Awareness of HIV Risk Has Dropped Among Gay Men Even As Infection Rates Rise

More than 30 years after the dawn of the HIV epidemic, the significance of the infection and awareness for how it’s transmitted has dropped precipitously among young people, especially among gay men, according to new data from the federal government.

National statistics for 2010 show that more than one-quarter of all new HIV infections are among youths ages 13 to 24. Of the estimated 47,500 new infections in 2010, more than 83% are among men.

Almost three-quarters are attributed to sex between men, and half of all new cases are among African Americans, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Statistics.

HIV prevalence among blacks is nearly three times higher than among Hispanics and nearly eight times higher than among whites. Men who have sex with men have prevalence rates nearly 40 times higher than other men,  the authors said.

MORE: HIV Vaccine Under Study May Last a Lifetime

An estimated half of HIV-positive young people are unaware they were infected. The study found that HIV testing was low — only 12.9 percent among high school students and 34.5 percent among people ages 18 to 24. Testing is less common among males compared to females and is lower among whites and Hispanics compared to African Americans.

“More effort is needed to provide effective school- and community-based interventions to ensure all youths, particularly men who have sex with men, have the knowledge, skills, resources, and support necessary to avoid HIV infection,” wrote the authors of the report.

The statistics  are sobering news as World AIDS Day approaches on Dec. 1.

“I think the statistics are alarming and that we should be alarmed,” Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at amFAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, told Take Part. “I think that what we in the gay community need to come to grips with is HIV remains our number-one health equity issue. “

MORE: Can HIV Prevention Be Found in a Pill?

In an essay published earlier this month on the amFar web site, Collins and co-author Jeffrey Levi said it’s time to refocus the HIV-prevention campaign among gay men. Young men who have sex with men represent the only group in which HIV incidence appears to be increasing, he says.

The alarming HIV incidence among gay men stands in contrast to the popular perception that the HIV threat is under control. Efforts by the LGBT community in the ’80s and ’90s resulted in an estimated 89 percent decline in HIV transmission over that time period, Collins says.

“I think the advent of life-saving AIDS drugs in the mid ’90s was both a wonderful thing that saved the lives of so many gay people but also meant that the gay community, to some degree, turned to many other challenges — understandably so,” he says.

MORE: More People Than Ever Living with HIV

Since then, efforts to educate a new generation of young people about HIV prevention have faded. The LGBT community is needed to reinforce the HIV prevention message, he says.

“We saw the power of the gay community in the ’80 and ’90s to confront this epidemic and mobilize the public and private sectors to address a problem that was devastating us,” Collins says. “We need to reconnect with our activism and focus from the 1980s and help everyone in the gay community get tested and get access to the care they need.”

AmFar recently published a brief, “Ending the HIV Epidemic Among Gay Men in the United States” that serves as an agenda for progress. The brief calls for utilizing the Affordable Care Act to improve HIV testing and treatment as well as to promote overall better health among LGBT people.

Stigma is another big reason why people with HIV or who are at higher risk for the infection don’t get the healthcare they need, Collins adds.

MORE: FDA Approves Truvada as First HIV Prevention Drug

“We know for sure is stigma is a huge part of the HIV epidemic in the United States,” he says. “It impedes people from learning their HIV status, getting the care they need and talking to their doctors openly.”

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which advises the federal government on health policy, earlier this month issued preliminary guidelines calling for routine HIV screening as part of a check-up.  In 2006, the CDC recommended that doctors routinely test all patients for HIV, regardless of risk,  however only people at increased risk for HIV were eligible for free HIV screening. The USPSTF recommendation would mean more people could be tested without having a co-pay.

The task force also recommended that people at high risk for infection be tested at least once a year.

“The recommendation from the commission is a hopeful sign and the kind of thing we need to encourage health providers to offer testing,” Collins says. “We need to have HIV testing readily accessible and routine in all kinds of environments. It ought to be something doctors and nurses regularly offer. For gay men, they ought to be getting HIV tests regularly, not just every couple of years but perhaps every six months.”

MORE: Transgender Healthcare: A Work in Progress

Collins says he expects HIV prevention will re-emerge as a top priority in the LGBT community. The topic will be prominent at the 25th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, in January in Atlanta.

“There are a variety of efforts going on to engage the gay community,” he says. “I think we’re going in the right direction.”

Question: Why do so few young people get tested for HIV? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

S&P 500 posts second week of gains

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 wrapped up its second positive week in a row on Friday, although it ended the day flat as politicians remain at odds about how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 3.22 points, or 0.02 percent, to finish unofficially at 13,025.04. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX> inched up just 0.30 of a point, or 0.02 percent, to end unofficially at 1,416.25. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dipped 1.79 points, or 0.06 percent, to close unofficially at 3,010.24.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.5 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.5 percent.

For the month of November, though, the Dow slipped 0.5 percent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq jumped 1.1 percent.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Jan Paschal)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Noisy city: Cacophony in Caracas sparks complaints

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — This metropolis of 6 million people may be one of the world’s most intense, overwhelming cities, with tremendous levels of crime, traffic and social strife. The sounds of Caracas‘ streets live up to its reputation.

Stand on any downtown corner, and the cacophony can be overpowering: Deafening horns blast from oncoming buses, traffic police shrilly blow their whistles and sirens shriek atop ambulances stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Air horns routinely used by bus drivers are so powerful they make pedestrians on crosswalks recoil, and can even leave their ears ringing. Loud salsa music blares from the windows of buses, trucks with old mufflers rumble past belching exhaust, and “moto-taxis” weave through traffic beeping high-pitched horns.

Growing numbers of Venezuelans are saying they’re fed up with the noise that they say is getting worse, and the numbers of complaints to the authorities have risen in recent years.

One affluent district, Chacao, put up signs along a main avenue reading: “A honk won’t make the traffic light change.”

“The noise is terrible. Sometimes it seems like it’s never going to end,” said Jose Santander, a street vendor who stands in the middle of a highway selling fried pork rinds and potato chips to commuters in traffic.

Prosecutor General Luisa Ortega recently told a news conference that officials have started “putting an increased emphasis on promoting peaceful coexistence” by punishing misdemeanors such as violations of anti-noise regulations and other minor crimes. That effort has translated into hundreds of noise-related cases in recent years.

Some violators are ordered to perform community service. For instance, two young musicians who were recently caught playing loud music near a subway station were sentenced to 120 hours of community service giving music lessons to students in public schools.

Others caught playing loud music on the street have been charged with disturbing the peace after complaints from neighbors. Fines can run as high as 9,000 bolivars, or $ 2,093.

On the streets of their capital, however, Venezuelans have grown used to living loudly. The noisescape adds to a general sense of anarchy, with many drivers ignoring red lights and blocking intersections along potholed streets strewn with trash.

“This is something that everybody does. Nobody should be complaining,” said Gregorio Hernandez, a 23-year-old college student, as he listened to Latin rock songs booming from his car stereo on a Saturday night in downtown Caracas. “We’re just having fun. We’re not hurting anybody.”

Adding to the mess is the country’s notoriously divisive politics, which regularly fill the streets with marches and demonstrations.

On many days, the shouts of protesters streaming through downtown can be heard from blocks away, demanding pay hikes or unpaid benefits.

And the sporadic crackling of gunfire in the slums can be confused for firecrackers tossed by boisterous partygoers.

It’s difficult to rank the world’s noisiest cities because many, including Venezuela’s capital, don’t take measurements of sound pollution, said Victor Rastelli, a mechanical engineering professor and sound pollution expert at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas. But Rastelli said he suspects Caracas is right up there among the noisiest, along with Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Mumbai.

Excessive noise can be more than simply an annoyance, Rastelli said. “This is a public health problem.”

Dr. Carmen Mijares, an audiologist at a private Caracas hospital, said she treats at least a dozen patients every month for hearing damage caused by prolonged exposure to loud noises.

“Many of them work in bars or night clubs, and their maladies usually include temporary hearing loss and headaches,” Mijares said. For others, she said, the day-to-day noise of traffic, car horns and loud music can exacerbate stress and sleeping disorders.

Several cities have successfully reduced noise pollution, said Stephen Stansfeld, a London psychiatry professor and coordinator of the European Network on Noise and Health.

One of the most noteworthy initiatives, Stansfeld said, was in Copenhagen, Denmark, where officials used sound walls, noise-reducing asphalt and other infrastructure as well as public awareness campaigns to fight noise pollution.

But such high-tech solutions seem like a remote possibility in Caracas, where streets are literally falling apart and aging overpasses regularly lack portions of their guard rails. Prosecutors, angry neighbors and others hoping to fight the noise will have to persuade Venezuelans to do nothing less than change their loud behavior.

For Carlos Pinto, however, making noise is practically a political right.

The 26-year-old law student and his friends danced at a recent street party to house music booming from woofers in his car’s open trunk, with neon lights on the speakers that pulsed to the beat.

When asked about the noise, he answered: “We will be heard.”

___

AP freelance video journalist Ricardo Nunes contributed to this report.

___

Christopher Toothaker on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ctoothaker

Latin America News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Sony sells over half a million PlayStation 3 consoles over Black Friday week

Both Microsoft (MSFT) and Nintendo (NTDOY) had a big week of console sales during Black Friday’s week of shopping madness in the U.S. So how did Sony (SNE) do in comparison? Sony Computer Entertainment of America president and CEO Jack Tretton announced on Thursday that the company sold 525,000 PlayStation 3 consoles and 160,000 PS Vita handhelds during the Black Friday week. Overall PlayStation sales of hardware, software and accessories are up 9% over the same period last year. Tretton was also happy to reveal that subscriptions to its PlayStation Plus grew 259% since last year with customer satisfaction flying high at 95% after Sony added the Instant Game Collection to the service earlier this year.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 and PS Vita sales were largely bolstered by $ 199.99 bundles packaged with free games that the company pushed to retails on Black Friday. The sell-out of the bundles within minutes at retailers such as Amazon (AMZN) is a good indicator that there is huge demand for a sub-$ 200 PlayStation 3. Currently, the lowest-priced PS3 is a second-gen 160GB slim model with an MSRP of $ 249.99. The redesigned third-gen PS3s start at $ 269.99 with a 250GB hard drive.

In terms of which home console did the best over Black Friday, it looks like the Xbox 360′s 750,000 consoles took first place, while Sony came in second with 525,000 PS3s and Nintendo came in third with 400,000 Wii U systems.

Get more from BGR.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Lohan arrested in NY, charged also for California car smash

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested outside a New York nightclub on an assault charge early Thursday, police said, while in California, she was charged with reckless driving and lying to police over a car crash in June.

Lohan, 26, was arrested shortly after 4:00 a.m. (0900 GMT) on a third-degree misdemeanor assault charge after punching another woman in the face at a club in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, New York police said.

The charges in California were more serious, and could result in the “Mean Girls” actress having her probation revoked and being sent back to jail.

Lohan’s publicist and attorney did not return calls for comment on Thursday.

Lohan, who has been to rehab, jail and court numerous times since a 2007 arrest for drunk driving and cocaine possession, is currently on informal probation, following her January 2011 conviction for stealing a gold necklace from a California jewelry store.

A Los Angeles judge had lifted her formal probation in March but told her to comply with all laws and stay out of trouble.

Police in the beach city of Santa Monica said Lohan was formally charged on Thursday with reckless driving and lying to police after telling them she was not driving the Porsche that smashed into a truck on a busy highway. No one was seriously injured in the collision.

Lohan was also charged with obstructing an officer in his duty. A court date has not been set, Santa Monica police said in a statement.

In New York, Lohan was accused of punching a 28-year-old unidentified woman multiple times in the face, said New York Police Sergeant John Buthorn. The victim sustained “minor, minor injuries,” he said.

The actress was released from police custody later on Thursday morning.

The two incidents come during a rough week for the former child star, once one of the most promising young actresses in Hollywood.

Her most recent performance, as screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in the TV movie “Liz & Dick,” was panned by critics. Cable TV channel Lifetime said Monday that a modest 3.5 million Americans watched the film, which premiered last weekend.

Lohan’s recent visits to New York have been peppered with run-ins with police and public spats.

Last month, police were called to the Long Island home of Lohan’s mother, Dina Lohan, after a loud argument, though no arrests were made. In September, Lohan was arrested in Manhattan after a pedestrian told police her car had struck him in an alley, but charges were not filed.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins in New York and Jill Serjeant in Los Angeles; Editing by Xavier Briand and Bernadette Baum)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Diabetes is a manageable disease

After a family backpacking trip a couple weeks later, he weighed 66.

“It came on pretty quickly,” said Gildon, now 28, reflecting on what led up to his eventual diagnosis: diabetes.

He’s among the 26 million people in the United States with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association, which acknowledges November as American Diabetes Month.

The recently published Diabetes Report Card 2012 from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) listed Oklahoma as having had the highest increase in adult diabetes from 1995 to 2010, with nearly one in 10 Oklahomans having the disease.

Diabetes is a group of diseases characterized by high blood glucose, or blood sugar, the CDC’s report explained. With diabetes, the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or is unable to use its own insulin effectively.

Glucose builds up in the blood and causes a condition that, if not controlled, can lead to serious health complications and even death, the report said.

At the time he was diagnosed, Gildon wasn’t familiar with diabetes.

On the way home from that aforementioned backpacking trip, Gildon kept asking his parents to make pit stops every 20 or 30 minutes. He was also thirsty.

Eventually, he started feeling bad. After the family made it home, their physician said Gildon might have flu, then wrote him a prescription.

That evening, he became sicker still, and couldn’t keep water or Sprite down. That’s when his mother took him to the emergency room.

A normal glucose level is in the 80-100 range, Gildon said. That night in the hospital, his hit 999.

Signs and symptoms of diabetes can be subtle and increase over time, said Dr. Laura J. Chalmers with the Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center at the University of Oklahoma, 4444 E. 41 St.

Those signs include being more thirsty, urinating more often, waking at night to drink and go to the bathroom, and weight loss, Chalmers said. The appetite may also be increased, and some people will have nausea and vomiting.

Gildon was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes, or type 1 diabetes (T1D), one of the three most common forms of diabetes, according to the CDC. Another, type 2 diabetes (T2D), makes up for about 95 percent of diagnosed diabetes in adults; the third, gestational diabetes, develops and is diagnosed as a result of pregnancy in 2 to 10 percent of pregnant women.

With T1D, the body is unable to produce insulin, a hormone secreted by pancreas to regulate blood sugar, Chalmers explained. Treatment for T1D is insulin.

In T2D, there is insulin resistance, she continued. Treatment for T2D involves weight loss, dietary changes and medications that help the body secrete insulin and overcome the insulin resistance. In some situations, patients with T2D require insulin.

Onset of T1D is typically before age 20 but presentable from approximately 6 months of age into adulthood, Chalmers said.

Annette Jones was 24 and pregnant with her youngest daughter when she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

“When women get gestational, it usually goes away after delivery,” said Jones, alluding to the 2 percent of women who remain diabetic after pregnancy.

Jones has had diabetes for 27 years, more than half her life. Like Gildon, she wasn’t too familiar with diabetes, other than having family members who were diabetic – but she was too young to understand what that meant.

“I knew there was not a cure and that you had to take shots,” she said.

Lori Maisch was 45 when she was diagnosed with T1D. She had lost 25 pounds from May to September that year – “all the yard work I had been doing,” she thought.

Constantly thirsty and going to the bathroom every 15 minutes, even at night, Maisch finally attracted the attention of someone in a doctor’s office: her neighbor, who noticed her “sweet odor.”

“It’s the same scent I smell on patients that have diabetes,” Maisch recalled her neighbor saying. “That prompted me to make an appointment with my primary care physician, be tested and diagnosed.”

More than one diabetes

Misconceptions abound regarding diabetes, Chalmers said.

For example, T1D is treated with insulin and carbohydrate counting, she explained. Patients with T1D should have a healthy diet but are allowed to have cake, ice cream and other sweets within reason – as long as they take their insulin to cover the carbohydrates in the food they consume.

Maisch used to be one of those folks with preconceived notions about diabetes, she said. Since her diagnosis, people assume she has T2D because she’s an adult.

“Then they say, ‘I thought that only happened to children,’ ” she said. “Some will say, ‘Oh, if you eat right and exercise more, you can control it.’ No, that’s type 2 – I am insulin-dependent.”

Or she might have people tell her she can’t have certain foods, like birthday cake, refusing to cut her a slice because “you can’t have it,” Maisch said. “I just need to adjust my insulin to eat it.”

Most people don’t know that there is more than one kind of diabetes, Jones said. Others she’s met don’t think that it’s a big deal because diabetics take insulin.

“They don’t realize the deadly consequences that occur with this disease,” she said. “I have actually had people say to me, ‘You have diabetes? You’re not even fat.’ I could go on and on.”

Sometimes, people with diabetes might have a change in mood, experiencing “highs and lows,” as Maisch said.

“If I am having either, I can come across irritable or out of it,” she said. “I don’t mean to but can’t help it sometimes. I’ve found a lot of people don’t understand that part of the disease.”

Having diabetes can be expensive, too. Even with insurance, the two insulin shots Maisch needs each month are $ 100 each. Plus, she has test strips and syringes to buy. In all, it’s about $ 400 out of her own pocket each month.

“I used to be more impulsive,” Maisch said, “but now am more mindful regarding my meals and making sure I have my T1 pouch – blood glucose monitor, test strips, glucose tablets, insulin, syringe – every time I leave the house.”

It takes planning

Another challenge is always having to be more prepared than the average person.

Like if a buddy of his asks him to go on a spur-of-the-moment bike ride, Gildon has to know what his blood sugar is, possibly take extra food with him in case he takes too much insulin or exercises too heavily.

If he goes on a long trip, he has to think ahead in case his insulin pump breaks – what would he do then? Gildon has to have a back-up plan.

When he’d go on a Boy Scout camping trip, Gildon and his dad crafted a case out of PVC pipe for his insulin so he could keep it in his sleeping bag on freezing nights – and insulin doesn’t freeze.

One of the main challenges for Jones was changing her eating habits, like cutting back on carbs.

“Simplicity is gone,” she said. “I can’t go anywhere – store, work, park, ride my bike – without a plan, a snack or juice, something to treat low blood sugar.”

Jones has to have her blood monitor with her at all times, and she checks her blood at least four, sometimes eight times a day.

Like Gildon, she wears a pump 24-7. “It is still better than six to seven shots a day,” Jones said – but added, “I don’t feel free.”

Such adjustments aside, a normal, active life is achievable for most diabetics.

Jones wanted to have another baby after her second daughter, but the doctor said it was “probably best” she didn’t.

“This was 27 years ago, so that mentality has changed now,” said Jones, who has three beautiful daughters.

“God worked everything out,” she said. “Maybe not the way I had planned it, but just perfect anyway.”

---

Stop diabetes before it starts

American Diabetes Month takes place each November in order to raise awareness of this disease.

According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), it is estimated that nearly 26 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes. Another 79 million Americans have prediabetes and are at risk for developing type 2 diabetes.

To stop this disease before it starts:

Get moving. Physical activity lowers blood sugar and boosts your sensitivity to insulin. Research shows both aerobic exercise and resistance training can help control diabetes. The ADA recommends a half-hour of mild aerobic activity five times per week.

Eat more whole grains. White bread, white rice and potatoes have a high glycemic index, which can cause spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels. Whole grain foods help with diabetes prevention because they slow down carb absorption.

Limit your sugar intake. Be sure to read nutritional labels and steer clear of anything that lists sugar, sucrose, corn syrup or other sweeteners, such as evaporated cane juice or molasses, as one of the first ingredients.

Stop smoking. According to a Harvard School of Public Health study, smokers are about 50 percent more likely to develop diabetes than nonsmokers. New research shows that inhaling secondhand smoke may also lead to an increased risk of diabetes.

Get more sleep. Not getting enough sleep increases hunger, which leads to weight gain and, therefore, raises your risk of getting diabetes.

Check your glucose levels. The ADA recommends blood glucose screening for everyone age 45 and older. Generally, this testing is repeated every three years. But if you have known risk factors (like high blood pressure or obesity), discuss them with your doctor.

For more, visit the ADA’s website tulsaworld.com/diabetes

And to learn more about Hillcrest’s Center for Diabetes Management, visit tulsaworld.com/hillcrestdiabetes

---

Support for diabetes

After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and not having a support system in place, Lori Maisch went into action.

She looked at the American Diabetes Association, JDRF (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) and local support groups.

“I found that there were great meetings for type 2 (diabetes), for children with type 1, but none specifically for adults with type 1,” Maisch said.

So she formed a group called T1Tulsa for adults older than 18 living with type 1 diabetes. They meet once a month. Sometimes they have speakers; sometimes they just visit and learn from one another.

“It is a special meeting for me, as it is the one time month I can look around the room, say anything, and everyone gets it,” she said.

If you’re interested in T1Tulsa, email Maisch for meeting details, [email protected]

Original Print Headline: Diabetes a race that can be won

---

Jason Ashley Wright 918-581-8483
[email protected]
Diseases/Conditions News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

US growth rate revised up to 2.7%

29 November 2012 Last updated at 10:58 ET

The US economy grew at an annualised rate of 2.7% in the third quarter of the year, revised data has suggested.

The figure is significantly higher than the 2% initial estimate that the Commerce Department released just before the presidential election.

Much of the growth was due to companies rebuilding their inventories, and is not expected to be sustained.

The first estimate itself had beaten analysts’ expectations, and fuelled the suspicions of some Republicans.

The growth rate for the second quarter was confirmed at 1.3%.

Housing rebound

The revised data confirmed that a 9.5% jump in spending by the federal government during the quarter – compared with a 0.2% decline the previous quarter – played an important role in the pick-up in growth.

What the first estimate had failed to pick up was the scale of restocking by private-sector businesses.

This inventory build-up effect – which typically provides a temporary boost to economic activity early on in the recovery from a recession – added 0.77 percentage points to the pick-up in the overall growth rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said.

Other factors that boosted growth included the continued rise in consumer spending, stronger exports, and a slight rebound in homebuilding activity from historically low levels.

There were also some negative factors in the data, including further cuts in state and local government spending, and a fall in construction of commercial property.

Developments in the US housing market are being watched closely by economists, as they are likely to determine the durability of the recovery.

Normally, periods of recovery in the US economy are led by residential construction, as building firms quickly get back to work on a backlog of projects as soon as the recession is over.

But this time round, the recession was in large part caused by the bursting of a housing market bubble, that left behind a glut of unsold homes, bankrupted many homebuilding firms, and saw the sharpest and most sustained collapse in homebuilding activity in recorded US history.

Further evidence that the housing market may be on the mend was provided by the National Association of Realtors on Thursday.

Its index of pending home sales – which tracks sales that have been agreed but not completed, and provides an early indicator of market activity – rose 5.2% to 104.8 in October, its highest level in five years, despite subdued activity in the north east due to the impact of storm Sandy.

Data controversy

Some Republicans had expressed incredulity at a string of unexpectedly strong economic figures released in October, in the run-up to the presidential elections.

The initial growth estimate followed jobs figures that showed the unemployment rate falling in September from 8.1% to 7.8% – its lowest rate since January 2009, and well below market expectations.

The positive jobs data came shortly after Mr Obama put in a poor performance during the first of the three presidential debates, and prompted some Republican supporters to call foul.

However, the latest growth estimate strengthens the evidence that the US economy genuinely enjoyed a rebound over the summer.

Meanwhile, weekly data on the number of people claiming unemployment benefits, also released on Thursday, added to the picture of recovery.

The number of claimants fell 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 393,000 – the second such fall in as many weeks, suggesting that a sharp run-up in the number of claimants in parts of the US struck by storm Sandy four weeks ago may prove to be temporary.

The claimant count had been averaging about 375,000 before the storm struck, and peaked at 451,000.

BBC News – Business

Read More..

Rapper PSY wants Tom Cruise to go ‘Gangnam Style’

BANGKOK (AP) — The South Korean rapper behind YouTube’s most-viewed video ever has set what might be a “Mission: Impossible” for himself.

Asked which celebrity he would like to see go “Gangnam Style,” the singer PSY told The Associated Press: “Tom Cruise!”

Surrounded by screaming fans, he then chuckled at the idea of the American movie star doing his now famous horse-riding dance.

PSY’s comments Wednesday in Bangkok were his first public remarks since his viral smash video — with 838 million views — surpassed Justin Bieber‘s “Baby,” which until Saturday held the record with 803 million views.

“It’s amazing,” PSY told a news conference, saying he never set out to become an international star. “I made this video just for Korea, actually. And when I released this song — wow.”

The video has spawned hundreds of parodies and tribute videos and earned him a spotlight alongside a variety of superstars.

Earlier this month, Madonna invited PSY onstage and they danced to his song at one of her New York City concerts. MC Hammer introduced the Korean star at the American Music Awards as, “My Homeboy PSY!”

Even President Barack Obama is talking about him. Asked on Election Day if he could do the dance, Obama replied: “I think I can do that move,” but then concluded he might “do it privately for Michelle,” the first lady.

PSY was in Thailand to give a free concert Wednesday night organized as a tribute to the country’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who turns 85 next month. He paid respects to the king at a Bangkok shopping mall, signing his name in an autograph book placed beside a giant poster of the king. He then gave an outdoor press conference, as screaming fans nearby performed the pop star’s dance.

Determined not to be a one-hit wonder, PSY said he plans to release a worldwide album in March with dance moves that he thinks his international fans will like.

“I think I have plenty of dance moves left,” he said, in his trademark sunglasses and dark suit. “But I’m really concerned about the (next) music video.”

“How can I beat ‘Gangnam Style’?” he asked, smiling. “How can I beat 850 million views?”

___

Associated Press writer Thanyarat Doksone contributed to this report.

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

A Minute With: Pop star Ke$ha on new album “Warrior”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Pop star Ke$ ha made a name for herself with infectious dance-pop hits but the singer-songwriter is stepping out of her Auto-Tune comfort zone on “Warrior”, out this week.

Ke$ ha, 25, stormed the charts with hit songs about drinking, partying and having a good time, such as “TiK ToK” and “Your Love is my Drug” from her 2010 platinum-selling album “Animal”.

Ke$ ha talked with Reuters about the pressures of following up the success of her first album and responding to her critics.

Q: Did you feel additional pressure while working on this album after the success of your debut, “Animal”?

A: “Everybody keeps asking me about pressure, and I think a lot of other people maybe are feeling pressure about this record, but I just want to make a good record. If I sat around trying to make a number one record, I’d just be too consumed with that. I just want to make an awesome, kick-ass record that I love and that my fans love.”

Q: Was there anything that you weren’t happy with on the first album and that you wanted to change for the second?

A: “I just wanted to make sure my entire personality was presented more accurately. I feel like people really got to know the super-wild side of me but then sometimes a more vulnerable side. I didn’t really feel comfortable expressing it. So this time I kind of forced myself to express a little bit more vulnerability, less Auto-Tune, less vocal trickery. It’s a little more raw.”

Q: You received a lot of criticism for your use of Auto-Tune, masking your true singing voice. Was that a valid criticism for you, when many others use it?

A: “I remember having this conversation with my producer, and him saying, ‘We’re using a lot of vocal tricks,’ and I said, ‘People will get to know me as my career goes on, I just want it to sound really weird and cool and clubby right now, and super electronic.’ I made a conscious decision to use Auto-Tune for effect, as ear candy, and vocoders and chop up my words.

“This time around, I have heard so many different people say I can’t sing, it’s quite frankly irritating, so I … made a five-song acoustic EP (‘Deconstructed’, out on December 4) that’s kind of like my middle finger to all those people that said I couldn’t sing, and there’s more of my voice on this record. You know, haters are going to hate, you just have to do what you want to do.”

Q: Talk us through some of the collaborations on “Warrior”. There’s quite a variety, such as with Iggy Pop and Ben Folds.

A: “Ben Folds is a friend of mine. He gave me a giant glitter grand piano that’s in my house, so that one was natural. The Flaming Lips was probably surprising for a lot of people because we’re two super-different genres of music but we had the most fun and we made so many songs, it was super insane. We’re like best friends, we text everyday now, so that kind of came naturally. The one that I really have been working on for years was a collaboration with Iggy Pop. He’s one of my favorite musicians and artists of all time, so that was super exciting for me, because I respect him so much.”

Q: You’ve written tracks for Kelly Clarkson and Britney Spears, and you’ve written all the songs for “Warrior”. What did you want to bring out in your lyrics this time round?

A: “I definitely wanted to maintain the irreverence, because that’s why my fans like me. It’s because I’m super honest, not always PG rated … but I didn’t want to let the haters somehow cramp my style or get the best of me, so I maintain my irreverence … I also really wanted to show the other side of my personality, which kind of is more nerve-wracking to show people, being a real person and the vulnerable side of my personality and voice. So there are tracks on this record that are super vulnerable and were hard even to write. I had to force myself to sit down and write these songs.”

Q: You’ve carved a distinctive image and also just launched your latest collaboration with Baby-G watches. How do you want to evolve your career in the future?

A: “I think that with this record, I really wanted to show that there are no rules or boundaries in art, at all, like I sing and I can use crazy Auto-Tune vocoders and I can rap and I can do a song with Iggy Pop. You can do all these things that make sense. You don’t have to just be one thing, like, you don’t adhere to any sort of stereotype or any boundaries or any rules, so for me it’s really fun to break down these boundaries.”

Q: You came in at the forefront of the electronic dance music explosion in the pop charts two years ago. Why do you think EDM is doing so well?

A: “Dancing is one of the ways we, as adult human beings, still get to play and it’s socially acceptable. Little kids play all the time, but as we grow up, we’re supposed to just not play anymore, so our version of that is going out and dancing, and I think it’s one way people are still visceral and animal-like.”

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Dale Hudson)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..

Cialis impotence drug helps muscular dystrophy patients

LONDON (Reuters) – Eli Lilly‘s erectile dysfunction drug Cialis can correct abnormal blood flow in patients with a certain type of muscular dystrophy and could in future be used to slow progression of the disorder, researchers said on Wednesday.

The findings suggest that while Cialis can’t cure the condition, known as Becker muscular dystrophy, it could be used as a treatment to slow or prevent muscle weakening and help patients retain more function for longer.

Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) is an inherited disorder that involves slowly worsening muscle weakness of the legs and pelvis. It is mostly found in boys and occurs in about 3 to 6 out of every 100,000 births.

Patients with BMD often have difficulties with walking that get worse over time. There is no cure for the condition, and by the age of 25 to 30 many patients are unable to walk.

In a small study involving men with the disorder, researchers from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, in the United States took measurements when volunteers’ forearm muscles were either rested or lightly exercised with a handgrip.

They found that almost all the patients had defective blood flow when they exercised. This lack of blood flow may contribute to muscle fatigue and weakness, the researchers wrote in a study in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

But after giving some of the patients a single oral dose of Cialis and comparing them to others given a placebo, or dummy pill, the scientists found that normal blood flow was restored to the muscles of 8 out of 9 patients who got the drug.

Like other erectile dysfunction drugs, Cialis, known generically as tadalafil, dilates blood vessels and is designed to increase blood flow. In the impotence drug market, it is a longer-acting alternative to Pfizer’s blue pill, Viagra.

Sales of Cialis for erectile dysfunction brought in $ 1.875 billion for Eli Lilly in 2011, up 10 percent on 2010.

While using the drug in BMD may be a possibility in future, the researchers cautioned that doctors should not prescribe it for this indication until more, larger studies have been conducted to show whether the improved blood flow has a meaningful effect on dystrophic muscles.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Louise Heavens)

Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

Read More..