Lone senator blocks unemployment benefit extensions

Washington (CNN) -- The Senate adjourned Friday without approving extensions of cash and health insurance benefits for the unemployed after a lone senator blocked swift passage due to his insistence that Congress first pay for the $10 billion package.

Retiring Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, led a spirited Senate debate with Democrats over the issue -- at one time cursing at another senator on the floor. Bunning said he doesn't oppose extending the programs -- he just doesn't want to add to the deficit.

According to two Democratic aides on the Senate floor Thursday night, Bunning muttered "tough s---" as Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, criticized Bunning's stance on the package.

An aide to Merkley said the senator didn't hear the remark. A spokesman for Bunning said he was aware of the reports about the senator's language but didn't have a comment.

On Friday, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, sent Bunning a letter asking him to "stand down immediately" from his stance.

"Unemployment insurance is a lifeline to the long-term unemployed whose families have been hit very hard by this recession," she said.

For his part, Bunning maintained on Friday that if all senators could agree that the benefits are so important, then they should find a way to pay for them.

"If we can't find $10 billion somewhere for a bill that everybody in this body supports, we will never pay for anything," he said.

Democrats argued the safety net funds are classified as "emergency" and therefore don't need to be offset.

Starting Monday, the jobless will no longer be able to apply for federal unemployment benefits or the COBRA health insurance subsidy.

With the Senate not in a position to vote on the extensions until next Tuesday at the earliest, senators and their staffs scrambled to determine the practical implication of letting the programs lapse -- even if for just a few days.

In addition to funding unemployment insurance and the COBRA health insurance program for people who have lost their jobs, the bill would have prevented a scheduled 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

Those cuts will technically go into place when doctors' offices open Monday. But because there is a two-week delay processing Medicare payments, a short-term lapse of the program is unlikely to affect payments, according to experts in the medical community and a Senate Finance Committee aide contacted by CNN.

Likewise, unemployment benefits could be delayed -- but if Congress acts next week, they will probably be minor, according to a Labor Department analyst who spoke to CNN. That's because Congress will likely approve the funds retroactively to make up for the missing days. An aide to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus confirmed the Senate will try to pass the funds retroactively.

Other programs involving federal flood insurance, satellite TV licensing, and small business loans, will also go dark until Congress passes extensions.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/26/senate.jobless.benefits/index.html?hpt=T2

Buffett vents on financial fat cats

EW YORK (Fortune) -- Warren Buffett has an elegant solution for the thorny problem of too-big-to-fail banks: Put the bankers' bank accounts on the line.

Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, Fortune 500), lashed out at the damage wrought by overpaid, unaccountable finance-industry bigwigs in his annual letter to Berkshire shareholders, released Saturday.

Buffett has been criticizing overreaching corporate managers and complaisant directors for decades. But the question of how to motivate good corporate behavior has taken on new weight as Washington debates reining in the financial giants whose missteps brought the economy to its knees two years ago.

The Obama administration last month proposed separating banks' proprietary trading activities from their federally subsidized deposit-gathering and lending ones. Other proposed rules would increase the amount of capital banks hold against losses and how much cash they carry to deal with a surge of withdrawals.

But Buffett said there's a simpler way to cap risk-taking: Forcing lavishly compensated CEOs to take responsibility for assessing the risks at their firms -- and putting their own wealth at stake, to boot.

"It is the behavior of these CEOs and directors that needs to be changed," he wrote. "They have long benefitted from oversized financial carrots; some meaningful sticks now need to be employed as well."

The comment reflects a theme that has run through Buffett's letters to investors over the years: Shareholders are best served by managers who think like owners. More often, he has said, they are ill served by executives who instead pursue value-destroying mergers or pile up debt in a bid to boost returns.

Buffett, 79, is the controlling shareholder at Berkshire and has received $100,000 in annual salary for the past quarter-century. Since he took over Berkshire in 1965, the company's net worth has increased at a 20% compound annual rate.

So it's no surprise when he heaps scorn on the bankers who made tens of millions of dollars annually as they steered their financial supertankers onto the rocks. The four biggest financial "fiascoes" -- presumably including the bailouts of AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) -- cost investors more than $500 billion, by Buffett's count.

Shareholders didn't cause those meltdowns, but "they have borne the burden, with 90% or more of the value of their holdings wiped out in most cases of failure," Buffett wrote. "The CEOs and directors of the failed companies, however, have largely gone unscathed."
0:00 /11:16Inside Buffett's brain

It's bad enough that corporate insiders escaped major financial harm in the bailout debacle. But some even managed to keep their jobs: While Citi and BofA have shaken up their boards, 13 pre-bailout directors remain at the two banks. Vikram Pandit continues as CEO of Citi, while Ken Lewis only recently stepped down as CEO of Bank of America.

Consider too the modest toll paid by the execs who were behind two other major collapses of 2008, former Bear Stearns Chairman Jimmy Cayne and longtime Lehman Brothers chief Dick Fuld.

While both owned sizable amounts of company stock, neither by any means had the lion's share of his wealth tied to the firm. Fuld, for instance, sold nearly $500 million of Lehman stock in the years leading up to the firm's September 2008 failure. And while Bear's collapse cost Cayne $1 billion, he was still worth $600 million after its March 2008 panic sale to JPMorgan Chase.

Thus the bill for the firms' lever-up-and-bet-big strategy was largely borne by smaller shareholders, including many employees, and the taxpayers who must now foot the bill for extraordinary government aid extended later in 2008 to the rest of the financial sector.

Since the crash, the notion that executives should have more skin in the game has become commonplace. Big Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), which Berkshire owns preferred shares of, and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) are now paying top executives largely in stock that must be held over a period of years, in the name of coupling risk with reward.

But officers' and directors' commitment to shareholders must go further, Buffett said.

Boards that don't insist the CEO take responsibility for risk management are "derelict" in their duty, Buffett wrote. And in cases where a failure to act prudently results in government assistance, "the financial consequences for [the CEO] and his board should be severe."

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/27/news/companies/berkshire.accountability.fortune/index.htm?hpt=T2

Michael Jordan reaches deal to buy NBA's Bobcats

CNN) -- Retired basketball icon Michael Jordan bought a majority share of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, officials said Saturday.

Jordan, who was already a minority owner of the team, headed a group that bought a majority share of the team from businessman Robert Johnson, Johnson said in a statement.

Johnson said he has signed a "definitive agreement" to sell majority interest of Bobcats Sports and Entertainment to Michael Jordan and MJ Basketball Holdings, LLC. The deal is subject to NBA approval. Details on the purchase price were not available.

Jordan has overseen the team's basketball operations in recent years. He won six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls.

Johnson, who founded BET and sold it to Viacom for $3 billion in 2001, announced that he had been looking for someone to buy earlier this year.

His fortune was depleted by an expensive divorce, but in a 2009 interview with CNN, Johnson estimated his net worth was still $1.1 billion.

Johnson's resume is full of firsts: BET was the first African-American owned company traded on the NYSE. He was the first African-American billionaire in the United States. And, in 2002, he became the first African-American majority owner of a professional sports franchise.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/02/27/michael.jordan.bobcats/index.html?hpt=T2

City removes trash cans, streetlights to save cash

Colorado Springs, Colorado (CNN) -- If you come to a neighborhood park in Colorado Springs, plan on bringing your own trash bags.

To save money, the city has removed the trash cans.

Need to catch a bus? Don't try on evenings or weekends. The city has cut that service, too.

And when the sun goes down, Colorado Springs is going to look a little bit dimmer. Crews are removing a third of the city's streetlight to save money on electricity and light bulbs.

Watch city's PSA on streetlight deactivation

It's this conservative city's way of closing a $28.5 million budget gap.

"You can cry about the fiscal situation ... or you can take it as an opportunity to change, reinvent yourself and innovate and that's what were going to do in Colorado Springs," City Councilman Sean Paige said.
These aren't people trying to be lazy and live off the system.
--Brian Kates, community center director

Other governments are considering higher taxes to avoid such cutbacks, but in the state of Colorado, there is a taxpayers' bill of rights. It prevents state and city governments from raising taxes unless such a measure is approved by the voters.

"We put it on the ballot last fall, and they said 'no,' " said Paige, a Republican. "They declined to write the city a blank check, and they said, 'City, tighten your belts. We're tightening ours. You need to do the same.'

"We're going to respect that," he added. "I'm not going to cry about that."

It's not a new concept in Colorado Springs, touted on some Web sites as a "libertarian paradise." The city's garbage collection, zoo and philharmonic are all privately funded.

The city is even auctioning off its police helicopters on the Internet.

Want to place a bid?

The latest budget cuts could be felt at community centers like Meadows Park, which is bustling with after-school programs for kids, as well as exercise classes and hot meals for seniors.

Unless the center can find private funding, Colorado Springs is slated to shut it down at the end of March.

"I'm hoping that some sort of a miracle will happen so we can keep the centers open," said Sheryle Nix, 56.
Something's got to give.
--Chuck Fowler, City Committee chairman
RELATED TOPICS

* Colorado Springs
* National Economy

Every day, Nix eats a $2 lunch at the center because she can't afford to eat in a restaurant and has trouble preparing her own food.

"I have a traumatic brain injury, so this really helps keep me on schedule to eat lunch," she explained.

Jeanie Schweitzer, 55, returned to Colorado Springs to take care of her grandmother Elsie, who suffered a stroke. She brings Elsie to the center to get her out of the house.

"I don't think they should be shutting it down. There should be enough money," Schweizer said. "It's not that much in the big picture to keep it open."

The center is a lifeline for parents who work and cannot pick their kids up after school ends in the afternoon.

Lindon Jackson, who is 13, has been coming to the Meadows Park after-school program since she was 3. When asked what she'll do if the center shuts down, she said, "Nothing."

"I'd just be home doing nothing."

Whether the government should continue funding Meadows Park and other community centers like it strikes at the heart of the political argument over the role of government, particularly during an economic downturn.

"The model of governments, from the federal government down to municipal governments, don't work anymore," according to Chuck Fowler, chairman of City Committee, an alliance of local businesspeople set up by Paige.

"They don't take in as much money. They can't possibly provide the same amount of services, pay their employees, pay their pensions. Something's got to give."

Fowler believes that the solution may be in weaning people off of government services.

"The larger the government is, the more conditioning with certain people that they don't need to take personal responsibility of their life," he said.

The budget cuts, according to Fowler, "could really recondition people's ideas about what government should be doing."

"Should it be doing all of these things, or should it really be focused on the vital things that clearly have a public interest?"

But Brian Kates, who runs Meadows Park Community Center, says the people affected by the government cutbacks "are pawns in the game."

"These aren't people trying to be lazy and live off the system," Kates said. "These are hard-working, intelligent and bright [people], and they're not asking for much. We're giving them just the very basics."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/25/spellman.colorado.springs/index.html

Breast 'awareness' trumps self-exams, docs say

(CNN) -- A vacation to Washington nearly a decade ago led to a life-changing revelation for Kathi Cordsen. Passing by a breast cancer awareness event, her mother blurted it out: Her doctor had just confirmed that she had breast cancer.

She'd found the lump during a self-examination.

Fortunately, Cordsen's mom had found the cancer so early that she was able to have a lumpectomy and didn't need chemotherapy or radiation. That's why, today, Cordsen checks her own breasts every day in the shower.

"It was such an inspirational thing to find out that it saved her life, that's for sure," said Cordsen, 57, who submitted her story to CNN's iReport. "It's just important, to want to live and take care of yourself."

Read Cordsen's story here

New guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force say that women age 40 to 49 don't need to have routine mammograms anymore and that breast self-exams aren't recommended in general. The group found no evidence that self-exams reduce breast cancer death rates, and it discourages teaching women how to examine themselves.

New trends in self-exams

Although major cancer-awareness groups such as the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure disagree with the new guidance on mammograms, continuing to recommend routine mammograms for women 40 and up, guidance on self-exams has been trending toward the task force's suggestions.

Both the American Cancer Society and the Komen foundation have been advocating that women be "aware" of their breasts rather than do a formalized self-examination procedure a few days after the menstrual period once a month.

The American Cancer Society makes no recommendations for how often or in what capacity a woman should check her breasts, just that she should be aware of any changes, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer.

Being told to do this formal procedure resulted in "a huge guilt trip" for women who developed breast cancer, he said.
Video: Mammogram study draws fire
Video: Mammogram guidelines 'outrageous'
Video: New mammogram guidelines
Preventing breast cancer
RELATED TOPICS

* American Cancer Society
* Susan G. Komen for the Cure
* Breast Cancer

"They said, 'I wasn't good enough. I didn't do it often enough. I didn't do it right. It's all my fault,' " he said. "That was pretty anxiety-provoking for a lot of women."

When Cordsen did find lumps, which turned out to be benign, she felt "scared to death." Still, she's shocked that the task force and several organizations would recommend against teaching self-exams.

"It isn't going to affect me at all. I'm not going to stop searching," she said. "I'm just worried it's going to affect a lot of kids coming up. They're just going to grow up not knowing how important it is."

The Komen organization has been focusing on letting women know what they should be looking for, rather than the procedure itself, said Susan Brown, director of health education. Here's the group's guidance.

"We're not telling people to do it or not to do it," she said. "We're focusing on what's normal for you."

The existing research on the subject does not conclusively support breast exams. The Komen Web site cites a meta-analysis of the the two largest randomized controlled trials, one from China and one from Russia. These trials found no difference in breast cancer deaths after 15 years between women who regularly self-examined and women who did not. Moreover, those who did check themselves had almost twice as many biopsies with benign results as those who did not.

Cordsen, however, thinks it's "crazy" to tell women not to examine their breasts.

But the cancer groups clarify that they're not saying "don't check your breasts"; they're just not for teaching a formal process anymore and want you to be aware of any changes.

When the Komen group turned its focus away from the self-exam process, some women who had found their own breast cancers did complain. But when Brown spoke to some of these women individually, she realized that they had largely detected lumps by coincidence -- they happened to notice a change in their bodies -- rather than during a formal self-exam at a scheduled time of the month.

At M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, doctors do not recommend that women formally examine their own breasts either. They preach "breast awareness" instead, said Dr. Therese Bevers, medical director of the center's Cancer Prevention Center.

"We were overcomplicating this, and it actually was a turnoff for a lot of women," she said. "Women go, 'I don't know how to do it, so I don't do it.' "

Generally, women should be aware of their bodies and should notice something like a lump on their breasts to the same extent that they would on their arms.

Awareness is also the main message for Dr. Anne Wallace, professor of surgery and director of the Moores Breast Cancer Program at the University of California-San Diego. Knowing your health history, when you've had sex and what's new to your body are important, she said.

Still, there are patients who would benefit from self-exams if they did them. Wallace has seen patients with large dents in their breasts and tangible masses within. When she asks them whether they had noticed anything there, they say, "Oh, gosh. I can't touch my breast. I don't know if it's new," she said.

The emotional weight attached to self-exams is so great for some women that Wallace advocates putting associated public health money toward mammograms, rather than trying to get women to be more comfortable with examining their own breasts.

"If you're used to feeling your breasts and know your lumps and bumps, then keep doing it, but if they scare you or whatnot, don't make it happen," she said. "I think we should have, years ago, lightened up on it."

Wallace estimates that 50 percent of women routinely feel their breasts for lumps.

Dr. Lori Goldstein, director of the Breast Evaluation Center at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also cited the China study that showed no benefit in self-examination but said it's "value-added and complementary to mammography screening."

What else helps and hurts

Part of breast cancer risk has to do with genetics, and particularly strong links have been found to the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2. You should be aware of your own risk by taking into account your family history.

There are, however, actions that women can take to help prevent breast cancer besides having mammograms, having clinical exams and being aware of changes in their breasts.

Maintaining a healthy weight as an adult, especially after menopause, is important in decreasing risk, Brown said. Physical activity has also been shown to decrease risk in women generally, she said.

Limiting alcohol intake is another healthy lifestyle choice linked to decreased breast cancer risk, she said. There's a 20 percent greater risk of breast cancer associated with women who consume two to three alcoholic beverages per day compared with non-drinkers.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/17/breast.cancer.self.exams/index.html#cnnSTCText

Student admits hanging noose in campus library

(CNN) -- The University of California San Diego has suspended a student who admitted to hanging a noose in a campus library, school officials announced Friday.

"We are feeling real pain, and we will take real action," said UCSD chancellor Marye Anne Fox told reporters. "The safety of our students, faculty, and staff is my primary concern."

The student, whose identity was not released, admitted Friday to police at the University of California San Diego that she hung a noose Thursday night in the library, police said.

"Detectives have interviewed the student and taken a statement," UCSD police said in a release. "The investigation is ongoing as we continue to identify and interview witnesses."

After Thursday's discovery, hundreds of people joined a campus rally to oppose racial intolerance. "It's OK to feel hurt and angry about this," said one participant. "We've been silent for too long."

Watch iReport of campus protest

One student said she feared for her safety.

The student's admission came the day after police were alerted to the presence of the noose in a library bookcase at the school. Fox said the admission was a result of "pressure from our UC San Diego community."

"This underscores the fact that our university is banding together," she said.

In a crime alert bulletin, police said they received several reports Thursday around 10:30 p.m. of the noose on the seventh floor of the Geisel Library. It was found hanging in an aisle facing windows.

"Officers spoke with people who were in the area, but no one witnessed the noose being placed on the bookcase," police said in a campus notice.

Hanging a noose with intent to terrorize is a crime, it noted.

On Friday, the school announced several measures it was taking in response to recommendations from its Black Student Union. They include the establishment of a task force on minority faculty recruitment, a new commission to addressing declining African-American enrollment and finding space for an African-American resource center.

"I want to emphasize these are the initial steps, and I realize we have a lot of work ahead of us," Fox said.

The noose incident occurred two weeks after Black History Month was mocked in an off-campus party that was condemned by the school.

It's unclear how long the student is suspended for.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/26/california.noose/index.html?hpt=T2

City faces snarled traffic in final days before Tet

HCM CITY — A stretch of National Highway13 in HCM City faced big traffic jams yesterday morning as thousands of workers tried to catch buses back to their home provinces for Tet, and many residents went to cemeteries to clean and decorate ancestral graves.

The rising number of buses leaving the Eastern Bus Terminal took National Highway 13, which connects Binh Trieu Bridge with National Highway 1, for the central provinces, while vehicles from Kha Van Can Street poured onto the highway as well, creating major traffic problems.

Nguyen Thuy Loan, a resident in Thu Duc's Hiep Binh Phuoc Ward, said that yesterday's traffic jam, which lasted from 7.30 am to 11am, was the worst encountered on National Highway13 in the last five years.

According to the deputy director of the Eastern Bus Terminal, Thuong Thanh Hai, as of 11am on Sunday, nearly 750 buses carrying some 17,000 passengers had departed from the terminal. He said that the bus terminal was expected to provide services to some 40,000 passengers on Sunday, doubling the other days' figures.

Illegal services provided by hundreds of other buses that operate without permits made the situation even worse.

These "illegal buses" stopped to pick up passengers everywhere they could, even on the flyover or at the stopover behind the traffic posts, creating chaos on the National Highway, which runs to the central and northern provinces.

Thousands of migrant workers from Song Than, Binh An, Binh Chieu and Linh Trung were seeking buses back home for Tet at the foot of the Song Than Flyover.

They could not buy a "legal" bus ticket at the terminal, as the number of passengers needing to travel during Tet far exceeded the number of bus tickets provided.

Most of them had to pay twice as much as the normal ticket price for a bus ride back home.

Nguyen Thi Linh, a migrant worker from central Binh Dinh Province, said that she had to pay half the price of the "illegal" ticket up front, and then she waited at a stopover for over two hours. The bus never picked her up, ruining her plan to go home to see her family, after having spent two years away from home. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/Social-Isssues/196674/City-faces-snarled-traffic-in-final-days-before-Tet.html

Job recruitments perpetuate stereotypes

HA NOI — Most job advertisements are not directly discriminatory in terms of the sex of the applicants, however there are still gender stereotypes favouring male applicants, according to a study on gender equality in job advertisements released at a workshop yesterday.

The case study, conducted by the Academy of Journalism and Communication and Institute for Studies of Society, Economy and Environment (ISEE), looked at five newspapers including Thanh Nien (Young People), Tuoi Tre (Youth), Tien Phong (Vanguard), Lao Dong (Labour) and Viet Nam News.

Out of 500 advertisements, dating back to 2004, 12.4 per cent were for men, 8.2 per cent for women, 11.6 per cent for both sexes and the rest did not specify.

In terms of qualifications, men have more opportunities for higher income and promotion. Even if the requirement of the sex of the applicant is not mentioned, in some specific situations, men have more chance of being recruited as managers than women. The study showed that 24.2 per cent of men get the chance to be leaders compared to 9.8 per cent of women.

The workshop also discussed gender stereotypes in Vietnamese text books for primary school students and gender inequality at work, and cited them as the main reasons for the male biased job advertisements.

Based on 487 lessons from 10 primary school textbooks, the Academy of Journalism and Communication (AJC) showed that women often take on unskilled jobs where as men often appear in jobs that require qualifications, skills or strength.

"Clearly, these gender stereotypes have impacts on perception, attitude, and behaviour regarding job allocation," said Nguyen Thi Tuyet Minh from AJC.

Most employers are affected by this institutionalised inequality.

"To me, female teachers at nursery and primary schools work better than male ones, so when I post a job advertisement, I prefer female applicants," according to a director of a private nursery centre.

Moreover, Nguyen Huu Minh from the Institute for Gender and Family claimed:

"The reality of more men getting jobs in the fields of a technical and senior nature than women also contributes to the discriminatory trends."

To avoid the gender issue in job advertisements, it is necessary to have the full co-operation of relevant organisations and authorities.

"Gender equality will not be solved if future generations are exposed to gender stereotypes," said Nguyen Thi Thu Hang from AJC.

There should be a comprehensive strategy to eliminate gender stereotyping. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) suggests promoting gender equality such as equal rights, equal value and fair distribution.

"It is necessary to balance life and work because women and men have different roles in society which define their constraints", said Jonna Naumanen, Programme Officer of ILO.

At the same time, news agencies play an important role in collaborating with relevant offices and sectors to develop guidelines on job advertisements and measures to enforce them. Newspapers should also educate their staff on the issue.

"Newspapers can act as a gate keeper and provide advice to employers in order to make sure no gender insensitive and discriminatory advertisements are published," concluded Pham Huong Tra, researcher and lecturer at AJC. — VNS

More gold in the market brings down prices

More gold in the market brings down prices

Gold prices plunged Thursday after the central bank said it would ask the country’s largest gold trader to sell more gold in the market.

The State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement on its website that although the local gold market has stayed calm recently, gold prices onshore were still high compared to the global market. “The central bank will ask Saigon Jewelry Holding Company (SJC) to sell more gold in the market to soon bring local gold prices to the same level as global prices,” the statement said. “The central bank will also take other measures necessary to stabilize the price of gold.” The precious metal lost VND1.43 million per tael on Thursday after staying over VND26.4 million the past few days. A tael is equal to 37.5 grams. An SJC representative told Thanh Nien the Ho Chi Minh City-based gold trader, the largest in Vietnam, started increasing its gold sales Thursday. It sold 28,000 taels in the market, five times higher than the figure on Wednesday, while purchasing just 5,000 taels. Nguyen Thi Cuc, deputy general director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry, said the company sold 2,700 taels Thursday, a 50 percent increase from its normal sales. The Vietnam Economic Times said in a report that some large commercial banks were also asked by the central bank to raise their gold sales. Dang Van Thanh, chairman of Sacombank, said the lender has prepared up to three tons of gold to help stabilize the market. Traders said the government intervention has proved effective immediately. Many investors were caught off guard Thursday, losing huge money in just a few hours. Ton The Quyen, sales manager of Sacombank, said investors should not buy gold right now as selling pressure on the market is really strong. Cuc said it’s hard to predict how low gold prices would fall because the precious metal is also on a declining trend in the global market. Still, Thursday’s close price of VND25 million (US$1,353) per tael, equivalent to $1,127 an ounce, was still higher than world prices. The metal fell to a three-month low in London as the dollar’s rally cut bullion’s appeal as an alternative investment. Gold for immediate delivery fell as much as $14.13, or 1.3 percent, to $1,049.57 an ounce. Source: Thanh Nien, Agencies http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=55061

Ninh Thuan wind power plant to get official nod

Ninh Thuan wind power plant to get official nod

A wind power plant in the central province of Ninh Thuan will be officially approved by the Vietnamese government this year.

The state-owned power utility, Electricity of Vietnam, has been tasked with preparing a plan for the project that will be submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung by May, a government statement said Tuesday. The Ministry of Planning and Investment has said it plans to use aid from Denmark to fund the project. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, 8.6 percent of the country’s land area has good potential to develop wind power projects, but it has been left untapped so far. The only wind power plant in Vietnam is located in the central province of Binh Thuan. The 30-megawatt plant worth US$60 million was built by the Hanoi-based Vietnam Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company. Le Tuan Phong, deputy general director of the ministry’s Energy Department, said several foreign investors have planned to build wind power plants in Vietnam with capacities of between 6 and 150 megawatts. Source: Thanh Nien

Credit grows 1 pct in January, deposits lag: Vietnam central bank

Credit grows 1 pct in January, deposits lag: Vietnam central bank

Loans in the banking system expanded 1 percent in January compared to December last year, the State Bank of Vietnam said Thursday in a report published on its website.

Deposits during the period only increased by 0.3 percent, raising more concerns over liquidity problems at the lenders, it said. Many banks have raised interest rates on dong deposits to 10.499 percent a year, almost touching the rate cap of 10.5 percent set by the central bank. Some lenders have also offered bonus rates and other incentives but they have still found it hard to attract deposits, especially long term ones. According to the central bank branch in Ho Chi Minh City, short term deposits now account for 70 percent of total funds that banks in the city can attract. The central bank’s report said liquidity on the currency market improved last month after state-owned companies sold foreign currencies to lenders. Vietnam’s major state-owned firms have sold $450 million to commercial banks to ease a dollar shortage, the government said early this week. Source: Thanh Nien

Cows milk the benefits

FLUFFY fingered farmers are pampering their dairy cows with massages and comfy mattresses to produce better tasting milk.
Some spoilt herds are being tucked up each night on three inches of soft rubber and sawdust while some are lucky enough to get a WATER bed.

And for a special treat, farmers are even installing special MASSAGE equipment into the sheds belonging to their Frisian friends.

And farmers say all the pampering gives the milk better TASTE.

The barmy sounding moo-ves are part of the ‘Caring Dairy’ initiative set up by ice-cream maker Ben and Jerry’s.

They believe paying special attention to animal welfare makes the cows “happier” and prolongs their normally short lives.


Happy

Dutch dairy farmer Nancy Vermeer whose 80 strong herd supplies milk to the ice-cream giant from her Wapse farm, in the east of the Netherlands, said: “The cows have to be happy. If they’re not, they won’t give milk.

“Our cows used to lie on concrete but now they have mattresses made of soft rubber with a covering of sawdust which they prefer.

“Water beds are available but these can be very expensive.

“If a person is unwell their breath can smell, so I personally think you can taste the difference in the milk of a happy cow.

"It tastes sweeter.”

Neighbouring farmer Robert Welhuis has a personal masseuse on hand for his herd in the form of a thick bristled brush which cost Euros 1500.

“I’ve had it about a year and the cows really like it,” he said.

“They like to give themselves a scratch behind the ear.

“It keeps their skin in good condition, they pass back and fourth along the brushes which is like a massage for them.”

And even the boss agrees the initiative is worthy of a PAT on the back.

Ben & Jerry's co-founder, Jerry Greenfield said: “Comfy cows are happy cows.”

A small change

The patient shook his doctor's hand in gratitude and remarked, "Since we're the best of friends, doc, I wouldn't want to insult you by offering payment. But, you'll be pleased to know that I've mentioned you in my will.""That's very kind of you," replied the doctor. After some quick thought, the doctor added, "May I see that prescription I just gave you?""Sure, but why?" asked the patient.The doctor replied, "I'd like to make a small change..."

Hollywood continues to glamorise smoking

Michelle Delaney, Irish, Bangkok

As a firm anti-smoker I'm usually first to be up-in-arms on spotting a sneaky cigarette displayed anywhere in the mass media. The workplace smoking ban was brought into my home country in 2004 and since then most smokers and non-smokers alike in Ireland consider indoor smoking pretty unacceptable.

I have to admit however, when asked about the smoking scenes in Avatar it took me a moment to even remember any – perhaps more a reflection of the stunning visual and technical wizardry of the movie than anything else. When I did recall Weaver's chain-smoking character, I connected it with an effort to ease her anxiety and amplify a certain masculinity in her character, rather than endear her to viewers as sultry or cool. I don't believe the act of smoking symbolised aspects of Weaver's character that many female movie viewers would necessarily aspire to.

Is the botanist character considered an icon or sex symbol to the thousands of young impressionable Avatar fans? Are movie-goers racing out to light up their first cigarettes after seeing Dr Grace in action? I doubt it. To see princess Neytiri or the rugged Jake Sully lighting up on our screens – now that probably would have given me enough fuel to begin a rant at James Cameron about his social responsibility to his young Avatarian apostles.

Steve Turner, British, London

The film, Avatar, is a phenomenal success. The enormous production costs seem to be paying off, with the film already exceeding US$2billion in ticket sales in just the few weeks since its release.

But, within this modern science fiction film there is an old practise of product placement that one would associate with the technologies of the last century, and shows a practise that is now illegal in many of the countries where the film is being shown – smoking in the work-place. There are two scenes where the character played by Sigourney Weaver smokes nervously in the laboratory, during work, among her colleagues.

Tobacco and smoking in films is an old practise, started before there was a full understanding of the hazards of tobacco and at a time when it could be seen as a realistic reflection of the society or characters that were being portrayed in the films. But in the late 20th century and certainly the first ten years of the 21st, the health implications of smoking are well known. Also well known are the skilful ways in which tobacco companies, in many countries of the world denied the opportunity to advertise their product, are using opportunities such as product placement to maintain the profile of smoking in general and, if possible, to promote specific brands.

What makes a multi-billion dollar global company promote a product that is responsible for 5 million deaths per year? It remains to be asked of the film's director and producers, among the many questions about style, technology, ground-breaking effects, science-fiction story lines and exceptional make-up skills: how much money were they paid to place this ludicrous but deadly harmful event – harmful to real people, not fictional movie characters – in their film?

Abu Ebrahimsa, Malaysian, London

They promote a habit that has been scientifically proven to be detrimental to your health. Film-makers just try and portray smoking as a ‘hip', ‘cool', ‘fun' habit and forget the medical consequences of having such both a harmful and costly habit. Yes there is the corporate social responsibility on part of the film makers to actively downplay smoking but even though there is a financial incentive to promote certain brands, is it not for the audience and public to realise what is good/bad and downright wrong. What the Vietnamese Government doing is good but is merely a short-term solution to a long- term problem. What governments need to do is to educate their population, as with education comes knowledge and hence realisation what is good or bad.

Another issue, if you look at it from the government's point of view, is that they receive tax revenue by promoting this product which ‘developing' countries need so where would they get that extra income?

Even in the most sophisticated, educated rich countries like the UK and the US, people smoke and there were ads and TV ads, so really education and awareness is a key way to tackle this problem compared to censorship.

Peter Howick, Irish, Ha Noi

I have not seen Avatar yet, but I think the smoking scene is not a big problem.

Firstly, this is a fictitious movie, so smoking may not harm human's health in this world. The success of this 3D movie includes a lot of factors such as good film script, impressive characters, awesome scenes, etc. Therefore, that one character asked for cigarette is a normal thing. The audiences receive and remember this movie because of its whole content and meaning, as well as the messages of the film makers, not due to one small detail. Secondly, the smoking scene shouldn't worry the anti-smoking community because a lot of people in the world know the harmfulness of smoking. The character in Avatar is just a person like some one in this real world; sometimes he needs a cigarette to reduce his stress and he can't stop smoking immediately. Maybe this character will give up smoking someday. Hence, such scenes may not promote the habit of smoking.

To sum up, Avatar is a film, and the smoking scene is not likely to have much of an affect on people.

Nguyen Ngoc Dung, Vietnamese, Ha Noi

You raised an interesting point about Sigourney Weaver's smoking in the brilliant Avatar. The film is surely destined to be the most successful film ever shown in Viet Nam, and the entire world.

However, I don't think her filthy habit will offend non-smokers. And I wonder if the reason we notice her puffing is because there is actually less smoking in movies than there used to be.

If you look at movies from previous decades you can barely see the characters for the smoke. In Key Largo, Humprey Bogart made cigarettes look cool by lighting them two at a time so he could hand one to his screen flame Lauren Bacall.

In the case of Avatar, however, I feel the character Ms Weaver plays is just blowing off some stress.

What would be disturbing would have been if the film had featured a particular brand. That is often the case in Hollywood films but not in Avatar.

Secondly people do smoke. And while I laud the government anti-smoking policies you can no more stop Hollywood from showing people smoking than you can stop Hollywood showing people getting beaten up or shot.

Finally Avatar is set many years in the future. As to whether there will still be smoking bans in the workforce then I couldn't say!

Ryu Hashimoto, Japanese, Binh Duong

As a light smoker, I think that smoking scenes don't promote the habit of smoking. It depends on each person's situation.

Tobacco is a luxury good and indispensable for some kind of films such as action films, war films and so on.

I think it must involve the social responsibility of film-makers to enlighten smokers regarding the harmful influence of smoking to non-smokers, especially for babies and pregnant women. That means film-makers should not only prohibit smoking but also should enlighten smokers where to smoke. In my opinion, Vietnamese smokers don't follow the rule in public. They smoke everywhere, all the time... It's a big problem not only for non-smokers but also smokers.

The present policy of Viet Nam is suitable one. How about increasing the price of tobacco such as in the US, Singapore, Japan? In Japan, the number of smokers has decreased because of the price of tobacco and the decrease in the number of places where people can smoke in public. How about adding terrible photos of lung cancer, pharyngeal cancer caused by smoking on the package such as in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia? I think that may decrease the number of smokers. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/Opinion/Your-Say/196631/Hollywood-continues-to-glamorise-smoking.html

HCM City calls for greater investment from Viet Kieu

HCM CITY — The HCM City People's Committee has called on the Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) community to step up investment in key sectors, promising to facilitate this with further administrative reforms.

The appeal and pledge were made at a meeting held between city leaders and 700 Viet Kieu returning to Viet Nam to celebrate the upcoming Tet (Lunar New Year) festival.

Committee chairman Le Hoang Quan conveyed the city's best Tet wishes to the Viet kieu community and presented certificates of merit and insignia to 17 individuals and four collectives for making great contributions to the city's development.

Quan called for further investment from Viet Kieu in several sectors, particularly transport infrastructure, urban pollution treatment, information technology, education and health care.

The committee had instructed relevant departments and agencies to create favourable conditions for Viet kieu to visit, live, work and invest in the city, he said.

Nguyen Phi Hung, deputy director of the municipal Department of Construction, said his department would strengthen administrative reforms to create best conditions for Viet Kieu investments.

The department would also quickly resolve procedural issues relating to house ownership and land-use rights for the Viet Kieu, Hung said.

More than 400 Viet Kieu who are experts in various sectors are now working permanently in the city and about 200 are working in the city's universities.

Last year, the city granted licences for more than 300 Viet Kieu-invested projects with a total capital of VND7 trillion (US$400 million) and received an estimated $3.1 billion in overseas remittances.

The Viet Kieu community also contributed about VND12.2 billion ($690,000) for charity and relief activities in the country last year, according to the Committee for Overseas Vietnamese.

Phan Tham, chairman of the committee, said his committee last year organised several activities, including providing health check-ups, treatment and gifts for 400 poor Viet Kieu in Cambodia and art performances for the community in several other countries. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/Social-Isssues/196638/HCM-City-calls-for-greater-investment-from-Viet-Kieu.html

Experts to inspect landslides, subsidence in Thai Nguyen

THAI NGUYEN — Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Thai Nguyen Province People's Committee to inspect land subsidence and cracks in the province to ensure residents' safety.

Trinh Quoc Viet, deputy head of Dai Tu District's Natural Resources and Environment Office, said that they had checked out the scene, but the area still needed to be inspected by experts.

The land cracks are 1.5cm in width and appeared the district's Can Village. These cracks have now spread.

Coupled with these land cracks, Can Village is experiencing land subsidence that is 15-20m in width.

Nguyen Van Du, a resident in the area, said that some households in the village had moved to other places due to fear of landslides.

The area near Dong Hy District's communes of Nam Hoa and Cay Thi are also suffering from land subsidence and cracks.

Duong Minh Thu, deputy chairman of Cay Thi Commune People's Committee, said that about 50 places had been affected by land subsidence in Trai Cau Village. It has been reported that one such place has been degraded by 100m.

Viet said that there were no springs, lakes or mines near the subsidence areas, so a clear cause had yet to be identified. However, about 40 years ago, landslides occurred in this area, which left big holes that have yet to be filled in until now.

Du said that people in the province's Dai Tu District were concerned about the issue.

Hai asked the ministry to identify the cause of this problem and provide immediate solutions to repairing the land subsidence that was taking place in the province.

Viet said that according to the Deputy Prime Minister's order, local authorities would assist affected households and would temporarily remove them from their places in order to ensure their safety. —VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/Miscellany/196640/Experts-to-inspect-landslides-subsidence-in-Thai-Nguyen-.html

President praises woman who adopted injured boy

HA NOI — President Nguyen Minh Triet on Thursday sent a message of praise and encouragement to Tran Mai Anh who adopted an abandoned boy who had suffered a mauling from wild animals.

Three years ago, Nguyen Thien Nhan was born and left to die in a banana plantation in the central province of Quang Nam. When he was found three days later, he was barely alive. His right leg, testicles and penis had been eaten by wild animals.

Triet said he had read an article about Nhan's situation and the efforts of his adopted mother, who to date has taken him to 14 hospitals at home and abroad for treatment. Currently Thien Nhan is in good health and attends kindergarten.

Triet said he was moved by the kindness of Mai Anh and other generous donors.

He said: "She personifies the image of the Vietnamese Mother as a symbol of kind-heartedness."

Triet believed that Mai Anh's efforts for her adopted son was no fairy tale as people everywhere can make fairy tales come true.

Receiving the President's message, Mai Anh, an editor at Heritage Magazine, said that his encouraging words had given her strength.

She hoped her family would play its part in campaigning against violence against children, because while physical injuries can be healed, psychological damage can remain.

Mai Anh said that despite being very young, Nhan was unhappy due to his injuries and cruel words and insults he had been subjected to by others.

She also gave her thanks to the kind people who had assisted her family during Nhan's treatment. — VNS

http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn/Social-Isssues/196641/President-praises-woman-who-adopted-injured-boy.html

Feds probing Prius brakes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Thursday it is opening a formal investigation into problems with the braking system of Toyota's Prius hybrid.

Toyota has yet to announce a recall of the Prius, it's fourth-best selling vehicle model in the United States and the best-selling model in Japan. But it has admitted to a software glitch that is causing problems with its braking. It said it is looking further at the best way to repair the problem.

The investigation involves only 2010 model year Prius hybrids, which went on sale in the middle of last year. There are only 37,000 of those vehicles on the road, according to the agency.

The Prius, which is built in Japan, is not one of the eight models that was affected by two recalls recently to fix problems with sticking gas pedals. All of those models were built at North American plants.

NHTSA said its Office of Defects Investigation has received 124 reports from consumers about problems with the Prius brakes, including four reports that involved crashes and two which resulted in injuries. No fatalities have been reported. Investigators have spoken with consumers and conducted preliminary field work.

Late Wednesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke with Toyota (TM) president, Akio Toyoda, who reassured him that Toyota takes U.S. safety concerns seriously and puts safety at the top of the company's priorities, according to NHTSA's statement.

Toyota had only limited comment on the probe.

"We have heard about NHTSA's intention to begin an investigation. Toyota will cooperate fully with NHTSA's investigation," the company said in a statement.

Even if the solution ends up being a relatively simple and inexpensive software adjustment, the Prius braking problems come at a bad time for Toyota, which has seen its prized reputation for quality and safety badly damaged by the recalls and the news attention given to them.

The company has estimated that the problem with the gas pedals will cost it about 100,000 sales this year, and $2 billion in repair costs and lost revenue.

0:00 /1:14Toyota posts profit despite recall

Other experts say the problem could be more long-lasting if consumers who once trusted the Toyota brand decide to shop elsewhere.

Toyota said Thursday that the Prius problem is a "disconnect" in the vehicle's complex anti-lock brake system that causes less than a one-second lag before the brakes start to work. At 60 mph, though, a vehicle will have traveled nearly another 90 feet before the brakes begin to take hold.

The company also said it changed the braking system software in January for vehicles built since then. But it has yet to determine how to fix the brakes of vehicles already on the road.

-- CNN's Kyung Lah and CNNMoney.com's Peter Valdes-Dapena contributed to this report

6.0 Magnitude Quake Reported off Norcal Coast

HUMBOLDT COUNTY-- An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 is being reported off the coast of Northern California.

The USGS says the quake was located 35-miles west-northwest of the small unincorporated community of Petrolia California.

The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement that the magnitude was such that a tsunami is not expected. "However, in coastal areas of intense shaking, locally generated tsunamis can be triggered by underwater landslides."

Humboldt County spokesman Phil Smith-Hanes says he felt a rolling sensation, but the movement didn't feel as severe as the magnitude-6.5 quake that struck the same area Jan. 9.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the quake, which struck at 12.20 p.m.

The Funeral Service

A funeral service is being held for a woman who has just passed away.
At the end of the service the pall bearers are carrying the casket out when they accidentally bump into a wall, jarring the casket. They hear a faint moan. They open the casket and find that the woman is actually alive.
She lives for ten more years, and then dies. A ceremony is again held at the same place, and at the end of the ceremony the pall bearers are again carrying out the casket.
As they are walking, the husband cries out, "Watch out for the blessed wall!'''

50/50 Marriage

A young man saw an elderly couple sitting down to lunch at McDonalds. He noticed that they had ordered one meal, and an extra drink cup. As he watched, the gentleman carefuly divided the hamburger in half, then counted out the fries, one for him, one for her, until each had half of them. Then he poured half of the soft drink into the extra cup and set that in front of his wife. The old man then began to eat, and his wife sat watching, with her hands folded in her lap. The young man decided to ask if they would allow him to purchase another meal for them so that they didn't have to split theirs. The old gentleman said, "Oh no. We've been married 50 years, and every thing has always been and will always be shared, 50/50." The young man then asked the wife if she was going to eat, and she replied, " not yet. It's his turn with the teeth."

A careless answer

Our new assistant, Christy 16, was in her first office job. Co-workers were giving her basic instruction as the boss stepped out of his office and the telephone rang. Christy answered professionally, but then birst out with: "He's in the toilet now."
"Oh, no," one employee whispered to her, "Say he's with a customer."
"He is in the toilet with a custmer," Christy told the caller.

Whisper

A mother took her little boy to church. While in church the little boy said, "Mommy, I have to pee." The mother said to the little boy, "It's not appropriate to say the word 'pee' in church. From now on when you have to 'pee' just tell me that you have to whisper'.
"The following Sunday, the little boy went to church with his Father and during the service said to his father, "Daddy, I have to whisper." The Father looked at him and said, "Okay, why don't you whisper in my ear."

Absent-minded

My uncle is so absent-minded. The other day he went home early and knew there was something he wanted to do, but could not remember, what it was. He sat till twelve trying to remember. Then he remembered. He wanted to go to bed early!

Sender: Pham Thuy Linh

My wife

'My wife means to lose weight. That's why she rides horseback all the time.'
'And what's the result?'
'The horse lost ten pounds last week.'

A small change

The patient shook his doctor's hand in gratitude and remarked, "Since we're the best of friends, doc, I wouldn't want to insult you by offering payment. But, you'll be pleased to know that I've mentioned you in my will.""That's very kind of you," replied the doctor. After some quick thought, the doctor added, "May I see that prescription I just gave you?""Sure, but why?" asked the patient.The doctor replied, "I'd like to make a small change..."

Toyota checks 2010 Prius brakes; no word on recall

WASHINGTON – Toyota said Thursday it is evaluating brake problems with the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid, but no decision has been made about a recall.

A company spokesman said the automaker is cooperating fully with a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration probe into brake problems, but said it's too soon to talk about a recall.

Earlier Thursday, the safety agency said it opened an investigation into the Prius, saying it had received 124 reports from consumers about its brakes, including four reports of crashes. The government is investigating reports that antilock brakes can fail momentarily on some 2010 models in slippery conditions or on rough roads.

The company says it made a change in the 2010 braking system last month to correct cars in production. The company has not made a decision about cars on the road.

Asked if Toyota would recall the 2010 Priuses, spokesman Brian Lyons said: "It's too soon to call at this point. We will of course fully cooperate with NHTSA in that investigation."

Lyons also said Toyota is checking other hybrid models in its lineup to see if they have the same braking system as the 2010 model, but so far he is not aware of any other models being involved.

"As part of our normal problem-solving process, we would look at similar technology in similar vehicles," he said.

The U.S. investigation, while preliminary, represents another setback for Toyota, which has been battered with two major recalls in the United States covering millions of vehicles. Those involve gas pedals that can get trapped under floor mats or become stuck on their own and fail to return to the idle position. The safety probes have challenged Toyota's long-standing reputation for building safe, quality vehicles.

The Prius was not part of the recall spanning the U.S., Europe and China over sticking gas pedals in eight top-selling models including the Camry. That recall involved 2.3 million cars in the U.S. alone.

NHTSA said investigators have talked to consumers and conducted pre-investigatory field work. The preliminary evaluation involves about 37,000 vehicles in the United States.

"Safety is our top priority," said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. NHTSA said LaHood spoke with Toyota president Akio Toyoda late Wednesday and was assured by the executive that Toyota was taking the safety concerns seriously.

Toyota said in a statement it would fully cooperate with NHTSA's investigation.

The U.S. investigation came after the Japanese government ordered Toyota to investigate brake problems in the Prius, the world's best-selling hybrid.

The new version of the gas-electric Prius hybrid went on sale in the U.S. and Japan in May 2009.

Paul Nolasco, a company spokesman in Japan, said the time lag for brakes kicking in felt by drivers stem from the two systems in a gas-electric hybrid — the gas-engine and the electric motor.

When the car moves on a bumpy or slippery surface, a driver can feel a pause in the braking when the vehicle switches between the traditional hydraulic brakes and the electronically operated braking system, he said. The brakes work if the driver keeps pushing the pedal, he said.

Toyota acknowledged the brake problem while reporting a $1.7 billion profit for its October-December quarter.

NHTSA said it opens 100 investigations every year and there are currently 40 open defect investigations, three of which involve Toyota. NHTSA said its defect and compliance investigations have resulted in 524 recalls involving 23.5 million vehicles during the past three years.

Toyota senior managing director Takahiko Ijichi defended the automaker's quality standards.

"We have not sacrificed the quality for the sake of saving costs," he said. "Quality is our lifeline. We want our customers to feel safe and regain their trust as soon as possible."

Toyota for the first time gave an estimate of the costs of the global gas-pedal recall. The $2 billion total represents $1.1 billion for repairs and $770 million to $880 million in lost sales.

Toyota is expecting to lose 100,000 in vehicle sales because of the recall fallout — 80,000 of them in North America.

___

Kageyama reported from Tokyo. AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed to this report from Detroit.

Study: Vegetative brains show signs of awareness

NEW YORK – Scientists have detected glimmers of awareness in some vegetative brain-injury patients and have even communicated with one of them — findings that push the boundaries of how to assess and care for such people.

The new research suggests that standard tests may overlook patients who have some consciousness, and that someday some kind of communication may be possible.

In the strongest example, a 29-year-old patient was able to answer yes-or-no questions by visualizing specific scenes the doctors asked him to imagine. The two visualizations sparked different brain activity viewed through a scanning machine.

"We were stunned when this happened," said one study author, Martin Monti of Medical Research Council Cognitive and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England. "I find it literally amazing. This was a patient who was believed to be vegetative for five years."

Ever since a research paper four years ago showed apparent signs of awareness in a vegetative patient — one who was included in the new study — families of patients have been clamoring for brain scans, said Dr. James Bernat of Dartmouth Medical School, a spokesman for the American Academy of Neurology.

In fact, a spokeswoman for a patient advocacy group said the organization will urge families to ask about the type of brain imaging used by the researchers.

But experts said more study is needed before the specialized brain scans could be used routinely. "It's still a research tool," Bernat said.

Experts also emphasized that only a few tested patients showed evidence of awareness. And they said it is not clear what degree of consciousness and mental abilities the signs imply.

They also noted that the positive signals appeared only in people with traumatic brain injury — not in patients whose brains had been deprived of oxygen, as can happen when the heart stops. Terri Schiavo, the vegetative woman at the center of a national controversy before her feeding tube was removed and she was allowed to die in 2005, suffered oxygen deprivation.

The new work, published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, came from researchers in Britain and Belgium. One author is Dr. Steven Laureys at the University of Liege in Belgium. He made headlines in November by showing awareness in Rom Houben, a 46-year-old man who had been diagnosed as being vegetative for 23 years. (Houben was excluded from the new study because he could not keep his head still enough in the brain scanner to produce a usable scan; his awareness was revealed by bedside behavioral tests).

The new study used brain scanning called functional MRI, or fMRI, for 23 patients in a vegetative state and 31 diagnosed as minimally conscious.

Patients are diagnosed as being in a vegetative state if they are tested and found unable to do such things as move on command or follow a moving object with their eyes. (Their eyes are open; in contrast, comatose people's eyes are closed.) Minimally conscious patients show signs of awareness, but they are minimal and intermittent.

While in the fMRI scanner, the patients were asked to imagine two situations. One was that they were standing on a tennis court, hitting a ball to an instructor; the other was that they were navigating familiar streets or walking from room to room in their homes. The two tasks produce different patterns of brain activity in healthy people.

The study found those patterns appeared in five patients when they were asked to imagine the scenes. Four of those patients had been diagnosed as vegetative.

"It just says how much we can learn from looking directly at somebody's brain," Monti said.

But he said the results cannot be taken to indicate how commonly a vegetative brain holds hidden signs of awareness. And the findings certainly don't mean all vegetative patients have that capacity, he said.

The 29-year-old, who had been injured in a traffic accident, was asked simple questions about his life, such as "Is your father's name Alexander?" He was told to answer "yes" or "no" by thinking about one or the other of the imagined scenes about playing tennis or navigating streets or his home. For five of the six questions, his brain activity matched the correct answer.

Monti and Laureys said it is not clear whether such patients have the mental capacity to answer more important but complicated questions, such as whether they wish to go on living.

"I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to tackle this," Laureys said.

Laureys also said fMRI technology isn't practical for routine assessments of vegetative patients or for enabling communication. So he is working to develop a more portable and less expensive approach based on sampling brain waves.

Now that communication has been demonstrated, it brings an urgency to finding ways to capitalize on that ability, said Dr. Nicholas Schiff at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Schiff is collaborating with Laureys and others on such research.

Some experts, like Dr. Ross Zafonte of Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study, said the brain patterns also don't reveal anything about whether patients have retained significant memory and other important mental abilities.

"But it's provocative and exciting because this is a cohort of people that everybody had given up on, and now there's reason to say ... there might be something there to manipulate," he said.

Maybe brain scans could identify patients with a better chance than others to improve with specialized treatment, he said.

Susan Connors, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America, an advocacy group, said the study means there's hope for people with brain injury.

She said her group will now add fMRI testing to the list of things they recommend families ask about after a serious brain injury.

Connors said some people might want to use such brain scans to help them decide whether to keep a loved one with a brain injury alive. But that shouldn't be the deciding factor, she said, adding that families are still going to have to rely on the person's wishes, religious and cultural beliefs and medical advice.

"This is going to give us more information, but it's not going to give us the final answer," she said.

___

Stephanie Nano in New York contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

Gov't moving into central role in health care

WASHINGTON – Government is poised to become king of the hill in America's vast health care system, with or without President Barack Obama's planned redo, according an economic report released Thursday.

Federal and state programs will pay slightly more than half the tab for health care purchased in the United States by 2012, says the analysis by Medicare number crunchers published in the journal Health Affairs.

That's even if Obama's health care overhaul wastes away in congressional limbo. Long in coming, the shift to a health care sector dominated by government is being speeded up by the deep economic recession and the aging of the Baby Boomers, millions of whom will soon start signing up for Medicare.

"This does mark a pretty stark jump in the data," said Christopher Truffer of Medicare's Office of the Actuary, which prepared the analysis.

For all the hue and cry over a government takeover of health care, it's happening anyway.

The tipping point is likely to come next year, Truffer said. For technical reasons, the report assumes that Congress is going to allow Medicare to cut doctor fees by 20 percent later this year, as required by a 1990s budget law. But lawmakers have routinely waived such cuts, and they're not likely to allow them in an election year. So government probably will end up picking up most of the nation's medical costs in 2011, instead of 2012.

The report serves as a reality check in the debate over Obama's health care plan, which has been marked by disagreements between the political parties over how large a role government should play.

Congressional Democrats want to move forward with the sweeping legislation, but are stalled over disagreements among themselves. Republicans have rejected Obama's approach as a top-down, big government solution.

Richard Foster, Medicare's top economic forecaster, said the recession has only worsened the two stubborn problems facing the U.S. health care system, lack of insurance coverage and high costs. "All that argues that some form of health care reform is a good idea," Foster said.

The Democrats' plan would expand coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured, while taking some modest steps to slow the pace of future cost increases. It would set up a new insurance marketplace for small businesses and people buying coverage on their own, with government subsidies available for many. Denial of coverage because of health problems would be prohibited.

The report estimated that in 2009, the United States spent $2.5 trillion for health care, with government programs — mainly Medicare and Medicaid — paying $1.2 trillion. Employer health insurance and various private sources covered the other $1.3 trillion. Even as the economy shrank because of the downturn, health care spending grew by 5.7 percent from 2008. Spending by government grew nearly three times faster than private spending, closing in to overtake it.

Driving much of the government surge was Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people, which grew by nearly 10 percent as workers lost jobs with health insurance, and Democrats expanded coverage for children of the working poor.

The swine flu outbreak contributed modestly to higher costs in 2009, as more people went to the doctor and took antiviral medications, the report found. Total spending on prescription drugs grew by slightly more than 5 percent, as higher prices for brand name medications overpowered the widespread availability of generics.

Previous estimates had put the crossover point to a health care system financed mainly by taxpayers at about 2016. There seems to be little chance that the balance will tip back decisively in the direction of private financing, with the Baby Boom generation signing up for Medicare and the lack of health insurance at many new jobs.

Other economically advanced countries — including those with government-run health care — also have problems with costs. But the U.S. spends much more per person than any other nation, without getting better results in life expectancy and many other measures of health.

___

Couples Who Say 'We' Fare Better in Fights

Couples who consistently refer to themselves as "we" may get on the nerves of singletons everywhere, but spouses who use this "couple-focused" language may fare better during conflicts than those who don't, according to a study announced this week.

The study found that using personal pronouns, such as "we," "our" and "us," when talking about a conflict was associated with more positive behaviors between the pair, such as affection, less negative behavior (like anger), and lower physiological stress levels during the disagreement.

On the other hand, using words that expressed "separateness," such as "I," "you," and "me," during the discussion was associated with marital dissatisfaction.

Discussions regarding marital disagreements can sometimes turn into hostile interactions, said study researcher Benjamin Seider, a graduate student in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. "And our thinking is that, using the 'we' words in that context can maybe help realign the couple, and help them to see themselves as being on the same team as opposed to adversaries," he told LiveScience.

However, since the results are based on conversations that took place in a laboratory setting, more research is needed to firm up the findings.

Conflict conversations

The study involved 154 middle-aged and older couples who were in their first marriages.

The spouses were video-taped during a 15-minute conversation regarding a conflict in their marriage. At the same time, scientists monitored the participants' heart rate, body temperature and how much they sweated, among other factors to assess their physiological state. All the data was collected back in 1989-1990 as part of a long-term marital study.

Seider and his colleagues went back and examined the tapes, looking at signs of emotional behavior, such as facial expressions and tone of voice.

In addition to finding that "we" language is linked to emotional behavior, the researchers also found that older couples used more "we" words, a result suggesting couples who have been together longer have developed a stronger shared identity with their partners than younger couples.

The overall marriage

The jury is still out, however, as to whether or not using such "we" words specifically boosts marital satisfaction. While previous studies have found such an association, the current study did not. "We were certainly surprised by that," Seider said.

The study's failure to find a link may come down to the fact that it was based on specific conversations rather than assessments of the overall marriages, according to Seider.

"The language that they're using is probably more reflective of them trying to regulate their emotions than it is about whether or not they're happy or sad in the relationship as a whole," he said.

The results were published in the September 2009 issue of the journal Psychology and Aging.

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