PRLog (Press Release) - Dec 29, 2011 - An Independent review site launches, giving individuals in U.S. and Canada a quick landscape of Mexican weight loss surgeons. MexicoBariatricSurgeons.com reviews the top bariatric surgeons including Dr. Fernando Garica, Dr. Ariel Ortiz, Dr. Ramos-Kelly, Dr. Mario Almanza and 15 other surgeons. The site reviews bariatric surgeons in six different markets in Mexico, including Tijuana, Cancun, Monterrey, Mexicali, Puerto Vallarta and Piedras Negras.
Review Methodology Our reviewers looked at different criteria in ranking these surgeons. The following factors were all taken into account when reviewing the surgeons. -Experience -Technical skills -Surgery success rate -Patient reviews -Age -Price -Place where surgeries take place
Guide to Picking The Right Bariatric Surgeon (http://www.mexicobariatricsurgeons.com) We offer a quick and useful consumer guide on picking the right Mexico bariatric surgeon. An interesting fact with laparoscopic surgery is that younger surgeons may preform better than older surgeons. ?Younger surgeons have better hand/eye coordination simply by virtue of video games. Surgeons over 40 have had to learn the hand/eye coordination that younger surgeons naturally possess due to the technology boom.?
The Growth For Medical Tourism Medical Tourism is a growing industry, poised for growth. As healthcare costs continue to increase, many patients are seeing the benefits of traveling to Mexico for their procedures. One study by Patient Beyond Borders, found that patients can expect to pay one-third the cost of bariatric surgery in Mexico -- compared to costs they expect to pay in the U.S. ?We are excited to see the potential of this rapidly growing industry? said the Manger of MexicoBariatricSurgeons.com.
Why Weight Loss Surgeons The continued growth for bariatric surgeons is evident because of the increasing obesity and overweight issues surrounding today?s society. In the United States, one-third of adults are obese; another one-third are overweight. This trend is only increasing.
Weight Loss and Metabolic Surgeons As more evidence mounts, surgeons are becoming aware the advantage weight-loss and metabolic has on type 2 diabetes. Surgeries like the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, and the duodenal switch are giving surgeons the best possible chances at reversing and resolving type 2 diabetes.
Things to Consider When Looking for a Bariatric Surgeon Here are three more important aspects to consider when reviewing bariatric surgeons:
1. It?s important to review a surgeon?s marketing habits. A surgeon may artificially boost their recognition in the public?s eye by pumping more money into advertising.
2. We advice patients look for surgeons who work in full-service hospitals, rather than surgery centers.
3. Surgical quality may decrease as the daily rate of surgeries increases.
WASHINGTON ? Americans are hopeful for what 2012 will bring for their families and the country, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, though most say 2011 was a year they would rather forget.
Nearly seven in 10 say the year gone by was a bad one, more than double those who consider it a success, according to the poll. But 62 percent are optimistic about what 2012 will bring for the nation, and more, 78 percent, are hopeful about the year their family will have in 2012.
Jeff Wolfe, 33, of Farmington, W.Va., said 2011 treated him well because he was able to find steady work as a lineman. But for the rest of the nation, things were "pretty rough," with so many Americans looking for jobs, he noted.
"For the first time since 2009, I worked all year," he said. Wolfe said he lost work in 2008 and again in 2010. But in 2011, the father of two school-age children said he was able to catch up on bills, buy his wife a new car and renovate his home.
Overall, the poll found 68 percent of Americans described 2011 as a bad year, compared with 29 percent who felt it was a good one.
A partisan divide, much like the one that ruled Washington this year, seems the only split in public opinion on 2011. Democrats were most likely to view 2011 positively (40 percent called it good), while independents and Republicans were less effusive. Beyond that, the poll found general agreement that 2011 is best left in the past.
Mary Burke, 57, of Ridgeland, S.C., felt economic pain in 2011. She saw prices rise for all of her expenses, from her light bill to groceries. "Paying $5 for a jar of mayonnaise is outrageous," she said.
Food and gas prices surged in 2011, but the most recent Consumer Price Index shows inflation leveling off. November statistics from the government showed a year-over-year inflation rate of 3.4 percent, the smallest such rise since April.
The AP-GfK poll found consumers are sensing the change. Just 18 percent of adults expect consumer prices to rise at a faster pace in the coming year, the lowest share to say so since the poll first asked the question in March. Most (51 percent) expect prices to rise at the same rate or more slowly.
And as the nation's economic fortunes overall appear to be tilting slightly positive, the public's expectations for the economy in the coming year are at their highest point since spring. According to the poll, 37 percent expect economic improvement in the next 12 months, compared with 24 percent who think the economy will slide downhill. That's the first time since May that significantly more people said things will get better than get worse.
On a personal level, 36 percent think their household's financial situation will improve over the next 12 months, while 11 percent think it will worsen. Americans' financial ebbs and flows affect their personal outlook for 2012. Those whose households have faced a job loss in the past six months or who describe their current financial situation as poor are less optimistic about what 2012 holds for them and their families than others, though that does not carry over to their forecast for the nation in 2012.
Optimism about the nation's path varies with views of the economy's direction. Those who say things have looked better in the past month are generally optimistic (79 percent), while just half of those who say things are getting worse feel positive about what 2012 holds for the country. And about 6 in 10 of those who distrust the two major political parties to handle the economy or job creation are pessimistic about how 2012 will turn out for the nation.
Burke said she is angered by politicians in Washington who she believes fail to look out for the interests of the American people.
"They don't care about me and you," she said. "They only care how they are going to line their pockets." As for the economy and nation improving in 2012, she said, "I pray and hope."
The partisan divide in impressions of 2011 persists in the outlook for 2012, with Democrats more optimistic than either Republicans or independents. But expectations for next year's presidential contest appear not to be a factor. Most partisans on both sides foresee victory for their side in the November 2012 presidential election: Three-quarters of Democrats say they think President Barack Obama will win re-election; three-quarters of Republicans say he will not.
The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. 8-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cellphone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
___
Associated Press writer Stacy A. Anderson contributed to this report.
MANAMA, Bahrain ? Bahrain's top prosecutor says the Gulf kingdom has wrapped up an investigation into an alleged Iranian-linked terror cell and plans to put the eight defendants on trial next month.
The head of public prosecution, Nawaf Hamza, said on Thursday the unnamed defendants will be tried in the island nation's High Criminal Court on charges of espionage and of having ties to an outlawed group that uses terrorism to achieve its goals.
Bahraini authorities in November accused the group of having links to Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard and planning attacks against high profile sites, including the Saudi Embassy and a Gulf causeway linking Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Iran rejects the allegations.
All Critics (135) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (131) | Rotten (4)
The Artist is the most surprising and delightful film of 2011.
A silent movie shot in sumptuous black-and-white, no less. A silent flick made with not a jot of distancing winking, but instead born of a heady affection for a bygone, very bygone, era of filmmaking.
It's a rocket to the moon fueled by unadulterated joy and pure imagination.
Strangely, wonderfully, The Artist feels as bold and innovative a moviegoing experience as James Cameron's bells-and-whistles Avatar did a couple of years ago.
"The Artist'' is a small, exquisitely-cut jewel in a style everyone assumes is 80 years out of date.
A beguiling tale about Hollywood's silent movie days that is itself silent, this made-in-L.A. French feature will charm cinephiles with its affection for one of the movies' golden ages.
...a good film with some great moments and two excellent lead performances...
full review at Movies for the Masses
...one of the most original films of this decade.
It's a valentine to the cinema that comes from the heart.
It's easy to dismiss The Artist as a simple love letter to the silent-film era, but there is a lot more at work here than just an attention-getting gimmick.
This film says a lot, without saying nearly any words. It's one of the best of 2011. (Content Review for Parents also available)
Not only does 'The Artist' clearly demonstrate that something was lost when movies started talking, but it also proves that we haven't begun to learn what can be done with images alone.
It may be silent, but The Artist earns some very loud applause
The Artist is a slight confection, really, but it's so delicious and knowing that it may well end up on any number of cineastes' desert-island lists. It's certainly on mine.
"The Artist" may be too cute to qualify as high art, but it's highly entertaining.
The story and the silent-era conventions may not be entirely original, but the director revives this uniquely American storytelling style with such infectious joy and life-affirming enthusiasm that it's nearly impossible not to respond in equal measure.
Essentially a stunt, but an expertly executed one that's immensely enjoyable, especially for movie buffs...a nimble, exuberant lark.
'The Artist' paints a glorious picture of old Hollyood.
In the more eye-pleasing The Artist, the plot eventually comes too close to its inspiration, though its early moments were headed for mastery - and transformation - of style.
Hazanavicius crafted more than a replica of the silent era... a masterwork that likely won't be imitated. How many movies in 2011 can you say that about? Only the best one.
"The Artist" is a delightful treasure. It is a charming mixture of comedy, melodrama and romance that cinema lovers should make a point of experiencing.
This is not some clinical dissection of bygone cinematic techniques; it's a lively, appealing effort that mostly rises above mere novelty.
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David Caton owes me one. I interviewed the head of the Florida Family Association last week during his bigoted but successful crusade to get companies like Lowe's to pull ads from All-American Muslim, the Learning Channel reality show about a community of Muslim Americans. Before Caton hung up on me ? he gets angry when you question his complaint that the show presents Muslims in too positive a light and not as crazed radicals plotting to impose Islamic shari'a law from Maine to Monterey ? I corrected his pronunciation of imam, a Muslim cleric, from Eye-mam to the proper Ee-mawm. Later that day, I heard him say it properly on CNN.
But that's all he got right. I concern myself with Caton ? who also likes to hire small planes to haul banners over Orlando warning people that homosexuals visit Disney World ? only for two reasons. One is that a major corporation like Lowe's actually caved to the Evangelical's ugly Islamophobia. The other is that he got his 15 minutes of fame at about the same time that Christopher Hitchens died, on Dec. 15. Hitchens was best known as one of the "angry atheists" for his 2007 best seller God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, and narrow-minded fundamentalists like Caton made his work a lot easier. So of course did extremist Muslims, as well as extremist Roman Catholics, Jews, Hindus and all the fanatics who ruin religion the way drunks ruin driving. Which is why Hitchens' attacks on faith, while brilliantly written, could also feel gratuitous.
(See "Christopher Hitchens, RIP.")
So it's fitting, at least for the silent majority of Christians who aren't hatemongering zealots but who derive hope and humane inspiration from our beliefs, that Caton and Hitchens should both be in the news during the Christmas season. The holiday's anticommercialization critics are right to argue that Christians spend too much time on outdoor lights at the expense of the inner light kindled by the story of God's incarnation in a manger. I'm as guilty as anyone in that regard. But Caton and Hitchens at least give us Christians a convenient place to start. They prod us on the one hand to assess what isn't Christian ? like demonizing gays and Muslims ? and on the other hand to reaffirm why Christianity and religion itself are a positive and not always poisonous influence in the world.
The crux of the Florida Family Association's campaign is Caton's preposterous claim, as he told me, that "every Eye-mam in this country wants to put the U.S. under shari'a law." Every imam I know here in Miami rejects the idea. "Muslims are only 6 million out of 300 million in this country," one reminds me. "We rely on U.S. law to protect our rights as a minority." They're also a minority who wish Christians well at Christmas: the Koran reverently mentions Jesus and the Virgin Mary almost 60 times. (See "Do Shari'a Courts Have a Role in British Life?")
One way, then, that Christians can practice Jesus' teachings of love, tolerance and charity this yuletide is by resolving to reassure folks like Muslims that we're not like the Florida Family Association. That we're committed to the code of Christmas ? "Peace on earth to people of goodwill" ? trumpeted by the same angels we place atop the trees in our living rooms.
That's also one of the best ways to answer Hitchens as well as other angry atheists like Richard Dawkins and quite a few members of my own hypersecular profession. It's a fairly widely accepted maxim that atheist fundamentalists, as I call them, can be just as intolerant as religious fundamentalists. And the problem they share is that both take religion way too literally. Just as Christian fundamentalists insist on a literal reading of the Bible, angry atheists tend to insist that belief in God qualifies you as a raving creationist. (See "Why Christopher Hitchens Is Wrong About Billy Graham.")
Here's what they refuse to get: Yes, Christians believe that Jesus' nativity was a virgin birth and that he rose from the dead on Easter. But if you were to show most Christians incontrovertible scientific proof that those miracles didn't occur, they would shrug ? because their faith means more to them than that. Because in the end, what they have faith in is the redemptive power of the story. In Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, an agnostic says to his Catholic friend, "You can't seriously believe it all ... I mean about Christmas and the star and the three kings and the ox and the ass."
"Oh yes, I believe that. It's a lovely idea."
"But you can't believe things simply because they're a lovely idea."
"But I do. That's how I believe."
I'm willing to bet it's how most believers believe. Before Hitchens died at 62 from esophageal cancer, he made a point of declaring he was certain no heaven awaited him. But that swipe at the faithful always misses the point. Most of us don't believe in God because we think it's a ticket to heaven. Rather, our belief in God ? our belief in the living ideal of ourselves, which is something even atheists ponder ? instills in us a faith that in the end, light always defeats darkness (which is how people get through the wars and natural disasters I cover). That does make us open to the possibility of the hereafter ? but more important, it gives us purposeful inspiration to make the here and now better.
With all due respect to the memory of Christopher Hitchens, making the here and now better would be difficult without religion. But it's also hard enough without the un-Christian antics of people like David Caton. As Christmas ought to remind us.
See TIME's 2011 Person of the Year.
See the Top 10 Everything of 2011.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Mike Munchak is in his first year as head coach of the NFL's Tennessee Titans.
Penn State's next head coach evidently won't be from Scranton.
It won't even be the man reported by some media outlets to be the search committee's top target.
Mike Munchak says he's happy where he is, thank you very much.
In his strongest comments to date on the speculation that his hiring as Penn State's next head coach might be imminent, the Tennessee Titans head coach and Scranton native said Wednesday he has "no interest" in succeeding Joe Paterno as the Nittany Lions' head coach next season.
"I love my alma mater, but I have no interest in being the head coach at Penn State," Munchak told The Tennessean. "I never want to leave Tennessee. I have a great deal of respect for Penn State, and I hope they find a great coach there. But I am happy where I'm at."
Despite rampant speculation that Munchak's loyalty to Penn State might lead him back to Happy Valley to contribute in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal that led to the firings of Paterno and university president Graham Spanier, as well as perjury charges against athletic director Tim Curley, it appears to be loyalty that will keep him away. Munchak has been part of the Titans organization since 1982, when owner Bud Adams and the then-Houston Oilers drafted him in the first round after a stellar career as a guard with the Nittany Lions.
The Scranton Central graduate is one of the organization's greatest icons. In 2001, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and after spending more than a decade as the Titans' offensive line coach, he achieved his dream of becoming an NFL head coach in February when Adams hired him to replace longtime Titans coach Jeff Fisher.
Munchak is one of just five Penn State players to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and he's the only former Penn State player ever to be named a head coach in the NFL.
In his first season, the Titans are 8-7 and still alive in the race for the second wildcard berth in the AFC heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
For his part, Munchak - who has a three-year contract with the Titans - said he has not talked to anybody at Penn State about the opening or the coaching search, in spite of reports that he might indeed have been at the top of the wish list for acting athletic director Dave Joyner and the search committee. Committee members have been tight-lipped in regards to the coaching search over the last several weeks, and few coaches have publicly acknowledged their interest in the job, never mind interviewing for it.
Interim coach Tom Bradley has interviewed, as have quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno and co-defensive coordinator Larry Johnson. A pair of Green Bay Packers assistants - quarterbacks coach Tom Clements and former Penn State and Pittsburgh Steelers safety Darren Perry - have said they would like to be considered.
Initially, Joyner said he hoped the coaching search would be completed before the bowl game, but in a statement released last week, he preached patience, saying a deliberate search was necessary to ensure the right coach would be hired. According to sources, it appears the earliest the university would introduce a new coach is the first week of January.
It appears that whoever that coach is won't be the man considered by so many to be the front-runner.
"It is not like I'm saying I want nothing to do with Penn State," Munchak told The Tennessean. "I am interested in what happens there, and I don't want to distance myself from Penn State.
"My point is, I have no interest in being the head coach there."
Twitter / ????: ?????????????????????????? ...???????????????????????????????????????2011 - 2011??Facebook,Twitter??????????????????? Il y a environ 2 heuresvia Tweet Button
BAGHDAD ? The United Nations and the Iraqi government agreed to relocate several thousand Iranian exiles living in a camp in northeastern Iraq, potentially averting a showdown with its residents. The dissidents, who have not said whether they would agree to move, reported a rocket attack on the camp.
The People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran, one-time allies of Saddam Hussein in a common fight against Iran, said Katyusha rockets struck near housing units inside the camp on Sunday night, but did not report any casualties.
A representative of the camp's residents said Monday they were still waiting to see the agreement before commenting on whether they would decide to relocate or not.
"We hope that it would officially include the minimum assurances so that it would be acceptable to Ashraf residents," said Shahin Gobadi. "Ashraf residents have repeatedly emphasized that they would in no way accept forcible relocation."
Since Saddam's overthrow, Iraq's new leaders have improved relations with Iran and have sought to shut down the camp, home to 3,400 residents and located in barren terrain northeast of Baghdad about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Iranian border. The U.N. reported that at least 34 people were killed in a raid by Iraqi government forces in April.
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq announced an agreement Sunday night that establishes a process to move the residents of Camp Ashraf to a temporary location. It did not give a timeline for the move or specify the new location.
A statement from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the residents would be moved to Camp Liberty, a former U.S. military base near the Baghdad International Airport.
At Camp Liberty, the U.N.'s refugee agency will interview the residents to determine their eligibility to get refugee status, before they can eventually be resettled in third countries, Clinton said.
"We are encouraged by the Iraqi government's willingness to commit to this plan, and expect it to fulfill all its responsibilities," she said in the statement. "To be successful, this resettlement must also have the full support of the camp's residents, and we urge them to work with the U.N. to implement this relocation."
The People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran first moved to Camp Ashraf during the regime of Saddam, who saw the group as a convenient ally against Tehran. The group is committed to the overthrow of the Iranian regime.
The group carried out a series of bombings and assassinations against Iran's clerical regime in the 1980s and fought alongside Saddam's forces in the Iran-Iraq war. But the group says it renounced violence in 2001. U.S. soldiers disarmed them during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been determined to close down the camp by the end of December. His government considers the camp as an affront to Iraq's sovereignty.
Last week, an Iraqi government spokesman said the government was working out a solution to the situation at Camp Ashraf with the U.N. and would allow the camp to stay open into January as residents are being relocated. At the time, representatives of the residents suggested they would be willing to move, as long as their security was provided for.
Under the agreement outlined by the U.N., the international organization will monitor the relocation process and then a team from the U.N.'s refugee agency will be deployed at the new location to process the refugee claims.
Officials from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad will also visit regularly, the State Department said.
The Iraqi government will be responsible for the exiles' safety during that time, and will have a liaison officer from the Ministry of Human Rights involved in the relocation, the U.N. said.
"I would like to highlight that the government is exclusively responsible for the safety and security of the residents both during their transfer and in the new location until they leave the country," said Martin Kobler, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Iraq.
The Iraqi government's vow to close Camp Ashraf had raised concerns that forcibly removing its residents would result in violence.
The People's Mujahedeen has been branded a foreign terrorist organization by the United States, a designation now under review by the State Department. It has been removed from similar blacklists in Europe.
Our troops are coming home! Let's hope they can find jobs in this perilous economy. The evidence suggests that many will return with emotional problems, some diagnosed but many not.
An example may be the recent story of Alan Sylte, who, according to court documents, shot a Lake City, Minn., police officer following an altercation with a woman ("Shooter was Iraq vet facing discharge," Dec. 21).
There have already been many examples of psychological stress in Minnesota, and there will be more, as the loyal and capable young men and women we've paid to defend (and kill for) our country come home to a lifestyle far different from what they've become accustomed to.
Some will adjust quickly; for others, the memories will haunt them to their graves, as has happened with Vietnam, Korea and World War II vets.
Can anything be done to ease the nightmares, the anxiety, the sense of futility which results from spending years of your life "on edge," not knowing whether you shall be alive the next day?
The Veterans Administration appears to be doing the best it can, but it will soon be overwhelmed by numbers -- there is always money to build the machines, train the soldiers and fight the war, but money seems always lacking to care properly for the physically and emotionally wounded as they return from battle.
The problem is made more difficult by the reluctance of our warriors to seek help for their emotional issues, lest they be considered weak by their comrades and superior officers.
Men and women of the military, it is possible to resume a normal civilian life, if you are willing to risk, take courage in hand and seek quality help.
You do not need to live the rest of your life as though you were still in battle. Check your VA office; call a therapist. There is help available. You owe it to your family and loved ones.
CHARLES REINERT, TRACY, MINN.
*?*?*
BIRDS AND WIND FARMS
Nature in its raw form is no picnic, either
?
It is amazing to me that so many uninformed well-meaning people want to protect all of the wildlife on the planet. Even a short course in ecology would help these people see that nature does a much better job of taking care of its own.
The controversy surrounding a Goodhue County wind farm is a classic example ("Wind farm tensions flare over eagle study," Dec. 17).
Yes, there is always a chance that a bird such as an eagle will be hit by a turbine blade, but the notion that stopping the project will somehow further protect the bald eagle from extinction is ludicrous.
In the 1960s, eagles were near extinction from another man-made product that no one was protesting, DDT. It took a well-researched and beautifully written book by Rachel Carson to draw attention to the connection between DDT and predatory birds' poor hatching success.
Today, bald eagles are thriving and in many areas are actually too numerous, because in our efforts to bring them back from the brink, we humans have overprotected them.
I would ask the protesters who are dragging animal carcasses to the Goodhue site in the hope of attracting eagles to come with me to northern Wisconsin and witness an adult bald eagle attacking, drowning, then eating an adult loon on the shore of a lake.
Or, if that's not evidence enough, we'll visit the site of a downed tree containing a years-old eagle's nest littered with the collars of small dogs and cats.
BOB GIBBS, MINNETONKA
*?*?*
SPEAKING OF WILDLIFE ...
In letter, 'Mark Trail' was misunderstood
?
I was puzzled by the Dec. 17 letter writer who questioned "continued inaccuracies in the portrayal of wildlife" in the comic strip "Mark Trail." The strip has never been as simple as this literal interpretation.
Each day readers are commissioned to reflect on its multidimensional meaning. "Mark Trail" is America's story -- one of intense philosophical searching (Lost Forest), one of temptation and lust (Kelly Welly), and one of purity and ultimate redemption (Trail's companions Cherry, Doc, Rusty and, most important, his dog and best friend, Andy).
Were the wolves in the strip referred to by the letter writer wrongly portrayed as hungry, vicious killers? A thousand times no! Are angry wolves a metaphor for the conflict and strife that resides in all of us?
Perhaps they are to be seen as Mother Nature beating the tar out of a domesticated bear, who attempts to exploit her womb? Perhaps the meaning is Old Testament: Paradise Valley in jeopardy from the lecherous Eve-figure Kelly Welly's quest for fame.
These are struggles we all must face. The writer belittles "Mark Trail" with his narrow analysis. I say go back to the strip and look again. Find the wilderness that you have misplaced.
MARTY SCRIBBLE, MINNEAPOLIS
? ? ?
Really? The letter writer is getting tired of "Mark Trail" due to its continued inaccuracies in the portrayal of wildlife?
Perhaps the writer doesn't fully understand that a comic strip, by definition, is a cartoon telling a humorous or adventurous story. If the writer doesn't enjoy a certain comic strip, one might suggest reading only the ones that provide personal amusement.
Looking at a recent comics page, there were four talking dogs, a talking spider, a talking pig, talking birds and two talking cats, not to mention a newborn with a mustache and glasses.
MADRID ? Spain will slide back into recession early next year with the current quarter and the first of 2012 both registering negative growth, new Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Monday.
De Guindos said he expects the economy ? the eurozone's fourth largest ? to contract by between 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent in the final three months of this year and again in the first quarter of next year. He said the outlook for next year was poor.
"Let nobody be fooled, the next two quarters are not going to be easy either in terms of growth or employment," de Guindos said.
Spain began to emerge from a near two-year recession last year. It had two successive quarters of growth in 2011 before posting zero growth in the third period.
De Guindos took office last week as part of the new conservative Popular Party government. He said then he was confident the country would emerge from its severe economic crisis and return to prosperity and its former status as a job creator.
Spain has the highest unemployment rate of the 17 countries that use the euro, with 21.5 percent joblessness, and is running a swollen budget deficit following the recession that started with the collapse of a real estate bubble.
The Popular Party won a landslide victory in Nov. 20 elections on a promise to get the economy moving again.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has pledged austerity cuts totaling euro16.5 billion ($21.6 billion) and promised labor reforms.
His government is to begin approving urgent measures Friday, including a freeze on filling new civil service vacancies. except in key areas such as the security forces.
Spain has already made sharp cuts to its national spending and introduced several reforms under the former Socialist government, but the economy has failed to respond.
The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center breast oncologist Dr. Suleiman Massarweh and his research team presented findings from their studies on relapse of breast cancer at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium this month.
The two studies aimed to characterize further risk factors for presentation with metastatic disease or risk of early metastatic relapse after initial therapy. Data for each study was collected from 1,089 patients at the UK Markey Cancer Center between January 2007 and May 2011.
The studies showed that patients who present with metastatic disease in an initial diagnosis tend to be older, have lower grade tumors, a high frequency of estrogen receptor positive disease, and a predilection for bone metastasis. In contrast, patients who present with metastasis and early relapse after treatment tend to be younger and have more aggressive "triple negative" higher grade cancer that recurs despite appropriate therapy.
The findings suggest that initial presentation with metastatic disease is reflective of neglected breast cancer that is otherwise indolent, but patients chose to ignore it until they have no choice but to seek help. As a result, treatment then becomes more complex, more expensive and lifelong, with a major impact on quality of life and societal function.
Massarweh describes the neglect of metastatic disease as a social problem, an education issue and a matter of perception. Most women know they should get regular mammograms, he says, but widespread information on other facets of breast care ? like self-exams, symptoms, and second opinions ? are needed.
One of my friends here in Colorado received this letter from his health insurance company a few weeks ago.
This will just be the beginning of the shakeout in the private market due to "uncertainty brought on by the regulatory environment" (i.e., the slow strangling of the private insurance industry under ObamaCare):
Dear [name omitted]
We are writing to inform you of an important decision World Insurance Company ("World") has made regarding individually underwritten comprehensive major medical insurance in Colorado, which impacts your coverage.
This letter contains important information about the cancellation of your policy/certificate.
Like all companies, we continually monitor our business strategy to ensure a competitive presence in the rapidly changing insurance market. With the changes in the major medical insurance marketplace and the resulting uncertainty brought on by the regulatory environment, World has decided it is no longer able to provide the kind of major medical protection our customers have come to expect. During a recent review of World's overall businesses, the difficult decision was made to exit the individually underwritten comprehensive major medical insurance business in all of our existing markets.
You can click on the image below to see it full size. Brian Schwartz also discusses this topic at, "State regulations force insurers out of market, Obamacare will make it worse".
The Chinese dairy company 'sincerely' apologizes to customers for the problems
The products, containing high levels of a potentially carcinogenic substance, have been destroyed
The company says the products did not go on sale and remained in storage
Chinese microblog users urge others to boycott the company's products
Beijing (CNN) -- Criticism of lax food safety standards at Chinese companies abounded on microblogging sites in China on Tuesday following the latest scare involving dairy products in the country.
Tests found that cartons of milk made by Mengniu Dairy Co., the largest Chinese dairy company, had excessive levels of aflatoxin M1, a substance that can cause liver cancer.
The tests were carried out by the Chinese Administration of Quality Supervision in an inspection of nationwide milk products on Saturday.
The toxin came from contaminated feed consumed by the cows that produced the milk, China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported.
The milk cartons did not make it to market but remained in storage during the inspection, according to a statement from the company on Sunday. Mengniu said that it had destroyed all the toxic milk as it sought to reassure consumers on its commitment to product safety.
Mengniu "once again would like to sincerely apologize to all consumers," said the statement. "We should earnestly learn from this lesson and comply with state and company quality and inspection standards with precision and care, making sure our product quality from every sector is approved in the future."
Users commenting on Chinese social media sites offered scathing opinions about the management of Chinese companies following Mengniu's admission of problems.
"Businesses in China are destroyed by Chinese businessmen themselves," said one user on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. "Don't ever blame us on buying foreign goods."
"If I have a baby one day, I will also buy safer milk powder produced overseas," the user wrote Tuesday.
"Let us boycott Mengniu altogether, show the shameless businessmen our strength." said a posting by another user.
Food safety scandals have blighted the dairy industry in China since 2008, when melamine-tainted milk killed at least six babies and caused kidney stones and urinary tract problems in hundreds of thousands of children.
Twenty-one people were tried and sentenced for their roles in the scandal, and two of them were executed.
In April, the police in Southwestern China seized more than 26 tons of melamine-tainted milk intended for use in ice cream, according to local officials.
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? The season finale of "The X Factor" enjoyed a sizable boost over last week to hand Fox an easy win Thursday night, according to preliminary numbers.
On a night that was marked by repeats from the competing networks, "The X Factor" from 8 to 10 p.m. jumped 31 percent over last week's performance, taking a 3.8 rating/11 share in the adults 18-49 demographic, and grew 25 percent in total viewership with 12.4 million total viewers. The strong showing gave Fox a win for the night in both the demographic and total viewership.
NBC ran "Who's Still Standing?" at 8, which received a 1.5/5 and 5.2 million total viewers, followed by repeats until "Prime Suspect" at 10, which drew a 1.0/3 and 4.4 million total viewers.
At ABC, the night began with the holiday special "Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice" at 8, which posted a 1.1/3 and 3.8 million total viewers, followed by an episode of "Prep & Landing" at 8:30, which also received a 1.1/3 and 3.6 million total viewers. "Charlie Brown: I Want a Dog for Christmas" at 9 also posted a 1.1/3 and 3.6 million total viewers. The network's evening closed with a "Grey's Anatomy" repeat.
KHARTOUM, Sudan ? The Sudanese army said Sunday that it killed the leader of the main Darfur rebel group in fighting earlier this week, touting his death as a key victory against a powerful rebel force that once threatened Sudan's capital.
Khalil Ibrahim led the Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, the most organized and effective military force in Darfur, the western region torn by conflict since 2003. The group did not join a peace deal signed last year in Doha, Qatar between other Darfur rebel groups and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's government in Khartoum.
The military said he was wounded Thursday during a military offensive in North Kordofan state, which borders Darfur. The government said he died of his wounds Saturday and that rebels quickly buried him. The government did not say how it confirmed his death.
JEM representatives could not immediately be reached for comment. If Ibrahim's death is confirmed by the group, it would be a serious blow to JEM, which has on several occasions threatened to bring down al-Bashir's regime in Khartoum by advancing toward the capital.
Sudanese Information Minister Abdullah Massar said Ibrahim's death sends a message to rebel groups "to listen to the voice of wisdom and join the peace process."
"Our doors are open and the Doha agreement is open," Massar said Sunday.
Darfur has been in turmoil since 2003, when ethnic African rebels accusing the Arab-dominated Sudanese government of discrimination took up arms against it. The Khartoum government is accused of retaliating by unleashing Arab militias on civilians ? a charge the government denies.
The conflict has tapered off since 2009, but the U.N. estimates 300,000 people died and 2.7 million have been displaced. The International Criminal Court in the Hague has issued an international arrest warrant for al-Bashir for his alleged role in crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Sudan's Information Minister told reporters Sunday that 30 people were killed with Ibrahim in the clashes. An army statement carried by Sudan's official SUNA news agency said Ibrahim and several associates were killed in Wad Banda, about 440 miles (700 kilometers) west of Khartoum in the North Kordofan region, which borders Darfur.
"The army cut all paths for the group as it was retreating and trying to cross into South Sudan to reorganize it forces," said Sudanese army spokesman Col. Sawarmy Khaled. "Our gallant armed forces were able to kill rebel Khalil Ibrahim along with some of his associates."
South Sudan seceded from the north in July to become the world's newest nation.
Fighting in Wad Banda had flared up in the past few days. On Saturday, the Sudanese army said Darfur rebels attacked three locations in neighboring North Kordofan, killing an unspecified number of civilians.
JEM has not claimed responsibility for the attack. However, in a dramatic push in 2008, hundreds of JEM fighters drove through the remote western region and attacked Khartoum's western outskirts. More recently, JEM spread its armed presence from Darfur into North Kordofan.
A security officer with the United Nations Mission in Darfur told The Associated Press that JEM mostly operates out of North Kordofan state and no longer has an official presence in Darfur. He said UNAMID officials have not confirmed Ibrahim's death. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
This year, UNAMID had nearly 26,000 troops and police stationed in Darfur, making it the largest UN peacekeeping operation.
Salma Turabi, daughter of longtime opposition leader Hassan Turabi, said she was at a gathering of mourners at Ibrahim's home in Khartoum when police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Sudan state television broadcast images of Khartoum residents outside military headquarters, waving Sudanese flags and celebrating the news of his death.
Ibrahim is believed to have recently returned to Sudan after years in exile in neighboring Libya, where he enjoyed the patronage of Moammar Gadhafi before the longtime Libyan dictator was ousted and killed in October. Sudanese officials said the JEM has been trying to regroup since losing Gadhafi's reported support for the rebel movement.
Ibrahim once served in al-Bashir's government before joining the rebellion. He refused to join a peace agreement signed in Qatar and backed by the African Union that was meant to provide a basis for a cease-fire, power sharing, equal distribution of wealth and compensation for displaced people.
"He completely refused to come to the negotiating table, he never joined the peace talks," Ismail el-Haj Musa, Sudanese deputy speaker of the council of states, told the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera TV on Sunday. "He committed acts against the state."
On Sunday, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamad, Sudan's interior minister, described the death of Ibrahim "as a message to all rebels and those carrying arms, calling on them to the negotiating table to resolve issues and reach a peaceful resolution for the best interest of the country," according the semiofficial Sudan Media Center.
BEIJING ? Vietnam laid out all the stops this week for a visit from China's expected future leader ? including flags with an extra star.
The gaffe came during a welcoming ceremony for Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in Hanoi on Wednesday when children waved flags decorated with six stars.
China's flag has only five stars ? one big star surrounded by four smaller ones.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters Friday that Vietnam had told the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi that it was "a technical error."
Relations between the countries have been strained over competing claims in the potentially oil-rich South China Sea. Vietnam and China signed cooperation agreements on youth affairs and health during Xi's visit.
This isn't exactly "new", it's been like this for a week or more but when you search for popular brands in Google's search results, if they have Google+ Brand pages - the search results for that brand will add the Google+ information.
The added details include:
Link to the Google+ Brand page
Most recent Google+ post
Most recent Google+ photo
Here is a picture of a search for [Macy's]:
A WebmasterWorld thread is waiting for Google Product Search and +Brand pages to be combined where searches for products return not just product images but Google+ data from the merchant/brand.
In a move that may help President Barack Obama win reelection, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson plans to run for the White House as a Libertarian, a source said.
Johnson, who served two terms as a popular governor, has been running for the Republican nomination to take on Obama in the November 2012 elections but trailing far behind the crowded field's front-runners.
Recent polls have found that a third-party presidential candidate could syphon enough support from Obama's Republican challenger to help the embattled Democratic incumbent score another term.
"Governor Johnson has been very clear that he is seriously considering seeking the Libertarian nomination, and will be holding a news conference December 28 to announce his decision about doing so," said his communications director, Joe Hunter.
An aide familiar with the decision told AFP on condition of anonymity that Johnson "will be announcing a Libertarian run, and many of our supporters have been informed of that."
A new national public opinion survey by Public Policy Polling released Tuesday found that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney alone among Republican candidates leads Obama, by a 47 percent to 45 percent margin.
If Johnson is added to the mix, Obama leads 43-41 over Romney, with nine percent going for the former New Mexico governor, according to PPP, whose poll had an error margin of plus or minus 3.7 percent.
Johnson, a conservative governor who often boasts of vetoing legislation more than 750 times, is a sharp critic of the US war on illegal drugs and has climbed four of the highest peaks on all seven continents, including Mount Everest.
Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium
NIST releases first certified reference material for single-wall carbon nanotubesPublic release date: 21-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Baum baum@nist.gov 301-975-2763 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued the world's first reference material for single-wall carbon nanotube soot. Distantly related to the soot in your fireplace or in a candle flame, nanotube-laden soot is the primary industrial source of single-wall carbon nanotubes, perhaps the archetype of all nanoscale materials. The new NIST material offers companies and researchers a badly needed source of uniform and well-characterized carbon nanotube soot for material comparisons, as well as chemical and toxicity analysis.
With walls of carbon only one atom thick and looking like a sheet of chicken wire curled into a cylinder, single-wall carbon nanotubes are one of several families of pure carbon materials that, because of their nanoscale size, have special properties. "Single-wall carbon nanotubes," says NIST chemical engineer Jeffery Fagan, "have exquisite optical, mechanical, thermal and electronic properties, and because of their small width but long lengthsthink of something like a long piece of hair but 10,000 times thinnerfull development of these materials should enable lighter, stronger materials, as well as improve many technologies from sensors to electronics and batteries."
Unfortunately, nanotubes are difficult to produce without significant impurities or in large quantities. Single-wall nanotubes, in particular, have been notorious for their relatively low quality and batch-to-batch variability. They typically are produced in complex processes using small particles of metal catalysts that promote the growth of the nanotubes. The resulting materialoften a powder not unlike the soot you would find in your fireplacehas frequently contained large amounts of impurities, such as other forms of carbon, and sometimes significant levels of catalysts.
"One of the issues that this reference material addresses is that there's no homogeneous lot that people can buy to do comparative measurements," says Fagan. "Even batch-to-batch, raw carbon nanotube powder samples have varied so much that there is no interlaboratory consistency. And that's particularly a problem for comparisons such as toxicity measurements. If you bought carbon nanotubes, you were pretty much guaranteed that your sample could be so different from anyone else's samples that either your measurements could be specific to some flaw of your material, or that others might not be able to reproduce what you were doing."
To address these issues, a multidisciplinary research team at NIST has worked to develop the metrology necessary for quantitative single-wall carbon nanotube measurements through a three-prong approach: basic measurement and separation science, documentary protocols and standards through international standards organizations, and now certified reference materials.
The new NIST product, Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2483, "Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (Raw Soot)," will directly address the issue of comparability. It is possibly the world's single largest supply of homogeneous, chemically analyzed, carbon nanotube soot where the uniformity of the samples from unit to unit is assured. Each unit of SRM 2483, a glass vial containing 250 milligrams of soot, is certified by NIST for the mass fraction values of several common contaminants: barium, cerium, chlorine, cobalt, dysprosium, europium, gadolinium, lanthanum, molybdenum and samarium. Reference values (values believed to be accurate, but not rising to the level of confidence that NIST certifies) are provided for an additional seven elements.
NIST also provides additional reference data useful for nanotube analysis, including thermal gravimetric and Raman data, as well as informational values for ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared absorbance spectra, near-infrared fluorescence spectra, Raman scattering spectra and scanning electron microscopy images. With these sets of information, purchasers of the material should be able to compare their results against the NIST values and against those from suppliers or after processing, ensuring a consistent point of comparison.
###
Single units of SRM 2483, "Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (Raw Soot)," are available from the NIST Standard Reference Materials Program at https://www.nist.gov/srm/. See https://www-s.nist.gov/srmors/view_detail.cfm?srm=2483 for details.
Standard Reference Materials are among the most widely distributed and used products from NIST. The agency prepares, analyzes and distributes more than a thousand different materials that are used throughout the world to check the accuracy of instruments and test procedures used in manufacturing, clinical chemistry, environmental monitoring, electronics, criminal forensics and dozens of other fields.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
NIST releases first certified reference material for single-wall carbon nanotubesPublic release date: 21-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Baum baum@nist.gov 301-975-2763 National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued the world's first reference material for single-wall carbon nanotube soot. Distantly related to the soot in your fireplace or in a candle flame, nanotube-laden soot is the primary industrial source of single-wall carbon nanotubes, perhaps the archetype of all nanoscale materials. The new NIST material offers companies and researchers a badly needed source of uniform and well-characterized carbon nanotube soot for material comparisons, as well as chemical and toxicity analysis.
With walls of carbon only one atom thick and looking like a sheet of chicken wire curled into a cylinder, single-wall carbon nanotubes are one of several families of pure carbon materials that, because of their nanoscale size, have special properties. "Single-wall carbon nanotubes," says NIST chemical engineer Jeffery Fagan, "have exquisite optical, mechanical, thermal and electronic properties, and because of their small width but long lengthsthink of something like a long piece of hair but 10,000 times thinnerfull development of these materials should enable lighter, stronger materials, as well as improve many technologies from sensors to electronics and batteries."
Unfortunately, nanotubes are difficult to produce without significant impurities or in large quantities. Single-wall nanotubes, in particular, have been notorious for their relatively low quality and batch-to-batch variability. They typically are produced in complex processes using small particles of metal catalysts that promote the growth of the nanotubes. The resulting materialoften a powder not unlike the soot you would find in your fireplacehas frequently contained large amounts of impurities, such as other forms of carbon, and sometimes significant levels of catalysts.
"One of the issues that this reference material addresses is that there's no homogeneous lot that people can buy to do comparative measurements," says Fagan. "Even batch-to-batch, raw carbon nanotube powder samples have varied so much that there is no interlaboratory consistency. And that's particularly a problem for comparisons such as toxicity measurements. If you bought carbon nanotubes, you were pretty much guaranteed that your sample could be so different from anyone else's samples that either your measurements could be specific to some flaw of your material, or that others might not be able to reproduce what you were doing."
To address these issues, a multidisciplinary research team at NIST has worked to develop the metrology necessary for quantitative single-wall carbon nanotube measurements through a three-prong approach: basic measurement and separation science, documentary protocols and standards through international standards organizations, and now certified reference materials.
The new NIST product, Standard Reference Material (SRM) 2483, "Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (Raw Soot)," will directly address the issue of comparability. It is possibly the world's single largest supply of homogeneous, chemically analyzed, carbon nanotube soot where the uniformity of the samples from unit to unit is assured. Each unit of SRM 2483, a glass vial containing 250 milligrams of soot, is certified by NIST for the mass fraction values of several common contaminants: barium, cerium, chlorine, cobalt, dysprosium, europium, gadolinium, lanthanum, molybdenum and samarium. Reference values (values believed to be accurate, but not rising to the level of confidence that NIST certifies) are provided for an additional seven elements.
NIST also provides additional reference data useful for nanotube analysis, including thermal gravimetric and Raman data, as well as informational values for ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared absorbance spectra, near-infrared fluorescence spectra, Raman scattering spectra and scanning electron microscopy images. With these sets of information, purchasers of the material should be able to compare their results against the NIST values and against those from suppliers or after processing, ensuring a consistent point of comparison.
###
Single units of SRM 2483, "Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (Raw Soot)," are available from the NIST Standard Reference Materials Program at https://www.nist.gov/srm/. See https://www-s.nist.gov/srmors/view_detail.cfm?srm=2483 for details.
Standard Reference Materials are among the most widely distributed and used products from NIST. The agency prepares, analyzes and distributes more than a thousand different materials that are used throughout the world to check the accuracy of instruments and test procedures used in manufacturing, clinical chemistry, environmental monitoring, electronics, criminal forensics and dozens of other fields.
[ | 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.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association unveiled the nominees for the 2012 Golden Globes Thursday morning, and they're not too radically different from the honors bestowed by other critics circles and the Screen Actors Guild over the past week. That means that The Descendants, The Help, The Artist and this year's "dark horse" Bridesmaids all got their respective nods.
Touchnote is a free app for iOS devices that will allow you to create and send a postcard to anyone in the world. I’m not talking about an electronic postcard, but an actual printed card with a stamp on it. Let’s check it out. Note: Click the images in this review to see a larger [...]
NEW HAVEN, Conn. ? Jurors on Monday began deliberating whether a man convicted of killing a woman and her two daughters in a 2007 home invasion should get the death penalty or life in prison.
The jury deliberated less than two hours before convening for the day in the sentencing phase of Joshua Komisarjevsky's trial in New Haven Superior Court. They will resume their talks on Tuesday.
Komisarjevsky and co-defendant Steven Hayes were convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters, 17-year-old Hayley and 11-year-old Michaela, at their Cheshire home. The girls' father, Dr. William Petit, was beaten but survived.
Komisarjevsky's attorneys say their client's life should be spared because he was sexually abused as a child and never got proper psychological help. Prosecutors cite the heinous and cruel nature of the crime.
The jury elected a forewoman and started discussing Komisarjevsky's fate after Judge Jon Blue told the panel, "You and you alone must decide whether Joshua Komisarjevsky, a fellow human being, is to live or die."
Hayes is on death row for raping and strangling Hawke-Petit and killing the girls, who died of smoke inhalation after they were tied to their beds, doused in gas and left to die in a fire. Hayes' jury deliberated last year into a fourth day before condemning him.
Komisarjevsky was convicted in October of the killings and of sexually assaulting Michaela. He didn't testify during his trial, and Blue reminded the jurors that they can't hold that against him.
Komisarjevsky was convicted of six capital felony counts that exposed him to a possible death sentence. Those counts are for killing two or more people, killing Michaela after sexually assaulting her, killing someone under 16 and three counts of killing someone he had kidnapped.
His defense is citing dozens of other so-called mitigating factors, including arguing that his role was relatively minor in relation to Hayes'. Prosecutors say it took both men to carry out the crime.
The defense also says Komisarjevsky suffered from a mood disorder from an early age that was never treated.
Defense attorney Walter Bansley said in his closing argument that the defense is sorry for the crime, but he said Komisarjevsky should get life in prison, describing him as damaged from the sexual abuse.
"Think of the terror Joshua must have experienced," Bansley said.
A death sentence also would be tougher on Komisarjevsky's 9-year-old daughter, Bansley said.
In support of the death penalty, prosecutor Gary Nicholson said during his closing argument Friday that the men created "the ultimate house of horrors," inflicting extreme psychological and physical pain on the victims that amounted to torture. He said the girls would have been screaming for their lives before their house was set on fire.
"It was shockingly brutal. It was evil. It was vicious," Nicholson said, adding the men created a "hellish inferno."
SRINAGAR, India ? Baton-wielding police in Indian-controlled Kashmir have broken up Muslim religious processions being held in defiance of a strict curfew in the disputed Himalayan region.
At least 30 people were detained Sunday after police imposed the curfew in the territory's main city, Srinagar, to prevent gatherings marking the Muslim holy month of Muharram from developing into anti-India protests.
Srinagar police chief Ashiq Bukhari says a group resisted police efforts to disperse their gatherings and scuffles broke out, but no one was reported injured.
Large public gatherings have been banned in Indian-administered Kashmir since the outbreak of an armed insurgency in 1989 demanding the Himalayan region's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan.
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Public release date: 21-Dec-2011
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