Saturday, December 17, 2011

Young couple buried under tons of coal in Florida

AP

Christopher Artes in a family photo.

A young couple with wanderlust and a love of trains were found dead this week buried under thousands of pounds of coal in Florida.

Workers at the McIntosh Power Plant in Lakeland, Fla., found the bodies of Christopher Artes and Medeana Hendershot.


"Artes, 25, and Hendershot, 22, may have been aboard a coal train that arrived late Saturday night in Lakeland, police said," The Lakeland Ledger reports in a?story recounting the couple's itinerant-by-choice lives. "The couple appeared to have died as the coal, about 12,500 tons total, was dumped from the train, plunging the equivalent of multiple stories."

Artes, who grew up in Baltimore,?hopscotched the country on trains, his family said. He met?Hendershot in South Carolina.

Lakeland Ledger: Pair Found Dead in Coal Sought Freedom of Rails

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9498324-young-couple-buried-under-tons-of-coal-in-florida

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How watching football was nearly the death of a fan (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Watching your favorite football team trying to hang on to a precarious lead in the dying minutes of a match is enough to frazzle anyone's nerves, but for one Manchester United fan the stress was nearly too much.

The 58-year-old woman gets so anxious she has to take treatment for a life-threatening condition brought on by watching knife-edge games at the Old Trafford stadium.

The condition, known as an Addisonian crisis, comes about when the adrenal glands do not produce enough of the stress-reducing hormone cortisol, a lack of which can lead to low blood pressure and even a coma.

"We believe that our patient was having difficulty mounting an appropriate physiological cortisol response during the big games and therefore we present this as the first description of Manchester United-induced Addisonian crisis," said Dr Akbar Choudhry who treated the patient.

Doctors suspected the condition when the woman started getting bouts of anxiety, palpitations, panic, light headedness, and a sense of impending doom towards the end of matches.

The symptoms were less serious when the home side was playing a lower-rated team.

An Addisonian crisis, which is a manifestation of Addison's disease, is difficult to diagnose because the main symptoms include fatigue, lethargy and low mood -- often experienced by otherwise healthy people and frequently reported in many other chronic conditions.

"Luckily, the patient was on holiday for United's 6-1 defeat by local rivals Manchester City in October," Choudhry said in a report on BMJ.com.

"But, by this time, doctors had fine-tuned her therapy and she has remained symptom-free during recent tense contests against Sunderland and FC Basel," he added.

Treatment coincided with the start of the 2011/12 football season and the patient has managed to attend all games at Old Trafford without any adverse effects.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/od_nm/us_football_stress

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Obama admin: 2.5M young adults gain coverage

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2011, file photo, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius participates in an roundtable discussion on health information technology and job creation at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. The Obama administration says the number of young adults going without medical coverage has shrunk by 2.5 million since the new health care law took effect. A new analysis to be released Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, finds the drop is two-and-half times larger than indicated by government and private estimates from earlier this year. The health care overhaul allows young adults to stay on a parent?s plan until they turn 26. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2011, file photo, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius participates in an roundtable discussion on health information technology and job creation at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. The Obama administration says the number of young adults going without medical coverage has shrunk by 2.5 million since the new health care law took effect. A new analysis to be released Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, finds the drop is two-and-half times larger than indicated by government and private estimates from earlier this year. The health care overhaul allows young adults to stay on a parent?s plan until they turn 26. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

(AP) ? Young adults trying to get traction in a tough economy are getting a welcome assist: the new federal health care law has markedly improved their access to health insurance.

The number of young Americans ages 19-25 lacking health insurance has shrunk by 2.5 million since President Barack Obama's health care overhaul took effect, the administration announced in an analysis released Wednesday.

That drop is 2? times as large as the decline indicated by previous government and private estimates from earlier this year, which showed about 1 million had gained coverage.

The improvement comes even as the uninsured rate stayed basically stuck for those a little older, ages 26-35.

Under the health care overhaul, adult children can stay on a parent's plan until they turn 26, a provision that has proven popular in an otherwise divisive law.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the numbers show the law is making a big difference for families with adult children.

"Many of them gained coverage earlier this spring, meaning the law was there for young people as they graduated from college or high school and began their careers," she said.

Administration officials said there are a couple of reasons for the better-than-expected result.

First, there is more data available now than earlier this year. Secondly, analysts are slicing the numbers more precisely than the government usually does.

The health care law's main push to cover the uninsured doesn't come until 2014. But the young adults' provision took effect last fall, and most workplace health plans started carrying it out Jan. 1. Since then, families have flocked to sign up adult children making the transition to work in a challenging environment.

The overall fate of Obama's law remains uncertain, with the Supreme Court scheduled to hear a constitutional challenge next year, and Republican presidential candidates vowing to repeal it. But this provision seems to have gotten a seal of approval from consumers.

"The increase in coverage among 19- to 25-year-olds can be directly attributed to the Affordable Care Act's new dependent coverage provision," said the HHS analysis.

Using unpublished quarterly statistics from the government's ongoing National Health Interview Survey, analysts in Sebelius' policy office determined that nearly 36 percent of those age 19-25 were uninsured in the third calendar quarter of 2010, before the law's provision took effect.

That translates to more than 10.5 million people.

By the second calendar quarter of 2011, the proportion of uninsured young adults had dropped to a little over 27 percent, or about 8 million people.

The difference ? nearly 2.5 million getting coverage ? can only be the result of the health care law, administration officials said, because the number covered by public programs like Medicaid went down slightly.

Overall, nearly 30 million Americans are ages 19 to 25.

"From September 2010 to June 2011, coverage rose only among those adults affect by the policy," said the HHS report.

The National Center for Health Statistics has documented a broadly similar trend in its official publications, only it's not nearly as dramatic.

Administration officials said those statistics did not focus on the change from calendar quarter to calendar quarter, as does the new HHS report. Instead, they pool data over longer time periods, and that has the effect of diluting the perceived impact of the law, officials said.

Traditionally, young adults have been more likely to be uninsured than any other age group.

Some are making the switch from school to work. Others are holding down low-wage jobs that don't usually come with health care. And some ? termed the "invincibles" ? pass up job-based health insurance because they don't think they'll use it and would rather get extra money in their paychecks.

Other early coverage expansions in the health care law have not worked as well, including a special program for people with health problems turned away by private insurers. Many applicants found the premiums unaffordable.

Young adults are less expensive to cover than people who are middle-aged, and many companies have spread the extra premiums among their workers. Benefits consultant Delloite LLP has projected additional health plan costs in the range of 1 percent to 2 percent for covering young adults.

Before the health care overhaul, families with adult children faced a hodgepodge of policies. Some health plans only covered older children while they were full-time students. Others applied an age cutoff.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2011-12-14-US-Health-Overhaul-Young-Adults/id-04b07b94df494d9ba6180997e57eee19

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Instapundit ? Blog Archive ? LEGAL EDUCATION UPDATE: The ...

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Source: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/133484/

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Egypt parliament election had 62 percent turnout

Protesters chant slogans during a protest in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Protesters chant slogans during a protest in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

A wounded Egyptian protesters attends Friday prayers during a rally in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A woman covers her face with Egyptian flag as she attends a protest in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Protesters carry symbolic coffins honoring those killed in recent clashes with security forces during a rally in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

An Egyptian stands in front of statue for Venezuelan statesman Simon Bolivar, leader of revolt of South American, as it wears an eye patch that symbolizes protesters wounded in clashes with security forces during the last weeks protests in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

(AP) ? The head of Egypt's election commission says 62 percent of eligible voters turned out for the first round of parliamentary elections.

Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim called the number "the highest since the time of pharaohs."

The parliamentary election is the first since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising in February. The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm is expected to take the largest share of votes, followed by an ultraconservative Islamist party and a coalition of liberal parties called the Egyptian bloc.

More than 13 million voters cast ballots in Monday and Tuesday's vote, the first of three rounds for the lower house. Three other rounds lasting until march will elect the less powerful upper house.

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

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist party plans to push for a stricter religious code in Egypt after claiming surprisingly strong gains in the first round of parliamentary elections, a spokesman said Friday.

Final results are to be announced later in the day for a first phase of voting held in half of Egypt's 18 provinces, but preliminary counts have been leaked by judges and individual political groups.

Islamists led by the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Salafists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give the religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.

Spokesman Yousseri Hamad says the Salafi Nour party expects to get 30 percent of the vote. Their party appeared to lead the polls in the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheik, in the rural area of Fayoum, which is known for high rates of illiteracy and poverty, and in parts of their longtime stronghold of Alexandria.

Hamad also said the party faced its toughest challenge in Cairo because of the small presence of Salafi supporters there.

The strong showing would put them in a position to influence policy, although it's unclear how much power the new parliament will have with the ruling generals still in power. For example, the military, which is not keen to see Egypt delivered to radical Islamists, maintains that it ? not the largest bloc in parliament ? will choose the next Cabinet. It is also poised to closely oversee the drafting of a new constitution.

The Nour Party's purist pursuit of strict Shariah, or Islamic law, would also face tough opposition from a diverse array of youth activists in the streets, Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, as well as liberal and secular political parties pushing for more social and political freedoms ? perhaps forcing it to veer less toward the large role that religion plays in Saudi Arabia.

The Nour Party is the main political arm of the hard-line Salafi movement, which was inspired by the Saudi-style Wahhabi school of thought.

Salafists are newcomers on Egypt's political scene. They long shunned the concept of democracy, saying it allows man's law to override God's. But they formed parties and entered politics after Mubarak's ouster to position themselves to try to make sure Shariah law is an integral part of Egypt's new constitution.

The more moderate and pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, has been around since 1928 and has for decades been the largest and best organized opposition movement in Egypt, despite being officially outlawed until Mubarak's ouster.

Seeking to broaden its political appeal, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has described its election platform as civil but with an Islamic background, setting them up to be more rival than ally to harder-line Islamists.

Hamad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that his party is willing to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood as well as with secular and liberal forces "if it will serve the interest of the nation."

Still, Salafi groups speak confidently about their ambition to turn Egypt into a state where personal freedoms, including freedom of speech, women's dress and art are constrained by Islamic Shariah codes.

"In the land of Islam, I can't let people decide what is permissible or what is prohibited. It's God who gives the answers as to what is right and what is wrong," Hamad said. "If God tells me you can drink whatever you want except for alcohol, you don't leave the million things permitted and ask about the prohibited."

Their surprisingly strong showing worries many liberals and Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population.

"We want democracy and what they want is anything but democratic," said Amir Fouad, a Coptic Christian who trained as an engineer but drives a taxi because he can't find another job. "They want Egypt to be like Saudi Arabia, all Islamic."

Fouad, 40, said he worries the Salafists will force Christian women to wear Islamic veils.

"I feel like it will be very hard for me to live in Egypt if they rule," he said. "They will take Egypt backward."

Even some religious Egyptians see the Salafists as too extreme.

"I am religious and don't want laws that go against my beliefs, but there shouldn't be religious law," said Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a geography teacher. "I don't want anyone imposing his religious views on me."

Islamist victory in Egypt ? long considered a linchpin of regional stability ? would be the clearest signal yet that parties and candidates connected to political Islam will emerge as the main beneficiaries of this year's Arab Spring uprisings.

Tunisia and Morocco have both elected Islamist majorities to parliament, and while Libya has yet to announce dates for its first elections, Islamist groups have emerged as a strong force there since rebels overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in August. They also play a strong opposition role in Yemen.

This week's vote, held in nine provinces, will determine about 30 percent of the 498 seats in the People's Assembly, parliament's lower house. Two more rounds, ending in January, will cover Egypt's other 18 provinces.

The new parliament, in theory, is tasked with selecting a 100-member panel to draft Egypt's new constitution. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country after Mubarak's fall in February, has suggested that it will choose 80 of those members.

The Carter Center, which sent teams to observe the parliamentary vote, said in a Friday statement that participation was high and that all parties appeared committed to a democratic transition in Egypt.

The center, which visited more than 300 stations in the nine provinces that voted, also called on election officials to better prepare workers at polling and counting stations and issue clearer regulations about campaigning before future rounds of voting.

Despite a legal ban on campaigning on election day, many parties actively distributed flyers outside polling stations.

Also Friday, more than 5,000 protesters demonstrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square to call for a speedier transition to civilian rule and trials for security officers accused of killing protesters.

Large crowds marched into the square carrying dozens of coffins wrapped in Egyptian flags to represent those killed in clashes with the police near the square in the week before the elections.

Islamist groups did not join the protests, hanging their hopes ? for now at least ? on the election results.

While the number of protesters was smaller that in recent weeks, many said they had voted but still considered protest necessary.

"People haven't given up on the square just because there were elections," said Ibrahim Hussein, who voted this week for the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. "They all have the same demands and they haven't been met yet."

In Cairo's Abdeen neighborhood, a few thousand protesters marched in support of the military, saying only it can bring stability at this time.

___

Associated Press writer Ben Hubbard contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-02-ML-Egypt/id-fd52d0d7c0d54e868cc6a68c98718639

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Friday, December 2, 2011

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Teardown Reveals Easily Swappable Innards

Rumors of Google?s next-generation Nexus smartphone have been floating in the ether for months. As we approach the phone?s imminent release, only a fortunate few have been able to get their hands on one, including not only we at WIRED, but also the gadget tinkerers at iFixit, who just posted a full teardown of what lies beneath the Nexus hood.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/Li9gQd4TtAU/

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Thursday, December 1, 2011

UK "outraged" by incursion into Tehran embassy (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Britain said on Tuesday it was outraged at an incursion into its embassy compound in Tehran during which dozens of young Iranian men were reported to have entered buildings, thrown petrol bombs and burned documents.

"There has been a incursion by a significant number of demonstrators into our Embassy premises, including vandalism to our property," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

"This is a fluid situation and details are still emerging," it added. "We are outraged by this. It is utterly unacceptable and we condemn it.

The statement said that under international law Iran has a clear duty to protect diplomats and Embassies in their country.

"We expect them to act urgently to bring the situation under control and ensure the safety of our staff and security of our property," it added.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary William Hague said he expected some other countries to follow Britain's lead in imposing financial sanctions on Iran and pledged "robust" action if Tehran reduces its diplomatic relations with London.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111129/wl_nm/us_iran_britain_reaction

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George Michael 'improving,' say doctors

British singer George Michael's health is improving, doctors treating him in Vienna for pneumonia said in a statement Wednesday.

The 48-year-old former Wham! frontman was hospitalized in the Austrian capital and diagnosed with severe pneumonia, forcing him to cancel the remainder of his European tour.

Story: George Michael has pneumonia, cancels shows

"The latest development in Mr. Michael's case ? which has evolved from a severe pneumococcal infection ? necessitated intensive care due to its severity and extension," said professors Gottfried Locker and Christoph Zielinski.

"We are happy to announce that Mr. Michael is improving steadily with an impressive regression of pneumonic symptoms and follows a steady rate of improvement as hoped.

"As we said previously, complete rest and peace and quiet are mandatory."

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The doctors also appeared to address speculation in the British tabloid press that Michael was suffering further, potentially serious health complications and that he was receiving state-of-the-art treatment during his stay at the Vienna General Hospital.

Story: Pop ladies of the '80s have still got the beat

"There are no other health issues with regards to the patient other than the underlying pneumonic disorder, and no further measures had to be taken," they said.

"Michael is receiving precisely the same treatment as any ordinary patient in Austria would receive at the hospital for this disease."

The Grammy award-winning singer found fame in the 1980s with Wham! before going on to pursue a successful solo career. He has sold an estimated 100 million records and has a personal fortune estimated at 90 million pounds ($140 million).

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45489938/ns/today-entertainment/

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