WHO: 2 more cases of new virus in Jordan

LONDON (AP) — International health officials have confirmed two more fatal cases of a mysterious respiratory virus in the Middle East.

The virus has so far sickened nine people and killed five of them. The new disease is a coronavirus related to SARS, which killed some 800 people in a global epidemic in 2003, and belongs to a family of viruses that most often causes the common cold.

The two cases date back to April and are part of a cluster of a dozen people, mostly health workers, who fell sick in an intensive care unit at a hospital in Zarqa, Jordan. Officials are investigating whether the 10 other people who grew sick in Zarqa also were infected and how the virus might have spread.

“It’s too early to say whether human-to-human transmission occurred or not, but we certainly can’t rule it out,” said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl.

One of the Jordanian cases was a 40-year-old female. All of the other patients to date have been men. The new virus has so far been identified in patients from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Scientists haven’t found any links between the sporadic cases of the coronavirus so far, first detected in September. “We don’t know how the virus gets around and there are more questions than answers right now,” Hartl said.

Several of the patients sickened by the new coronavirus have had rapid kidney failure and others have suffered severe pneumonia and respiratory illnesses. The virus is most closely related to a bat virus and scientists are also considering whether bats or animals like camels or goats are a possible source of infection.

Scientists are also considering whether fruit contaminated by animal droppings may have spread the virus.

Still, not all of the cases had contact with animals and WHO said it was possible the virus was spread between humans in the Jordan hospital and in a cluster of cases in Saudi Arabia, where four members of the same family fell ill and two died.

WHO says the virus is probably more widespread than just the Middle East and recommended that countries test any people with unexplained pneumonia.

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African Union asks UN for immediate action on Mali

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — In an open letter Thursday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the president of the African Union urged the U.N. to take immediate military action in northern Mali, which was seized by al-Qaida-linked rebels earlier this year.

Yayi Boni, the president of Benin who is also head of the African Union, said any reticence on the part of the U.N. will be interpreted as a sign of weakness by the terrorists now operating in Mali. The AU is waiting for the U.N. to sign off on a military plan to take back the occupied territory, and the Security Council is expected to discuss it in coming days.

In a report to the Security Council late Wednesday, Ban said the AU plan “needs to be developed further” because fundamental questions on how the force will be led, trained and equipped. Ban acknowledged that with each day, al-Qaida-linked fighters were becoming further entrenched in northern Mali, but he cautioned that a botched military operation could result in human rights abuses.

The sprawling African nation of Mali, once an example of a stable democracy, fell apart in March following a coup by junior officers. In the uncertainty that ensued, rebels including at least three groups with ties to al-Qaida, grabbed control of the nation’s distant north. The Islamists now control an area the size of France or Texas, an enormous triangle of land that includes borders with Mauritania, Algeria and Niger.

Two weeks ago, the African Union asked the U.N. to endorse a military intervention to free northern Mali, calling for 3,300 African soldiers to be deployed for one year. A U.S.-based counterterrorism official who saw the military plan said it was “amateurish” and had “huge, gaping holes.” The official insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

Boni, in his letter, said Africa was counting on the U.N. to take decisive action.

“I need to tell you with how much impatience the African continent is awaiting a strong message from the international community regarding the resolution of the crisis in Mali. … What we need to avoid is the impression that we are lacking in resolve in the face of these determined terrorists,” he said.

The most feared group in northern Mali is al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, al-Qaida’s North African branch, which is holding at least seven French hostages, including a 61-year-old man kidnapped last week.

On Thursday, SITE Intelligence published a transcript of a recently released interview with AQIM leader, Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, in which he urges Malians to reject any foreign intervention in their country. He warned French President Francois Hollande that he was “digging the graves” of the French hostages by pushing for an intervention.

Also on Thursday, Islamists meted out the latest Shariah punishment in northern city of Timbuktu. Six young men and women were each given 100 lashes for having talked to each other on city streets, witnesses said.

___

Associated Press writer Virgile Ahissou in Cotonou, Benin and Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed to this report.

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Dear President Obama: My White House petition requires your magical powers

By Chris Wilson

Since President Barack Obama won reelection, the White House website for citizen petitions has received secession requests from all 50 states. In the case of Texas, more than 100,000 people have endured the inconvenience of entering their name and email address in order to support the state’s bid for autonomy. Apparently, in a sign of Americans’ growing distaste for physical activity, 2012 is the year when people stopped threatening to move to a foreign country if their candidate lost the presidency. Instead, they want foreign countries to move to them.

The forum-happy Internet activism crowd has never had a realistic sense of what happens when you to plug government directly into the Ethernet port. This is what happens: In addition to petitions for secession, you get ones calling for Bigfoot to be recognized as an endangered species, naturopathic medicine to be covered by Obamacare, and funding for a Death Star beginning in 2016.

The petition website, called We the People, is not very useful as a guide to what Americans really care about. But it is useful as a guide to how people think of what the government can do, down to the specific words the authors use in the petitions.

Of the 300 most recent petitions, only three request that the government “protect” something—states rights, email privacy, the planet—while seven request that it “recognize” something—same-sex marriage, hate groups, and so forth. Dozens ask that Obama “grant” or “allow” a certain privilege, while only a few suggest he “ban” an action or “prevent” an outcome.

The interactive below arranges the petitions into a tree structure by the principal verb in the title. When you click a blue dot, the tree expands to show all the petitions that begin with that verb. You can mouse over those branches to see the original wording of the petition and search for any word you like by typing a phrase into the box at the top.

 

Bigfoot aside, most of the petitions on the site are earnest. This does not mean they are all sane. About 37,000 people have signed a petition suggesting that it be illegal to offend the prophets of major religions. Another petition demands recognition that Israel is responsible for 9/11—that one with only some 600 signatories.

But many present very good ideas. There’s one for reforming the Electoral College and another that suggests all scientific papers based on taxpayer-funded research should be freely accessible online.

If there is one binding force behind the petitions, it is that most of them request that Obama intercede in matters that he has no authority over or rightful business meddling with, regardless of where one comes down on the subject of big government. While the site is technically designed to lobby the government, most petitions appear personally directed at Obama.

Even the petitions to secede are written in a tone of distinct obeisance: “Peacefully grant the state of Connecticut to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own new government.” Oregon’s petition is particularly careful to specify that there are no hard feelings: “Allow Oregon to vote on and leave the union peacefully and remain an ally to the nation.”

Secession always seemed to me to be something that, by definition, you did without asking permission. (Mutual breakups are as rare in history as they are in love.) But for all the rampant anti-government sentiment in America, many people still believe the president is an omnipotent force who can pass laws on a dime, ban unsavory behavior, manipulate foreign countries with precision, expel citizens at will and otherwise bend the world to his fancy.

This does not mean people love the government. We know they do not. But they still want it to fix their problems with as little trouble as possible.

---

There are some great open-source tools, like Python’s Natural Language Toolkit, that can automatically identify verbs and objects in sentences with fairly high accuracy. But a lot of human intervention is still required to clean up the results. I posted the code for retrieving the petitions from the White House website on my Github page, and the White House offers the full code for the petitions website on its Github page. Questions or comments? Email me at [email protected]
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Hot flashes may return after ending antidepressant

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For about a third of women taking antidepressants to treat menopause symptoms, hot flashes and night sweats will return after discontinuing the drug, according to a new study.

“It’s important for people to understand that…the benefit of the treatment is related to the duration of the treatment,” said Dr. Hadine Joffe, lead author of the study. But that shouldn’t discourage women from trying an antidepressant if they want to, she added.

“Just because symptoms come back after you stop it doesn’t mean it didn’t make a big difference when you took it,” said Joffe, who is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of research in the Center for Women’s Mental Health at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Escitalopram, an antidepressant sold under the brand name Lexapro, is not approved to treat menopause symptoms, but physicians may prescribe it because some – though not all – studies have found it can reduce the number and severity of hot flashes.

It has “a moderate effect,” Joffe told Reuters Health. “The drug does not eliminate hot flashes, but it can make “a very meaningful improvement in somebody’s life.”

Antidepressants of the same type as Lexapro, called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are also used to treat menopause symptoms.

Joffe said there have not been enough studies to determine just how long women should take an antidepressant to treat hot flashes, nor whether the symptoms return once they stop the treatment.

To address the second question, she and her colleagues asked 200 women to take 10 or 20 milligrams a day of Lexapro for eight weeks.

The team’s final analysis included 76 women who showed at least a 20 percent improvement on the drug – for instance, dropping from 10 hot flashes a day down to eight or fewer.

After the two-month treatment period, the women stopped taking the pills and the researchers tracked their symptoms for another three weeks. The team was also careful to screen for withdrawal symptoms from the drug itself.

Menopause symptoms returned for about a third of the women who had seen an improvement on the drugs. Results were similar whether the women had reported experiencing less severe symptoms while on the drug or had said they felt less bothered by their symptoms during treatment.

Among 49 women who said they had benefitted on all three symptom measures – number, severity and bothersomeness – 44 percent experienced a relapse within three weeks of discontinuing the drug.

For most of those women, symptoms rebounded to about the same levels as before the treatment.

Among the women who didn’t relapse, symptoms dropped from about 9.5 a day before treatment to 4.4 per day three weeks after stopping.

Joffe said it’s impossible to say whether this group would experience a greater return of symptoms later on, or would continue to see a reduction.

“We only looked within three weeks of stopping the medication,” she said. “We don’t know (what would happen) if we studied them for six weeks or six months.”

Patients who experienced insomnia before taking the antidepressant or who didn’t find a large benefit from the drug were more likely to relapse than other women.

Some women also experienced withdrawal symptoms characteristic of going off an antidepressant, including sweating and dizziness.

About 46 percent of the women reported that they felt at least two withdrawal symptoms.

Joffe and some of her colleagues have relationships with pharmaceutical companies, two of them with Lexapro’s maker, Forest Laboratories.

She pointed out that while Forest Labs provided the pills, the company had no participation in the study, which was funded by a variety of government grants.

The company declined to comment on the study because it was not involved.

Warning labels on antidepressants do not include information about treatment for menopause symptoms because they have not been approved for that use by the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Judith Ockene, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who did not participate in the research, said it’s the onus of physicians, the media and patients themselves to understand the pros and cons of taking the medication.

“I think women should be educated about the likelihood of (symptom) relapse when they discontinue SSRIs, even if they perceive benefits in the short term,” she said.

Ockene pointed out that some women experience a rebounding of symptoms after they stop taking hormone replacement therapy too.

“We say if women are taking hormones to help them with menopausal symptoms, then they need to be mindful of the fact that when they stop them they may have a return of their symptoms,” Ockene told Reuters Health.

She said the same should be communicated to women thinking of taking an antidepressant and incorporated into their decision-making about using the medications.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/X4ZmBL Menopause, online October 22, 2012.

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Myanmar cracks down on mine protest; dozens hurt

MONYWA, Myanmar (AP) — Security forces used water cannons and other riot gear Thursday to clear protesters from a copper mine in in northwestern Myanmar, wounding villagers and Buddhist monks just hours before opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was to visit the area to hear their grievances.

The crackdown at the Letpadaung mine near the town of Monywa risks becoming a public relations and political fiasco for the reformist government of President Thein Sein, which has been touting its transition to democracy after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

The environmental and social damage allegedly produced by the mine has become a popular cause in activist circles, but was not yet a matter of broad public concern. However, hurting monks — as admired for their social activism as they are revered for their spiritual beliefs — is sure to antagonize many ordinary people, especially as Suu Kyi’s visit highlights the events.

“This is unacceptable,” said Ottama Thara, a 25-year-old monk who was at the protest. “This kind of violence should not happen under a government that says it is committed to democratic reforms.”

According to a nurse at a Monywa hospital, 27 monks and one other person were admitted with burns caused by some sort of projectile that released sparks or embers. Two of the monks with serious injuries were sent for treatment in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second biggest city, a 2 ½ hour drive away. Other evicted protesters gathered at a Buddhist temple about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the mine’s gates.

Lending further sympathy to the protesters’ cause is whom they are fighting against. The mining operation is a joint venture between a Chinese company and a holding company controlled by Myanmar’s military. Most people remain suspicious of the military, while China is widely seen as having propped up army rule for years, in addition to being an aggressive investor exploiting the country’s many natural resources.

Government officials had publicly stated that the protest risked scaring off foreign investment that is key to building the economy after decades of neglect.

State television had broadcast an announcement Tuesday night that ordered protesters to cease their occupation of the mine by midnight or face legal action. It said operations at the mine had been halted since Nov. 18, after protesters occupied the area.

Some villagers among a claimed 1,000 protesters left the six encampments they had at the mine after the order was issued. But others stayed through Wednesday, including about 100 monks.

Police moved in to disperse them early Thursday.

“Around 2:30 a.m. police announced they would give us five minutes to leave,” said protester Aung Myint Htway, a peanut farmer whose face and body were covered with black patches of burned skin. He said police fired water cannons first and then shot what he and others called flare guns.

“They fired black balls that exploded into fire sparks. They shot about six times. People ran away and they followed us,” he said, still writhing hours later from pain. “It’s very hot.”

Photos of the wounded monks showed they had sustained serious burns on parts of their bodies. It was unclear what sort of weapon caused them.

The protest is the latest major example of increased activism by citizens since the elected government took over last year. Political and economic liberalization under Thein Sein has won praise from Western governments, which have eased sanctions imposed on the previous military government because of its poor record on human and civil rights. However, the military still retains major influence over the government, and some critics fear that democratic gains could easily be rolled back.

In Myanmar’s main city of Yangon, six anti-mine activists who staged a small protest were detained Monday and Tuesday, said one of their colleagues, who asked not to be identified because he did not want to attract attention from the authorities.

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Italian tax police probe Google Italy again

ROME (Reuters) – Italian police launched a new tax probe into Google Italy this week after earlier investigations found the group had failed to declare income and still owed sales tax, an economy ministry document showed on Wednesday.

The earlier probe, which was launched by Italian financial police in 2007, found that Google had developed a system to transfer profits from its Italian operations to Ireland so it could benefit from a more favorable tax regime.

The investigation is the Internet search giant’s latest entanglement with European tax authorities, following problems in France and Britain over its Irish strategy.

In Italy, investigations of the years 2002-2006 found that Google had failed to declare at least 240 million euros ($ 310 million) of income to authorities and owed more than 96 million euros in sales tax, according to the ministry’s response to questions in parliament.

It said police had launched a new probe on Monday to check the company was meeting its fiscal obligations in Italy.

Google said in a statement that it complies with tax law in every country in which it operates.

“We are confident we comply with Italian law,” a spokeswoman said, adding the firm would cooperate with authorities and answer any questions for the investigation.

Italian officials have stepped up tax surveillance and collection efforts in recent months as part of government efforts to bring Italy’s huge public debt under control.

Police have also been assessing the practices of other multinational online businesses who are managing to shift profits made in Italy into countries where they can pay less tax, the ministry said.

($ 1=0.7746 euros)

(Reporting By Danilo Masoni, Giuseppe Fonte and Catherine Hornby; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

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Global High Fructose Corn Syrup Use May Be Fueling Diabetes Increase

Image courtesy of iStockphoto/TheCrimsonMonkey

It doesn’t matter where you look: the U.S., Mexico, Malaysia or Portugal, the more high fructose corn syrup consumption, on average, the more diabetes. A new study of 43 countries in Global Public Health, published online November 27, found that adult type-2 diabetes is 20 percent higher in countries that consume large quantities of high fructose corn syrup. “The study adds to a growing body of scientific literature that indicates HFCS consumption may result in negative health consequences distinct from and more deleterious than natural sugar,” Michael Goran, of the University of Southern California Department of Preventive Medicine and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement. Countries in which per person annual high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) consumption was less than 0.5 kg had similar BMIs, daily calorie intake and total sugar intake as did countries in which HFCS was higher. The big difference in these two groups of countries was diabetes prevalence. The link between HFCS and poor health outcomes–such as obesity or diabetes-has often been speculated, but it has been difficult to prove. The availability of the cheaper-than-sugar sweeteners starting in the U.S. in the 1970s appears to have helped boost the number of overall calories people imbibe. In the U.S. today, for example, high fructose corn syrup is in everything from sodas to ketchup. In fact, we each consume, on average, some 24.8 kilograms of this processed corn sweetener every year. With the extra calories, weight gain has quickened, leading to more obesity, one of the strongest risk factors for type-2 diabetes. HFCS may also pose a greater risk for diabetes greater than pure sugar alone. Instead of a composition evenly divided between fructose and glucose like table sugar, HFCS contains as much as 30 percent more fructose. (The exact quantities are unknown because manufacturers are not required to disclose the amount on food and beverage packages.) Glucose is metabolized quickly and used as energy or retained as fat. But fructose processing is more complex. It is broken down primarily in the liver and seems to induce less leptin production (a hormone that signals fullness to the body) and less insulin (which is why sweeteners composed primarily of fructose are sometimes recommended for people who already have diabetes). Some studies have also found fructose consumption increases the types of fats that are linked to insulin resistance, a hallmark of diabetes. These scattered findings suggest that “our metabolism has not evolved sufficiently to be able to process the fructose from high fructose corn syrup in the quantities that some people are consuming it,” Stanly Ulijaszek, of the University of Oxford and study co-author, said in a prepared statement. Some illuminating international differences emerged during the course of the study. For example, the European Union imposes production quotas for HFCS for member countries. Those countries, such as Sweden, that do not use the sweetener in their own food supply can export it to countries, such as Hungary, that are willing to buy more for residents. This distribution imbalance allowed the researchers to compare countries that were similar in other respects (BMI, gross national product, etc.) but different in HFCS consumption. While the U.S. is the largest producer–and consumer–of HFCS and has been for decades (thanks in large part to farm subsidies), other countries are just beginning to experience high amounts of HFCS in the food system. Mexico, for example, long limited imports of HFCS to protect their own sugar market. In 2008, however, those barriers were removed, and for the past few years, HFCS has been flooding in from the U.S. The authors of the study argue that with the new findings, perhaps some of these policies should be revisited. Further research into the mechanisms for the possible link between HFCS consumption and diabetes risk remains to be done. But, “if HFCS is a risk factor for diabetes–one of the world’s most serious chronic diseases–then we need to rewrite national dietary guidelines and review agricultural trade policies,” Tim Lobstein, director of policy at the International Association for the Study of Obesity, said in a prepared statement.

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs. Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

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New home sales stagnant, cast shadow on housing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New U.S. single-family home sales fell slightly in October and the prior month’s pace of sales was revised sharply lower, casting a faint shadow over one of the brighter spots in the U.S. economy.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday sales dropped 0.3 percent last month to a 368,000-unit annual rate, while September’s sales pace was revised to 369,000 from 389,000.

The housing sector has been a point of relative strength this year in an economy beset by flagging business confidence and cooling demand from abroad.

A report last week showed a surprisingly sharp gain in home resales in October, while data this week showed prices for single-family homes have risen continuously since February.

Economists expect home construction to add to economic growth this year for the time since 2005.

Wednesday’s data did not change the view that housing is still in recovery mode, although the pace of new home sales in October was below the level of May, suggesting little upward momentum.

“It’s just that progress will be slow,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York.

U.S. homebuilder stocks fell, even as broad market indexes rose slightly.

While weakness in business spending has been restraining growth, most recent data has suggested housing is gaining momentum. Consumer confidence has also been more bullish.

Wednesday’s report showed the median sales price for a new home in October was 5.7 percent higher than a year earlier, but the pace of year-over-year price gains slowed for a second straight month.

Some analysts suggested the decline in sales in October might be partially due to a mammoth storm that slammed into the U.S. East Coast at the end of October. New sales plunged 32.3 percent in the Northeast, which bore the brunt of the storm.

“Some of this could potentially be Hurricane Sandy,” said Megan McGrath, an analyst at MKM Partners in Stamford, Connecticut.

However, the Commerce Department said the storm did not affect data collection at all and its impact on the pace of sales was likely “minimal.”

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast sales rising to a 390,000-unit rate last month from September’s previously reported 389,000-unit rate.

To provide support for the housing market, the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates at rock-bottom levels since 2008. In September, it launched an open-ended program to buy mortgage-backed securities, driving mortgage rates to record lows.

In a separate report, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed an index for home purchase loans, a leading indicator of home sales, rose 2.6 percent last week to its highest level of the year.

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Debenedetti in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

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Google Breaks All Android App Reviews, Threatens Android Fans’ Safety

“A Google User” is now the number one Android game and app reviewer on Google Play, Android’s version of Apple’s App Store. That’s because every single one of the millions of existing reviews, possibly including yours, has had its author replaced with this nameless, faceless person.

Screenshots taken by Jeremiah Rice of the Android Police blog show this prolific (but completely generic) author has taken over the Google Play store. Meanwhile, if you visit the store on your Android smartphone or tablet you won’t see a name attached to most reviews at all; just the review’s title, and the device that the game or app was run on.

Believe it or not, this is all intentional. It’s the start of a new Google policy … one which may threaten some Android fans’ safety or privacy.

​Google+, whether you like it or not

Google now requires you to have a Google+ (pronounced “Google Plus”) account in order to leave reviews on Google Play, the Chrome Web Store, and Google Maps. No reason for the switchover is given in the pop-up which explains this; you simply click “Continue” if you want your reviews tied to your Google+ account, and if you don’t want them linked you don’t write them at all. If you don’t have a Google+ account, you have to sign up for one before you can write a review.

​Why Google is Plus-ifying everything

Google’s success as a company is determined by how many ads it sells. Google’s share of the ad market is being eaten into by Facebook, which has essentially “walled off” a huge part of people’s day-to-day lives in a place Google can’t index or sell any ads on. For better or for worse, Google’s execs feel that what they need to do to compete is copy Facebook, in the form of Google+.

Why? Because if everyone is “Plusing” things instead of “Liking” them, and if everything people do shows up on Google+ instead of Facebook, then now Google (instead of Facebook) knows what you’re doing online and where you’re doing it — and that gives it a much better position from which to display and sell ads.

​Why this is a problem for many

Besides the obvious privacy concerns (although Google offers limited tools to manage how much it tracks you), Google+’s “real names” policy is dangerous to anyone whose safety is jeopardized by attaching their given name to their online activities. This includes women who are victims of stalking, minors who are victims of abuse, transgender persons in transition, and dissidents in repressive political or religious regimes. By requiring a Google+ account to use more and more of its services, Google is forcing these people to choose between excluding themselves and running the risk of having ​all​ of their Google services terminated for a “real name” policy violation, including their personal Gmail accounts.

Google+ policy allows for pseudonymous accounts, if you’re widely known by that pseudonym online. Everyone’s Google+ page, however, has a button to report what anyone feels is a suspicious name, which puts marginalized persons like those listed above at the mercy of every “troll” who comes by.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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Disney Channel to debut ‘Sofia the First’ Jan. 11

NEW YORK (AP) — Disney says its animated children‘s series “Sofia the First” will premiere Jan. 11 on the Disney Channel and Disney Junior networks.

Created for kids ages 2 to 7, “Sofia the First” is about a young girl who becomes a princess and learns that honesty, loyalty and compassion are what makes a person royal.

Sofia is voiced by “Modern Family” actress Ariel Winter, and her mother is played by “Grey’s Anatomy” star Sara Ramirez.

Last week’s premiere of the “Sofia the First” animated movie drew a total audience of more than 5 million viewers. It was the year’s top-rated cable TV telecast among kids ages 2 to 5.

In the series’ debut episode, Sofia strives to become the first princess to earn a spot on her school’s flying derby team.

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