Men taking long-acting chronic pain meds 5xs more likely to have low testosterone levels

Public release date: 31-Jan-2013
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Contact: Vincent Staupe
vstaupe@golinharris.com
415-318-4386
Kaiser Permanente

The study is the first to show a significant difference in risk between short-acting and long-acting opioids

OAKLAND, Calif., January 31, 2013 Low testosterone levels occur five times more often among men who take long-acting instead of short-acting opioids for chronic pain, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published in The Clinical Journal of Pain.

While it has been known that opioids cause low testosterone in men, this study is the first to show a significant difference in risk between short-acting (immediate release) and long-acting opioids.

The 81 men in the retrospective study were between 26 and 79 years old (median age 51) and were seen in the chronic-pain clinic at Kaiser Permanente's Santa Rosa Medical Center (Calif.) between January 2009 and June 2010. All of the participants had been on a stable dose of an opioid for at least three months, and none had a previous diagnosis of low testosterone. A larger retrospective study of more than 1,500 male pain patients is currently under way.

"There's a large gap in the evidence base with regard to opioids," said Andrea Rubinstein, MD, of the Departments of Chronic Pain and Anesthesiology, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center. "More safety and efficacy studies are needed. We need to know how we can prescribe these very useful medications in a way that brings the greatest benefits to our patients, without introducing additional risks."

Once prescribed primarily to cancer patients, the use of opioid-based medications such as oxycodone (Oxycontin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin) for treating chronic, non-cancer pain has increased dramatically in recent decades. An estimated 4.3 million Americans use opioids on a daily basis for pain.

"For years, doctors have been encouraged to prescribe long-acting opioids rather than short-acting opioids because we believed they were safer, had less abuse potential, and offered more consistent pain control, but no study has ever been able to support this practice," Dr. Rubinstein said.

The study compared the use of short-acting opioids, which immediately release the pain medication and are taken every four to six hours, and long-acting opioids, which slowly release the pain medication and are taken every eight to 12 hours.

A healthy young man should have testosterone levels between 300 and 800 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL); in this study, low testosterone, also known as hypogonadism, was defined as less than 250 ng/dL. Low testosterone levels have been associated with decreases in muscle mass, bone density (osteoporosis or osteopenia), cognition, mood, libido (sex drive) and general quality of life.

Seventy-four percent of the men on long-acting opioids had low testosterone levels, compared with 34 percent of the men using short-acting opioids. After controlling for daily dosage and body mass index, the study found that the odds of having low testosterone were 4.78 times greater for men taking a long-acting opioid than a short-acting opioid. Dose was not associated with an increased risk of low testosterone.

"These medications work well for short-term, acute pain," said Dr. Rubinstein. "It has long been extrapolated that they can also be used safely long-term to control chronic pain. We are now finding that the long-term use of opioids may have important unintended health consequences."

###

Co-authors of the study were Diane M. Carpenter, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research; and Jerome R. Minkoff, MD, Kaiser Permanente Department of Endocrinology, Santa Rosa Medical Center.

The Clinical Journal of Pain is the official journal of the Eastern Pain Association.

About the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research

The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research conducts, publishes and disseminates epidemiologic and health services research to improve the health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and the society at large. It seeks to understand the determinants of illness and well-being, and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Currently, DOR's 600-plus staff is working on more than 250 epidemiological and health services research projects. For more information, visit www.dor.kaiser.org.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and nonprofit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/newscenter.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 31-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vincent Staupe
vstaupe@golinharris.com
415-318-4386
Kaiser Permanente

The study is the first to show a significant difference in risk between short-acting and long-acting opioids

OAKLAND, Calif., January 31, 2013 Low testosterone levels occur five times more often among men who take long-acting instead of short-acting opioids for chronic pain, according to a new Kaiser Permanente study published in The Clinical Journal of Pain.

While it has been known that opioids cause low testosterone in men, this study is the first to show a significant difference in risk between short-acting (immediate release) and long-acting opioids.

The 81 men in the retrospective study were between 26 and 79 years old (median age 51) and were seen in the chronic-pain clinic at Kaiser Permanente's Santa Rosa Medical Center (Calif.) between January 2009 and June 2010. All of the participants had been on a stable dose of an opioid for at least three months, and none had a previous diagnosis of low testosterone. A larger retrospective study of more than 1,500 male pain patients is currently under way.

"There's a large gap in the evidence base with regard to opioids," said Andrea Rubinstein, MD, of the Departments of Chronic Pain and Anesthesiology, Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center. "More safety and efficacy studies are needed. We need to know how we can prescribe these very useful medications in a way that brings the greatest benefits to our patients, without introducing additional risks."

Once prescribed primarily to cancer patients, the use of opioid-based medications such as oxycodone (Oxycontin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin) for treating chronic, non-cancer pain has increased dramatically in recent decades. An estimated 4.3 million Americans use opioids on a daily basis for pain.

"For years, doctors have been encouraged to prescribe long-acting opioids rather than short-acting opioids because we believed they were safer, had less abuse potential, and offered more consistent pain control, but no study has ever been able to support this practice," Dr. Rubinstein said.

The study compared the use of short-acting opioids, which immediately release the pain medication and are taken every four to six hours, and long-acting opioids, which slowly release the pain medication and are taken every eight to 12 hours.

A healthy young man should have testosterone levels between 300 and 800 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL); in this study, low testosterone, also known as hypogonadism, was defined as less than 250 ng/dL. Low testosterone levels have been associated with decreases in muscle mass, bone density (osteoporosis or osteopenia), cognition, mood, libido (sex drive) and general quality of life.

Seventy-four percent of the men on long-acting opioids had low testosterone levels, compared with 34 percent of the men using short-acting opioids. After controlling for daily dosage and body mass index, the study found that the odds of having low testosterone were 4.78 times greater for men taking a long-acting opioid than a short-acting opioid. Dose was not associated with an increased risk of low testosterone.

"These medications work well for short-term, acute pain," said Dr. Rubinstein. "It has long been extrapolated that they can also be used safely long-term to control chronic pain. We are now finding that the long-term use of opioids may have important unintended health consequences."

###

Co-authors of the study were Diane M. Carpenter, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research; and Jerome R. Minkoff, MD, Kaiser Permanente Department of Endocrinology, Santa Rosa Medical Center.

The Clinical Journal of Pain is the official journal of the Eastern Pain Association.

About the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research

The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research conducts, publishes and disseminates epidemiologic and health services research to improve the health and medical care of Kaiser Permanente members and the society at large. It seeks to understand the determinants of illness and well-being, and to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care. Currently, DOR's 600-plus staff is working on more than 250 epidemiological and health services research projects. For more information, visit www.dor.kaiser.org.

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America's leading health care providers and nonprofit health plans. Founded in 1945, our mission is to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 9 million members in nine states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/newscenter.

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/kp-mtl013113.php

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6 Comments - Yeshiva World News

Three small children remained at a bus stop on Rabbi Akiva Street in Bnei Brak without adult supervision because the driver of an Egged 402 bus closed the doors of the bus in their father?s face, stopping him from getting off the bus with them, the daily HaMevaser reports. The father got off at the next stop, about 15 minutes later, and he ran back towards his children, who were quite hysterical.

According to eyewitnesses to the erev Shabbos event in Bnei Brak, the father was alone with four small children, the youngest an infant. The father boarded the bus with the eldest child, Sholom, asking the driver to wait a moment as he looked for a familiar face, a person who would watch over the children on the trip from Bnei Brak to Yerushalayim, and instruct the children when to get off. The avreich was sending his children for Shabbos bus he was remaining in Bnei Brak.

As he found the person who accepted responsibility for the children, the driver closed the doors and began driving off. Three children were left alone on the sidewalk, now hysterically screaming and crying as the saw the bus driving off. The avreich shouted and pleaded with the driver to open the doors, but he ignored the plea and continued driving. The driver then told the avreich that he already left the bus stop and therefore, it is illegal for him to open the doors. The avreich continued pleading with him, but the driver continued on his route.

Passengers on the bus turned around and saw the hysterical children, as well as passersby stopping to comfort them, seeking to learn why they were crying and hysterical.

After about 15 minutes of bumper to bumper Bnei Brak traffic the bus arrived at the next stop. The father and Sholom got off and they headed back to the children, who were still quite hysterical when they arrived.

HaMevaser turned to Egged for a response and an explanation. Egged promised to probe the matter thoroughly.

Egged spokesman Ron Ratner released the following statement following the bus company?s investigation. ?An investigation into the incident revealed the following. The father and son got on the bus at the Gan Warsaw stop. The father told the driver he was pay in a moment. The driver assumed the avreich and his son were traveling on the bus to Yerushalayim.?

?The driver claims that he was never made aware of the children left behind at the bus stop. He insists this is so. The driver was only made aware of the situation when the bus reached Chazon Ish Street and the driver told the father he would stop when it is safe.?

YWN-ISRAEL adds: Would one expect a driver who would leave small children crying hysterically at a bus stop along to admit to such actions?

Have you checked out?YWN Radio?yet? Click?HERE?to listen!

(YWN ? Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

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Source: http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/?p=154874

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2 Cents: What has happened to college basketball?

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Source: http://jacksonville.com/sports/2013-01-30/story/2-cents-what-has-happened-college-basketball

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1st execution of woman since 2010 set in Texas

File - This undated file photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Kimberly McCarthy. She is scheduled to be executed Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 for the July 1997 killing of retired college professor Dorothy Booth during a robbery. McCarthy's execution would be the first of a woman in Texas in more than eight years and the fourth overall in the state, where the 492 prisoners put to death since capital punishment resumed in Texas 30 years ago make it the nation's most active death penalty state. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice, File)

File - This undated file photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Kimberly McCarthy. She is scheduled to be executed Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013 for the July 1997 killing of retired college professor Dorothy Booth during a robbery. McCarthy's execution would be the first of a woman in Texas in more than eight years and the fourth overall in the state, where the 492 prisoners put to death since capital punishment resumed in Texas 30 years ago make it the nation's most active death penalty state. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice, File)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) ? The execution Tuesday of a Texas woman convicted in the gruesome murder of her 71-year-old neighbor will mark the first time in three years that a female inmate has been put to death in the U.S.

Kimberly McCarthy, 51, was sentenced to death for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of retired college psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Investigators say Booth had agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife at her home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas.

It was among three slayings linked to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who'd been addicted to crack cocaine. Her lethal injection is scheduled for Tuesday evening.

McCarthy will be the 13th woman executed in the U.S. and the fourth in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. In that same time period, more than 1,300 male inmates have been executed nationwide.

Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics compiled from 1980 through 2008 show women make up about 10 percent of homicide offenders nationwide. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 3,146 people were on the nation's death rows as of last Oct. 1, and only 63 ? 2 percent ? were women.

In a final legal effort to spare her life, McCarthy's lawyers asked Gov. Rick Perry on Monday to use his executive authority to issue a 30-day reprieve. They also appealed to Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins to withdraw or modify the execution date, citing his support that Texas adopt a law allowing death-row inmates to appeal on racial grounds. McCarthy is black, while all but one of her 12 Dallas County jurors were white.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month refused to review her case, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles turned down a clemency request Friday.

Her lead attorney, Doug Parks, said drug use was McCarthy's downfall.

"I think when she's off dope she's probably a pretty good person," he said. "I believe now, as I did then, that in the penitentiary, Kim would be absolutely no danger to anyone."

McCarthy declined to speak with reporters as her execution date neared.

Evidence showed that McCarthy called Booth to borrow a cup of sugar. When she came to pick it up, McCarthy attacked Booth, including forcing the woman's hand to a chopping block so she could cut off her finger to remove her wedding ring.

"I remember the pain and agony that poor woman lived through before McCarthy delivered the final stab wounds," former Dallas County assistant district attorney Greg Davis recalled last week.

Blood DNA evidence also tied McCarthy to the December 1988 slayings of 81-year-old Maggie Harding and 85-year-old Jettie Lucas. Harding was stabbed and beaten with a meat tenderizer, while Lucas was beaten with both sides of a claw hammer and stabbed.

McCarthy, who denied any involvement in the attacks, was indicted but not tried for those slayings.

"She took the most defenseless, the most helpless people, people that trusted her, that she chose to attack," Davis said.

The Dallas County jury had already found McCarthy guilty of Booth's slaying when evidence during the punishment phase of her trial linked her to the other two slayings and convinced jurors to send her to death row.

Prosecutors also showed that McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas, pawned the ring for $200 and then went to a crack house to buy cocaine. Evidence also showed she used Booth's credit cards at a liquor store and was carrying Booth's driver's license.

Booth's DNA was found on a 10-inch butcher knife recovered from McCarthy's home.

McCarthy said she blamed the crime on two drug dealers she identified only as "Kilo" and "J.C." There was no evidence to show either existed.

McCarthy was tried twice for Booth's slaying, most recently in 2002. Her first conviction in 1998 was thrown out three years later by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which ruled police violated her rights by using a statement she made to them after asking for a lawyer.

McCarthy is a former wife of Aaron Michaels, founder of the New Black Panther Party, and he testified on her behalf. They had separated before Booth's slaying.

McCarthy is among 10 women on death row in Texas, but the only one with an execution date.

In 1998, Karla Faye Tucker, 38, became the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War for a robbery in Houston where two people were killed with a pickax. Two years later, a 62-year-old great-grandmother, Betty Lou Beets, received lethal injection for the slaying of her fifth husband in northeast Texas to collect insurance and pension benefits. And in 2004, Frances Newton, 40, was executed for the 1987 slayings of her husband and two children in Houston.

At least eight male Texas prisoners have executions scheduled in the coming months.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-29-US-Texas-Execution-Female-Inmate/id-6e32299351b2478ab34c73d372106969

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Patty Andrews of Andrews sisters dead at 94

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters trio whose hits such as the rollicking "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and the poignant "I Can Dream, Can't I?" captured the home-front spirit of World War II, died Wednesday. She was 94.

Andrews died of natural causes at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, said family spokesman Alan Eichler in a statement.

Patty was the Andrews in the middle, the lead singer and chief clown, whose raucous jitterbugging delighted American servicemen abroad and audiences at home.

She could also deliver sentimental ballads like "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" with a sincerity that caused hardened GIs far from home to weep.

From the late 1930s through the 1940s, the Andrews Sisters produced one hit record after another, beginning with "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" in 1937 and continuing with "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar," ''Rum and Coca-Cola" and more. They recorded more than 400 songs and sold over 80 million records, several of them gold (over a million copies).

Other sisters, notably the Boswells, had become famous as singing acts, but mostly they huddled before a microphone in close harmony. The Andrews Sisters ? LaVerne, Maxene and Patty ? added a new dimension. During breaks in their singing, they cavorted about the stage in rhythm to the music.

Their voices combined with perfect synergy. As Patty remarked in 1971: "There were just three girls in the family. LaVerne had a very low voice. Maxene's was kind of high, and I was between. It was like God had given us voices to fit our parts."

The Andrews's rise coincided with the advent of swing music, and their style fit perfectly into the new craze. They aimed at reproducing the sound of three harmonizing trumpets.

"I was listening to Benny Goodman and to all the bands," Patty once remarked. "I was into the feel, so that would go into my own musical ability. I was into swing. I loved the brass section."

Unlike other singing acts, the sisters recorded with popular bands of the '40s, fitting neatly into the styles of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Woody Herman, Guy Lombardo, Desi Arnaz and Russ Morgan. They sang dozens of songs on records with Bing Crosby, including the million-seller "Don't Fence Me In." They also recorded with Dick Haymes, Carmen Miranda, Danny Kaye, Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante and Red Foley.

The Andrews' popularity led to a contract with Universal Pictures, where they made a dozen low-budget musical comedies between 1940 and 1944. In 1947, they appeared in "The Road to Rio" with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

The trio continued until LaVerne's death in 1967. By that time the close harmony had turned to discord, and the sisters had been openly feuding.

Bette Midler's 1973 cover of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" revived interest in the trio. The two survivors joined in 1974 for a Broadway show, "Over Here!" It ran for more than a year, but disputes with the producers led to the cancellation of the national tour of the show, and the sisters did not perform together again.

Patty continued as a single, finding success in Las Vegas and on TV variety shows. Her sister also toured as a single until her death in 1995.

Her father, Peter Andrews, was a Greek immigrant who anglicized his name of Andreus when he arrived in America; his wife, Olga, was a Norwegian with a love of music. LaVerne was born in 1911, Maxine (later Maxene) in 1916, Patricia (later Patty, sometimes Patti) in 1918, though some sources say 1920.

Listening to the Boswell Sisters on radio, LaVerne played the piano and taught her sisters to sing in harmony; neither Maxene nor Patty ever learned to read music. All three studied singers at the vaudeville house near their father's restaurant. As their skills developed, they moved from amateur shows to vaudeville and singing with bands.

After Peter Andrews moved the family to New York in 1937, his wife, Olga, sought singing dates for the girls. They were often turned down with comments such as: "They sing too loud and they move too much." Olga persisted, and the sisters sang on radio with a hotel band at $15 a week. The broadcasts landed them a contract with Decca Records.

They recorded a few songs, and then came "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," an old Yiddish song for which Sammy Cahn and Saul Kaplan wrote English lyrics. (The title means, "To Me You Are Beautiful.") It was a smash hit, and the Andrews Sisters were launched into the bigtime.

Their only disappointment was the movies. Universal was a penny-pinching studio that ground out product to fit the lower half of a double bill. The sisters were seldom involved in the plots, being used for musical interludes in film with titles such as "Private Buckaroo," ''Swingtime Johnny" and "Moonlight and Cactus."

Their only hit was "Buck Privates," which made stars of Abbott and Costello and included the trio's blockbuster "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B."

In 1947, Patty married Martin Melcher, an agent who represented the sisters as well as Doris Day, then at the beginning of her film career. Patty divorced Melcher in 1949 and soon he became Day's husband, manager and producer.

Patty married Walter Weschler, pianist for the sisters, in 1952. He became their manager and demanded more pay for himself and for Patty. The two other sisters rebelled, and their differences with Patty became public. Lawsuits were filed between the two camps.

"We had been together nearly all our lives," Patty explained in 1971. "Then in one year our dream world ended. Our mother died and then our father. All three of us were upset, and we were at each other's throats all the time."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/patty-andrews-andrews-sisters-dead-94-221121755.html

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Deal of the Day: Qmadix Vibe Flex-Gel Cover for HTC EVO 4G LTE

The Jan. 29 ShopAndroid.com Deal of the Day is the Qmadix Vibe Flex-Gel Cover for HTC EVO 4G LTE. The Flex-Gel Cover accentuates your style and personality in vibrant color while protecting your device from the elements. This sporty, rugged cover is made from durable, abrasion-resistant TPU and offers the ultimate choice in style and protection. There's access to the screen, camera, ports and kickstand--available in black, red, and white color options.

The Qmadix Vibe Flex-Gel Cover is available for just $15.00, 50% off today only. Grab yours while supplies last!

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/1kShPz7P9oI/story01.htm

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Misconceptions about a popular pet treat

Jan. 28, 2013 ? A popular dog treat could be adding more calories than pet owners realize, and possibly be contaminated by bacteria, according to a study published this month by researchers at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph.

The treat in question: the "bully" or "pizzle stick." The American and Canadian researchers analyzed the caloric density and bacterial contamination of these popular items, made from the uncooked, dried penis of a bull or steer. They also administered a survey to pet owners to assess their knowledge of these treats.

The study, published in the January 2013 issue of the Canadian Veterinary Journal, examined 26 bully sticks purchased from retailers in the United States and Canada and made by different manufacturers.

A random subset of the 26 bully sticks was tested for caloric content. These bully sticks tested contained between nine to 22 calories per inch, meaning the average six inch stick packed 88 calories--nine percent of the daily calorie requirements for a 50-pound dog, and 30 percent of the daily calorie requirements for a 10-pound dog.

"While calorie information isn't currently required on pet treats or most pet foods, these findings reinforce that veterinarians and pet owners need to be aware of pet treats like these bully sticks as a source of calories in a dog's diet," said Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, PhD, DACVN, professor of nutrition at TCSVM who is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Nutrition.

Freeman was first author on the paper. Co-authors were J. Scott Weese, professor in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph, and Nicol Janecko, a research associate at the Canadian university.

"With obesity in pets on the rise, it is important for pet owners to factor in not only their dog's food, but also treats and table food," Freeman added.

All 26 treats were tested for bacterial contaminants. One (4 percent) of the sticks was contaminated with Clostridium difficile; one (four percent) was contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics; and seven (27 percent) were contaminated with Escherichia coli, including one tetracycline-resistant sample.

The number of treats sampled was small and not all of these bacterial strains have been shown to infect humans. However, the researchers advise all pet owners to wash their hands after touching such treats, as they would with any raw meat or raw meat diets. The very young, elderly, pregnant, immunocompromised and other high-risk individuals should avoid all contact with raw animal-product based treats and raw meat diets, note the scientists.

To learn more about veterinarian and pet owner perceptions of dog foods and treats, the research team developed a 20-question Web-based survey. The survey was posted online for public participation for 60 days and all responses were anonymous. It was completed by 852 adults from 44 states and six countries. Most respondents were female dog owners.

"We were surprised at the clear misconceptions pet owners and veterinarians have with pet foods and many of the popular raw animal-product based pet treats currently on the market," said Freeman. "For example, 71 percent of people feeding bully sticks to their pets stated they avoid by-products in pet foods, yet bully sticks are, for all intents and purposes, an animal by-product."

Another surprising finding was the large number of people who did not know what bully sticks actually were. A higher proportion of veterinarians (62 percent) were able to correctly identify the source of bully sticks as bull penis compared to general respondents (44 percent). Twenty-three percent of the respondents fed their dogs bully sticks.

Further research with a larger sample size is needed to determine whether the calorie content and contamination rate found in this study is representative of all bully sticks, or other types of pet treats, according to the authors.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Tufts University.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Lisa M. Freeman, Nicol Janecko, J. Scott Weese. Nutritional and microbial analysis of bully sticks and survey of opinions about pet treats. Canadian Veterinary Journal, January 2013

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/nutrition/~3/mAJUX0F5Meo/130128082912.htm

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Analysis: Companies offset weak sales growth with fat margins

(Reuters) - After four years of belt-tightening, American companies are good at squeezing more profit out of every dollar of sales - a skill that chief executives regard as critical in the face of an uncertain economy.

While the headline-making cuts of the last recession - when companies shed tens of thousands of workers as they scrambled to lower costs - have mostly passed, they have kept their focus on finding lots of small steps to improve earnings.

For some companies, the changes are relatively simple. McDonald's Corp was able to beat Wall Street's profit forecasts by keeping its locations open on Christmas and rolling out the cult favorite McRib sandwich in December.

For others, pumping up the results involves a more complicated dance, keeping costs down while still spending enough on research and development to ensure they have a steady stream of new products to rely on.

Toothpaste and detergent maker Procter & Gamble Co reported a 12 percent rise in fourth quarter earnings on 2 percent sales growth, reflecting both cost controls - it cut more than 5,000 jobs last year - and new products, said Chief Executive Bob McDonald.

"You've got to do both at the same time. You have to do innovation and productivity at the same time," McDonald said in an interview.

Conglomerate Honeywell International Inc , which reported a 6 percent rise in profit on 1 percent sales growth, faced a similar challenge.

"We want to be able to do everything right and fast," said CEO David Cote. "In a slow-growth global economy, this becomes especially important for margin rate growth."

More broadly, companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index <.spx> that have reported quarterly results so far this earnings season have averaged a 7.7 percent rise in profit on 5.2 percent revenue growth.

Management consultants say that is due, in part, to a renewed focus on spending to grow.

"I'm seeing organizations being very, very disciplined. They are willing to invest, but they are only willing to invest where they see tangible returns," said David Axson, a managing director in Accenture's finance and enterprise performance consulting group who works with Fortune 100-level CFOs. "Profit opportunities are very transitory at the moment.

LITTLE FAT TO TRIM

Corporate America has become far more selective in its cutting, largely because it has already become so lean.

"They have done a phenomenal job of becoming more efficient," said JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade in Omaha. "There's not a company now that can actually survive with any fat on the bones."

Honeywell's focus on margin improvement is constant and extends across most of the company - from tweaking manufacturing processes to make products with less waste, to focusing on newer products that face less competition and can command higher prices, said Chief Financial Officer Dave Anderson.

"It's not just squeezing," Anderson said in a telephone interview. "Anybody can do that on a short-term basis, but you can't sustain it."

Companies have continued to find fat to trim, though.

Lockheed Martin Corp , the Pentagon's biggest supplier, is facing huge defense spending cutbacks that could trim sales as much as 6 percent this year. But still, it forecast profits would rise as much as 9 percent in 2013, even without layoffs, as it takes steps to reduce pension costs by pre-funding to reduce future liabilities.

Diversified manufacturer 3M Co said it would cut about 300 workers as it merges its security and traffic safety businesses. That is a relative drop in the bucket for a company that employs some 84,000 people worldwide, but is a key part of CEO Inge Thulin's plan to fix or sell underperforming parts of the company.

Thulin, who took the reins at the maker of Post-It notes and film used in television screens, has identified a handful of units where he has similar concerns. He is also raising the company's research and development budget to 6 percent of sales this year from 5.5 percent in 2012.

One analyst said companies need to cut costs, but also need to ensure they are cutting the right ones and not expenses such as research and development that will lead to future growth.

"There is a generation of managers out there that experienced the recession, understand what the ramifications are of carrying too much cost into one of these cycles and, as a result, are very focused on margins," said Daniel Holland, equity analyst at Morningstar in Chicago, who covers big industrial companies. "That's a mark of management post the recession."

LOWERED BAR

The continued success of companies has boosted investor confidence and helped send the S&P 500 up almost 5 percent since the start of the year. Investors had been very conservative about their expectations for earnings growth because of such things as wrangling in Washington over the "fiscal cliff" of drastic tax increases and budget cuts.

"The bar was so low and that was because of things that happened in the fourth quarter, particularly Hurricane Sandy and its impact, and the fiscal cliff impact, and I think things are not turning out as bad as analysts anticipated," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

"You're seeing some individual stocks get hammered because expectations were unrealistic and you're seeing other stocks rally because expectations were set much too low."

Amid all the cost-cutting, there is also a sense among some companies that the situation in Europe is not as dire as it had been, an added bonus in year-end results.

Of course, there are still problems: Top U.S. auto parts supplier Johnson Controls Inc warned that lower European auto production would hurt results this quarter, news that overwhelmed a strong fourth-quarter profit.

But for others, it is clear that Europe is, at a minimum, less of a headache.

"We have seen signs of stabilization, particularly in Europe," said Greg Hayes, chief financial officer at United Technologies Corp , which has also benefited from the recent strengthening of the euro against the dollar, which raises the value of its dollar sales in the eurozone.

China, meanwhile, was a big boost for many companies. 3M notched its best quarter in a year in China, reporting 16 percent growth in organic sales. P&G reported "high single digit" percentage growth and Starbucks Corp saw China/Asia-Pacific sales rise 11 percent.

However, be it cutting costs, or restructuring operations, or any other means in the executive tool kit, the laser focus on margins reflects CEOs who remain wary of the economy souring again.

"I see very little downside in being prepared for the downside," Honeywell's Cote added.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-companies-offset-weak-sales-growth-fat-margins-131352438--sector.html

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Portable Advanced SystemCare Pro 6.1.9.221 Download All You ...

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Advanced SystemCare PRO provides an always-on, automated, all-in-one PC Healthcare Service with anti-spyware, privacy protection, performance tune-ups, and system cleaning capabilities. This powerful and award-winning precision tool fixes stubborn errors, cleans out clutter, optimizes Internet and download speeds, ensures personal security, and maintains maximum computer performance automatically. Advanced SystemCare is a PC maintenance program that?s incredibly easy to use, the World?s Top System Utility for Superior PC Health! Protect and speed up your computer with Advanced SystemCare PRO! It has a one-click approach to help protect, repair, clean, and optimize your PC. Since 2006, this fantastic, award-winning, free PC repair software is a ?must-have? tool for your computer. Why waste money on expensive ?registry cleaners? to fix your PC when Advanced SystemCare Free will repair, tune, and maintain it for you ? for free!Advanced SystemCare v6 has New Features, New Interface, New Functions, Improved Scanning, Cleaning, Repairing, and Optimizing, Triple Backup Mechanism and Faster Loading. With the novel system technology, Advanced SystemCare empowers you to run your computer faster, more stably and more efficiently than with any other system utilities.

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How Conservative Columnist George Will Lies With Statistics (Little green footballs)

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Smashed Lamborghini, insurance fraud charge the latest legal ...

David Juntunen (Courtesy of Hennepin County Sheriff's Office)

The gray Lamborghini must've looked as tempting as it was fast.

So tempting, prosecutors allege, that one night last March, the businessman entrusted by a customer to store the sports car over the winter squeezed into its bucket seats with a lady friend and took the car for a very fast spin.

The joyride that David Norman Juntunen and Pamela Jean DuPont took came to an abrupt end when Juntunen slammed the 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo into three trees, knocked over a light pole and tore off a front wheel, causing more than $84,000 in damage to the car.

Hennepin County prosecutors say that what followed was a string of lies to investigators that resulted in both Minneapolis residents being charged Friday, Jan. 25, with insurance fraud and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Juntunen, 39, is in jail in lieu of $80,000 bail and is to make his first court appearance Monday. DuPont, 40, was charged through a summons; no court appearance has been scheduled for her yet.

Juntunen -- who sometimes calls himself "Superdave" -- runs Top Gear Autoworks on Minneapolis' East Lake Street. The business services and provides storage for exotic foreign cars. A message left at the business was not immediately returned Friday.

"Top Gear was started by David 'Superdave' Juntunen who has garnered local acclaim as a responsible, experienced and trustworthy automotive specialist," proclaims the company's website, adding "What makes us different? In a word ... ethics."

But

cops in nine Minnesota counties know him as something else: a convicted sex offender, drunken driver, repeat traffic offender and a guy who'll flee. State records show that before Friday's criminal complaint was filed, Juntunen had been charged with 59 crimes in 30 court cases; 38 of the charges involved driving-related offenses, including 13 counts of driving after his license had been revoked and 10 counts of driving while impaired.

His state record includes convictions for criminal sexual conduct, driving after cancellation (five times), driving while intoxicated (two times), reckless driving and, most recently, fleeing a police officer in 2010.

He's due in court in Ramsey County on Feb. 11 on a charge of reckless driving filed in November -- a charge filed eight days after he pleaded guilty to driving 83 mph in a 70-mph zone in Freeborn County. A week after he was charged in that speeding case, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in Hennepin County.

In the new criminal complaint, Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Paul Scoggin wrote that in November 2011, a man identified in the complaint only as "J.K.C." contracted with Juntunen's business to service and provide winter storage for two cars, including the Lamborghini.

A month later, the man emailed Juntunen and told him that since the cars were in storage, he had suspended their collision insurance.

The first Gallardo rolled off Lamborghini's Sant'Agata Bolognese, Italy, assembly line in 2003. Various online sources put the value of a 2007 Gallardo (depending on appointments) as between $178,550 to $200,000.

It has a top speed of nearly 200 mph and as one online reviewer noted: "This thing is so quick, so fast, so loud, and sounds so angry at full-throttle that it may scare kids, old people, pets, and livestock. But that's just part of its charm."

The complaint says that on the night of March 8, Juntunen took the Lamborghini out of storage.

About 1:45 a.m. March 9, a Fridley police officer had stopped a suspected drunken driver on University Avenue and was having the car towed when a Lamborghini sped by "at a high rate of speed," Scoggin wrote.

The tow truck driver got part of the license plate number.

About 15 minutes later, residents near B.F. Nelson Park on Main Street East in Minneapolis heard a crash. A car had struck three trees and knocked over a light pole. But when Minneapolis Park Police were called to the scene the next day, there was no car.

What followed was old-fashioned police work, said Lt. Robert Goodsell, who heads investigations for the park police.

He said there was no telling what speed the sports car was going when it hit the trees, but it was fast.

"I would say the damage to hit the trees, to take down the trees and the light poles and rip the wheel off the car, I would say that would take some velocity," said Goodsell. "For parts like that to be removed, it's hard to say what speed it was going. What does it take to rip a front wheel off a car?"

According to the criminal complaint, Juntunen had the car towed back to his business and didn't report the incident to police. Later that day, he filed a claim with Top Gear's insurer, whose adjustor determined it would cost $84,480.12 to repair the car.

Juntunen initially told the insurance company that he'd been driving the car to another Top Gear storage facility, but he apparently later said the car was being driven by DuPont, who had started working at Top Gear a few weeks before the crash, the complaint said.

When police spoke to Juntunen and DuPont, they claimed DuPont had been driving and "swerved to avoid striking an animal and went off the road where the vehicle hit trees and light poles," Scoggin wrote.

The insurance company didn't think their stories added up. The insurer told Juntunen and DuPont that they'd have to give sworn statements about the crash, but neither showed up on the scheduled date.

The insurer refused to pay the claim.

Scoggin said that on Dec. 13, Juntunen met with the vehicle's owner and admitted he took the Lamborghini out without permission.

The owner asked him why he wouldn't go back to the insurer and ask them to pay for the damage, and "Juntunen said, 'If I ask them to pay based on the statements I gave, I'm going to prison. It's insurance fraud,' " Scoggin wrote.

The owner had only storage insurance on the vehicle and, as Scoggin noted, "To date, the damaged Lamborghini has not been repaired."

The criminal complaint notes that because of Juntunen's driving-related convictions, "any vehicle he operates is required to be equipped with ignition interlock."

The insurance fraud claim against both alleges that they conspired to defraud the insurance company by lying about the crash and concealing facts about it. The maximum sentence for insurance fraud is 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.

The second count each faces accuses them of taking the car without the owner's consent. That crime carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.

Source: http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_22453204/smashed-lamborghini-insurance-fraud-charge-latest-legal-trouble

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Iranian workers demand South Korea 'return' funds

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? About 1,000 Iranian workers have staged a protest rally in front of the South Korean Embassy in Tehran demanding the return of $70 million allegedly held by Seoul after a collapsed business deal.

Employees of Iran's Entekhab Industrial Group claim South Korea has blocked a refund of the money after a failed bid in 2010 to buy Daewoo Electronics, a former subsidiary of the now-defunct Daewoo Group.

Iranians believe the deal was called off because of South Korean worries over mounting international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

"Return our money," the protesters shouted Sunday in the third such rally in recent months.

Daewoo officials were not immediately available for comment.

Entekhab produces home appliances in Isfahan, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Tehran.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-27-Iran-South%20Korea/id-ea7678aa362641d0a89e6adac21eb27b

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Child soldier's tale illustrates Mali's dirty war

Adama Drabo, 16, stands in the police station in Sevare, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. Drabo, who said he was captured traveling without papers by Malian troops and eventually handed over to Gendarmes in Sevare, was arrested on suspicion of working for Islamic militant group MUJAO and caught trying to flee south, police said. A farmer's son from Niono, he admitted to having worked in the kitchens of a jihadist training base in Douentza for the past month. Drabo said his only motivation in joining the Islamic militant group had been to earn a wage, having struggled to find work at home, and that he was one of the youngest recruits on the base. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Adama Drabo, 16, stands in the police station in Sevare, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. Drabo, who said he was captured traveling without papers by Malian troops and eventually handed over to Gendarmes in Sevare, was arrested on suspicion of working for Islamic militant group MUJAO and caught trying to flee south, police said. A farmer's son from Niono, he admitted to having worked in the kitchens of a jihadist training base in Douentza for the past month. Drabo said his only motivation in joining the Islamic militant group had been to earn a wage, having struggled to find work at home, and that he was one of the youngest recruits on the base. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Adama Drabo, 16, sits in the police station in Sevare, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. Drabo, who said he was captured travelling without papers by Malian troops and eventually handed over to Gendarmes in Sevare, was arrested on suspicion of working for Islamic militant group MUJAO and caught trying to flee south, Police said. A farmer's son from Niono, he admitted to having worked in the kitchens of a jihadist training base in Douentza for the past month. Drabo said his only motivation in joining the Islamic militant group had been to earn a wage, having struggled to find work at home, and that he was one of the youngest recruits on the base. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

French soldiers fill up their tank at a local petrol station in Sevare, some 620 kilometers (385 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. The French currently have some 2,400 forces in the country and have said that they will stay as long as needed in Mali, a former French colony. However, they have called for African nations to take the lead in fortifying the Malian army's efforts. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

French soldiers stand at a crossroads as they arrive in the city of Sevare, Mali, some 620 kms (385 miles) north of Bamako, Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. Mali's military and French forces pushed toward Gao on Friday, in their farthest move north and east since launching an operation two weeks ago to retake land controlled by the rebels, residents and a security official said Friday. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A Malian soldier stops at the Aviator's Club bar to watch an African Cup of Nations football match in Sevare, some 620 kms (400 miles) north of Mali's capital Bamako Friday, Jan. 25, 2013. One wing of Mali's Ansar Dine rebel group has split off to create its own movement, saying that they want to negotiate a solution to the crisis in Mali, in a declaration that indicates at least some of the members of the al-Qaida-linked group are searching for a way out of the extremist movement in the wake of French airstrikes. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

SEVARE, Mali (AP) ? The boy sits with his knees tucked under his chest on the concrete floor of the police station here, his adolescent face a tableau of fear. He's still garbed in the knee-length tunic he was ordered to wear by the Islamic extremist who recruited him.

It's these same clothes, styled after those worn by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, which gave him away when he tried to flee earlier this week. They have now become his prison garb.

Adama Drabo is 16, and his recruitment into the ranks of a group designated as a terrorist organization, followed by his violent interrogation at the hands of the Malian army, underscores the obstacles faced by France as it tries to wash its former West African colony clean of the al-Qaida-linked fighters occupying it.

"In terms of the rules of engagement, you have to think to yourself, what will you do if a child comes up to you wearing an explosive vest? What do you do if a 12-year-old is manning a checkpoint?" says Rudolph Atallah, former director of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon during the Bush administration. "It's a very difficult situation."

France, which now has around 2,400 troops on the ground, plunged headfirst into the conflict in Mali two weeks ago, after the Islamist groups that have controlled the nation's northern half since last year began an aggressive push southward. The French soldiers are equipped with night vision goggles, anti-tank mines and laser-guided bombs. However, their enemy includes the hundreds of children, some as young as 11, who have been conscripted into the rebel army.

Among those the French will have to fight are boys like Adama, the uneducated, eldest child of a poor family of rice growers, who until recently spent his days plowing fields with oxen near the village of N'Denbougou. Living just 15 miles (25 kilometers) from the central Malian town of Niono, which has become one of the frontlines in the recent war, Adama fits the profile of the types of children the Islamists have successfully recruited. His village has a single mosque, and unlike the moderate form of Islam practiced in much of Mali, the one he and his family attended preached Wahabism.

"We have observed a pattern of recruitment of child soldiers from villages that for many years have practiced a very strict form of Islam, referred to as Wahabism," says Corinne Dufka, senior researcher for West Africa at Human Rights Watch. "We estimate that hundreds of children have been recruited."

The groups allied with al-Qaida started recruiting children soon after they seized control of northern Mali last April. Rebel leaders quoted verses from the Quran which they claim describe children as the purest apprentices. Since then witnesses have described seeing children staffing checkpoints, riding in patrol vehicles, carrying out searches of cars stopped at roadblocks, as well as preparing tea and cooking food for the fighters in the towns controlled by the insurgents, says Dufka.

The United Nations children's agency said late last year that it had been able to corroborate at least 175 reported cases of child soldiers in northern Mali, bought from their impoverished parents for between $1,000 and $1,200 per child. Malian human rights officials put the total number of children recruited by the Islamists considerably higher at 1,000 ? and that was before the French intervention.

Adama, who is now being held at the Sevare gendarmerie, was hired as a cook two weeks ago by Islamist fighters in Douentza, a city controlled by the Movement for Oneness and Jihad, or MUJAO. Its members have been linked to the recent terrorist attack on a natural gas plant in Algeria, which ended in the death of at least 37 hostages, according to the Algerian government.

The teenager claims he didn't know he was working for a terrorist group, even though the insurgents who ate the macaroni he cooked carried guns, wore beards and dressed in the unfamiliar Gulf-style clothes they gave him. He says he joined them only for the money they promised they would pay at the end of each month. The police holding him say he was promised around $200 a month, several times the average monthly salary here.

Adama explains that his friends in Niono said they knew people in Sevare who would give them work. So they took a Peugeot 207 taxi to reach the town.

"It was there in the town that we met some people and they hired us to cook for them," he says. "They said that at the end of each month we would get paid. ... And so we started cooking for them."

He says that even though some of the fighters in their entourage went to fight in the Niono area, he was unaware of their battle plans. The men spoke Arabic and Tamashek, a Tuareg language, which he did not understand.

One day, when he went to the corner store, the shop owner told him a war was on, he says.

"I told my friend, 'Even if the month isn't over yet, we need to get out of here.' We walked to the next village, where we found an old man there, and we asked him if he could please give us some water? The old man said he couldn't give us any water, because we're rebels. We said, 'We're not rebels. Give us some water.' It was then that a man on a motorcycle came by. The motorcyclist said that we are wearing the clothes of the Islamic fighters."

The boys tried to run.

The friend got away. Adama was handed over to the Malian military, which in recent days has been accused of executing dozens of suspected Islamists, including a group of six men who arrived in Sevare without identity cards. Adama may have been saved by the international outcry that followed the reported executions this week, says Atallah, putting immense diplomatic pressure on Mali's ill-trained and often incompetent army to respect human rights conventions.

"I was frightened," says Adama. "They said they were going to kill me. ... They said this several times."

During the interrogation, especially on the first day, the soldiers threatened to execute Adama if he did not tell the truth, he says. They hit him, he says, and slapped him across his face. It was only on Friday, according to Adama, that the soldiers told him they would not kill him.

"For four days, they kept me in jail with two big people," he says. "I feel somewhat reassured now, but not totally reassured. Because I am still not free."

Child soldiers have been part of the fabric of African conflicts for decades now. In Liberia's civil war more than 10 years ago, drugged 12- and 13-year-olds were famously photographed toting automatic weapons and teddy bears. However, the standoff this time is between a Western army bound by the Geneva Convention and Western values on human rights, and an enemy that includes hundreds of children. One of the most active groups in northern Mali is al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, the terror network's affiliate in Africa, which originated in Algeria. In 2008, the group released a video showing a cheerful 15-year-old in Algeria who was suffering from a terminal illness, Atallah says. The Islamists convinced the boy that the best thing he could do with what remained of his life was to die for Allah, according to Atallah, who saw the recording.

"The video shows him smiling," he says. "They taught him how to drive a van. And then they filmed the van as it left, just before he detonated himself. I wouldn't put it past them to do this again."

___

Associated Press writer Krista Larson contributed from Mopti, Mali.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-26-AF-Mali-Child-Soldiers/id-dfa1d151287d44e291dec80cbdfd904f

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Crystal Cruises entices bookings through brand ... - Luxury Daily

Crystal Symphony

Crystal Cruises is eyeing affluent travelers by offering exclusive Mediterranean excursions on its spring itineraries that cannot be accessed through other travel brands.

The cruise line?s new collection of experiences called ?Boutique Adventures? will be available this spring for groups ranging from one to 15 travelers on Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity ships sailing to the Mediterranean. Guests will have exclusive access to estates, art studios, museums, castles and businesses.

?Our guests are looking for different ways to experience destinations and they relish insider access,? said Mimi Weisband, vice president of public relations at?Crystal Cruises, Los Angeles. ?We are continually challenging our tour operators to seek out the unusual, experiential, intimate, cultural adventures.

?Our guests do not want a mass-market excursion ? they will pay more for something if it is unique and authentic,? she said.

Cruising the Mediterranean
There are seven Boutique Adventures that guests can choose. The cost ranges from $223 to more than $1,000 per guest.

Travelers can book the excursions online up to six months before their cruise.

The Florence excursion comprises a viewing of the Uffizi Gallery?s private Contini Bonacossi Collection, which is not accessible to the public.

In Funchal, Portugal, guests will have lunch with a local celebrity at Reid?s Palace or visit a family-run Madeiran winery where they will dine with the owners.

During the Rome experience, guests will make their own jewelry with instruction from a former Valentino model who now designs jewelry.

The Corfu, Greece, excursion consists of a painting lesson from the president of the Corfu Painters Society.

In Italy?s Vetriano, guests will attend the opera at Teatro Concordia, the?smallest public theater in the world.

Teatro Concordia

Excursions in Sorrento and Taormina, Italy, comprise?cooking lessons and meals with local, Michelin-star chefs.

In Taormina in Italy?s Sicily region, travelers will be served a meal while watching a classical concert at a Sicilian castle.

Crystal Cruises will promote the Boutique Adventures via its Web site, quarterly magazine and the on-board Shore Excursion team, per Ms. Weisband.

In addition, travel agents will also inform their clients about the experiences.

?The cruise industry has been becoming more aware of the large portion of the affluent travelers who shy away from cruises due to many misconceptions and overall lack of desire to be on-board the mega-ships,? said D.M. Banks, director at?DMB Public Relations, New York.

?Crystal Cruises is always looking at ways to provide the luxuries of cruises, while providing a boutique experience for their guests,? he said. ?This is another example of them thinking outside of the box to truly connect with their guests.

?Affluent travelers are more than happy to pay a premium for superior services and, more importantly, unique and personalized experiences. These intimate and semi-private excursions are great ways for guest to feel more immersed into the culture and destinations while at port.?

Story time
The new Boutique Adventures are meant to align with Crystal Cruises? ?Begin a New Story? ad campaign that launched last year, per Ms. Weisband.

The cruise line rebranded itself during the second quarter of 2012 through an all-encompassing campaign that centers on the notion of the travel journal and encourages consumers to share memories from past cruises.

The marketing efforts focus on cruise destinations and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, rather than the amenities of the ship.

Begin a New Story uses multiple channels including print ads with digital watermark technology, brochures, online banner ads, email, video and a smartphone app.

For instance, print ads appear in Cond? Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, Town & Country, Travel & Leisure, Coastal Living, Elle D?cor, Food & Wine and Forbes Life.

Consumers can scan the ads with their smartphones to reveal a 60-second video that shows three travelers? experiences in select Crystal Cruises? destinations through watercolor animation.

The brand asked eight watercolor artists to create images that are used in all aspects of the campaign (see story).

?The trend for affluent consumers is more intimate and incredibly special ? both of which are key to these excursions,? Ms. Weisband said.

?Entering someone?s home, sharing a meal with them and just a few other guests, and being able to hear in-depth stories of living and working in that area from your host ? these are experiences that can be deeply personal, bonding and memorable, really expanding one?s understanding of a culture far beyond any info gleaned from merely sight-seeing,? she said.

?Affluent consumers crave such experiences that go beyond the norm, as so many of them travel at a level well above the basics.?

Final Take
Tricia Carr, editorial assistant on Luxury Daily, New York

Tricia Carr is an editorial assistant on Luxury Daily. Her beats are apparel and accessories, arts and entertainment, education, food and beverage, fragrance and personal care, government, healthcare, home furnishings, jewelry, legal/privacy and nonprofits. Reach her at tricia@napean.com.

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