Popular Diabetes Drug Might Cut Pancreatic Cancer Risk: Study (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Jan. 31 (HealthDay News) -- A new Swiss-American study indicates that long-term use of the popular diabetes medication metformin may lower the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, at least among women.

The researchers also found that the long-term use of another class of diabetes medications known as sulfonylureas was associated with a "substantial" bump in pancreatic risk and long-term insulin use was linked to a bump in pancreatic cancer risk in men.

"This result is somewhat unexpected," the team wrote in its paper, which is published in the Jan. 31 online issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most deadly cancer in the United States, with an overall survival rate of less than 5 percent, even though it is fairly rare, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The researchers noted that previous research has suggested that metformin may lower the risk for other cancers, breast and ovarian cancer in particular.

To explore metformin's protective potential against pancreatic cancer, the team sifted through drug prescription, diagnostic, hospitalization and fatality information that had been collected by the British "General Practice Research Database." The data also included significant demographic information, such as smoking, alcohol use and body mass index.

The team honed in on statistics regarding nearly 2,800 patients (all under the age of 90) who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer for the first time between 1995 and 2009. Data concerning almost 16,600 patients who did not have pancreatic cancer was used as a comparison.

The result: Short-term use of metformin or sulfonylureas and/or insulin had no appreciable impact on pancreatic cancer risk.

However, long-term use of each of these medications did appear to have a sizeable impact on pancreatic cancer risk among diabetics. While female patients saw their risk go down with metformin treatment and up with sulfonylureas, male patients saw their risk go up with insulin.

Dr. Michael Choti, a professor of surgery and oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, stressed the "importance of trying to identify causes for a devastating disease that is often diagnosed late."

"Over the years, many groups have tried to look at a variety of risk factors, dietary and other things, and there have been some reports over the years," he noted. "But nothing has really panned out well. So this is indeed an interesting study."

"But it's also important to say," Choti added, "that while these could be associations, we cannot really say that what we have here is a cause-and-effect. Pancreatic cancer is a multi-factorial disease. So, while it makes sense conceptually that these drugs could have an impact on the pancreas, which is a metabolic organ, it's still too early to be sure what's happening. And it's too early to recommend metformin as a preventive therapy for pancreatic cancer."

"So this is interesting and important," he said. "But it's not definitive."

More information

For more on pancreatic cancer, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120131/hl_hsn/populardiabetesdrugmightcutpancreaticcancerriskstudy

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No letup on Gingrich by Romney before Florida vote

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at Pioneer Park in Dunedin, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns at Pioneer Park in Dunedin, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney greets an audience member as he campaigns at Ring Power Lift Trucks in Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012, in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney throws bags of chips at traveling reporters on his campaign charter plane in Jacksonville, Fla., Monday, Jan. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with his wife Callista, campaign at The Villages, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, in Lady Lake, Fla. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

MIAMI (AP) ? Cheered by new polls, Mitt Romney is all but predicting victory in Tuesday's Republican presidential primary. Newt Gingrich is looking past Florida to regroup, vowing he won't stay buried long.

"With a turnout like this, I'm beginning to feel we might win tomorrow," an upbeat Romney told a crowd of several hundred at a stop in Dunedin on Monday as he and Gingrich zipped across the state making their final appeals.

Gingrich, in turn, acknowledged that his momentum had been checked but promised not to back down. He characterized Romney as an imposter, and his team started to plot a strategy for upcoming contests.

"He can bury me for a very short amount of time with four or five or six times as much money," Gingrich said in a television interview. "In the long run, the Republican Party is not going to nominate ... a liberal Republican."

GOP officials in Florida were anticipating a big turnout, more than 2 million voters, up from a record 1.9 million in the Republican primary in 2008. More than 605,000 Floridians had already voted as of Monday, either by visiting early voting stations or by mailing in absentee ballots, ahead of the total combined early vote in the GOP primary four years ago.

In the span of a volatile week, the tables have turned in this potentially pivotal primary state.

Gingrich rode a triumphant wave into Florida after a South Carolina victory nine days ago. But since then, Romney and his allies have pummeled the former House speaker on TV and on the campaign trail. Romney turned in two strong debate performances, while Gingrich faltered. Now opinion polls show the former Massachusetts governor with a comfortable lead here.

Romney and Gingrich have been the only two candidates to compete in Florida in earnest. Neither former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum nor Texas Rep. Ron. Paul campaigned much in the state, and they were elsewhere on Monday.

Clearly in command, Romney flew to stops in media markets in northern Florida and the populous swing regions of central Florida, determined to keep Gingrich from surging late.

Romney renewed attacks on his rival as an untrustworthy, Washington influence peddler at the outset of two separate appearances Monday. He claimed that Gingrich's ties to federally backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac have hurt the former speaker in a state wracked by the foreclosure crisis.

"He made $1.6 million in his company, the very institution that helped stand behind the huge housing crisis here in Florida," Romney said in Dunedin. Gingrich's consulting firm received more than $1.5 million from the federally backed mortgage giant over a period after he left Congress in 1999.

Gingrich plowed ahead, flying to stops in northern Florida starting in Jacksonville ? near his home state of Georgia ? before touching down in conservative Pensacola and then Tampa.

Along the way, he tried to rally conservatives by casting Romney as an imposter and himself as the true GOP stalwart. His claim to conservative principles wasn't limited to economic issues.

"No politician, no judge, no bureaucrat can come between you and God," Gingrich told an audience in Tampa. "I'm a little bit tired of being lectured about respecting every other religion on the planet."

Gingrich, who has sought to wrap himself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan, campaigned with the late president's son Michael. He was also joined by former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who endorsed him Sunday.

A win by Romney would again reset the 2012 GOP race, seen early this month as his to lose, then thrown into doubt by Gingrich's come-from-behind win in South Carolina.

Romney easily won the New Hampshire primary after nearly winning the in leadoff Iowa. The South Carolina setback behind him, Romney sought to aggressively stop Gingrich, aided by a well-funded political action committee that supports him and is run by former political aides.

Together, Romney's campaign and the supportive group Restore Our Future have combined to spend $6.8 million on television ads in the final week of the Florida campaign, about three times what Gingrich and a group supporting him have spent.

Romney capped his Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina campaigns with upbeat spots. Nothing doing in Florida, where he was running out the clock with ads attacking Gingrich over Freddie Mac and an ethics violation in Congress.

But Romney dropped any reference to Gingrich at his final stop Monday at The Villages in central Florida. And instead of reciting the lyrics of "America the Beautiful," as he typically does, Romney ? on pitch ? broke into song and led the crowd in a reverent rendition.

Rick Tyler, a former top Gingrich aide now running a pro-Gingrich political action committee, showed up at Romney's kickoff event in Jacksonville on Monday, stealing a page from Romney's Florida playbook.

"I'm here to get as many cameras and microphones so I can talk about Mitt Romney's incessant failure to tell the truth," Tyler said.

Gingrich said he was confident he could narrow Romney's margin in public voter surveys, even as he and his campaign began trying to soften the blow a defeat in Florida might bring.

Gingrich aides tried to diminish the state's impact on the quest for the nomination by issuing a memo from his political director, Martin Baker.

It noted that by Wednesday morning, only 5 percent of the 2,288 national convention delegates will have been awarded.

Gingrich, who has promised to campaign through the national convention this summer, was clearly looking to regroup after Florida.

"The campaign is shifting to a new phase where opportunities are not limited to a single state," Baker wrote.

Gingrich had not announced his plans for Wednesday. Romney, who has already begun advertising in next-up Nevada ahead of the state's Feb. 4 caucuses, was traveling there Wednesday, and to Minnesota, which holds its caucuses on Feb. 7.

___

Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt in The Villages, Shannon McCaffrey in Tampa and Brendan Farrington in Miami contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-30-US-GOP-Campaign/id-e25acd88ff614779b2a821f65e154947

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Hillary Clinton to step down from 'high wire' of US diplomacy

It's too early to talk of her legacy, or to grade the Obama administration's foreign policy, but four years of repairing relationships and defending US interests have taken a physical toll.?

No matter what happens in the 2012 US presidential elections, Hillary Clinton will not be America?s chief diplomat for much longer.

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At a State Department press conference yesterday, she announced that she would be stepping down from the ?high wire of American politics? after 20 years, as first lady, as a senator from New York, and finally as US Secretary of State. At the press conference, she told reporters that ?it would be a good idea to find out how tired I really am.?

Diplomacy is a largely thankless task in America. In France, diplomats are practically rock stars, and the actions and speeches of senior French diplomats abroad are noted closely as to whether they match the standards of French diplomats of the past. Not so in the US. Newspapers like the New York Times may have front-page articles about the US secretary of State?s latest foreign trip to Myanmar, for instance, but the vast majority of Americans are blissfully unaware of what their government is doing overseas. ?

Ms. Clinton inherited a job when American diplomacy was every bit as messy as the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Many nations that initially felt sympathy for the US after the Sept. 11 attacks had grown quickly tired of American statements such as, ?You?re either with us or against us.? Changing the tone of American foreign policy meant bringing back a level of trust, and to do that meant thousands of foreign trips.

Here?s the US State Department's interactive map showing Hillary Clinton?s hundreds of foreign and domestic trips.

Rumors have been flying around for weeks that Hillary Clinton was planning to bow out.

Chris McGreal, the Guardian?s man in Washington, quoted a keen diplomacy-watcher, John Norris of the Center for American Progress, as saying that Clinton?s legacy abroad will be her dogged attempts to reverse hostility.

"I have a hard time thinking of a secretary of state in recent memory who inherited a portfolio that was more of a mess. She had wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a very troubled relationship with Pakistan, and a full-blown economic crisis on her watch," he said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/ZdOZfIIKyR8/Hillary-Clinton-to-step-down-from-high-wire-of-US-diplomacy

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Small Business Hiring Slows, Wages Dip In January

(Reuters) - Small business payrolls grew at a slower rate in January and wages fell, an independent survey showed on Monday, suggesting the pace of overall job growth moderated after December's sturdy gain.

Small businesses added 50,000 jobs, payrolls processing firm Intuit said, compared with a gain of 60,000 in December. Still, labor market conditions continue to improve.

"Overall the small business labor market is not weak, but not strong either," said Susan Woodward, the economist who developed the survey. "Small business employment continues to rise but at a rate that will not get us back to full employment very quickly."

The government's more comprehensive employment report due on Friday is expected to show nonfarm payrolls increased 150,000 in January, according to a Reuters survey, after rising 200,000 the prior month.

The unemployment rate is seen steady at a near three-year low of 8.5 percent.

The Intuit survey is based on responses from about 72,000 small businesses with fewer than 20 employees that use the Intuit Online Payroll system. It covered the period from December 24 to January 23.

The average monthly salary for small business employees fell 0.1 percent, or $3, to $2,632 in January. The average workweek eased 0.1 percent to 24.8 hours.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/small-business-hiring-slo_n_1241528.html

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Researchers find cancer in ancient Egyptian mummy

CAIRO (AP) ? A professor from American University in Cairo says discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.

The genetics-environment question is key to understanding cancer.

AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was of a man who died in his forties.

She said this was the second oldest known case of prostate cancer.

"Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she said.

A statement from AUC says the oldest known case came from a 2,700 year-old skeleton of a king in Russia.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2012-01-29-ML-Egypt-Ancient-Cancer/id-e1ac4d45bf884d0ea6f5c8fb2ede8778

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Voight: Obama Taking "Us to Socialism" (TIME)

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Syrian troops storm areas near capital of Damascus (AP)

BEIRUT ? In dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, Syrian troops stormed rebellious areas near the capital Sunday, shelling neighborhoods that have fallen under the control of army dissidents and clashing with fighters. At least 62 people were killed in violence nationwide, activists and residents said.

The widescale offensive near the capital suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus, which has remained relatively quiet while most other Syrian cities descended into chaos after the uprising began in March.

The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict.

The violence has gradually approached the capital. In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests.

Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may either be losing control or setting up a trap for the fighters before going on the offensive.

Residents of Damascus reported hearing clashes in the nearby suburbs, particularly at night, shattering the city's calm.

"The current battles taking place in and around Damascus may not yet lead to the unraveling of the regime, but the illusion of normalcy that the Assads have sought hard to maintain in the capital since the beginning of the revolution has surely unraveled," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a U.S.-based Syrian dissident.

"Once illusions unravel, reality soon follows," he wrote in his blog Sunday.

Soldiers riding some 50 tanks and dozens of armored vehicles stormed a belt of suburbs and villages on the eastern outskirts of Damascus known as al-Ghouta Sunday, a predominantly Sunni Muslim agricultural area where large anti-regime protests have been held.

Some of the fighting on Sunday was less than three miles (four kilometers) from Damascus, in Ein Tarma, making it the closest yet to the capital.

"There are heavy clashes going on in all of the Damascus suburbs," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, who relies on a network of activists on the ground. "Troops were able to enter some areas but are still facing stiff resistance in others."

The fighting using mortars and machine guns sent entire families fleeing, some of them on foot carrying bags of belongings, to the capital.

"The shelling and bullets have not stopped since yesterday," said a man who left his home in Ein Tarma with his family Sunday. "It's terrifying, there's no electricity or water, it's a real war," he said by telephone on condition of anonymity, for fear of reprisals.

The uprising against Assad, which began with largely peaceful demonstrations, has grown increasingly militarized recently as more frustrated protesters and army defectors have taken up arms.

In a bid to stamp out resistance in the capital's outskirts, the military has responded with a withering assault on a string of suburbs, leading to a spike in violence that has killed at least 150 people since Thursday.

The United Nations says at least 5,400 people have been killed in the 10 months of violence.

The U.N. is holding talks on a new resolution on Syria and next week will discuss an Arab League peace plan aimed at ending the crisis. But the initiatives face two major obstacles: Damascus' rejection of an Arab plan that it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia's willingness to use its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told reporters Sunday in Egypt that contacts were under way with China and Russia.

"I hope that their stand will be adjusted in line with the final drafting of the draft resolution," he told reporters before leaving for New York with Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim.

The two will seek U.N. support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis. The plan calls for a two-month transition to a unity government, with Assad giving his vice president full powers to work with the proposed government.

Because of the escalating violence, the Arab League on Saturday halted the work of its observer mission in Syria at least until the League's council can meet. Arab foreign ministers were to meet Sunday in Cairo to discuss the Syrian crisis in light of the suspension of the observers' work and Damascus' refusal to agree to the transition timetable, the League said.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he was "concerned" about the League's decision to suspend its monitoring mission and called on Assad to "immediately stop the bloodshed." He spoke Sunday at an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

While the international community scrambles to find a resolution to the crisis, the violence on the ground in Syria has continued unabated.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 27 civilians were killed Sunday in Syria, most of them in fighting in the Damascus suburbs and in the central city of Homs, a hotbed of anti-regime protests. Twenty-six soldiers and nine defectors were also killed, it said. The soldiers were killed in ambushes that targeted military vehicles near the capital and in the northern province of Idlib.

The Local Coordination Committees' activist network said 50 people were killed Sunday, including 13 who were killed in the suburbs of the capital and two defectors. That count excluded soldiers killed Sunday.

The differing counts could not be reconciled, and the reports could not be independently confirmed. Syrian authorities keep tight control on the media and have banned many foreign journalists from entering the country.

Syria's state-run news agency said "terrorists" detonated a roadside bomb by remote control near a bus carrying soldiers in the Damascus suburb of Sahnaya, killing six soldiers and wounding six others. Among those killed in the attack some 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of the capital were two first lieutenants, SANA said.

In Irbil, a Kurdish city in northern Iraq, about 200 members of Syria's Kurdish parties were holding two days of meetings to explore ways of supporting efforts to topple Assad.

Abdul-Baqi Youssef, a member of the Syrian Kurdish Union Party, said representatives of 11 Kurdish parties formed the Syrian Kurdish National Council that will coordinate anti-government activities with Syria's opposition.

Kurds make up 15 percent of Syria's 23 million people and have long complained of discrimination.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo; Yahya Barzanji in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq; and Luc van Kemenade in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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Nigeria army says kills 11 Boko Haram insurgents (Reuters)

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) ? Nigeria's army killed 11 suspected Boko Haram insurgents during a gun battle at a checkpoint in the Islamist sect's heartland of Maiduguri on Saturday, the field operations officer in the remote northeastern city said.

Nigerian forces are reeling from a sharp uptick of increasingly sophisticated and coordinated attacks by Boko Haram. Human Rights Watch says it has killed hundreds of people since launching an uprising against the government in 2009, including an attack on the city of Kano that killed 186.

"Eleven BH (Boko Haram) members have been shot dead by the JTF (joint military taskforce) in Maiduguri today, following a shootout with the sect members at a checkpoint in a stop and search operation," field operations officer Colonel Victor Ebhamelehe said told Reuters.

"One member of the sect who was wounded is receiving treatment at the hospital."

Boko Haram began as a clerical movement opposed to western cultural influences in Maiduguri, a dusty town in the northeast region bordering Chad, Niger and Cameroon, on the cusp of the Sahara. It has since spread to much of Nigeria's north and has become the top security threat in Africa's biggest oil producer.

Suspected sect members attacked a police station in Mandwari, in north Nigeria's Kano state, on Friday, police and witnesses said, leading to more than an hour of running gun battles that fatally wounded one policeman.

"We lost one of our men in the attack in Mandwari inside the city. He is a corporal and he died on the way to hospital. The gunmen were repelled," Kano police commissioner Ibrahim Idris told Reuters on Saturday.

In an audio tape posted on the Internet on Thursday, the purported leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, threatened to kill more security personnel and kidnap their families, and accused U.S. President Barack Obama of waging war on Islam, in an apparent effort to strike a chord with global jihadists.

He denied that the group, which is loosely modeled on the Taliban, had been responsible for most of the civilian casualties in last Friday's attack on Kano. Police say most of those casualities were shot dead by sect members.

(Reporting by Ibrahim Mshelizza; Additional reporting by Mike Oboh in Kano; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120128/wl_nm/us_nigeria_violence

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Gwinnett County?s Greatest Hits (Theagitator)

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Ex-Palm chief leaves HP after WebOS move (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Jon Rubinstein, who was instrumental in crafting Apple Inc's iPod music player, has left Hewlett Packard Co after two years on the job there.

Rubinstein was CEO of smartphone maker Palm when that company was acquired by HP in 2010. He last held a product-innovation role within HP's Personal Systems Group headed by Todd Bradley.

"Jon has fulfilled his commitment to HP," a HP spokesman said.

Rubinstein is still a board member at e-commerce company Amazon.com.

Last year HP, the largest U.S. technology company by revenue, announced it was halting its TouchPad line of tablets and any other devices based on WebOS, the mobile software it acquired when it bought Palm.

In December, HP said it would open its WebOS mobile operating system to developers and companies, potentially taking on Google Inc's free Android platform.

(Reporting By Poornima Gupta; editing by John Wallace)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/tc_nm/us_hewlettpackard

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Oil Prices Will Surprise Markets in 2012 ... - Yahoo! Finance

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Blackstone Vice Chairman Byron Wien released his 27th annual market predictions list and the most "surprising" prognostication centers on oil prices. He tells The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task that oil could drift to $85 a barrel, about a 15 percent drop from oil's current price. Many economists are predicting that oil will stay above the $1oo per barrel mark as tensions between Iran and the West heat up. (See: $100 Oil Is Here to Stay, but Iran Closing the Strait of Hormuz "Can't Happen": Stuart)

"U.S. will produce more oil this year than last year," asserts Wien. Domestic natural gas production will increase (otherwise known as "fracking" - a highly controversial way of producing energy) and more oil from Libya and Iraq will lead to a price decline, he says. Moreover, world-wide demand for crude will soften as global growth slows.

President Obama has expressed his support for more domestic energy production, mentioning both natural gas and offshore drilling in Tuesday night's State of the Union address.

"The prospect of the U.S. becoming less dependent on Middle East oil is a game changer," says Wien. "It's a big deal."

According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. imported 11.8 million barrels of petroleum per day in 2010. The biggest suppliers to the U.S. were Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Venezuela last year; OPEC countries accounted for 51 percent of net U.S. petroleum imports.

Overall, Wien's "Surprises of 2012" lean to the bullish side. He says the U.S. economy will get its "second wind" and he expects real growth to exceed three percent this year. Europe will experience a "mild" recession and financial contagion to the global banking system will be avoided, he notes. U.S. markets should break out of their trading slump, and the S&P 500 Index could settle above 1,400 with profit margins and corporate earnings staying strong, he says. (For Wien's reaction to the latest FOMC statement see: Byron Wien See the Bright Side of the Fed' 2014 Pledge)

The financial soothsayer acknowledges that many of his annual predictions have been wrong, and last year was no exception. He says he gives his own forecasts a 50/50 chance of happening.

Here are some of Wien's other predictions:

• The U.S. housing market bottoms in 2012
• The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rises to 4 percent
• The computer becomes the principal weapon of terrorists and geopolitical adversaries and the number of cyber attacks increases
• President Obama wins re-election
• Bashar al-Assad's 11-year rule in Syria ends

Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/oil-prices-surprise-markets-2012-blackstone-byron-wien-135549658.html

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Sun Unleashes Strongest Flare Yet of 2012 (SPACE.com)

This story was updated at 4:13 p.m. EST.

A massive solar flare ? the strongest one so far this year ? erupted today (Jan. 27) from the same active region of the sun that triggered a raging solar tempest earlier this week.

The solar flare was rated an X1.7-class eruption, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). X-class flares are the most powerful type of solar storm, with M-class storms falling within the mid-range, and C-class flares being the weakest.

Several spacecraft, including NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Solar Heliospheric Observatory, observed the solar eruption, which occurred at 1:37 p.m. EST (1837 GMT). The flare unleashed a wave of charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection, but space weather experts said it was not aimed at Earth.

The flare exploded from sunspot 1402, a region on the sun that has been particularly active lately. Earlier this week, a separate blast from the same region sent a cloud of charged particles toward Earth and sparked the strongest radiation storm since 2003.

"It's a great week for Space Weather!" wrote Dean Pesnell, SDO Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., in a blog update.

This time, however, the flare was not fired off while the sunspot region was facing Earth, according to Spaceweather.com. Still, an ensuing radiation storm is possible and will continue to be monitored.

"Region 1402 is Alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" explained officials from NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center on Facebook. "Another huge X-ray event is in progress."

When a powerful X-class flare is aimed directly at Earth it can sometimes cause disruptions to satellites in space and power grids and communications infrastructure on the ground. Strong flares and coronal mass ejections can also pose potential hazards to astronauts on the International Space Station.

In response, NOAA has issued radio blackouts and a radiation storm warning while the sun storm is in progress.

"This warning is in effect for the next 24 hours," agency officials said in a statement.

Presently, the radiation levels appear to be climbing, but the effects of this solar storm are not expected to be worse than earlier this week, said Doug Biesecker, a physicist at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

"The radiation storm will almost certainly be weaker," Biesecker told SPACE.com. "The coronal mass ejection seems to be headed well away from Earth, which is good because this one seems like a bigger beast than the last one, but that's still preliminary."

Solar storms can also amp up auroras (also known as the northern and southern lights), which can create stunning light shows for skywatchers at high latitudes.

The sun's activity ebbs and flows in an 11-year cycle. Currently, the sun is in the midst of Solar Cycle 24, and activity is expected to ramp up toward the solar maximum in 2013.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120127/sc_space/sununleashesstrongestflareyetof2012

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The Best Time to Change All Your Passwords [User Manual]

February 1 is change your password day. But don't make it a one-time thing. Password changing should be a routine you practice regularly. Like hand-washing, or trolling Facebook. Especially ones you've shared. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JZ4EjQOLCrI/the-best-time-to-change-your-all-your-passwords

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Joe Paterno buried after thousands pay vigil (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was buried in a private ceremony on Wednesday after tens of thousands of mourners paid vigil in frigid weather as his hearse was carried from a closed funeral.

Paterno, 85, who died of lung cancer on Sunday, was head coach at Penn State for 46 years, and won more games than any other major-college football coach and two national championships.

But he was fired in November after a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with serial sex abuse. University trustees dismissed Paterno because he failed to tell police what he had been told about the alleged abuse.

Tens of thousands of people lined the street outside the campus Pasquerilla Spiritual Center in State College, Pennsylvania, in response to a campaign on Facebook to "Guide Joe Paterno Home," forming a gantlet covering much of the mile and a half to Penn State's football stadium.

"It shows how much of an icon he was and how many hearts he touched directly and indirectly," said Christina Flanaghan, 21, a third-year student at Penn State.

Nine pallbearers including son Jay Paterno carried the casket out of the spiritual center to a hearse that drove through town to a final resting place, which was kept secret.

"Thank you to all the people who turned out for my father's procession. Very moving," Jay Paterno wrote on Twitter.

Among those attending the funeral was former quarterback Mike McQueary, who as a graduate assistant in 2002 told Paterno he walked in on Sandusky molesting a boy in the showers.

Paterno told university officials but not police.

Sandusky, 67, who maintains his innocence, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court has placed him under house arrest.

Also attending the funeral was former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris, a pro football Hall of Famer who was perhaps the biggest star to play for Paterno.

Some 27,000 mourners passed by Paterno's closed casket for a viewing on Tuesday and 10,000 others on Wednesday, said Bob Smith, director of the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center.

Among the final mourners was actor Billy Baldwin, who did not attend Penn State but attended many wrestling matches there in the 1980s. During that time, he said, he got to know Paterno, and had dinner at the Paterno home.

"I can't use words to describe the enormous, immense level of respect I have for the guy," Baldwin said.

(Reporting by Dave Warner; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/us_nm/us_usa_paterno

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Mortgage rates for the past 52 weeks, at a glance (AP)

Skip to navigation ? Skip to content ? By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Thu?Jan?26, 5:17?pm?ET

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 3.98 percent, Freddie Mac said Thursday. It was the first increase in four weeks and up from last week's record low of 3.88 percent.

Here's a look at rates for fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages over the past 52 weeks:

Current week's average Last week's average 52-week high 52-week low

30-year fixed 3.98 3.88 5.05 3.88

15-year fixed 3.24 3.17 4.29 3.16

5-year adjustable 2.85 2.82 3.92 2.82

1-year adjustable 2.74 2.74 3.40 2.74

All values are in percentage points.

Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

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Copyright ? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

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?Family values? still matter ? when it?s the other party?s indiscretions (Washington Post)

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New Illinois Law Requires More Transparency of School Performance (ContributorNetwork)

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a bill signed into law by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday changes the amount of information given to parents on how schools rank in terms graduation rates, standardized test scores, teacher performance and more. These more detailed so-called "report cards" will be available to the public beginning next year with the goal of offering more transparency of the state education system.

Similarly, the law also details the State Board of Education will have to prepare extensive reports for each district, as well as every single school. With this major step towards offering more information on public education quality and access, here are some other recently enacted laws that also seek to reach this goal:

The Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010

In early 2010, Gov. Quinn signed the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010, a law that improves on how teachers and principals are evaluated. It requires every school district in the state to use student performance as a large factor in these evaluations and also pushes for further cooperation between districts and teachers' unions to meet these requirements. The Patch added the law has also led to the formation of the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council to develop new evaluation models using the law's guidelines.

Senate Bill 7

On June 13, the governor signed a landmark bill, which enacts sweeping education reform in the state, reported ABC Local. The education reform bill specifically emphasizes higher standards for teacher accountability, gives districts more authority on extending the school day and year, as well as the ability to fire poor-performing teachers, and makes it more different for teachers' unions to strike. Chicago has leaped forward with implementing a longer school day, according to the Huffington Post, and the extended day will include more instructional classroom time and mandatory recess.

Illinois DREAM Act

The Chicago Tribune reported in August the state moved ahead with its own version of the DREAM Act, a measure that creates a privately funded scholarship program for immigrants and children of immigrants without regard to their documentation status. Unlike the federal measure of the same name, Illinois' act does not provide a path to citizenship but instead aims to provide better access to higher education, according to Fox News. To qualify, individuals must have attended an Illinois school for the past three years, be an immigrant or a child of at least one immigrant, and received a high school diploma.

Rachel Bogart provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.

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Awards Tour 2012: Academy Awards Nominations

King S. on 01-24-2012 09:31 AM

Okay, I've been defending previous award shows, and given the amount of strong films we've gotten this year 9, 10 or even 15 slots wouldn't be enough to avoid controversy. My major complaint is with the nomination of Extremely Loud and Inredibely Close for best pic. I'm sorry, but I feel that the real reason why it got nominated was because of how poorly its did when it tried to expand wide, so they're obviously hoping that the nomination for best pic will give it more attention, and the fact that it didn't get nominated at any previous awards show proves my point.

Other than that though, the nominations have been pretty similair to past awards shows. I'm not even that bummed that Deathly Hallows missed getting a best pic nomination, as after all the previous award shows snubbed it I wasn't expecting the oscars to be any different (though I still think that award shows should change their attitude on genre films, like fantasy and science fiction) I'm more dissapointed that Winnie the Pooh missed a nomination, as I thought that the only reason it missed a nomination at the Golden Globes was because of its length, something the oscars are much more lenient about (a feature film only needs to be 40 minutes long as opposed to 70 minutes at the globes) but I suppose it's nice to see a couple of slots go to films that can really use the attention (they got me interested in them, which is the best thing an award show can do) Now if they had nominated something like Happy Feet 2 instead of Pooh, then I'd really be mad.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924361/news/1924361/

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Sumatran elephants could be extinct in 30 years (AP)

JAKARTA, Indonesia ? Environmentalists say the Sumatran elephant could be extinct in the wild within the next three decades unless steps are taken to slow the breakneck pace of deforestation.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently listed the animals as "critically endangered," after their numbers dropped to between 2,400 and 2,800 from an estimated 5,000 in 1985.

The decline is largely because of destruction of their habitat, with forests all across the Indonesian island of Sumatra clear-cut for timber, palm oil or agricultural plantations.

Carlos Drews of the environmental group WWF says if urgent action is not taken to reverse this trend, "these magnificent animals are likely to go extinct" in less than 30 years.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_as/as_indonesia_extinct_elephants

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Maker Of Taxi-Ordering App myTaxi Raises ?10 Million From Daimler, Lars Hinrichs

Intelligent Apps, the Hamburg, Germany-based startup behind popular taxi ordering smartphone application myTaxi, has raised 10 million euros in growth funding from car2go, a subsidiary of Daimler, Germany?s third largest carmaker. XING and Hackfwd founder Lars Hinrichs also participated in the financing round, as did previous backers T-Venture (Deutsche Telekom) and KfW Bankengruppe. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Daimler took a 15 percent stake in the mobile apps developer. Intelligent Apps claims myTaxi has a market share of no less than 80 percent in Europe, and is still growing fast. The app has been downloaded 800,000 times to date, and 7,000 taxi drivers have registered for the service so far. Read more at TechCrunch Europe.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/zUcpSG_uZvc/

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Angelina Jolie Sizzles in Black Lace Gown at Producers Guild Awards (omg!)

Lovely in lace!

On Saturday, Angelina Jolie hit the red carpet at the 2012 Producers Guild Awards on Saturday evening in yet another chic but sexy number.

PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie's style transformation

Dressed in a black Michael Kors column gown with lace detail at the arms, back and waist, the star flaunted her legs in the dress' thigh-high slit. She finished off her look with Ferragamo shoes, Robert Procop jewels and styled her brunette hair in a bouncy, glossy blowout.

PHOTOS: Angelina Jolie's epic life

The 36-year-old actress turned producer and director was joined by her partner, Brad Pitt, who looked dapper in a Gucci suit. Pitt, 48, managed to work the red carpet without the cane he's been relying on for the past month, after injuring the ACL in his knee from slipping down a hill.

PHOTOS: Brad Pitt's hair evolution

At the awards event, which took place in Beverly Hills, Jolie was being honored with the 2012 Stanley Kramer Award for her film In the Land of Blood and Honey.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_angelina_jolie_sizzles_black_lace_gown_producers_guild171255245/44264487/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/angelina-jolie-sizzles-black-lace-gown-producers-guild-171255245.html

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John Kerry Debuts A Broken Face (The Atlantic Wire)

Senator John Kerry apparently showed up to an event at the White House honoring the Stanley Cup winning Boston Bruins Monday in?costume. Ouch!?The 68-year-old Senator has two black eyes and a broken nose, the results of a hockey injury. We bet the Bruins felt his pain. Have a quick recovery, Senator!?

RELATED: Who's Bankrolling the Super Committee: Senate Democrats

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20120123/pl_atlantic/johnkerrydebutedbrokenface47742

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Breast Cancer Before 50 Linked to More Distress (HealthDay)

FRIDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Younger women with breast cancer may experience a decrease in their health-related quality of life because of increased mental distress, weight gain and other factors, a new study finds.

Decreased physical activity, infertility and early-onset menopause were among the other problems these women faced, according to the report published Jan. 20 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The findings were based on data from 28 previous studies, conducted between 1990 and 2010, which focused on how breast cancer affects the quality of life of breast cancer patients aged 50 and younger.

The review revealed that overall quality of life was reduced in these patients, and that mental issues were more severe than physical problems, said Dr. Patricia Ganz, director of cancer prevention and control research at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues.

The investigators also found that younger breast cancer patients were more depressed than women of the same age without cancer in the general population, or breast cancer patients older than 50. Premature menopause, infertility and menopause-related symptoms were more common among patients 50 and younger and contributed to their levels of distress, the findings showed.

Even though exercise rates among younger patients generally increased after treatment, weight gain and physical inactivity were common among these women, the study authors pointed out in a university news release.

The findings suggest that personalized treatment is particularly important for younger women with breast cancer, the researchers said.

"By tailoring adjuvant therapy regimens and giving cytotoxic therapy [such as chemotherapy] 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," the study authors concluded in their report.

More information

The American Cancer Society outlines lifestyle changes to consider during and after breast cancer treatment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/cancer/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120121/hl_hsn/breastcancerbefore50linkedtomoredistress

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Prison Planet.com ? Cancer Drugs Make Tumors More Aggressive ...

Prisonplanet.com
January 22, 2012

Guest Mike Adams of NaturalNews.com discusses breakthrough research that suggests chemotherapy can be more dangerous than helpful, as findings show it can multiply the chances of tumors and the presence of cancer in patients.

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Syrian activists call for release of detainees (AP)

BEIRUT ? The Syrian opposition is calling for demonstrations in support of thousands of detainees they say are still in prison, despite a general amnesty declared this week.

President Bashar Assad issued the amnesty on Sunday for "crimes" committed during the 10-month uprising against his rule, but his regime did not say how many prisoners were covered by it.

Assad's government blames the violence in Syria on terrorists and armed gangs that it claims are part of a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country.

The opposition says there are thousands of Syrian detainees still in prisons and other detention centers.

Friday's protests were called in the name of "the detainees of the revolution." The opposition called for their immediate release.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian government tanks and armored vehicles have pulled back from an embattled mountain town near Damascus, activists and witnesses said Thursday, but at least 16 people were killed by security forces elsewhere as a monthlong Arab League fact-finding mission expired.

The pullback from Zabadani left the town under the control of the opposition, activists said. The besieged town of Zabadani has witnessed heavy exchanges of fire between army troops and anti-government military defectors over the past six days.

The 10-month uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad has turned increasingly militarized and chaotic as more frustrated regime opponents and army defectors arm themselves and fight back against government forces. The capital has seen three suicide bombings since late December which the government blamed on terrorist extremists.

Arab League foreign ministers will consider extending the League's observer mission in Syria in a meeting Sunday in Cairo, officials said Thursday.

Although the mission expired Thursday, Adnan al-Khudeir, head of Cairo operations room that handles reports by the monitors, told The Associated Press that observers will remain in Syria until a decision is made on Sunday.

According to al-Khudeir, the meeting chaired by the Qatari foreign minister will discuss a report by the head of the mission Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi who is arriving in Cairo from Syria on Thursday.

The monitors will remain in 17 different places around Syria until the Arab League makes a final decision, he says.

"If there is a decision to extend the mission of the observers, we are ready to send more monitors after training them in three days," he said, adding that the total number of monitors might reach 300.

The mission has been mired in controversy, with the opposition claiming it served as a cover for the regime to continue its brutal crackdown against protesters.

Rejecting charges that the observers have been ineffective in reducing violence, another official said extending the mission would help the opposition more than the regime.

"The killings are less, the protests increase," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. "The mission's presence offers assurance to the people because the observers can spot any violations. There is a conviction even among Syria opponents that the extension is better than withdrawal."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday the monitors have had a "mixed picture" of results, enabling some protests and some media coverage, but violence continues.

"We believe that we've got to increase the economic pressure on the Assad regime to change course," she said.

More than 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising erupted last March.

Activists reported continued violence Thursday. In Damascus, a Syrian security agent was wounded when a small explosive device tore through his car in the Tadamon neighborhood, a Syrian official said. No other damages were reported from the morning explosion, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give statements.

A military security brigadier, Adel Mustafa, also was killed by soldiers who had defected and refused his orders to shoot at civilians in the Bab Qibli area of Homs, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an umbrella group of activists. The officer had previously overseen many killing and arrest operations, according to the LCC.

In Zabadani, activist Fares Mohammad said Syrian forces withdrew Wednesday night to two military barracks on the outskirts.

"There is a cautious calm, but fear of another major assault being prepared against Zabadani," he told The Associated Press by telephone from the resort town, located alongside the Lebanese border 17 miles (27 kilometers) west of Damascus.

The Syrian opposition has on several occasions throughout the uprising gained control of a town or city, but ultimately forces loyal to Assad retook them. It is unusual however for the army to take so long to recapture a town so close to the capital.

The activist said the siege had eased, although heating oil has not been allowed into the town, where it snowed earlier this week. Military checkpoints surrounding the Zabadani were still in place, he said, while about 100 armed defectors were "protecting" it.

Residents said government mortars had shelled the town on Wednesday, but that too had stopped.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the pullout from Zabadani, saying only two armored personnel carriers were left behind at one of the checkpoints near the town.

Syrian officials issued no comment about the fighting in Zabadani.

Activists said at least 16 people were killed by security forces across Syria on Thursday, including four activists who were ambushed in the northern Jabal al-Zawiya region.

___

Michael reported from Cairo. Additional reporting by Bradley Klapper in Washington.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria

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