Gunman kills four people in Finnish shopping mall

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Four people were killed when a gunman opened fire

at a Finnish shopping mall on Thursday, police said, in the country's third multiple shooting incident in as many years.

A 43-year-old suspect, Ibrahim Shkupolli, was still at large and considered armed and dangerous, they said in a statement. The victims of the attack, staged in the town of Espoo near Helsinki as shoppers stocked up for the New Year holiday, were three men and a woman, they added.

National newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on its website that a fifth victim, which it identified as the suspect's ex-wife, had been found dead in an Espoo apartment.

Finland was rocked by two school shootings in 2007 and 2008, after which it tightened gun control regulations.

A Reuters reporter at the Sello Mall in Espoo saw helicopters overhead and fire trucks around the entrances of the shopping center, which was now closed.

"When we were going out I heard sounds like shots from the third floor, and then I left," said a mall employee, who declined to give her name.

"I paid for my groceries and I wanted to go to my car when I was told that you cannot go there," shopper Jorma Romo told Reuters outside of the mall. "They were hurrying people out and people were asking (why)."

Ilta-Sanomat newspaper said on its website that at least seven shots were fired, but gave no source for the information.

(Additional reporting by Terhi Kinnunen)

(Reporting by Brett Young: editing by David Stamp)

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091231/ts_nm/us_finland_shooting

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Solution to killer superbug found in Norway

OSLO, Norway – Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.

Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

Now a spate of new studies from around the world prove that Norway's model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths — 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS — are unnecessary.

"It's a very sad situation that in some places so many are dying from this, because we have shown here in Norway that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be controlled, and with not too much effort," said Jan Hendrik-Binder, Oslo's MRSA medical adviser. "But you have to take it seriously, you have to give it attention, and you must not give up."

The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public healthtuberculosis and malaria, making them harder and in some cases impossible to treat. threats on the planet. A six-month investigation by The Associated Press found overuse and misuse of medicines has led to mutations in once curable diseases like

Now, in Norway's simple solution, there's a glimmer of hope.

---

Dr. John Birger Haug shuffles down Aker's scuffed corridors, patting the pocket of his baggy white scrubs. "My bible," the infectious disease specialist says, pulling out a little red Antibiotic Guide that details this country's impressive MRSA solution.

It's what's missing from this book — an array of antibiotics — that makes it so remarkable.

"There are times I must show these golden rules to our doctors and tell them they cannot prescribe something, but our patients do not suffer more and our nation, as a result, is mostly infection free," he says.

Norway's model is surprisingly straightforward.

• Norwegian doctors prescribe fewer antibiotics than any other country, so people do not have a chance to develop resistance to them.

• Patients with MRSA are isolated and medical staff who test positive stay at home.

• Doctors track each case of MRSA by its individual strain, interviewing patients about where they've been and who they've been with, testing anyone who has been in contact with them.

Haug unlocks the dispensary, a small room lined with boxes of pills, bottles of syrups and tubes of ointment. What's here? Medicines considered obsolete in many developed countries. What's not? Some of the newest, most expensive antibiotics, which aren't even registered for use in Norway, "because if we have them here, doctors will use them," he says.

He points to an antibiotic. "If I treated someone with an infection in Spain with this penicillin I would probably be thrown in jail," he says, "and rightly so because it's useless there."

Norwegians are sanguine about their coughs and colds, toughing it out through low-grade infections.

"We don't throw antibiotics at every person with a fever. We tell them to hang on, wait and see, and we give them a Tylenol to feel better," says Haug.

Convenience stores in downtown Oslo are stocked with an amazing and colorful array — 42 different brands at one downtown 7-Eleven — of soothing, but non-medicated, lozenges, sprays and tablets. All workers are paid on days they, or their children, stay home sick. And drug makers aren't allowed to advertise, reducing patient demands for prescription drugs.

In fact, most marketing here sends the opposite message: "Penicillin is not a cough medicine," says the tissue packet on the desk of Norway's MRSA control director, Dr. Petter Elstrom.

He recognizes his country is "unique in the world and best in the world" when it comes to MRSA. Less than 1 percent of health care providers are positive carriers of MRSA staph.

But Elstrom worries about the bacteria slipping in through other countries. Last year almost every diagnosed case in Norway came from someone who had been abroad.

"So far we've managed to contain it, but if we lose this, it will be a huge problem," he said. "To be very depressing about it, we might in some years be in a situation where MRSA is so endemic that we have to stop doing advanced surgeries, things like organ transplants, if we can't prevent infections. In the worst case scenario we are back to 1913, before we had antibiotics."

---

Forty years ago, a new spectrum of antibiotics enchanted public health officials, quickly quelling one infection after another. In wealthier countries that could afford them, patients and providers came to depend on antibiotics. Trouble was, the more antibiotics are consumed, the more resistant bacteria develop.

Norway responded swiftly to initial MRSA outbreaks in the 1980s by cutting antibiotic use. Thus while they got ahead of the infection, the rest of the world fell behind.

In Norway, MRSA has accounted for less than 1 percent of staph infections for years. That compares to 80 percent in Japan, the world leader in MRSA; 44 percent in Israel; and 38 percent in Greece.

In the U.S., cases have soared and MRSA cost $6 billion last year. Rates have gone up from 2 percent in 1974 to 63 percent in 2004. And in the United Kingdom, they rose from about 2 percent in the early 1990s to about 45 percent, although an aggressive control program is now starting to work.

About 1 percent of people in developed countries carry MRSA on their skin. Usually harmless, the bacteria can be deadly when they enter a body, often through a scratch. MRSA spreads rapidly in hospitals where sick people are more vulnerable, but there have been outbreaks in prisons, gyms, even on beaches. When dormant, the bacteria are easily detected by a quick nasal swab and destroyed by antibiotics.

Dr. John Jernigan at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they incorporate some of Norway's solutions in varying degrees, and his agency "requires hospitals to move the needle, to show improvement, and if they don't show improvement they need to do more."

And if they don't?

"Nobody is accountable to our recommendations," he said, "but I assume hospitals and institutions are interested in doing the right thing."

Dr. Barry Farr, a retired epidemiologist who watched a successful MRSA control program launched 30 years ago at the University of Virginia's hospitals, blamed the CDC for clinging to past beliefs that hand washing is the best way to stop the spread of infections like MRSA. He says it's time to add screening and isolation methods to their controls.

The CDC needs to "eat a little crow and say, 'Yeah, it does work,'" he said. "There's example after example. We don't need another study. We need somebody to just do the right thing."

---

But can Norway's program really work elsewhere?

The answer lies in the busy laboratory of an aging little public hospital about 100 miles outside of London. It's here that microbiologist Dr. Lynne Liebowitz got tired of seeing the stunningly low Nordic MRSA rates while facing her own burgeoning cases.

So she turned Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn into a petri dish, asking doctors to almost completely stop using two antibiotics known for provoking MRSA infections.

One month later, the results were in: MRSA rates were tumbling. And they've continued to plummet. Five years ago, the hospital had 47 MRSA bloodstream infections. This year they've had one.

"I was shocked, shocked," says Liebowitz, bouncing onto her toes and grinning as colleagues nearby drip blood onto slides and peer through microscopes in the hospital laboratory.

When word spread of her success, Liebowitz's phone began to ring. So far she has replicated her experiment at four other hospitals, all with the same dramatic results.

"It's really very upsetting that some patients are dying from infections which could be prevented," she says. "It's wrong."

Around the world, various medical providers have also successfully adapted Norway's program with encouraging results. A medical center in Billings, Mont., cut MRSA infections by 89 percent by increasing screening, isolating patients and making all staff — not just doctors — responsible for increasing hygiene.

In Japan, with its cutting-edge technology and modern hospitals, about 17,000 people die from MRSA every year.

Dr. Satoshi Hori, chief infection control doctor at Juntendo University Hospital in Tokyo, says doctors overprescribe antibiotics because they are given financial incentives to push drugs on patients.

Hori now limits antibiotics only to patients who really need them and screens and isolates high-risk patients. So far his hospital has cut the number of MRSA cases by two-thirds.

In 2001, the CDC approached a Veterans Affairs hospital in Pittsburgh about conducting a small test program. It started in one unit, and within four years, the entire hospital was screening everyone who came through the door for MRSA. The result: an 80 percent decrease in MRSA infections. The program has now been expanded to all 153 VA hospitals, resulting in a 50 percent drop in MRSA bloodstream infections, said Dr. Robert Muder, chief of infectious diseases at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

"It's kind of a no-brainer," he said. "You save people pain, you save people the work of taking care of them, you save money, you save lives and you can export what you learn to other hospital-acquired infections."

Pittsburgh's program has prompted all other major hospital-acquired infections to plummet as well, saving roughly $1 million a year.

"So, how do you pay for it?" Muder asked. "Well, we just don't pay for MRSA infections, that's all."

---

Beth Reimer of Batavia, Ill., became an advocate for MRSA precautions after her 5-week-old daughter Madeline caught a cold that took a fatal turn. One day her beautiful baby had the sniffles. The next?

"She wasn't breathing. She was limp," the mother recalled. "Something was terribly wrong."

MRSA had invaded her little lungs. The antibiotics were useless. Maddie struggled to breathe, swallow, survive, for two weeks.

"For me to sit and watch Madeline pass away from such an aggressive form of something, to watch her fight for her little life — it was too much," Reimer said.

Since Madeline's death, Reimer has become outspoken about the need for better precautions, pushing for methods successfully used in Norway. She's stunned, she said, that anyone disputes the need for change.

"Why are they fighting for this not to take place?" she said.

____

Martha Mendoza is an AP national writer who reported from Norway and England. Margie Mason is an AP medical writer based in Vietnam, who reported while on a fellowship from The Nieman Foundation at Harvard University.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_re_us/when_drugs_stop_working_norway_s_answer

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Russia may send spacecraft to knock away asteroid

MOSCOW – Russia's space agency chief said Wednesday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of earth impact, even though U.S. scientists say such a scenario is unlikely.

Anatoly Perminov told Golos Rossii radio the space agency would hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis. He said his agency might eventually invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project.

When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37.

Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) from Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.

NASA had put the chances that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path, the agency changed its estimate to 1-in-250,000.

NASA said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact.

Don Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, said better calculations of Apophis' path in several years "will almost certainly remove any possibility of an Earth collision" in 2036.

"While Apophis is almost certainly not a problem, I am encouraged that the Russian science community is willing to study the various deflection options that would be available in the event of a future Earth threatening encounter by an asteroid," Yeomans said in an e-mail Wednesday.

Without mentioning NASA's conclusions, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said.

"People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said.

Scientists have long theorized about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or hitting it with nuclear weapons.

Perminov wouldn't disclose any details of the project, saying they still need to be worked out. But he said the mission wouldn't require any nuclear explosions.

Hollywood action films "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," have featured space missions scrambling to avoid catastrophic collisions. In both movies, space crews use nuclear bombs in an attempt to prevent collisions.

"Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision," Perminov said. "The threat of collision can be averted."

Boris Shustov, the director of the Institute of Astronomy under the Russian Academy of Sciences, hailed Perminov's statement as a signal that officials had come to recognize the danger posed by asteroids.

"Apophis is just a symbolic example, there are many other dangerous objects we know little about," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency.

___

AP Science Writer Alicia Chang contributed to this story from Los Angeles.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_sc/eu_russia_asteroid_encounter;_ylt=A2KIKutFKDxLa9UAAgqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpbnUyZ3BrBHBvcwMzNwRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDcnVzc2lhbWF5c2Vu

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Texting while driving, smoking target of '10 laws

MADISON, Wis. – Texting while driving, smoking in public and cooking with artery-clogging trans fats will be that much harder under a bevy of state laws set to take effect around the country on Friday.

Faced with huge budget shortfalls and little extra money to throw around, state lawmakers exercised their (inexpensive) power to clamp down on impolite, unhealthy and sometimes dangerous behaviors in 2009.

Even toy guns were targeted.

Among the most surprising new laws set to take effect in 2010 is a smoking ban for bars and restaurants in North Carolina, the country's largest tobacco producer that has a history steeped in tradition around the golden leaf.

Starting Saturday — stragglers get a one-day reprieve to puff away after their New Year's Day meals — smokers will no longer be allowed to light up in North Carolina bars and restaurants. There are exceptions for country clubs, Elks lodges and the like, but the change is a dramatic one for North Carolina, whose tax coffers long depended on Big Tobacco.

Virginia approved a similar law that took effect Dec. 1, but it's more accommodating to smokers because it allows establishments to offer areas in which to light up as long as they have separate ventilating systems.

Not including Virginia and its partial ban, smoking will be banned in restaurants in 29 states and in bars in 25, according to the American Lung Association.

And 12 more states — including Florida, Michigan and Arkansas — have passed laws requiring manufacturers to make their cigarettes less likely to start fires, leaving Wyoming as the only state without such laws, according to the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes.

America's roads should be safer in 2010, as bans on texting while driving go into effect in New Hampshire, Oregon and Illinois. According to the Governors Highway Safety Association, that will make 19 states that have outlawed the practice, not including six states that prohibit using hand-held cell phones while behind the wheel.

"This legislation is important and will make our roads safer. No driver has any business text messaging while they are driving," said Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, whose office regulates drivers.

Tina Derby, 42, of Warner, N.H., said she has no intention to stop texting while driving, despite the possible $100 fine she could receive.

"I'd better start saving my money," Derby said.

A new Arkansas law prohibits retailers from selling toy guns that look like they real thing. But it may not have that big of an effect.

Imitation guns used for theater productions and other events are exempted, as are replicas of firearms produced before 1898, BB guns, paintball or pellet guns.

Major retailers in the state also say they don't expect any major changes from the new ban. Bentonville-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it already follows similar federal restrictions prohibiting the sale of realistic-looking toy guns.

California will be the first state to partially ban the use of artificial trans fats in restaurants in 2010, following several major cities and fast-food chains that have erased the notorious artery-clogger from menus.

Starting Friday, the state's restaurants, bakeries and other retail food establishments will no longer be allowed to use products with trans fats in spreads or for frying. Restaurants will still be allowed to use trans fats to deep-fry yeast dough and in cake batter until Jan. 1, 2011.

And a new anti-paparazzi law is set to take effect Friday in the state with the movie star governor that will make it easier for celebrities to sue media outlets claiming invasion of privacy.

Fans of dog races will have to find another form of entertainment in Massachusetts, as the 75-year-old tradition has been outlawed starting Friday.

In New Hampshire, a new gay marriage law will replace a law that allows civil unions, which already provided gay couples with all the rights and responsibilities of marriage.

Starting Friday, a gay couple in a civil union can get a marriage license and have a new ceremony, if they choose. They also can convert their civil union into marriage without going through another ceremony. Couples who do nothing will have their civil unions automatically converted to marriages in 2011. Conservatives are seeking to repeal the law.

In Wisconsin, both same-sex and unwed opposite-sex domestic partners who work for the state and University of Wisconsin can sign up to receive health insurance benefits. A law that allowed same-sex partners to sign a registry to receive other benefits similar to what married couples get took effect in August.

Some other laws set to take effect:

• Teenagers going to a tanning bed in Texas will have to be accompanied by an adult.

• Oregon employers are prohibited from restricting employees from wearing religious clothing on the job, taking time off for holy days or participating in a religious observance or practice.

• The sale of "novelty" lighters — devices designed to look like cartoon characters, toys or guns or that play musical notes or have flashing lights — are banned in Nevada and Louisiana.

"They're cute, they're little, but they can be deadly," said the Nevada bill's co-sponsor, Assembly Majority Floor Leader John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas.

___

Associated Press writers Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, N.C., William McCall in Portland, Ore., Christopher Wills in Springfield, Ill., Norma Love in Concord, N.H., Juliet Williams in Sacramento, Calif., Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La., Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., Bill Kaczor in Tallahassee, Fla., and Andrew Demillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this story.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091230/ap_on_re_us/us_new_laws;_ylt=A2KIKutFKDxLa9UA2gms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNmYTRoODE4BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjMwL3VzX25ld19sYXdzBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNARwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3RleHRpbmd3aGlsZQ--

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Report: Rush Limbaugh taken to Hawaii hospital

HONOLULU – Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was taken to a hospital with chest pains on Wednesday, a Honolulu television station reported.

Paramedics responded to a call at 2:41 p.m. from the Kahala Hotel and Resort where Limbaugh is vacationing, KITV reported. The station, citing unnamed sources, said the 58-year-old Limbaugh was taken to The Queens Medical Center in serious condition.

Queens spokeswoman N. Makana Shook says the hospital is unable to comment on the report.

Emergency Medical Services spokesman Bryan Cheplic said paramedics took a male of unknown age to an area hospital from the Kahala Hotel and Resort. He said he had no further information.

Limbaugh was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club earlier this week, KITV said. The country club is next to the Kahala hotel.

For privacy reasons, hotel spokeswoman Sheila Donnelly Theroux said she was unable to acknowledge that Limbaugh is a guest.

In 2001, Limbaugh reported he had lost most of his hearing due to an autoimmune inner-ear disease. He had surgery to have an electronic device placed in his skull to restore his hearing.

Two years later Limbaugh acknowledged he was addicted to pain medicine. He blamed the addiction on severe back pain, and took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter rehab.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_re_us/us_limbaugh_hospital;_ylt=A2KIKutFKDxLa9UA2wms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNvN2Fwa3BmBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjMxL3VzX2xpbWJhdWdoX2hvc3BpdGFsBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDOARwb3MDNQRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3JlcG9ydHJ1c2hsaQ--

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TSA subpoenas bloggers, demands names of sources

WASHINGTON – As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.

Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn't cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.

"It literally showed up in my box," Frischling told The Associated Press. "I do not know who it came from." He said he provided the agents a signed statement to that effect.

In a Dec. 29 posting on his blog, Elliott said he had told the TSA agents at his house that he would call his lawyer and get back to them. Elliott said late Wednesday he could not comment until the legal issues had been resolved.

The TSA declined to say how many people were subpoenaed.

The directive was dated Dec. 25 and was issued after a 23-year-old Nigerian man was charged with attempting to bomb a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit from Amsterdam. The bomb, which allegedly was hidden in Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's underwear, malfunctioned and no one was killed. Authorities said the device included a syringe and a condom-like bag filled with powder that the FBI determined to be PETN, a common explosive.

The near-miss attack has prompted President Barack Obama to order a review of what intelligence information the government had about Abdulmutallab and why it wasn't shared with the appropriate agencies. He also ordered a review of U.S. aviation security. The government has spent billions of dollars and undergone massive reorganizations since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

The TSA directive outlined new screening measures that went into effect the same day as the airliner incident. It included many procedures that would be apparent to the traveling public, such as screening at boarding gates, patting down the upper legs and torso, physically inspecting all travelers' belongings, looking carefully at syringes with powders and liquids, requiring that passengers remain in their seats one hour before landing, and disabling all onboard communications systems, including what is provided by the airline.

It also listed people who would be exempted from these screening procedures such as heads of state and their families.

This is the second time in a month that the TSA has found some of its sensitive airline security documents on the Internet.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_airliner_attack_tsa_subpoenas;_ylt=A2KIKutFKDxLa9UA2Qms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQ0MzY5N3B1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjMxL3VzX2FpcmxpbmVyX2F0dGFja190c2Ffc3VicG9lbmFzBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDNgRwb3MDMwRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA3RzYXN1YnBvZW5hcw--

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Aussies say "no thanks" to 20 million gifts

SYDNEY (Reuters) – How many unwanted gifts did you get under the Christmas tree? If you're Australian, the number is likely to be more than one, amounting to a nationwide total of 20 million "useless" presents, according to a survey.

The survey, commissioned by online marketplace eBay, found that although Australians spent A$8.5 billion ($7.5 billion) buying gifts this Christmas, at least A$1 billion worth of these presents will either be left to gather dust in a cupboard, binned, regifted, exchanged or sold.

Examples of unwanted gifts ranged from underwear, socks, bath products and inappropriately sexual items to a tandoori spice rub for chicken given to a vegetarian and a dog bowl for a dogless recipient, a brick and cellulite cream, an eBay statement said.

The eBay survey of more than 1,200 people also found that more women than men received unwanted gifts this year, while youth aged between 18 and 24 years got the most unwanted presents, which they were likely to throw out or hide away.

An earlier survey showed that more than 825,000 gifts will go straight into the garbage bin in Australia this Christmas because their recipients just hated them.

With Australia's economy still battling to shake off the effects of the global financial crisis, more than a third of Australians had planned to spend less on Christmas gifts this year, compared with the previous year, according to a recent survey by the Melbourne Institute and Westpac Bank.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091228/od_nm/us_gifts_odds;_ylt=A2KIKu0FJjtLpzoAxG2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFmanZxZmNkBHBvcwMyMDUEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9vZGRfbmV3cwRzbGsDYXVzc2llc3NheXF1

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Bombs kill 18 in Iraq's central Anbar province

BAGHDAD – Staggered explosions in central Iraq killed 18 people Wednesday and injured the governor of Anbar province, Iraqi officials said.

Anbar is strategically important because it was once the heartland of the al-Qaida linked insurgency before American officials paid fighters to join a pro-government force.

Police official Lt. Col. Imad al-Fahdawi said two bombs exploded in Ramadi, 70 miles (115 kilometers) west of Baghdad. He says a suicide bomber in a car caused the first blast on the main road near the provincial administration buildings.

Gov. Qassim al-Fahdawi, the deputy police chief and other officials came to inspect the damage, al-Fahdawi said, when a suicide bomber on foot detonated a vest full of explosives nearby.

The deputy police chief was killed and the governor and other officials wounded, al-Fahdawi said. Police have put a curfew in place, he added.

Dr. Ahmed Abid Mohammed confirmed the casualties and said the governor had suffered burns on his face, injuries to his abdomen and other areas.

There are 18 provincial governors in Iraq. Anbar is primarily Sunni, the same sect of Islam as former dictator Saddam Hussein. The province was the former stronghold of the insurgency before the U.S. military began paying fighters to participate in the pro-government Sons of Iraq program, also known as the Awakening Council.

The Sons of Iraq have been widely credited with stabilizing the country after joining up with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the anti-al-Qaida drive about three years ago. But they have been hit by a steady barrage of revenge attacks since then and five of them were killed at a checkpoint Tuesday in central Iraq



source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq;_ylt=A2KIKu0FJjtLpzoAEG2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFoa2YwaHMzBHBvcwMyNQRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNib21ic2tpbGwxOGk-

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Facebook, Twitter top list of weird stories in 2009

BERLIN (Reuters) – From the German town that unwittingly advertised pornography on its website to the American who interrupted his wedding to update his Facebook and Twitter accounts, the world was full of weird stories in 2009.

"Standing at the alter with @TracyPage where just a second ago she became my wife! Gotta go, time to kiss the bride" is how Dana Hanna kept the world posted between "I do" and that kiss.

Cartoon character Marge Simpson made it on the cover of Playboy magazine, two White House gate-crashers celebrated their triumph on Facebook, and the world was fooled into believing a 6-year-old boy was caught in a runaway home-made helium balloon.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube proved fertile ground for many of the bizarre stories.

British physicians were advised to ignore amorous advances from patients after some were propositioned on Facebook, Dutch lawmakers were told off for tweeting in parliament and in Canada an MP had to apologize for insulting a rival on Twitter.

In New York, five "restroom ambassadors" got jobs tweeting from the toilets at Times Square: greeting tourists and shoppers -- and then sending short dispatches on their encounters.

Britain's High Court ordered its first injunction via Twitter to stop an anonymous Tweeter impersonating someone else.

The U.N.'s World Food Programme sent text messages to Iraqi refugees in Syria so they could redeem the virtual vouchers for fresh food in local shops. A U.S. survey found that one in five drivers read or sent text messages from behind the wheel.

"The new technologies that help us multi-task in our everyday lives and increasingly popular social media sites present a hard-to-resist challenge," said U.S. motor club head Robert Darbelnet -- a fitting description for the whole year.

FUNERAL HOME GOES GREEN

Swine flu, or H1N1, presented another challenge -- and rich source of weird stories. In Egypt, thousands of pigs were slaughtered even though the United Nations said the mass cull was a "real mistake" because the strain was not found in pigs.

Russian soccer fans were instructed to drink whisky on a trip to Wales for a World Cup qualifier match to ward off the H1N1 virus. In Japan, candidates stopped shaking hands. In Italy an inventor devised an electronic holy water dispenser.

The spread of new media got people in trouble. Dutch muggers were caught with the help of a Google street view camera.

A vain British burglar sent a picture of himself to his newspaper because the wanted criminal said he did not like the police mugshot. A picture of a student urinating on a British war memorial published in a newspaper led to his being charged.

A German student thrown off a train for riding without a ticket got in trouble on his own.

He stuck his backside against the window at railway staff but his trousers got caught in a train door. He nearly died mooning as he was dragged half-naked along the platform, out of the station and onto the tracks before the train stopped.

In India, a mid-air scuffle broke out between pilots and crew of one flight. In the U.S., two Northwest pilots overflew their destination by 250 km (155 miles). They said they lost their bearings while using their personal laptops in the cockpit.

A Saudi court sentenced a man to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes for boasting about his sexual exploits on TV.

Australian horse racing officials were denounced for holding a dwarf racing competition. The race involved men charging down a course with dwarfs dressed in jockey silks riding piggyback.

The Paris tourist board urged locals to do their part to battle a 17-percent plunge in visitors: Smile! S'il vous plait.

In Norway happy cows proved to be more productive. Since new rules were introduced in 2004 allowing the cows to relax for up to half a day on soft rubberized mattresses, officials reported they are producing more milk and have fewer udder infections.

An Irish school told children to bring their own toilet paper to help the school save money while Cuban officials said the country was facing a severe shortage of toilet paper.

Climate change was another big theme in 2009. To save water and electricity in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez urged people to stop singing in the shower.

Those wishing to be cremated but worried about producing greenhouse gases even after dying learned about a funeral home in Florida that has come up with a greener way to go by dissolving the body using a chemical process.

(Writing by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Paul Casciato)

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091229/od_nm/us_year;_ylt=A0LEaohe1jpL8XgAUTSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFmcTA2cjlwBHBvcwMyMDIEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9vZGRfbmV3cwRzbGsDZmFjZWJvb2t0d2l0

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Target Co was victim of hacker Albert Gonzalez

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Target Co said it was among the victims of computer hacker Albert Gonzalez, mastermind of the biggest identity theft in U.S. history.

The 28-year-old college dropout pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that he stole more than 170 million payment card numbers by breaking into corporate computer systems from businesses including Target.

Gonzalez, under the plea agreement, faces 17 years to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in March.

Target spokeswoman Amy Reilly said her company was among the victims, having had an "extremely limited" number of payment card numbers stolen by Gonzalez about two years ago.

She declined to say how many card numbers had been stolen, and described the term of the exposure as brief.

"A previously planned security enhancement was already under way at the time the criminal activity against Target occurred," Reilly said. "We believe that, at most, only a tiny fraction of guest credit and debit card data used at our stores may have been involved."

She said that Target had notified the card issuers, leaving them to tell their customers.

Prosecutors previously identified other victims in the case as payment card processor Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven Inc, the Hannaford chain of New England grocery stores and another unidentified firm.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty in September to computer break-ins at retailers TJX Cos Inc, BJ's Wholesale Club Inc and Barnes & Noble, in a separate case before U.S. District Judge Patti Saris.

Gonzalez, who appeared in court on Tuesday wearing a beige prison uniform, told U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock that he had abused alcohol and illegal drugs for years. He said he had used marijuana, cocaine, LSD, ketamine and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

"It's one of the reasons to explain why a young man in his 20s did these things," his lawyer, Martin Weinberg, told reporters.

DAY IN COURT

Gonzalez made the formal plea in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in Boston on Tuesday, reiterating the terms of an agreement he had signed with prosecutors.

"You face a considerable amount of time in jail as a result of your plea," Judge Woodlock told Gonzalez. "All aspects of your life are to be affected."

A psychiatrist hired by Gonzalez said in court papers that the hacker's criminal behavior "was consistent with the description of the Asperger's disorder."

Prosecutors have petitioned the court to perform their own psychiatric evaluation of Gonzalez, but Weinberg sought to block that request.

"He's admitted responsibility. He is remorseful," Weinberg told reporters.

At the same courthouse last week, one of Gonzalez's conspirators, Stephen Watt of New York, was sentenced to two years in prison for developing the software used to capture payment card data. He was also ordered to pay $171.5 million in restitution.

The cases are: U.S. v Albert Gonzalez in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts No. 10223 and No. 10382. (Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Richard Chang, Leslie Gevirtz)

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091230/tc_nm/us_hacker

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Letterman extortion suspect looks to Woods scandal

NEW YORK – The TV producer accused of shaking down David Letterman to keep mum about his affairs is drawing on the Tiger Woods sex scandal to try to bolster his defense.

In court papers filed Tuesday, Robert "Joe" Halderman's lawyer cited published reports that Woods paid an alleged mistress millions of dollars to stay silent. Attorney Gerald Shargel suggested that since the woman hasn't been charged with a crime, Halderman shouldn't be, either.

"Evidence of celebrity misdeeds has a significant fair market value," lawyer Gerald Shargel wrote. "... Evidence of such misdeeds is routinely suppressed through private business arrangement."

Halderman has pleaded not guilty to attempted grand larceny in a case that shoved Letterman's love life into public view. The "Late Show" host stunned viewers in October by abruptly revealing the extortion case and acknowledging he had had affairs with women on his staff.

Authorities say Halderman demanded $2 million as hush money, threatening to reveal information he'd gleaned from reading in his then-girlfriend's diary that she had had trysts with Letterman, her boss. Halderman's threat was couched as an outline of a thinly veiled screenplay about the comic's life unraveling with the disclosure of his dalliances, prosecutors say.

Shargel says Halderman just offered to sell his "very marketable story" to Letterman — and to keep it confidential as part of the deal.

Prosecutors declined to comment on Halderman's attempt to draw a parallel to the scandal surrounding Woods. The golfer has acknowledged infidelities, without giving specifics, and has not said he paid anyone to keep quiet.

But Letterman's lawyer weighed in, calling the producer's latest argument a bid to shift attention from his own conduct.

"This was not a sale of anything legitimate, this was classic extortion," Letterman lawyer Daniel J. Horwitz said in a statement.

Halderman, 52, is a producer for CBS' "48 Hours Mystery." If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091230/ap_en_tv/us_letterman_suspect;_ylt=A0LEaohe1jpL8XgAhjOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNvaW8xNDNnBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjMwL3VzX2xldHRlcm1hbl9zdXNwZWN0BGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDOQRwb3MDNgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX2hlYWRsaW5lX2xpc3QEc2xrA2xldHRlcm1hbmV4dA--

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Outback to pay $19M to settle discrimination suit

DENVER – Outback Steakhouse has agreed to pay $19 million to female workers and take other steps, including hiring a new human resources executive, to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit.

A consent decree describing the settlement between the Tampa-based restaurant chain and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver on Tuesday.

The EEOC filed a lawsuit against Outback there in 2006, claiming that female workers were denied favorable jobs which prevented them from advancing to profit-sharing management positions.

Outback has also agreed to institute an online application system for managerial positions and hire a human resources executive for a new position called vice president of people. It also agreed to hire a consultant to monitor its compliance with the settlement and to report back to the EEOC on how it's doing every six month.

Outback didn't acknowledge any wrongdoing and parent company OSI Restaurant Partners said settling the suit with insurance funds was better than spending time and money on litigation.

Restaurant Partners' new CEO, Liz Smith, said the company doesn't tolerate any form of discrimination and that she is committed to "very compelling and rewarding employment opportunities for all individuals."

Under the settlement, the $19 million will be distributed to women who have worked at corporately owned Outbacks for at least three years since 2002. Letters will be sent to them telling them of the settlement.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091229/ap_on_bi_ge/us_outback_discrimination;_ylt=A0LEaohe1jpL8XgAgzOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTN0ZGZrajNsBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjI5L3VzX291dGJhY2tfZGlzY3JpbWluYXRpb24EY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM2BHBvcwMzBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDb3V0YmFja3RvcGF5

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Indonesian Facebook mum wins hospital defamation case

JAKARTA (AFP) – An Indonesian court on Tuesday threw out a hospital's criminal defamation case against a mother-of-two who wrote emails to her friends complaining about a wrong diagnosis.

Bank worker Prita Mulyasari, 32, broke into tears and the court erupted with applause as the panel of judges dismissed Omni International Hospital's complaint, after a months-long trial that has outraged the nation.

"The email sent by the defendant doesn't contain any defamation. It constitutes criticism so the public will be protected from mistreatment by any hospital or doctor," the judges said in their ruling.

Mulyasari had written to about 20 of her friends about being misdiagnosed with dengue fever at the hospital, when in fact she had mumps.

The hospital filed criminal charges after the emails were circulated without her knowledge on social networking website Facebook.

She was facing up to six years in jail and had already spent weeks in police custody without charge.

"I can't believe this. This is the power of God," Mulyasari told MetroTv in an interview shortly after the court announced its ruling, which was broadcast live on television.

Wearing a white blouse and Islamic headscarf, she thanked her family for their support throughout her ordeal.

"From the beginning, I believed there would be an end to this problem. God never sleeps," she said, adding that justice had been done.

"It never crossed my mind that I would end up in court over an email I sent to friends."

Arrested on May 13, Mulyasari spent three weeks in custody while she was still breastfeeding her second child.

Public anger at her detention, symbolised by a Facebook support group with more than 100,000 members, forced authorities to release her and bring her before the courts.

She was fined 204 million rupiah (21,400 dollars) -- much more than a year's salary for most Indonesians -- under the civil code for defaming the hospital, which also filed criminal charges against her.

The hospital's dogged pursuit of the soft-spoken, deeply religious mother-of-two struck a chord of resentment among ordinary Indonesians who see the judiciary as a market where the rich go free while the poor suffer.

A group of bloggers started a "Help Prita" movement which raised more than 50,000 dollars in public donations to help her pay the fine.

"I'm blessed and thankful because suddenly I feel that I'm not alone," Mulyasari told AFP earlier this month.

Taufik Basari, a human rights lawyer from the People's Legal Aid Foundation, said the case illustrated a deep "imbalance" in favour of the rich and powerful at the heart of Indonesia's legal system.

"The powerless people, either politically or economically weak, are always at a disadvantage. There's always unequal treatment for them. This is supported by the corrupt behaviour of law enforcers," he said.

Omni Hospital, perhaps realising that it had done more damage to its image by pursuing Mulyasari than she had ever done in her emails, proposed this month to drop its civil suit claim for damages if she agreed to a public apology.

But Mulyasari has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court against the fine.

If she wins, she has promised to give the public donations to charity.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091229/tc_afp/indonesiacourthealthinternet_20091229065732

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Confusion fills skies after attempted bombing

CHICAGO – You are now free to move about the cabin. Or not. After a two-day security clampdown prompted by a thwarted attempt to bomb a jetliner, some airline officials told The Associated Press that the in-flight restrictions had been eased. And it was now up to captains on each flight to decide whether passengers can have blankets and other items on their laps or can move around during the final phase of flight.

Confused? So were scores of passengers who flew Monday on one of the busiest travel days of the year. On some flights, passengers were told to keep their hands visible and not to listen to iPods. Even babies were frisked. But on other planes, security appeared no tighter than usual.

The Transportation Security Administration did little to explain the rules. And that inconsistency might well have been deliberate: What's confusing to passengers is also confusing to potential terrorists.

"It keeps them guessing," transportation expert Joseph Schwieterman said.

By not making public a point-by-point list of new security rules, federal officials also retain more flexibility, the DePaul University professor added, enabling them to target responses to certain airports or flights seen as more vulnerable.

"There was criticism after 9-11 that rules could be way too cookbook — not allowing authorities to adapt them to different settings, to different airports," Schwieterman said.

If the objective was to befuddle, then on Monday it was mission accomplished.

On one Air Canada flight from Toronto to New York's LaGuardia Airport, crew members told passengers before departure that they were not allowed to use any electronic devices — even iPods — and would not be able to access their personal belongings during the one-hour flight.

The questions came as President Barack Obama ordered a review of air-safety regulations. TSA spokeswoman Sterling Payne declined to offer details other than to say the agency would "continually review and update these measures to ensure the highest level of security."

An hour before a US Air flight from Manchester, England, to Philadelphia landed, flight attendants removed passengers' blankets and told them to keep their "hands visible," said passenger Walt Swanson of Cumbria, England.

Even bathroom visits were affected on some flights.

On Continental Flight 1788 from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, three airport security agents frisked everyone at the gate, including babies, prompting one to scream loudly in protest. On the plane, crew announced that the toilets would be shut down the last hour of the flight and passengers would not be able eat, drink, or use electronic devices.

The warning that the bathrooms would be shut down led to lines 10 people deep at each lavatory. A demand by one attendant that no one could read anything either elicited gasps of disbelief and howls of laughter.

In-cabin screens normally showing the plane's location and flight path were switched off on an Air France flight Saturday from San Francisco to Paris. Flight attendants said they were turned off as a security measure.

One of the Transportation Security Administration restrictions that most annoyed the airlines was an order to shut off in-flight entertainment systems on international flights. Airlines objected, and on Sunday night, the TSA apparently relented and left it to the discretion of airline crews to decide whether to turn off the systems.

"It was a hardship on our customers," said Mateo Lleras, a spokesman for JetBlue Airways, which touts its seatback entertainment systems and operates international flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Costa Rica. "We're not in a position to challenge the TSA security directives, and we do the best we can to comply."

The TSA also relaxed rules that had prohibited passengers from leaving their seats, opening carry-on bags and keeping blankets or babies on their laps during the last hour of international flights entering the U.S., according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the TSA had not publicly disclosed the change.

Crews were given the authority to impose restrictions for shorter periods or not at all, said the official.

Holiday traveler Sharen Rayburn, of Trion, Ga., said it took two hours to get through security in Denver because guards were checking every bag multiple times.

"You're a little more apprehensive to fly. You kind of pay attention to everybody," she said after landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International.

At Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Monday morning, every U.S.-bound passenger was subjected to a pat-down and luggage was inspected by hand. It took about three hours to get through the checks, with some information boards citing the security measures for several delays and cancelations.

Elsewhere, especially on domestic flights, passengers said they had not detected security upgrades.

"I honestly didn't notice a difference, and we didn't receive any special instructions from the crew," said James Merling, a 68-year-old doctor who flew from Marquette, Mich., to Boston's Logan International Airport on Monday.

Lexi Wirthlin, 22, who arrived at Philadelphia International Airport on Monday from St. Louis, Mo., said she was warned by friends to expect long lines at airport screening points or other hassles onboard.

"I was expecting it to be intense," she said. "But it was totally fine."

But just because authorities imposed and then pulled back on in-flight rules in the last couple of days does not mean they will never be reinstated.

Schwieterman said new safety procedures have a tendency to become permanent, citing how attempted shoe-bomber Richard Reid's attack in 2001 ushered in footwear checks.

"I would say it is hard to imagine going back to a more lax security process given the persistence of these attempts," he said. "This is now a part of everyday life."

___

Associated Press writers Mark Pratt in Boston, David Koenig in Dallas, Dorie Turner in Atlanta, Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia, Adam Goldman in New York City, John Heilprin and Rob Gillies in Toronto, and Sheila Norman-Culp in London also contributed to this report.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091229/ap_on_re_us/us_airline_attack_passenger_confusion;_ylt=AgyU0CccA9fKbNtW4N3H0T6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFoM2g2ZWtyBHBvcwMyNQRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNjb25mdXNpb25maWw-

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Obama friend's child injured, golf interrupted

KAILUA, Hawaii – President Barack Obama abruptly ended his golf outing and sped in his motorcade to his compound Monday after he learned a friend's child was injured while playing on the beach.

Members of the first family were fine, a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of a reluctance to discuss personal matters involving the president.

The injury to a child belonging to Eric and Cheryl Whitaker, friends of the Obamas, was described as relatively minor and that the child did not require stitches.

The president was playing golf with friends from Chicago who joined him on his holiday vacation.

An ambulance raced to the Obamas' rented compound and then left with lights flashing.

After a brief delay, Obama returned to the course.

___

Associated Press writer Philip Elliott in Honolulu contributed to this report.

source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091229/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_personal_matter;_ylt=Avb_d2xWDqx9v5p124HFDeGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNzcWVydTdiBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjI5L3VzX29iYW1hX3BlcnNvbmFsX21hdHRlcgRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzUEcG9zAzIEcHQDaG9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNvYmFtYWZyaWVuZHM-

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