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Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates after defeating Roger Federer of Switzerland during their semifinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates after defeating Roger Federer of Switzerland during their semifinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012.(AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
Spain's Rafael Nadal, left, celebrates a point win against Switzerland's Roger Federer during their semifinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Joe Castro,Pool)
Spain's Rafael Nadal signs autographs after defeating Switzerland's Roger Federer in their semifinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Sarah Ivey)
Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates after winning his match against Roger Federer of Switzerland in the mens semifinal match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Sarah Ivey)
Roger Federer of Switzerland walks off Rod Laver Arena after his loss to Rafael Nadal of Spain during their semifinal at the Australian Open tennis championship, in Melbourne, Australia, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012. (AP Photo/Andrew Brownbill)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? Rafael Nadal outlasted Roger Federer 6-7 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in an Australian Open semifinal on Thursday night, the longtime rivals playing with the intensity normally displayed when meeting in a Grand Slam final.
The stars who met in eight Grand Slam finals were on the same side of the draw for the first time at a major since 2005.
Two weeks ago, Nadal injured his right knee and wasn't sure he'd be able to start the tournament. Now, he can barely believe he's in the final.
"If you tell me that two Sundays ago, I really cannot imagine," Nadal said. "For me, it's a dream to be back in a final of the Australian Open."
Nadal will have the opportunity to win another championship on Sunday night when the Spanish left-hander plays the winner of the semifinal Friday between defending champion Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.
Earlier Thursday, Maria Sharapova overcame Petra Kvitova to advance to the women's final against Victoria Azarenka. Sharapova broke Kvitova's serve in the last game to finish off a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory and the third-seeded Azarenka beat defending champion Kim Clijsters 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to set up a Saturday night final at Rod Laver Arena that will decide the No. 1 ranking.
Nadal, who holds a 6-2 edge in Grand Slam finals against Federer, made the key service break in the ninth game of the fourth set, making an incredible cross-court forehand winner from well behind the baseline, then watching as Federer hit a backhand wide to give Nadal a 5-4 lead.
Serving for the match, Nadal moved two points away from the win when Federer sent a backhand long. He won on his second match point when Federer floated a forehand long.
At the end, Nadal smashed a ball up high in the stadium, almost clearing the roof. He then applauded along with the crowd when Federer walked off.
The 25-year-old Spaniard won the 2009 Australian title but lost in the quarterfinals in his next two trips to Melbourne Park. Federer hasn't added to his record 16 Grand Slam titles since he won the 2010 Australian Open.
"I thought Rafa played well from start to finish," Federer said. "It was a tough match physically as well. I'm disappointed, but it's only the beginning of the season. I'm feeling all right, so it's OK."
When the often enthralling play was suspended for 10 minutes late in the second set for an Australian Day fireworks display, Federer seemed to be affected most. Nadal led 5-2 at the time, and Federer lost his serve in the next game to give the Spaniard the set. In all, the Swiss dropped 11 points in a row.
"It's tough, it's not helpful, that's for sure," Federer said of the break for the fireworks. "They told us before, so it was no surprise. But I knew it was a lot of points in a row that I lost."
The capacity, 15,000-strong crowd was evenly split in its support, with the names seeming to blur after the R in rival chants.
Each time somebody called out for Rafa, it was met by a response for Roger. The cheers were just as loud for Nadal's scrambling, sometimes astonishing, passing shots as for Federer's deft winners.
With the players on serve in the second set, Nadal went so far wide on a Federer return that he was near the side wall of the arena. Incredibly, he stretched wide and returned the ball crosscourt for a winner. That set up three break points and Nadal clinched the game to take a 4-2 lead in the second set.
Federer saved a set point in the 11th game of the third set that eventually forced a tiebreaker. But Federer made three unforced errors in the tiebreaker to give Nadal a 6-1 lead, and the Spaniard eventually clinched the set on his last opportunity of five set points.
"Please win the point, that's all," Nadal recalled when asked what he was telling himself at 6-5 in the tiebreaker. "I was very, very nervous at that moment. Losing four set points in a row is tough, especially when you play the toughest in history."
Both players were asked if they bring out the best in each other.
"I don't know if it's true ... it's my assumption," Federer said. "I feel he plays really good against me. He's also got a winning record against me which maybe gives him extra confidence. I think he has a clear plan and he follows that one very well."
Nadal said that's not the case.
"I don't play my best tennis because it's Roger in front, I play my best tennis because I am ready to play my best tennis," Nadal said. "It's true I played a lot of good matches against him during my career ... but I believe that he played a few fantastic matches against me, too."
Clijsters was in the crowd, only hours after her title defense ended. And Ivan Lendl was at Rod Laver Arena for a second night, scouting opponents again as Murray's coach. So were former Australian greats Laver, Ken Rosewall and Pat Rafter.
Sharapova lost to second-ranked Kvitova in the Wimbledon final last year, her first major final since returning from an injury layoff following a shoulder operation in 2008. She has won three majors, but none since the 2008 Australian Open.
"In the third set, I felt she always had the advantage because I was always down on my serve," said Sharapova, who served five double-faults in the third set and 10 in the match. "I just told myself 'You just gotta go for it, don't let her finish off the points like she likes to.'"
Azarenka won the first semifinal after twice recovering from periods when a resurgent Clijsters seemed to have the upper hand, to secure victory in only her second appearance in a major semifinal.
"I felt like my hand is about 200 kilograms and my body is about 1,000 and everything is shaking, but that feeling when you finally win is such a relief. My God, I cannot believe it's over. I just want to cry," Azarenka said as she choked back tears, then buried her face in a towel.
Clijsters is popular in Australia, where she's widely known as "Aussie Kim" after dating Lleyton Hewitt years ago. She had most of the backing from the crowd on the national holiday in what is likely to be her last Australian Open.
Azarenka held her nerve despite the crowd and playing against a proven big-match player. Clijsters has won four majors and has defended a Grand Slam title ? winning the U.S. Open in 2009 and '10. To reach the semifinals, the Belgian saved four match points despite a sprained ankle to beat French Open champion Li Na in the fourth round and beat top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals.
"I guess before you all thought I was a mental case," Azarenka said in a courtside interview. "I was just young and emotional. I'm really glad the way I fight, that's the most thing I'm really proud of. I fight for every ball."
Wozniacki will vacate top spot in next week's rankings after her quarterfinal loss, leaving either No. 3 Azarenka and No. 4 Sharapova a chance to move to the top.
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LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney came to ground zero of the housing crisis Tuesday to assail rival Newt Gingrich over his ties to the government-backed mortgage companies that helped make it worse, a message Romney has been pushing since he landed in the state. But that meant he also had to talk about banks ? and he continued what's become a habit of comparing companies to people.
Romney was standing outside a Fannie Mae-foreclosed home in a struggling neighborhood telling a small crowd why they're having so much trouble. "In this case, it's because of the banks," he explained. "Well, the banks aren't bad people. They're just overwhelmed right now."
During a Monday roundtable with business owners struggling in Florida's hobbled housing market, the former Massachusetts governor told the group that their troubles with banks came because the lenders were worried about staying in business.
"The banks are scared to death, of course," he said. "They're feeling the same thing that you're feeling. And so they just want to pretend that all this is just going to get paid some day."
Both comments echoed the now-famous line Romney delivered from a hay bale at the Iowa state fair: "Corporations are people, my friend!"
They're also part of a string of comments Romney has made that his opponents have used to pummel him as wealthy and out of touch with average Americans. Ahead of the New Hampshire primary, he said he once feared being "pink-slipped" and later said "I like to fire people." He was referring to insurance companies, but both Democrats and his Republican rivals attacked him for it.
In calling corporations people, Romney meant that the money companies make benefits individuals and ultimately employs people and creates jobs. And in Florida, he's been trying to explain that banks are scared they'll go out of business because so many people have stopped paying their mortgages. He's also argued that regulations passed during the Obama administration give banks less flexibility if they're trying to help consumers renegotiate the terms of their mortgages.
He's focusing on the housing market because it's a critical issue in Florida, where the GOP primary will be held on Jan. 31. Gingrich, his chief rival, earned more than $1.6 million working as a consultant to Freddie Mac. The mortgage giant was heavily involved in the subprime lending business that helped drive the housing bubble.
"Housing has become a mess in large measure because the government got in the middle of it," Romney said. "I'm running against a guy, as you know, in this primary, who was out there working for one of those guys in the case of Freddie Mac."
Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored enterprise, was originally designed to help more people get access to mortgages to buy homes.
Romney himself hasn't outlined any specific proposals to help fix the housing market. He says improving the economy will allow Americans to regain their footing and keep their homes.
Since coming to Florida, though, he's softened his rhetoric. Last year, he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the government should let the foreclosure crisis "run its course and hit the bottom." Now, he's saying the housing market needs to be "reset" so that the American economy can "rebuild."
"The distress they're feeling here was heartbreaking," Romney told reporters after the Monday roundtable. "I want to do my very best to help people like that."
(Reuters) ? Suppliers basked in the reflection of Apple's glowing results on Wednesday after the company's gold standard iPhones and iPads flew off the shelves over the holiday sales season.
Apple's forecast-beating fourth-quarter figures late on Tuesday helped it to beat Google's Android as the largest smartphone platform in the United States and to regain the world's largest smartphone maker spot from Samsung.
Apple's results were spearheaded by sales of the iPhone 4S, which is packed with technology from British chip designer ARM, said analyst Nick James at Numis.
Apple accounts for about 10 percent of ARM's technology revenues, and for about 35 percent of graphics and video chip designer Imagination's technology revenues, he said.
"It means people are still driven by performance in terms of having the highest performance, highest functioning devices, and those tend to have quite a number of ARM-based chips in them."
"It is one of the key things that drove Imagination to come through to the next level," James added.
Shares in ARM jumped 4.2 percent, while shares in Imagination were 4.1 percent higher at 1030 GMT.
Analyst Didier Scemama at RBS said that although Apple was only one of many ARM customers -- the Cambridge-based company supplies virtually every smartphone and tablet with their cheap designs -- from a sentiment standpoint there has been a strong correlation between the two stocks.
"(Apple) should help the whole sector today, but especially Dialog Semiconductor and other suppliers," said a Frankfurt-based trader.
Shares in Dialog Semi were up 3.9 percent.
OVERTAKING SAMSUNG
Samsung became the world's largest smartphone maker in the third quarter, but analysts said the 37 million iPhones sold in the fourth quarter should easily beat Samsung's expected sales of around 30 million.
Samsung is due to report on Friday.
Research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech said Apple's share of the U.S. market doubled from a year ago to 44.9 percent in the October to December period, just beating the total for Android smartphones, which slipped to 44.8 percent from 50 percent.
"Overall, Apple sales are now growing at a faster rate than Android across the nine countries we cover," said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the research firm.
Apple's iPhone 4S also uses chips from Samsung Electronics, Qualcomm, Toshiba and a host of smaller semiconductor companies, including TriQuint, Skyworks Solutions and Avago Technologies Inc.
In stark contrast to Apple's success, sales of handset makers using Android, including Motorola Mobility, HTC and Sony Ericsson, have stumbled in the quarter.
(Reporting By Tarmo Virki, Paul Sandle and Harro ten Wolde; Editing by Will Waterman)
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CARACAS, Venezuela ? Opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez bowed out of Venezuela's presidential race on Tuesday, saying he will support front-runner Henrique Capriles Radonski.
The announcement gives a significant boost to Capriles, who has a commanding lead in the polls ahead of the Feb. 12 opposition primary, which will choose a single challenger to face President Hugo Chavez in the Oct. 7 presidential election.
"You will be the next president," Lopez said at a news conference with Capriles. The two embraced and raised their arms before a cheering crowd. "In me, he will have a great ally," Lopez added.
Lopez, a former Caracas district mayor, has been trailing in recent polls. He said that with his departure, "unity is strengthened" within the opposition.
Capriles, an athletic 39-year-old, has captured support among Venezuelans by presenting himself as a capable manager and pledging to solve problems such as rampant crime, unemployment and 27-percent inflation.
Capriles has tended to avoid direct verbal confrontations with Chavez and has described his politics as center-left. He likens his approach to that of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who promoted pro-business policies while funding expansive social programs that have made him popular among the poor.
Capriles is currently the governor of Miranda state, which is the country's second-most populous state and includes parts of Caracas as well as largely impoverished towns in the surrounding hills. He served as mayor of the capital's mostly middle-class district of Baruta before he was elected governor in 2008, defeating a close ally of Chavez. He is also a former congressman.
"We need all your good ideas here," Capriles told Lopez during the news conference. "We both have the same dream."
Both leaders repeated Capriles' campaign slogan, "There is a way."
Chavez has been in office for 13 years and is seeking another six-year term in the October election. His approval rating recently has been above 50 percent.
Lopez had gone ahead with his presidential bid despite a Supreme Court ruling in October that had upheld a ban on him holding office yet also said he could be a candidate.
Lopez is on a list of hundreds of politicians who have been barred from holding office in the past decade due to corruption investigations, but he insists he is innocent and notes he was never sentenced in a court.
In its decision, the Supreme Court upheld a decision by the country's top anti-corruption official disqualifying Lopez from holding office until 2014. The Supreme Court also dismissed as "unfeasible" a decision by the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights that had sided with Lopez and said his political rights had been violated.
"Lopez was running far behind in the polls, and the Supreme Court's defiance of the decision by the Inter-American Court left a big cloud of uncertainty over Lopez's future, even if he were to come out ahead," said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "Capriles has been the front-runner for some time, so the endorsement will continue to bolster his campaign."
Lopez's departure leaves a field of five candidates ahead of the Feb. 12 primary. Trailing Capriles in the polls have been Pablo Perez, the governor of western Zulia state, and congresswoman Maria Corina Machado. Also running are Diego Arria, a former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, and politician Pablo Medina.
Capriles urged Venezuelans to turn out in large numbers for the primary vote. As for Lopez's support, Capriles said: "This is an alliance with a view fixed on Oct. 7."
____
Associated Press writer Ian James in Caracas contributed to this report.
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TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian politicians said on Tuesday they expected the European Union to backtrack on its oil embargo and repeated a threat to close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if the West succeeds in preventing Tehran from exporting crude.
"The West's ineffective sanctions against the Islamic state are not a threat to us. They are opportunities and have already brought lots of benefits to the country," Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi told the official IRNA news agency.
Speaking a day after the EU slapped a ban on Iranian oil - to take full effect within six months - in a move to press Tehran into curbing its contested nuclear program and engage in negotiations with six world powers, the tone in the Islamic Republic was defiant, even skeptical.
"The global economic situation is not one in which a country can be destroyed by imposing sanctions," Moslehi said, repeating Iran's stance that with the EU in economic and monetary crisis, it needs Iran's oil more than Iran needs its business.
A spokesman for the oil ministry said Iran had had plenty of time to prepare for the sanctions and would find alternative customers for the 18 percent of its exports that up to now have gone to the 27-nation European bloc.
"The first phase of this (sanctions action) is propaganda, only then it will enter the implementation phase. That is why they put in this six months period, to study the market," Alireza Nikzad Rahbar said, predicting the embargo could be rescinded before it takes force completely.
"This market will harm them because oil is getting more expensive and when oil gets more expensive it will harm the people of Europe," state TV quoted him as saying. "We hope that in these six months they will choose the right path."
The embargo will not kick in completely until July 1 because the bloc's foreign ministers who agreed the ban at a meeting in Brussels were anxious not to penalize the ailing economies of Greece, Italy and others to whom Iran is a major oil supplier.
The strategy will be reviewed in May to see if it should proceed.
Iran, which denies international suspicions that it is trying to design atomic bombs behind the facade of a declared civilian atomic energy program, has scoffed at efforts to bar its oil exports as Asia lines up to buy what Europe rejects.
"RECKLESS"
Iran's foreign ministry summoned the Danish ambassador on Tuesday to complain about the EU's "illogical decision," accusing Europe of doing the bidding of the United States.
"Some elements in the European Union, following America's policies, are seeking to create tension in relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran," Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ashghar Khaji told Ambassador Anders Christian Hougaard.
"Europe should be responsible for the consequences of these reckless decisions," he said, according to IRNA.
Emad Hosseini, spokesman for parliament's energy committee, said that if Iran encountered any problem selling its oil, it would store it.
"If we don't export our oil to Europe, our oil will be saved and storage of oil will not harm us but we will have rich storage of oil," he told the semi-official Fars news agency, adding Iran retained its threat to shut the Gulf to shipping.
"Closing the Strait of Hormuz is one of the country's strategies against the West's threats, especially an oil embargo," he said.
The United States, which sailed an aircraft carrier through the strait into the Gulf accompanied by British and French warships on Sunday, has said it would not tolerate the closure of the world's most important oil shipping gateway.
Fitch Ratings issued an assessment of the embargo's market impact saying it would likely cause an oil price increase.
"However, prices may not necessarily increase markedly from current levels as some of the risks related to the EU ban on Iranian oil appear factored in already," it said.
The embargo decision had no discernible impact on oil prices as it was a move that had been flagged well in advance and the threat to close Hormuz seemed remote. Brent crude down slightly at $110 per barrel on Tuesday.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that the EU sanctions underlined the strength of the international community's commitment to "addressing the serious threat" presented by Iran's nuclear program.
"The United States will continue to impose new sanctions to increase the pressure on Iran," he said in a statement.
Washington applied its own sanctions to Iran's oil trade and central bank on December 31 and on Monday extended them to the third largest Iranian bank, state-owned Bank Tejarat, and a Belarus-based affiliate for allegedly helping Tehran's nuclear advance.
The EU sanctions were also welcomed by Israel, which has warned it might attack Iran if sanctions do not deflect Tehran from a course that some analysts say could potentially give Iran the means to build a nuclear bomb next year.
(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/wl_nm/us_iran
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CLAY, Ala. ? Two people were killed in the Birmingham, Ala., area as storms pounded the South and Midwest, prompting tornado warnings in a handful of states early Monday.
At least one of the areas affected by the storms, which were part of a system that stretched from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico, was also hit by a line of killer storms that slammed the Southeast last April.
Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Randy Christian said a 16-year-old boy was killed in Clay and an 82-year-old man died in the community of Oak Grove.
The storm produced a possible tornado that moved across northern Jefferson County around 3:30 a.m., causing damage in Oak Grove, Graysville, Fultondale, Center Point, Clay and Trussville, Christian said. He said several homes were destroyed and numerous injuries were reported.
"Some roads are impassable, there are a number of county roads where you have either debris down, trees down, damage from homes," said Yasamie Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. Jefferson County experienced "significant damage," she said.
Oak Grove was also hit during last April's tornadoes, but none of homes hit in April were hit again this time, said Allen Kniphfer of Jefferson County's Emergency Management Agency.
As day broke, rescue crews used chainsaws to clear fallen trees off roads in Clay, northeast of Birmingham. Searchers went door-to-door calling out to residents, many of whom were trapped by trees that crisscrossed their driveways.
Stevie Sanders woke up around 3:30 a.m. and realized bad weather was on the way. She, her parents and sister hid in the laundry room of their brick home as the wind howled and trees started cracking outside.
"You could feel the walls shaking and you could hear a loud crash. After that it got quiet, and the tree had fallen through my sister's roof," said Sanders, 26.
The family was OK, and her father, Greg Sanders, spent the next hours raking his roof and pulling away pieces of broken lumber.
"It could have been so much worse," he said. "It's like they say, we were just blessed."
In Clanton, about 50 miles south of Birmingham, rescuers were responding to reports of a trailer turned over with people trapped, City Clerk Debbie Orange said.
Also south of Birmingham, Maplesville town clerk Sheila Haigler said high winds damaged many buildings and knocked down several trees. One tree fell on a storm shelter, but no one was injured, Haigler said. One person was trapped in a heavily damaged home, but was rescued safely. Haigler said police had not been able to search some areas because trees and power lines were blocking roads.
In Arkansas, there were possible tornadoes in Arkansas, Dallas, Lonoke, Prairie and Cleveland counties Sunday night. The storms also brought hail and strong winds as they moved through parts of Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois and Mississippi.
Tornado warnings were issued for parts of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.
The storm also caused officials to reschedule a planned Monday meeting in Montgomery to receive a study on Alabama's response to a system of storms that raked the state last April. That storm killed more than 240 people in the state. Among the hardest hit areas then was Tuscaloosa, where 50 were killed.
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FRIDAY, Jan. 20 (HealthDay News) -- A new study found no statistically significant link between asthma medication use during pregnancy and common birth defects.
However, the study did find a positive association between some rare birth defects and mothers with asthma, and potentially with their medication use. But, the researchers couldn't tease out whether the problem was a loss of oxygen from less than well-controlled asthma or an effect of medications.
"Worsening asthma is a risk to the mom and the fetus. Hypoxia (a lack of oxygen) we know is a problem for a developing fetus. And, the potential risk they found here is very small. Even if it turns out to be a true increase, the risk is so small. This study raises more questions than it answers," said Dr. Natalie Meirowitz, chief of the division of maternal fetal medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.
What's most important, she said, is that expectant mothers with asthma don't just stop their medications. "That's really a problem, and then they end up needing more medication," she said.
Findings from the study were published online Jan. 16, ahead of February print publication in Pediatrics.
Between 4 percent and 12 percent of expectant mothers have asthma, according to background information in the article. Current guidelines recommend that women keep taking their asthma medications during pregnancy.
There are two main types of asthma medications: bronchodilators (also known as rescue medication) and anti-inflammatories, which include inhaled and oral steroids, as well as several other medications. Anti-inflammatory medications are generally used long term to help control asthma symptoms.
For the study, the researchers compared nearly 2,900 infants born with birth defects to more than 6,700 babies born with no birth defects. Mothers of these infants were asked to recall their medication use one month before and during pregnancy.
For most birth defects, the researchers found no statistically significant associations between asthma medication use and the development of birth defects.
They did, however, find a positive association between asthma medication use and certain rare birth defects. The risk of isolated esophageal atresia -- an abnormality of the esophagus -- was more than doubled in women who used bronchodilators. The risk of isolated anorectal atresia -- a malformed anus -- was more than doubled with maternal anti-inflammatory use. And, the risk of omphalocele -- a defect in the abdominal wall -- was more than quadrupled for either type of asthma medication.
But, the authors wrote, the "observed associations may be chance findings or may be the result of maternal asthma severity and related hypoxia rather than the medication use."
They added that it's also important to keep these findings in context. The rate of these birth defects ranged from 1.2 to 4.6 per 10,000 births. So, even a four-fold increase in the risk of having one of these defects results in far less than a 1 percent chance for any individual woman and her child.
"As obstetricians, we need to pay attention to this, but it's really important to oxygenate mom. We really need to make sure that there's oxygen flowing freely between mom and baby," said Dr. Mary Rosser, an obstetrician with Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
Also, Rosser pointed out that there was a lot that wasn't known about the expectant mothers. The authors weren't able to assess the severity of their asthma. They also didn't know anything about the medication doses.
Asthma expert Dr. Jennifer Appleyard agreed with Rosser and Meirowitz. "They really couldn't tease apart what was the medicine and what was the asthma," she said.
"You need to treat the asthma. There's more risk to uncontrolled asthma than a slight possible risk of a rare birth defect," said Appleyard, the chief of allergy and immunology at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit.
"No matter what type of patient you're treating -- expectant mom or not -- the goal is to treat patients with the minimum amount of medication necessary," she added.
Rosser and Meirowitz said that, ideally, women should visit their obstetrician/gynecologist before getting pregnant to review their medication use and to make sure that their asthma is well controlled.
More information
Learn more about asthma during pregnancy from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
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italian Firefighters prepare to approach the cruise ship Costa Concordia, in the background, as it leans on its side after running aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. The $450 million Costa Concordia cruise ship was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef Friday, Ja.16, after the captain made an unauthorized maneuver. The death toll stands at 11, with 22 people still missing.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
italian Firefighters prepare to approach the cruise ship Costa Concordia, in the background, as it leans on its side after running aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012. The $450 million Costa Concordia cruise ship was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef Friday, Ja.16, after the captain made an unauthorized maneuver. The death toll stands at 11, with 22 people still missing.(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
In this photo taken on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, and made available Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, Francesco Schettino, right, the captain of the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground Friday off the tiny Tuscan island of Isola del Giglio, is taken into custody by Carabinieri in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy. Schettino, released on Tuesday, and currently under house arrest in his hometown of Meta di Sorrento, southern Italy, is being investigated for possible manslaughter charges and abandoning the ship. (AP Photo/Giacomo Aprili)
This undated photo provided Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 by the St. Piux X Catholic Church directory in White Bear Lake, Minn. shows Jerry and Barbara Heil. The Heils are among those still missing after a cruise ship hit a reef off the west coast of Italy late Friday, Jan. 13, 2012 following an unauthorized maneuver by the captain. (AP Photo/St. Pius X Church Directory Photo, Olan Mills Studios)
Map locates cruise ship path and previous path
The cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. The $450 million Costa Concordia cruise ship was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef Friday off the tiny Italian island of Giglio after the captain made an unauthorized maneuver. The death toll stands at 11, with 22 people still missing. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
ROME (AP) ? A Moldovan woman who says she was with the captain of the Concordia cruise ship after it rammed into a Tuscan reef has defended his actions on the night of the grounding.
Crew members and passengers have said Capt. Francesco Schettino ate dinner with a woman in the ship's restaurant Friday and was with her as the ship started listing off the island of Giglio.
Italian news reports say prosecutors want to speak to Dominica Cermotan of Moldova. Cermotan says in a Facebook post that she was with Schettino on deck along with other officers and the cruise director. She defended Schettino, telling Moldova's Jurnal TV that "he did a great thing, he saved over 3,000 lives."
Prosecutor Francesco Verusio declined to comment on whether he was seeking Cermotan as a witness, citing the ongoing investigation.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
ROME (AP) ? A new audiotape emerged Thursday of the first contact between Livorno port officials and the Costa Concordia ? and the captain is heard insisting that his cruise ship only had a blackout a full 30 minutes after it had rammed into a reef.
Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.
The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio after Schettino made an unauthorized diversion Friday from his programmed route. The ship then keeled over on its side.
Eleven people have been confirmed dead and 21 others are still missing.
The recording between Schettino and port officials began at 10:12 p.m. Friday, a good 30 minutes after the ship violently hit a reef and panicked passengers had fled the dining room to get their lifejackets.
Recordings of Schettino's conversations with coast guard officials after the ship capsized on its side have shown how he resisted repeated orders to return on board to oversee the evacuation.
In a new recording released Thursday, the first communication between the ship and Livorno port authorities, Schettino is heard assuring the officer that he was checking out the reasons for the blackout. But he doesn't volunteer that the ship had hit a reef.
Rather, the port officer tells Schettino that his agency had heard from a relative of one of ship's sailors that "during dinner everything fell on their heads." Passengers in the dining area reported plates and glasses slamming down onto diners.
"We are verifying the conditions on board," Schettino replies. Asked if passengers had been told to put on life jackets, he responds: "Correct."
Crew members and passengers alike have complained about the chaotic evacuation and the lack of direction from the ship's management.
Divers, meanwhile, restarted the search Thursday for those still missing, but a forecast of rough seas added uncertainty to the operation and to plans to begin pumping fuel from the stranded vessel.
The divers were focusing on an evacuation route on the fourth level, now about 18 meters (60 feet) below the water's surface, where five bodies were found earlier this week, Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero told Sky TG 24. Crews set off small explosions to blow holes into hard-to-reach areas for easier access by divers.
Officials restarted the search after determining the ship had stabilized after shifting on the rocks 24 hours earlier.
Also Thursday, seven of the dead were identified by authorities: French passengers Jeanne Gannard, Pierre Gregoire, Francis Servil, 71, and Jean-Pierre Micheaud, 61; Peruvian crew member Thomas Alberto Costilla Mendoza; Spanish passenger Guillermo Gual, 68, and Italian passenger Giovanni Masia, who news reports said would have turned 86 next week and was buried in Sardinia on Thursday.
Italian authorities have identified 32 people who have either died or are missing: 12 Germans, seven Italians, six French, two Peruvians, two Americans and one person each from Hungary, India and Spain.
The ship's sudden movement Wednesday had also postponed the start of the weekslong operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel. Italy's environment minister issued a fresh warning Thursday about the implications if the ship shifts and breaks any of its now-intact oil tanks.
"We are very concerned" about the weather, minister Corrado Clini told Mediaset television. "If the tanks were to break, the fuel would block the sunlight from getting to the bottom of the sea, making a kind of film, and that would cause the death of the marine system in the area."
Crew members returning home have begun speaking out about the chaotic evacuation, saying the captain sounded the alarm too late and didn't give orders or instructions about how to evacuate passengers. Eventually, crew members started lowering lifeboats on their own.
"They asked us to make announcements to say that it was electrical problems and that our technicians were working on it and to not panic," French steward Thibault Francois told France-2 television Thursday. "I told myself this doesn't sound good."
He said the captain took too long to react and that eventually his boss told him to start escorting passengers to lifeboats. "No, there were no orders from the management," he said.
Indian ship waiter Mukesh Kumar said "the emergency alarm was sounded very late," only after the ship "started tilting and water started seeping" in.
He was one of four Indians flown to New Delhi on Thursday, the first to return out of 203 Indians aboard the Concordia.
"The ship shook for a while, and then the crockery stated falling all over," said Indian Kandari Surjan Singh, who worked in the ship's galley. "People started panicking. Then the captain ordered that everything is under control and said it was a normal electric fault ... so people calmed down after that."
Among the missing are an Italian father and 5-year-old daughter. The girl's mother issued a fresh appeal to speed the search and for passengers who saw the pair to come forward to help determine where they were last seen.
"Don't stop, bring home my daughter. Get her out," Susy Albertini, 28, said on Italian television Wednesday evening after meeting with government and port officials in Tuscany.
William Arlotti, 36, had taken his daughter on on the cruise with his girlfriend, Michela Marconcelli, who survived. Marconcelli said she got separated from the other two in the evacuation.
Other missing include retirees Jerry and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, who were treating themselves after putting four children through college.
The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour, and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio.
Costa is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.
___
Barry reported from Milan. Fanuel Morelli contributed from Giglio, Italy and Angela Charlton from Paris.
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CLAREMORE, Okla. ? An Oklahoma hospital executive says country singer Garth Brooks considered giving $15 million to his facility if it would name itself after his late mother.
Brooks is suing the Integris (in-TEHG-rihs) Canadian Valley Regional Hospital, saying it wouldn't name a women's center for Colleen Brooks after receiving $500,000 from him.
The Tulsa World ( http://bit.ly/Avdi1z) reports that hospital president James Moore testified Thursday that discussions initially involved a much larger gift.
An internal document from the hospital quotes Brooks as saying a $15 million gift for naming rights was "exactly" what he had in mind. Moore says he never spoke to Brooks about naming a women's center for a half-million dollars.
The hospital considers Brooks' donation unconditional.
Colleen Brooks died of cancer in 1999. A women's center never was built.
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ScienceDaily (Jan. 17, 2012) ? Nitrogen is both an essential nutrient and a pollutant, a byproduct of fossil fuel combustion and a fertilizer that feeds billions, a benefit and a hazard, depending on form, location, and quantity. Agriculture, industry and transportation have spread nitrogen liberally around the planet, say sixteen scientists in the latest edition of ESA's Issues in Ecology series, "Excess Nitrogen in the U.S. Environment: Trends, Risks, and Solutions," with complex and interrelated consequences for ecological communities and our dependence upon the resources they provide, as well as human health.
Pulling from a broad pool of expertise in air quality, agronomy, ecology, epidemiology and groundwater geochemistry, the sixteen authors track nitrogen through its different chemical forms and biological incarnations as it progresses across economic, environmental and regulatory bounds. They argue for a systematic, rather than piecemeal, approach to managing the resource and its consequences. "We're really trying to identify solutions," said lead author Eric Davidson, a soil ecologist and executive director of the Woods Hole Research Center. "This is a paper about how much we do know, not about what we don't know. We know about nitrogen cycles, and sources, and we know problems can be addressed in economically viable ways."
Once a critical limiting element of agricultural production, excess nitrogen now overflows from fields and stockyards, typically in the forms of ammonia and nitrate, contaminating drinking water and air, and altering the chemistry and constituency of ecological communities. "Nitrogen is readily mobile, and very efficiently distributed through wind and water," said author James Galloway, a biogeochemist at the University of Virginia. Airborne nitrogen from agricultural fields, manure piles, automobile tailpipes, and smokestacks travels with the wind to settle over distant forests and coastal areas.
Though extra fertilizer sounds like a good thing, it does not benefit all species equally, leading, in more extreme cases, to sudden changes like algal blooms, which smother competing species and can create health hazards. Nitrogen also acidifies soil, leaching away other important nutrients. Interventions to control nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and gasoline-fueled engines have made encouraging progress. Mitigating agricultural sources of excess nitrogen is more complicated.
"We know how to reduce nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel combustion to a very small amount. We know the science, we have the engineering, and we have the regulatory tools," said Galloway, setting emissions aside as a political, rather than a scientific, hurdle. "On the food side, that's where it gets interesting," he said. "How can you still produce the food the society demands, needs, yet use less nitrogen to produce it?"
The report tabulates strategies to help farmers maximize efficient use of fertilizer, rather than just maximize crop yield, including buffer strips and wetlands, manure management, and ideal patterns of fertilizer application. It also considers the cost of implementing them, and programs for buffering farmers against losses in bad years.
"There are a variety of impacts due to the human use of nitrogen," said Galloway. "The biggest is a positive one, in that it allows us to grow food for Americans and people in other countries, and we don't want to lose sight of that." Balancing inexpensive abundant food against the damage done by nitrogen escaping into the environment is a conversation the authors would like to hear more prominently in policy arenas.
"Yes, we have to feed people, but we also need clean drinking water, clean air, and fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico," said Davidson. "The science helps to show those tradeoffs, and where we most stand to gain from improved nutrient management in agriculture."
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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120117145109.htm
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According to people familiar with the matter,
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(Reuters) ? Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Sunday named Neil Ashe as the new president and chief executive of its global eCommerce business as the world's largest retailer in a move to bolster its online presence.
Wal-Mart, which is trying to meet customers wherever they want to shop -- in stores, online, on phones, on tablets -- said Ashe was most recently president of CBS Interactive. His appointment is effective immediately.
Ashe replaces Eduardo Castro-Wright, who announced his pending retirement in September and will assist in the transition, Wal-Mart said.
Wal-Mart, which generates more than $400 billion in annual revenue, is the sixth-largest Internet retailer, behind Amazon.com Inc, Staples Inc, Apple Inc, Dell Inc and Office Depot Inc, according to industry publication Internet Retailer.
Wal-Mart does not disclose the percentage of sales that comes from its online business.
"E-commerce is a great opportunity for us and we have a long-term vision to win," said Mike Duke, Wal-Mart's president and CEO. "We are on track to create the next generation of e-commerce, combining the latest in online innovations with physical stores to give our customers a unique and seamless shopping experience."
"We have an understanding of what these customers want, a trusted brand, 200 million weekly shoppers, more than 10,000 stores around the world, and the ability to make significant investments in talent and technology," Duke said.
Wal-Mart said it has online businesses in the United States, the UK, Canada and Brazil. It recently started a new unit called @WalmartLabs, whose job is to help Wal-Mart capture more sales from the proliferation of smartphones and social networking.
During the past couple of years, Wal-Mart also bought the Vudu streaming video service and technology company Kosmix, and bought a stake in Chinese e-commerce company Yihaodian.
In August, Wal-Mart changed its e-commerce business structure, putting the people who run stores in developed markets such as the United States in charge of the websites in those countries.
Under the changes, Wal-Mart has e-commerce teams in developed markets -- the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Japan -- report directly to the senior store leadership in those countries.
Ashe previously served as CEO of CNET and led the sale of the company to CBS and president of CBS Interactive at that time. In that position, Ashe led the led the interactive content business with operations in the United States, Europe and China.
(Reporting By Jessica Hall; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
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ATHENS, Greece ? Greece resumed talks with its international debt inspectors Tuesday, facing a race against the clock to avoid becoming the first country that uses the euro to default on its debts and potentially trigger a chain reaction that could ultimately destroy the European single currency itself.
The debt inspectors ? whose mission chiefs are expected in Athens Friday after technical teams lay the groundwork ? face a massive task. They have to once again find more ways to cut spending and raise revenue in a country that is increasingly seen as immune to fundamental reforms.
Apart from identifying financial shortfalls produced since their last visit in December, they also have to set up a detailed policy and spending program for the next two years if Athens wants to have a chance at securing an extra euro130 billion ($166 billion) in rescue loans. Those loans were promised in October, after it became clear that a first euro110 billion bailout granted in May 2010 was not enough to buffer a Greek economy in freefall.
And the inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission ? known as the 'troika' ? are not the only foreign officials in town this week.
While they go through Greece's books, the government in Athens is also locked in a battle to convince banks and other private bondholders to forgive half of the Greek debt they hold ? an essential part of the second rescue package.
At the same time, the head of the European Union's task force for Greece is also in the capital, looking to streamline the country's sprawling bureaucracy, trying to improve lax tax collection and kickstart stalled infrastructure projects.
For the Greek government, the stakes could not be higher. The country has to repay a euro14.5 billion bond in March ? one that it can't afford to pay. Negotiations with the bondholders on the bond swap ? and ideally the troika ? have to be concluded by Jan. 30, when European leaders meet in Brussels to scrutinize the deal.
The crucial bond swap negotiations with the Institute of International Finance, which represents bondholders, stalled on Friday after a sudden disagreement arose with other eurozone countries and the IMF over the interest rate on the new bonds.
Talks will resume Wednesday, the IIF said, which went on to press the "sense of urgency" over the need for a deal. However, it was not clear whether positions had moved closer together since last week. After Greece's economy shrank almost 6 percent last year, the official lenders are trying to cap the amount of money they have to pump into the country.
Time is running short. Ideally, a final outline of the debt deal should be reached by the end of this week, with a formal public offer at the beginning of February, a senior Greek finance ministry official said last week. Only then will Greece know how many bondholders are actually willing to participate voluntarily.
If the agreement goes ahead, it would both reduce the amount the country has to pay on its debt and extend the maturity date, giving the country much-needed breathing space. If it doesn't, it puts into question the entire second bailout and makes the possibility of a messy default alarmingly likely.
Such is the scene in Athens these days, almost two years after a new government called for international help to plug a budget deficit that was much bigger than expected. Since then, the troika has flown over more or less every three months, checking on progress and often coming back disappointed.
Each time their visits have grown longer, the debate over yet more austerity measures more acrimonious, and invariably, a broad selection of workers go on strike. Yet resignation has set in among many Greeks, who see no particular result arising from labor walkouts and demonstrations that often turn violent.
All this takes place against a backdrop of growing frustrations among Greece's official creditors, the IMF and the other eurozone countries.
"The potential ramifications of a Greek disorderly default are so negative it is still likely that some kind of agreement will be reached," said Gary Jenkins, director of Swordfish Research. But "the fact that such a scenario is possible after all the bailouts and talks will probably continue to be a drag on confidence even if the problems are resolved."
Last Friday, U.S. rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit score of nine of the 17 countries in the eurozone. Nonetheless, Spain, one of the countries hit by the downgrade, successfully auctioned off euro4.9 billion ($6.21 billion) in short-term debt at sharply reduced interest rates Tuesday, an indication that investor sentiment had not been dented. Portugal, another S&P target, also on Tuesday secured an agreement with trades unions and employers on a package of labor reforms aimed at reversing the country's steep economic decline.
Greece also raised euro1.625 billion ($2.06 billion) in short-term debt, with its 13-week treasury bills selling at an interest rate of 4.64 percent, marginally lower than the 4.68 percent in the last such auction in December.
At the Brussels-based Commission, the missions to Greece are seen as one of the most taxing assignments. Officials joke that with the troika trips to Greece, one never knows when they will end, be interrupted, or restarted. Technical experts work in shifts, with a second group flying in once the first batch has reached its limits. Nonetheless, Europe remains determined to reach a solution.
"We have not given up on Greece at all," Marco Buti, the head of the Commission's economic affairs division, which supplies the troika experts, said in Brussels Tuesday. "Actually we are working very very hard to make sure the Greeks embrace the right policies."
____
Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed to this story.
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LONDON (AP) ? In a Jan. 2 story about media mogul Rupert Murdoch's activities on Twitter, The Associated Press erroneously reported that his wife Wendi had joined the micro-blogging site under the name "wendi_deng." The San Francisco-based Twitter Inc. had initially marked the account as genuine, but later said it was a fake. In a statement Tuesday, Twitter said "the wendi_deng account was mistakenly verified for a short period of time. We apologize for the confusion this caused."
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Syracuse & 3+3 physical therapy program w/ SUNY Upstate Medical University
I want to apply to the Syracuse 3 + 3 Doctor of Physical Therapy Program w/ SUNY Upstate Medical University, in which i have to do a separate application to SUNY Upstate, but there are guidelines for the DPT Program with SUNY Upstate Medical University application.
I don't meet their 90% grade avg. with my 88% avg. and I do not meet their 1200 math and reading sat score with my 990 sat score.
Do they strictly require this? should i still apply? do i still have a chance with my scores?
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WASHINGTON -- Looking ahead to next fall, Democrats in Iowa and beyond sought to weaken Republican Mitt Romney in advance of Tuesday's lead-off presidential caucuses as polls show the former Massachusetts governor amassing support.
Democrats dispatched party leaders and surrogates in Iowa on Monday to assail the Republican field while paying close attention to Romney, who has led in national polls and could use Iowa and other early states as a springboard to secure the Republican nomination. Democrats have tried to portray Romney as lacking any core convictions while raising questions about his business background, which the former governor has offered as a chief reason to send him to the White House.
"When push comes to shove, Romney's economic vision could not be more out of touch with the needs of working folks here in Iowa and across the country," said Michael Fitzgerald, Iowa's state treasurer and a Democrat.
President Barack Obama is expected to compete heavily for Iowa's voters in next fall's general election after winning the state's caucuses in 2008 and carrying Iowa against Republican John McCain. Obama planned to address Democratic caucus attendees by web video Tuesday night.
A Des Moines Register poll released Saturday showed Romney with steady support at 24 percent, with Republicans Ron Paul and Rick Santorum competing closing with Romney in the caucuses. Half of likely caucus-goers viewed Romney as the Republican most likely to win the November election, putting him well ahead of Santorum and Paul on that question.
The Democratic National Committee held events with a union official who was laid off by a company that Romney's former private equity firm, Bain Capital, restructured more than a decade ago. The worker, Randy Johnson, said the layoffs show that Romney doesn't understand the needs of working people.
Democrats intend to make Romney's past a major focus of a head-to-head campaign, aiming to undercut the Republican's arguments against Obama on the economy. Johnson's former company, American Pad and Paper in Marion, Ind., was bought by Bain Capital in 1994 and the company closed the Indiana plant a year later, laying off about 200 people.
"He's always been in the business of making money," Johnson said by phone from Davenport, Iowa, where he met with reporters. Johnson currently works for the United Steelworkers union.
Under Romney, Bain Capital invested millions of dollars into dozens of private-equity ventures, with some producing giant profits. Romney has said his business attempted to make the companies more successful but he wasn't always able to succeed.
Romney's campaign has dismissed the efforts by Democrats to raise the case of the Indiana factory, which played prominently in Romney's 1994 campaign against Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Romney's campaign said Obama "and his cronies know that if they have to face Mitt Romney in the general election they are going to lose, which is why they continue their `kill Romney' strategy."
Democrats continued to pound away at Romney's record, calling him a serial flip-flipper who has shifted views on abortion and gun control.
In Florida, Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, told reporters that "all of the Republican candidates support the failed policies of past" but singled out Romney, urging voters to "ask themselves if they know the real Mitt Romney and just how far he's gone to remake himself to win the nomination."
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