Iran says it's ready to resume talks with world powers

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran is ready to resume talks with world powers on its disputed nuclear program and awaits word from the European Union on timing and details, Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator said on Thursday.

Ali Bagheri, in an interview with Reuters in Geneva, said Iran needed 20 percent-enriched uranium for its Tehran research reactor and four others being built, and was continuing to convert some of its stockpile into reactor fuel.

"We are waiting for Lady Ashton to call Dr. Jalili, and Dr. Jalili is obviously ready to take the call," Bagheri said.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton oversees diplomatic contacts with Iran on behalf of the the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. Saeed Jalili is Iran's chief negotiator.

"We are waiting to see whether Lady Ashton's response is going to cover the time and venue of another round of negotiations, or will she limit her response to just discussing the substantive side of things," Bagheri said.

In Brussels, a spokesman for Ashton said she had consulted with foreign ministers on how to move forward the process. "Arrangements for a phone call with Dr. Jalili have already been made in order to discuss next steps," Michael Mann said.

The six powers and Iran failed in talks in the Kazakh capital Almaty this month to end the deadlock in a decade-old dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, prolonging a standoff that could yet spiral into a new Middle East war.

At those talks, the six asked Iran to suspend its most sensitive uranium-enrichment work in return for modest relief from international sanctions, an offer Tehran did not accept.

Iran's presidential election is set for June 14, leading to speculation on whether the next round of talks will take place before the poll. "We are ready to continue with the talks ... We have no limits as far as time is concerned," Bagheri said.

Israel, which has long hinted at possible air strikes to deny its arch-foe any means to make a nuclear bomb, suggested this week it would be patient before taking any military action.

Iran says its nuclear work is entirely peaceful and that it is only refining uranium to power a planned network of nuclear energy plants and for medical purposes. Critics accuse it of covertly seeking the means to produce nuclear weapons.

"NO CAUSE FOR CONCERN"

Bagheri, referring to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said: "I need to point out the Islamic Republic of Iran uranium enrichment activities to the level of 20 percent is under strict agency monitoring. Obviously activities that are being monitored by the agency are no cause for concern."

An IAEA report in February said Iran had in December resumed converting to oxide powder some of the uranium it has enriched to 20 percent fissile concentration, for the production of reactor fuel.

That helped restrain the growth of Iran's higher-grade uranium stockpile, a development that could buy more time for diplomacy.

In a potentially encouraging sign for the powers, Bagheri said on Thursday this conversion was continuing.

"We produce 20 percent uranium to provide fuel for Tehran's research reactor, also four other reactors in four different parts of Iran which are under construction. With this in mind, plans have been drawn up to convert 20 percent uranium to 20 percent oxide," Bagheri said.

"This is very much going according to plan. This activity is ongoing," he added.

The IAEA said on Tuesday it would hold a meeting with Iran on May 15 aimed at enabling its inspectors to resume a stalled investigation into suspected nuclear bomb research, the 10th round of talks since early 2012.

Bagheri said Iran was already cooperating fully with the IAEA but was willing to discuss requests "which go beyond our obligations" under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"We are very much hoping in this round of talks between my country and the agency, we no longer have such meddling and sabotaging of talks," he said.

"Experience tells us that usually certain Western parties, including the U.S., whenever we are close to striking a bargain, reaching an agreement, they interfere."

The IAEA-Iran talks are separate from, but have an important bearing on, the negotiations between Tehran and world powers. Iran's refusal to curb sensitive nuclear activity with both civilian and military applications and its lack of openness with IAEA inspectors have drawn U.N. and Western sanctions.

"Once we reach an agreement with the agency, we also expect the (six powers), because of such cooperation with the agency which goes well beyond our obligations, to lift a number of sanctions. Unilateral sanctions which are illegal," Bagheri said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-ready-resume-talks-world-powers-awaits-call-144538391.html

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Mom of 4 kids killed in SC fire faces more charges

Hope Hawkins is seen in a Thursday, April 25, 2013 photo provided by the Darlington County, S.C. Jail. Hawkins, the mother of four children killed in an accidental mobile home fire,was charged Friday, April 26, 2013 in their deaths, authorities said.Hawkins, 21, faces four counts each of homicide by child abuse and unlawful conduct toward a child, for leaving her children home alone when an accidental fire started in the kitchen on Wednesday, April 24. (AP Photo/Darlington County (SC) Jail)

Hope Hawkins is seen in a Thursday, April 25, 2013 photo provided by the Darlington County, S.C. Jail. Hawkins, the mother of four children killed in an accidental mobile home fire,was charged Friday, April 26, 2013 in their deaths, authorities said.Hawkins, 21, faces four counts each of homicide by child abuse and unlawful conduct toward a child, for leaving her children home alone when an accidental fire started in the kitchen on Wednesday, April 24. (AP Photo/Darlington County (SC) Jail)

Jessica Long brings balloons to leave in front of a mobile home where four children were killed in a fire the day before in Hartsville, S.C., Thursday, April 25, 2013. Authorities say smoke inhalation killed 10-month-old twin sisters Myasia and Kynasia Hawkins and their brothers, 2-year-old Camaron Mason and 4-year-old Delonta Dixon. Hawkins daughter is the children's mother. (AP Photo/The Morning News, Gavin Jackson) LOCAL TV OUT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? The mother of four South Carolina children killed in an accidental mobile home fire was charged Friday in their deaths, authorities said.

Hope Hawkins, 21, faces four counts each of homicide by child abuse and unlawful conduct toward a child, Darlington County Sheriff's Capt. Andy Locklair said. State and local authorities found no signs of arson and think the fire started Wednesday by accident in the kitchen, though exactly what sparked the blaze had not been determined.

Hawkins was not home when firefighters arrived, and showed up moments later, Locklair said. The woman has given conflicting stories about where she was. No one else was in the home at the time.

"It's almost like she may have arrived at the same time as the fire apparatus," Locklair said.

Locklair didn't know if Hawkins had an attorney. She is scheduled to have a bond hearing later Friday.

It took firefighters less than 10 minutes to put out the fire in Hartsville, a city of some 8,000 people that's about 60 miles east of the state capital of Columbia.

Authorities said 10-month-old sisters Myasia and Kynasia Hawkins and their brothers, 2-year-old Camaron Mason and 4-year-old Delonta Dixon, died of smoke inhalation. All four children were found in a bedroom next to the kitchen, Locklair said.

Hawkins could face life in prison if she's convicted of homicide by child abuse, a charge that stems from leaving the children at home alone. The unlawful conduct toward a child charges carry possible sentences of up to 10 years each.

Authorities were still going through records to determine if either law enforcement or social services officials had been called to the home before, Locklair said.

___

Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-26-Fatal%20Mobile%20Home%20Fire/id-1314f0e1d42f4952aacde15ee5dbb34f

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New guidelines did not change mammography rates

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The proportion of women undergoing screening for breast cancer every year did not change after a government-backed panel said women in their 40s shouldn't have routine mammograms, according to a new study.

In 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that women aged 50 to 74 have a mammogram every other year and said for younger women, screening should be an individual decision by each woman with her doctor.

That's because the benefits of screening only slightly outweigh harms from overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment and any potential benefits are smaller in younger women, according to Dr. Michael LeFevre, co-vice chair of the Task Force.

LeFevre, who is also a family medicine doctor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia, said he didn't find the new results all that surprising.

"It would be optimistic to think the lack of change reflects the decision by many women in their 40s to go ahead and proceed with mammography with a clear understanding of the benefits as well as the risks," he told Reuters Health.

"I think it is a bit more likely that physicians continue to recommend mammography without necessarily discussing the specifics of what the science tells us," said LeFevre, who wasn't involved in the new study. "It's always easier to do than to discuss."

Dr. Lydia Pace from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and her colleagues analyzed nationally-representative surveys of close to 28,000 women, age 40 and older, from 2005, 2008 and 2011. Among other things, women were asked if they'd had a mammogram in the past year.

Overall, there was no clear change in screening rates after the USPSTF's recommendation: 53.6 percent of all women said they'd recently had a mammogram in 2011, compared to 51.9 percent in 2008.

Mammography rates did not change in any age group. Among women in their 40s, 47.5 percent had been recently screened as of 2011, compared to 46.1 percent in 2008.

Some professional organizations, such as The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, still recommend regular screening for women as young as 40 - and surveys suggest many doctors favor that approach.

"When there are conflicting versions of guidelines, providers may err on the side of screening," said David Howard, a health policy researcher from Emory University in Atlanta who has studied mammography.

One of the issues is that both individual women and guideline-making groups may weigh the benefits and harms of mammography differently, researchers said.

Some may accept any risk for a small chance of catching breast cancer early, whereas others will weigh the harms of infection and bleeding from biopsies, for example, more heavily.

Howard said that over time, there may be a shift toward fewer women in their 40s having mammograms.

Because the guidelines are relatively recent, "A lot of women in that age group turned 40 with the expectation that they would get a mammogram every year or every other year," Howard, who also wasn't part of the new research team, told Reuters Health.

"I think it's a harder thing to stop screening if you've already started," Pace agreed. "That could account for some of the lack of decline."

However, she told Reuters Health, "Given how widespread the publicity was about these recommendations, I think most providers were certainly aware of them, and we would have expected to see some changes we didn't see."

Researchers said women in their 40s should be fully informed about the benefits and risks of screening before deciding to have a mammogram.

"For younger women," Pace said, "the decision to undertake mammography screening is one that is not necessarily taken lightly."

"Be aware that there is some benefit - the benefit is quite small, there are some risks and that a personal decision is absolutely to be honored," LeFevre said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ZJe4hP Cancer, online April 19, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guidelines-did-not-change-mammography-rates-155355369.html

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Japan regulator probes U.S. asset manager over missing funds - source

By Noriyuki Hirata

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's securities watchdog is investigating a U.S.-based investment company on suspicion that it falsified performance reports and could not account for the bulk of its $1.4 billion in disclosed funds, a source with knowledge of the probe said.

The Securities Exchange and Surveillance Commission (SESC) will recommend penalties against Las Vegas-based MRI International Inc as early as Friday, the source said. That would be followed by an order form its parent agency, the Financial Services Agency, to freeze the asset manager's assets, the source said.

No one at MRI could be reached for comment. At a press conference earlier on Friday, Finance Minister Taro Aso said he was aware of media reports about the MRI investigation but could not comment further.

Japan has tightened regulatory checks of asset managers after a scandal over a cover-up of losses by Tokyo-based money manager AIJ Investment Advisors last year that involved $1.3 billion of pension fund money.

According to its website, MRI International had collected 136.5 billion yen ($1.4 billion) from about 8,700 Japanese clients.

MRI advertised annual returns of 6 to 8.5 percent by investing in products collecting on medical claims in the United States.

(Reporting by Noriyuki Hirata; Writing by Nathan Layne; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-regulator-probes-u-asset-manager-over-missing-021115964--sector.html

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Italy president names centre-left's Letta as new premier

By Barry Moody and Paolo Biondi

ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday asked center-left politician Enrico Letta to form a new government, signaling the end of a damaging two-month stalemate since elections in the euro zone's third largest economy in February.

Letta, from the Democratic Party (PD), said he would start talks to form a broad-based coalition on Thursday. It is likely to go to parliament for a vote of confidence by early next week.

The prime minister designate is expected to select a group of ministers, likely to be a mixture of politicians and technocrats, under the guidance of Napolitano, whose own unprecedented re-election last weekend opened the way for an end to the crisis.

The new government will be backed primarily by Letta's center-left and the center-right People of Freedom party (PDL) led by Silvio Berlusconi, which had previously failed to reach a deal following inconclusive elections two months ago.

Rivalries between the parties as well as rifts within the PD, which fell short of a viable parliamentary majority in February's vote, could still block an accord. But formation of a government after such a long impasse would signal that Italy is finally ready to make a start on much-needed reforms.

Accepting his mandate, Letta said he would not form a government "at all costs", warning that the warring parties must make compromises or he would withdraw.

He said Italy faced an untenable situation and the government must provide answers on jobs, poverty and the crisis facing small businesses in a recession that now matches the longest since World War II.

European Union economic policies had been too focused on austerity instead of growth, he said, and Italy's parliamentary system must be reformed together with the widely criticized electoral law that has virtually guaranteed stalemate.

The bespectacled and balding Letta is an urbane moderate who speaks fluent English and at 46 would be one of Italy's youngest prime ministers, representing a generational change from the era of Berlusconi and outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti.

A staunch pro-European and a member of the now-defunct Christian Democrat party in his youth, he is likely to be welcomed by foreign governments and markets and can also work with the center-right.

He is the nephew of Berlusconi's longtime chief of staff, Gianni Letta, and has numerous political friends on all sides of parliament, which could help ease the fractious climate since the election.

MARKET RELIEF

As Letta met close aides, the names being circulated as likely future ministers suggested a government broadly in line with Monti's outgoing technocrat administration but including senior politicians such as PDL party secretary Angelino Alfano.

Bank of Italy director general Fabrizio Saccomanni was seen as a possible economy minister and Enrico Giovannini, head of statistics agency ISTAT, may take over the industry ministry. Monti himself could return as foreign minister, helping to maintain the international contacts he cultivated as premier.

Investors had already reacted with relief to the prospect of an end to the intractable crisis, with Italy's two-year borrowing costs on Wednesday tumbling to their lowest level since the start of European monetary union in 1999.

However, the country's problems are not over, with significant differences remaining between left and right over economic policy and the center-left in disarray after letting slip an election it had once seemed sure to win.

These difficulties were put into sharp focus even before Letta was chosen, when Renato Brunetta, a senior member of Berlusconi's PDL party, said they would only support a government committed to repealing, and refunding, a housing tax introduced by Monti.

The center-left agrees only to a partial reduction of the tax and many economists say cuts in the levy would leave a gaping hole in Italy's public accounts.

Letta will also have to make sure he has his own party behind him. Factional infighting forced Pier Luigi Bersani to resign as party leader last week and there is significant internal opposition to any accord with Berlusconi.

Matteo Renzi, the ambitious young mayor of Florence seen as a potential leader of the center-left, could also prove a difficult partner to integrate.

Berlusconi gave a firm promise to Napolitano that he would support a coalition government in which his party shared power with the PD but favorable opinion polls may tempt him at some point to seek new elections.

Napolitano, who reluctantly agreed to serve another term as president, has made clear, however, that he will not accept endless squabbling between the parties and has threatened to resign if they do not unite behind economic and constitutional reforms.

(Additional reporting by James Mackenzie and Steve Scherer; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-president-set-announce-choice-prime-minister-054722232.html

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Whether human or hyena, there's safety in numbers

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Humans, when alone, see threats as closer than they actually are. But mix in people from a close group, and that misperception disappears.

In other words, there's safety in numbers, according to a new study by two Michigan State University scholars. Their research provides the first evidence that people's visual biases change when surrounded by members of their own group.

"Having one's group or posse around actually changes the perceived seriousness of the threat," said Joseph Cesario, lead author on the study and assistant professor of psychology. "In that situation, they don't see the threat quite so closely because they have their people around to support them in responding to the threat.'"

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the study appears online in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The study was inspired by MSU zoologist Kay Holekamp's research with wild hyenas in Kenya. Holekamp and her team played recordings of hyenas from other parts of Africa and found the hyenas listening to the voices were more likely to approach the source of the sound when they were in groups and more likely to flee when they were alone.

The research by Cesario and Carlos Navarrete, associate professor of psychology, was similar, only it dealt with humans and perceived distance of potential threats. In two separate studies of more than 300 participants, the researchers showed that people who are alone judge threats as much closer than when they are in a group.

Like most social species, hyenas and humans have developed adaptations over time to better deal with predatory threats.

"This is about evolutionarily significant threats, such as members of a different group coming to steal resources or attack you," Cesario said. "The cost of not responding soon enough to a threat like that could be death or serious injury. So seeing that threat as closer allows you to respond with enough time to spare. What our work shows is that having your group or coalition around you makes that kind of early responding less necessary."

The study dealt with racial bias and group threats. The participants, who were white, were assessed on how negative they were toward blacks and then asked to judge the distance to a black community, both when the participants were alone and as part of a group.

Cesario said the perceived threat can take many forms ? be it from other races, communities or even students from another university, as one nonrelated study showed.

"So this line of research has little to do with the makeup of the group ? whether it's members of another race or students from another college ? but more to do with the question of, 'Are you with me or not?'"

###

Michigan State University: http://www.newsroom.msu.edu

Thanks to Michigan State University for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127888/Whether_human_or_hyena__there_s_safety_in_numbers

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Is Facebook Targeting Links From TheBlaze as Spam? | TheBlaze ...

It has come to the attention of TheBlaze that some readers or sharers of our stories on Facebook have been experiencing problems.

In several cases, trying to access the link to TheBlaze?s story about Michelle Obama allegedly visiting the Saudi National in the hospital after the Boston bombings gave Facebook users warnings that the site could be spam.

In other cases, posting links ? any links ? from TheBlaze on Facebook resulted in a pop-up requiring a CAPTCHA code be filled out.

After filling out the code, the link would post just fine. Links from other media outlets though did not require a CAPTCHA code though.

Searching public posts on Facebook about TheBlaze revealed many were talking about potential problems and even calling it censorship:

TheBlaze contacted Facebook for comment on what might be causing this issue and learned from a Facebook Policy Communications?spokesperson that posts from TheBlaze ?were triggering a false positive on our spam systems,? which were recently re-calibrated.

The spokesperson said links from TheBlaze on Facebook should be working fine now.

Were Facebook users being unfair for jumping to censorship conclusions? TheBlaze has reported cases in the past where conservative bloggers have claimed Facebook unfairly shut down their accounts or penalized them for posts. Several pages for gun stores were recently shut down for violating Facebook?s policies as well. Conservatives have even launched their own social network as an alternative to Facebook.

But according to Facebook, in the case of TheBlaze?s links they have an explanation.

?

Related:

Source: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/25/is-facebook-targeting-links-from-theblaze-as-spam/

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