First lady announces effort to help kids exercise

First lady Michelle Obama greets educators and state and community officials at a "Let's Move!" program at the Eastside and Northside Elementary Schools in Clinton, Miss., Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Obama and television chef/personality Rachel Ray visited with the children and conducted a cooking contest between the schools' chefs. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

First lady Michelle Obama greets educators and state and community officials at a "Let's Move!" program at the Eastside and Northside Elementary Schools in Clinton, Miss., Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Obama and television chef/personality Rachel Ray visited with the children and conducted a cooking contest between the schools' chefs. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

CHICAGO (AP) ? Imagine students learning their ABCs while dancing, or memorizing multiplication tables while doing jumping jacks.

Some schools are using both methods of instruction, and Michelle Obama would like to see more of them use other creative ways to help students get the recommended hour of daily exercise.

In Chicago Thursday, the first lady announced a new public-private partnership to help schools do just that. "Let's Move Active Schools" starts with a website, www.letsmoveschools.org , where school officials and others can sign up to get started.

Mrs. Obama said too many penny-pinched schools have either cut spending on physical education or eliminated it outright to put the money toward classroom instruction. But the first lady who starts most days with a workout ? and other advocates of helping today's largely sedentary kids move their bodies ? say that's a false choice, since studies that show exercise helps youngsters focus and do well in school.

The effort is one of the newest parts of Mrs. Obama's 3-year-old campaign against childhood obesity, known as "Let's Move," which she has spent the week promoting.

"With each passing year, schools feel like it's just getting harder to find the time, the money and the will to help our kids be active. But just because it's hard doesn't mean we should stop trying," the first lady said. "It means we should try harder. It means that all of us ? not just educators, but businesses and nonprofits and ordinary citizens ? we all need to dig a little deeper, start getting more creative."

She was joined at McCormick Place in her hometown by several Olympians, including gymnasts Dominique Dawes and Gabby Douglas, sprinter Allyson Felix, tennis player Serena Williams and decathlete Ashton Eaton, along with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and triathlete Sarah Reinertsen, whose left leg was amputated above the knee when she was a child, and other athletes. Thousands of students from city middle schools also were being brought in for the event.

Research shows that daily exercise has a positive influence on academic performance, but kids today spend too much time sitting, mostly in school but also outside the classroom while watching TV, playing video games or surfing the Internet. Federal guidelines recommend that children ages 6-17 get at least 60 minutes of exercise daily, which can be racked up through multiple spurts of activity throughout the day.

The White House says the most current data, from 2007, shows that just 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools and 2 percent of high schools provided daily physical education.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he's proof of the link between exercise and academic performance. As a boy, he said, he had a hard time sitting still in class but that exercise helped him focus.

"What's true for me is true for many of our nation's children," he said in an interview.

Duncan, who played basketball professionally in Australia, said the choice is not between physical activity or academics, especially with about one-third of U.S. kids either overweight or obese and at higher risk for life-threatening illnesses like heart disease or diabetes.

"It's got to be both," he said. Duncan cited the examples of students learning the alphabet while dancing or memorizing multiplication tables while doing jumping jacks.

Mrs. Obama called on school staff, families and communities to help get 50,000 schools, about half the number of public schools in the U.S., involved in the program over the next five years.

The President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition, the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation will oversee the program. Funding and other resources will come from Nike Inc., the GENYOUth Foundation, ChildObesity180, Kaiser Permanente and the General Mills Foundation.

Under the new initiative, modest grants will be available from the Education Department to help some programs get started. The GENYOUth Foundation and ChildObesity180 also will be awarding grants.

Nike has committed $50 million to the effort over the next five years; the remaining groups together have pledged more than $20 million.

Williams said it's important to structure the activity so that it doesn't feel like a workout.

"I had fun and I didn't realize it was work," she said about her years of practice before becoming one of America's top tennis players.

___

Online:

Let's Move: http://www.letsmove.gov

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsuperville

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-28-Michelle%20Obama/id-97f5637520ff4f2abfa35555cd44a694

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Supreme Court divided on Voting Rights Act (cbsnews)

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cory booker

China claims its defense sites face constant US hacking attacks

China is routinely accused of launching concerted hacking campaigns against the US, many of them reportedly tied directly to the army's Unit 61398 in Shanghai. If you believe the Ministry of Defense's spokesman Geng Yansheng, however, just the opposite is true. Along with claiming that China would never hurt (or rather, hack) a fly, he asserts that the Ministry and China Military Online sites faced an average of 144,000 hacking attempts per month from foreign sources in 2012, 62.9 percent of which allegedly came from the US. The Ministry's man stops short of leveling cyberwarfare charges, although he notes the US' recent plans to expand and formally define its cyberwar strategy. There's some 'splainin to do, he argues. While there isn't a formal US response, we suspect that neither side is an innocent dove here -- China is just the most recent to cry foul.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: Reuters

Source: Ministry of National Defense (translated)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/28/china-claims-its-defense-sites-face-constant-us-hacking-attacks/

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Profit falls at utility GDF Suez amid Europe woes

PARIS (AP) ? Franco-Belgian utility GDF Suez says its earnings fell more than 60 percent in 2012 compared to the year earlier because the company booked a ?2 billion ($2.6 billion) impairment on its European assets in anticipation of the region's continued economic malaise.

The company said Thursday that its net income fell to ?1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) last year, down from ?4 billion in 2011. Without the charge and only counting recurring operations, net income would have been ?3.8 billion.

Revenues increased 7 percent to ?97 billion ($127 billion). Much of that growth happened in Asia and the Middle East, where the company is expanding. Its French business also saw a jump as it recoups money from customers after a state body struck down a government-imposed freeze on natural gas prices.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/profit-falls-utility-gdf-suez-amid-europe-woes-065734489--finance.html

invincible

Officials: France in Mali until July or later

FILE - This Feb. 10, 2013, file photo shows French soldiers securing the evacuation of foreigners during exchanges of fire with jihadists in Gao, northern Mali. Promises of a pullout of France's 4,000 troops in Mali starting next month are looking harder and harder to fulfill. The fighting in rugged mountain terrain is growing tougher and threats of suicide bombings and hostage-takings are getting worse. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

FILE - This Feb. 10, 2013, file photo shows French soldiers securing the evacuation of foreigners during exchanges of fire with jihadists in Gao, northern Mali. Promises of a pullout of France's 4,000 troops in Mali starting next month are looking harder and harder to fulfill. The fighting in rugged mountain terrain is growing tougher and threats of suicide bombings and hostage-takings are getting worse. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

FILE - This Feb. 6, 2013, file photo shows French armoured vehicles heading towards the Niger border before making a left turn north in Gao, northern Mali. Promises of a pullout of France's 4,000 troops in Mali starting next month are looking harder and harder to fulfill. The fighting in rugged mountain terrain is growing tougher and threats of suicide bombings and hostage-takings are getting worse. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

FILE - This Feb. 10, 2013, file photo shows a French soldier taking position during an evacuation of foreigners during exchanges of fire with jihadists in Gao, northern Mali. Promises of a pullout of France's 4,000 troops in Mali starting next month are looking harder and harder to fulfill. The fighting in rugged mountain terrain is growing tougher and threats of suicide bombings and hostage-takings are getting worse. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

PARIS (AP) ? French troops will stay in the West African country of Mali at least until July, amid tougher-than-expected resistance from Islamic fighters, officials have told The Associated Press, despite earlier government promises to begin a quick pullout within weeks.

France's leadership has painted the intervention against al-Qaida-backed radicals in Mali, which began in January, as a swift and limited one, and said that France could start withdrawing its 4,000 troops in Mali in March and hand over security duties to an African force.

But the combat in rugged Sahara Desert mountains is growing harder, and there's a rising threat that the militants will turn to suicide bombings, hostage-taking and other guerrilla tactics.

One French diplomat acknowledged this week that a French military presence is expected to remain for at least six months. Two other French officials told The Associated Press that the French will remain at least until July, when France is hoping that Mali can hold elections.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the military campaign.

Any French pullout in March is likely to be small and symbolic, leaving behind a robust force to try to keep the peace in a poor and troubled country, the officials say. Mali was largely peaceful until a coup last year led to a political vacuum that allowed militants inspired by an extreme form of Islam to grab control of the country's north.

France, which is winding down its 11-year presence in Afghanistan, has now spent more than ?100 million ($131million) on fighting in Mali over the past six weeks, and is facing the prospect of another protracted and costly intervention against far-away jihadists.

France's defense minister seems to be seeking wiggle room on the timetable for a pullout. And one French diplomat acknowledged: "Nobody believes the French presence will be over in six months." Some analysts say even that's optimistic.

In the latest fighting, military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said Thursday that about 1,200 French, 800 Chadian and an unspecified number of Malian troops are closing in on an unspecified number of extremist fighters in a roughly 25-square kilometer (15-mile) zone in the Adrar des Ifoghas range near the Algerian border in northeastern Mali.

The oval-shaped area south of the town of Tessalit is the "center of gravity" of a new French operation involving helicopter gunships, fighter jets, mobile artillery pieces and armored vehicles, Burkhard said. He declined to provide details because the operation was ongoing, but indicated that French fighters had killed about 40 insurgents over the last week or so.

Burkhard said he believes al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb was active in the area. AQIM is one of three militant groups that controlled northern Mali for 10 months before France's Jan. 11 invasion sent them scurrying into rural areas. And he left little doubt that the armed extremists are digging in for a long fight.

"They are sustained in a region they know very well. ... They have established defensive, underground positions, positions that their different members can change between, and logistically ? with pre-positioned weapons and food depots," he said. "They want to hold this area in a durable way."

French politicians, wary that public support for the war could quickly sink, are increasingly seeking to play down expectations and gird for a long-term commitment.

"The hardest part is yet to come. ... It's more complicated because we have to be on the ground, with a fine-toothed comb, slowly, meter after meter practically, on a territory that's still rather vast but where the terrorists have been reduced," Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio on Tuesday. "We'll take this to the end."

France's government has said it plans a gradual drawdown starting in March. As the diplomat put it: "That doesn't mean we're going to pull out 1,000 all at once, but even if we pull out 100, that will be considered by the French public as the start of a withdrawal."

After France's longtime participation in NATO's Afghan mission, and its major role in helping topple Moammar Gadhafi in Libya, French officials are wary about getting bogged down in yet another war ? and setting timetables about withdrawal is both uncomfortable and uncertain.

Pressed on the time frame in an interview with France-2 TV last week, Le Drian said: "We are not there for a long time. We have no intention to stay."

From the get-go of their military campaign on Jan. 11, the French have summed up their military strategy as stopping the advance of jihadists from unruly northern Mali toward Bamako, the capital, and freeing the northern cities the radicals had controlled for 10 months, imposing harsh Islamic rule. Those two goals have largely been achieved through French air power and long-distance artillery strikes.

The third pillar of the French campaign is proving the hardest: rooting out rebel holdouts in the Ifoghas range near Algeria's border, and rallying African troops to take over stabilization and peacekeeping efforts once the French leave.

That plan was dealt a blow last week when about two dozen reputedly crack troops from Chad, another former French colony with familiarity operating in desert terrain like northern Mali's, were killed in a gunfight in the Ifoghas.

Lining up African military support, which has already been sputtering, could run into greater hurdles if their troops are getting killed. Since the operation began, French officials estimate that hundreds of insurgents have been killed; two French soldiers have died.

One reason the French are likely to stay for a while is that they are the only Western power with the wherewithal to act militarily in West Africa.

"Generally when an army says it's going to pull out its troops, it never does withdraw them all. In other words, you can imagine special forces, logistics teams are going to stay there, and maybe in support of the African armies that are supposed to take over," said Laurence Aida Ammour, a security and defense expert focusing on West and northern Africa at the Institute of Political Science in Bordeaux.

Much of the international community has given moral and political support to France, but limited its payouts. European trainers for Malian soldiers are expected to help, and several Western allies have helped with logistics support including transport planes.

The United States is helping with intelligence-gathering, notably with unarmed drones flying out of neighboring Niger. Under U.S. law, the American government ? which had been training Malian forces before the military coup last year ? cannot provide aid to countries run by or with a major component of control of unelected juntas.

National elections in July are supposed to give Mali's wobbly government more legitimacy, notably so that countries like the United States could offer their blessing and support.

___

Sylvie Corbet and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-28-France-Mali/id-ff0ae6e3cad14ebbbb2040518cb795d7

rush limbaugh

Scuba Diving ? Exhilarating Experience Underwater!

Man has always been quite keen about his surroundings; struggling to learn about the environment around, hitting the space world and studying about the different creations sharing the planet. Everything around has always been intriguing to man for different reasons; it can be plain curiosity or the search for solutions to varying problems and obstacles.

It is an interesting fact that two-thirds of our world is covered by water. The life under the sea is amazing with exotic ocean plants and fish and breathtaking coral formations. The underwater realm has too intrigued man for quite long. As man learned to develop new ways to reach different realms, under water domain also became accessible. The best way to view the beauty of the underwater world is by scuba diving.

The term scuba evolved from the acronym Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. A scuba diver carries his own compressed air breathing equipment. He also wears fins on his feet to facilitate swimming. A face mask, which is attached to his face, enables him to have clear vision underwater while protecting the face. The wet suit worn by the diver helps with regulating body temperature.

Scuba diving opens a whole new world that people on land can never even imagine. Spectacular colourful underwater creatures or coral reefs have to be seen to be believed. The large sized creatures makes you feel like you are in another world altogether.

Every scuba diving location is quite different from the others. Tropical islands are some of the best places from which to dive under sea. One of the best places would be the Blue Hole. This is Belize which is a small country on the north eastern coast of Central America. The Blue Hole is a section of the lighthouse reef system. Here different varieties of shark can be observed. But this is a deep pit over 400+ feet in depth. So it is not only for more experienced divers. A great summer holiday could include scuba diving to discover the beauty of the world under the sea. The Great Barrier Reef is supposed to be the king of all scuba diving sites. Here, there are thousands of species of fish including great white sharks. Hero Island, at the heart of all this, could give you one of the best experiences in this sport.

Even the Red Sea has deep reefs which offer the excitement of scuba diving. Phuket, in Thailand, called the ?Pearl of the South?, has coastal places teeming with varieties of sea life as well as coral fields and caves and even shipwrecks. This would be a perfect spot for scuba divers who are first timers. The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands have beautiful weather year round and so make ideal spots for this sport. But they can be crowded during the tourist season. The island of Bonaire, in the Netherlands Antilles, has a marine park all around it and has more than a hundred spots for scuba diving.

Scuba diving is not only recreational but it also offers technical opportunities for professionals who undertake deep diving to extreme depths and also advanced cave diving and ship wreck diving.

Commercially, scuba diving lends itself to beautiful photography. And, at places like oil rigs, underwater structures need to be built and maintained. Here again, technicians who are also scuba divers are required. Sometimes, under water surveys and mapping work is undertaken. Salvage operations also need experienced scuba divers.

People are often concerned about the safety aspect of scuba diving. But if one undergoes the correct training, and if one follows all the safety precautions that are recommended, scuba diving can be a very safe sport.

Scuba diving has made possible for man to explore and conquer a domain which is entirely different from his own. The amazing discoveries underwater can become addictive and many will not be satisfied with just one experience but will return to it time and again.

Source: http://www.myoutdoorgearcoupons.com/scuba-diving-exhilarating-experience-underwater/

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Russia envoy calls Iran nuclear talks "useful": agency

Apple (AAPL) shares got a boost Tuesday afternoon on rumors that the company may announce a split on Wednesday during its annual shareholder meeting. The rumor comes from former money manager and current TheStreet.com contributor?Douglas Kass, who did not disclose his source. ?High above the Alps my Gnome is hearing a rumor that Apple will announce a stock split at tomorrow?s shareholder meeting,? Kass wrote in a post on Twitter, providing no further details. Apple shares rose more than 1.4% on the rumor after nearing a new closing low.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-envoy-calls-iran-nuclear-talks-useful-agency-075908520.html

seth macfarlane

Kendrick Lamar Vibes With 50 Cent, A$AP Rocky At NYC Shows

Compton MC tears through tracks old and new at two back-to-back shows at Roseland Ballroom Tuesday night.
By Rob Markman

Kendrick Lamar performs at Roseland Ballroom on Tuesday
Photo: Taylor Hill/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1702703/kendrick-lamar-new-york-concert.jhtml

Chris Kyle

Horse meat sold in beef products in Hungary - watchdog

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Horse meat labelled as beef has been sold in Hungary, the National Food Chain Safety Office (Nebih) said on Tuesday.

Gyorgy Pleva, director of Nebih told television channel TV2 that the authorities were looking into three separate cases of suspected horse meat found at the retail and wholesale level.

"Horse meat certainly got into (shops)," he said, adding that all the shipments investigated by the authority took place last year.

Horse meat has been found in beef products across Europe in recent weeks, damaging confidence in the continent's vast and complex food industry.

A small amount of hamburger meat containing horse meat was sold last summer in a Hungarian restaurant, Pleva said, without disclosing the origin of the product.

The Hungarian distributor of food brand Nowaco will withdraw a lasagne product in a few days, which is suspected of containing horse meat, he added.

"What we can say is that even if there is such a product, that will be taken off from the shelves within days," he said.

DNA tests in the Czech Republic have shown that two batches of frozen Nowaco Lasagne Bolognese in a branch of the Tesco supermarket chain contained horse meat, and authorities said the products listed Luxembourg as the country of origin.

Pleva said another lasagne product, which was made in Hungary, was also being probed based on a report from Denmark, the intended destination of the product. He did not clarify whether this product got into Danish shops and could not immediately be reached for further comment.

(Reporting by Sandor Peto; editing by Jane Baird)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/horse-meat-sold-beef-products-hungary-watchdog-125413422.html

veterans day

Senate ends Hagel filibuster, moving defense pick toward confirmation

By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News

?

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., moved a step closer to becoming the nation's next defense secretary after the Senate voted Tuesday to end debate on his nomination, and move toward a final confirmation vote.?

Hagel's nomination cleared a key threshold in a midday vote on Tuesday, ending a week-and-a-half-long delay forced by Republicans who object to their former colleague's nomination.?

The Senate voted 71 to 27 to move forward with Hagel's nomination, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to end the GOP filibuster. Several Republicans who'd previously voted to block Hagel reversed their votes, and allowed him to move toward confirmation.

The vote all but ensures Hagel's confirmation, since only a simple majority of senators are needed in that vote, and Democrats ??who all backed the former Republican senator ??all support Hagel. That vote on final confirmation could come as soon as Tuesday evening.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Former Senator Chuck Hagel testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination to be Defense Secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington, in this January 31, 2013, file photo.

Tuesday's vote brings the bruising fight over Hagel's nomination near to its conclusion.?

Republicans had fought strenuously to defeat Hagel, accusing him at points of harboring hostilities toward Israel, and sympathies for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Tied into Hagel's nomination as well have been Republicans' long-running effort to ding President Barack Obama and his administration over their handling of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.?

"What has their filibuster gained my Republican colleagues?" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked on the Senate floor. "Twelve days later, Senator Hagel's exemplary record of service to his country remains untarnished."

Reid added: "Senate Republicans have delayed for the better part of two weeks for one reason and one reason only: partisanship."

Hagel didn't necessarily help his cause during a combative confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Republicans aggressively questioned Hagel on a variety of matters during the Jan. 31 hearing.?

Even still, Democrats held firm in their backing for the former Nebraska senator, helping to move his nomination forward. Republicans, though, managed to buy themselves more time ? they said, to more fully investigate Hagel's background ??by waging a filibuster against the nomination on Feb. 14.?

Democrats angrily protested the delay, especially as current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta planned to leave the job, as dangerous and unprecedented. Republican opponents of Hagel, though, said at that time that they would drop their objections to holding a confirmation vote after last week's recess.

Source: http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/26/17103336-senate-ends-hagel-filibuster-moving-defense-pick-toward-confirmation?lite

super bowl

RVDA Networks with Young Dealership Execs | RV Business

The Recreation Vehicle Dealers Association (RVDA) is inviting young dealership executives to participate in an online survey to determine their preferences for training, communications and networking, according to a press release. To access the online survey click here.

At the invitation of RVDA Chairman Jeff Hirsch, a group of young RV executives began working with staff earlier this month to identify new and effective ways to engage younger members in RVDA activities, leadership and governance. The initiative is modeled after similar groups being formed in the marine and automotive industry for the same purposes.

?I am very excited at the prospect of tapping into the potential of our up-and-coming leaders,? said Hirsch. The group held its first conference call Feb. 14 to identify the first steps toward opening channels of communications, assessing education and training needs and preferences and discussing ideas to implement at the Convention/Expo in the fall.

In charging the newly formed advisory group, Hirsch said, ?The RVDA leadership believes the only way the initiative can succeed and attract younger members is if it has strong ownership from within that same group.?

RVDA President Phil Ingrassia added, ?Our main objective is to allow this initiative to be shaped by the younger members themselves so it meets their needs.?

Participants in the initial planning include: Ryan Horsey, Parkview RV; Jared Jensen, Sierra RV; Sara Miller, Fogdall RV; Jay Moran, Arlington RV Supercenter, Inc.; Chad Neff, American RV; Tyler Nelson, Nelsons RV; Mike Rone, Sonny?s RV; Adam Ruppel, Webster City RV; and Larry Troutt, Topper?s Camping Center.

To get things started, a survey of younger members is in the works to assess their preferences for a targeted education event during the Convention/Expo in the fall. The group is also exploring options for a social event during the convention and discussing ways to open informal channels of communications throughout the year.

To participate in the survey or for more information, contact Julianne Ryder by email at jryder@rvda.org.

Source: http://www.rvbusiness.com/2013/02/rvda-networks-with-young-dealership-execs/

Tilted Kilt

Muscle, skin and gastrointestinal problems cause a quarter of patients with heart disease and strokes to stop treatment in HPS2-THRIVE trial

Feb. 27, 2013 ? The largest randomised study of the vitamin niacin in patients with occlusive arterial disease (narrowing of the arteries) has shown a significant increase in adverse side-effects when it is combined with statin treatment.

Results from the HPS2-THRIVE study (Heart Protection Study 2 -- Treatment of HDL to Reduce the Incidence of Vascular Events), including the reasons patients stopped the study treatment, are published online February 27 in the European Heart Journal [1].

Niacin has been used for decades to help increase levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and to decrease levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and triglycerides (fats) in the blood in people at risk of cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and stroke. However, it has a number of side-effects including flushing of the skin. Another drug, laropiprant, can reduce the incidence of flushing by blocking the prostaglandin D2 receptor that is involved in the process. Therefore, the HPS2-THRIVE study investigated whether combining extended-release niacin with laropiprant (ERN/LRPT), given in addition to an LDL cholesterol-lowering statin, simvastatin, could reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems in people at high risk due to existing occlusive arterial disease.

A total of 25,673 patients from China, the UK and Scandinavia were randomised between April 2007 and July 2010 to receive either 2g of extended release niacin plus 40 mg of laropiprant or matching placebo. In addition, all participants received intensive LDL cholesterol-lowering therapy with simvastatin (with or without ezetimibe). Researchers from the Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU) at the University of Oxford (UK), who were responsible for designing and conducting the trial and analysing the results, followed the patients for an average of 3.9 years.

By the end of the study, 25% of patients taking ERN/LRPT had stopped their treatment, compared with 17% of patients taking placebo.

Jane Armitage, Professor of Clinical Trials and Epidemiology & Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the CTSU, said: "The main reason for patients stopping the treatment was because of adverse side-effects, such as itching, rashes, flushing, indigestion, diarrhea, diabetes and muscle problems. We found that patients allocated to the experimental treatment were four times more likely to stop for skin-related reasons, and twice as likely to stop because of gastrointestinal problems or diabetes-related problems.

"We found that, in the trial as a whole, participants in the experimental arm had a more than four-fold increased risk of myopathy (muscle pain or weakness with evidence of muscle damage) compared with the placebo group. This is highly significant. It appeared that this effect was about three times greater among participants in China than those in Europe, for reasons that are not clear. In the placebo arm (i.e. those on statin-based treatment alone), the statin-related myopathy was more common among participants in China than those in Europe. Therefore -- in combination with the greater effect of ERN/LRPT on myopathy in China -- the excess number of cases of myopathy caused by ERN/LRPT (though low in both regions) was over ten times greater among participants in China than those in Europe (0.53 percent per year compared to 0.03 percent per year)."

Dr Richard Haynes, Clinical Coordinator at the CTSU, said: "This is the largest randomised trial of extended release niacin treatment and it provides uniquely reliable results on adverse side-effects and the ability of patients to tolerate them. Although 25 percent of patients stopped the treatment early, 75 percent continued on it for approximately four years. Currently, we are analysing the final data on the cardiovascular outcomes from the trial, and once we have these we will know whether or not the benefits of the treatment outweigh the myopathy, skin and gastrointestinal problems."

The researchers will be presenting full results on the cardiovascular outcomes at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in March and these will be published in another paper afterwards [2].

The co-principal investigator of the study, Dr Martin Landray, Reader in Epidemiology and Honorary Consultant Physician at the CTSU, said: "Previous research had suggested that improving cholesterol levels in high-risk patients might translate into a 10-15 percent reduction in major vascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. In the HPS2-THRIVE study, 3,400 of the 25,673 participants suffered a major vascular event over an average of four years of follow-up. This means the study has excellent statistical power to discover the effectiveness or otherwise of the treatment."

In an accompanying editorial [3], Professor Ulf Landmesser, of the University Hospital Zurich (Switzerland), points out that although the study showed an increase in myopathy, it also showed that the ERN/LRPT substantially lowered LDL cholesterol and triglycerides by nearly 20%. He writes that these observations "raise important questions as to why niacin/laropiprant did not reduce major cardiovascular events," and he wonders whether laropiprant "is really biologically inert with respect to atherosclerosis and thrombosis."

He concludes that "niacin has failed as a valuable 'partner' of statin therapy in lipid-targeted approaches to further reduce major cardiovascular events in high-risk patients." He continues: "At present, statin therapy has been clearly shown to reduce vascular events effectively and is reasonable well tolerated in most patients. We will still have to wait for the results of ? ongoing studies to see whether another lipid-targeted intervention can further reduce vascular events in addition to statin therapy."

Notes:

[1] "HPS2-THRIVE randomized placebo-controlled trial in 25 673 high-risk patients of ER niacin/laropiprant: trial design, pre-specified muscle, and liver outcomes and reasons for stopping study treatment," by Richard Haynes, Lixin Jiang, Jemma C. Hopewell, Jing Li, Fang Chen, Sarah Parish, Martin J. Landray, Rory Collins, and Jane Armitage, The HPS2-THRIVE Collaborative Group. European Heart Journal.

[2] In December 2012 the pharmaceutical company Merck, which manufactures ERN/LRPT under the trade name Tredaptive and which funded the HSP2-THRIVE study, issued a statement saying the trial had failed to meet its primary endpoint and that "the combination of extended-release niacin and laropiprant to statin therapy did not significantly further reduce the risk of the combination of coronary deaths, non-fatal heart attacks, strokes or revascularizations compared to statin therapy." ERN/LRPT is not approved for use in the USA, and on January 11, Merck announced that it was "taking steps to suspend the availability of TREDAPTIVE? (extended-release niacin/laropiprant) tablets worldwide."

[3] "The difficult search for a 'partner' of statins in lipid-targeted prevention of vascular events: the re-emergence and fall of niacin," by Ulf Landmesser. European Heart Journal. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/eht064

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Richard Haynes, Lixin Jiang, Jemma C. Hopewell, Jing Li, Fang Chen, Sarah Parish, Martin J. Landray, Rory Collins, and Jane Armitage, The HPS2-THRIVE Collaborative Group. HPS2-THRIVE randomized placebo-controlled trial in 25 673 high-risk patients of ER niacin/laropiprant: trial design, pre-specified muscle, and liver outcomes and reasons for stopping study treatment. European Heart Journal, 2013 DOI: 10.1093/eurheartj/eht055

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/top_news/top_health/~3/Evx6aULTeDo/130226193840.htm

bells palsy

Pentagon F-35 program chief lashes Lockheed, Pratt

AVALON, Australia (Reuters) - The Pentagon program chief for the F-35 warplane slammed its commercial partners Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to "squeeze every nickel" out of the U.S. government and failing to see the long-term benefits of the project.

U.S. Lieutenant-General Christopher Bogdan made the comments during a visit to Australia, where he has sought to convince lawmakers and generals to stick to a plan to buy 100 of the jets, an exercise complicated by the second grounding of the plane this year and looming U.S. defense cuts.

Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp , is sole supplier of engines to the $396 billion F-35, or Joint Strike Fighter. Lockheed Martin provides the body of the radar-evading jet, the most expensive combat aircraft in history.

"What I see Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney doing today is behaving as if they are getting ready to sell me the very last F-35 and the very last engine and are trying to squeeze every nickel out of that last F-35 and that last engine," Bogdan told reporters at the Australian International Airshow in southern Victoria state.

"I want them both to start behaving like they want to be around for 40 years," he added. "I want them to take on some of the risk of this program, I want them to invest in cost reductions, I want them to do the things that will build a better relationship. I'm not getting all that love yet."

A Lockheed Martin executive at the airshow declined to comment when reached by Reuters, saying he was unaware of Bogdan's comments. Executives from Pratt & Whitney could not immediately be reached for comment.

Bogdan caused a stir shortly after joining the F-35 program last August when he described the relationship between the government and Lockheed Martin as the worst he'd ever seen. There had been little improvement since then, he said.

"Are they getting better? A little bit," he said. "Are they getting better at a rate I want to see them getting better? No, not yet."

If the project stays on track, Pratt & Whitney will eventually provide 4,000 engines and Lockheed Martin 3,000 planes.

The Pentagon plans to buy 2,443 of the warplanes in the coming decades, although many analysts believe U.S. budget constraints and deficits will reduce that number.

Australia, a close American ally, is considering doubling its fleet of 24 Boeing Co F/A-18 Super Hornets amid delays and setbacks in the F-35 project. That means Canberra could buy far fewer F-35s than initially planned.

LEAKS

Bogdan was also critical of what he suggested were leaks from Pratt & Whitney's camp about the engine issue, which led the Pentagon to suspend F-35 flights last Friday.

Two sources told Reuters that Pratt & Whitney is 99 percent sure the fan blade problem that grounded the jets was not caused by high-cycle fatigue, which could force a costly design change, and the aircraft could be flying again within the week.

"Until all those tests are done and I see the results, I don't know what's going on," Bogdan said. "However ... my gut would tell me it's on the spectrum of the minor side - 99 percent is bold, flying next week is bold."

Bogdan also gave the example of taking six months to close a deal with Pratt & Whitney for engines on its fifth bloc of jets, shortly after General Electric Co had been dropped as a second supplier of engines for the program, leaving Pratt & Whitney as sole supplier for the next 40 years.

"Now, you would think a company like Pratt & Whitney that was just given the greatest Christmas gift you could ever, ever get for a company would act a little differently," Bogdan said.

Bogdan is flying back to the United States this weekend, just in time to hear about the future of U.S. military budgets, which are slated to be cut by nearly $500 billion over the next decade, an amount which could double unless Congress acts in the next week to avert spending reductions known as "sequestration".

Bogdan said he was confident the F-35 program would remain on track and on budget if he was given the discretion to deal with any cuts.

The risk is that money is cut from the $6 billion set aside for the development program by the end of October next year.

"I need every penny of that $6 billion to get over the finish line," Bogdan said. "If they take money out of development something's going to have to give. I'm either going to have to push the program out or I'm going to have to shed capability."

Budget cuts aside, Bogdan said he was confident of bringing the cost of each plane down to around $90 million by 2013, compared to around $120 million now.

Budget cuts have already forced Italy to scale back its F-35 orders, and Turkey has delayed its purchases by two years. Orders from Japan and Israel have buoyed the project, and additional Israeli orders are expected in 2013.

Lockheed is building three different models of the F-35 for the U.S. military and eight countries that helped pay for its development: Britain, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia and Norway.

(Editing by Dean Yates)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pentagon-f-35-program-chief-lashes-lockheed-pratt-090507792--finance.html

Stuart Scott

Pippa Middleton to Pen Cooking Column For UK Magazine

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/02/pippa-middleton-to-pen-cooking-column-for-uk-magazine/

arnold palmer invitational

Suri Cruise Has a Body Double: Crazy, or Just Sad?

Never envy the child of a famous celebrity, especially if that child is Suri Cruise. The daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise is one of the most famous people on the planet, and she's only 6 years old. Her now-divorced parents have been trying to give their daughter as normal a life as possible, and apparently have been forced to use body doubles to make sure Suri doesn't get harassed.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/suri-cruise-has-body-double/1-a-524039?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Asuri-cruise-has-body-double-524039

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Obamaworld full of lies (Powerlineblog)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287518724?client_source=feed&format=rss

uc berkeley

Ship noise makes crabs get crabby

Feb. 26, 2013 ? A new study published in Biology Letters found that ship noise affects crab metabolism, with largest crabs faring worst, and found little evidence that crabs acclimatise to noise over time.

The team from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter found that crabs exposed to recordings of ship noise showed an increase in metabolic rate, indicating elevated stress. In the real world this could have implications for growth and, if the metabolic cost of noise causes crabs to spend more time foraging to compensate, could also increase the risk of predation.

Researcher Matt Wale from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences describes the study: "We used controlled experiments to consider how shore crabs of different sizes respond to both single and repeated exposure to playback of ship noise. Ship noise is the most common source of noise in the aquatic environment."

Explains Dr Andy Radford, Reader in Behavioural Ecology at Bristol: "We found that the metabolic rate of crabs exposed to ship noise was higher than those experiencing ambient harbour noise, and that larger individuals were affected most strongly. This is the first indication that there might be different responses to noise depending on the size of an individual."

If commercially important crabs and lobsters are affected by noise, these findings have implications for fisheries in busy shipping areas where large individuals may be losing out. Conversely, if reducing noise reduces metabolic costs, then quietening aquaculture facilities may lead to higher yields.

Dr Steve Simpson from the University of Exeter warned: "Since larger crabs are affected more strongly by noise this could have implications for fisheries in noisy areas. Also, many crustacean species, particularly prawns, are grown in aquaculture, so if acoustic disturbance has a metabolic cost then operational noise in farms may impact on growth, and quieter farms may be more profitable."

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Z1bcZGgDf8E/130226194012.htm

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Senate approves Hagel as new secretary of defense

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama's new secretary of defense on Tuesday, after an unusually acrimonious confirmation fight that threatened to complicate his work as civilian leader at the Pentagon.

The Senate voted 58-41 to confirm the former Republican senator, the closest vote ever to approve a defense secretary.

Just four Republicans - Mike Johanns of Nebraska, who holds Hagel's old Senate seat, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Rand Paul of Kentucky - joined the Democrats and independents in support of Hagel's nomination.

After the hard-fought victory, the Democratic president said he was pleased there had been bipartisan support for Hagel, a decorated veteran who served during the Vietnam War as an enlisted man before becoming a Republican U.S. senator.

"I am grateful to Chuck for reminding us that when it comes to our national defense, we are not Democrats or Republicans, we are Americans, and our greatest responsibility is the security of the American people," Obama said.

The bruising battle over Hagel was one of many bitter partisan struggles between Democrats and Republicans at a time when Congress is widely criticized for its inability to agree on even the most basic measures to run the country.

The Senate had voted earlier on Tuesday to end debate on Hagel and move forward, almost two weeks after Republicans launched a filibuster to block the nomination. It was the first ever used to delay consideration of a defense nominee, prompting Democrats to accuse Republicans of jeopardizing national security.

Republicans have also challenged Obama's choice to be CIA director, John Brennan, although that nomination appears to be on track, with a vote by the Senate Intelligence Committee expected on Thursday.

In a sign that opposition to Obama's nominations could be easing, the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday backed his nominee to lead the U.S. Treasury, Jack Lew, with the support of about half the panel's Republicans.

BUDGET, IRAN, ISRAEL AMONG CONCERNS

Hagel had angered party leaders as a senator when he criticized former President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war.

Many Republicans opposed to Hagel's nomination raised questions about whether he is sufficiently supportive of Israel, tough enough on Iran or truly committed to maintaining a robust nuclear deterrent.

After Hagel's shaky performance during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, opponents questioned whether he was capable of running the vast Pentagon bureaucracy. Some feared he would be too complicit in efforts by Obama to cut Pentagon spending as a way to deal with yawning U.S. budget deficits.

Some defense industry executives worried that Hagel would be hamstrung from the start, saying his difficult confirmation could severely limit his ability to negotiate with Congress.

"They've neutered him already," said one industry executive, who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Although the Senate rejected John Tower as President George Bush's Pentagon pick in 1989 by a 53-47 vote, defense nominees are typically confirmed by large margins. Leon Panetta, whom Hagel replaces as defense secretary, was approved by a unanimous vote of 100 to nothing in June 2011.

But political experts said such concerns were overblown, given the vast partisan divide that already exists between the Democratic White House and Republicans in Congress on most issues.

"The confirmation process probably leaves a few light scars on Hagel because Republican critics have raised doubts about his judgment," said Sarah Binder, a congressional expert at the Brookings Institution.

"But I think Hagel would have faced tough scrutiny and criticism from Republicans once in office, even had he originally sailed to confirmation," she said.

Hagel said he was honored to return to public service. "I will work closely with Congress to ensure that we maintain the strongest military in the world and continue to protect this great nation," he said in a statement.

Hagel will be sworn in on Wednesday morning.

SEQUESTRATION CUTS LOOM OVER PENTAGON

Hagel's confirmation comes as the Pentagon faces the prospect of cutting $46 billion in spending over the next seven months of the fiscal year. The cut, scheduled to go into effect on Friday, comes as the department is already implementing $487 billion in spending reductions over the next decade.

Some of Hagel's most vehement opponents made a last-ditch appeal to stop the nomination before the vote.

James Inhofe, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he had even called Panetta and asked him not to retire. Panetta, 74, who has made no secret of his desire to be home in California, declined.

After the vote, Inhofe said he still had "serious concerns" about Hagel's ability to lead the Department of Defense but was "ready and willing" to work with him. He urged Hagel to make his first order of business averting the looming defense cuts.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, David Alexander, Andrea Shalal-Esa, Phil Stewart and Matt Spetalnick; Editing By Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-approves-hagel-secretary-defense-003636792.html

aaron carter sister

Why most Americans are yawning over 'sequester' ? and why that matters

Only 1 in 4 Americans is following the debate over 'the sequester,' and even fewer say they understand it, a new poll shows. If the spending cuts take effect and more people pay attention, Obama's public support could slip.

By Linda Feldmann,?Staff writer / February 26, 2013

President Obama runs to greet well-wishers upon his arrival in Newport News, Va., on Tuesday. Obama is visiting Newport News Shipbuilding to highlight the effect the 'sequester' will have on jobs and middle-class families.

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

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President Obama is working hard to ramp up public agitation over the looming ?sequester? ? big, across-the-board spending cuts that, if fully implemented, could send the US economy back into recession. If the sequester goes into effect and starts doing damage, blame the Republicans, Mr. Obama says.

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On Tuesday, the president holds his latest campaign-style event focused on what the cuts would mean for real people. Obama is speaking at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va., a coastal city whose economic health depends on Navy contracts. ??

Workers in Newport News are understandably anxious. But to much of the country, ?sequester? is just a weird word that doesn?t mean much or affect them personally. Only 1 in 4 Americans is following the debate over the $85 billion in federal spending cuts scheduled to kick in on Friday, according to a new poll by the Washington Post and the Pew Research Center. Even fewer people ? 18 percent ? say they understand the issue ?very well.?

Part of the problem could be the lexicon. Who knows what ?sequester? means? That, despite valiant efforts by the media to explain it. It?s actually a verb that means to isolate or cut. The noun form is ?sequestration,? but that?s even more awkward (an extra syllable, after all) and hardly fodder for water-cooler chat ? unless, of course, it?s your job that?s possibly on the line, in which case you are keenly interested.

But unless you work in certain industries ? such as defense, which is slated to take half of the cuts ? it?s just the latest food fight in the dysfunction known as Washington politics. Fiscal crisis fatigue among the public appears to have set in. Just two months ago, Washington was on the edge of its seat over the ?fiscal cliff,? the tax increases and spending cuts due to take effect on Jan. 1 as required by law, and aimed at setting the nation on a sounder fiscal path.

The sequester was due to take effect then, but in the last-minute agreement was delayed until March 1. ??

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/-5yu3jV8DWY/Why-most-Americans-are-yawning-over-sequester-and-why-that-matters

David Rakoff Bourne Legacy Chad Johnson London 2012 Soccer dwight howard Olympics closing ceremony PGA Championship 2012

Spyware Implanted in PDFs Has Been Sneaking into Government Computers

A new spyware epidemic has broken out at government entities and NGOs in 23 countries including several organizations in the United States. And it's not bogus Twitter links or porn that's getting people this time—it's PDFs that look like work. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/s_8WhjF5Itk/spyware-implanted-in-pdfs-has-been-sneaking-into-government-computers

solicitor general

Video: Great Plains states pummeled by winter storm

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50948872/

Robyn Lawley

Amsterdam plans sober party for Dutch inauguration

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? The Dutch capital is known for boozy stag nights and pot-smoking tourists. But for what could be the nation's party of the decade ? the abdication of Queen Beatrix and accession to the throne of her son Willem-Alexander ? Amsterdam wants to keep things low key.

Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said Wednesday he "wants a party, but at the same time sober" for the April 30 inauguration.

He's not suggesting alcohol-free festivities, but he wants to keep the cost in check as the nation tightens its belt to recover from an economic buffeting caused by the European debt crisis.

Van der Laan is even seeking sponsors to help pick up the estimated ?7 million ($9 million) tab for the royal bash.

And in an attempt to prevent the capital clogging up with visitors keen to get a glimpse of their outgoing queen and new king, Van der Laan had some advice about the best vantage point.

"If you want to get a really good view, maybe the best place is watching on television," he said.

The day in Amsterdam will start with Beatrix signing abdication papers in the royal palace on central Dam Square. The inauguration of Willem-Alexander will then take place next door in the 15th century New Church.

In the early evening, the new King Willem-Alexander and his Argentine-born wife Maxima will take a boat trip around the city's Ij waterway.

The Ij was chosen over a trip around the city's famed 400-year old ring of canals because it is easier to control crowds along the river banks than in the maze of narrow side streets that link the canals.

And there will be no giant firework show to crown the day's festivities ? Van der Laan said it wouldn't be dark enough when the royals finish their boat trip.

For those in the city who don't want to head to the water's edge, the huge public square behind the Rijksmuseum will be turned into an "Orange Square" where revelers can watch events unfold on giant screens.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/amsterdam-plans-sober-party-dutch-inauguration-112326971.html

puerto rico

ASUS FonePad specs

The 7-inch ASUS FonePad unveiled today at MWC 2013 combines the communication features of a smartphone with the entertainment opportunities of a tablet. Find out what specs the ASUS FonePad brings to the table after the break.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/CuDqaP76KVo/story01.htm

smokey robinson

U.S. gives banking green light to Myanmar tycoons

YANGON (Reuters) - Two banks owned by tycoons associated with Myanmar's former military regime will start to do business with U.S. companies and investors in the latest reward for the Southeast Asian country's rapid political transformation.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on Friday it would issue a general licence for four of Myanmar's biggest banks -- Myanma Economic Bank, Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank, Asia Green Development Bank and Ayeyarwady Bank -- allowing U.S. companies and citizens to deal with them.

The easing of sanctions on Asia Green Development Bank and Ayeyarwady Bank underlines how politically connected capitalists of the old regime -- whom the United States once castigated -- are re-inventing themselves and retaining a strong foothold as foreign investors race to enter Myanmar.

It helps remove uncertainty among U.S. companies over lingering restrictions on their dealings in Myanmar and is expected to increase the domestic reach of U.S. credit card firms Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc.

The decision was announced ahead of a visit to Myanmar by 50 U.S. executives on Monday to explore opportunities in the resource-rich nation, the latest sign of burgeoning foreign corporate interest in the country of 60 million.

"This announcement will undoubtedly help the further development of the market," Antonio Corro, MasterCard's chief representative for IndoChina, said in a statement. "We expect that Myanmar's tourism sector will continue to grow rapidly and so building card acceptance is key."

Washington eased sanctions last July to allow U.S. companies to invest in and provide financial services to Myanmar, dropping restrictions on dealing with most Myanmar banks.

Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar's economy at Australia's Macquarie University, said the latest move was significant because it would normalize the flow of international funds in and out of Myanmar. But he said the inclusion of formerly blacklisted Ayeyarwady Bank and Asia Green Development Bank was a surprise given previous U.S. assurances that they "still had their eye on the worst offenders of the past regime".

"One of the great anxieties is over the cronyisation of the economy -- the fear it will be a fleeting summer and become like Russia," Turnell said.

"REGIME CRONY"

Ayeyarwady Bank is owned by Zaw Zaw, who was previously described by the U.S. Treasury as "a regime crony" and blacklisted under targeted U.S. sanctions four years ago.

The tycoon, whose holdings range from timber and gems to luxury resorts and who benefited handsomely from state privatizations three years ago, told Reuters last year his dream was to build Ayeyarwady into an international brand.

Asia Green Development Bank is controlled by Tay Za, Myanmar's best-known tycoon. He was previously sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury as a "notorious henchman and arms dealer".

U.S. firms will still be barred from forming joint ventures with the banks. The other two banks granted a general licence on Friday are controlled by the government.

"It is now time for Myanmar and the U.S. to take the relationship to the next level," Tami Overby, vice president for Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told a meeting of U.S. and Myanmar business officials in Yangon.

Western countries have suspended most sanctions in recognition of Myanmar's dramatic political and economic opening since the new government took power in March 2011.

Critics say they risk moving too fast, pointing to evidence of human rights abuses in recent months against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority group and ethnic Kachin rebels engaged in a conflict with the military.

MetLife, Cargill, Fedex, Chevron, General Motors, General Electric, Target, Honeywell and eBay are among the roughly two dozen U.S. companies visiting Myanmar this week.

Visa and MasterCard have already entered the country, partnering with several banks and gaining access to a nascent ATM network, but only a handful of merchants currently accept payment by card. A central bank official who asked not to be identified told Reuters that only six out of 19 private Myanmar banks can handle MasterCard and Visa cards at the moment.

"I am sure the recent easing of sanctions will enable the remaining banks to use these cards in the very near future," the official said.

Visa, which marked its first point-of-sale transaction in Myanmar last month at a Yangon restaurant, said in a statement to Reuters that decisions to apply for a Visa licence were "up to individual banks."

(Additional reporting by Stuart Grudgings in KUALA LUMPUR, Eveline Danubrata in SINGAPORE and David Henry in NEW YORK; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Richard Borsuk and Paul Tait)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-gives-banking-green-light-myanmar-tycoons-015301191--sector.html

Lark Voorhies

Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2

The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 combines touch, all-day battery life, and ThinkPad styling to the Windows 8 Slate tablet market. It's not a bad first effort, but rivals currently have the upper hand. It can be your all-day companion running from meeting to meeting, and you can get work done with the help of accessories when you finally get back to your desk. Taken alone, it's a very good tablet. Unfortunately, other rivals have better battery life, connections to keyboards, and overall differentiating features.

Design and Features
The Tablet 2 looks professional, with a black PolyCarbonate/ABS plastic cover over a magnesium internal frame. The tablet measures about 7 by 10.5 by 0.34 inches (HWD) and weighs a scant 1.21 pounds alone. Add the optional Bluetooth keyboard ($120) and fitted sleeve ($40), and you're talking a 2.63-pound travel weight. One plus that the Tablet 2 has over its rivals is its built-in slot to carry its included stylus. The Wacom-style stylus has a right-click button, but lacks the eraser tip that rivals like the Dell Latitude 10 and Microsoft Surface Pro have. Weighing less than 1.25 pounds and with its built-in stylus holder, it is a very good handheld PC for running around the office park or for a full day of client meetings.

The Tablet 2 has a few ports and switches on its sides: a micro-USB port for charging, a low-power USB 2.0 port, MicroSD and a SIM slot under a shared door, headset jack, volume, power, rotate lock, a docking port, and a mini-HDMI out port. The SIM slot supplies authentication to an optional WWAN radio, which wasn't in our review unit. The docking connector is mainly for the $100 enterprise-level docking station, since the Bluetooth keyboard and stand lacks a docking port.

The Bluetooth keyboard is very comfortable and has a built-in optical TrackPoint and the usual ThinkPad mouse buttons. But there is no room for a palm rest, and the keyboard has no retention mechanism aside from gravity and friction from the slot carved in its surface. This means that the keyboard stand works fine on a tabletop, but if you use the combo on your lap, the Tablet 2 is likely to slide out if you shift your weight during you work session. Both the keyboard and Tablet 2 fit in a tailor-made fitted sleeve, so the combo can work part-time. The Bluetooth keyboard has its own battery for operation, but it doesn't supply auxiliary power like the keyboard docks for the HP Envy X2 or Acer Iconia W510-1422.

The Tablet 2 charges off of its micro-USB port, which is a plus for the road warrior. Most non-iPhone smartphones use micro-USB to charge, so you can get by only carrying a single charger. The Tablet 2 comes with a 2A USB adapter and a USB to micro USB cable, which you can use with your smartphone or tablet. This also makes it more convenient for the multi-device user, since he can charge the Tablet 2 off of a PC with the USB cable as well. Lenovo also sells a $20 USB vehicle charger so you can charge your tablet on the road.

The Tablet 2's regular USB 2.0 port is problematic. It is full-size, so it will work with all sorts of peripherals like printers, keyboards/mice, and USB memory keys. But the USB port only supplies a few watts of power, so it won't run a large-capacity external hard drive. This shortcoming is a large detriment to getting work done if all you have with you are bus-powered external hard drives. The Dell Latitude 10 and most ultrabook-class tablets have full-power USB ports. The Tablet 2 can connect to 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 is supported. GPS is included.

The Tablet 2's screen is a 10.1-inch IPS display with a 1,366-by-768 resolution. This means that you can playback 720p HD content natively, but 1080p content will be scaled down. The system's Wacom-style digitizer and stylus back up the five-point touch screen. When the tip of the stylus comes close to the screen, the capacitive touch sensors turn off, so you aren't making marks with your palm when you're actually drawing on the screen with the stylus. The screen is bright, with a wide angle of view from all sides, and an accelerometer makes sure that screen elements point up at all times.

The Tablet 2 comes with an Intel Atom Z2760 processor, 2GB of memory, and a 64GB of flash storage. When we first turned the Tablet 2 on, it came with 33.4 GB of 50GB free. This is a bit less than the "36.8 GB of 52.2GB free" reported by the Editors' Choice Dell Latitude 10. No doubt much of the used space is the recovery partition plus a selection of pre-installed apps. The Tablet 2 came with Lenovo Companion, Skitch Touch, Evernote Touch, Lenovo Support, a Lenovo Settings app, Accuweather, QuickSnip (a clipping/screenshot utility), Amazon Kindle, Skype, rara.com, Intel AppUp, Lenovo Cloud Storage (SugarSync), and Norton Studio (security). Lenovo also included their QuickLaunch app, which replaces the functions of the Windows 7 Start menu. It's not the most heinous use of space, but since Tablet 2's current options for storage are 64GB only, every bit of storage space is precious. You can of course add storage with the microSD slot. The Tablet 2's front webcam is 2MP and the rear is 8MP with a LED flash. The Tablet 2 has a one-year standard warranty.

Performance
The Intel Atom Z2760 processor in the Tablet 2 ensures Windows 8 32-bit compatibility, so the tablet will work with all your enterprise apps and corporate network protocols. It also means that you can use the browser and plug-ins standardized at your business instead of being limited to Internet Explorer (as you would be on a Windows RT system).

However, while the Atom means that the Tablet 2 has 10-hour battery life (10 hours 11 minutes), it also means that it doesn't perform too well on our multimedia benchmark tests. The Tablet 2 was one of the slowest systems we've ever tested on our Handbrake test (13:27 vs. 1:28 on a Core i5 system like the Microsoft Surface Pro). The Tablet 2 also lagged Atom-powered rivals like the Dell Latitude 10 and Acer W510 on the Handbrake test. On day-to-day tasks, the Tablet 2 put in a passable 1,410 point score on PCMark 7. Basically, if you have a need for corporate information retrieval and media playback all day, the Tablet 2 is fine, but if you need to work on graphics creation on a deadline, you're better off with a more powerful system with an Intel Core processor.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 is a decent Windows 8 Slate tablet. It doesn't win any of the performance tests, but is competitive with its Atom-powered rivals. It's a simple work-based tablet that has a good set of ThinkPad accessories that make it a good fit if you're transitioning ThinkPad users to something a lot more portable. However, for the ultimate in battery life, other systems like the Editors' Choice Dell Latitude 10 and keyboard docking tablets like the Acer Iconia Tab W510 are better choices if battery life is paramount. And let's face it, you're looking at an Atom-based tablet because of its combination of Windows 8 Pro compatibility and phenomenal battery life, right?

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2 with several other laptops and tablets side by side.

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