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ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2011) ? A new study that takes a complete snapshot of adolescent cardiovascular health in the United States reveals a dismal picture of teens who are likely to die of heart disease at a younger age than adults do today, reports Northwestern Medicine research.
"We are all born with ideal cardiovascular health, but right now we are looking at the loss of that health in youth," said Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D., chair and associate professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "Their future is bleak."
Lloyd-Jones is the senior investigator of the study presented Nov. 16 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando.
The effect of this worsening teen health is already being seen in young adults. For the first time, there is an increase in cardiovascular mortality rates in younger adults ages 35 to 44, particularly in women, Lloyd-Jones said.
The alarming health profiles of 5,547 children and adolescents, ages 12 to 19, reveal many have high blood sugar levels, are obese or overweight, have a lousy diet, don't get enough physical activity and even smoke, the new study reports. These youth are a representative sample of 33.1 million U.S. children and adolescents from the 2003 to 2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.
"Cardiovascular disease is a lifelong process," Lloyd-Jones said. "The plaques that kill us in our 40s and 50s start to form in adolescence and young adulthood. These risk factors really matter."
"After four decades of declining deaths from heart disease, we are starting to lose the battle again," Lloyd-Jones added.
The American Heart Association (AHA) defines ideal cardiovascular health as having optimum levels of seven well-established cardiovascular risk factors, noted lead study author Christina Shay, who did the research while she was a postdoctoral fellow in preventive medicine at Northwestern's Feinberg School. Shay now is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
"What was most alarming about the findings of this study is that zero children or adolescents surveyed met the criteria for ideal cardiovascular health," Shay said. "These data indicate ideal cardiovascular health is being lost as early as, if not earlier than the teenage years."
The study used measurements from the AHA's 2020 Strategic Impact Goals for monitoring cardiovascular health in adolescents and children. Among the findings:
Terrible Diets: All the 12-to-19-year-olds had terrible diets, which, surprisingly, were even worse than those of adults, Lloyd-Jones said. None of their diets met all five criteria for being healthy. Their diets were high in sodium and sugar-sweetened beverages and didn't include enough fruits, vegetables, fiber or lean protein.
"They are eating too much pizza and not enough whole foods prepared inside the home, which is why their sodium is so high and fruit and vegetable content is so low," Lloyd-Jones said.
High Blood Sugar: More than 30 percent of boys and more than 40 percent of girls have elevated blood sugar, putting them at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
Overweight or Obese: Thirty-five percent of boys and girls are overweight or obese. "These are startling rates of overweight and obesity, and we know it worsens with age," Lloyd-Jones said. "They are off to a bad start."
Low Physical Activity: Approximately 38 percent of girls had an ideal physical activity level compared to 52 percent of boys.
High Cholesterol: Girls' cholesterol levels were worse than boys'. Only 65 percent of girls met the ideal level compared to 73 percent of boys.
Smoking: Almost 25 percent of teens had smoked within the past month of being surveyed.
Blood Pressure: Most boys and girls (92.9 percent and 93.4 percent, respectively) had an ideal level of blood pressure.
The problem won't be easy to fix. "We are much more sedentary and get less physical activity in our daily lives," Lloyd-Jones said. "We eat more processed food, and we get less sleep. It's a cultural phenomenon, and the many pressures on our health are moving in a bad direction. This is a big societal problem we must address."
The research was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
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WASHINTON (Reuters) ? China's economy is moving up the value chain and its currency could "mount a challenge" to the U.S. dollar in five to ten years, a congressionally created commission reported on Wednesday.
Gone are the days when Beijing was content to be the low-end factory of the world, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said in its 2011 report to the U.S. Congress.
China's planners are intent on joining the realm of advanced technology products. high-end research and development and next-generation products, the bipartisan, 12-member body said in a 406-page report.
"Similarly, it no longer seems inconceivable that the RMB could mount a challenge to the dollar, perhaps within the next five to 10 years," the commissioners said, 10 years after China joined the World Trade Organization.
RMB is short for renminbi, also known as the yuan.
The Chinese authorities are laying the groundwork for internationalization of the currency via bilateral arrangements with foreign companies and financial centers, particularly Hong Kong, the report said.
Goldman Sachs representatives told commissioners that Hong Kong had been tapped to be China's offshore currency platform "because Beijing would be able to fully control the terms of the market," the report said. Hong Kong was returned by Britain to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
More mainland-based financial institutions will be able to issue RMB-denominated bonds in Hong Kong under plans outlined by Li Keqiang, China's likely next premier, during an August visit to the financial center, the commission said.
It urged the U.S. Congress to mandate a comprehensive White House National Security Council review "to determine the need for changes to address the increasingly complicated and serious challenges posed by China to U.S. international and domestic interests."
The commission was created in 2000 to monitor national security implications of bilateral trade with China and to make recommendations for congressional action.
William Reinsch, this year's chairman, said he did not expect the yuan to "supercede" the dollar in coming years unless Beijing floats its currency and removes capital controls.
However, "certainly what they're doing in Hong Kong suggests an impending challenge," Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a private U.S. business group, said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
On the security side, the commission accused Beijing of continued and growing malicious cyber activities, including facilitating industrial espionage and compromising U.S. and foreign government computer systems.
At least two U.S. environment-monitoring satellites were interfered with four or more times in 2007 and 2008 via a ground station in Norway, and China's military is a prime suspect, the report said.
China's embassy in Washington said it was "obvious that the commission is entrusted with the mission of vilifying China's image and spreading China threat theory by patching up unwarranted allegations against China."
"We urge the commission to stop issuing such reports for the good of increasing mutual trust between our two countries while China will continue to play a responsible role in both the realistic and the virtual worlds," Wang Baodong, the embassy spokesman, said by email.
The command responsible for U.S. military space operations lacks enough data to determine who interfered with the U.S. government satellites.
"What I have seen is inconclusive," Air Force General Robert Kehler, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said in a teleconference from Omaha, Nebraska, home to the military outfit that conducts U.S. space and cyberspace operations.
The commission said the anomalous events had not actually been traced to China, but "the techniques appear consistent with authoritative Chinese military writings" that have advocated disabling satellite control facilities in any conflict.
The commission's overarching concern, Reinsch said in a prepared statement, is that China's integration into the world trading system "increasingly seems to be lagging as China's policies focus on short-term gains rather than long term systemic benefits."
Dollar-denominated financial instruments dwarf their yuan-denominated counterparts in terms of new issuances. But the RMB markets have made remarkable progress in less than a year to achieve 11 percent of the daily trading volume of dollar-denominated markets, the report said.
Still, trade in yuan accounts for a mere 0.3 percent of the $4 trillion changing hands daily in international currency markets, the commission said, with the U.S. dollar making up one side of 85 percent of all trades.
In an interview taped with "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" - which will air?Monday - Herman Cain's wife, Gloria, appears to have shored up her husband over allegations about sexual harassment.
We haven't seen the full transcript yet, but in this partial transcript provided by the show, Gloria Cain said, "...you hear the graphic allegations and we know that would have been something that's totally disrespectful of her as a woman. And I know the type of person he is. He totally respects women.?
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At another point she added, "I'm thinking he would have to have a split personality to do the things that were said."
The interview was conducted with the couple Sunday, and marks Gloria Cain's first real public turn.
Cain's former spokeswoman Ellen Carmichael, who left the campaign shortly after the candidate won the Presidency 5 straw poll in Florida, said on Twitter that the interview marks "the first time I've heard Gloria Cain, even after working for Herman for more than a year."
A look at some of the major differences between Amazon.com Inc.'s tablet computer, the Kindle Fire, and Apple Inc.'s popular iPad:
Price: The Kindle Fire, which connects to the Internet over Wi-Fi networks, costs $199. The iPad costs $499 to $829, depending on storage capacity and its wireless capabilities. Some iPad models can access cellular networks.
Screen size: The Kindle Fire's display measures 7 inches diagonally, while the iPad has a 9.7-inch display. That makes the Fire's screen a bit less than half the size of the iPad's.
Software: The Kindle Fire runs Google Inc.'s Android software. The iPad uses Apple's own iOS software.
Storage: The Kindle Fire includes 8 gigabytes of internal storage and free Web-based storage for any digital content you get from Amazon, such as Kindle e-books, movies or music. The iPad includes 16 GB to 64 GB of storage space, depending on price.
Thickness: The Kindle Fire is 0.45 inches thick; the iPad is 0.34 inches thick.
Weight: The Kindle Fire tips the scales at 14.6 ounces ? slightly less than a pound ? while the iPad weighs about 1.3 pounds.
Apps: Kindle Fire users have built-in access to the Amazon Appstore, which includes thousands of free and paid games and apps. By contrast, the iPad has a selection of apps that is about 50 times greater. Apple's online App Store has more than 100,000 apps tailored specifically for the iPad ? including apps for Amazon.com and the Kindle.
Camera: While the iPad has front and rear cameras for taking photos and video chatting, the Kindle Fire does not include a camera.
Depression in young people increases risk of heart disease mortalityPublic release date: 11-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Johnson jrjohn9@emory.edu 404-727-5696 Emory University
The negative effects of depression in young people on the health of their hearts may be stronger than previously recognized. Depression or a history of suicide attempts in people younger than 40, especially young women, markedly increases their risk for dying from heart disease, results from a nationwide study have revealed.
The results are published in the November 2011 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
"This is the first study looking at depression as a risk factor for heart disease specifically in young people," says senior author Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, chair of epidemiology at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health. "We're finding that depression is a remarkable risk factor for heart disease in young people. Among women, depression appears to be more important than traditional risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, obesity and diabetes which are not common in young women."
First author is Amit Shah, MD, a cardiology fellow at Emory University School of Medicine. The researchers analyzed data from 7,641 people between the ages of 17 and 39 who participated in the NHANES-III (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey-III), a nationwide survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics between 1988 and 1994. Deaths were tracked through 2006.
Women with depression or a history of attempted suicide had a three times higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 14 times higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease (heart attack). The corresponding figures for men were 2.4 times higher risk for cardiovascular disease and 3.5 times higher risk for ischemic heart disease.
Many previous studies of depression and heart disease included older individuals, who generally have a larger burden of heart disease risk factors and associated diseases that may confound the results.
This is the first study to examine a history of suicide attempts along with depression as a marker for future mortality from cardiovascular disease. Also, unlike most previous studies of depression and heart disease, the authors examined major depression, which was assessed with a clinical interview based on accepted diagnostic criteria, instead of using questionnaire scores for depression symptoms. The authors suggest that clinical diagnosis may be "a more robust risk indicator."
Use of antidepressants was not included as a risk factor because less than six percent of those with depression or a history of attempted suicide reported their use, and no cardiovascular-related deaths occurred in that subgroup.
The researchers considered the possibility that depressed people may have more lifestyle-related risk factors such as smoking and poor diet. They found a significant link to heart disease risk coming from depression and suicide attempts, even after correcting statistically for unhealthy behaviors.
"Direct physiological effects of depression may play a greater role than lifestyle factors in this young population," the authors write.
Depression may increase risk of heart disease through physiological mechanisms, such as lower heart rate variability and increased cortisol (a stress-related hormone) and inflammation.
"This is a group that normally should be low risk," Vaccarino says. "Studying these individuals more intensively could be important for understanding how depression affects the heart."
###
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Reference:
A.J. Shah, E. Veledar, Y. Hong, J.D. Bremner and V. Vaccarino. Depression and History of Attempted Suicide as Risk Factors for Heart Disease Mortality in Young Individuals. Arch. Gen. Psych. 68:1135-1142 (2011)
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Depression in young people increases risk of heart disease mortalityPublic release date: 11-Nov-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Johnson jrjohn9@emory.edu 404-727-5696 Emory University
The negative effects of depression in young people on the health of their hearts may be stronger than previously recognized. Depression or a history of suicide attempts in people younger than 40, especially young women, markedly increases their risk for dying from heart disease, results from a nationwide study have revealed.
The results are published in the November 2011 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
"This is the first study looking at depression as a risk factor for heart disease specifically in young people," says senior author Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, chair of epidemiology at Emory's Rollins School of Public Health. "We're finding that depression is a remarkable risk factor for heart disease in young people. Among women, depression appears to be more important than traditional risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, obesity and diabetes which are not common in young women."
First author is Amit Shah, MD, a cardiology fellow at Emory University School of Medicine. The researchers analyzed data from 7,641 people between the ages of 17 and 39 who participated in the NHANES-III (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey-III), a nationwide survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics between 1988 and 1994. Deaths were tracked through 2006.
Women with depression or a history of attempted suicide had a three times higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 14 times higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease (heart attack). The corresponding figures for men were 2.4 times higher risk for cardiovascular disease and 3.5 times higher risk for ischemic heart disease.
Many previous studies of depression and heart disease included older individuals, who generally have a larger burden of heart disease risk factors and associated diseases that may confound the results.
This is the first study to examine a history of suicide attempts along with depression as a marker for future mortality from cardiovascular disease. Also, unlike most previous studies of depression and heart disease, the authors examined major depression, which was assessed with a clinical interview based on accepted diagnostic criteria, instead of using questionnaire scores for depression symptoms. The authors suggest that clinical diagnosis may be "a more robust risk indicator."
Use of antidepressants was not included as a risk factor because less than six percent of those with depression or a history of attempted suicide reported their use, and no cardiovascular-related deaths occurred in that subgroup.
The researchers considered the possibility that depressed people may have more lifestyle-related risk factors such as smoking and poor diet. They found a significant link to heart disease risk coming from depression and suicide attempts, even after correcting statistically for unhealthy behaviors.
"Direct physiological effects of depression may play a greater role than lifestyle factors in this young population," the authors write.
Depression may increase risk of heart disease through physiological mechanisms, such as lower heart rate variability and increased cortisol (a stress-related hormone) and inflammation.
"This is a group that normally should be low risk," Vaccarino says. "Studying these individuals more intensively could be important for understanding how depression affects the heart."
###
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Reference:
A.J. Shah, E. Veledar, Y. Hong, J.D. Bremner and V. Vaccarino. Depression and History of Attempted Suicide as Risk Factors for Heart Disease Mortality in Young Individuals. Arch. Gen. Psych. 68:1135-1142 (2011)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Vente-Privee, the 10-year-old French company credited with developing the luxury flash sales model adapted by Gilt Groupe and others in the U.S., arrived stateside Wednesday. The launch comes less than 24 hours after Gilt.com announced that it would begin shipping worldwide. Like Gilt.com, Vente-Privee offers deep discounts on designer merchandise, namely apparel and accessories for women. Sales begin at 10 a.m. each day and last 72 hours. For now, the site will run sales on only one to two brands per day, gradually scaling that number heading into the holidays.
[More from Mashable: Gilt.com Goes Global]
Gilt, by contrast, runs sales on as many as 10 or 12 different brands in it's women's category each day. Sales begin at noon and last 36 to 48 hours on average.
Vente-Privee's U.S. division is a joint venture between American Express and the French company. According to WWD, both companies have each invested approximately $35 million in cash and another $5 million in "human capital and technology transfers." The U.S. division expects to generate $500 million in annual sales within the next three to four years, having brought in $1.28 billion in revenue in Europe last year.
[More from Mashable: 3 Ways Digital Innovation Can Make Luxury Brands Exclusive Again]
Gilt, which has scaled rapidly -- expanding into a number of different verticals and hiring upwards of 700 employees since its launch in 2007 -- has yet to turn a profit.
Still, the U.S. market should prove something of a challenge for Vente-Privee. Although Vente-Privee has 14 million registered users in Europe -- more than three times the number of signsups Gilt has amassed in the U.S. -- the name has little recognition stateside. The same goes for many of the smaller European brands that will go on sale on the U.S. site.
American Express will help with the former problem, at least: The company will be reaching out and incentivizing its 30 million cardmembers to become customers of the site. Cardmembers will be offered a $20 statement credit on their first purchase between now and the end of the year. Membership Reward Points can also be exchanged for Vente-Privee gift cards.
The UFC hitting network television is a gigantic moment in the sport's history, but to do so it's giving up plenty of pay-per-view money to come out of the gates swinging. According to Mike Chiapetta from MMAFighting.com, the Fox show will hit the UFC hard financially.
"It's an investment in the company," Dana White said. "In no way, shape or form do we come anywhere close to making our money back. You don't go on free television and make your money. That's just not how it works. We're going to get smashed on this fight, but it's an investment in the future of the business."
Sports Business Daily reports the Cain Velasquez-Junior dos Santos fight originally slated for pay-per-view next week at UFC 139 could have produced a paying audience in excess of 800,000. That equates to $40 million in revenue.
White knows it's more important to open the future revenue streams that being on network TV will bring.
"Our goal has always been to bring big, free fights back to network television," White said. "Now that we have a network deal, we're looking at it as, obviously we're going to take a hit on the pay-per-view side for a big fight like this, but we're thinking long-term for the future of the sport and making the sport bigger. That's why we're going to do it, and continue to do it."
Bill King from SBD talks more about the UFC on Fox debut from the business perspective.
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda looked to be struggling on Friday to win backing from his own party for Japan to join talks on a U.S.-led free trade pact that could transform the Japanese economy.
Noda is due to fly on Saturday to Hawaii for a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders where he is due to tell other members in the proposed trade fact whether Japan will join.
He had been expected to make an announcement on Thursday but that has been delayed by the failure of the government and ruling party officials to reach a conclusion.
"I am aware that many are wary of joining the negotiations. I would like to keep this in mind when finalizing my decision." he told lawmakers.
"As I have said before, I would like to go through with a thorough discussion on the subject and come up with a conclusion promptly."
Membership of the Transpacific Partnership (TPP) would wrench open Japan's closeted agriculture sector to competition, give its major exporters better tariff deals overseas and challenge a political system over which the farm lobby has long held powerful influence.
For Noda, who became Japan's sixth premier in five years only two months ago, the decision on trade talks is his first big test in the face of deep divisions in his ruling party and an opposition able to block laws.
Noda has highlighted economic benefits of tapping into dynamic markets of the Pacific Rim region, which made many commentators take for granted that he would push for joining the talks despite opposition within his party and the general public.
But the delay in a decision raised questions about Noda's commitment.
"He has not really led the intra-party debate on the issue, and that is clear in the eyes of the public," said Tetsuro Kato, political science professor at Waseda University.
"I think it is certain that his support rate will take a tumble, with high expectations people had for his leadership at the time of his taking office dwindling."
When he took power two months ago hopes were high that the uncharismatic former finance minister could succeed where his short-lived predecessors failed: get things done by working quietly behind the scenes and forging necessary consensus.
Those hopes were reflected in Noda's initial popularity ratings well above 50 percent. But in two polls published this week his ratings for the first time sunk below 50 percent, in part due to public discontent with the way he has handled the debate about the trade pact.
The agreement that would in principle eliminate all tariffs and other trade barriers is now discussed by nine nations -- Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.
(Additional reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
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WASHINGTON (AP) ? A conservative-leaning appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care law, as the Supreme Court prepares to consider this week whether to resolve conflicting rulings over the law's requirement that all Americans buy health care insurance.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a split opinion upholding the lower court's ruling that found Congress did not overstep its authority in requiring people to have insurance or pay a penalty on their taxes, beginning in 2014. The requirement is the most controversial requirement of Obama's signature domestic legislative achievement and the focus of conflicting opinions from judges across the country. The Supreme Court could decide as early as Thursday during a closed meeting of the justices whether to accept appeals from some of those earlier rulings.
The suit in Washington was brought by the American Center for Law and Justice, a legal group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson. It claimed that the insurance mandate is unconstitutional because it forces Americans to buy a product for the rest of their lives and that it violates the religious freedom of those who choose not to have insurance because they rely on God to protect them from harm. But the court ruled that Congress had the power to pass the requirement to ensure that all Americans can have health care coverage, even if it infringes on individual liberty.
"That a direct requirement for most Americans to purchase any product or service seems an intrusive exercise of legislative power surely explains why Congress has not used this authority before ? but that seems to us a political judgment rather than a recognition of constitutional limitations," Judge Laurence Silberman, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan wrote in the court's opinion. Silberman was joined by Judge Harry Edwards, a Carter appointee. But, they added, "The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems."
Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a former aide to President George W. Bush who appointed him to the bench, disagreed with the conclusion without taking a position on the merits of the law. He wrote a lengthy opinion arguing the court doesn't have jurisdiction to review the health care mandate until after it takes effect in 2014.
The federal appeals court in Cincinnati also upheld the law. The federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down the core requirement that Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty, while upholding the rest of the law.
And like Kavanaugh's dissenting opinion, an appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled it was premature to decide the law's constitutionality. This aspect of the court challenges issue involves a federal law aimed at preventing lawsuits from tying up tax collection. Kavanaugh and the Richmond court held that taxpayers must begin paying the penalty for not purchasing insurance before they can challenge it in court.
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, which filed the suit in Washington, said the group is considering whether to ask the full appeals court to hear the case or make a request directly to the Supreme Court. "We still remain confident that Obamacare and the individual mandate, which forces Americans to purchase health insurance, is the wrong prescription for America and ultimately will be struck down as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court," Sekulow said.
The White House said Tuesday it is confident that the Supreme Court will uphold the law, as the DC circuit did. Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter said in a White House blog post that opponents who say the individual mandate provision exceeded Congress' power to regulate commerce "are simply wrong."
"People who make a decision to forego health insurance do not opt out of the health care market," she wrote. "Their action is not felt by themselves alone. Instead, when they become ill or injured and cannot pay their bills, their costs are shifted to others. Those costs ? $43 billion in 2008 alone ? are borne by doctors, hospitals, insured individuals, taxpayers and small businesses throughout the nation."
The liberal interest group Constitutional Accountability Center said the ruling from a solid conservative like Silberman, as the Supreme Court prepares to take up the issue, is a "devastating blow" to opponents of the law.
"With two prominent conservatives, this panel was thought to be a dream come true for conservative challengers of the act," said the center's president, Doug Kendall. "Today that dream became a nightmare, as the panel unanimously rejected the challenges to the act, disagreeing only about why those challenges failed."
After months of uncertainty and allegations thrown out left and right, Olympus admitted today that it has been hiding company losses for the past two decades. Here's what's up: Including the 2008 takeover of medical equipment maker Gyrus, the company used four acquisitions to cover up losses on securities investments, as well as advisory fees. Bloomberg reports that the company payed inflated fees to takeover advisors, which effectively covered up Olympus losses from the 90's.
LSU kicker Drew Alleman (30) celebrates with the crowd after the second half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. LSU won 9-6. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
LSU kicker Drew Alleman (30) celebrates with the crowd after the second half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. LSU won 9-6. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
LSU head coach Les Miles celebrates with his team after the second half of an NCAA college football game against Alabama, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. LSU won 9-6 in overtime. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
Oklahoma State wide receiver Justin Blackmon, left, celebrates with teammate Michael Harrison, right, following his touchdown against Kansas State in the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. Oklahoma State won 52-45. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Alabama offensive linesman Alfred McCullough (52) reacts after the second half of an NCAA college football game against LSU, Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. LSU won 9-6 in overtime. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
NEW YORK (AP) ? LSU put a lock on the top spot, Oklahoma State moved up to No. 2 for the best ranking in school history, and Alabama slipped to No. 4 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll after losing a 1 vs. 2 showdown against the Tigers.
LSU received 59 out of 60 first-place votes after beating the Crimson Tide 9-6 in overtime in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Saturday night.
Oklahoma State moved up one spot after a wild 52-45 victory against Kansas State and Stanford also moved up a spot to third.
Alabama slipped two spots Sunday. Boise State remained No. 5 with one first-place vote.
The rest of the top 10 was No. 6 Oregon, followed by Oklahoma, Arkansas, Clemson and Virginia Tech.
BOGOTA, Colombia?? Latin America's largest guerrilla army has suffered a devastating setback with the combat death of its leader, who was discovered and felled by three bullets after his camp was bombed, officials said Saturday.
Friday's killing of Alfonso Cano, a bookish 63-year-old from Bogota's middle class, was celebrated by President Juan Manuel Santos as "the hardest blow to this organization in its entire history."
"I want to send a message to each and every member of this organization: demobilize. Because if you don't, as we've said so many times and as we've shown, you will end up in jail or in a tomb," Santos said in a brief televised address late Friday.
The killing, however does not finish off the nearly half-century-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials, FARC.
Financed mostly by drug trafficking, it is comprised largely of peasants with few other opportunities in a country where land ownership is highly concentrated in the hands of a few.
Cano was killed in a remote area of the southwestern state of Cauca along with three other rebels, two men and a woman, hours after his hideout in forested hills was bombed, officials said. They had initially said four other guerrillas were killed.
After government forces bombed the jungle hideout, troops rappelled down from helicopters to search the area, killing Cano in a gun battle a short time later.
Cano was found unarmed, said Maritza Gonzalez, director of the chief prosecutor's office's investigative unit. Her agents positively identified the body by fingerprints. He had shaved off his trademark beard.
The rebel leader had spent all day in hiding after the morning bombing raid and was killed in combat that broke out when, from a house in a clearing several hundred years (meters) from the camp, he went to a stream and was sighted by soldiers, said Gonzalez.
Story: Top guerrilla leader has died, Colombia says
Gen. Gabriel Rey, chief of the army's aviation arm, said the small group of guerrillas guarding the FARC chief fired back with homemade mortars, wounding one soldier.
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Authorities released a photograph of Cano's head in which his face did not appear disfigured.
Cano had been the top target of Colombia's armed forces authorities since September 2010, when they killed the insurgency's military chief, Jorge Briceno, in a bombing raid in the southern Macarena massif.
'Losing the war'
Former President Andres Pastrana, who knew Cano from failed 1998-2002 peace negotiations with the rebels, said the death "has to make the FARC think it's losing the war."
Troops recovered seven computers and 39 thumb drives belonging to Cano as well as a stash of cash in currencies including U.S. dollars, euros and Colombian pesos, said Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon.
Cano's body was taken to Popayan, the Cauca state capital, where Santos and the entire military high command flew on Saturday.
The death of Cano, whose real name was Guillermo Leon Saenz, does not signal the imminent demise of Latin America's last remaining major leftist rebel army, analysts said.
"This is a blow to the FARC's morale," said Victor Ricardo, Pastrana's peace commissioner during the failed peace talks. "But by no means can people imagine that this can bring an end to the FARC."
The FARC, which is believed to number about 9,000, has a disciplined military hierarchy and someone is always in line to advance, he said.
Ricardo said the next leader could be rebels known as Ivan Marquez or Timochenko. Both are members of the FARC's ruling seven-member secretariat.
The rebels' leadership has suffered a series of withering blows beginning in March 2008, when the FARC's foreign minister, Raul Reyes, was killed in a bombing raid on a rebel camp across the border in Ecuador. That raid yielded authorities a treasure trove of information from computers and digital storage.
That same month, the FARC's revered co-founder, Manuel Marulanda, died in a mountain hideout of a heart attack. Cano, the rebels' chief ideologist, was named to succeed him.
Several other senior commanders were subsequently killed and rebel desertions, including of midlevel cadres, reached record levels.
And in July 2008, commandos posing as international aid workers rescued former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. military contractors and 11 others in an elaborate and bloodless ruse.
That all happened when Santos was defense minister under Alvaro Uribe. The two built military success on billions of dollars of U.S. aid, including training and close intelligence-sharing.
Santos took office as president in August 2010 and was buoyed by the death of Briceno, who was better known by his nickname Mono Jojoy. Santos also began tightening the noose on Cano; several times reports emerged that Cano had nearly been caught.
The FARC nevertheless has been regrouping in recent months, and rural violence has been increasing.
Ironically, Cano had issued a New Year's message praising the president for an initiative that later became law to redress and return stolen land to some 4 million victims of Colombia's long-running conflict.
Most of those had been victims of far-right militias known as paramilitaries that were created in the 1980s to counter kidnapping and extortion by the FARC, which was formed in 1964.
The paramilitaries ended up evolving into criminal gangs who murdered suspected rebel sympathizers and trade unionists and have been blamed for most deaths in Colombia's dirty war.
Cano released a number of video messages after Santos took office in which he urged the president to engage in dialogue with the rebels.
But Santos insisted Cano needed to make a peace gesture, such as halting all kidnappings. The FARC has not done so, and its fighters were blamed for two attacks last month that killed more than 20 soldiers.
The group also holds an unknown number of kidnap victims, apparently including four Chinese oil workers seized in June.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
McLEAN, Va. (AP) ? In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets ? up to 5 million a day.
At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms ? anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.
From Arabic to Mandarin Chinese, from an angry tweet to a thoughtful blog, the analysts gather the information, often in native tongue. They cross-reference it with the local newspaper or a clandestinely intercepted phone conversation. From there, they build a picture sought by the highest levels at the White House, giving a real-time peek, for example, at the mood of a region after the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden or perhaps a prediction of which Mideast nation seems ripe for revolt.
Yes, they saw the uprising in Egypt coming; they just didn't know exactly when revolution might hit, said the center's director, Doug Naquin.
The center already had "predicted that social media in places like Egypt could be a game-changer and a threat to the regime," he said in a recent interview with The Associated Press at the center. CIA officials said it was the first such visit by a reporter the agency has ever granted.
The CIA facility was set up in response to a recommendation by the 9/11 Commission, with its first priority to focus on counterterrorism and counterproliferation. But its several hundred analysts ? the actual number is classified ? track a broad range, from Chinese Internet access to the mood on the street in Pakistan.
While most are based in Virginia, the analysts also are scattered throughout U.S. embassies worldwide to get a step closer to the pulse of their subjects.
The most successful analysts, Naquin said, are something like the heroine of the crime novel "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," a quirky, irreverent computer hacker who "knows how to find stuff other people don't know exists."
Those with a masters' degree in library science and multiple languages, especially those who grew up speaking another language, "make a powerful open source officer," Naquin said.
The center had started focusing on social media after watching the Twitter-sphere rock the Iranian regime during the Green Revolution of 2009, when thousands protested the results of the elections that put Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad back in power. "Farsi was the third largest presence in social media blogs at the time on the Web," Naquin said.
The center's analysis ends up in President Barack Obama's daily intelligence briefing in one form or another, almost every day.
After bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in May, the CIA followed Twitter to give the White House a snapshot of world public opinion.
Since tweets can't necessarily be pegged to a geographic location, the analysts broke down reaction by languages. The result: The majority of Urdu tweets, the language of Pakistan, and Chinese tweets, were negative. China is a close ally of Pakistan's. Pakistani officials protested the raid as an affront to their nation's sovereignty, a sore point that continues to complicate U.S.-Pakistani relations.
When the president gave his speech addressing Mideast issues a few weeks after the raid, the tweet response over the next 24 hours came in negative from Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, the Persian Gulf and Israel, too, with speakers of Arabic and Turkic tweets charging that Obama favored Israel, and Hebrew tweets denouncing the speech as pro-Arab.
In the next few days, major news media came to the same conclusion, as did analysis by the covert side of U.S. intelligence based on intercepts and human intelligence gathered in the region.
The center is also in the process of comparing its social media results with the track record of polling organizations, trying to see which produces more accurate results, Naquin said.
"We do what we can to caveat that we may be getting an overrepresentation of the urban elite," said Naquin, acknowledging that only a small slice of the population in many areas they are monitoring has access to computers and Internet. But he points out that access to social media sites via cellphones is growing in areas like Africa, meaning a "wider portion of the population than you might expect is sounding off and holding forth than it might appear if you count the Internet hookups in a given country."
Sites like Facebook and Twitter also have become a key resource for following a fast-moving crisis such as the riots that raged across Bangkok in April and May of last year, the center's deputy director said. The Associated Press agreed not to identify him because he sometimes still works undercover in foreign countries.
As director, Naquin is identified publicly by the agency although the location of the center is kept secret to deter attacks, whether physical or electronic.
The deputy director was one of a skeleton crew of 20 U.S. government employees who kept the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok running throughout the rioting as protesters surged through the streets, swarming the embassy neighborhood and trapping U.S. diplomats and Thais alike in their homes.
The army moved in, and traditional media reporting slowed to a trickle as local reporters were either trapped or cowed by government forces.
"But within an hour, it was all surging out on Twitter and Facebook," the deputy director said. The CIA homed in on 12 to 15 users who tweeted situation reports and cellphone photos of demonstrations. The CIA staff cross-referenced the tweeters with the limited news reports to figure out who among them was providing reliable information. Tweeters also policed themselves, pointing out when someone else had filed an inaccurate account.
"That helped us narrow down to those dozen we could count on," he said.
Ultimately, some two-thirds of the reports coming out of the embassy being sent back to all branches of government in Washington came from the CIA's open source analysis throughout the crisis.
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Public release date: 11-Nov-2011
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After months of uncertainty and allegations thrown out left and right, Olympus admitted today that it has been hiding company losses for the past two decades. Here's what's up: Including the 2008 takeover of medical equipment maker Gyrus, the company used four acquisitions to cover up losses on securities investments, as well as advisory fees. 
