in 2004, the U.N. infantry huddled in the shade of their canopied vehicles.

There were about 9,000 uniformed U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Haiti when the upheaval struck on Jan twelve and they were the judicious "first responders" to the mess in the bankrupt Caribbean country, whose notoriously diseased executive supervision was impressed by the scale of the tragedy.

Initially, however, nothing of the peacekeepers appeared to be concerned in hands-on charitable service in what puncture healing experts report as the vicious initial 72 hours after a harmful trembler strikes.

Their reply to the abominable pang was singular to you do security and seeking for looters after the bulk 7.0 upheaval intended majority of the collateral and took what Haitian President Rene Preval says could be as majority as 300,000 lives.

There was looting in the capital, but it paled in some-more aged with the astringency of the charitable crisis.

Horribly-injured patients flooded overstretched hospitals, forcing healing staff to confirm that patients to yield and that were already as well far left to try saving.

"Doctors played God," pronounced Tyler Marshall, a maestro former Los Angeles Times match operative with an general assist organisation that helped out in a tent city erected at the tallness of the destruction on the drift of Port-au-Prince"s University Hospital, the country"s largest.

Scores of U.N. crew died in the quake, together with Hedi Annabi, head of the U.N. mission that was set up in 2004. That helps insist what majority have criticized as a glacially delayed kickoff of service operations after one of history"s misfortune healthy disasters.

But in the days and weeks that followed it mostly seemed that lessons from alternative disasters were abandoned in Haiti as fears of rioting or anarchy overshadowed concerns about removing assist out quickly.

The U.N."s tip charitable assist official, John Holmes, is between those who have chided service agencies, together with the United Nations itself, for you do as well small to assistance Haiti.

"We cannot ... wait for for for the subsequent puncture for these lessons to be learned," Holmes wrote in a trusted email initial published on the website of the biography Foreign Policy.

"There is an obligatory need to progress significantly genius on the ground, to urge coordination, vital formulation and sustenance of aid," pronounced Holmes.

Edmond Mulet, behaving head of the U.N. mission, concurred in an talk that it played a singular charitable purpose in the initial couple of days after the trembler since the operations were effectively decapitated.

"At the unequivocally commencement it was unequivocally formidable since all the domicile was utterly broken and all the care of the mission was killed," Mulet told Reuters.

"CRIMINALS AND BANDITS"

Mulet gained prominence for wielding an iron fist during a prior army as head of the U.N. mission when he led mostly Brazilian "blue helmet" infantry in a successful crackdown on Haiti"s heavily armed gangs.

And he has finished no tip about sophistry the competing needs of service operations with law enforcement, in his bid to lane down the some-more than 3,000 inmates who took value of the trembler to shun from the main prison.

"We are here additionally to yield security," he pronounced when asked about the mess of convoys of rifle-wielding U.N. infantry to poke for people trapped in the rubble of the busted capital.

"I still have to patrol, I still have to go after all these criminals and bandits that transient from the inhabitant penitentiary, the squad leaders, the criminals, the killers, the kidnappers. I cannot unequivocally confuse myself from you do that."

The service mission shifted in to higher rigging after U.S. infantry deployed in large numbers and set up a supply sequence to get food and disinfectant in to areas great out for aid.

But there were still majority bottlenecks and setbacks, mostly involving U.N.-linked food distributions hobbled by unsound organization, reserve and throng control.

Unfortunately, U.N. infantry in Haiti have over the years gained a repute for toughness and abuse some-more than for easing pang in the lowest nation in the Americas.

"The usually time I"ve seen one of these U.N. infantry burst out of the behind of a lorry was to kick up on somebody or take a shot at them," pronounced a piece of the U.S. Army"s 82nd Airborne Division, as he worked security during a new assist handout.

"These guys have since all of us in unvaried a bad repute here," he said, asking not to be identified.

Haiti"s wrecked infrastructure and bad ride links finished it formidable to get assist out and keep it flowing, but that frequency finished the incident opposite from that in alternative new disasters around the globe.

"POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE"

"The lowest and the majority exposed people lend towards to live in the regions that are strike the majority by healthy disasters," pronounced Solomon Kuah, an puncture healing medicine formed in New York who outlayed 4 weeks in Port-au-Prince after the quake.

There are no arguable estimates for the series of survivors who died from injuries due to unsound healing supplies.

But Henriette Chamouillet, the World Health Organization"s deputy in Haiti, pronounced all from staff shortages to bureaucracy and a miss of make-up lists embroiled the smoothness of containers full of medicines from Port-au-Prince"s airfield to doctors on the ground.

Port-au-Prince sits usually 700 miles off the seashore of Miami, that is home to a large Haitian-American community, and it seemed ludicrous that so couple of the U.S. infantry rushed there spoke French or were accompanied by translators.

One retaining picture of pell-mell food distributions came when U.S. helicopters offloaded boxes of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at a site in the capital. Many Haitians non-stop them up usually to toss them afar in offend since no French or Creole-language instructions were enclosed with the assumingly invalid packets of dust, explaining that they indispensable to be churned with H2O as piece of their preparation.

Rajiv Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has touted the Haiti service mission as "the largest and majority successful general poke and rescue bid ever fabricated in history."

But some-more than 6 weeks after the upheaval hit, the mission is still mostly in an puncture reply mode. The U.N."s World Food Program is tying the food rations to 55-pound (25 kg) bags of rice and the Haitian supervision estimates that a million upheaval survivors are still vital in the streets in temporary encampments with no using H2O or toilets.

Doctors are roughly finished traffic with dire injuries but reconstruction for a little 40,000 amputees and rebuilding Haiti"s health infrastructure are between long-term challenges.

"This is unequivocally a mess of Biblical proportions," pronounced Lewis Lucke, who was the USAID executive in Iraq prior to entrance to Haiti as U.S. ambassador.

U.N. and alternative officials have pronounced the tellurian reply to Haiti"s upheaval was quicker and some-more in effect than in alternative new disasters, together with the Asian tsunami that killed 226,000 people in thirteen countries in Dec 2004.

But experts contend the United Nations has a lot to sense from smaller, some-more nimble healing groups similar to International Medical Corps, or IMC, and Paris-based Medicins Sans Frontieres, along with charities some-more experienced in distributing aid, such as CARE and Catholic Relief Services.

Kuah, who concurrent service efforts for IMC, a California-based organisation that had rarely learned doctors treating patients in Haiti twenty-three hours after the trembler struck, stressed the "need for speed" when it comes to saving lives.

"When you ask yourself if there were ways you could have prevented some-more mortalities or discontinued additional mortality, with earthquakes, in particular, it"s some-more timing than anything else," pronounced Kuah.

(Additional stating by Catherine Bremer, Jackie Frank, Patricia Zengerle, Mica Rosenberg and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray)

World Natural Disasters

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Mexico might cut millions of cellphones to quarrel crime

Noel Randewich MEXICO CITY Fri April 9, 2010 8:40am EDT Related News Slim"s proposal offers available fine from regulatorTue, April 6 2010Mexico"s batch sell set for DMA, eyes IPOsMon, April 5 2010Slim"s America Movil seeks to launch telecoms offerWed, March twenty-four 2010UPDATE 1-Slim"s America Movil seeks to launch telecoms offerWed, March twenty-four 2010Telecom Italia hasn"t lost flicker for TelefonicaTue, March twenty-three 2010 A lady stands in front of a mobile phone emporium in Mexico City Oct 20, 2009. REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar

A lady stands in front of a mobile phone emporium in Mexico City Oct 20, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Daniel Aguilar

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Tens of millions of Mexicans could find their cellphones away this week end if the supervision goes forward with a new law meant to quarrel crime by forcing people to register their identities.

World&&&&Technology&&&&Lifestyle&&&&Mexico

Advertisements on supervision air wave and air wave have been propelling Mexicans for weeks to register their cellphones by promulgation their personal sum as a content message, but on Thursday thirty million lines remained unregistered as the Saturday deadline neared.

Analysts pronounced that any associated waste for Mexico"s largest wireless operator, America Movil, would be little relations to the company"s altogether sales.

Still, America Movil, tranquil by billionaire Carlos Slim, is propelling senators to magnify the deadline for implementing the law, upheld a year ago to try to stop criminals from utilizing cellphones for coercion and to come to terms ransoms in kidnappings.

"Close to thirty million people will be influenced ... most of whom rely on mobile phones as their usually equates to of communication," America Movil"s head of institutional relations, Guillermo Ferrer, pronounced in emailed comments.

Most of Mexico"s 84 million mobile phones are prepaid handsets with a singular series of mins of have use of that can be simply paid for in stores. The phones can be surfaced up with some-more mins by travel dilemma vendors.

America Movil has 71 percent of Mexico"s wireless market, along with operations in Brazil, Chile and alternative countries in the region. Most of the rest of Mexico"s cellphone marketplace is in the hands of Spain"s Telefonica.

Telefonica pronounced it programmed to say voice, short content summary and interpretation services notwithstanding the authority"s week end deadline.

"Telecommunications are of open interest, stable by the constitution ... and they can not be denied to the population," the association pronounced in a matter late on Thursday. About 60 percent of the seventeen million clients in Mexico have submitted their information.

MOBILE EXTORTION

Mexico is tormented by orderly crime, from drug trafficking to express-kidnappings of cab passengers to force them to have money withdrawals from involuntary teller machines. Increased media reports of kidnappings in 2008 led to calls for the cellphone registry.

Critics have pronounced the law would be ineffectual since criminals can simply register phones underneath alternative people"s identities.

But telecommunications watchdog head Hector Osuna pronounced in a air wave talk on Thursday authorities programmed to check the legitimacy of interpretation people submit.

This week, senators refused requests from write companies to magnify the deadline for a year, but discussions were ongoing and a last-minute opinion could not be ruled out.

The Reforma journal reported that a decider refused to give Telcel an claim to stop the deadline.

Based on normal spending habits, America Movil stands to lose around $10 million in income per day if the thirty million unregistered lines are cut.

"We think that away users would see to register their line in the short term, though there could be an unavoidable loss of revenues by the mobile companies," BBVA researcher Andres Coello wrote in a note to clients.

Itau Securities researcher Martin Lara estimated that it would take a week, on average, to reactivate lines that were cut or to take new lines. That would cost America Movil 0.2 percent of projected sales for 2010.

If people who rely heavily on their wireless phones for work have already purebred their lines, there could be less of an outcome on America Movil"s revenue.

America Movil"s ADRs were down 1.26 percent, or 64 cents, at $50.34 in late trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Additional stating by Cyntia Barrera Diaz; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Valerie Lee)

World Technology Lifestyle Mexico

Friday, August 27, 2010

Clangers by Cooper and Cameron give 1-1 pull in womens game

Marie Woolf, Whitehall Editor & ,}

ONE of Gordon Browns majority comparison lieutenants gave an discernment in to what she unequivocally thinks of her purpose in the choosing yesterday when she unwittingly showed cameras a note describing herself and her colleagues as second division.

Yvette Cooper, the work and pensions secretary, displayed her loyal feelings during Labours sunrise press discussion when she slipped the scribbled summary to an amused Liam Byrne, arch cupboard member to the Treasury.

She referred to that being asked to paint the celebration on the lectern was sort of similar to being authorised to fool around in the silt pit. Implying that she and alternative cupboard ministers had been marginalised in the choosing by Brown, Cooper upheld a fast scrawled note to Byrne that read: Its [sic] obviously second multiplication currently as if thats because weve been authorised to do this.

Unfortunately, the note in her palm was in full perspective of cameras as she left the theatre at Labours London headquarters.

Her husband, Ed Balls, the preparation secretary, might not be amused by her observation. He was station at the lectern nearby.

Balls was at heedfulness to point out that there was zero wrong with footballs second division.

A Labour orator pronounced no mistreat had been done. Ed would similar to to point out to Yvette, Liam and everybody else, as a fan of the group at the tip of the third harvesting machine of English football, that there is zero wrong with the second division.

Cooper was not the customarily distinguished womanlike to bungle. Samantha Cameron, the Tory leaders wife, who is seen by most as the partys tip weapon, had not misfired so far during the choosing campaign. But she invoked the rage of road-safety campaigners when she was filmed in the behind of a cab but a seatbelt.

The Camerons have a channel on YouTube called WebCameron, and a video posted on the site yesterday, marked down WebSamCameron, featured a revisit to a gardening plan for the without a country nearby Leeds. In it, the Tory leaders wife, who is 4 months pregnant, can be seen committing the offence, that carries a 60 bound chastisement fine.

The Conservative press bureau was discerning to explain that it was a singular slip-up for the mother-to-be and that she customarily buckled up.

Edmund King, boss of the AA motorists group, said: Whether you are the Queen or the antithesis leaders wife, there is still intensity to be thrown around with the quickness of a small elephant.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Manchester United will not mangle the bank pointer new stars

Sir Alex Ferguson has proposed his poke to pointer uninformed faces subsequent summer but the Manchester United physical education instructor has ruled out a summer spending debauch at Old Trafford.

Having banked 80million from the depart of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid last year Ferguson has supports to fool around with in the close season, notwithstanding reports to discordant that the Glazer owners will tie the club"s purse strings due to the huge debt.

United already have an 8m agreement to pointer Fulham defender Chris Smalling and have been related with a multi-million move for Benfica"s Argentine star Angle Di Maria.

London Science Museum goes meridian scholarship neutral

LONDON Wed March 24, 2010 11:10am EDT Related News London Science Museum goes meridian scholarship neutralWed, March twenty-four 2010 A low blue iceberg floats in a fjord south of Tasiilaq in eastern Greenland Aug 2, 2009. The blue color is a outcome of application and steady thawing and refreezing. REUTERS/Bob Strong

A low blue iceberg floats in a fjord south of Tasiilaq in eastern Greenland Aug 2, 2009. The blue color is a outcome of application and steady thawing and refreezing.

Credit: Reuters/Bob Strong

LONDON (Reuters) - A new meridian art studio at London"s Science Museum, sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell, will step at the back of from pulling justification of synthetic meridian shift to adopt a some-more neutral position.

Green Business&&&&Lifestyle&&&&COP15

The 4 million bruise ($6 million) exhibition, opening in November, will yield "up-to-date, accurate" report about the scholarship of meridian shift and aims to "satisfy the interests and needs of those who accept that human-induced meridian shift is real, those who are unsure, and those who do not," the notable relic pronounced in a statement.

"The systematic village has, with a little exceptions, resolved that meridian shift is real, mostly driven by humans and requires a response," pronounced the museum"s executive Professor Chris Rapley. "Our design is to minimize the biting tinge and tension that bedevils contention of this subject."

The new art studio follows an muster called "Prove It! All the justification you need to hold in meridian change" that the notable relic launched last Oct and sealed in February.

It featured a check display a large apportionment of the visitors doubtful the systematic justification at the back of synthetic meridian change.

The new gallery, called the Climate Science Gallery, is additionally sponsored by Germany"s Siemens, the Garfield Weston Foundation and Britain"s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Late last year, the systematic interpretation at the back of meridian shift was called in to subject after hacked e-mails from a British university were seized on by skeptics as justification that the box for tellurian warming had been exaggerated.

Then in January, an blunder observant that Himalayan glaciers could warp by 2035 -- a vital deceit of the unfreeze -- unprotected shortcomings in how a U.N. row of meridian scientists checks the sources. This led to calls for reforms of the row that common the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

London"s Science Museum additionally reiterated this week the joining to shortening the CO footprint, similar to cut CO emissions by a serve 10 percent this year. This follows a twenty-four percent rebate in the museum"s emissions in 2008/9.

(Reporting by Michael Szabo; Editing by Paul Casciato)

Green Business Lifestyle COP15 for acne doctors to help adolescents to treat their acne

Monday, August 23, 2010

Bakery will move 84 jobs to Clayton

CLAYTON -- Northeast Foods, that reserve buns to McDonald"s, plans to emanate 84 jobs and deposit $25.4 million to set up a bakery in Clayton.

The company, that is formed in Baltimore, could get close to $3 million in grants and taxation breaks. Northeast will embrace a $350,000 accede to from the One North Carolina Fund by the state Commerce Department, Gov. Beverly Perdues bureau voiced Monday.

Johnston County Commissioners will cruise a suggest Mar 1 to suggest the association $1 million in taxation breaks over multiform years, pronounced County Manager Rick Hester. Clayton is deliberation charity the association $800,000 in taxation breaks over eight years, pronounced Town Manager Steve Biggs. The locale could additionally request for a state retard accede to for Northeast for as majority as $750,000, he said.

The incentives are formed on pursuit origination and the volume the association invests. Northeast plans to emanate the jobs over the subsequent dual years. The normal annual income will be $41,815, that is higher than Johnston Countys normal income of $31,408, according to the governors office.

The association chose Clayton partly given of the vicinity to the new Golden State Foods room in Garner, pronounced Michael Tsakalos, a Northeast accountant who served on the companys site-selection committee. Golden State Foods, that non-stop in Garner last year, ships reserve to McDonalds restaurants in multiform states. Another Golden State Foods site is in Lexington, S.C.

"We longed for to be offer south to offer the marketplace in this piece of the country," Tsakalos said. "Its piece of McDonalds supply-chain strategy."

Although Northeast has alternative customers, the 80,000-square-foot bakery off of U.S. 70 Business in Clayton will bake buns usually for McDonald"s, Tsakalos said. The bakery will be means to have up to 72,000 buns an hour, according to the company.

The association deliberate alternative sites for a new plant, together with Wake and Harnett counties. It additionally deliberate Lee and Dillon counties in South Carolina, Tsakalos said.

He pronounced monetary incentives played a piece in the companys preference to move to Clayton. The vicinity to Interstate 95 was additionally a factor, he said, as was Claytons new ranking in BusinessWeek repository as one of the majority affordable places in the nation to lift a family.

"We thought that it supposing the most appropriate commercial operation event for the company," Tsakalos said.

Northeast Foods, that has granted McDonalds restaurants given 1965, has five sites opposite the nation and employs some-more than 600 people, Tsakalos said. Construction of the Clayton bakery is set to begin this summer, and the site is scheduled to open in the open of 2011.

As for incentives, Wade Stewart, authority of the county house of commissioners, pronounced the critical for internal leaders to assistance when jobs are at stake. The countys stagnation rate was 9.8 percent in December, the ultimate month for that interpretation were available.

"Its regularly been important, but the generally critical now, I"d say," he said.

sarah.nagem or 919-829-4758

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Stroke occurrence rising between younger adults dwindling between elderly

The average age of stroke patients in 2005 was nearly three years younger than the average age of stroke patients in 1993-1994 -- a significant decrease, researchers said. Moreover, the percentage of people 20 to 45 having a stroke was up to 7.3 percent in 2005 from 4.5 percent in 1993-1994.

This is scary and very concerning, said Brett M. Kissela, M.D., the studylead author and Associate Professor, Co-Director of the Neurology Residency Program, and Vice-Chair of Education and Clinical Services at the University of Cincinnati Neuroscience Institute. What was shocking was the proportion of patients under age 45. The proportion is up, the incidence rate is up.

Stroke has traditionally been considered a disease of old age, so the findings are of great public health significance because of the potential for greater lifetime burden of disability among younger patients.

Kissela said he became interested in studying the issue after observing an increase in young stroke patients admitted to his hospital. Researchers examined data from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region, which includes about 1.3 million people. But Kissela said the trend noted is likely occurring throughout the United States because the higher prevalence of risk factors such as obesity and diabetes seen in the young here are also seen throughout the country.

They recorded the age of people hospitalized for their first-ever stroke from the summer of 1993 to the summer of 1994, then compared it to calendar years 1999 and 2005.

In 1993-94, the average age of first stroke was 71.3 years old. The average age dropped to 70.9 in 1999 and was down to 68.4 by 2005. Researchers also found racial differences in stroke incidence. For blacks, the incidence of strokes among those over age 85 dropped significantly by 2005. For whites, the incidence decreased significantly starting at age 65 by 2005.

In both races, the incidence rates for strokes in 20 to 45 year olds increased, although the increase was only statistically significant among whites, doubling from 12 per 100,000 people to 25 per 100,000.

Kissela said ithard to know with certainty what is driving this change, but speculated the increased prevalence of diabetes, hypertension and obesity is a major contributor.

As physicians, we need to look for these potent risk factors even in young people, he said. Stroke is a life-changing, devastating disease. It can affect young people, and we hope these data will serve as a wake-up call.

From a public health standpoint, we need to do our best to prevent stroke at any age and monitor for stroke and stroke risk factors in all patients.

Co-authors are: Kathleen Alwell, R.N.; Jane Khoury, Ph.D.; Charles J. Moomaw, Ph.D.; Daniel Woo, M.D.; Opeolu Adeoye, M.D.; Matthew L. Flaherty, M.D.; Pooja Khatri, M.D.; Simona Ferioli, M.D.; Joseph P. Broderick, M.D.; and Dawn Kleindorfer, M.D.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Internet Nominated for 2010 Nobel Peace Prize

If a little people have their way, you could be the leader of thisyears Nobel Peace Prize. "You" in this box being used broadly to meanthe billions of people who log online daily.

Yes, the Internet is one of a jot down 237 nominations for the desired esteem this year.

Some groups have been advocating the Internetfor the esteem for months, but the assignment was strictly acceptedonly this week, during the initial assembly of the Norwegian NobelCommittee on Mar 9.

Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize are not open to the public.Only a name organisation of people, together with prior laureates, members ofnational governments and name university members and scientists, cannominate possibilities for destiny prizes.

The Nobel Institute, that awards the annual prize, does not releasethe list of nominees, but nominators infrequently make known theirselections.

According to the BBC, the Internet acquiescence was corroborated by ShirinEbadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her humanrights work, and by Nicholas Negroponte, owner of the $100 laptopproject, One Laptop per Child.

The Internet assignment is additionally heavily corroborated by the Italianversion of Wired magazine, that last Nov launched the Web site"Internet for Peace" to lift recognition for the campaign.

A matter on the Web site calls the Internet "a apparatus for peace."Anyone who uses it �"can boar the seeds of non-violence. And thats whythe subsequent Nobel Peace Prize should go to the Net. A Nobel for each andevery one of us."

The esteem will be awarded on Oct. 8, and will embody a money endowment of $1.4 million.

If the Internet were to essentially win this years Nobel Peace Prize, it would not be the initial non-human winner.

The 1965 esteem went to the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF);the 1985 esteem was awarded to the International Physicians for thePrevention of Nuclear War; and the 2007 esteem was separate betweenIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore for theirefforts to negate tellurian warming.

The Internet assignment for the Nobel Peace Prize is identical to Timemagazines loyalty of the Person of the Year issue to "You," inhonor of the millions of users of online sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook.

Americans Are Info-Junkies 10 Profound Innovations Ahead WiFi Basics: All About Wireless Networking Technology

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

24 to finish after stream season

March 26, 2010, 9:07 PM EST

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The play "24" won"t be ticking most longer on TV.

Fox voiced Friday that the action-packed real-time show starring Kiefer Sutherland as anti-terrorism representative Jack Bauer will breeze down at the finish of the stream eighth deteriorate on May 24.

Sutherland pronounced in a matter that the show"s expel and organisation "always longed for "24" to finish on a high note, so the preference to have the eighth deteriorate the last was one we all concluded upon." He additionally pronounced he was seeking brazen to formulating a movie version of "24."

The show has perceived 68 Emmy nominations, winning for superb play array and for Sutherland as lead play actress in 2006.

"This has been the purpose of a lifetime, and I will never be means to entirely demonstrate my high regard to everybody who done it possible," Sutherland said. "But when all is pronounced and done, it is the constant worldwide fan bottom that done it probable for me to have the experience of personification the purpose of Jack Bauer, and for that I am evermore grateful."

Premiering Nov. 6, 2001, "24" used an innovative real-time, split-screen format to benefaction fast-paced interwoven storylines. Each part lonesome one hour of the season"s 24-hour story arc.

The initial 6 seasons were set in Los Angeles. Following a one-year mangle forced by the writers strike, deteriorate 7 went to Africa and Washington, D.C.

The stream deteriorate has Agent Bauer thwarting a militant conflict in New York.

By the finish of this season, "24" will have presented 194 episodes, creation it one of television"s longest-running movement shows.

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Sunday, August 8, 2010

China automobile play Zhongsheng halves HK IPO: source

Kennix Chim HONG KONG Tue Mar 9, 2010 6:24am EST Stocks & &

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Zhongsheng Group, a Chinese dealership providing services to carmakers, halved its Hong Kong initial public offering to $474 million to generate interest in the issue, a source close to the deal said on Tuesday.

Deals

The reduction comes as once-booming markets in both Shanghai and Hong Kong, which raised more funds in IPOs than anywhere else in the world last year, have started to weaken.

Zhongsheng had initially planned to start its Hong Kong IPO roadshow on March 3, but postponed the IPO citing market conditions, according to a note obtained by Reuters on March 2.

Zhongsheng, which counts Japan"s Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) among its key customers, plans to sell 286.2 million shares, or 15.5 percent of its enlarged share capital, at an indicative price range of HK$9.54-HK$12.83 per share, the source said.

The offer price values Zhongsheng at 14.2 times to 19 times 2010 forecast earnings. By comparison, Hong Kong-based distributor Dah Chong Hong Holdings (1828.HK) trades at about 12 times 2010 forecast earnings.

The company originally aimed to sell 25 percent of its enlarged share capital, but will now sell 15.5 percent of the capital, another source close to the deal said.

Zhongsheng"s founders and private equity firm General Atlantic will not sell any existing shares in the IPO. Instead, General Atlantic plans to buy more to lift its stake in Zhongsheng on its IPO offering, the second source said.

Zhongsheng"s founding partners Huang Yi and Li Guoqiang together hold an 85 percent stake, while General Atlantic holds 15 percent, underwriter UBS (UBSN.VX) said in a report.

Zhongsheng aims to list in Hong Kong on March 26, the sources said.

The sources declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media. A spokeswoman from Zhongsheng declined comment.

Zhongsheng sent invitations to investors to join its IPO presentation to be held on Wednesday, according to a document sent out on Tuesday.

Morgan Stanley (MS.N), UBS (UBSN.VX) and BOC International are handling the IPO.

Zhongsheng mainly provides sales, spare parts, services and survey businesses for major international car brands in China.

Zhongsheng focuses on mid to high-end brands, including Audi, General Motors, Honda, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan.

Analysts have said the company"s ties with Toyota would affect investor views of the offering, given the recent Toyota recall issue.

Zhongsheng relies on Toyota and Lexus for the majority of its sales. In the first nine months of 2009, these two brands accounted for 51 percent and 17 percent of Zhongsheng"s new car sales, respectively.

China"s passenger car sales in February rose 55 percent from a year earlier, the official industry association said on Tuesday, as policy incentives continued to lure buyers into showrooms during the holidays.

(US$1 = HK$7.75)

(Additional reporting by Fiona Lau; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Will Waterman)

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Thursday, August 5, 2010

Feds Bullard: Adjust quantitative easing

Mark Felsenthal St. CLOUD, Minnesota Thu Mar 4, 2010 12:06pm EST Related News Fed"s Hoenig: zero-rate pledge invites speculationTue, Mar 2 2010Fed officials at odds on right level for ratesFri, Feb 26 2010WRAPUP 2-Fed officials at odds on right level for ratesFri, Feb 26 2010Fed"s Bullard says inflation expectations trump allThu, Feb 25 2010UPDATE 1-Fed"s Bullard - financial reform plans fall shortThu, Feb 25 2010

St. CLOUD, Minnesota (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve should shift quantitative easing policies based on the U.S. economy"s evolution, in the same way those changes guide interest rate policy, a top Fed official said on Thursday.

"The quantitative policy should be conducted in a manner analogous to interest rate policy," St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard told an audience at St. Cloud State University.

"This means adjusting the policy according to incoming information in the economy," said Bullard, who is voting on the Fed"s interest-rate setting panel this year.

The Fed has cut interest rates to near zero and promised to keep rates exceptionally low for an extended period.

Bullard said the policy, along with about $1.7 trillion in long-term securities that the Fed has bought to give the economy additional help, is right for the current stage of the weak recovery.

"You"ve got a super easy monetary policy right in place now," he said in response to questions after a speech.

"I think that"s appropriate as the economic recovery is taking hold ... but we"re in the early stages yet," said Bullard, a voter on the Fed"s interest rate setting panel this year.

At some point the Fed will have to begin reversing the easy money policy or run the risk of fueling inflation in the medium term, he added.

After the Fed chopped borrowing costs to rock-bottom levels, it started buying mortgage-related debt to provide additional support for the U.S. economy, which was reeling from its most damaging financial crisis in generations.

Bullard has long advocated actively selling off the assets as warranted by developments in the economy when the buying program ends this month.

He is at odds with Fed leaders, who advocate asset sales only after other steps to drain reserves from the financial system and when the recovery is well established.

However, Bullard is among a group of policymakers who worry that the Fed"s massive supply of money to the economy poses an inflation risk. One policymaker dissented at the Fed"s January meeting against a decision to maintain the Fed"s low-rate, long-time promise, saying conditions have improved and the central bank needs to keep its options open.

Turning to regulatory reforms that Congress is weighing, Bullard warned against stripping the Fed of oversight powers.

"The Fed should remain involved with smaller bank regulation so it has a view of the entire financial landscape and does not become biased toward the large, mostly New York-based institutions," Bullard said.

Subjecting the Fed to greater control by Congress could have negative consequences for the U.S. and the global economy, he said.

"In the U.S., erosion of Fed independence could result in a 1970s-style period of volatility," he said.

While there has been widespread criticism of the Fed for creating conditions that led to the housing bubble and regulatory lapses, the central bank may gain powers as a result of regulatory reforms.

Lawmakers are debating whether to locate a stronger consumer protection agency within the Fed and give the Fed authority to police the health of the broader financial system.

Even so, one proposal would allow the Congress to review the Fed"s monetary policy decisions, something to which policymakers have strenuously objected.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Gianluca Nani leaves West Ham as new co-owners go on Upton Park cost-cutting practice

West Ham have announced technical director Gianluca Nani has parted company from the club by mutual consent.

Gianluca Nani

Hammer KO: Gianluca Nani has left West Ham United

The decision follows new co-owners David Sullivan and David Goldpolicy to continue their cost-cutting exercise at Upton Park, with theItalian leaving his reported 300,000 per year role after just two years in eastLondon.

Nani arrived from Brescia Calcio in 2008 and was at the centre of a storm surrounding former manager Alan Curbishley"s departure.

Curbishley quit bemoaning the loss of key players George McCartney and Anton Ferdinand being sold behind his back.

Nani was central in all of West Ham"s transfer dealings during his time at the Premier League club, responsible for club record 9million German teenage flop Savio and the arrivals of Diego Tristan and David Di Michele.

The Italian also oversaw the deals to sign Herita Ilunga and Alessandro Diamanti who have been deemed as more successful buys.

But with the club looking to slash their huge financial deficit, the new co-owners deemed Nani, who had 12 months left to run on his contract, was a luxury they no longer wished to afford particularly with Sullivan negotiating his own transfer dealings.

West Ham United co-chairman David Sullivan said: "I would like to thankGianluca for his contribution to the club and we all wish him well.

Savio

Flop: Savio, signed after Nani"s recommendation, failed to sparkle at West Ham

"With the club heading in a new direction since David Gold and I tookcharge last month, it was felt the time was right for all parties tomove on in an amicable way."

Stats Zone

Nani, meanwhile, told the club"s official website: "I would like to take thisopportunity to thank everyone who worked alongside me in this wonderfuladventure - the staff, Gianfranco Zola and the players.

"A special thank you also to the fans who have always supported usand whose warmth and dedication gave me a passion for this club whichwill forever remain with me. Finally, I wish the owners the bestpossible success in the future."

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