Car bomb north of Baghdad kills 3 Iraqi soldiers (AP)

BAGHDAD ? An Iraqi official says a bomb blast north of Baghdad has killed three Iraqi soldiers, hours before the nation's parliament is to reconvene after Sunni-backed lawmakers ended their boycott to protest persecution of Sunni officials.

Police spokesman in Diyala province, Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi, says a parked car bomb detonated near a military patrol late Monday in Baqouba, killing three soldiers and wounding three others.

Baqouba is a former al-Qaida stronghold, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.

Al-Qaida has frequently targeted Iraqi security forces since the U.S. troops left in December. The group appears to be exploiting a political crisis that has erupted after the Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president on terrorism charges.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120131/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

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Exclusive: Duvalier faces trial for corruption, not abuses (Reuters)

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) ? Former Haitian dictator Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier will face trial for corruption during his 15-year rule, but not for human rights abuses, a senior judicial official told Reuters.

A ruling on the charges by the judge handling the case is due to be delivered to the government prosecutor's office on Monday, the official said.

But it does not include charges for the murders, disappearances, torture and other rights abuses allegedly committed during Duvalier's rule.

He inherited power from his father, Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier in 1971 and ruled Haiti for 15 years until his overthrow in 1986. Under the father-and-son dictatorship, thousands of people were murdered, or were tortured in jails, such as the dreaded Fort Dimanche.

Duvalier, now 60, made a surprise return to his earthquake-stricken homeland in January last year after nearly 25 years exiled in France, opening himself up to possible prosecution.

"Duvalier will be tried for misappropriation of public funds, not for any other criminal charges," the official said, adding that the former dictator would face up to five years in prison if convicted. No trial date has yet been set.

While the ruling is a setback for human rights victims and advocates, it also marks a victory for those seeking punishment for Duvalier's alleged crimes who had feared that the judge would drop all charges. It would also appear to squash any hopes of a political comeback by the former dictator - at least for the time being - as his lawyers battle with the legal challenge.

One of his lawyers said Duvalier would appeal the decision to send him to trial.

Duvalier is alleged to have embezzled between $300 million and $800 million of assets during his presidency.

The Swiss government has sought to confiscate assets valued at 5.8 million Swiss francs ($6.7 million). It wants to return the funds to Haiti, which is the poorest country in the Americas and is struggling to recover from a devastating earthquake in 2010 which killed more than 200,000 people.

The senior judicial official, who spoke in several interviews with Reuters over the weekend, asked not to be identified by name because he was officially barred from speaking about the ruling before it is made public.

Government officials could not be reached to comment on the ruling by Carves Jean, the investigating judge. Delivery of the ruling could be delayed due to a strike by clerks over late payment of salaries which paralyzed the courts last week.

VICTIMS

The judge's ruling is likely to be challenged by Duvalier's alleged victims, of whom at least 19 have filed complaints with the government prosecutor.

It appears less likely to be challenged by the government. Last week, President Michel Martelly was quoted as favoring a pardon for Duvalier though he later retracted his remarks.

Victims of Duvalier's armed forces and the notorious National Security Volunteer Militia, better known as the Tonton Macoutes, sought to have their claims included in the official case against Duvalier. But the government prosecutor's office did not include them in its recommendations to the judge as the alleged abuses fell outside the statute of limitations stipulated in Haiti's constitution, according to the official.

"So these charges have been dropped," he said. "Unfortunately, that's what the law says."

The government prosecutor also recommended dropping the corruption charges, the official added, but the judge decided to let them stand.

"Those other human rights charges were not part of the request I sent to the investigative judge," confirmed Felix Leger, a former prosecutor who prepared the recommendation that was sent to the judge. "We also received other complaints from other people ... but those complaints arrived too late."

Reynold Georges, a lawyer for Duvalier, said the former dictator would appeal any decision to put him on trial for financial crimes, arguing that the Supreme Court has already cleared him of such charges following a previous investigation.

U.N. officials and rights groups have urged Haiti to put Duvalier and senior officials on trial for atrocities committed under his rule, saying that under international law, the statute of limitations does not apply to crimes against humanity.

"The thousands of Haitians who suffered under this regime deserve justice." U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said.

The judge's ruling will be challenged by lawyers for the victims, said Mario Joseph, who heads the Bureau of International Lawyers in Haiti. "The judge cannot decide only on the financial crimes committed by Duvalier. He should also be tried and sentenced for rapes, torture, disappearances, assassinations and crimes against humanity his regime has been responsible for," he said.

When Duvalier returned to Haiti on January 16 last year, he was met by a crowd of cheering supporters. He was briefly detained and charged with corruption, theft and abuses of power allegedly committed during his rule and was then freed on the condition he not leave the capital without authorization.

Since then, Duvalier dines frequently in some of the city's finest restaurants, accompanied by former members of his regime. He has also made unauthorized visits outside the capital.

In January, he even managed a handshake with an unsuspecting former U.S. President Bill Clinton at an event outside the capital to mark the second anniversary of the 2010 earthquake. That earned him a rebuke from the judge who warned him not to violate his court-ordered restriction of movement, or risk being jailed.

(Writing by David Adams; Editing by Kieran Murray)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120130/wl_nm/us_haiti_duvalier

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Iran upbeat on nuclear visit, delays EU oil ban

TEHRAN?? Iran Sunday declared itself optimistic about a U.N. experts' visit aimed at probing suspected military aspects of its nuclear work and lawmakers postponed debate on a proposed halt to oil flows to the European Union watched closely in energy markets.

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A team of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors began a three-day visit to try to advance efforts to resolve a row about nuclear work which Iran says is for making electricity but the West suspects is aimed at seeking a nuclear weapon.

Tensions with the West rose this month when Washington and the European Union imposed the toughest sanctions yet in a drive to force Tehran to provide more information on its nuclear program. The measures take direct aim at the ability of OPEC's second biggest oil exporter to sell its crude.

The Mehr news agency quoted Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying during a trip to Ethiopia: "We are very optimistic about the outcome of the IAEA delegation's visit to Iran ... Their questions will be answered during this visit,"

"We have nothing to hide and Iran has no clandestine (nuclear) activities."

Striking a sterner tone, Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned the IAEA team to carry out a "logical, professional and technical" job or suffer the consequences.

"This visit is a test for the IAEA. The route for further cooperation will be open if the team carries out its duties professionally," said Larijani, state media reported.

"Otherwise, if the IAEA turns into a tool (for major powers to pressure Iran), then Iran will have no choice but to consider a new framework in its ties with the agency."

Iran's parliament in the past has approved bills to oblige the government to review its level of cooperation with the IAEA. However, Iran's top officials have always underlined the importance of preserving ties with the watchdog body.

Before departing from Vienna, IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts said he hoped the Islamic state would tackle the watchdog's concerns "regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program."

PARLIAMENT DEBATE

Less than one week after the EU's 27 member states agreed to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1, Iranian lawmakers were due to debate a bill later Sunday that would cut off oil supplies to the European Union (EU) in a matter of days.

Iranian lawmakers postponed discussing the bill.

"No such draft bill has yet been drawn up and nothing has been submitted to the parliament. What exists is a notion by the deputies which is being seriously pursued to bring it to a conclusive end," Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament's Energy Committee, told Mehr.

"Some MPs had an idea that should be studied by the energy committee before being drafted as a bill. We hope our discussions will be finished by Friday."

REFINERS

By turning the sanctions back on the EU, lawmakers hope to deny the bloc a six-month window it had planned to give those of its members most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile in southern Europe - to adapt.

The head of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said late Saturday that the export embargo would hit European refiners, such as Italy's Eni, that are owed oil from Iran as part of long-standing buy-back contracts under which they take payment for past oilfield projects in crude.

"The decision must be made at high echelons of power and we at the NIOC will act as the executioner of the policies of the government," Ahmad Qalebani told the ISNA news agency.

"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," he said. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."

"Generally, the parties to incur damage from the EU's recent decision will be European companies with pending contracts with Iran."

Italy's Eni is owed $1.4-1.5 billion in oil for contracts it executed in Iran in 2000 and 2001 and has been assured by EU policymakers its buyback contracts will not be part of the European embargo, but the prospect of Iran acting first may put that into doubt.

Eni declined to comment Saturday.

The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011. However, analysts say the global oil market will not be overly disrupted if parliament votes for the bill that would turn off the oil tap for Europe.

"The Saudis have made it clear that they'll step in to fill the void," said Robert Smith, a consultant at Facts Global Energy. "It would not pose any serious threat to oil market stability. Meanwhile Asians, predominantly the Chinese and Indians, stand to benefit from more Iranian crude flowing east and at potential discounts."

Potentially more disruptive to the world oil market and global security is the risk of Iran's standoff with the West escalating into military conflict.

Iran has repeatedly said it could close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if sanctions succeed in preventing it from exporting crude, a move Washington said it would not tolerate.

"CONSTRUCTIVE SPIRIT"

The IAEA's visit may be an opportunity to defuse some of the tension. Director General Yukiya Amano has called on Iran to show a "constructive spirit" and Tehran has said it is willing to discuss "any issues" of interest to the U.N. agency, including the military-linked concerns.

But Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of using such offers of dialogue as a stalling tactic while it presses ahead with its nuclear program, say they doubt Tehran will show the kind of concrete cooperation the IAEA wants.

They say Iran may offer limited concessions and transparency to try to ease intensifying international pressure, but that this is unlikely to amount to the full cooperation required.

The outcome could determine whether Iran will face further isolation or whether there are prospects for resuming wider talks between Tehran and the major powers on the nuclear row.

Salehi said Iran "soon" would write a letter to the E.U.'s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to discuss "a date and venue" for fresh nuclear talks.

"Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in this letter, which may be sent in the coming days, also may mention other issues as well," Salehi said, without elaborating.

The last round of talks in January 2011 between Jalili and Ashton, who represents major powers, failed over Iran's refusal to halt its sensitive nuclear work.

"The talks will be successful as the other party seems interested in finding a way out of this deadlock," Salehi said.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46180904/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Bucks keep Lakers' road woes going with 100-89 win (AP)

MILWAUKEE ? Drew Gooden scored 23 points and the undermanned Milwaukee Bucks made sure the Lakers' road struggles continued, beating Los Angeles 100-89 on Saturday night.

Kobe Bryant scored 27 for the Lakers, who are 1-7 on the road this season.

Ersan Ilyasova and Mike Dunleavy added 15 points each for the Bucks, who managed to beat the Lakers without two of their best players.

Already scrambling to compensate for the long-term absence of injured center Andrew Bogut, the Bucks found themselves without guard/forward Stephen Jackson on Saturday because of an NBA suspension.

Bryant made six free throws to break Jerry West's franchise record for free throws made. Coming into Saturday's game, Bryant needed three makes to tie West's mark of 7,160.

Bryant also came closer to becoming the Lakers' career leader in field goals made. He was 10 of 21 from the floor Saturday, leaving him three short of the 13 field goals he needed to tie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's franchise record of 9,935 field goals made.

Even without Bogut and Jackson, the Bucks were in control most of the way. Ilyasova hit a jumper at the horn to end the third quarter, and the Bucks took an 80-73 lead into the fourth.

The Bucks led 85-76 after an inside score from Ilyasova with just under eight minutes left, but Bryant scored five straight points to cut the lead to four.

But Luc Richard Mbah a Moute hit a jumper, then Gooden scored on a turnaround hook shot and hit a pair of free throws to run the lead back to 91-81.

Andrew Bynum scored inside, but Dunleavy hit a long jumper to give the Bucks a 93-83 lead with just over two minutes left.

After Bryant made a pair of free throws, Dunleavy drilled a 3-pointer to put the game away with 1:24 left.

The Bucks managed the beat the Lakers without Jackson, whose suspension was announced a few hours before the game.

The NBA suspended Jackson one game for verbal abuse of a game official and failure to leave the court in a timely manner at the end of the Bucks' 107-100 loss at Chicago on Friday night.

It's another rough moment for Jackson, who was benched by coach Scott Skiles in the Bucks' Jan. 20 game at the New York Knicks.

Bogut, meanwhile, fractured his left ankle in Wednesday's game at Houston and is expected to miss eight to 12 weeks ? a crushing blow for Milwaukee.

Without Bogut, the undersized Bucks faced a tough test from the Lakers' pair of 7-footers: Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

But they held their ground on defense early on, taking a 51-43 lead at halftime. The Bucks forced the Lakers into 10 turnovers in the first half, and limited Gasol to six points on 3 for 10 shooting.

Gasol finished the game with 12 points and 15 rebounds, but was 6 for 18 from the floor.

Lakers rookie guard Andrew Goudelock scored 13 points despite being hospitalized for dehydration overnight. Goudelock was coming off his best performance of the year, having scored a career-high 14 points against the Clippers on Wednesday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120129/ap_on_sp_bk_ga_su/bkn_lakers_bucks

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Starbucks posts profit beat, sales jump (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Starbucks Corp's reported a quarterly profit that topped Wall Street's view after global economic worries failed to weaken demand for drinks and other products from the world's biggest coffee chain.

Based on its better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results, the company raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast to a range of $1.78 to $1.82 per share from $1.75 to $1.82.

Starbucks shares, up roughly 45 percent from a year ago and hovering near all-time highs, were off 1.1 percent at $47.79 in extended trading.

Global sales at cafes open at least 13 months jumped 9 percent, helped by an increase in customer visits and spending per transaction. That beat the 7.7 percent gain analysts, on average, expected, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Net income was $382.1 million, or 50 cents per share, for the quarter ended January 1. That was up from $346.6 million, or 45 cents, in the year earlier period.

Analysts, on average, were looking for a profit of 49 cents per share in the latest quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total revenue rose 16 percent to $3.4 billion.

(Reporting By Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/bs_nm/us_starbucks

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NAMCO Arcade now available for iPhone and iPad: Free-to-Play classic arcade titles

Namco Bandai have released Namco Arcade to the iTunes App Store for iOS devices with a free-to-play model in effect. If you’re a fan of retro gaming, this is

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/uLAQOQcoJvc/story01.htm

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In Myanmar, a "sham" parliament stirs to life (Reuters)

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (Reuters) ? In Myanmar's sprawling parliamentary complex, lawmakers flexed their newly democratic muscles on Thursday. Some drafted anti-graft legislation for one of the world's most corrupt nations or clamored for transparency on a typically secret national budget.

Others wanted answers from the government: why are train lines across the country woefully inefficient? Will the government move faster to revamp clearer foreign-exchange rate laws and hold companies to task for shabby infrastructure on state contracts?

Derided as a well-choreographed sham in one of the world's most authoritarian countries when it opened a year ago, Myanmar's parliament began a third session on Thursday with feisty stirrings of democracy, under pressure to accelerate economic and political reforms that could soon convince the West to lift decades-old sanctions.

The main legislation up for debate requires the government to seek parliamentary approval for its budget. That alone is a significant change for Myanmar, where past military regimes drew up spending plans in secrecy, often carving out largesse for the army, which handed power to a nominally civilian government in March last year.

In the cavernous hallways of the lower house and the gilded main legislative chamber, legislators expressed unvarnished views, including some scathing criticism of government policy by those in the opposition.

It wasn't always this way.

"When we first came to parliament, we were worried we might be arrested," said U Ba Shin, a member of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, a major ethnic party that won nine of the lower house's 440 seats in the first general election in two decades in November 2010.

"Now there is less fear among the people. But many people still don't know their rights or speak their minds in parliament. There is big room for improvement."

Myanmar's purpose-built capital, Naypyitaw, has been a curiosity since it was built from scratch seven years ago, a virtual fortress where the then-military rulers of the former Burma isolated themselves some 320 km (200 miles) from the largest city, Yangon.

Bestowed with manicured, heavily watered lawns and forbidding stone walls, Naypyitaw bears no resemblance to the rest of the country, one of Asia's poorest, including nearby villages of mostly thatched wooden huts. Parliament's 31 buildings with pagoda-style roofs are its main attraction. Its wide boulevards and streets are eerily quiet.

In addition to the lower house there is a 224-seat senate. There are also 14 assemblies spread across the country.

"DON'T BE SCARED"

But changes inside the Hluttaw, or legislative chamber, are at the heart of the most dramatic reforms since the army took power in a 1962 coup and ushered in five decades of unbroken military rule that ended with the 2010 elections.

Shwe Mann, speaker of the house and a member of the military-backed dominant party that won the election, encouraged lawmakers to speak their minds on at least three occasions in the second session of parliament, from August 22 to November 25.

Shwe Mann's call for openness is in stark contrast to a year ago, when he was the powerful third-in-command of a much-feared junta that brutally crushed dissenting voices.

"He is trying very hard to put this democratic process in the parliament. He has been saying when we hold open voting 'You can openly show your opinion. Don't be scared'," said Sai Saung Si, 65, a member of parliament from northern Shan State and vice-chairman of the Shan Nationalities Development Party, that won 18 lower house seats in the election.

Sai Saung Si regularly voices the concerns of his constituency, including illegal seizures of land by companies or the army that went on for years unchecked.

"In the past, it would get taken away and people wouldn't know where to go to complain. But now we raise it in parliament. Seizing the land is not according to the law ... they must give it back to the people," he said in an interview.

Overtures by the government in recent months have included calls for peace with ethnic minority guerrilla groups, some tolerance of criticism, an easing of media controls, the legalization of labor unions and more communication with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released in 2010 after spending 15 of the past 20 years in detention.

But there is plenty of work to do and challenges ahead. Parliamentary politics is clearly a new phenomenon. Just ask the men in green.

Sitting on the right flank of the lower-house chamber are military men in fatigues. A quarter of lower house seats are reserved for the military.

And there are other conservative pockets of resistance to reforms, say legislators, although President Thein Sein stressed last week in an interview with the Washington Post that his government had "no intention to draw back" on reform.

"It is not at all impossible for the reforms to be reversed," said Sean Turnell, an economist at Macquarie University in Sydney who closely follows Myanmar.

"There are significant groups that are in opposition to some of the reforms but overall we are in a very much different space than we were only a matter of six months ago."

He described the first legislative session convened by the former military junta in January last year as "a mockery of a parliament." But there were flickers of change in the second session after the junta formally ceded power.

"The second session started to behave like a parliament. It was no longer a vehicle purely of the president or the military. It had a degree of independence. We are looking now to the third session to see which one was representative -- the first session or the second."

BARRIERS TO PROGRESS

It is a crucial question for investors who see plenty of opportunities as Myanmar begins to opens up.

But barriers to progress are formidable: U.S. sanctions, an incoherent exchange rate regime, woeful infrastructure, weak investment laws, a crippled banking system, decades of mismanagement and a shortage of skilled workers.

"Economic reform, if anything now, is beginning to lag behind the political reform," said Turnell, adding that investors were waiting for a long-overdue foreign investment-protection law to snake through parliament.

"We have yet to see it. I am a little bit worried about that. It is a law that needs to get through but there is still a little bit of debate about it.

"When something like that does pass, that will be quite a signal that real economic reform is under way."

Some see that change happening if Suu Kyi wins a seat in the lower house in April by-elections.

"When she comes to the parliament, if she raises one issue, and this issue is very beneficial to the country, then who will dare go against it?" said Sai Saung Si.

(Additional reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Editing by Martin Petty and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_myanmar_parliament

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Elevated risk factors linked to major cardiovascular disease events across a lifetime

Elevated risk factors linked to major cardiovascular disease events across a lifetime

Thursday, January 26, 2012

In one of the largest-ever analyses of lifetime risks for cardiovascular disease (CVD), researchers have found that middle-aged adults who have one or more elevated traditional risk factors for CVD, such as high blood pressure, have a substantially greater chance of having a major CVD event, such as heart attack or stroke, during their remaining lifetime than people with optimal levels of risk factors. This National Institutes of Health-supported study used health data from 257,384 people and was the first to look simultaneously at multiple risk factors for CVD across age, sex, race, and birth generation.

The paper will be published in the January 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"This paper adds to the substantial body of evidence that modifiable cardiovascular disease risk factors in healthy men and women heavily influence the likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease later in life, regardless of their backgrounds," said Susan B. Shurin, M.D., acting director of the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

"Prevention of cardiovascular disease is a lifetime opportunity for and a responsibility of individuals, families, communities, and the health care system. This paper reinforces that cardiovascular disease can be prevented and controlled throughout the course of an adult's lifetime," she added.

As part of the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project, investigators analyzed 50 years of data from 18 existing cohort, or population-based, studies in the United States. The investigators pooled the data from the 18 cohorts and measured traditional CVD risk factors ? including high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, and smoking status ? in men and women from both black and white populations at ages 45, 55, 65, and 75 years.

Men who were 55 years old with at least two major risk factors were six times as likely to die from CVD by age 80 as were men with none or one CVD risk factor (29.6 percent vs. 4.7 percent). Women with at least two major risk factors were three times as likely to die from CVD as were women with no or one CVD risk factor (20.5 percent vs. 6.4 percent).

When all CVD events ? fatal and non-fatal ? were considered, the results were even more striking. Forty-five-year-old men with two or more risk factors had a 49.5 percent chance of having a major CVD event through age 80, while 45-year-old women had a 30.7 percent chance. On the other hand, men with optimal risk factor levels only had a 1.4 percent chance of having a major CVD event, while women had a 4.1 percent chance of having a major CVD event through age 80.

The results from each individual study were consistent with one another and with those of the pooled group, and showed that traditional risk factors predicted a person's long-term development of CVD more than age. All of the risk factors appeared to carry the same levels of risk as they did 20, 30, or 40 years ago. While black Americans had a higher prevalence of CVD risk factors than white Americans, their lifetime risks were similar when their risk factor profiles were similar.

"In general, previous studies have only looked at CVD risk factors across one specific age or gender in white populations," said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, M.D., principal investigator of the study and an associate professor and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "We analyzed an enormous pool of available data, which allowed for a more precise estimate of lifetime CVD risks across the age, sex, race, and risk factor spectrum."

Lloyd-Jones added, "These data have important implications for prevention. We need to get more serious about promoting healthy lifestyles in children and young adults, since even mild elevations in risk factors by middle age seem to have profound effects on the remaining lifetime risks for CVD."

The NHLBI supported several of the cohort studies involved, including the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, Cardiovascular Heart Study, Framingham Heart Study, Framingham Offspring Study, Honolulu Heart Program, Puerto Rico Heart Health Program, and Women's Health Initiative.

"This paper illustrates the power of pooling data from epidemiological studies," said Michael Lauer, M.D., director of the NHLBI's Division of Cardiovascular Sciences. "Because of the U.S. government's investments in these studies, it was possible for the investigators to gather and analyze data on over a quarter of a million people, which could lead to substantial public health and clinical practice implications."

"It is important for adults to know their blood pressure and cholesterol numbers and whether they are at risk for diabetes and also to understand the different approaches they can take to prevent or control their risks for CVD. As American Heart Month approaches in February, this paper underscores the importance of raising awareness of heart disease and coronary heart disease ? the most common type of heart disease and the number one killer of both men and women in the United States," said Lloyd-Jones and Shurin.

In an effort to help people reduce their risks of cardiovascular disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently launched the Million Hearts Campaign, a national initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes over the next five years.

Also, in December 2010, in an effort to promote healthy behaviors and prevent diseases, including cardiovascular disease, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Healthy People 2020. Healthy People 2020 and its specific, measurable health objectives represent the nation's disease prevention and health promotion goals for the coming decade.

###

NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov

Thanks to NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117092/Elevated_risk_factors_linked_to_major_cardiovascular_disease_events_across_a_lifetime

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Wikipedia founder hails halting of US piracy bills

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia gestures during an interview with the Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Wales is fighting to stop a recent US plan to tighten anti-piracy laws and his vision for the open-source online encyclopedia. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia gestures during an interview with the Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Wales is fighting to stop a recent US plan to tighten anti-piracy laws and his vision for the open-source online encyclopedia. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia gestures during an interview with the Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. Wales is fighting to stop a recent US plan to tighten anti-piracy laws and his vision for the open-source online encyclopedia. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) ? The founder of Wikipedia has hailed the online encyclopedia's role in helping halt U.S. legislation aimed at cracking down on Internet piracy.

Jimmy Wales told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that the idea to black out Wikipedia's English pages for 24 hours came from the site's volunteer editors, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move.

Wales says the two bills that Congress postponed indefinitely last week were "very badly designed, technologically incompetent, and just something that we felt needed to be stopped."

Wikipedia was among a number of sites that argued the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act would hurt technological innovation and infringe on free-speech rights.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-26-EU-Davos-Forum-Wikipedia/id-4f160e17c519428db52cc1bfb662bc92

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Katherine Heigl Has 'Thought A Lot' About Return To 'Grey's Anatomy'

'There's nothing about [Izzie] I didn't like,' Heigl tells MTV News at 'One for the Money' premiere.
By Christina Garibaldi

Katherine Heigl on "Grey's Anatomy"
Photo: ABC

NEW YORK — It's been more than two years since Katherine Heigl left her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on the hit show "Grey's Anatomy." Rumors swirled that Heigl had behaved like a diva on the set, and after five seasons she left to focus on her movie career and being a mom to her adopted daughter.

Yet it seems she's had a change of heart. At the New York premiere of her new flick "One for the Money," which hits theaters on Friday, Heigl told MTV News she would love to return to "Grey's Anatomy" to find out what happened to her beloved character.

"There was something about her that I really loved. I thought she was such an interesting character and her backstory, the fact that she was raised in a trailer park and had to give a child up for adoption, put herself through med school and was standing there actually doing the work and going for it, so smart, sort of strong-willed," Heigl said. "I thought she was kind of a great character — there's nothing about her I didn't like."

Back in October 2010 Heigl told MTV News that she was certain she would not return to Seattle Grace since she didn't want to feel her plotline was forced. "I can't think of any way that she could come back gracefully that wouldn't just feel manipulative," the actress explained. "And it's hard, because I really wonder what she's doing and where she is and what happened, but that is over for me now."

Yet Heigl now seems ready to reconsider and already has an idea of what could happen to Izzie. "I've thought about this a lot, actually. I would love it if Izzie came back actually having really just sort of gotten to the next level," Heigl said. "She was always sort of one step behind and struggling with her career, and then she went though all these awful things, the death of her friend, the death of her fiancé, her own near death and then the dissolving of her own marriage. I just want the girl to win, just once. So I want her to come back and have really succeeded at whatever hospital she went to work at with her tail between her legs and maybe they've made her head of surgery or she's invented some surgical method; that would be awesome."

With all the ups and downs she experienced on "Grey's Anatomy," there is one thing she wish she could change: her acting. "I think there's a lot of scenes where I wish I had performed them better," Heigl said.

"You're always like, 'Oh, I wish I could take that back.' "

Would you be excited if Katherine Heigl returned to "Grey's Anatomy"? Let us know in the comments!

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677884/katherine-heigl-returning-greys-anatomy.jhtml

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Groundbreaking jazz manager John Levy dies at 99 (AP)

ALTADENA, California ? John Levy, the first prominent African-American personal manager in the jazz or pop music field, whose clients included Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis, has died at age 99.

Devra Hall Levy posted on his website that her husband died Friday in his sleep at his home in Altadena, California, less than three months before his 100th birthday.

An accomplished bassist, the New Orleans-born Levy performed with such jazz greats as Stuff Smith, Billie Holiday, Erroll Garner and Billy Taylor in the 1940s before joining pianist George Shearing's original quintet. In the early 1950s, he became Shearing's full-time manager and later went on to form his own management agency, John Levy Enterprises Inc.

Levy's client roster over the years included more than 85 artists, including Wilson, Lewis, Nat and Cannonball Adderley, Betty Carter, Roberta Flack, Herbie Hancock, Shirley Horn, Freddie Hubbard, Ahmad Jamal and Abbey Lincoln as well as comedian Arsenio Hall.

In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts recognized Levy as a Jazz Master, the nation's highest jazz honor.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_en_mu/us_obit_john_levy

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Wingnuts Hoot at Obama Speech, But 91% of Americans Approve (Little green footballs)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/191447720?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Video: 13th cruise ship victim found

>>> in italy tonight, new questions are being raised about whether there were more people on board that capsized cruise ship than the official manifest shows. this as the official death toll grew yet again today. nbc's duncan golestani is on the island of giglio with the latest on the search for victims.

>> reporter: all week families of the missing have been waiting for news of their loved ones, including a missing american couple. this is not what they had hoped for. the 13th victim of the costa concordia is brought ashore. this man says divers found the body of a woman on deck seven. like yesterday's victims, she too was wearing her life vest and is believed to have been a passenger. families gathered on the island now have an anxious few days as the woman is identified. because of the time spent in the water, five bodies have still not yet been named, a task even more complicated because authorities now think the cruise liner had unregistered passengers on board. while the search for the missing continues, pressure grows to speed up the salvage operation. the island's residents concerned there isn't a second disaster, a environmental one. the salvage team says it could take seven weeks to extract the half a million gallons of fuel. this fisherman says they fear that this discharge from the tank is polluting the sea. the operation could start as early as tomorrow. it can't come soon enough for the residents of this small, quiet island. duncan golestani, nbc news, giglio, italy.

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46093972/

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Heated charges, counter-charges in Florida debate (AP)

TAMPA, Fla. ? Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich clashed repeatedly in heated, personal terms Monday night in a crackling campaign debate, the former Massachusetts governor tagging his rival as an "influence peddler" in Washington, only to be accused in turn of spreading falsehoods over many years in politics.

"You've been walking around the state saying things that are untrue," Gingrich said to his rival in a two-hour debate marked by interruptions and finger pointing.

The debate marked the first encounter among the four remaining GOP contenders ? former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul shared the stage ? since Gingrich won the South Carolina primary in an upset last weekend, a double-digit victory that reset the race to pick a rival to challenge President Barack Obama this fall.

Romney was the aggressor from the opening moments Monday night, saying Gingrich had "resigned in disgrace" from Congress after four years as speaker and then had spent the next 15 years "working as an influence peddler" in Washington.

In particular, he referred to the contract Gingrich's consulting firm had with Freddie Mac, a government-backed mortgage giant that he said "did a lot of bad for a lot of people and you were working there."

Romney also said Gingrich had lobbied lawmakers to approve legislation creating a new prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_el_ge/us_republicans_debate

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Young Breast Cancer Survivors Face Psychological Distress | Psych ...

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on January 23, 2012

A new study discovers that cancer treatments can significantly hinder the quality of life of younger breast cancer survivors.

Researchers discovered younger women with breast cancer experience a decrease in their health-related quality of life. They also may experience increased psychological distress, weight gain, a decline in their physical activity, infertility and early onset menopause.

The study is published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Breast cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in women, and is the leading cause of death in women under 50 in the U.S.

Researchers note that although the survival rate for younger women with breast cancer has improved over the last two decades, their cancer treatments, despite their effectiveness, can seriously affect quality of life and other health outcomes.

In the study, researchers sought to determine the impact of cancer treatment on the quality of life of younger breast cancer survivors. Patricia A. Ganz, M.D., and colleagues reviewed studies that focused on overall quality of life, psychosocial effects, menopause and fertility-related concerns, and behavioral outcomes related to weight gain and physical activity.

The studies were published between January 1990 and July 2010. Of the 840 titles and abstracts reviewed, they focused on 28 with the most relevant data.

Investigators found that overall quality of life was compromised in younger breast cancer survivors, with the mental issues more severe than the physical problems.

Depression was also a problem as young women were also more depressed compared to the general age-matched population of women without cancer or women over 50 with breast cancer.

Premature menopause, infertility and menopause-related symptoms were more common and contributing factors to the level of distress in women 50 or younger after treatment.

Weight gain and physical inactivity were common health outcomes in younger women, although exercise rates generally increased after treatment.

Researchers believe the findings demonstrate the need for personalized treatment for breast cancer, especially among young women.

?By tailoring [treatment] and giving cytotoxic therapy only to those who may benefit, we can mitigate some of these side effects, but the long life expectancy for these younger women also provides a window of opportunity for cancer prevention and health promotion activities.?

Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2012). Young Breast Cancer Survivors Face Psychological Distress. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 24, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/01/23/young-breast-cancer-survivors-face-psychological-distress/33987.html

?

Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/01/23/young-breast-cancer-survivors-face-psychological-distress/33987.html

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AnnaLynne McCord Laughs Off Topless Twitpic Faux Pas

'I am going to tweet myself naked all the time,' the '90210' actress jokes to MTV News at Sundance.
By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Annalynne McCord
Photo: MTV News

Much like a plot right out of her soapy CW show, "90210," AnnaLynne McCord made headlines when she inadvertently tweeted out a NSFW photo of herself on January 10. It quickly became clear that she took the photo as the wrong angle, exposing a bit more of herself than she had expected to.

After realizing her Twitter faux pas, she laughed off the incident. "This is for you, @meganraee You Rock! Xxx," she initially tweeted, including the nipple-baring photo. She later added, "Hahaha! Megan, you feel like sharing? Very funny I actually LOL-ed xxxA."

When MTV News had the chance to speak to McCord during her trip to the Sundance Film Festival, she had some a very amusing response to the tweet. "I am going to tweet myself naked all the time. I mean I am going to be a press whore from here on out. This is awesome," she joked about the headline-making incident. "You know what's so crazy to me, it's the sensationalism. I mean so disappointing, I'm sorry for everybody who thought I was going to be naked. You see more of me naked as Pauline in ['Excision'].

"Anyone with half of a brain knows it was an accident," she continued. "I have a very small areola and I have to get a magnifying glass to make sure that it's not in pictures in the future. That's the moral of the story."

McCord had a few more laughs at her own expense, adding, "The moral of the story is not to stop taking pictures of yourself naked. We all like being naked. Just make sure that the little bit of your areola isn't in the picture before you send it to a hundred billion people."

How did AnnaLynne McCord handle her Twitter photo faux pas? Leave your comments below!

Related Videos

• Sundance 2012: Interviews From Park City

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677724/annalynne-mccord-twitter-topless-photo.jhtml

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Asian stocks muted as Greece debt talks drag on (AP)

BANGKOK ? Asian stocks hovered between gains and losses Monday in trade thinned by Chinese New Year holidays as talks on a debt agreement for Greece dragged on.

Only a handful of markets were open for business. Trading is closed in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average was down less than 0.1 percent at 8,763.22 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3 percent to 4,225.10. New Zealand's benchmark added 0.6 percent to 3,295.02 and India's Sensex inched up 0.1 percent to 16,763.22. Thailand's SET index rose 0.6 percent to 1,065.07.

On Friday, stocks in Europe mostly held their gains for the week, waiting for the outcome of Greece's negotiations with its creditors on a deal to cut the face value of up to euro200 billion ($258 billion) in debt by 50 percent.

Over the weekend, the representative of Greece's private creditors said the talks are continuing even after his unexpected departure from the country.

A deal in Athens would allow the country to receive a second bailout package from other European governments and the International Monetary Fund, and cut Greece's debt from an estimated 160 percent of its annual economic output to 120 percent by 2020.

That is still painfully high, but without the help, Greece will not be able to pay euro14.5 billion in debt due March 20. A Greek default would send borrowing costs higher across Europe and could trigger chaos in the global financial system.

On Wall Street on Friday the Dow rose 96.50 points to close at 12,720.48. The S&P 500 index inched up 0.88 to 1,315.38 and the Nasdaq gained 1.63 points to 2,786.70.

In energy trading, benchmark crude was down 36 cents at $97.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The euro rose 0.1 percent to $1.2896. The dollar was up 0.1 percent to 77.04 yen.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/world_markets

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Boy meets girl, grandpa meets robot in quirky Sundance comedies (omg!)

PARK CITY, Utah, Jan 22 (TheWrap.com) - Saturday's substantial snowfall may have slowed the Park City shuttle buses that take Sundance audiences from screening to screening, but the film festival kept on keeping on, with two afternoon world premieres that -- like previous Sundance hits "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Kids Are All Right" -- tweak genre conventions while remaining exceedingly audience-friendly.

Frank Langella gives another compelling performance in "Robot and Frank," a movie that often felt like a cross between "Driving Miss Daisy" and the senior-citizens-rob-a-bank comedy "Going in Style," with a science fiction twist.

Set in the near future (you can tell because the adults all have names like "Hunter" and "Madison"), the film sees the elderly Frank (Langella), who's fighting off dementia, being left in the care of a nurse robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) provided to Frank by his estranged son (James Marsden). We come to realize that Frank used to be a cat burglar, and since the robot hasn't been programmed with a moral compass, Frank teaches him how to pick locks and to be the perfect criminal sidekick.

The pensioner's health blossoms now that he has a new project to tackle, but what if he gets caught? What if his hippie-dippie, anti-robot daughter (Liv Tyler) moves back in to take care of him? And what about Frank's romance with the sexy local librarian (Susan Sarandon)?

"Robot and Frank" often winds up being the sum of its gimmick, but this talented cast (assembled by first-time director Jake Schreier) makes the movie loads of fun. Screenwriter Christopher D. Ford, also making his debut, even tosses in a few surprising third-act twists, and when's the last time you didn't see one of those coming?

The dialogue of teen rom-com "The First Time" winds up being one of the film's big flaws, but the cast and storytelling is so charming that you forgive the fact that almost all of the characters talk like screenwriters. (In this case, Jonathan Kasdan, who also directed.)

Kasdan's TV credits include "Dawson's Creek" and "Freaks and Geeks," but you'd never guess it from the quippy, artificial banter that takes up so much of this often delightful story about two high-schoolers who meet, fall hard and have sex over the course of one weekend. The sex part, of course, winds up complicating matters more than they ever could have expected, and the two have to figure out if they have a future together after that first awkward naked encounter.

It's hard not to be won over by "The First Time," though, since TV vets Britt Robertson ("The Secret Circle") and Dylan O'Brien ("Teen Wolf") are so utterly charming. Robertson, in particular, brings a brainy-pixie vibe that reminded me of the late, great Adrienne Shelley in those early Hal Hartley movies.

As for O'Brien, he's certainly charismatic, but he's tough to buy as the nerdy sensitive guy (who another character actually calls "average-looking") when he could clearly be an underwear model.

Nonetheless, the two actors click as slightly eccentric adolescents who feel like real people, even if they don't always talk like them.

Still, even if Kasdan bobbles the dialogue, he gets a lot of high school life just right, from messy keggers to Saturday night at the multiplex to the difference between calling a girl on her cell and calling her parents' number. Teenagers are probably likely to be way more forgiving of the beyond-their-years sophistication of the witty chat, and they might even make "The First Time" a hit.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_boy_meets_girl_grandpa_meets_robot_quirky_sundance222909632/44266652/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/boy-meets-girl-grandpa-meets-robot-quirky-sundance-222909632.html

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Russia lashes out at new EU sanctions on Iran (AP)

MOSCOW ? Russia's Foreign Ministry is criticizing the new European Union sanctions against Iran, saying they are a severe mistake likely to worsen tensions.

In a statement Monday, the ministry questions how the new sanctions could be seen as helping find a resolution of the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

The ministry said, "It's apparent that in this case there is open pressure and diktat, aimed at 'punishing' Iran for uncooperative behavior. This is a deeply mistaken policy, as we have told our European partners more than once. Under pressure of this sort, Iran will not make any concessions or any corrections to its policies."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_iran

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I'm fluffy... and reapery?

RolePlayGateway is proudly powered by obscene amounts of caffeine, duct tape, Wordpress, Moodle, phpBB, AJAX Chat, Mantis, and the efforts of many dedicated writers and roleplayers. It operates under a "don't like it, suggest an improvement" platform, and we gladly take suggestions for improvements or changes.

The custom-built "roleplay" system was designed and implemented by Eric Martindale as of July 2009. All attempts to replicate or otherwise emulate this system and its method of organizing roleplay are strictly prohibited without his express written and contractual permission; violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

? RolePlayGateway, LLC

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/mngbYX64JtI/viewtopic.php

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In video, Giffords' firm and touching farewell

This video image provided by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords announcing her plans to resign, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)

This video image provided by the office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords announcing her plans to resign, Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)

This video image provided by the Office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shows Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, walking. Giffords announced Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012 she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago. (AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords)

PHOENIX (AP) ? In part, the short video has the feel of a campaign ad: the strains of soft music, the iconic snapshots of rugged Arizona desert, the candidate earnestly engaged with her constituents.

Interspersed with the slick montage of photos and sound, though, is a video close-up of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gazing directly at the camera, offering not a campaign promise but a goodbye, a thank-you message to her supporters in a voice that is both firm and halting.

"I have more work to do on my recovery," the congresswoman says at the end of the two-minute-long "A Message from Gabby," appearing to strain with all of her will to communicate. "So to do what's best for Arizona, I will step down this week."

Arizonans had to know in their hearts that this day was coming.

A bullet to the brain, from point-blank range, is a nearly impossible obstacle to overcome, even for a congresswoman known for pluckiness and fight. Giffords seemed to accept that reality in the video announcing her resignation from Congress, which also included a promise to return one day to her mission to help Arizonans.

The clip, posted to YouTube and on her Facebook page, pastes together 13 sentences into a fluid announcement. Giffords wears a bright red jacket eerily similar to the one she was wearing a year ago when she was nearly assassinated. She looks straight into the camera, almost begging the viewer to listen.

But the video also includes images of the 41-year-old struggling at rehab and walking along a leafy street with husband Mark Kelly with an obvious limp. And Giffords acknowledges that, at least for now, she isn't up to taking on a re-election challenge.

The announcement sets off not one but two election cycles to replace her. The first will be a special primary election that Gov. Jan Brewer must call sometime in April, with a general election in June to fill out the remainder of Giffords' term.

The second cycle will concern the regular full two-year term, with the primary scheduled for August and the general election in November.

In between, the 8th Congressional District that Giffords currently represents will change under redistricting. It will be remapped to cover most of the current district but renumbered as the 2nd Congressional District.

"We've got someone that's going to move in, hold that seat for the remainder of her (term,) and then we'll have people out there ? probably at the same time ? running for that seat ... with different lines," Brewer said. "So it will confuse some people."

Brewer said she spoke with Kelly before the announcement and understood the decision. "...As her husband said, they have sat, and they have discussed this, and that it would be the best thing for her and for her recovery," Brewer said. "And I indicated on the telephone with him that knowing Gabby and what she has accomplished in this last year in her recovery, who knows what's going to happen in the next two years."

The announcement came just over a year after a gunman opened fire at Jan. 8, 2011, meeting with constituents in front of a Tucson grocery store. Six people were killed, and Giffords and 12 others wounded.

Giffords' office said she will return to Tucson Monday to complete the meet-and-greet political event that erupted in the shooting. Among those attending will be some of the wounded, those who helped them and those who subdued the gunman.

At the time of the shooting, the Democrat had just eked out a razor-thin victory against a tea party candidate in her conservative-leaning district. She won a third term with less than 1 percent margin.

Many in Arizona believed she would be handed an easy victory if she chose to seek another term this year. But Giffords elected not to try.

"A lot has happened over the past year. We cannot change that," she said.

For days after the shooting, it was touch and go. A huge memorial grew in front of the Tucson hospital where she was fighting for her life.

Then, almost miraculously, just two weeks after she was shot, she was whisked off in a jet to a rehabilitation hospital in her astronaut husband's hometown of Houston.

Months of rehab began, with Giffords struggling to learn how to walk and talk again. Just over four months after she was shot, she flew to Florida to watch Kelly, an astronaut, pilot the nation's next-to-last space shuttle mission.

But she remained out of view.

Slowly, in carefully choreographed bits, she began to emerge. The first photos in June. Her surprise August appearance in Congress to vote to raise the federal debt limit. The first halting TV shots, just a few words at a time, then a more complex recording released in November.

Sunday's recording was slightly more elaborate, but it was not a campaign Q&A or an appearance before a tough interviewer.

She's clearly not yet ready for another run for Congress. But she said in Sunday's video that she's not done yet, an assessment that she shared with a small group of supporters in Tucson just hours after her announcement Sunday.

Jim Woodbrey, who was part of that group and a state Democratic Party official, called the meeting "very tough."

"It was Gabby's individual decision, and she was not in any condition to make that decision five months ago," said Woodbrey, a senior vice chairman of the state party.

And the congresswoman said in the video that she was getting better.

"Every day my spirit is high. I will return, and we will work together for Arizona and this great country," she said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-23-Giffords-The%20Announcement/id-64b22df0a7994a7d9a6a8486262f0373

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Video: Will the public forgive Gingrich?

Miracle baby born from single sperm

An Ohio man who made no sperm and his wife, who had few eggs, have become parents thanks to a first-ever Cleveland Clinic case in which a single sperm that was frozen and injected into an egg resulted in pregnancy. Here, Jason and Jennifer Schiraldi pose with Kenley,9 months.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46077091#46077091

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Hamas: Leader Khaled Mashaal won't seek new term (AP)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal won't seek re-election, the group announced Saturday, paving the way for a leadership contest and possible struggle over the ideological direction of the Islamic militant group.

However, the wording of the Hamas announcement also left open the possibility that Mashaal would be asked to stay on even though he has led the movement since 1996, nearly twice as long as permitted under Hamas rules.

Mashaal himself could not be immediately reached for comment.

Word of Mashaal's decision comes at a time when Hamas faces far-reaching choices.

The Islamists' parent movement, the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood, has scored election victories in Egypt and Tunisia following the pro-democracy protests of the Arab Spring.

In discussions within Hamas, Mashaal has praised the pragmatism of the Muslim Brotherhood branches abroad and urged Hamas to take steps toward becoming a strictly political movement, rather than also maintaining a parallel military wing. This would eventually require halting attacks on Israel, a decision Hamas has so far avoided to face.

Mashaal, who along with other senior Hamas figures is based in the Syrian capital of Damascus for security reasons, has also pushed for reconciliation with Palestinian rival Fatah, headed by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

His reconciliation push has encountered some opposition from Hamas activists in the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamists since they seized the territory from Abbas in 2007. The Gaza branch of Hamas would likely lose jobs and influence in any reconciliation deal.

Mashaal first told the Hamas leadership last month that he does not plan to seek re-election as head of the political bureau, the movement's government-in-exile, according to Hamas insiders. They spoke on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Saturday's statement by Hamas said the final decision on Mashaal's future will be left to the movement's 55-member Shura Council, which oversees the political bureau and authorizes key decisions.

It is unclear whether Mashaal is serious about stepping aside, or hopes to elicit a show of support from the movement by announcing he is not seeking re-election. Under Hamas' internal rules, the head of the political bureau can only serve for up to eight years, and Mashaal faced severe criticism in the past for staying on past that.

Some said the Arab Spring may be influencing Mashaal's strategy.

"With this step, Mashaal wanted to emphasize that Hamas is a democratic movement, but the final decision will be made by the Shura Council," said Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas figure in Gaza who spoke to Mashaal earlier in the week.

It's not clear if and when internal Hamas elections would be held, though late spring had been mentioned as a possible date. Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Lebanon, said the date of possible internal elections would not be revealed, citing security reasons.

Possible contenders for Hamas' leadership include Mashaal's deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza.

In recent months, Mashaal has increasingly adopted a pragmatic tone, though Hamas has said it would not renounce violence or recognize Israel. The movement is committed to Israel's destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in militant attacks that have included shootings and suicide bombings. Since 2007, the group has ruled the Gaza Strip, a sliver of territory wedged between Egypt's Sinai desert and Israel.

In a December interview with The Associated Press, Mashaal said he wanted to focus on a strategy of holding mass protests against Israel, in the style of Egypt and Tunisia, where citizens successfully overthrew their dictatorships. However, he did not renounce violence.

Hamas leaders in Gaza tend to adopt a harder line, although they have mostly observed a truce with Israel for the past three years. Palestinian militants from other groups have fired rockets at Israel with varying intensity recently, but it has not escalated into larger violence.

Hamas considers all of Israel to be occupied Palestinian land. The Palestinian Authority, led by Abbas, seeks a state alongside Israel in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem.

Mashaal is originally from the West Bank Palestinian village of Silwad. He survived an Israeli assassination attempt against him in 1997 in Jordan.

___

Associated Press writers Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem, Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, Zeina Karam in Beirut and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria contributed reporting.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_palestinians

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2 sentenced for attack on US Rep. Boswell's farm (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Two men who pleaded guilty to breaking into U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell's southern Iowa farmhouse armed with a BB gun last summer were sentenced Friday to prison.

A Decatur County judge sentenced David Dewberry, 20, of Fremont, Neb., to 25 years in prison for first-degree robbery. Cody Rollins, 20, of Lamoni, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting an attempted burglary.

On July 16, Dewberry, armed with a BB gun, forced his way into Boswell's farmhouse, grabbed the congressman's daughter and ordered her to give him money, County Attorney Lisa Jeanes said. As the 78-year-old lawmaker scuffled with Dewberry, Boswell's adult grandson pointed a shotgun at Dewberry, chasing him off. Boswell suffered minor injuries; no one was seriously injured.

Authorities said Dewberry and his family had lived in Iowa before moving to Nebraska. His mother had been friendly with Boswell's wife and Dewberry had been to the Boswell home.

Boswell was not in the courtroom Friday but submitted a statement, in which he addressed Dewberry, saying he was pleased Dewberry decided to do the "honorable thing by pleading guilty to your crime and accepting your punishment after committing the terror that you put our family through that summer night."

"What makes the whole matter more frightful and disgusting to us is that we once welcomed you into our home," the statement read. "Your sinister motives and plan were appalling. It is by God's grace that no one was seriously injured. We hope you realize how lucky you are that you weren't killed that night."

Prosecutors said Rollins helped plan the crime and drove Dewberry to Boswell's home.

"Unfortunately, this is a case where two young men made a really horrible choice, it was a big mistake and now they're going to have to pay the consequences of their actions," Jeanes said. "I am very glad no one was seriously injured."

Telephone messages left Friday for Dewberry's and Rollins' attorneys were not immediately returned.

Boswell's official residence is in Des Moines, where he moved after redistricting in 2000, but he kept his farm, in Leon located about 60 miles south of Des Moines, and visits often

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_re_us/us_congressman_home_invasion

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