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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Ex-Pakistani envoy to US wins court victory (AP)
ISLAMABAD ? Pakistan's top court Monday lifted a travel ban imposed on the country's former ambassador to the U.S. during an investigation into a memo sent to Washington that had enraged the army, in a sign that a scandal that once looked capable of bringing down the government may be losing steam.
Husain Haqqani resigned in November and returned to Islamabad to answer allegations that he masterminded the note, which asked for Washington's help in curbing the powers of the Pakistani army in exchange for security policies favorable to the U.S.
The unsigned memo, sent to Washington following the May 2011 American operation that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistan army town, appeared to confirm the army's worst fears that the country's elected politicians were conspiring with Washington ? a potent charge in a country where anti-Americanism runs deep.
The outrage, whipped up by right-wing, pro-army sections of the media, exposed the apparent fragility of the government in the face of generals who have ruled the country for much of its more than 60-year existence and still run defense and foreign policy.
Haqqani, who denies any link to the memo, said he now intends to travel to United States to join family there.
"Anywhere else, this matter would have been laid to rest long ago," Haqqani said. "The memo had no impact on U.S. policy and was consigned to the dustbin by its recipient."
The Supreme Court set up a commission to investigate the affair, dubbed "memogate" in the Pakistani media, after opposition politicians petitioned for an inquest. Despite the fact he had not been charged with a crime, the commission had banned Haqqani from traveling.
On Monday, it ruled that Haqqani ? who has been living in the prime minister's residence, reportedly worried about threats to his life ? could travel. The court said Haqqani had to return to Pakistan if the commission required it. Haqqani said he would comply with the orders.
Up until a few weeks ago, there was speculation that the "memogate" scandal could lead to the demise of President Asif Ali Zardari. But last week, the main accuser ? a Pakistani-American businessman who claimed to have delivered the note to Adm. Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer at the time ? said he couldn't come to Pakistan to testify, citing security fears.
That appears to have dealt a sharp blow to the case, even assuming the accuser, Mansoor Ijaz, had a "smoking gun" linking Haqqani and President Zardari to the memo. Many observers have since predicted that the probe is heading nowhere. Some media reports have speculated about a possible agreement between the army and the government to shelve the case.
Haqqani has won support from some U.S. lawmakers and pro-democracy activists in Pakistan, who painted him as a victim of army meddling in the democratic process. While he worked hard in Washington defending Pakistan ? a challenging task over the past few years ? prior to taking the job he was known as having an anti-army line.
The scandal has transfixed Pakistan's media and political class even as the country grapples with more existential threats like Islamist militancy and potential economic collapse.
On Monday, a suicide bomber killed a leader of a militant group that has been fighting a rival outfit in northwest Pakistan close to the Afghan border, said police officer Imtiaz Khan.
Haji Akhunzada was a senior figure in Ansarul Islam, which operates in the Khyber tribal region close to the Afghan border.
Akhunzada was killed along with his son-in-law while visiting his house close to the city of Peshawar, said Khan.
Ansarul Islam is fighting with another militant group, Lashkar Islam, for control of Kyhber, and dozens of people have been killed in the violence.
___
Associated Press writer Riaz Khan contributed to this report from Peshawar.
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Majority of self-harming adolescents don't receive a mental health assessment in ERs
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Public release date: 30-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Erin Pope
Erin.Pope@NationwideChildrens.org
614-355-0495
Nationwide Children's Hospital
A national study of Medicaid data shows most young people who present to emergency departments with deliberate self-harm are discharged to the community, without receiving an emergency mental health assessment. Even more, a roughly comparable proportion of these patients receive no outpatient mental health care in the following month. These are the findings from a study conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital that appears in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Deliberate self-harm is one of the most common reasons for an emergency department visit by young people in the United States. Eighty to 90 percent of young people who deliberately harm themselves meet criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, most commonly mood disorders. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has advised that all patients presenting to emergency departments with an episode of deliberate self-harm should receive a mental health evaluation before discharge.
"Emergency department personnel can play a unique role in suicide prevention by assessing the mental health of patients after deliberate self-harm and providing potentially life-saving referrals for outpatient mental health care," said Jeff Bridge, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice at Nationwide Children's Hospital and lead study author. "However, the coordination between emergency services for patients who deliberately harm themselves and linkage with outpatient mental health treatment is often inadequate."
In an effort to examine the quality of the emergency mental health management of young people who are discharged to the community after an act of deliberate self-harm, Dr. Bridge and colleagues examined Medicaid Extract files throughout the country for children ages 10 to 19.
They found that in this Medicaid population, most young people who presented to the emergency departments with deliberate self-harm were discharged to the community as opposed to inpatient care. Only 39 percent of all patients who are discharged to the community received a mental health assessment while in the emergency department.
Dr. Bridge says without more detailed information on whether the deliberate self-harm occurred with or without a suicidal intent it is impossible to exclude the possibility that some discharged patients are at relatively low risk, although deliberate self-harm is the main risk factor for completed suicide. The greatest risk of suicide occurs in the period immediately after an episode of deliberate self-harm.
"Our findings suggest that the decision to provide emergency mental health assessment is dictated less by the clinical characteristics of individual patients and more by staffing patterns or established emergency department evaluation protocols," said Dr. Bridge. "This study highlights the need for strategies to promote emergency department mental health assessments, strengthening the training of physicians in pediatric mental health and adolescent suicide prevention and timely transitions to outpatient mental health care."
Consistent with previous research of adult patients on Medicaid who present to emergency departments after self-harm, recent mental health treatment emerged as the most powerful predictor of follow-up outpatient mental health care. Nonetheless, only about one half of patients who had visited the emergency department for a mental-health-related reason up to 60 days before, received a mental health assessment during their self-harm incident visit. "This association and the lack of an association between emergency mental health assessment and follow up care suggest that a portion of the follow up mental health visits simply represent ongoing mental health care rather than new emergency-department-driven referrals," said Dr. Bridge.
###
Co-authors of the study include Steven C. Marcus, PhD, from the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania; and Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, from the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.
For more information on Dr. Jeff Bridge, visit http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/jeff-bridge
For more information on the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, visit http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/innovation-in-pediatric-practice
For more information on The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, visit http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/research
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 30-Jan-2012[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Erin Pope
Erin.Pope@NationwideChildrens.org
614-355-0495
Nationwide Children's Hospital
A national study of Medicaid data shows most young people who present to emergency departments with deliberate self-harm are discharged to the community, without receiving an emergency mental health assessment. Even more, a roughly comparable proportion of these patients receive no outpatient mental health care in the following month. These are the findings from a study conducted by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital that appears in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Deliberate self-harm is one of the most common reasons for an emergency department visit by young people in the United States. Eighty to 90 percent of young people who deliberately harm themselves meet criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, most commonly mood disorders. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has advised that all patients presenting to emergency departments with an episode of deliberate self-harm should receive a mental health evaluation before discharge.
"Emergency department personnel can play a unique role in suicide prevention by assessing the mental health of patients after deliberate self-harm and providing potentially life-saving referrals for outpatient mental health care," said Jeff Bridge, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice at Nationwide Children's Hospital and lead study author. "However, the coordination between emergency services for patients who deliberately harm themselves and linkage with outpatient mental health treatment is often inadequate."
In an effort to examine the quality of the emergency mental health management of young people who are discharged to the community after an act of deliberate self-harm, Dr. Bridge and colleagues examined Medicaid Extract files throughout the country for children ages 10 to 19.
They found that in this Medicaid population, most young people who presented to the emergency departments with deliberate self-harm were discharged to the community as opposed to inpatient care. Only 39 percent of all patients who are discharged to the community received a mental health assessment while in the emergency department.
Dr. Bridge says without more detailed information on whether the deliberate self-harm occurred with or without a suicidal intent it is impossible to exclude the possibility that some discharged patients are at relatively low risk, although deliberate self-harm is the main risk factor for completed suicide. The greatest risk of suicide occurs in the period immediately after an episode of deliberate self-harm.
"Our findings suggest that the decision to provide emergency mental health assessment is dictated less by the clinical characteristics of individual patients and more by staffing patterns or established emergency department evaluation protocols," said Dr. Bridge. "This study highlights the need for strategies to promote emergency department mental health assessments, strengthening the training of physicians in pediatric mental health and adolescent suicide prevention and timely transitions to outpatient mental health care."
Consistent with previous research of adult patients on Medicaid who present to emergency departments after self-harm, recent mental health treatment emerged as the most powerful predictor of follow-up outpatient mental health care. Nonetheless, only about one half of patients who had visited the emergency department for a mental-health-related reason up to 60 days before, received a mental health assessment during their self-harm incident visit. "This association and the lack of an association between emergency mental health assessment and follow up care suggest that a portion of the follow up mental health visits simply represent ongoing mental health care rather than new emergency-department-driven referrals," said Dr. Bridge.
###
Co-authors of the study include Steven C. Marcus, PhD, from the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania; and Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, from the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.
For more information on Dr. Jeff Bridge, visit http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/jeff-bridge
For more information on the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice, visit http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/innovation-in-pediatric-practice
For more information on The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, visit http://www.nationwidechildrens.org/research
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/nch-mos013012.php
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Elton John to Madonna: Happy Lip-Synching!
Elton John has fired up the quasi-dispute between himself and Madonna once again, thanks to his latest "advice" about her Super Bowl performance.
Just when we thought his husband, David Furnish, had washed his hands of the feud (albeit with a non-apology), Elton spoke about Madonna today.
Speaking to Good Morning America from the set of his own Super Bowl Pepsi commercial, John weighed in on the halftime show Madge is headlining.
"I've never seen a decent one," he said. "Never ever."
This started when Furnish tore into Madonna, calling her a narcissistic embarrassment after she won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song (over Elton).
So does Elton have any advice for Madonna Sunday, to add to those preemptively harsh words? Does he ever. "Make sure you lip-sync good," he said.
Ouch! John softened that part a bit, though:
"I don't think you can (play live). In all fairness to everyone who's done it before, I think you may be able to sing live, but it's really hard to play live."
He even adds of some of the last few performers: "To be honest with you, I saw the Stones and I saw Prince and I thought they were pretty good."
We'll see if he says the same of Madonna come Monday.
[Photos: WENN.com]
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/elton-john-to-madonna-happy-lip-synching/
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Video: Couple: Wedding planner left us at altar
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46180503#46180503
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
Poll ruling sparks street clashes in Senegal (Reuters)
DAKAR (Reuters) ? Protesters hurled rocks at police who retaliated with tear gas in Senegal's capital Dakar on Friday after a top legal body said President Abdoulaye Wade had the right to run for a third term in elections next month.
Reuters reporters saw youths set fire to tires in the street and overturn cars after a late-night ruling of the West African country's Constitutional Council.
Rivals to 85-year-old Wade say the constitution sets an upper limit of two terms on the president. Wade, who came to power in 2000 and was re-elected in 2007, has argued his first term pre-dated the 2001 amendment establishing the limit.
"Stop these displays of petulance which will lead to nothing," Wade, 85, told state television in an appeal for calm.
"The electoral campaign will be open. There will be no restrictions on freedom," said Wade, who faces 13 rivals in the February 26 election.
The Council validated 13 other candidates but rejected the presidential bid of world music star Youssou N'Dour, determining he had not gathered the necessary 10,000 valid signatures backing his candidacy.
It said authorities had been unable to identify around 4,000 of some 12,000 signatures gathered by N'Dour.
"The decision of the Constitutional Council has nothing to do with the law," said N'Dour campaign manager Alioune N'Diaye.
"It is purely political. Youssou N'Dour was a problem and they wanted to be shot of him," he told Reuters, adding that N'Dour planned an appeal.
All of the five judges on the Council are by law appointed by the president.
THREAT TO PEACE
The centrist Wade will face rivals including Socialist Party leader Ousmane Tanor Dieng and three ex-prime ministers - Idrissa Seck, Macky Sall and Moustapha Niasse.
Senegal is the only country in mainland West Africa to have not had a coup since the end of the colonial era. February's poll, and a possible run-off a few weeks later, are seen as major test of social peace in the predominantly Muslim country.
"We are here to protest against Wade," Yero Toure, a 26-year-old student at an opposition rally of a couple of thousand people in central Dakar. "If they don't reject him the people will rise up against him."
Critics say that Wade, who spent 26 years in opposition to Socialist rule, has done nothing during his 12 years in power to alleviate poverty in a country where formal employment is scarce, while dragging his heels on tackling official graft.
Wade points to increased spending on education and infrastructure projects such as roadbuilding as proof of his aim of turning Senegal into an emerging market country and a regional trade hub.
His candidacy has been controversial from the start, with rivals suspecting him of seeking to secure a new seven-year mandate only to hand over mid-term to his financier son Karim - who already has a "superministry" in the government. Both father and son have denied such a plan.
Wade backed down last June on planned changes to election rules after clashes between security forces and protesters who alleged the reforms were an attempt to ensure his victory.
His candidacy has raised eyebrows abroad. The senior U.S. State Department official for Africa, William Fitzgerald, told French RFI radio this month Washington viewed it as "a bit regrettable".
"From our point of view it was the right moment to go into retirement, to protect and support a good transition - democratically, peacefully, safely," Fitzgerald said.
(Writing and additional reporting by Mark John Editing by Maria Golovnina and Angus MacSwan)
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Fitch cuts Italy, Spain, other euro zone ratings (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Fitch downgraded the sovereign credit ratings of Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia and Spain on Friday, indicating there was a 1-in-2 chance of further cuts in the next two years.
In a statement, the ratings agency said the affected countries were vulnerable in the near-term to monetary and financial shocks.
"Consequently, these sovereigns do not, in Fitch's view, accrue the full benefits of the euro's reserve currency status," it said.
Fitch cut Italy's rating to A-minus from A-plus; Spain to A from AA-minus; Belgium to AA from AA-plus; Slovenia to A from AA-minus and Cyprus to BBB-minus from BBB, leaving the small island nation just one notch above junk status.
Ireland's rating of BBB-plus was affirmed.
All of the ratings were given negative outlooks.
Fitch said it had weighed up a worsening economic outlook in much of the euro zone against the European Central Bank's December move to flood the banking sector with cheap three-year money and austerity efforts by governments to curb their debts.
"Overall, today's rating actions balance the marked deterioration in the economic outlook with both the substantive policy initiatives at the national level to address macro-financial and fiscal imbalances, and the initial success of the ECB's three-year Long-Term Refinancing Operation in easing near-term sovereign and bank funding pressures," Fitch said.
Two weeks ago, Standard & Poor's downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, and pushing struggling Portugal into junk territory.
With nearly half a trillion euros of ECB liquidity coursing through the financial system, some of which has apparently gone into euro zone government bonds, and with hopes of a deal to write down a slab of Greece's mountainous debt, even that sweeping ratings action had little market impact.
The euro briefly pared gains against the dollar after Fitch cut the five euro zone sovereigns but soon jumped to a session high of $1.3208, according to Reuters data, its highest since December 13.
Italy is widely seen as the tipping point for the euro zone. If it slid towards default, the whole currency project would be threatened.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, a technocrat who has won plaudits for his economic reform drive, said he reacted to Fitch's downgrade of Italy with "detached serenity."
"They signal things that are not particularly new, for example, that Italy has a very high debt as a percentage of GDP and they signal that the way the euro zone is governed as a whole is not perfect and we knew that too," he said during a live interview on Italian television.
"They also say things that give a positive view of what is being done in Italy because there is much appreciation for policies of this government and this parliament," he said.
Fitch said of Italy: "A more severe rating action was forestalled by the strong commitment of the Italian government to reducing the budget deficit and to implementing structural reform as well as the significant easing of near-term financing risks as a result of the ECB's 3-year Longer-term Refinancing Operation."
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos, Daniel Bases, Philip Pullela and Pam Niimi, writing by Mike Peacock, Editing by James Dalgleish)
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Chevron profit falls as refineries, output suffer (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Chevron Corp reported lower quarterly earnings on Friday, missing Wall Street forecasts, as rising spending on oil and gas projects and losses at its U.S. refinery business offset gains from higher crude oil prices.
Oil and gas output at the No. 2 U.S. oil company also declined to 2.64 million barrels per day (BPD) from 2.79 million BPD a year-ago, although benchmark oil prices rose about 25 percent during the quarter.
Chevron had said earlier this month its refinery margins were suffering and would be near breakeven for the quarter, but the U.S. losses pulled the entire segment into the red, and the company's profits from oil and gas sales also appeared weaker than expected.
Its shares fell 2.5 percent in early trading.
"It was a miss on some non-controllable factors," said Pavel Molchanov, analyst with Raymond James in Houston, citing the timings of sales and global pricing differences as the likely reason oil and gas profits fell about $500 million below his forecast.
Still, Chevron added 1.67 billion barrels of oil equivalent to its reserves last year, 171 percent of its 2011 output, a very strong performance, Molchanov said.
Chevron is embroiled in two major legal battles in South America, where a Brazilian prosecutor plans to file criminal charges against it and some of its local managers.
The company is facing an $11 billion lawsuit there related to an offshore oil spill in November, and it also remains locked in a legal war against plaintiffs in Ecuador, who won an $18 billion judgment against it in a court there.
PROFIT DIP
Fourth-quarter profit slipped to $5.1 billion, or $2.58 per share, from $5.3 billion, or $2.64 per share, a year earlier.
That fell short of the $2.84 per share that analysts had forecast, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Chevron's warning of weaker earnings on January 11 knocked 17 cents per share off the average analyst estimate.
Among other U.S. oil companies, the quarterly profits from ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum Corp earlier this week topped Wall Street estimates, though Hess Corp fell short.
Exxon Mobil is due to report earnings on Tuesday, Jan 31.
Chevron is spending piles of money on production growth that will not really kick in until 2014. Its 2012 capital budget of $32.7 billion is nearly $5 billion higher than last year.
In the fourth quarter, Chevron's spending on oil and gas projects in the United States nearly doubled from a year ago to $2.0 billion, while outside the U.S. it grew by more than a quarter to $5.1 billion.
Shares of Chevron fell 2.5 percent to $103.94 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Matt Daily in New York, additional reporting by Braden Reddall in San Francisco, editing by Dave Zimmerman)
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Friday, January 27, 2012
RIM's new CEO on Android hardware: 'they are all the same'
To say it's been an interesting year for Research in Motion and BlackBerry would certainly be an understatement. It was about 10 months ago that we first learned that RIM's tablet would be capable of running full-fledged Android applications, and suddenly we had to start caring about what was coming out of Waterloo.
This week RIM has undergone probably its most important change since realizing SurePress wasn't a sure thing -- co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped down as co-CEOs, and chief operating officer Thorsten Heins has taken their place in the head office. There have been calls for RIM to adopt Android. There have been calls fro RIM to adopt Windows Phone. Really, everybody seems to know what's best for RIM.
Our pals at CrackBerry got some one-on-one time with Heins this week, and we're learning a little more about his position on Android -- mainly that he's unimpressed with the hardware on which it's running. "They are all the same," he says.
Here's what Heins told CrackBerry's Kevin Michaluk:
Kevin: I keep reading these articles that BlackBerry should build on Android, but I just don't understand them.
Thorsten: Just take a look where the Android OEMs are. I leave this to you. Take a look at their recent announcements and what you will immediately see is there is just no room for differentiation because they are all the same.
We've seen a lot of Android devices over the past year. Some good, some not. A lot of black slabs, to be sure. But also a dual-screen phone. Two phones with 3D screens. BlackBerry-esque phones with tiny screens and quint little keyboards. Thinner, lighter, faster, with web browsers that actually work and games you're not ashamed to play in public. Android hardware manufacturers might be guilty of too many models, but you certainly can't say they haven't experimented, even if it led to failure.
Before Heins bemoans the "sameness" of Android hardware, perhaps another look at RIM's own stable is in order.
Check out Kevin's entire interview with Thorensten Heins at CrackBerry.com!
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/1AUhpSe1FEw/story01.htm
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Discovery identifies potential target for anti-craving medications
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified a potential target for the development of anti-craving medications for people with addictions to stimulants such as methamphetamine.
The discovery centres on a brain receptor related to the chemical dopamine, which has a complex role in addictive behaviours.
Using brain scans and a novel chemical probe developed in CAMH's Research Imaging Centre, CAMH scientists found that the probe had high levels of binding to the dopamine D3 receptor in some people with methamphetamine addiction, compared with those who had no addiction. Higher levels of D3 were also linked to participants' reported motivation to take drugs.
"This is the first time, to our knowledge, that anyone has shown that D3 receptor levels are high in people with an active addiction to methamphetamine," says Dr. Isabelle Boileau, a scientist in the Research Imaging Centre, part of the new Campbell Family Research Institute at CAMH. Boileau led the study that appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
Using positron emission tomography (PET), Boileau's team looked at D3 levels in 16 people who were dependent on methamphetamine. Participants abstained from methamphetamine use for 14 days prior to brain scans. Their results were compared with scans from 16 participants with no addiction. On a separate day after scanning, participants were given a low dose of amphetamine, and they had to report how much they wanted to use drugs.
D3 receptors appear to have a role in craving, but it is not fully established how they are related to drug-related behaviours. The new chemical probe developed at CAMH, called 11C-(+)-PHNO, binds to dopamine D3 receptors. This probe allows researchers to study D3 in people for the first time, using PET scans, in order to answer questions about its role in stimulant addiction.
Understanding the role of brain receptors in addiction has enabled researchers to develop treatment medications, such as nicotine replacement therapy for smoking. So far, therapeutic strategies for stimulant addiction have focused on increasing activity with D2 receptors, where binding levels have been low.
"We can now suggest that any therapeutic approach aimed at increasing activity with D2 receptors should consider being selective at targeting D2, and not increasing D3 levels," says Boileau. "Our finding also supports the idea that D3 should be considered another target for anti-craving medications."
Boileau is also looking at the role of D3 in different types of addictions, including cocaine and gambling.
Building on CAMH?s record of innovation and discovery, the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute will be accelerating discoveries in the areas of mood disorders, addictions, schizophrenia and cognitive impairment.
CAMH?s Research Imaging Centre is the first of its kind in Canada where positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and imaging-genetics are dedicated to the study of mental illness and addictions.
This new discovery is an example of the innovative brain science at CAMH's new Research Imaging Centre, the first of its kind in Canada where positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and genetic imaging are dedicated to the study of mental illness and addictions.
###
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: http://www.camh.net
Thanks to Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/117047/Discovery_identifies_potential_target_for_anti_craving_medications_
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
New map for what to plant reflects global warming (AP)
WASHINGTON ? Global warming is hitting not just home, but garden. The color-coded map of planting zones often seen on the back of seed packets is being updated by the government, illustrating a hotter 21st century.
It's the first time since 1990 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revised the official guide for the nation's 80 million gardeners, and much has changed. Nearly entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are in warmer zones.
The new guide, unveiled Wednesday at the National Arboretum, arrives just as many home gardeners are receiving their seed catalogs and dreaming of lush flower beds in the spring.
It reflects a new reality: The coldest day of the year isn't as cold as it used to be, so some plants and trees can now survive farther north.
"People who grow plants are well aware of the fact that temperatures have gotten more mild throughout the year, particularly in the wintertime," said Boston University biology professor Richard Primack. "There's a lot of things you can grow now that you couldn't grow before."
He stand the giant fig tree in his suburban Boston yard stands as an example: "People don't think of figs as a crop you can grow in the Boston area. You can do it now."
The new guide also uses better weather data and offers more interactive technology. For example, gardeners using the online version can enter their ZIP code and get the exact average coldest temperature.
Also, for the first time, calculations include more detailed factors such as prevailing winds, the presence of nearby bodies of water, the slope of the land, and the way cities are hotter than suburbs and rural areas.
The map carves up the U.S. into 26 zones based on five-degree temperature increments. The old 1990 map mentions 34 U.S. cities in its key. On the 2012 map, 18 of those, including Honolulu, St. Louis, Des Moines, Iowa, St. Paul, Minn., and even Fairbanks, Alaska, are in newer, warmer zones.
Those differences matter in deciding what to plant.
For example, Des Moines used to be in zone 5a, meaning the lowest temperature on average was between minus 15 and minus 20 degrees. Now it's 5b, which has a lowest temperature of 10 to 15 degrees below zero. Jerry Holub, manager of a Des Moines plant nursery, said folks there might now be able to safely grow passion flowers.
Griffin, Ga., used to be in zone 7b, where the coldest day would average between 5 and 10 degrees. But the city is now in zone 8a, averaging a coldest day of 10 to 15 degrees. So growing bay laurel becomes possible. It wasn't recommended on the old map.
"It is great that the federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now: The globe is warming and it is greatly influencing plants (and animals)," Stanford University biology professor Terry Root wrote in an email.
The changes come too late to make this year's seed packets, but they will be in next year's, said George Ball, chairman and CEO of the seed company W. Atlee Burpee, which puts the maps on packages of perennials, not annuals. But Ball said many of his customers already know what can grow in their own climate and how it has warmed.
"Climate change, which has been in the air for a long time, is not big news to gardeners," he said.
Mark Kaplan, a New York meteorologist who helped create the 1990 map, said the latest version clearly shows warmer zones migrating north. Other experts agreed.
The 1990 map was based on temperatures from 1974 to 1986, the new map from 1976 to 2005. The nation's average temperature from 1976 to 2005 was two-thirds of a degree higher than it was during the old time period, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
USDA spokeswoman Kim Kaplan, who was part of the map team, repeatedly tried to distance the new zones on the map from global warming. She said that while much of the country is in warmer zones, the map "is simply not a good instrument" to demonstrate climate change because it is based on just the coldest days of the year.
David W. Wolfe, a professor of plant and soil ecology at Cornell University, said that the USDA is being too cautious and that the map plainly reflects warming.
The revised map "gives us a clear picture of the `new normal' and will be an essential tool for gardeners, farmers and natural resource managers as they begin to cope with rapid climate change," Wolfe said in an email.
The Arbor Day Foundation issued its own hardiness guide six years ago, and the new government map is very similar, said Woodrow Nelson, a vice president at the plant-loving organization.
"We got a lot of comments that the 1990 map wasn't accurate anymore," Nelson said. "I look forward to (the new map). It's been a long time coming."
Nelson lives in Lincoln, Neb., where the zone warmed to a 5b. Nelson said he used to be in a "solid 4," but now he has Japanese maples and Fraser firs in his yard ? trees that shouldn't survive in a zone 4.
Vaughn Speer, an 87-year-old master gardener in Ames, Iowa, said he has seen redbud trees, one of the earliest blooming trees, a little farther north in recent years.
"They always said redbuds don't go beyond U.S. Highway 30," he said, "but I'm seeing them near Roland," 10 miles to the north.
___
AP Writer Michael J. Crumb contributed to this report from Des Moines.
___
Online:
Plant map: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/
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In historic shift, Fed sets inflation target (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? The Federal Reserve took the historic step on Wednesday of setting an inflation target, of 2 percent, a victory for Chairman Ben Bernanke that brings the Fed in line with many of the world's other major central banks.
The central bank, in its first ever "longer-run goals and policy strategy" statement, said, however, it was not appropriate to adopt a fixed goal for employment because the level of unemployment that can be achieved without sparking inflation is not largely determined by monetary factors.
The inflation target is at the high end of what was traditionally seen as an informal target range of roughly 1.7 percent to 2 percent and caps Bernanke's crusade to improve communications at what for years had been purposefully opaque and secretive deliberations at the Fed.
The target aims to make the central bank more effective at controlling growth.
The Fed said the 2 percent target - measured by the annual change in the price index for personal consumption expenditures - is the most consistent over the long run with its mandate.
"Communicating this inflation goal clearly to the public helps keep longer-term inflation expectations firmly anchored, thereby fostering price stability and moderate long-term interest rates and enhancing the committee's ability to promote maximum employment in the face of significant economic disturbances," the Fed said.
Skeptics, particularly among congressional Democrats, have in the past worried that such an explicit inflation target would relegate the Fed's other congressionally set mandate, full employment, to the back burner.
But on Wednesday the Fed said policy decisions "must be informed by assessments of the maximum level of employment, recognizing that such assessments are necessarily uncertain and subject to revision."
TIMELY MOVE
While Bernanke, the plainspoken successor of Alan Greenspan, has touted a numerical inflation goal as a cornerstone of central bank best practices for years, the move on Wednesday was timely because it could help quell nagging doubts that the Fed's unprecedented easy money policies are setting the stage for a nasty bout of inflation.
The U.S. economy strengthened toward the end of last year, with the unemployment rate dropping to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent. If the rebound falters, the inflation target could help pave the way to more bond buying.
"I think this is a dovish move showing the Fed is concerned about deflation and is willing to target somewhat more inflation," said Eric Stein, portfolio manager at Eaton Vance in Boston, who characterized the inflation target as "a big deal."
Already, the Fed gives regular quarterly projections for inflation, widely seen as the informal target. It also gives quarterly projections for unemployment.
In the inflation projection given Wednesday, the Fed suggested prices were now rising at a pace consistent with policymakers' goals. As well, estimates of officials on the Fed's policy-setting panel had a central tendency of 5.2 percent to 6.0 percent for the long-run normal rate of unemployment, higher than prior years.
The Fed will reaffirm and "make adjustments as appropriate" to the long-term goals statement each January, it said.
The statement was released simultaneously with another first for the Fed: published charts of individual policymakers' projections for the appropriate path of the benchmark federal funds rate.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer; Additional reporting by Ann Saphir and Karen Brettell; Editing by Padraic Cassidy and Leslie Adler)
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
UFC on FX 1?s Three Stars: Jim Miller, Jorge Rivera and Nick Denis
The UFC's first event on FX may as well have been nickname, "Guys who need to win the get their career back on track." However, that's a bit wordy. Instead, fighters like Pat Barry and Jim Miller, who were in need of a win got back on their feet. Here are Cagewriter's Three Stars. Tell us yours in the comments or on Facebook.
No. 1 star -- Jim Miller: After losing the Ben Henderson in August, Miller needed a win to remain among the stacked lightweight division's best. He easily picked it up, choking out Melvin Guillard in just two minutes. It won him an extra $45,000 for Submission of the Night.
No. 2 star -- Jorge Rivera: Every fighter wants to leave the game on his own terms. Rivera was one of the lucky few who got to do that, winning by TKO in the second round over Eric Schaefer hours after announcing his retirement. He finished his 11-year career with 20 wins, nine losses, and a cadre of fans who admired Rivera's never say die attitude in the cage.
No. 3 star -- Nick Denis: Thankfully, the UFC replayed Denis' ballet of elbow violence after the main card, allowing fans without Fuel or Fox Deportes (a viable option for fans without Fuel) to see Denis knock out Joseph Sandoval with short elbows in just 22 seconds in the winner's UFC debut. "The Ninja of Love" walked away with an extra $45,000 for Knockout of the Night.
Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-fx-1-three-stars-jim-miller-jorge-140205469.html
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Video: Newt Gingrich on ?Meet the Press?
A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/vp/46090515#46090515
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Report: OPEC wants to stay out of Iran-West spat
CAIRO (AP) ? OPEC's acting president said the producer group should stay out of political battles, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported Sunday, an apparent bid by the bloc to steer clear of a potential showdown between Tehran and the U.S. over threats to close the vital Strait of Hormuz.
Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul-Karim Elaibi said that while Iran's "enemies" have imposed various sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' main focus should be protecting its members' interest and not being dragged into a political struggle over oil.
Elaibi, who is also OPEC's current president, last week said he was going to Tehran to warn against closing the strait, through which about a sixth of the world's crude flows daily. IRNA did not say whether the tension over the waterway was raised during the oil minister's meetings with officials.
Instead, the language reflected the warmer relations between Iran and Iraq since a U.S.-led coalition had ousted former strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Shiite government in Baghdad is seen as increasingly close to Tehran, and Iran is investing heavily in Iraq.
Iran has warned repeatedly it would choke off the strait if sanctions affect its oil sales. The U.S. has enacted, but not yet put into force, sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and, by extension, the country's ability to be paid for its oil. The European Union, a major buyer of Iranian oil, is considering sanctions on Iranian crude.
The tension over the strait and the potential impact it would have not only on global oil supplies, but also the price of crude and the economies of the countries that buy Iranian oil, have weighed heavily on consumers and traders.
Gulf nations have offered assurances that they would step in and provide any additional crude needed by the global market. Iran interpreted the offer as an attempt to undercut it and issued a quick warning to the Gulf Arab producers to not try to offset its exports with their own.
Elaibi's remarks appear to be an attempt to pull the producer bloc out of the political fray, but they also reflect the uneasy balance Iraq faces.
Iraq exports most of its crude through the strait, and any attempt to shut the waterway could be a severe blow to its economy. At the same time, it appears reluctant to come across as being too harsh on its neighbor, in part because of the investments Iran provides and its ideological weight as the region's strongest Shiite government.
His visit to Tehran came just days before Iraq inaugurates a new oil export outlet in the Gulf with a capacity of up to 900,000 barrels a day. It would be the first of five floating facilities that would eventually handle about 5 million barrels a day.
The new outlet will help Iraq, limited now by infrastructure bottlenecks, to export more oil.
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Costa Concordia: As Hope Fades for More Survivors, Finger-Pointing Begins (Time.com)
As hope fades for the successful rescue of the 20 people still missing a week after the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, the focus of operations on the Italian island of Giglio is shifting towards the prevention of future catastrophe and the allocation of blame for that which has already occurred. With some 500,000 gallons of fuel oil still sloshing around in the hull of the ship, "We need to prevent an environmental disaster," says Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, who is coordinating the emergency response. He added that while the agency wasn't giving up rescue attempts, the risk of rupture of the ship's fuel tanks was becoming an increasingly important worry.
Rescuers have been investigating whether the ship can be chained to the rocks on which it capsized last week, to halt its slow slippage towards deep waters, which would dramatically complicate further salvage efforts. The consequences of an oil spill would be disastrous. The mayor of Giglio has called the ship an "ecological time bomb." The potential for pollution puts at risk not only the area around the tiny Mediterranean island, but also the entirety of the nearby coast of Tuscany, one of the engines of Italian tourism. On Saturday, light oil was discovered floating near the Concordia, but rescue workers speculated it may have been diesel from rescue boats or lubricant from some of the on board machinery, not the heavy engine oil that could spell environmental devastation. (Photos: The Sinking of the Costa Concordia)
The plan is to extract the fuel oil and replace it with water, to avoid destabilizing the ship. Experts estimate that draining even those tanks closest to the outside of the hull could take as much as month -- providing storms don't cause delays -- and that the inner tanks could prove harder to reach. Still, "there is a very good chance that the fuel oil can be removed," says Paul Wright, associate director of the Marine Institute at Britain's Plymouth University. Contamination from the kitchen oils, chemicals, sewage, and personal belongings of the crew and passengers are likely to be contained using booms. What could prove more challenging is the salvage operation of the $450 million ship itself. "I would be very surprised if she is righted and floated off," says Wright. "The most likely solution is that she will be cut up and dismantled in position." It's an operation that could take months.
Meanwhile, the legal process is gearing up as Italian authorities work to establish the criminal liability for what some experts predict will produce the most expensive insurance claims in maritime history. As of Saturday, the death toll for the accident stands at 12 and is likely to rise; the Costa Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest and facing charges of manslaughter. At the heart of the investigation will be determining what happened in the 70 minutes between the moment the ship tore itself open on the rocks and Schettino's first formal call for help. In the interval, the coast guard was misinformed by a member of the Concordia's crew about the condition of ship, even as it was taking on water. And passengers were told by an apparently confused or oblivious crew that the problem had been resolved and that they should return to their rooms. (History's Greatest Cruise Ship Disasters)
Lawyers for civil plaintiffs will be eager to show that responsibility for the tragedy extends beyond the incompetence of the captain. "You have an incentive to find the deep pockets," says Luca Melchionna, a professor at St. John's University School of Law. Was the Costa Concordia's dangerous approach to the island part of a pattern that the cruise company had previously sanctioned or tolerated? To what extent did company policy contribute to the disarray in the early minutes when lives could have been saved? How well prepared were the crew for the event of an emergency?
For now, the cruise company has joined the criminal case against the captain as a civil party, formally putting itself among the injured and (not coincidentally) forestalling civil action in Italy while the criminal trial plays out, something that could take months of years. "It's a strategic legal move that protects them, at least for a while," says Melchionna. But such maneuvers won't protect the company in other jurisdictions. While lawyers for potential plaintiffs have complained that the waivers their clients were asked to sign have ruthlessly limited the cruise line's liability, at least two law firms have announced they plan to file a class action lawsuit in the U.S. next week. Meanwhile, several passengers have already sought representation with the British law firm Irwin Mitchell. "With thousands of passengers and crew on board this huge vessel, their safety should have been the first and only priority," Clive Garner, the head of the firm's international law team, said in a statement. "Tragically, it seems that this was not the case and passengers and their families have paid a very heavy price."
Transcript: 'Go On Board!' Coast Guard Tells Cruise Ship Captain
WATCH: Crew Tells Passengers, 'Return to Your Cabin'
View this article on Time.com
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Spokesman: Paterno in serious condition (AP)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ? Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno is in serious condition after experiencing health complications from lung cancer.
"Over the last few days Joe Paterno has experienced further health complications," family spokesman Dan McGinn said in a brief statement Saturday to The Associated Press. "His doctors have now characterized his status as serious.
"His family will have no comment on the situation and asks that their privacy be respected during this difficult time," he said.
The 85-year-old Paterno has been in the hospital since Jan. 13 for observation for what his family had called minor complications from cancer treatments.
Paterno was diagnosed with cancer in November, days after getting ousted as head coach in the aftermath of the child sex abuse charges against former assistant Jerry Sandusky.
This was Paterno's second time in the hospital in a month. He's also recovering from a broken pelvis that required a weeklong stay to make it easier for cancer treatments. Paterno first hurt his pelvis in August when he was accidentally bowled over by a player in preseason practice.
The injury forced the Hall of Famer to spend most of the season coaching from the press box ? until trustees dismissed him Nov. 9, four days after Sandusky was first charged.
Sandusky is out on bail and awaiting trial after denying the allegations. Paterno testified before a state grand jury investigating Sandusky, and authorities have said he is not a target of the probe.
But school trustees voted unanimously to oust him anyway ? even though Paterno had announced that morning he would retire by the end of the season ? in part because Paterno failed a moral responsibility to report an allegation made in 2002 against Sandusky to authorities outside the university.
Paterno testified he had relayed the allegation told to him by graduate assistant Mike McQueary to a superior, and the information was then passed on to another school administrator who oversaw the campus police department.
Paterno's lawyer, Wick Sollers, on Thursday called the board's comments self-serving and unsupported by the facts. Paterno fully reported what he knew to the people responsible for campus investigations, Sollers said.
"He did what he thought was right with the information he had at the time," Sollers said.
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Report: 17 die when boat capsizes in Iran
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Seventeen people have died after a storm capsized a passenger boat off of Iran's southern coast, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
The boat sank Saturday evening while sailing between Hormuz Island and the port city of Bandar Abbas on the mainland, the report said. Rescue teams saved five passengers.
The report says the boat began its 11-mile (18-kilometer) journey despite a travel ban on light boats by shipping authorities, due to a storm with winds of 50 mph (80 kph).
An eyewitness told The Associated Press that most of the dead were senior citizens, members of a visiting tour to the island.
Every day dozens of passenger boats travel between Bandar Abbas and nearby islands near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, some 670 miles (1070 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Divers resume search for 21 missing from ship (AP)
ROME ? Divers resumed the search Thursday for 21 people still missing after a cruise ship capsized off the Tuscan coast, but rough seas forecast for later in the day added an element of uncertainty to the operation and plans to begin pumping fuel from the stranded vessel.
The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef and capsized Friday after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route and strayed into the perilous waters.
Eleven people have been confirmed dead, their bodies removed from the ship and frigid waters.
Divers were focusing on an evacuation route on the fourth level, now about 18 meters (60 feet) below the surface, where five bodies were found earlier this week, Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero told Sky TG 24.
Officials restarted the search after determining the ship had stabilized after shifting on the rocks 24 hours earlier.
The ship's sudden movement also postponed the start of the weekslong operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel, as Italy's environment minister warned Parliament of the ecological implications if the ship sinks.
"Today is an important day, the weather forecasts are negative, rough sea, we'll have to see how the ship reacts to that," firefighter spokesman Luca Cari said Thursday.
Authorities on Wednesday identified the first victim: Sandor Feher, a 38-year-old Hungarian musician working aboard, who a fellow musician said helped crying children into lifejackets, then disappeared while trying to retrieve his beloved violin from his cabin. His body was found inside the wreck and identified by his mother who traveled to Italy, according to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.
Of the 11 dead and 21 missing, Italian officials have only released 27 names so far. They are two Americans, 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.
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.
Albertini last saw her daughter, Dayana Arlotti, on Thursday when she dropped her off at nursery school in Rimini on Italy's Adriadic coast, according to La Voce di Romagna newspaper. Her estranged husband picked up the girl afterward to prepare for the cruise.
William Arlotti, 36, had taken his daughter on on the cruise with his girlfriend, Michela Marconcelli, who survived. She reported seeing Dayana, who was wearing a lifejacket, slide into the water when the boat shifted, but said someone helped retrieve her, the newspaper reported.
Marconcelli said she was pushed forward onto the life raft, and lost track of her companion and his daughter.
Other missing include retirees Jerry and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The couple were treating themselves after putting four children through college.
The Heil children said in a blog post Wednesday that their parents were not among the passengers whose bodies were recently recovered, and they were praying that weather conditions would improve so authorities could resume search operations.
Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, was placed under house arrest Tuesday, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.
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 has said such a navigational "fly by" was done last Aug. 9-10, after being approved by the company and Giglio port authorities.
However, Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, said Wednesday its tracking of the ship's August route showed it actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused Friday's disaster.
"This is not a black-and-white case," Richard Meade, editor of Lloyd's List, said in a statement.
"Our data suggests that both routes took the vessel within 200 meters (yards) of the impact point and that the authorized route was actually closer to shore."
New audio of Schettino's communications with the coast guard during the crisis emerged Wednesday, with the captain claiming he ended up in a life raft after he tripped and fell into the water.
"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board, the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino said, according to a transcript published Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera paper.
Initial audio of Schettino's conversations made headlines on Tuesday, showing an increasingly exasperated coast guard officer ordering Schettino back on board to direct the evacuation, and the captain resisting, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping.
The officer's order, "Get back on board, (expletive!)" has entered the Italian lexicon, becoming a Twitter hashtag and adorning T-shirts.
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Jackson family drops restitution bid against Conrad Murray (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Conrad Murray -- the former personal physician of Michael Jackson who is currently serving out a four-year jail sentence for causing the singer's death -- can at least scratch one worry off his list.
Prosecutors for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office has withdrawn the request for restitution from Murray, following the family's decision not to pursue it, a spokesperson for the DA's office confirms to TheWrap.
No reason was given for the decision, and TheWrap's request for comment from the family's lawyer has not yet been answered.
But there's a good chance that the singer's kin realized that there was no way they would collect. During Murray's late November sentencing, prosecutors asked for restitution in excess of $100 million, an amount reflecting what Jackson would have made during a string of dates in London which the singer was rehearsing for at the time of his death.
During the sentencing, even the prosecutors conceded that it would be impossible for Murray to repay that amount.
Murray, who's appealing his involuntary manslaughter conviction, had his medical license suspended by the Medical Board of California earlier this month -- standard operating procedure for doctors who've been convicted of felonies.
(Editing by Chris Michaud)
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Investors like the back-to-basics Bank of America
In this Dec. 7, 2012 photo, a woman passes a Bank of America office branch, in New York. Bank of America said Jan. 19, 2012, it made $2 billion in the last three months of 2011 from selling its stake in a Chinese bank and selling debt. That offset losses and higher legal expenses in its mortgage business. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
In this Dec. 7, 2012 photo, a woman passes a Bank of America office branch, in New York. Bank of America said Jan. 19, 2012, it made $2 billion in the last three months of 2011 from selling its stake in a Chinese bank and selling debt. That offset losses and higher legal expenses in its mortgage business. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Bank of America is back to basics ? slimmed down, stripped of its swagger and no longer the biggest bank in the country. And investors, after pummeling the company for two years, finally like what they see.
The stock jumped 2.4 percent Thursday after Bank of America reported that it made $2 billion from October through December, reversing a $1.2 billion loss from a year earlier. The stock is up 25 percent this year.
Almost none of the profit came from improvements in Bank of America's basic businesses. In fact, it lost money in the fourth quarter in real estate and investment banking.
But the bank raised $2.9 billion by selling its stake in China Construction Bank and $2.4 billion more by selling debt and issuing common stock to replace its higher-cost preferred stock, which paid out annual dividends as high as 8 percent.
"We enter 2012 stronger and more efficient after two years of simplifying and streamlining our company," CEO Brian Moynihan said.
The cash has strengthened Bank of America's balance sheet, a key factor as it undergoes a Federal Reserve "stress test" and tries to meet international regulatory standards that demand banks hold more cash against risky loans.
"It would be a big step if Bank of America can prove to the Street it doesn't need to raise additional capital," said Shannon Stemm, a banking analyst at Edward Jones, a financial advice company.
After the stock dropped 63 percent drop in 2010 and 2011, Bank of America is eager to start over. But it won't be easy.
Paying $4 billion for Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest subprime mortgage lender, in 2008 seemed like a bargain but has cost Bank of America tens of billions in mortgage losses, fines and litigation.
"The biggest problem with Bank of America is that you never know what litigation expense lurks around the corner," Stemm said.
The bank has also been forced to buy billions of dollars' worth of mortgages from the government-sponsored mortgage financing companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
In 2011, the bank lost about $14 billion just on legal settlements tied to mortgages issued in years past. On Thursday, the bank said it put aside an additional $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter for future litigation, most of it tied to mortgages.
In addition to the legal costs, the Federal Reserve last year refused to let Bank of America increase its stock dividend, citing uncertainty about the depth of its mortgage problems.
It was the only denial issued to any of the four largest U.S. banks by the Fed, which is closely monitoring how the largest banks use their cash since the bailouts of 2008.
This year, Bank of America hasn't asked the Fed to raise its dividend.
As the U.S. economy slowly comes back, investors are betting Bank of America is poised to capture some of that growth. But that won't be easy, either.
Loans to people and businesses aren't as profitable as they were before the financial crisis. Not only are interest rates at historic lows, but regulators have limited the fees banks can collect for overdrafts and late credit card payments. The government has also reduced the fees banks can ollect from stores on debit-card transactions.
Bank of America knows something about debit card fees. Last fall, it caused a public uproar when it announced it would charge customers $5 a month to use debit cards. The bank quickly backed off.
Bank of America serves about half of American households, and its results showed that housing continues remains a concern in the economy. The bank's real estate business lost $1.5 billion after a 74 percent decline in new home loans. The bank lost some market share and closed a division that helped third-party home lenders.
But Americans seemed to be getting their financial houses in order by paying off more debt on time.
Bank of America, one of the largest credit card issuers, said customers who paid bills a month late declined for the 11th consecutive quarter. New credit card accounts also grew 53 percent, and the division posted a profit of $1 billion.
Bank of America's investment banking business reported a loss of $433 million due to lower investment banking fees and lower sales and trading driven by the rocky stock and bond markets in the last three months of the year.
The bank's quarterly earnings came to 15 cents per share, which was less than the 22 cents expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet, a provider of financial data. The earnings were in line with other estimates.
The bank reported fourth quarter revenue rose 11 percent to $25.1 billion from last year. For the year, the bank made $1.4 billion. It lost $2.2 billion in 2010.
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