Prosecutors for review of document release in Sears case

MIAMI, Aug 25: Federal prosecutors asked a judge to review how the media obtained confidential information in the case of seven men accused of plotting attacks against Chicago's Sears Tower and government buildings.

Prosecutors want a judge to find out whether an order sealing documents in the case was violated.

The request came Thursday after a Miami television station obtained and on Tuesday aired video that prosecutors said was not public. The WFOR-CBS4 report included government surveillance video and photographs and video of the Federal Justice Building taken by the men, prosecutors said in a court filing.

Prosecutors had said the men shot footage of buildings that were to be targeted. Copies of the video reports were also posted on the station's Web site. Video reports were also aired on Wednesday and Thursday.

Shannon High-Bassalik, the station's vice president for news, said through a representative that it is not the station's policy to comment on pending legal matters.

An attorney for the group's alleged ringleader also tried to get the station to stop airing the footage, but a judge denied the request Wednesday.

Media have obtained confidential materials connected to the case in the past. US District Judge Joan Lenard previously warned attorneys not to release nonpublic documents.

Neither the US Attorney's Office nor the FBI had released the materials to the media, the document said. (AP)

Elderly less likely to wake to smoke alarm

NEW YORK, Aug 25: The high-pitched signal typically used in smoke alarms may not wake older adults, according to a study conducted by the Fire Protection Research Foundation. In comparative tests on various alarm sounds, adults aged 65 years and older were much more likely to wake to a mixed-frequency signal than a pure high-frequency signal used in standard US smoke alarms.

Household smoke alarms reduce the chances of dying in a fire by up to 50 per cent when present and working properly. However, studies have shown that the elderly do not fully benefit from smoke alarms, particularly during the overnight hours when they are asleep.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, older adults are more than twice as likely to die in a home fire as the average person.

The current study investigated arousal from sleep in 42 adults aged 65 to 85 years in response to various signals including the high-frequency signal used in most US smoke alarms, a mixed-frequency signal, and a male voice saying ''Danger, Fire, Wake Up.''

The high-pitched smoke alarm signal was least likely to wake the study subjects, Dorothy Bruck from Victoria University, Australia and the study team reports. The male voice also performed poorly.

The mixed signal was most effective in waking sleeping elderly.

The study also found that the volume needed to wake up to the high-frequency signal was significantly higher than that needed to wake up to the mixed-frequency signal.

''The high frequency alarm signal currently found in smoke alarms should be replaced by an alternative signal that performs ignificantly better in awakening most of the adult population, once the nature of the best signal has been determined,'' the authors recommend.

In the meantime, they encourage the use of interconnected smoke alarms that include an alarm in each bedroom to increase the chance of sleeping individuals being woken by an alarm.

The study also tested the performance abilities of older adults upon awakening suddenly to a smoke alarm. The results suggest a decrease in physical functioning of around 10 per cent to 17 per cent may be expected during the first five minutes after waking up. There were, however, ''no important'' effects on simple or complex cognitive functioning.(AGENCIES)

Deaths from anorexia declining in Sweden

NEW YORK, Aug 25: The mortality among adolescent women with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa has waned -- at least in Sweden -- based on a comparison of records for two time periods, investigators report. They think that improved detection and better treatment may be the primary reasons for the improved outcomes.

Dr Frank Lindblad of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and colleagues analyzed data from two cohorts of women. Their first cohort included 564 female patients born between 1958 and 1967 (mean age 16.4 years) first hospitalized for an eating disorder between 1977 and 1981, with follow-up until 1992.

The second cohort was comprised of 554 females born between 1968 and 1977, hospitalized for the first time for anorexia nervosa between 1987 and 1991, at an average age of 15.9 years, and who were followed until 2002.

Nineteen of the 25 deaths (3.4 per cent) that occurred in first patient cohort were probably associated with anorexia nervosa, the authors report.

In the second cohort, 7 deaths occurred, of which 4 (0.72 percent) were likely related to the eating disorder.

''Our mortality figures seem to be lower than what has generally been reported before in most countries,'' Lindblad noted.

The use of cognitive psychotherapy has become more popular (in Sweden and other countries) over the last 10 years, the investigator noted, ''but it would not be justified from our findings to say that this is an important factor.''

Furthermore, ''Mortality rates among other mental disorders have remained relatively stable,'' the author added, ''which may mean that general changes in psychiatric care cannot account for the improvements in survival among patients with anorexia nervosa.''

Instead, ''We believe that the improvement is a result of a combination of factors,'' he continued. ''The most important factors are probably the result of better medical care, including treatment of nutritional emergency states; and the establishment of specialized units during the second period. The latter implies that patients have been taken care of by professionals with more specific experience of eating disorders.''

In addition to the factors noted above, the investigators also attribute better outcomes to increased awareness of the condition and prevention of suicides.(AGENCIES)

Don't make us scapegoats, say German Muslims

BERLIN, Aug 25: German Muslims have urged the government not to make them scapegoats over terrorism fears, saying that would only fan radicalism.

Authorities said last week the main suspects in two attempted train bombings in western Germany may have been part of a wider Islamic network. Two Lebanese men have been arrested.

Germany's Central Council of Muslims said it had received threats of violence and urged Germans to work together to ensure terrorists did not succeed in breaking up society.

''Instead of threatening sanctions or portraying Muslims as scapegoats, politicians must send a signal that we are all part of the same world and we must work together to keep it peaceful,'' said General Secretary Aiman Mazyek.

''Unfortunately, I am hearing very few words to this effect from politicians, the church and other public bodies,'' he said.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble this week urged Muslim groups to work with authorities to tackle militancy. He suggested police informers could infiltrate Islamist groups.

Some German media question whether the relative harmony between Germans and their immigrant communities can last.

''We will have to get used to trusting nobody. Not the honest foreign student, the kebab cook or waiter with Arabic eyes,'' wrote columnist Franz Josef Wagner in top-selling Bild tabloid.

SEPTEMBER 11 LINK

Germany introduced tighter controls on Islamist groups after three of the four suspected suicide pilots in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, including alleged plot leader Mohamed Atta, were found to have lived in Hamburg.

However, Germany's Nazi legacy makes a crackdown, which some could see as an infringement of civil liberties, problematic.

Inssan, a group to promote Muslim integration, said politicians should not push Muslims to the edge of society.

''I am worried about radicalisation. Politicians need to do more to help,'' Inssan's Chaban Salih told Reuters. ''Politicians must work with us. They should go to mosques, there should be more workshops and discussions about how we work together to fight this.''

Turks make up Germany's largest Muslim group. About 1.8 million citizens with Turkish passports live in Germany plus about 700,000 first and second generation Germans.

In July, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met immigrant organisations to draft an integration strategy and a follow-up conference on Muslims in Germany is planned for September. (AGENCIES)

Anger as 2005 Bordeaux wine fetches record prices

PARIS, Aug 25: French lovers of Bordeaux red wine are angry they cannot afford to drink the acclaimed 2005 vintage which is breaking price records before it has even been bottled.

A case of the top end wine is on sale at more than double the previous record even though it will not be delivered until 2008 at the earliest. Owners should then wait at least another 10 years before cracking it open.

''We think, and everybody that has tasted it agrees, that 2005 is an exceptional vintage,'' said Paul Pontallier, general director of Chateau Margaux, one of five producers to carry the distinguished first-growth label.

The influential American wine critic Robert Parker awarded Chateau Margaux 96-100 out of a maximum of 100 after a tasting in the spring.

Vintners Berry Brothers and Rudd in London is selling cases (12 bottles) of Chateau Margaux for 5,340 pounds (9,430 dollar). That is an increase of 540 pounds from the end of June when the wine 'en primeur' (still in casks) first went on sale at the highest release price for Chateau Margaux.

The most expensive year before 2005 was in 2000 when the release price was 2,000 pounds a case. A case of 2004 Chateau Margaux en primeur went for 1,080 pounds.

TOO EXPENSIVE?

The chateaux, which set the initial prices for the wine before selling it on to their distributors, have been criticised for being greedy.

''It's too much for me, because what happens on vintages like that is that it becomes a vintage where the French consumer can no longer buy,'' said Yannick Branchereau, director of Lavinia France, a vintner in Paris.

''When you have a first class vintage that goes beyond 500 euros before tax, when you don't even have a bottle of wine yet, that is very expensive.''

The market for top end Bordeaux is dominated by wealthy foreigners, some buying for investment purposes.

Pontallier and other producers defend their pricing policies which they say take account of market conditions, and in 2005 a drought which led to a smaller harvest.

''We had remarkable weather. It was very dry and hot,'' he said. ''It was an exceptional year, there was enormous demand and there was a reduced supply.''

Strong economic growth in many countries helped to support demand and vineyards are attracting new interest from rich businessmen in Asia and eastern Europe.

''We have two huge markets which are just starting to skim the surface for drinking the top wines -- China and Russia,'' said Simon Staples, sales director at Berry Brothers in London.

''We've got people walking into our shop saying they want to buy a cellar please, and it's 2.3 million pounds and they just want the best. They don't want the 20-30 euros bottle of wine. That's not what cooks their biscuit.''

Time will tell whether the Bordeaux 2005 will turn out to be a good investment. If it proves to be a classic vintage once it has been bottled, it should continue to rise in value.

A case of Chateau Latour from 1982 now costs around 10,000 pounds a case and its value should continue to rise because of its rarity. Staples said his company just sold a case of Chateau Latour from 1961 for 36,000 pounds.

One threat to the 2005 prices could come from this year's crop, which is still on the vines and also looks promising.

If 2006 turned out to be another good one, it might undermine the stratospheric prices for 2005.

''The conditions we have seen up till now, and we're still a month away from the harvest, have been less exceptional than in 2005 but still correspond to a good vintage,'' said Pontallier. (AGENCIES)

Outlook good after swimming-related lung problem

NEW YORK, Aug 25: A few people are prone to develop fluid build-up in the lungs -- that is, pulmonary edema -- after swimming, either on the surface or while scuba diving. Now, a team of physicians has shown that there are apparently no long-term consequences from the condition, once individuals recover.

According to Dr. Richard Thomas Mahan, with the Naval Medical Research Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, and his associates, the symptoms of swimming-induced pulmonary edema are sudden onset of breathlessness or coughing up blood during or immediately after swimming. This occurs in the absence of any aspiration of water or any sign of infection.

The team assessed the cardiopulmonary function of 11 otherwise-healthy patients who had recovered from swimming-induced pulmonary edema at least 1 month before. The results were compared with those from 9 similar but unaffected ''control'' subjects. All of the study participants were male US Navy Special Warfare members.

According to the investigators' report in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, the cases and controls did not differ significantly in their results on pulmonary function tests and cardiopulmonary exercise testing.

Moreover, ''there was no evidence of obstructive or restrictive lung disease,'' the researchers report, or of any other underlying abnormalities that would explain why some individuals develop swimming-induced pulmonary edema.

Mahan and his associates suggest that the condition may result from the combined effects of immersion and increased pressure in capillaries brought on by exercise.(AGENCIES)

White House says new stem cell method 'encouraging'

WASHINGTON, Aug 25: The White House has said it was encouraged by a new method for embryonic stem cell research, an advance that could help resolve President George W Bush's objections to what he views as the destruction of life.

Bush used his first veto last month to block increased federal spending for such research, despite strong public support for the effort to combat diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

''The president believes (the new research) deserves a good look, he is encouraged that there are scientists who are continuing to look for innovative ways to do stem cell research that would not involve the destruction of embryos,'' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday.

But experts said the technique announced on Wednesday by Advanced Cell Technology won't resolve ethical debates and political battles that have divided the rest of the country for years.

Conservative religious groups, for example, said the Massachusetts company's announcement did not change their view the research destroyed potential human life.

Advocates of increased research said it was a vain attempt to resolve a debate about medical ethics through science.

''This isn't a technique that's going anywhere. This isn't an alternative to anything,'' said Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics.

Stem cells, which can develop into any kind of body tissue, are prized by medical researchers who believe they can lead to tailored treatments for diseases including cancer and diabetes.

Though they are available from many sources many experts say the most powerful and versatile cells may be those taken from embryos. Religious conservatives oppose this process because those embryos are destroyed when the cells are removed.

SINGLE CELL REMOVED FROM EMBRYO

Opinion polls show strong support for expanding federally backed embryonic stem cell research and the issue could figure prominently in November's congressional elections.

ACT's method, described in the science journal Nature, takes a single cell from an eight-celled embryo without harming it.

But that single cell must be combined with other cells harvested earlier, presumably from a process that destroyed embryos, said Michele Shoun, editor of Baptists for Life, a publication for ministers that opposes stem cell research involving embryos.

''I appreciate that someone is trying to work with our concerns, but I don't think they've quite reached that,'' Shoun said.

Richard Doerflinger, a bioethics expert with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the experiment was unethical because it involved discarding embryos.

''The Catholic Church is open to considering all ethically acceptable avenues of stem cell research. The new study ... however, raises more ethical questions than it answers,'' he said.

Stanford University medical researcher Bill Hurlbut, who sits on the President's Council for Bioethics, praised the study as a valiant attempt to build consensus, but said it did not answer many questions about the dangers involved in the process.

''This represents the right attitude, but I think there are other methods that will provide a wider range of cells and be easier to accomplish,'' he said.

(AGENCIES)

"Black lung" still occurring in US miners

NEW YORK, Aug 25: Despite laws aimed at limiting the amount of coal dust in mines, coal miners are still coming down with 'black lung' or pneumoconiosis, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

From March to May of this year, the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program identified 30 miners with pneumoconiosis out of a total of 328 miners who were screened. Of these, 11 had advanced disease, Dr V C Antao and associates report in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report for August 25.

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 mandated limits of 2 milligrams of dust per cubic meter in areas where miners work. Subsequently, the rate of occurrence of pneumoconiosis declined. However, clusters of rapidly progressive coal workers' pneumoconiosis began reappearing in 1996, primarily in Virginia and Kentucky.

Thirty-one per cent of the estimated 1055 underground coal miners employed in southwestern Virginia underwent screening at mobile examination units, reports Antao's team from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The subjects completed questionnaires regarding their health and work history, and underwent spirometry to determine lung capacity, and chest X-rays.

As mentioned, 30 (9 per cent) of those screened had evidence of rapidly progressive pneumoconiosis.

The 11 most advanced cases had worked in the mines for an average of 31 years, and only two subjects had started mining before the 1969 limits took affect.

The authors of a related editorial estimate that 5.5 cases of advanced coal workers' pneumoconiosis would be expected if dust levels had not exceeded the current limits. In contrast, 11.9 cases would be expected if miners' exposure averaged double the limit.

They therefore suggest that mandated levels of dust are too high, and should be lowered to the ''recommended exposure limit'' of 1 milligram per cubic meter suggested by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

The editorialists also note that the 11 cases of advanced coal workers' pneumoconiosis should be considered ''a sentinel health event and justifies a comprehensive assessment of current dust-control levels.''(AGENCIES)

Inflation up at 4.92 pc

NEW DELHI, Aug 25: Wholesale prices-based inflation rose to 4.92 per cent during the week ended August 12, compared to 4.82 per cent in the previous week as essential items like fruits and vegetables as well as some manufactured products became dearer.

Inflation was 3.67 per cent during the corresponding week of the previous year.

If inflation increases at the same rate next week as well, it will cross the psychological barrier of five per cent.

The Government had to take steps to augment supply of pulses, wheat and sugar after inflation touched 5.24 per cent during the week ended June 10 and then to 5.44 per cent the following week, which has now been revised to 5.50 per cent.

Inflation is slated to be between 5-5.5 per cent in the current fiscal, as per the Reserve Bank’s projection.

The Prime Minister’s advisory council has predicted inflation to be around 5.5 per cent at the end of this fiscal, compared to 4.1 per cent last fiscal, in case petroleum prices are further revised.

The index for food articles, comprising essential items, rose by 0.5 per cent to 204.8 points during the week ended August 12, as fruits and vegetables became costlier by two per cent each, and condiments and spices by one per cent each.

However, the prices of poultry chicken declined by two per cent and masur by one per cent.

The index for non-food articles category rose by 0.5 per cent to 184.7 points due to higher prices of raw rubber by six per cent, niger seed by five per cent and raw cotton and groundnut seed by one per cent each.

However, the prices of raw silk fell by seven per cent, raw jute by five per cent and soyabean by one per cent.

The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged at 328.4 points.

The index for manufactured products rose by 0.1 per cent to 177.4 points.

Among food products category of manufactured products, imported edible oil became dearer by five per cent, rice bran oil by four per cent and gingelly oil and groundnut oil by one per cent each.

However, salt prices declined by 17 per cent, oil cakes by two per cent and gur by one per cent.

Among textile items, polyester staple fibre rose by three per cent, cotton yarn-cones and hessian and sacking bags by one per cent each.

However, the prices of texturised yarn declined by one per cent.

Duplex board, among paper and paper products group, rose by three per cent and cream laid woven paper by one per cent.

Among chemcials and chemical products group, synthetic resins became dearer by nine per cent, while liquid nitrogen fell by two per cent and liquid chlorine and caustic soda by one per cent each.

Building bricks in the non-metallic mineral products rose by two per cent.

In basic metals alloys and metal products’ group, ms/ss ingots went up by 23 per cent, steel ingots by 15 per cent, zinc by five per cent and lead ingots by three per cent.

Bicycles in the transport equipment and parts category rose by seven per cent. (PTI)