Certain medications used for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis not associated with increased risk of hospitalization for serious infections

ScienceDaily (Nov. 6, 2011) ? Although there has been concern about the safety of using the type of drugs known as tumor necrosis factor-? antagonists for the treatment of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, new research finds that overall, use of these medications is not associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for serious infections compared with the use of nonbiologic medications, according to a study appearing in JAMA.

The study is being released early online to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Rheumatology/Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals Annual Scientific Meeting.

Even though the introduction of medications known as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-? antagonists have revolutionized the treatment of autoimmune diseases, concerns about their safety have remained. "Several studies reported serious infections in users of TNF-? antagonists. However, whether the risk of serious infections with TNF-? antagonists is greater than that with comparator nonbiologic medications is unclear," according to background information in the article.

Carlos G. Grijalva, M.D., M.P.H., of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues evaluated whether initiation of TNF-? antagonists was associated with an increased risk of serious infections among patients with autoimmune diseases, and whether risk varies by specific TNF-? antagonist. Within a U.S. multi-institutional collaboration (the SABER project), the researchers assembled retrospective cohorts (1998-2007) of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis (psoriasis and spondyloarthropathies [disease of the joints of the spine]), and compared the use and outcomes of TNF-? antagonists and nonbiologic regimens. Baseline glucocorticoid use was evaluated as a separate covariate. The primary outcome the researchers measured was infections requiring hospitalization (serious infections) during the first 12 months after initiation of TNF-? antagonists or nonbiologic regimens.

The study cohorts included 10,484 RA, 2,323 IBD, and 3,215 psoriasis and spondyloarthropathies matched pairs of patients using TNF-? antagonists and comparator medications. Overall, the researchers identified 1,172 serious infections, most of which (53 percent) were pneumonia and skin and soft tissue infections. The case fatality rate during hospitalizations for serious infections was 3.6 percent (30/823) for RA, 2.1 percent (4/194) for IBD, and 7.1 percent (11/155) for psoriasis.

An analyses of the data indicated that serious infection hospitalization rates were not significantly different between the TNF-? antagonists overall and the comparator regimens for RA, IBD and psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, or ankylosing spondylitis. The authors did find that among patients with RA, the medication infliximab was associated with a significant increase in serious infections compared with the drugs etanercept and adalimumab. Baseline glucocorticoid use was associated with a dose-dependent increase in infections.

"In conclusion, in this large retrospective cohort study of predominantly low-income and vulnerable U.S. patients with autoimmune diseases, we observed higher absolute rates of infection compared with previously published cohort studies and randomized controlled trials. We found no increased risk of hospitalizations for serious infections among patients initiating a TNF-? antagonist (as a group) compared with those taking comparator nonbiologic therapies," the authors write.

Editorial: Is Anti-TNF Therapy Safer Than Previously Thought?

Will Dixon, M.R.C.P., Ph.D., of the University of Manchester, England, and David T. Felson, M.D., M.P.H., of the Boston University School of Medicine, comment on the findings of this study in an accompanying editorial.

"Given its large and comprehensive information about drug use and outcomes, the SABER project will certainly contribute to the understanding of the risks of biologic therapy. Conflicting findings between large pharmacoepidemiology studies are to be expected, and exploring reasons for discrepant results can yield helpful insights. From existing knowledge plus this recent study by Grijalva et al, one conclusion is that when compared with ongoing nonbiologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) use, infection rates are increased in patients who started treatment with anti-TNF agents. However, this study suggests that serious infection risk may be no higher in those initiating anti-TNF therapy than in those starting a new DMARD, perhaps in combination with methotrexate. These intriguing findings need replication in other studies. Nevertheless, the report by Grijalva et al raises important questions about the comparative safety of immunosuppressant and biologic therapy and may prompt a re-evaluation of anti-TNF safety."

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal References:

  1. Carlos G. Grijalva, Lang Chen, Elizabeth Delzell, John W. Baddley, Timothy Beukelman, Kevin L. Winthrop, Marie R. Griffin, Lisa J. Herrinton, Liyan Liu, Rita Ouellet-Hellstrom, Nivedita M. Patkar, Daniel H. Solomon, James D. Lewis, Fenglong Xie, Kenneth G. Saag, Jeffrey R. Curtis. Initiation of Tumor Necrosis Factor-? Antagonists and the Risk of Hospitalization for Infection in Patients With Autoimmune Diseases. JAMA, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/jama.2011.1692
  2. Will Dixon, David T. Felson. Is Anti-TNF Therapy Safer Than Previously Thought? JAMA, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/jama.2011.1705

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/fisEo_0B2FY/111106191311.htm

tim allen enlightened enlightened stand and deliver sean hannity when does ios 5 come out when does ios 5 come out

Toyota quarterly profit drops 18.5 percent to $1B (AP)

TOKYO ? Toyota said its quarterly profit slid 18.5 percent to 80.4 billion yen ($1 billion) on plunging sales caused by parts shortages from the tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan and warned it faces a new challenge from flooding in Thailand.

Toyota Motor Corp. declined Tuesday to give a forecast for the full financial year ending March 2012, citing uncertainties stemming from the Thai floods which have disrupted supplies of parts and prompted it to cut some car production.

Toyota, Japan's top automaker, said that vehicle sales plunged in the key markets of Japan and North America, but it was making up for some of the losses by strong sales in Asia, such as India and Indonesia.

Toyota's quarterly sales fell nearly 5 percent from a year earlier to 4.57 trillion yen ($58.7 billion).

All the Japanese automakers are suffering after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan damaged key parts suppliers. That meant they made and sold fewer cars than normal.

The Thai floods, which began in July and now threaten central Bangkok, are compounding the production damage. The country is the Southeast Asian base for several automakers. Toyota said production cuts in Japan, which began last month, will continue through Nov. 18.

Also battering Toyota is the surging yen.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models, counted on the dollar costing 86 yen last year, but is now seeing it slip to 78 yen.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda said earlier this week that the strong yen was reaching levels "far beyond what is tolerable," threatening to make it necessary to move production out of Japan.

He asked that the government do more to prop up the dollar, stressing that manufacturing in Japan would be "destroyed," not just hollowed out, which is the common term to describe production moving out of Japan.

Toyota said the unfavorable exchange rate erased 80 billion yen ($1 billion) from its latest quarterly net income.

Toyota, which was the world's biggest automaker in annual vehicle sales last year, sank to No. 3 in the first half of this year, trailing U.S. rival General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG of Germany.

Toyota had shown tremendous ability to bounce back after the March disaster, reaching pre-tsunami levels of global production in September, faster than its initial expectation of recovering by the end of this year.

But then the floods in Thailand struck and are expected to cost Toyota tens of thousands of vehicles in lost production.

For the first half spanning April 1 through Sept. 30, Toyota's profit nose-dived nearly 72 percent to 81.6 billion yen ($1 billion). It had eked out a tiny profit in the April-June first quarter. First-half sales fell 17 percent to 8.01 trillion yen ($103 billion).

Global sales for the six months totaled 3.03 million vehicles, down 18.5 percent from a year earlier as vehicle sales shrank in Japan, North America and Europe, according to Toyota.

"Toyota's biggest issue right now is production. They've had some bad luck this year with the tsunami and now the flooding in Thailand," said Chintan Talati, analyst at auto information site TrueCar.com.

"It looked as though they were about to get back on track and then got hit by this latest derailment," he said.

Talati said Toyota needs to keep bringing exciting models to attract new buyers. He believes Toyota has put the large recalls of 2009 and 2010 behind it, but still faces powerful competition not only from the U.S. automakers but also South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co., which have lured away Toyota fans.

Toyota shares lost 1.7 percent to 2,503 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, shortly before earnings were announced.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_earns_toyota

conjoined twins justin bieber paternity justin bieber paternity denver news kym johnson how old is justin bieber how old is justin bieber

Syrian troops fight defectors in besieged Homs

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, waves to his supporters after he attended the prayer of Eid Al Adha, at the al-Nour Mosque in the northern town of Raqqa, Syria, on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. Syrians in the restive region of Homs performed special prayers for a major Muslim holiday to the sound of explosions and gunfire as government troops pushed forward their assault on the area, killing at least several people Sunday, residents and activists said. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, waves to his supporters after he attended the prayer of Eid Al Adha, at the al-Nour Mosque in the northern town of Raqqa, Syria, on Sunday, Nov. 6, 2011. Syrians in the restive region of Homs performed special prayers for a major Muslim holiday to the sound of explosions and gunfire as government troops pushed forward their assault on the area, killing at least several people Sunday, residents and activists said. (AP Photo/SANA) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

(AP) ? Syrian troops stormed a defiant neighborhood of the embattled city of Homs on Monday, kicking in doors and making arrests after nearly a week of violence pitting soldiers against army defectors and protesters demanding the downfall of President Bashar Assad, activists said.

It was not immediately clear whether government troops had regained control of the Baba Amr district, where the government is reportedly facing armed resistance from army defectors who have taken refuge in the neighborhood and in surrounding districts.

More than 110 people have been reported killed in the past week in Homs, a city of about 800,000 that has turned into one of the main centers of protest and reprisal during the nearly 8-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad, according to Ibrahim Hozan, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees activist network.

The violence comes despite claims by Syria that it is complying with an Arab League-sponsored plan to end the crackdown.

Activists said two people were killed in the city and the surrounding province on Monday, pushing the death toll from the past 24 hours to at least 18.

It was impossible to verify the events on the ground. Syria has banned most foreign journalists and restricted coverage, making independent confirmation nearly impossible.

Much of the violence of the past few days is reported to have involved members of the military who defected to the protesters and were fighting to protect civilians, according to Syrian activist groups.

"There is a major campaign of arrests going on in some of the toughest neighborhoods of the district," an activist in Homs told The Associated Press by telephone. He spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his personal safety.

Over the course of the uprising, government troops have cracked down repeatedly on Homs, Syria's third largest city, and have imposed a tight siege in the past five days.

Activists say that government forces have employed live fire to break up unarmed protests, and have used tank guns and other heavy weapons indiscriminately in residential areas. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday's dead included an 8-year-old girl who died in random gunfire from a security checkpoint in the Houla district.

A key Syrian opposition group declared Homs a "disaster area" and appealed for international intervention to protect civilians and for sending Arab and international observers to oversee the situation on the ground.

"For the fifth consecutive day, the Syrian regime is imposing a brutal siege on the brave city of Homs, aiming to break the will of its residents who have dared to reject the regime's authority," the Syrian National Council said in a statement on Monday.

The group said the latest siege was preventing medical supplies and food from getting into Homs and preventing families from moving to safer areas.

Violence in Syria has continued unabated, though Damascus agreed last week to an Arab-brokered peace plan to halt its crackdown on the uprising that the U.N. says has left 3,000 people dead.

The violence prompted Qatar's prime minister to call for an emergency meeting Saturday to discuss Damascus' failure to abide by its commitments.

Egypt's official news agency MENA reported Sunday that Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani called for the meeting "in light of the continuing acts of violence and the Syrian government's noncompliance" with the terms of the Arab plan.

Syria's ambassador to Egypt and the Arab League, Youssef Ahmed, said he was "astonished" by comments made earlier this week by Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby in which he warned that the failure of the Arab plan would have disastrous consequences.

"The secretary general should not be taking sides against the Syrian government, especially that we have been providing information that shows the attacks perpetrated by armed terrorist groups against civilian and security forces," Ahmed told Syrian TV.

He renewed Syria's commitment to the plan, and said Syria has taken significant steps toward implementing it by offering an amnesty for those who readily give up their weapons and releasing more than 500 prisoners.

Under the Arab League plan, Syria's government agreed to pull tanks and armored vehicles out of cities, release political prisoners and allow journalists and rights groups into the country.

Arab League deputy secretary general Ahmed bin Heli told reporters Monday that the League had received a message from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem about "measures adopted by the Syrian government to implement the Arab league plan to solve the Syrian crisis."

Bin Heli did not elaborate on the measures that the Syrian government said it had taken, nor on the other contents of the message.

___

Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef contributed to this report from Cairo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-07-ML-Syria/id-cd29836e7fd94943b79ac1c1a8bc261c

cliff lee the raven the raven lawrence o donnell kelly ripa fresno state fresno state

Four killed after bombs target Iraq Sunni militia (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Four bombs exploded near the home of a local leader of a government-supported Sunni militia north of Iraq's capital on Saturday, killing four people and wounding eight others, police and health sources said.

The attack follows a major assault on Thursday on the Sahwa militia, which helped turn the tide of the war by taking up arms against al Qaeda. Six people were killed and dozens wounded when bombs exploded near a group of fighters as they lined up to receive their pay in the city of Baquba.

Iraqi security forces and Sahwa members have been frequent targets in recent weeks as militants try to destabilize Iraq's fragile, cross-sectarian government while the United States withdraw its remaining 33,000 troops.

The four bombs exploded near a house in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, a mixed area of Shi'ites and Sunnis that was once a battlefield for al Qaeda and the Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia.

"Two bombs went off near the house of Isa Kadhim, a Sahwa leader in Taji town, killing his brother, his wife and two of his children," a police source said.

"A few minutes later, another two bombs went off close to the first explosions, wounding eight people in the area."

A source at Kadhimiya Hospital in northwestern Baghdad confirmed the death toll.

The sectarian slaughter of 2006-07 has ebbed but al Qaeda-linked Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias still carry out scores of bombings and other attacks each month, more than eight years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw completely by the end of the year.

(Reporting by Kareem Raheem; Writing by Waleed Ibrahim; Editing by Jim Loney and Sophie Hares)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111105/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence_militia

weather orlando oakland raiders the stand winston churchill winston churchill arkham city conjugated linoleic acid

From Nebraska Lab To McDonald's Tray: The McRib's Strange Journey

Fast food giant McDonald's has brought back the McRib until Nov. 14. The sandwich has gained cult acclaim over the past three decades because of its limited availability. Enlarge Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

Fast food giant McDonald's has brought back the McRib until Nov. 14. The sandwich has gained cult acclaim over the past three decades because of its limited availability.

Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

Fast food giant McDonald's has brought back the McRib until Nov. 14. The sandwich has gained cult acclaim over the past three decades because of its limited availability.

Since McDonald's announced the seasonal revival of its popular McRib sandwich last month, there's been a round of reports about what's in the sandwich that have ranged from glib (on its 70 ingredients) to McFib (on the alleged inhumane treatment of the pigs that go into it).

But even though there's not a rib to be found inside the sandwich, that pork patty drenched in barbecue sauce actually represents one of the greater innovations in meat science of the last century.

Roger Mandigo is an emeritus University of Nebraska animal science professor credited with the technology that made the McRib possible. And here's its story, straight from the meat scientist's mouth.

? Roger Mandigo earned induction into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for his invention of "restructured meats." Courtesy of University of Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources

Roger Mandigo earned induction into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for his invention of "restructured meats."

Back in the 1970s, Mandigo tells The Salt, he was approached by the National Pork Producers Council (the folks who later brought you "the other white meat") to create a product with pork trimmings that could be sold to the fast food giant.

"The pork producers wanted to see more pork on the menu, and they were targeting McDonald's," Mandigo said.

Mandigo went to work in the lab and came up with a new take on an old-fashioned technology: sausage-making. Instead of just stuffing pork meat inside a casing, Mandigo used salt to extract proteins from the muscle. Those proteins become an emulsifier "to hold all the little pieces of meat together," he says.

"All we did was reuse the technology that had been around for hundreds of years and emphasize that we could shape products to shapes people wanted," he says.

And here is where our story takes an interesting twist: Seems the McRib was not born in the shape of its current pork patty. The original concoction Mandigo made was formed as a faux pork chop.

McChop? Maybe not.

"[McDonald's] chose the shape," Mandigo said. "They wanted it to look like the boneless part of a backrib."

That's why Mandigo is adamant that he was not the father of the McRib, despite getting the credit for it all these years.

"We developed the concepts and technology to make the process work," he said. "They developed the sandwich and the form that it's in. That gets a little touchy and sensitive to people, as you might guess."

Despite his modesty, Mandigo's invention of what's called "restructured meats" was important enough to earn him induction into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame, among big names like Colonel Sanders and Wendy's Dave Thomas in the 2010 class.

The restructured meat technology has since been used to make, among other things, chicken nuggets and many other products you see in the grocery store. The largest buyer of restructured meat is the U.S. military, Mandigo said, as the beef, chicken and pork products are convenient for feeding large numbers of people every day.

Now 30 years after his invention in a Nebraska lab, Mandigo is retired. He's good-natured about all the attention he gets every time the McRib comes back on the McDonald's menu ? which this year includes a rogue Twitter account @McRibSandwich.

"It's true. I have 70 ingredients," reads a tweet from Oct. 28. "Ingredient #47 Loch Ness Monster flipper."

Peggy Lowe is a reporter for Harvest Public Media.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/04/142018151/from-nebraska-lab-to-mcdonalds-tray-the-mcribs-strange-journey?ft=1&f=1007

michigan state michigan state bridge school miami dolphins chicago bears charlie and the chocolate factory ou football

It takes two: Brains come wired for cooperation, neuroscientist asserts

ScienceDaily (Nov. 3, 2011) ? When Nancy Grace and her partner danced a lively rumba to Spandau Ballet's 1980's hit, "True," on a recent "Dancing With the Stars," more was going on in the legal commentator's brain than worry over a possible wardrobe malfunction.

Deep in Grace's cortex, millions of neurons were hard at work doing what they apparently had been built to do: act and react to partner Tristan MacManus's movements to create a pas de deux that had the dancers functioning together (for the most part) like a well-oiled machine.

That is because the brain was built for cooperative activity, whether it be dancing on a reality television show, constructing a skyscraper or working in an office, according to a study led by Johns Hopkins behavioral neuroscientist Eric Fortune and published in the November 4 issue of the journal Science.

"What we learned is that when it comes to the brain and cooperation, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts," said Fortune, of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. "We found that the brain of each individual participant prefers the combined activity over his or her own part."

In addition to shedding light on ourselves as social and cooperative beings, the results have important implications for engineers who want to be able to program autonomous robots to work effectively as teams in settings such as bomb squads and combat.

But Fortune's work didn't involve androids or take place on a battlefield. Instead, he and his team took to the cloud forests of Ecuador, on the slopes of the active Antisana Volcano. Why? It's one of the only places in the world where you can find plain-tailed wrens. These chubby-breasted rust-and-gray birds, who don't fly so much as hop and flit through the area's bamboo thickets, are famous for their unusual duets. Their songs -- sung by one male and one female -- take an ABCD form, with the male singing the A and C phrases and the female (who seems to be the song leader) singing B and D.

"What's happening is that the male and female are alternating syllables, though it often sounds like one bird singing alone, very sharply, shrilly and loudly," explained Fortune, who spent hours hacking through the thick bamboo with a machete, trying to catch the songbirds in nets. "The wrens made an ideal subject to study cooperation because we were easily able to tape-record their singing and then make detailed measurements of the timing and sequences of syllables, and of errors and variability in singing performances."

The team then captured some of the wrens and monitored activity in the area of their brains that control singing. They expected to find that the brain responded most to the animal's own singing voice. But that's not what happened.

"In both males and females, we found that neurons reacted more strongly to the duet song -- with both the male and female birds singing -- over singing their own parts alone. In fact, the brain's responses to duet songs were stronger than were responses to any other sound," he said. "It looked like the brains of wrens are wired to cooperate."

So it's clear that nature has equipped the brains of plain-tailed wrens in the Andes of Ecuador to work cooperatively, and to prefer "team" activities to solo ones. But what does that have to do with people?

"Brains among vertebrate animals -- frogs, cats, fish, bears and even humans -- are more similar than most people realize," Fortune said. "The neurotransmitter systems that control brain activity at the molecular level are nearly identical among all vertebrates and the layout of the brain structures is the same. Thus, the kinds of phenomena that we have described in these wrens is very relevant to the brains of most, if not all, vertebrate species, including us humans."

Co-authors on the study are Gregory F. Ball of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University; Carlos Rodriguez of Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador; and Melissa Coleman, of Claremont McKenna College. David Li, an undergraduate student majoring in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, also is a co-author.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. E. S. Fortune, C. Rodriguez, D. Li, G. F. Ball, M. J. Coleman. Neural Mechanisms for the Coordination of Duet Singing in Wrens. Science, 2011; 334 (6056): 666 DOI: 10.1126/science.1209867

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111103190351.htm

gone in 60 seconds our lady of sorrows january jones top gun kat von d the talk its always sunny in philadelphia

Obama prods Europeans on economy

Conceding a fragile global recovery and plodding job growth back home, President Barack Obama said Friday he is confident European leaders are fixing their ominous debt crisis that threatens to undermine the United States and his own shot at a second term.

A year shy of the election, Obama said the American economy is growing, but "way too slow."

The president capped his role at a brisk G-20 summit essentially where he started it, offering solidarity to his European peers with none-too-subtle signals it was their responsibility to clean up the economic mess in their own backyards.

At issue is an evolving rescue package across the 17 nations sharing the euro as their common currency. The plan could prevent a default in Greece, put up a financial firewall against future trouble and reassure markets about the credibility of the euro.

  1. Other political news of note

    1. Obama prods Europeans on economy

      Updated 88 minutes ago 11/4/2011 8:23:32 PM +00:00 President Barack Obama said Friday he is confident European leaders are fixing their ominous debt crisis that threatens to undermine the United States and his own shot at a second term.

    2. Democrats hopeful to retake House in '12
    3. Obama's rating improves, loses edge vs Romney
    4. Koch group dealt with Cain campaign's chief
    5. Bachmann: I'll create 'millions of jobs'

"I am confident that Europe has the capacity to meet this challenge," Obama said in a news conference at the meeting of leading industrialized and developing countries.

PhotoBlog: All wet

"I know it isn't easy, but what is absolutely critical ? and what the world looks for in moments such as this ? is action," he said. "That's how we confronted our financial crisis in the United States."

The drama of Greek's messy internal struggles and their potential to derail the entire European effort hung over the summit in this French Riviera resort, as did a gloomy rain.

While Obama met with world leaders, a news jobs report showed the American economy added 80,000 jobs in October, and that the job expansion in the previous two months was better than first thought.

Job market shows gains but faces huge risks

The unemployment rate dropped slightly to 9 percent. Should it remain anywhere close to that level a year from now, Obama will face re-election with the highest jobless rate in recent times.

"The least of my concerns at the moment is the politics of a year from now," Obama said. "I'm worried about putting people back to work right now because those folks are hurting and the U.S. economy is underperforming."

He cast the jobs report as positive but said the pace of the recovery shows "once again that the economy's growing way too slow."

Story: Greece PM faces crucial confidence vote

Obama repeatedly tried to keep the focus on his confidence that Europe is on its way to solving its financial woes. "I can say that we've come together and made important progress to get our economic recoveries on a firmer footing," Obama said.

Still, important questions had not been answered. Leaders of the economic powers did not agree on how to increase the firepower of the International Monetary Fund to help stem the European debt crisis.

Obama acknowledged that there is hard work left to do. But he said Europe had a foundation with the right elements: a way ahead for indebted Greece, a credible firewall to contain the crisis and a plan to strengthen European banks.

"All of us have an enormous interest in Europe's success and all of us will be affected if Europe is not growing, and that certainly includes the United States," Obama said. "If Europe isn't growing, it's harder for us to do what we need to do for the American people: creating jobs, lifting up the middle class and putting our fiscal house in order."

Obama even extended some political sympathy, reminiscing about the economic difficulties he faced upon taking office in 2009.

Instead of working with a single legislative body as he did, Obama noted that there are multiple parliaments, commissions and institutions involved in solving Europe's crisis. He said some of his counterparts joked that he had gotten a crash course in European politics in the past couple of days.

What Obama was not, clearly, was the center of attention here. The United States came into this gathering in a supporting role.

He talked economic cooperation with Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez and congratulated her for recently winning re-election. He joined the summit host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in saluting service members from both their countries who fought in a NATO-led campaign that drove Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from power.

Obama was on his way home Friday, but not for long. He is to leave on Nov. 11 for another economic summit, in Hawaii, before traveling to Australia and Indonesia.

Stalled joblessness poses significant problems for Obama, who has been unable to get Republican support for elements of his $447 billion jobs plan.

"As soon as I get some signal from Congress that they're willing to take their responsibilities seriously, I think we can do more," the president said. "But that's going to require them to break out of the rigid ideological positions that they've been taking. And the same is true, by the way, when it comes to deficit reduction."

Directing his remarks at Europe and the United States, Obama said: "There's no excuse for inaction. That's true globally. It's certainly true back home, as well, and I'm going to keep on pushing it regardless of what the politics are."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45163857/ns/politics-white_house/

beebe michelle malkin goodrich death penalty gary busey the x factor execution

Jury to begin considering fate of Jackson doctor

Dr. Conrad Murray listens as defense attorney Ed Chernoff, not pictured, gives the defense's closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Dr. Conrad Murray listens as defense attorney Ed Chernoff, not pictured, gives the defense's closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren delivers his closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/ Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Defense Attorney Ed Chernoff addresses the jury during the defense's closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's defense in his involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Dr. Conrad Murray prepares to leave for lunch recess after the prosecution had delivered its closing arguments during the final stage of Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/ Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney David Walgren projects a calendar on screen to chronicle events for the jury during his closing arguments during the final stage of Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in the death of singer Michael Jackson at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011 in Los Angeles. Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical licenses if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death. (AP Photo/ Kevork Djansezian, Pool)

(AP) ? After six weeks of listening, jurors in the involuntary manslaughter case of Michael Jackson's doctor will get their first chance to talk about the case Friday.

Their discussions behind closed doors in a downtown Los Angeles courthouse could lead to the conviction or acquittal of Dr. Conrad Murray, whom the panel has heard described alternately as an inept and opportunistic physician or a na?ve outsider granted access into Jackson's inner realm.

The seven-man, five-woman panel listened intently Thursday as prosecutors and defense attorneys argued over whether Murray should be convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's death in June 2009. The physician's attorneys attacked prosecutors and their witnesses, saying they had over time developed stories and theories that placed the blame for Jackson's death squarely on Murray.

Jackson died from a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol, which Murray acknowledged giving Jackson to help him sleep.

The real reason Jackson died, defense attorney Ed Chernoff argued, was because he craved the powerful anesthetic so much that he gave himself a fatal injection when Murray left his bedside.

"They want you to convict Dr. Murray for the actions of Michael Jackson," Chernoff said.

"Poor Conrad Murray," prosecutor David Walgren replied in his final speech to jurors. "Michael Jackson is dead. And we have to hear about poor Conrad Murray and no doctor knows what it's like to be in his shoes."

Walgren noted that several doctors who testified ? including two who were called by Murray's attorneys ? said they would have never given the singer anesthesia in his bedroom.

Murray is solely to blame for Jackson's death, Walgren argued, saying Murray had purchased more than four gallons of propofol to administer to Jackson and had been giving him nightly doses to help him sleep.

Walgren repeatedly described Murray's treatments on Jackson as unusual and called his actions on the day of the singer's death ? including not calling 911 and not mentioning his propofol doses to paramedics or other doctors ? "bizarre."

Murray was essentially experimenting on Jackson, Walgren said. Murray should have known Jackson might die from the treatments, yet he lacked the proper life-saving and monitoring equipment.

"What is unusual and unpredictable is that Michael Jackson lived as long as he did under the care of Conrad Murray in this situation," Walgren said.

The prosecutor repeatedly invoked the singer's children, Prince, Paris and Blanket, and said Murray's actions left them without a father. The children, who range in ages from 9 to 14, were not present, but Jackson's parents and several of his siblings attended closing arguments.

The Houston-based cardiologist's culpability will be decided by jurors, who heard from 49 witnesses and have more than 300 pieces of evidence to consider. They were given lengthy instructions about how to deliberate and interpret the case.

If Murray is convicted, he faces a sentence that ranges from probation to four years behind bars, and he would lose his medical license. The sentence will be decided by Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor and not the jury; the judge will receive input from attorneys for both sides and probation officials if necessary. A recent change in California law means that Murray, 58, might serve any incarceration in a county jail rather than a state prison.

If acquitted, Murray would be free from criminal prosecution, but will likely be pursued by medical licensing authorities in the states of California, Nevada and Texas.

In order to convict Murray, jurors will have to determine the cardiologist was substantially responsible for Jackson's death.

Despite days of scientific testimony about what likely happened in Jackson's bedroom from experts for Murray and the prosecution, Walgren acknowledged that some things about the events in the King of Pop's bedroom that led to his death will never be known.

"The people won't prove exactly what happened behind those closed doors," he said. "Michael Jackson could give answers, but he is dead."

___

AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report.

___

McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-04-Michael%20Jackson-Doctor/id-44dc0822fcaf48b58b17ca420bcb4684

ed reed teresa giudice red ribbon week much ado about nothing sean hayes ndamukong suh ndamukong suh

The eBay of the East: Inside Taobao, China's Online Marketplace (Time.com)

In 2005, when the scrappy Chinese e-commerce company Taobao was locked in battle with eBay for control of the lucrative China market, Jack Ma, the former English teacher who founded Taobao parentcompany Alibaba, confidently predicted that victory would be his: "Ebay may be a shark in the ocean, but I am a crocodile in the Yangtze River. If we fight in the ocean, we lose ? but if we fight in the river, we win."

He was not only right, he underestimated his company's potential. Taobao (which means "searching for treasure" in Mandarin) isn't a mere crocodile today, it's a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Or a mutant creature from another planet hell-bent on global domination. Point is, it's big ? very big. Just eight years after its launch, Taobao has 370 million registered users across its three main platforms ? more than the entire population of the United States. Taobao Marketplace (the site most similar to eBay) virtually owns the country's online consumer-to-consumer business, with a 90% market share, while Taobao Mall, a separate site where brands like Gap and Uniqlo sell directly to consumers, has captured close to 50% of the B2C market ? nearly triple its nearestcompetitor. Taobao's gross merchandise volume (total value of all goods sold) last year reached an estimated $60 billion ? double its 2009 volume and topping eBay's $53 billion.(Read why Silicon Valley is no longer king in China.)

According to Alexa, a Web tracking firm, Taobao.com is the third-most visited site in China and the 15th-most visited site in the world ? smack between Yahoo! Japan and Google India. (eBay is No. 22.) Goldman Sachs predicts the company will make $716 million in pre-tax earnings and be worth $14.3 billion in 2013, which is impressive considering it makes the majority of its revenue from advertising ? unlike eBay, it doesn't charge listing or transaction fees in its C2C business. One of the main reasons that eBay didn't succeed in China was that Taobao offered a similar, or, perhaps, superior, service for free.

Though Taobao is tops in China, it's hit something of a rough patch. It seems the bigger the firm gets, the more trouble it has trying to control what's actually being sold on its sites. Given the ubiquity of counterfeits and illegally made goods in China, this is a serious problem.

Take the trade in illicit drugs and other medical supplies, for instance. Last month, the China Daily, a state-run newspaper, reported that vendors on Taobao were selling dried and ground human placenta, a popular ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine, in violation of federallaw. Months earlier, a scandal erupted when mothers were found selling excess breast milk for upwards of $16 per bag on the site. Fertility drugs have turned up on Taobao, as have diet pills containing tapeworm eggs. In each case, Taobao said it didn't condone such sales and it shut down the vendors as soon as they were discovered.(Read about Alibaba's relationship with Yahoo!.)

Counterfeit goods, though, are an even bigger problem ? and not just for Taobao. According to a survey conducted last year by the website tech.qq.com, nearly 95% of Chinese Internet users believe that counterfeit goods are "running wild" online. And on Taobao, foreign brands are beginning to take notice now that they've started setting up shops in the Taobao Mall. In July, three Swiss watchmakers resorted to litigation: Omega, Longines and Rado sued Taobao in Beijing for failing to stop the sale of knockoff watches in Taobao Marketplace. The companies said Taobao should ban listings of their watchespriced at under RMB 7,500 ($1,180); a search on Tuesday turned up a number of Omega watches priced at about half that amount.

Taobao Marketplace maintains it is serious about stamping out counterfeits, but with 800 million products listed on the site at any given time, the task is difficult, says Florence Shih, an Alibaba spokeswoman. The site has keyword filters that prevent sellers from postingbanned items and price filters meant to weed out luxury goods offered at incredibly low prices. The company also has teams who scan the site and manually take down listings in violation of Taobao policies. Earlier this year, it launched an online reporting system that allows brands to submit product listings they believe to be fakes. In 2010, the company removed 14 million listings for intellectual property infringement, and in the first half of this year, it deleted 47 million listings, Shih says. Alibaba has also established funds totaling more than RMB 1.2 billion ($188 million) to pay compensation if consumers receive counterfeit goods ? buyers may be eligible to receive three times the price of the item in the Marketplace and five times the price in the Mall. And the company shuts down the stores of those who repeatedly violate the rules. "We do the best that we can," she says. "This is a bigger society problem. Counterfeit goods don't simply exist on Taobao Marketplace."

Wang Hai, a well-known Chinese consumer rights advocate, isn't sold. Two years ago, he submitted a report to the government accusing the company of allowing some online stores to operate illegally and infringing on buyers' rights by concealing the real identities of its sellers. Nothing has changed since then, he tells TIME. "There is no guarantee of the quality and authenticity of products. Neither Taobao nor consumers are certain of sellers' locations. Nor do regulatory authorities know where sellers are. So Taobao sellers escape from any form of supervision," he says. "Consumers rely on luck or the sellers' sense of morality."

The fact that Taobao continues to grow suggests that many consumers are willing to take a chance ? especially if the price is right. Christina Wang, a 26-year-old in Shanghai who spends about $150 per month on Taobao, says the key is to search for sellers with good customer feedback and be prepared to deal with small quality issues. "I might be tricked (with a fake), but the possibility is quite low if you know what you're doing," she says. She avoids big-ticket clothing items in case they may be counterfeit ? as well as anything edible. "I don't trust them that much on food items."

See the top 10 Chinese knock-offs.

Read about the top 10 outrageous eBay auctions.

View this article on Time.com

Most Popular on Time.com:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/time/20111103/wl_time/08599209845100

prickly pear prickly pear jcole jcole j cole j. cole j. cole

How not to become a victim of 'sextortion'

Earlier this year, naked photos of Hollywood starlet Scarlett Johansson made their way onto the Web. The photos, which Johansson had taken herself with her smartphone, were posted on a variety of different sites, and then went viral.

It seems that lately, such things have been happening to a whole host of celebrities, including Christina Aguilera, Ali Larter, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens. No doubt they have something to worry about ? but as it turns out, so do normal people.

It's a process called "sextortion," and it's exactly what it sounds like: sexual extortion. It all begins when someone gets their hands on a racy photo of you. It could be that your phone got stolen, or that an ex-boyfriend decided sharing those nude pictures was a fun way to get over you, or that someone broke into your home computer and programmed the webcam to take photos of you without your knowledge.

"I just could not believe that this was actually happening to me," said "M" a sextortion victim who wished not to be identified by his full name, "I thought it was a prank, but it wasn't."

It seems like a nightmare scenario, but it happens to real people. Luis Mijangos of Santa Ana, California, was recently sentenced to six years in prison for hacking into the computers of more than 100 women and teenage girls. If he found nude photos, Mijangos would contact the women and threaten to post the images online unless they provided more naked photos.

A Florida man is currently serving a five-year sentence after his July 2011 conviction for doing the same to at least 19 women, and a California man is facing six years after he admitted using Facebook to take over women's email accounts and blackmail them.

Men are not exempt from becoming victims of the disturbing trend. In 2008, several male students at Eisenhower High School in New Berlin, Wisconsin, were tricked into sending naked photos of themselves via instant messaging by a classmate, which he then used to sextort at least 31 of them, as well as forcing several to have sex with him. That scheme sent him to prison for 15 years.

"I was almost relieved when I found out that it wasn't my fault," said M of his own case, though the expression on his face was less than relieved. "My boyfriend at the time got a virus on his Droid from an app he downloaded, and that is how my [lewd] shots got out."

Even though M's boyfriend claimed innocence at the time, it still ended their relationship.

"I thought he had posted them online," said M. "They were only for him. I kept thinking if he would do that to me and then lie, how could I trust him about anything else?"

So how do you protect yourself from sextortion? Well, there are a lot of little things you can do.

Keep your pictures PG-rated
First and foremost, do not text, email or post online explicit photos of yourself. Remember that once you put an image out there, you lose control of it, even if that image is hidden behind a password lock.

"We tend to think of our email accounts as our own private space," M said. "But if a company owns that space, you'll never know how secure they really are. If I send my boyfriend a shot of me while he's away, it can go anywhere. That can ruin relationships and careers, believe me. It's not worth taking the photo. Pick up a phone ... Your new boyfriend will appreciate it when he doesn't have to explain to all his friends why they can see you naked online."

Update your anti-virus software
A good piece of anti-virus software can help to keep you safer from a variety of different types of attacks, including sextortion, but if you do not update it regularly, it won't be effective. Make an update a part of your weekly routine. Better yet, allow your anti-virus software to auto-update itself, and you will never have to think about it again.

Unplug or disable your Webcam when you're not using it
Many sextortion victims didn't mean to take, or share naked images of themselves. To keep from being filmed while you are changing clothes, be sure to unplug or disable your webcam when you're not using it. This will keep you safe from prying electronic eyes. If you have a system with a built-in camera, then a small piece of electrical tape should be able to cover the lens without damaging it.

Use your common sense
This one may sound obvious, but one brazen series of attacks was perpetrated by a man who convinced women that they needed to bring their laptops near steam to clear out a sensor. Predictably, the women took the machines into the bathroom during their next shower, and the man was able to watch them bathe. Have the common sense to double-check dubious instructions with a second source ? it can save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

If you believe you have been the victim of sextortion, file a report at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx. This cybercrime task force is a joint undertaking between the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. To be on the safe side, file the report using a computer that you are certain has not been breached, such as the ones at your local library or school.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45137668/ns/technology_and_science-security/

world series game 5 moammar gadhafi harry connick jr rightnow maurice jones drew bf3 craigslist nc