With Cease-Fire Joy in Gaza, Palestinian Factions Revive Unity Pledges

GAZA — A cease-fire that halted eight days of lethal conflict between Israel and Hamas brought widespread jubilation to Gaza on Thursday as thousands of flag-waving residents poured into the streets and competing Palestinian factions sought to use the moment to revive their repeated efforts to unify, while in Israel, the mood was more cynical and subdued.

The cease-fire agreement, which took effect on Wednesday night and seemed to be holding through Thursday, averted a full-scale Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. It did not resolve the underlying issues between the antagonists but said they would be addressed later, in a vague process that would not begin until at least 24 hours of calm had elapsed.

The wording of the agreement, reached under strong Egyptian and American diplomatic pressure, allowed both sides to claim some measure of victory in the battle of aerial weaponry that had killed at least 150 Palestinians and five Israelis over the past week. Whether the agreement succeeds could provide an early test of how Egypt’s new Islamist government might influence the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the most intractable in the Middle East.

Gaza City roared back to life after more than a week of nonstop Israeli aerial assaults had left the streets vacant. Gazans carried flags not just in the signature green of Hamas, the militant group that governs Gaza, but also the yellow of its rival Fatah faction, the black of Islamic Jihad and the red of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

“It’s the first time in 70 years I feel proud and my head held high,” said Mohamed Rajah, 71, a refugee from Haifa, Israel, who rushed to kiss four masked militants of the Islamic Jihad faction as they prepared for a news conference. “It’s a great victory for the people of Palestine. Nobody says it’s Hamas, nobody says it’s Islamic Jihad or Fatah — Palestine only.”

Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza who had largely remained in hiding after the initial Israeli assault on Nov. 14 that killed Ahmed al-Jabari, the head of the Hamas military wing, appeared at a unity rally alongside Mustafa Barghouti of the Palestinian National Initiative, a member of the Palestinian leadership that governs the Israeli-occupied West Bank and who has spent the past several days in Gaza. Mr. Barghouti said the leaders of all Palestinian factions would meet in Cairo in coming days to discuss reconciling their differences.

“The Palestinian people have won today,” Mr. Barghouti told hundreds outside the parliament building. “We must continue this victory by making our national unity.” Mr. Haniya, in a televised speech later, said “The blood of Jabari united the people of the nation on the choice of jihad and resistance.”

With Israeli forces still massed on the Gaza border, a tentative calm in the fighting descended after the agreement was announced. Some of the tens of thousands of Israeli reservists called up during the crisis appeared to be making preparations to redeploy away from staging areas along the Gaza border where the Israeli military had prepared for a possible invasion of Gaza for the second time in four years.

In southern Israel, the target of more than 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza over the past week, wary residents began to return to routine. But schools within a 25-mile radius of the Palestinian enclave remained closed.

A rocket alert sounded at the small village of Nativ Haasara near the border with Gaza on Thursday morning, sending residents running for shelter. The military said the alert had been a false alarm.

Israel Radio said a dozen rockets were fired from Gaza in the first few hours of the cease-fire, but Israeli forces did not respond. In the rival Twitter feeds that offered a cyberspace counterpoint to the exchanges of airstrikes and rockets, the Israel Defense Forces said they had achieved their objectives of severely damaging Hamas’s military capabilities.

At the same time, Israeli security forces said on Thursday that they had detained 55 Palestinian militants in the West Bank after confrontations. The army said the detentions were designed to “continue to maintain order” and to “prevent the infiltration of terrorists into Israeli communities.”

Many residents in the south expressed doubt that the agreement would hold, partly because at least five Palestinian rockets thudded into southern Israel shortly after the cease-fire had commenced.

Jodi Rudoren reported from Gaza, and David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo. Reporting was contributed by Fares Akram from Gaza, Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem, Mayy El Sheikh from Cairo, Rick Gladstone from New York, and Alan Cowell from Paris.

Read More..

Scott Macaulay Gives Strangers Free Thanksgiving Dinner - and Family for a Day

Heroes Among Us

By Alicia Dennis

11/22/2012 at 01:00 PM EST

When the turkey, potatoes and stuffing get passed around at Scott Macaulay's Thanksgiving dinner table, there's really no telling whether he'll know his fellow diners.

For 27 years, Macaulay, 51, has cooked and served Thanksgiving to groups of strangers in Melrose, Mass., because, "I don't think anyone should spend Thanksgiving alone," he tells PEOPLE.

His annual dinner came to be when his parents got a divorce in September of 1985 and then began arguing about where he would spend Thanksgiving. When Macaulay realized spending the day with either one or splitting it up wasn't going to work, he resigned himself to attending neither celebration. But he didn't want to eat alone on one of his favorite holidays, either.

"So, I put an ad in the local paper that I would cook dinner for up to 12 people," he says. "And it went pretty well. Thanksgiving is not a holiday about presents or fireworks, it is about giving thanks for the blessings in your life and you just can't do that by yourself. It isn't as much about the food as it is about being together."

Through the years, his annual dinners have grown in number – and in the connections he's made with the people at the table. Last year, 89 people were served dinner by Macaulay, who is single and buys and cooks the majority of the meal. He now holds the feast at the First Baptist Church in Melrose, where he makes the atmosphere more "homey" by bringing in his own rocking chairs, a faux fireplace and serving appetizers so people can visit together.

"I don't want it to look like an institution," he says. "I make it look like a home as much as possible, with cloth tablecloths and napkins and plastic silverware that looks real."

He recalls diners through the years: A woman who comes because her kids live out of state and it is too far to travel, a man whose wife has Alzheimer's, a young woman whose father was in the hospital nearby (Macaulay was recently invited to her wedding and he attended), as well as those who are recently widowed or divorced or who just find themselves with nowhere to go on the day.

"It's nice for us to share our blessings together and enjoy the day," says Macaulay, who also delivers meals to local police who have to work on the holiday.

Macaulay doesn't own a computer (or a television), so he relies on word of mouth and his annual notice in the paper to get the word out to people in the community. His reservation numbers before the holiday were at 32 for this year, but he expects and plans for more, getting up at 4 a.m. to put four turkeys into the ovens at the church and then start peeling and cooking the potatoes.

"I don't like to eat alone," Macaulay says, simply. "And I enjoy getting to have Thanksgiving with other people who want to enjoy being together too."

Know a hero? Send suggestions to heroesamongus@peoplemag.com. For more inspiring stories, read the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine

Read More..

Study finds mammograms lead to unneeded treatment

Mammograms have done surprisingly little to catch deadly breast cancers before they spread, a big U.S. study finds. At the same time, more than a million women have been treated for cancers that never would have threatened their lives, researchers estimate.

Up to one-third of breast cancers, or 50,000 to 70,000 cases a year, don't need treatment, the study suggests.

It's the most detailed look yet at overtreatment of breast cancer, and it adds fresh evidence that screening is not as helpful as many women believe. Mammograms are still worthwhile, because they do catch some deadly cancers and save lives, doctors stress. And some of them disagree with conclusions the new study reached.

But it spotlights a reality that is tough for many Americans to accept: Some abnormalities that doctors call "cancer" are not a health threat or truly malignant. There is no good way to tell which ones are, so many women wind up getting treatments like surgery and chemotherapy that they don't really need.

Men have heard a similar message about PSA tests to screen for slow-growing prostate cancer, but it's relatively new to the debate over breast cancer screening.

"We're coming to learn that some cancers — many cancers, depending on the organ — weren't destined to cause death," said Dr. Barnett Kramer, a National Cancer Institute screening expert. However, "once a woman is diagnosed, it's hard to say treatment is not necessary."

He had no role in the study, which was led by Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of Dartmouth Medical School and Dr. Archie Bleyer of St. Charles Health System and Oregon Health & Science University. Results are in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Breast cancer is the leading type of cancer and cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. Nearly 1.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year. Other countries screen less aggressively than the U.S. does. In Britain, for example, mammograms are usually offered only every three years and a recent review there found similar signs of overtreatment.

The dogma has been that screening finds cancer early, when it's most curable. But screening is only worthwhile if it finds cancers destined to cause death, and if treating them early improves survival versus treating when or if they cause symptoms.

Mammograms also are an imperfect screening tool — they often give false alarms, spurring biopsies and other tests that ultimately show no cancer was present. The new study looks at a different risk: Overdiagnosis, or finding cancer that is present but does not need treatment.

Researchers used federal surveys on mammography and cancer registry statistics from 1976 through 2008 to track how many cancers were found early, while still confined to the breast, versus later, when they had spread to lymph nodes or more widely.

The scientists assumed that the actual amount of disease — how many true cases exist — did not change or grew only a little during those three decades. Yet they found a big difference in the number and stage of cases discovered over time, as mammograms came into wide use.

Mammograms more than doubled the number of early-stage cancers detected — from 112 to 234 cases per 100,000 women. But late-stage cancers dropped just 8 percent, from 102 to 94 cases per 100,000 women.

The imbalance suggests a lot of overdiagnosis from mammograms, which now account for 60 percent of cases that are found, Bleyer said. If screening were working, there should be one less patient diagnosed with late-stage cancer for every additional patient whose cancer was found at an earlier stage, he explained.

"Instead, we're diagnosing a lot of something else — not cancer" in that early stage, Bleyer said. "And the worst cancer is still going on, just like it always was."

Researchers also looked at death rates for breast cancer, which declined 28 percent during that time in women 40 and older — the group targeted for screening. Mortality dropped even more — 41 percent — in women under 40, who presumably were not getting mammograms.

"We are left to conclude, as others have, that the good news in breast cancer — decreasing mortality — must largely be the result of improved treatment, not screening," the authors write.

The study was paid for by the study authors' universities.

"This study is important because what it really highlights is that the biology of the cancer is what we need to understand" in order to know which ones to treat and how, said Dr. Julia A. Smith, director of breast cancer screening at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. Doctors already are debating whether DCIS, a type of early tumor confined to a milk duct, should even be called cancer, she said.

Another expert, Dr. Linda Vahdat, director of the breast cancer research program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, said the study's leaders made many assumptions to reach a conclusion about overdiagnosis that "may or may not be correct."

"I don't think it will change how we view screening mammography," she said.

A government-appointed task force that gives screening advice calls for mammograms every other year starting at age 50 and stopping at 75. The American Cancer Society recommends them every year starting at age 40.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the cancer society's deputy chief medical officer, said the study should not be taken as "a referendum on mammography," and noted that other high-quality studies have affirmed its value. Still, he said overdiagnosis is a problem, and it's not possible to tell an individual woman whether her cancer needs treated.

"Our technology has brought us to the place where we can find a lot of cancer. Our science has to bring us to the point where we can define what treatment people really need," he said.

___

Online:

Study: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1206809

Screening advice: http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsbrca.htm

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Read More..

Global shares gain as global economic outlook improves

LONDON (Reuters) - World share markets extended a week-long rally on Thursday as manufacturing surveys in China and the United States boosted confidence in global growth and euro zone data at least did not worsen the already weak outlook for that region.

The euro hit a three high against the dollar on optimism that a funding deal for debt-crippled Greece will ultimately be agreed - and despite data indicating the region's economy is on course for its deepest recession since early 2009.

"The driving factors behind euro/dollar are that the global macroeconomic backdrop seems to be improving and people are pricing out the tail risk on Greece," said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, head of currency research at Danske Bank.

The euro rose 0.4 percent to $1.2880, its highest since November 2.

The view there will be a deal to help Athens was bolstered on Wednesday when German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after the failure of the latest talks, that an agreement was possible when euro zone ministers meet again on Monday.

The hopes for a Greek deal, combined with the better economic data and a growing view that a solution can be found to the U.S. fiscal crisis, lifted the MSCI world equity index 0.4 percent to 326 points, putting it on track for its best week since mid-September.

Europe's FTSE Eurofirst 300 index rose 0.4 percent to a two-week high of 1,101.70 points, with London's FTSE 100, Paris's CAC-40 and Frankfurt's DAX between 0.3 and 0.7 percent higher.

However, trading was subdued, with U.S. markets closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

CHINA BOOST

Confidence in the global economic outlook got its biggest boost from the HSBC flash Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for China, which pointed to an expansion in activity after seven consecutive quarters of slowdown.

The Chinese data followed a report on Wednesday showing U.S. manufacturing grew in November at its quickest pace in five months, indicating strong economic growth in the fourth quarter.

"There are questions over whether the Chinese economy is really that bad or if the U.S. will take a long time to recover, but we are getting signs that the situation is not as bad as assumed," said Peter Braendle, head of European equities at Zurich-based Swisscanto Asset Management.

PMI data on the manufacturing and services sectors in Europe's two biggest economies, Germany and France, added to the better tone, revealing that conditions had not worsened in November, though both economies are still contracting.

However, the PMI numbers for the wider euro zone remain extremely weak, pointing to the recession-hit region shrinking by about 0.5 percent in the current quarter - its sharpest contraction since the first quarter of 2009.

"The weak PMI outturn for November is a major disappointment in light of the increases in the German and French PMI surveys, and suggest the recession on the euro zone's periphery is gathering further pace," said ING economist Martin van Vliet.

BOND DEMAND

In the fixed-income markets, the improving tone enabled Spain to sell 3.88 billion euros ($4.97 billion) of new government bonds on Thursday, even though it has already raised enough funds for this year's needs.

The average yield on the three-year bonds in the auction was 3.617 percent, compared with 3.66 percent at a sale earlier in November and a 2012 average of 3.79 percent.

Ten-year Spanish yields were 6 basis points lower on the day at 5.67 percent, having traded above 6 percent at the start of the week.

"It's a clear reflection that sentiment in Spain has improved markedly," RIA Capital Markets bond strategist Nick Stamenkovic said, adding that the market was expecting Madrid to ask for an international bailout early next year.

Expectations Greece will soon get more cash set Greek yields on course for their 10th consecutive daily fall. The February 2023 bond yield dropped to 16.16 percent, its lowest since it was issued during a debt restructuring in March.

COMMODITIES STEADY

Commodity prices had some support from the improving outlook for world demand, but the prospect of only modest global growth in 2013 kept the gains in check.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6 percent to $7,735.25 a metric tonne, and spot gold inched up to $1,730.30 an ounce.

Oil prices were more mixed as the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers on Thursday eased concerns over the impact the unrest might have had on supply from the region, offsetting support from the prospect of more Chinese oil demand.

Brent slipped 7 cents to $110.90 a barrel, while U.S. crude was up 2 cents at $87.40.

($1 = 0.7801 euros)

(Additional reporting by Jessica Mortimer and Marius Zaharia; Editing by Will Waterman and Alastair Macdonald)

Read More..

Israel and Hamas Agree to Cease-Fire

CAIRO — Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire on Wednesday, the eighth day of lethal fighting over the Gaza Strip, the United States and Egypt said after intensive negotiations in Cairo.

The cease-fire, to take effect at 9 p.m. local time (2 p.m. E.S.T.), was formally announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr of Egypt at a news conference here. The agreement was aimed at quieting an escalating aerial battle between Palestinians and Israelis that had threatened to turn into an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.

Whether the cease-fire could hold was uncertain at best, and even in the minutes leading up to the effective start time, both sides were firing at each other.

“This is a critical moment for the region,” Mrs. Clinton, who rushed to the Middle East late Tuesday in an intensified effort to halt the hostilities, told reporters in Cairo. She thanked Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, who played a pivotal role in the negotiations, for “assuming the leadership that has long made this country a cornerstone of regional stability and peace.”

Mrs. Clinton also pledged to work “with our partners across the region to consolidate this progress, improve conditions for the people of Gaza, provide security for the people of Israel.”

Mr. Amr said Egypt’s role in reaching the agreement reflected its “historical commitment to the Palestinian cause” and Egypt’s efforts to “bring together the gap between the Palestinian factions.”

The negotiators reached an agreement after days of nearly nonstop Israeli aerial assaults on Gaza, the Mediterranean enclave run by Hamas, the militant Islamist group, and the firing of hundreds of rockets into Israel from an arsenal Hamas had been amassing in the aftermath of the three-week Israeli invasion four years ago.

The agreement came despite a bus bombing in Tel Aviv earlier in the day, which Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups had applauded. Also complicating the path to the cease-fire were Israeli strikes overnight on Gaza.

Egyptian and American officials did not immediately divulge details of the agreement, and it was unclear how it would be enforced. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who had been threatening to launch another ground invasion if the Gaza rockets did not stop, said in a statement that he was satisfied, for the moment, with the outcome. But he left open the possibility of more military action.

The statement issued by his office said Mr. Netanyahu had spoken with President Obama and “responded positively to his recommendation to give a chance to the Egyptian proposal for a cease-fire and to allow an opportunity to stabilize the situation and to calm it down before there is a need to use much greater force.”

An agreement had been on the verge of completion on Tuesday, but was delayed over a number of issues, including Hamas’s demands for unfettered access to Gaza via the Rafah crossing into Egypt and other steps that would ease Israel’s economic and border control over other aspects of life for the more than one million Palestinian residents of Gaza, which Israel vacated in 2005 after 38 years of occupation.

The Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza said the Palestinian death toll after a week of fighting stood at 140 at noon. At least a third of those killed are believed to have been militants. On the Israeli side, five Israelis have been killed, including one soldier.

Around noon on Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas government media office, a bomb hit the house of Issam Da’alis, an adviser to Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister. The house had been evacuated. Earlier, a predawn airstrike near a mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp killed a 30-year-old militant, a spokesman said, and F-16 bombs destroyed two houses in the central Gaza Strip.

There were 23 punishing strikes against the southern tunnels that are used to bring weapons as well as construction material, cars and other commercial goods into Gaza from the Sinai Peninsula.

Within Gaza City, Abu Khadra, the largest government office complex, was obliterated overnight. Businesses were also damaged, including two banks and a tourism office, and electricity cables fell on the ground and were covered in dust.

David D. Kirkpatrick reported from Cairo, Ethan Bronner from Jerusalem and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Jodi Rudoren and Fares Akram from Gaza, Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem, Alan Cowell from London, Andrea Bruce from Rafah and Christine Hauser from New York.

Read More..

Harley Pasternak: 5 Ways to Avoid Blowing Your Diet on Thanksgiving

Only on People.com

By Harley Pasternak

11/21/2012 at 01:10 PM EST

Harley Pasternak and Jessica Simpson

John Sciulli/BEImages

Celebrity trainer and PEOPLE.com blogger Harley Pasternak give his top 5 tips for a healthy, happy Thanksgiving. Plus, he shares some holiday recipes from some of his star clients like Jessica Simpson and Megan Fox.

Turkey, stuffing, corn bread, cranberry sauce, apple pie, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping: Thanksgiving has gone from being a day when we give thanks for everything we have, to a day when we EAT everything we have!

Studies show that people can eat between 3,000 to 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving alone, which is, of course, a lot more than necessary on a generally sedentary day.

While I completely support treating yourself on Thanksgiving, I encourage you to be at least somewhat mindful about what you consume. Studies show that people tend to gain 5 to 7 lbs. between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I don't want your health and fitness goals to be set back because of what's supposed to be a joyous holiday.

Let this Thanksgiving be the first one in which the turkey – and not you – is the thing getting stuffed!

5 Tips for Making Thanksgiving Healthier

1. Walk it out!
The morning of Thanksgiving, go for a brisk walk. If you're traveling to Thanksgiving dinner, park your car a few blocks away and walk the extra distance. After dinner, get some fresh air and walk around the block. Before you know it, you will have taken a few extra thousand steps, burned off your dessert and helped your digestion!

2. Eat a healthy breakfast and lunch
Filling up on "good calories" on Thanksgiving is key in controlling your appetite come dinnertime. Showing up ravenous to Thanksgiving dinner is never a good idea.

3. Exercise portion control
I know some think this is Thanksgiving sacrilege, but honestly portion control is the name of the game. First, start with a smaller plate. Smaller plates equal smaller portions. Next, follow the 3:2:1 rule: 3 parts veggies, 2 parts protein, 1 part whole grains.

4. Lose the booze!
Not only is alcohol almost twice as calorically dense as carbohydrates and protein, but your body stops burning fat as efficiently when you drink!

5. Take your time
I always say, life's too short not to enjoy yourself on special days, and Thanksgiving dinner is definitely one of them! So go ahead and cut yourself a piece of mom's pecan pie – but instead of shoveling it in your mouth, slow down and enjoy each bite.

Try Some of My Clients' Thanksgiving Recipes

Jessica Simpson's Broccoli Rice Casserole
The truth is that my client Jessica Simpson – who is looking amazing these days! – loves using Cheese Whiz. But I modified her recipe and substituted real light cheddar cheese to make this holiday casserole more healthy.

Ingredients
• 2 (10 ounce) boxes frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
• 2 cups cooked rice
• 8 ounces shredded lite cheddar cheese
• 2 (10¾ ounce) cans cream of chicken soup. Or you use 1 can each of cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions
• Cook onion in oil in a large skillet until soft.
• Add remaining ingredients and cook just until cheese is melted.
• Put in 2 quart casserole dish.
• Bake at 350 (uncovered) for 1 hour.

To make ahead and freeze: Mix all ingredients together (start with your rice cooked, not raw) and spoon into two or even three smaller casserole dishes, cover, label and freeze. If you thaw overnight, just cook for one hour. If cooking from frozen state, add 10 minutes or so, check for doneness.
Serves 6

Megan Fox's 'Healthy' Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients
• 1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin
• 8 ounces of skim milk or 8 ounces low-fat soymilk
• 3 egg whites
• ½ reduced fat graham cracker crust (Take off the sides of the crust and discard)
• 1 cup agave
• pumpkin pie spice
• 2 egg whites, for the crust

Directions
• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Mix pumpkin, milk and egg whites until smooth.
• Gradually stir in agave.
• Add the pumpkin pie spice; taste and add more if needed.
• Pour into crust and spread evenly.
• Bake in the oven for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 350°F and bake for another 45 minutes (may vary depending on ovens).
• Let cool and serve
Makes 8 servings

Jordana Brewster's Healthy Stuffing
Ingredients
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 14 ounces of stuffing bread (such as Pepperidge Farm
or Mrs. Cubbisons)
• ½ cup chopped onion
• ½ cup diced celery
• ½ cup diced carrots
• ½ cup diced mushroom
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 2- 2½ cup chicken broth
• Poultry seasoning to taste (I usually use 1-2 tsp)
• Pepper to taste around 1 tsp

Directions
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat a large sauté pan. Once heated, add oil and spray with cooking spray.
• Add carrots and saute. Add celery, onion, garlic and mushroom add additional cooking spray. If needed, continue cooking until veggies are tender.
• Remove from heat, transfer to bowl and allow to cool slightly.
• In a large bowl add bread stuffing and veggies. Toss together and season with pepper and poultry seasoning.
• Add chicken broth and mix until moist, but not soaking. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
• Spray casserole dish with cooking spray and add stuffing mix.
• Cover with foil and bake 20-25 minutes. Uncover and cook additional 10 minutes or until slightly crispy on top.
Makes around 16 servings

Have a healthy Thanksgiving recipe? Tweet me at @harleypasternak or leave a comment below!

Check back every Wednesday for more insider tips from celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak on Hollywood's hottest bodies – and learn how to get one yourself! Plus: follow Harley on Twitter at @harleypasternak

Read More..

US abortions fall 5 pct, biggest drop in a decade

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. abortions fell 5 percent during the recession and its aftermath in the biggest one-year decrease in at least a decade, perhaps because women are more careful to use birth control when times are tough, researchers say.

The decline, detailed on Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. Both the number of abortions and the abortion rate dropped by the same percentage.

Some experts theorize that some women believed they couldn't afford to get pregnant.

"They stick to straight and narrow ... and they are more careful about birth control," said Elizabeth Ananat, a Duke University assistant professor of public policy and economics who has researched abortions.

While many states have aggressively restricted access to abortion, most of those laws were adopted in the past two years and are not believed to have played a role in the decline.

Abortions have been dropping slightly over much of the past decade. But before this latest report, they seemed to have pretty much leveled off.

Nearly all states report abortion numbers to the federal government, but it's voluntary. A few states — including California, which has the largest population and largest number of abortion providers — don't send in data. While experts estimate there are more than 1 million abortions nationwide each year, the CDC counted about 785,000 in 2009 because of incomplete reporting.

To come up with reliable year-to-year comparisons, the CDC used the numbers from 43 states and two cities — those that have been sending in data consistently for at least 10 years. The researchers found that abortions per 1,000 women of child-bearing age fell from about 16 in 2008 to roughly 15 in 2009. That translates to nearly 38,000 fewer abortions in one year.

Mississippi had the lowest abortion rate, at 4 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age. The state also had only a couple of abortion providers and has the nation's highest teen birth rate. New York, second to California in number of abortion providers, had the highest abortion rate, roughly eight times Mississippi's.

Nationally since 2000, the number of reported abortions has dropped overall by about 6 percent and the abortion rate has fallen 7 percent.

By all accounts, contraception is playing a role in lowering the numbers.

Some experts cite a government study released earlier this year suggesting that about 60 percent of teenage girls who have sex use the most effective kinds of contraception, including the pill and patch. That's up from the mid-1990s, when fewer than half were using the best kinds.

Experts also pointed to the growing use of IUDs, or intrauterine devices, T-shaped plastic sperm-killers that a doctor inserts into the uterus. A study released earlier this year by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that does research on reproductive health, showed that IUD use among sexually active women on birth control rose from less than 3 percent in 2002 to more than 8 percent in 2009.

IUDs essentially prevent "user error," said Rachel Jones, a Guttmacher researcher.

Ananat said another factor may be the growing use of the morning-after pill, a form of emergency contraception that has been increasingly easier to get. It came onto the market in 1999 and in 2006 was approved for non-prescription sale to women 18 and older. In 2009 that was lowered to 17.

Underlying all this may be the economy, which was in recession from December 2007 until June 2009. Even well afterward, polls showed most Americans remained worried about anemic hiring, a depressed housing market and other problems.

You might think a bad economy would lead to more abortions by women who are struggling. However, John Santelli, a Columbia University professor of population and family health, said: "The economy seems to be having a fundamental effect on pregnancies, not abortions."

More findings from the CDC:

— The majority of abortions are performed by the eighth week of pregnancy, when the fetus is about the size of a lima bean.

— White women had the lowest abortion rate, at about 8.5 per 1,000 women of child-bearing age; the rate for black women was about four times that. The rate for Hispanic women was about 19 per 1,000.

— About 85 percent of those who got abortions were unmarried.

— The CDC identified 12 abortion-related deaths in 2009.

Read More..

Wall Street rises after Gaza truce in thin holiday trade

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced on Wednesday after a ceasefire was declared to end the flare-up in violence between Israel and the Palestinians, though the lack of a deal to release aid to Greece kept a lid on gains.

Investors also remained anxious about the tax increases and spending cuts that are poised to come into effect in the new year - known as the "fiscal cliff" - though policymakers are not expected to get back to negotiations until after Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

Trading volume was light ahead of Thursday's market holiday. The stock market also will close early at 1 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Friday.

Greece's international lenders failed again to reach a deal to release emergency aid to the debt-saddled country. Lenders will try again next Monday, but Germany signaled that significant divisions remain.

A truce between Israel and Hamas gave stocks some support around midday after Egypt announced a ceasefire will come into effect later in the day.

Fears that the fiscal cliff discussions in Washington could be drawn out or yield no resolution have been at the forefront of investors' minds in recent weeks. Combined with concerns over the euro zone's continued debt problems, the worries had taken more than 5 percent off the S&P 500 since Election Day in early November.

Positive comments from U.S. politicians that they will work to find common ground have helped the S&P 500 recoup some of that loss in recent sessions.

"I think the focus is heavy on what are we doing about fiscal cliff," said Kurt Brunner, portfolio manager at Swarthmore Group in Philadelphia.

"Are these guys talking? Are there going to be substantive decisions made?"

St Jude Medical shares tumbled 13.3 percent to $30.96 after an inspection report from health regulators raised new safety concerns about one of the company's leads that are used with implantable defibrillators, analysts said.

A small gain in International Business Machines helped the Dow outperform the other indexes. IBM was up 0.7 percent at $190.47.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> added 49.35 points, or 0.39 percent, to 12,837.86. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> edged up 2.62 points, or 0.19 percent, to 1,390.43. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 8.28 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,924.96.

Salesforce.com Inc jumped 7.6 percent to $157.03 after the business software provider beat Wall Street's expectations for the third quarter and maintained its outlook for the rest of the year.

But Deere & Co dragged on the S&P 500 after the world's largest farm equipment maker reported a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit. Its stock lost 4 percent to $82.52.

The market did not derive much direction from the day's economic data, with initial jobless claims falling last week, as expected.

Other data showed manufacturing picked up at its quickest pace in five months in November, while consumer sentiment improved only slightly.

The focus will likely turn to retailers on Friday as analysts try to assess how strong the holiday shopping season will be this year, Brunner said. Holiday shopping traditionally kicks off the day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday, as stores offer deals and discounts to lure consumers.

(Editing by Jan Paschal)

Read More..

Truce in Gaza Is Close, Egyptian Officials Say

JERUSALEM — Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Tuesday to end the deadly confrontation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, as the United States sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East and Egypt’s president and his senior aides expressed confidence that a cease-fire was close.

The diplomatic moves to end the nearly week-old crisis came on a day of some of the most intense violence yet, in what appeared to be moves by the antagonists to get their last attacks done before a cease-fire went into effect.

Israeli aerial forces assaulted several Gaza targets, including a suspected rocket-launching site near Al Shifa hospital, which killed at least nine people, and Israeli naval vessels launched an intensive barrage at the Gaza coastline. A delegation visiting from the Arab League canceled a news conference at the hospital because of the Israeli aerial assault, as wailing ambulances brought victims in, some of them decapitated.

Militants in Gaza fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, killing an Israeli soldier — the first military casualty on the Israeli side since the hostilities broke out last week. The Israel Defense Forces said the soldier, identified as Yosef Fartuk, 18, died from a rocket strike that hit an area near Gaza.

Other Palestinian rockets hit the southern Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashdod, and longer-range rockets toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, but neither main city was struck and no casualties were reported. One Gaza rocket hit a building in the Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, just south of Tel Aviv, injuring one person.

Senior Egyptian officials in Cairo said Israel and Hamas were “very close” to a cease-fire agreement that could be announced within hours. “We have not received final approval but I hope to receive it any moment,” said Essam el-Haddad, President Mohamed Morsi’s top foreign affairs adviser.

Foreign diplomats who were briefed on the outlines of a tentative agreement said it had been structured in stages — first, an announcement at approximately 10 p.m. local time (3 p.m. E.S.T.) of a cease-fire, followed by its implementation at midnight, for 48 hours. That would allow time for Mrs. Clinton to arrive, and to create a window for negotiators to agree on conditions for a longer-term cessation of hostilities.

Whether Hamas can enforce control over all of the militant Palestinian factions in Gaza to hold their fire during that period remained unclear.

The announcement of Mrs. Clinton’s active role in efforts to defuse the crisis added a strong new dimension to the multinational push to avert a new Middle East war. Israel has amassed thousands of soldiers on the border with Gaza and has threatened to invade the crowded Palestinian enclave for the second time in four years to stop the persistent rockets that have been lobbed at Israel.

Mrs. Clinton, who accompanied President Obama on his three-country Asia trip, left Cambodia on her own plane immediately for the Middle East. She was en route to Jerusalem to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, then head to the West Bank to meet with Palestinian leaders and finally to Cairo to consult with Egyptian officials.

The decision to dispatch Mrs. Clinton significantly deepens the American involvement in the crisis. Mr. Obama made a number of late-night phone calls from his Asian tour to the Middle East on Monday night that contributed to his conclusion that he had to become more engaged and that Mrs. Clinton might be able to accomplish something.

With Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, also in Israel on Tuesday, a senior official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had decided to give more time to diplomacy before starting a ground invasion into Gaza. But Israel has not withdrawn other options.

“I prefer a diplomatic solution,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a statement at the start of a meeting in Jerusalem with the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle. “I hope that we can get one, but if not, we have every right to defend ourselves with other means and we shall use them.

“As you know, we seek a diplomatic unwinding to this, through the discussions of cease-fire,” Mr. Netanyahu added. “But if the firing continues, we will have to take broader action and we won’t hesitate to do so.”

Intensifying the pressure on Hamas after a day of heavy rocket fire out of Gaza against southern Israel, the Israeli military said on Tuesday afternoon that it had distributed leaflets over Gaza instructing the Palestinian residents in several areas to evacuate their homes immediately, “for your safety,” and to move toward defined zones in central Gaza City. That seemed intended to signal that plans for a ground operation were imminent should the cease-fire talks fail. About three hours before Mr. Ban was scheduled to meet Mr. Netanyahu in Jerusalem, sirens sounded across the city in the early afternoon announcing an incoming rocket from Gaza. The military wing of Hamas said it had fired at the city. The rocket fell short, landing harmlessly in the West Bank just south of Jerusalem, and the military said it landed on open ground near a Palestinian village.

The rocket attack on the city, which is holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was the second in less than a week. On Friday, a rocket landed in a similar location, the police said.

Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem, Peter Baker from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Jodi Rudoren from Gaza City, David D. Kirkpatrick from Cairo, Ethan Bronner from Jerusalem, and David E. Sanger from Washington.

Read More..

Interpublic exits Facebook

(Reuters) – Interpublic Group of Cos said it sold its remaining investment in Facebook Inc for $ 95 million in cash.

Interpublic said it expects to record a pre-tax gain of $ 94 million. It had recorded a pre-tax gain of $ 132.2 million for the third quarter of last year from the sale of half of its 0.4 percent stake in Facebook.

Interpublic paid less than $ 5 million for the stake in 2006.

Shares of Facebook, which debuted with a market value of more than $ 100 billion in May, have lost nearly half their value since then on concerns about money-making prospects.

“We decided to sell our remaining shares in Facebook as our investment was no longer strategic in nature,” Chief Executive Michael Roth said in a statement.

Interpublic also authorized an increase in its existing share repurchase program to $ 400 million from $ 300 million. The company repurchased shares worth $ 151 million, as of September 30.

Shares of the company were up 1 percent at $ 10 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Facebook shares were marginally up at $ 23.00 on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

Internet News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..