Month: December 2012

Trafficked maids to order: The darker side of richer India

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NEW DELHI, Dec 4 (TrustLaw) – Inside the crumbling housing estates of Shivaji Enclave, amid the boys playing cricket and housewives chatting from their balconies, winding staircases lead to places where lies a darker side to India’s economic boom. Three months ago, police rescued Theresa Kerketa from one of these tiny two-roomed flats. For four years, she was kept here by a placement agency for domestic maids, in between stints as a virtual slave to Delhi’s middle-class homes. …

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Republicans reject tax hike, push cuts in "fiscal cliff" offer

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U.S. House Speaker Boehner speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans proposed steep spending cuts on Monday but gave no ground on President Barack Obama's call to raise taxes on the wealthiest in their first formal proposal to avert a "fiscal cliff" that could push the U.S. economy into recession. After days of stalemate, the Republican offer shows deep differences with President Barack Obama as the two sides work to head off across-the-board spending cuts and tax increases due to take effect in January. The White House dismissed the proposal and said it contained no new ideas. …

Asperger’s Disorder to Be Eliminated in New DSM-5

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The revisions to the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) were approved by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) on Saturday, according to a letter posted online by the organization’s president. The revisions, some of which have incited both controversy and critique, are due to be published in the book’s new edition in May of 2013.

Chiefs coach Crennel says he tried to talk player out of suicide

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KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec 3 (Reuters) – Kansas City Chiefs head coach Romeo Crennel said on Monday he tried to talk linebacker Jovan Belcher out of shooting himself outside the team’s practice facility before the player committed suicide on Saturday. Belcher shot himself in the head in a parking lot in the presence of team personnel that included Crennel and General Manager Scott Pioli, police said. A few minutes earlier, he shot his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, to death in the couple’s home, according to police. …

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Chavez will travel to Brazil for summit: ambassador

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Venezuela's President Chavez talks to the media after a meeting with Brazil's Foreign Minister Patriota in CaracasCARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez will travel to Brazil for a regional summit at the end of this week despite cancer-related medical treatment in Cuba, Brazil's ambassador said on Monday. If confirmed, the 58-year-old Chavez's presence at the Mercosur trade bloc meeting would indicate his latest health scare is not as bad as some are speculating. Venezuelan officials would not immediately confirm the ambassador's statement. Chavez was in Cuba on Monday and it was unknown if he would return home first if he should decide to go on to Brazil. …

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Scientists find gene link to teenage binge drinking

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A man picks up a bottle at an assembly line inside the Taiwan Beer factory in Jhunan, Miaoli CountyLONDON (Reuters) – Scientists have unpicked the brain processes involved in teenage alcohol abuse and say their findings help explain why some young people have more of a tendency to binge drink. A study published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal found that a gene known as RASGRF-2 plays a crucial role in controlling how alcohol stimulates the brain to release dopamine, triggering feelings of reward. …

Geron drops brain cancer drug, to cut jobs

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(Reuters) – Geron Corp confirmed it will discontinue development of an experimental drug to treat cancer that has spread to the brain from elsewhere in the body and also cut about 40 percent of its workforce, after patients failed to respond to the drug in a mid-stage study. The company said it will now focus on the development of another drug candidate, imetelstat, as a treatment for blood cancers and some types of solid tumors. …

Dial back esophageal cancer screening: internists

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A group of U.S. internal medicine doctors today recommended limiting esophageal cancer screening to people with chronic heartburn who have additional, more severe symptoms. Known as upper endoscopy, the screening procedure is often used to diagnose and manage gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) – which can be tied to a higher risk of esophageal cancer. But some of that use may be unnecessary, the American College of Physicians (ACP) said – adding costs and putting patients at risk of side effects without evidence of a clear benefit. …

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On Twitter, Obama puts question mark over mortgage deduction

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U.S. President Obama gestures during a news conference at the White House in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Taking to Twitter to press his case in "fiscal cliff" talks with Congress, President Barack Obama said on Monday that tax breaks benefiting middle class families such as the mortgage interest deduction could be at risk if rates for top earners do not rise. Obama is locked in negotiations with Congress to prevent a year-end fiscal crunch. If the administration and lawmakers fail to agree, across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts would go into effect that analysts say would tip the economy back into recession. …

Factbox: "Fiscal cliff" offers of Republicans, Obama compared

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Both President Barack Obama and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have made opening offers in negotiations to resolve the “fiscal cliff. Here is a look at the two proposals, which are aimed at averting a more drastic combination of tax increases and spending cuts that economists say could cause a recession: REPUBLICAN OFFER House Republican leaders on Monday called for $2.2 trillion in new deficit reductions over 10 years. …

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