Diesel founder considering jewelery and Japan to beat slowdown

ROME (Reuters) – Diesel brand founder Renzo Rosso is considering expanding into jewelery and launching a new project in Japan to fuel growth at his fashion group despite the global economic turmoil.

Known as the “king of high-end casualwear”, the rockstar-looking businessman is one of the most dynamic figures in a fashion industry threatened by a slowdown in its core markets.

A painful recession in southern Europe and a slowdown in China are forcing European brands to come up with new ideas to lure consumers back into their stores.

Accessories, which, like leather belts and perfumes, are more affordable than evening dresses, are the fastest-growing category in a luxury industry expected to grow 5 percent this year from 13 percent in 2011 at constant exchange rates, according to consultancy Bain & Co.

Italian designer Giorgio Armani said in September he would boost sales of accessories.

Rosso, who also owns young-focused brands such Maison Martin Margiela and Viktor & Rolf, said he expected the recession to continue to hurt Italy well beyond 2013.

“There is a deep crisis and I believe it will remain serious for two other years,” Rosso said on the sidelines of the IHT summit on Friday afternoon.

“We need to take care of our licences for sunglasses, watches and perfumes. A world that fascinates me is jewelery. With my brands I want to enter this category too,” he said.

A visionary entrepreneur, Rosso was the first to turn stone-washed denim into a premium category in the 1980s.

His holding “Only The Brave” – which includes his brands as well as Staff International, a company that produces under licence for Just Cavalli, Vivienne Westwood Red Label, DSquared and Marc Jacobs Men – had revenues of around $ 2 billion in 2011.

DENIM KING

Rosso said he finds inspiration for new projects from travelling and working with his international team.

“I went to Japan with my daughters for three days and I came back with an incredible idea about a business that is totally different from what I do but related to clothing,” he said.

Rosso said nobody really understood him when he started to age his jeans by washing them with stones. His products are now sold worldwide, mostly in Japan.

“Japan is a country where fashion is extreme, more than elsewhere. I also love London,” curly haired Rosso said.

“Russia is going very well, like the Arab countries. Another growing market is Brazil, where people enjoy life,” he said.

Rosso, who works hands-on in Diesel but leaves designers at his other brands complete autonomy, has interests spanning from wine to eco-friendly technologies.

On Friday, Rosso announced a partnership with his friend rockstar Bono to sell in Diesel stores fashion products, sourced or entirely made in Africa under an Diesel+Edun label.

Through his Red Circle investment arm, Rosso is also the single-biggest shareholder with a stake of around 9 percent in growing Italian online fashion retailer Yoox .

Rosso has also invested in an Italian start-up incubator called H-Farm and in a maker of electric vehicles.

Rosso, whose thought-provoking slogans “Be Stupid” and “For Successful Living” have inspired books, did not rule out other investments in the future.

(Editing by Alison Williams)

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Israel hits Hamas buildings, shoots down Tel Aviv-bound rocket

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, and the “Iron Dome” defense system shot down a Tel Aviv-bound rocket on Saturday as Israel geared up for a possible ground invasion.

Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said Israeli missiles wrecked the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh – where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister – and struck a police headquarters.

Along the Tel Aviv beachfront, volleyball games came to an abrupt halt and people crouched as sirens sounded. Two interceptor rockets streaked into the sky. A flash and an explosion followed as Iron Dome, deployed only hours earlier near the city, destroyed the incoming projectile in mid-air.

With Israeli tanks and artillery positioned along the Gaza border and no end in sight to hostilities now in their fourth day, Tunisia’s foreign minister travelled to the enclave in a show of Arab solidarity.

In Cairo, a presidential source said Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi would hold four-way talks with the Qatari emir, the prime minister of Turkey and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in the Egyptian capital on Saturday to discuss the Gaza crisis.

Egypt has been working to reinstate calm between Israel and Hamas after an informal ceasefire brokered by Cairo unraveled over the past few weeks. Meshaal, who lives in exile, has already held a round of talks with Egyptian security officials.

Officials in Gaza said 43 Palestinians, nearly half of them civilians including eight children, had been killed since Israel began its air strikes. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared goal of deterring Hamas from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Israeli army said it had zeroed in on a number of government buildings during the night, including Haniyeh’s office, the Hamas Interior Ministry and a police compound.

Taher al-Nono, a spokesman for the Hamas government, held a news conference near the rubble of the prime minister’s office and pledged: “We will declare victory from here.”

Hamas‘s armed wing claimed responsibility for Saturday’s rocket attack on Tel Aviv, the third against the city since Wednesday. It said it fired an Iranian-designed Fajr-5 at the coastal metropolis, some 70 km (43 miles) north of Gaza.

“Well that wasn’t such a big deal,” said one woman, who had watched the interception while clinging for protection to the trunk of a baby palm tree on a traffic island.

In the Israeli Mediterranean port of Ashdod, a rocket ripped into several balconies. Police said five people were hurt.

Among those killed in airstrikes on Gaza on Saturday were at least four suspected militants riding on motorcycles.

Israel’s operation has drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called Israel’s right to self-defense, along with appeals to avoid civilian casualties.

Hamas, shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, says its cross-border attacks have come in response to Israeli strikes against Palestinian fighters in Gaza.

RESERVIST CALL-UP

At a late night session on Friday, Israeli cabinet ministers decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000, political sources said, in a signal Israel was edging closer to an invasion.

Around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.

Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: “Definitely.”

“We have a plan … it will take time. We need to have patience. It won’t be a day or two,” he added.

A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, favorite to win a January national election.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-09, killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

But the Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.

“Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river,” Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he surveyed the wreckage from a bomb-blast site in central Gaza.

One major change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, potentially narrowing Israel’s manoeuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.

“DE-ESCALATION”

Netanyahu spoke late on Friday with U.S. President Barack Obama for the second time since the offensive began, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“(Netanyahu) expressed his deep appreciation for the U.S. position that Israel has a right to defend itself and thanked him for American aid in purchasing Iron Dome batteries,” the statement added.

The two leaders have had a testy relationship and have been at odds over how to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

A White House official said on Saturday Obama called Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to discuss how the two countries could help bring an end to the Gaza conflict.

Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser, told reporters that Washington “wants the same thing as the Israelis want”, an end to rocket attacks from Gaza. He said the United States is emphasizing diplomacy and “de-escalation”.

In Berlin, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had spoken to Netanyahu and Egypt’s Mursi, stressing to the Israeli leader that Israel had a right to self-defense and that a ceasefire must be agreed as soon as possible to avoid more bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

The Israeli military said 492 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the operation began. Iron Dome intercepted another 245.

In Jerusalem, targeted by a Palestinian rocket on Friday for the first time in 42 years, there was little outward sign on the Jewish Sabbath that the attack had any impact on the usually placid pace of life in the holy city.

Some families in Gaza have abandoned their homes – some of them damaged and others situated near potential Israeli targets – and packed into the houses of friends and relatives.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Douglas Hamilton in Tel Aviv, Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem, Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One, Writing by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Crispian Balmer)

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TV, movie features on new Wii U delayed until Dec.

NEW YORK (AP) — Some of the entertainment features on Nintendo’s new Wii U won’t be available when the game machine goes on sale Sunday.

Nintendo didn’t give a reason for the delay in Friday’s news release. In a statement, the company said it wanted the service “to be the best possible experience for all consumers.” Nintendo said it was still working to “make it available as soon as possible.”

The new service, Nintendo TVii, promises to take into account all the ways users watch movies, TV shows and sports.

If you like the TV show “Modern Family,” for example, it will present you with a list of the show’s episodes gathered from available sources, whether that’s Hulu, Netflix or traditional cable TV.

The Wii U is the first major game console to launch in six years. The free TVii — pronounced “tee-veeee” — features were supposed to be available at the time of Wii U’s launch in the U.S. and Canada. Nintendo said the TVii service will now be activated sometime in December.

With TVii the GamePad controller that comes with Wii U is supposed to work as a fancy remote control. Viewers will be able to browse shows to watch or send suggestions to other Wii users. The service also captures scenes from live TV and displays them on the controller’s touch-screen display.

Nintendo also said the ability to watch Amazon, Hulu and Netflix content on the Wii U won’t be available for a few more weeks. These are separate apps, though the content services will also be available through the Wii U app.

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New Variety owner Jay Penske slashes one-quarter staff

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Jay Penske, the new owner of Variety, laid off nearly a quarter of the company’s staff on Thursday.

Between 20 and 25 employees from the struggling Hollywood trade’s circulation, database and conference departments were laid off. The editorial staff was not affected. Variety had about 120 employees before Thursday’s cuts.

“Without a doubt, this is a challenging day, and I particularly wanted to notify and acknowledge those of you who will be saying goodbye to valued colleagues and friends,” Penske, the CEO of Penske Media Corporation wrote in a memo obtained by the industry blog Deadline, which he also owns. “As we look ahead, Variety’s business holds almost limitless potential and I will remain available to answer any questions you might have regarding today’s changes and our future.”

Penske bought the paper last month at the fire-sale price of $ 25 million. In his memo, Penske said that he planned to invest in the editorial and digital departments while trimming the database services and business branch.

The jobs eliminated came from the LA411 and NY411 units – directories for production resources – and its administration and conference units, according to the memo. Deadline said that the cuts totaled 20 to 25 employees.

He also cut circulation staff, in what may presage a move to cut back on the paper’s printing schedule. Variety currently prints daily during the week and a weekly edition on Friday.

TheWrap previously reported that Penske planned to maintain the print edition and drop the paywall that blocked non-subscribers from reading Variety’s site, placing it in direct competition with competitors like the Hollywood Reporter, TheWrap and its corporate sister Deadline. The paywall has since been torn down.

Neither Penske nor Variety returned calls or emails from TheWrap requesting comment.

Here’s the full memo:

Dear Team

For the past six months, we have diligently reviewed every aspect of the Variety business. And in more recent weeks, we have outlined to Variety senior management an exciting and also aggressive trajectory for the brand’s resurgence. These steps will include substantial further investment in editorial and digital, but will unfortunately require some immediate eliminations in the following business units: LA411/NY411, Circ, Systems, Conferences, and Admin.

Without a doubt, this is a challenging day, and I particularly wanted to notify and acknowledge those of you who will be saying goodbye to valued colleagues and friends. As we look ahead, Variety’s business holds almost limitless potential and I will remain available to answer any questions you might have regarding today’s changes and our future. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, or see Tammy Chase to arrange an appointment.

Sincerely,

Jay Penske

CEO

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Relentless Afghan conflict leaves traumatized generation

KABUL (Reuters) – On a low bed in a quiet, all-female hospital ward, a depressed Afghan teenager huddles silently under blankets, her mother close by. In a nearby room are men suffering from schizophrenia, delusions of persecution and power, anxiety and panic disorders.

Among them are some of the unseen victims of the war in Afghanistan: a generation of people mentally damaged by their exposure to incessant conflict.

The accumulation of psychological problems could begin to undermine national reconstruction and development, say health workers at the country’s only facility for treating mental illness.

Ghazia Sadid, a 26-year-old mother, endured depression for years after a family member was killed in a bomb attack, and she fled her home in fear of more violence.

“I still hear the sounds of explosions. I still remember the fighting, but since I have come here my behavior has changed,” she said, speaking at the Kabul Mental Health Hospital, a green-walled building on the outskirts of the city.

“I was totally lost and my life was over. After two years of treatment, now I love my children,” she said. “I loved them then too, but in my imagination I had done something wrong.”

The concept of mental illness is alien to many in Afghanistan, where the public health system, like much of the country’s infrastructure, has been wrecked by decades of war.

Frequently, people suffering psychological disorders are thought by their families to be under the influence of malign spirits, or showing symptoms of a physical ailment.

The Kabul hospital, which has 60 beds for in-patients and another 40 in a separate facility for drug addicts, is run by the government in partnership with U.S.-based nonprofit group the International Medical Corps. It gets funding from the European Union.

Psychologists working there say children who have known nothing but fighting since the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban government more than a decade ago are especially vulnerable.

“The generation born after 2001 when the international community entered Afghanistan might be 10, 11 year olds now, and I’ve been seeing 11 year olds and 10 year olds nowadays who are presenting with so many mental health problems: nightmares, depression, anxiety, incontinence,” said Mohammad Zaman Rajabi, clinical psychology advisor at the hospital.

Men, women and children come for treatment with drugs, counseling, group therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.

TRAUMATIZED GENERATION

“If, in a family, there are problems every day it’s obvious that the family members are not well and cannot serve each other properly,” said Taiba Alkazai, a psychologist at the hospital.

“In the same way, if there is fighting in a country then its people won’t be happy.”

The fear of suicide bomb attacks, roadside bombs, and the overall level of violence in Afghanistan – of which civilians bear the brunt, with the number killed rising in 2011 for the fifth straight year to more than 3,000, according to the United Nations – can lead to anxiety, panic and obsession.

“The physical aspects of war (last) for a limited time, but the psychological aspects of the war extend for many years. Day by day the mental health problems caused by the war are increasing,” said consultant psychiatrist Said Najib Jawed.

Just as socially damaging is the risk of a generation for whom violence has become the norm.

“One of the examples I always give is that when you talk to an Afghan boy, you can easily get into a physical fight because they just wait for it, they don’t know any other ways of dealing with a problem than fighting,” Rajabi said.

“All these things will lead to a generation of people who are not very healthy mentally, and this will affect everything in the country: education, relationships, families, generally the development of the country.”

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Retailer Comet to close 30 stores

16 November 2012 Last updated at 19:00 ET

The insolvent electrical chain Comet is preparing to close about 30 stores by the end of November, the BBC has learned.

Comet appointed administrators earlier this month, putting 6,611 jobs at risk.

The remaining 206 or so outlets are expected to continue trading over the Christmas period, but their future remains deeply uncertain.

The first of the store closures will begin next week, the Financial Times reported earlier.

The administrators, Deloitte, has already announced 330 job losses at Comet’s headquarters and among administrative staff and there have also been reports that it is preparing to close down the retailer’s home delivery operation.

Comet’s demise was one of the biggest High Street casualties of recent years.

The electricals chain had been hit hard by the drop in consumer spending in the UK since 2008, which has been particularly acute in the case of the big items that Comet sells.

Many of Comet’s customers are first-time home-buyers, according to Deloitte, meaning that business has been hurt by the much tighter conditions in the UK mortgage market.

According to Deloitte, the company had been pushed to the brink by a cash drain caused by suppliers who had been unwilling to provide credit to Comet. Without such credit, the chain was unable to stock-up for Christmas.

Deloitte recently allowed gift vouchers bought by members of the public to be used at stores, days after suspending them, after taking time to “assess the financial position of the company”.

Rival Dixons has offered Christmas jobs to hundreds of Comet staff who face redundancy.

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Israel moves on reservists after rockets target cities

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli ministers were on Friday asked to endorse the call-up of up to 75,000 reservists after Palestinian militants nearly hit Jerusalem with a rocket for the first time in decades and fired at Tel Aviv for a second day.

The rocket attacks were a challenge to Israel‘s Gaza offensive and came just hours after Egypt‘s prime minister, denouncing what he described as Israeli aggression, visited the enclave and said Cairo was prepared to mediate.

Israel’s armed forces announced that a highway leading to the Gaza Strip and two roads bordering the enclave would be off-limits to civilian traffic until further notice.

Tanks and self-propelled guns were seen near the border area on Friday, and the military said it had already called 16,000 reservists to active duty.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened senior cabinet ministers in Tel Aviv after the rockets struck to decide on widening the Gaza campaign.

Political sources said ministers were asked to approve the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists, in what could be preparation for a possible ground operation.

No decision was immediately announced and some commentators speculated in the Israeli media the move could be psychological warfare against Gaza’s Hamas rulers. A quota of 30,000 reservists had been set earlier.

Israel began bombing Gaza on Wednesday with an attack that killed the Hamas military chief. It says its campaign is in response to Hamas missiles fired on its territory. Hamas stepped up rocket attacks in response.

Israeli police said a rocket fired from Gaza landed in the Jerusalem area, outside the city, on Friday.

It was the first Palestinian rocket since 1970 to reach the vicinity of the holy city, which Israel claims as its capital, and was likely to spur an escalation in its three-day old air war against militants in Gaza.

Rockets nearly hit Tel Aviv on Thursday for the first time since Saddam Hussein’s Iraq fired them during the 1991 Gulf War. An air raid siren rang out on Friday when the commercial centre was targeted again. Motorists crouched next to cars, many with their hands protecting their heads, while pedestrians scurried for cover in building stairwells.

The Jerusalem and Tel Aviv strikes have so far caused no casualties or damage, but could be political poison for Netanyahu, a conservative favored to win re-election in January on the strength of his ability to guarantee security.

“The Israel Defence Forces will continue to hit Hamas hard and are prepared to broaden the action inside Gaza,” Netanyahu said before the rocket attacks on the two cities.

Asked about Israel massing forces for a possible Gaza invasion, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: “The Israelis should be aware of the grave results of such a raid and they should bring their body bags.”

Officials in Gaza said 28 Palestinians had been killed in the enclave since Israel began the air offensive with the declared aim of stemming surges of rocket strikes that have disrupted life in southern Israeli towns.

The Palestinian dead include 12 militants and 16 civilians, among them eight children and a pregnant woman. Three Israelis were killed by a rocket on Thursday. A Hamas source said the Israeli air force launched an attack on the house of Hamas’s commander for southern Gaza which resulted in the death of two civilians, one a child.

SOLIDARITY VISIT

A solidarity visit to Gaza by Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, whose Islamist government is allied with Hamas but also party to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, had appeared to open a tiny window to emergency peace diplomacy.

Kandil said: “Egypt will spare no effort … to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce.”

But a three-hour truce that Israel declared for the duration of Kandil’s visit never took hold. Israel said 66 rockets launched from the Gaza Strip hit its territory on Friday and a further 99 were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Israel denied Palestinian assertions that its aircraft struck while Kandil was in the enclave.

Israel Radio’s military affairs correspondent said the army’s Homefront Command had told municipal officials to make civil defence preparations for the possibility that fighting could drag on for seven weeks. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

The Gaza conflagration has stoked the flames of a Middle East already ablaze with two years of Arab revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to leap across borders.

It is the biggest test yet for Egypt’s new President Mohamed Mursi, a veteran Islamist politician from the Muslim Brotherhood who was elected this year after last year’s protests ousted military autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood are spiritual mentors of Hamas, yet Mursi has also pledged to respect Cairo’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, seen in the West as the cornerstone of regional security. Egypt and Israel both receive billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to underwrite their treaty.

Mursi has vocally denounced the Israeli military action while promoting Egypt as a mediator, a mission that his prime minister’s visit was intended to further.

A Palestinian official close to Egypt’s mediators told Reuters Kandil’s visit “was the beginning of a process to explore the possibility of reaching a truce. It is early to speak of any details or of how things will evolve”.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-2009, killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

Tunisia’s foreign minister was due to visit Gaza on Saturday “to provide all political support for Gaza” the spokesman for the Tunisian president, Moncef Marzouki, said in a statement.

The United States asked countries that have contact with Hamas to urge the Islamist movement to stop its rocket attacks.

Hamas refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. By contrast, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules in the nearby West Bank, does recognize Israel, but peace talks between the two sides have been frozen since 2010.

Abbas’s supporters say they will push ahead with a plan to have Palestine declared an “observer state” rather than a mere “entity” at the United Nations later this month.

(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell, Jeffrey Heller and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Sina’s profit beats on Weibo; co forecasts weak 4th-quarter revenue

(Reuters) – Chinese internet company Sina Corp eked out a profit in the third quarter that beat analysts’ estimates as strong advertising sales on its microblogging platform offset weaker website advertising but it forecast current-quarter revenue below expectations.

Shares of the company fell 6 percent to $ 49.72 in extended trading. They closed at $ 53.10 on the Nasdaq on Thursday.

Sina expects adjusted net revenue to range between $ 132 million and $ 136 million in the fourth quarter, with advertising revenues forecast to increase between 6 percent and 8 percent from a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting revenue of $ 151.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sina, which makes most of its revenue from online advertising both on its website and through its microblogging platform, Weibo, is facing stiff headwinds this year as firms slash advertising budgets due to a worsening economic outlook.

Analysts said the spat between Japan and China over a few uninhabited islands in the East China Sea may have affected Sina’s website advertising sales as Japanese automakers cut back on advertising in China.

Net profit was $ 9.9 million for the September quarter, compared to a loss of $ 336.3 million a year earlier. The profit beat analysts’ expectations of $ 7.5 million.

Sina’s advertising revenue rose 19 percent to $ 120.6 million in the third quarter, while non-advertising revenue rose 9 percent to $ 31.8 million. Overall net revenue was $ 152.4 million, up from $ 130.3 million, a year earlier.

The company started monetizing Weibo by offering special services to business accounts and selling VIP memberships to regular users earlier this year.

Weibo contributed about 10 percent to total advertising revenue in the second quarter and had 368 million registered accounts.

(Reporting By Melanie Lee in Shanghai & Aurindom Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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Walking, cycling may ease cancer-related fatigue: study

(Reuters) – People who have been treated for cancer often have lingering fatigue, but regular walking or cycling might help boost their energy, according to a UK study that looked at more than two thousand people.

The long-lasting tiredness of cancer patients has been blamed both on the cancer itself, including cancer-related pain, and on the effects of treatments such as chemotherapy. Prior studies point to talk therapy, nutrition counseling and acupuncture as possible remedies.

But light-to-moderate exercise has the advantage of being something people can do on their own time, for little or no cost, said the researchers, whose findings appeared in The Cochrane Library.

“We’re not expecting people to go out and be running a mile the next day,” said Fiona Cramp, who worked on the analysis at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

“Some people will be well enough that they’re able to go for a jog or go for a bike ride, and if they can, that’s great. But we would encourage people to start with a low level.”

Cramp and her colleague James Byron-Daniel pooled findings from 38 studies that directly compared more than 2,600 people with cancer-related fatigue who did or didn’t go through an exercise program.

The majority of that research looked at women with breast cancer and the type of exercise program varied, from walking or biking to weight training or yoga. More than half of the studies included multiple exercises or allowed participants to choose their own type of physical activity.

The amount of prescribed exercise ranged from two times per week to daily workouts, lasting anywhere from ten minutes to two hours, depending on the study.

When they combined the results, the researchers found physical activity both during and after cancer treatment was tied to improved energy. In particular, aerobic exercise such as walking and cycling tended to reduce fatigue more than resistance training.

“What we do know is there will be an appreciable difference; the average patient will get a benefit from physical activity,” Cramp said, though the actual benefit will vary.

For example, there were exercise-related benefits for people with breast cancer and prostate cancer, although not for those with leukemia and lymphoma.

“Some of the hematologic patients may not have the reserves to always tolerate the aerobic exercise,” said Carol Enderlin, who has studied fatigue and cancer at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

“They do not always have the oxygen carrying capacity, for instance,” because the disease and treatment affect blood cell counts. For those people, non-aerobic exercise or exercise at a lower does may be a better option, added Enderlin, who was not part of the research team.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/TMV6SC

(Reporting by Elaine Lies)

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BP agrees to record criminal penalties for U.S. oil spill

NEW ORLEANS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – BP Plc will pay $ 4.5 billion in penalties and plead guilty to felony misconduct in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which caused the worst U.S. offshore oil spill ever.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder called the deal a “critical step forward” but was adamant that it did not end the criminal investigation of the 2010 spill.

The settlement announced on Thursday includes a $ 1.256 billion criminal fine, the largest such levy in U.S. history. It was not, however, the “global” settlement some had hoped for, which would have also resolved the considerable federal civil claims against the company at the same time.

“BP lied to me. They lied to the people of the Gulf. And they lied to their shareholders, and they lied to all Americans,” said Representative Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee who led investigations at the time of the spill.

The government also indicted the two highest-ranking BP supervisors aboard the Deepwater Horizon during the disaster, charging them with 23 criminal counts including manslaughter. One man’s lawyer said his client was being turned into a scapegoat for the disaster.

The April 2010 explosion on the rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers. The mile-deep Macondo oil well then spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf over 87 days, fouling shorelines from Texas to Florida and eclipsing in severity the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

The company said it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts related to the workers’ deaths, a felony related to obstruction of Congress and two misdemeanors. It also faces five years’ probation and the imposition of two monitors who will oversee its safety and ethics for the next four years.

Wall Street analysts said the deal will allow BP to focus again on oil production, while one U.S. senator from Louisiana said he hoped the settlement would not prevent his state and others from collecting civil penalties.

Investors shrugged off the news, and BP shares listed in New York and London were little changed on the day.

“It certainly is an encouraging step,” said Pavel Molchanov, oil company analyst with Raymond James. “By eliminating the overhang of the criminal litigation, it is another step in clearing up BP’s legal framework as it relates to Macondo.”

The disaster has dragged BP from second to a distant fourth in the ranking of top Western oil companies by value.

‘CRIMINAL SCALP’

“With these unprecedented criminal penalties assessed, I urge the Obama administration to be equally aggressive in securing civil monies that can help save our Louisiana coast” through other avenues, Louisiana Senator David Vitter said in a statement. “I certainly hope they didn’t trade any of those monies away just to nail this criminal scalp to the wall.”

Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation, called the settlement a “good down payment” on what BP should ultimately pay, which the environmental group argues is tens of billions of dollars more.

BP said the payments would be spread over six years, and that it expected to be able to handle the payments “within BP’s current financial framework.”

The company has sold $ 35 billion worth of assets to fund the costs of the spill. Matching that, it has paid $ 23 billion already in clean-up costs and claims, and has a further $ 12 billion earmarked for payment in its spill trust fund.

The oil company said it has not been advised of any government authority that intends to debar BP from federal contracting activities as a result of the deal.

‘RECKLESS MANAGEMENT’

The lawyers for Bob Kaluza, the BP well manager aboard the rig who faces manslaughter charges, condemned the case against the four-decade oilfield veteran.

“Bob was not an executive or high-level BP official. He was a dedicated rig worker who mourns his fallen co-workers every day,” Shaun Clarke and David Gerger said in a statement.

Kaluza faces two kinds of charges related to the workers’ deaths: Involuntary manslaughter, a broad statute covering individuals whose reckless disregard leads directly to loss of life; and seaman’s manslaughter, reserved for those employed on ships whose misconduct results in death.

As for BP, its settlement does not resolve civil litigation brought by the U.S. government and U.S. Gulf Coast states, which could be considered when the case convenes in February 2013.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who represents other spill-hit states in the case, said he intends to prove that BP’s actions were grossly negligent – a charge that would bring billions of dollars in extra liability if upheld. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal agreed in a statement.

“The majority of BP’s liability remains outstanding and we will hold them fully accountable,” he said.

Holder said at a news conference to discuss the criminal settlement that while the government and BP had held talks to resolve the civil claims, the sides had not been able to agree on a “satisfactory” number. He said a deal was still possible but the government was moving ahead to the February trial.

Negligence is a key issue. A gross negligence finding could nearly quadruple civil damages owed by BP under the Clean Water Act to $ 21 billion.

Chief Financial Officer Brian Gilvary said the company’s provisions should be enough to cover liabilities, provided it avoids a conviction for gross negligence, and that it had shareholder support to fight the case should that happen.

“I can boldly defend where we are in the provisions today. If something were to happen in the trial that read across to gross negligence … then we would certainly take that to appeal,” he said on a conference call with analysts.

Still unresolved is potential liability faced by Swiss-based Transocean Ltd, owner of the Deepwater Horizon vessel, and Halliburton Co, which provided cementing work on the well that U.S. investigators say was flawed.

Halliburton said it “remains confident that all the work it performed with respect to the Macondo well was completed in accordance with BP’s specifications for its well construction plan and instructions. Halliburton has cooperated with the DOJ’s investigation.” Transocean was not available for comment.

According to the Justice Department, errors made by BP and Transocean in deciphering a pressure test of the Macondo well are a clear indication of gross negligence.

Transocean disclosed in September that it is in discussions with the Justice Department to pay $ 1.5 billion to resolve civil and criminal claims.

BP has already announced an uncapped class-action settlement with private plaintiffs that the company estimates will cost $ 7.8 billion to resolve litigation brought by over 100,000 individuals and businesses claiming economic and medical damages from the spill.

(Additional reporting by Chris Baltimore and Anna Driver in Houston, Braden Reddall in San Francisco, Roberta Rampton in Washington, Verna Gates in Birmingham, Ala. and Andrew Callus in London; Writing by Ben Berkowitz; Editing by Edward Tobin, David Gregorio, Richard Chang and Tim Dobbyn)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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