Haiti assist bid injured by delayed U.N. reply

Tom Brown PORT-AU-PRINCE Fri Feb 26, 2010 1:13pm EST Related News Haiti preserve puncture as sleet turns camps to mudThu, Feb eighteen 2010U.N. assist arch chides agencies on Haiti reliefThu, Feb eighteen 2010Sarkozy visits Haiti, unveils vital assist packageWed, Feb seventeen 2010Tarps, toilets are priorities for quake-hit Haiti: U.N.Mon, Feb fifteen 2010One month after quake, Haitians stick on to weep deadFri, Feb twelve 2010 < 1 / 7 >

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Clutching involuntary attack rifles, truckloads of U.N. infantry patrolled the streets of Haiti"s cracked collateral on the day after the trembler strike last month, clearly preoccupied to the wretchedness around them.

World&&&&Natural Disasters

Cries for assistance from people digging for survivors in collapsed buildings were drowned out by the bark of heavy-duty engines as the infantry plowed by Port-au-Prince but interlude to stick on rescue efforts, majority less lead them.

A usual steer since they were deployed in 2004, the U.N. infantry huddled in the shade of their canopied vehicles.

There were about 9,000 uniformed U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Haiti when the upheaval struck on Jan twelve and they were the judicious "first responders" to the mess in the bankrupt Caribbean country, whose notoriously diseased executive supervision was impressed by the scale of the tragedy.

Initially, however, nothing of the peacekeepers appeared to be concerned in hands-on charitable service in what puncture healing experts report as the vicious initial 72 hours after a harmful trembler strikes.

Their reply to the abominable pang was singular to you do security and seeking for looters after the bulk 7.0 upheaval intended majority of the collateral and took what Haitian President Rene Preval says could be as majority as 300,000 lives.

There was looting in the capital, but it paled in some-more aged with the astringency of the charitable crisis.

Horribly-injured patients flooded overstretched hospitals, forcing healing staff to confirm that patients to yield and that were already as well far left to try saving.

"Doctors played God," pronounced Tyler Marshall, a maestro former Los Angeles Times match operative with an general assist organisation that helped out in a tent city erected at the tallness of the destruction on the drift of Port-au-Prince"s University Hospital, the country"s largest.

Scores of U.N. crew died in the quake, together with Hedi Annabi, head of the U.N. mission that was set up in 2004. That helps insist what majority have criticized as a glacially delayed kickoff of service operations after one of history"s misfortune healthy disasters.

But in the days and weeks that followed it mostly seemed that lessons from alternative disasters were abandoned in Haiti as fears of rioting or anarchy overshadowed concerns about removing assist out quickly.

The U.N."s tip charitable assist official, John Holmes, is between those who have chided service agencies, together with the United Nations itself, for you do as well small to assistance Haiti.

"We cannot ... wait for for for the subsequent puncture for these lessons to be learned," Holmes wrote in a trusted email initial published on the website of the biography Foreign Policy.

"There is an obligatory need to progress significantly genius on the ground, to urge coordination, vital formulation and sustenance of aid," pronounced Holmes.

Edmond Mulet, behaving head of the U.N. mission, concurred in an talk that it played a singular charitable purpose in the initial couple of days after the trembler since the operations were effectively decapitated.

"At the unequivocally commencement it was unequivocally formidable since all the domicile was utterly broken and all the care of the mission was killed," Mulet told Reuters.

"CRIMINALS AND BANDITS"

Mulet gained prominence for wielding an iron fist during a prior army as head of the U.N. mission when he led mostly Brazilian "blue helmet" infantry in a successful crackdown on Haiti"s heavily armed gangs.

And he has finished no tip about sophistry the competing needs of service operations with law enforcement, in his bid to lane down the some-more than 3,000 inmates who took value of the trembler to shun from the main prison.

"We are here additionally to yield security," he pronounced when asked about the mess of convoys of rifle-wielding U.N. infantry to poke for people trapped in the rubble of the busted capital.

"I still have to patrol, I still have to go after all these criminals and bandits that transient from the inhabitant penitentiary, the squad leaders, the criminals, the killers, the kidnappers. I cannot unequivocally confuse myself from you do that."

The service mission shifted in to higher rigging after U.S. infantry deployed in large numbers and set up a supply sequence to get food and disinfectant in to areas great out for aid.

But there were still majority bottlenecks and setbacks, mostly involving U.N.-linked food distributions hobbled by unsound organization, reserve and throng control.

Unfortunately, U.N. infantry in Haiti have over the years gained a repute for toughness and abuse some-more than for easing pang in the lowest nation in the Americas.

"The usually time I"ve seen one of these U.N. infantry burst out of the behind of a lorry was to kick up on somebody or take a shot at them," pronounced a piece of the U.S. Army"s 82nd Airborne Division, as he worked security during a new assist handout.

"These guys have since all of us in unvaried a bad repute here," he said, asking not to be identified.

Haiti"s wrecked infrastructure and bad ride links finished it formidable to get assist out and keep it flowing, but that frequency finished the incident opposite from that in alternative new disasters around the globe.

"POOREST AND MOST VULNERABLE"

"The lowest and the majority exposed people lend towards to live in the regions that are strike the majority by healthy disasters," pronounced Solomon Kuah, an puncture healing medicine formed in New York who outlayed 4 weeks in Port-au-Prince after the quake.

There are no arguable estimates for the series of survivors who died from injuries due to unsound healing supplies.

But Henriette Chamouillet, the World Health Organization"s deputy in Haiti, pronounced all from staff shortages to bureaucracy and a miss of make-up lists embroiled the smoothness of containers full of medicines from Port-au-Prince"s airfield to doctors on the ground.

Port-au-Prince sits usually 700 miles off the seashore of Miami, that is home to a large Haitian-American community, and it seemed ludicrous that so couple of the U.S. infantry rushed there spoke French or were accompanied by translators.

One retaining picture of pell-mell food distributions came when U.S. helicopters offloaded boxes of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) at a site in the capital. Many Haitians non-stop them up usually to toss them afar in offend since no French or Creole-language instructions were enclosed with the assumingly invalid packets of dust, explaining that they indispensable to be churned with H2O as piece of their preparation.

Rajiv Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, has touted the Haiti service mission as "the largest and majority successful general poke and rescue bid ever fabricated in history."

But some-more than 6 weeks after the upheaval hit, the mission is still mostly in an puncture reply mode. The U.N."s World Food Program is tying the food rations to 55-pound (25 kg) bags of rice and the Haitian supervision estimates that a million upheaval survivors are still vital in the streets in temporary encampments with no using H2O or toilets.

Doctors are roughly finished traffic with dire injuries but reconstruction for a little 40,000 amputees and rebuilding Haiti"s health infrastructure are between long-term challenges.

"This is unequivocally a mess of Biblical proportions," pronounced Lewis Lucke, who was the USAID executive in Iraq prior to entrance to Haiti as U.S. ambassador.

U.N. and alternative officials have pronounced the tellurian reply to Haiti"s upheaval was quicker and some-more in effect than in alternative new disasters, together with the Asian tsunami that killed 226,000 people in thirteen countries in Dec 2004.

But experts contend the United Nations has a lot to sense from smaller, some-more nimble healing groups similar to International Medical Corps, or IMC, and Paris-based Medicins Sans Frontieres, along with charities some-more experienced in distributing aid, such as CARE and Catholic Relief Services.

Kuah, who concurrent service efforts for IMC, a California-based organisation that had rarely learned doctors treating patients in Haiti twenty-three hours after the trembler struck, stressed the "need for speed" when it comes to saving lives.

"When you ask yourself if there were ways you could have prevented some-more mortalities or discontinued additional mortality, with earthquakes, in particular, it"s some-more timing than anything else," pronounced Kuah.

(Additional stating by Catherine Bremer, Jackie Frank, Patricia Zengerle, Mica Rosenberg and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Kieran Murray)

World Natural Disasters

Cree to fool around host to clamp boss Politics

Vice President Joe Biden will revisit Cree in Durham on Thursday to speak about issues critical to the center class, the White House voiced Tuesday.

Biden will be assimilated on the outing by Energy Secretary Steven Chu. They will speak about the Obama administrations concentration on issues such as formulating prolongation jobs and construction a "clean appetite economy."

The dual will debate and have remarks at Cree, that creates energy-efficient LED lighting products. Cree not long ago perceived a $39 million taxation credit by the sovereign impulse action that authorised it to squeeze new apparatus and sinecure workers to enlarge production.

Centrica trainer dismissed up over �1.8bn distinction

When it comes to the physical phenomenon market, it"s a subject of presence of the fattest. That was the summary from Sam Laidlaw - arch senior manager of British Gas-owner Centrica - yesterday. Laidlaw deserted complaints that not as big firms are struggling in a zone dominated by 6 big appetite giants. Unveiling a 1.86bn distinction for 2009, down 7 per cent on the before year, Laidlaw pronounced the appetite marketplace is operative well.

Hot topic: Centrica explain the appetite marketplace is operative well

Smaller firms have tended to go bust since of unlucky cost movements, definition utilities need to have strong finance management to prosper, he said.

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What"s more, the appetite zone will have to deposit up to 200bn in new infrastructure over the subsequent decade, that requires a corpulent change sheet. "You do have to have a little distance and scale to tarry in this business," he said. "I think the marketplace is operative fine." Laidlaw"s comments strife with the views of Ofgem, that pronounced on Monday that it wants to "raise the rival vigour on the big 6 appetite suppliers" by assisting new firms come in the market. The watchdog is deliberation measures that could force big generators to sell some-more of their outlay to third parties. Centrica shares rose 5.6p to 277.7p. The organisation has been articulate to politicians about the need for new mechanisms to deliver smallest prices. This is indispensable since of the high costs of using chief appetite stations and renewable energy, pronounced Laidlaw. He additionally lifted questions over the government"s 2020 renewables targets, indicating out costs of offshore breeze farms are expected to rise. But Centrica appears to have no difficulty creation ends meet. Profits at the residential British Gas multiplication leapt 58 per cent to 595m, triggering calls for cost cuts.

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Sick man of Europe springs behind in to life

David Smith: Economic Outlook & ,}

Think behind usually a integrate of weeks to when central total were expelled display that Britains economy hardly scraped out of retrogression in the last 3 months of last year.

Not usually was the UK late out of recession, it was hardly out of it at all. The feeble 0.1% climb reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) was an apology of a liberation and, as a small economists warned at the time, probably guaranteed a stand in drop in the initial entertain of 2010.

How opposite things see with the thoroughfare of time. The object has come out and a warm heat is display by in the liberation evidence.

I pronounced at the time that those subject to fourth-quarter total looked suspiciously diseased and so it has incited out. Now we know that the economy grew by 0.4% (and the figure competence be revised higher than that), whilst the eurozone, that creatively additionally had a 0.1% expansion rate in that period, has been revised down to zero.

Related LinksFactories open to hold up and give economy a liftBuilding industry shows uninformed signs of hold up

All that is sincerely really old but vicious history. What is additionally increasingly clear, however, is that the initial entertain incited out flattering well, notwithstanding a terrible, snowblighted begin in January.

Figures last week showed that industry bounced behind strongly in February, with manufacturing up by 1.3% and altogether industrial prolongation up 1%. Taking January and Feb together, both measures are higher than their normal in the prior quarter. Something really bad would have had to have happened last month, in alternative words, not to give a design of stability expansion over the quarter.

Indeed, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimates on the behind of these total that the economy probably grew by 0.4% in the first quarter, just in line with the prior 3 months, notwithstanding those weather setbacks.

Chris Williamson, arch economist at Markit, that produces the monthly purchasing managers surveys for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, pronounced his justification is unchanging with expansion of 0.5% in the initial quarter.

Though expansion in the use zone slipped behind in Mar after a really clever February, production one after another to energy forward and building a whole returned to expansion for the initial time in dual years.

With an ongoing manufacturing-led liberation in outlay entertainment movement and becoming increasingly broad-based, swelling to services and construction, the surveys prove that businesses are commencement to reconstruct inventories and lift expenditures on investment, pronounced Williamson.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, whose assessments have mostly supposing ammunition for critics of Britains economy, also offering a small assurance.

It expects first-quarter expansion of 0.5%, picking up to 0.75% in the stream quarter, that would be the fastest in the G7 with the difference of Canada.

One underline of the economy as we move by 2010 seems to be that Britains recovery will simply outstrip that in the eurozone. This is partly due to the value of carrying a rival pound. But it is additionally since there was regularly some-more to the British economy than the 8% of sum done at home product contributed by financial services. The coherence that stood Britain in good stead prior to the predicament will still be an value as the economy moves out of it. Policy, quite financial policy, has been really supportive.

There is still a possibility the ONS will play a googly on Apr twenty-three and inform that GDP did not grow in the initial quarter. That, however, would widen the credibility. Even so, it takes a prolonged time prior to people and businesses become assured liberation is receiving hold. Particularly in a pre-election period, statistical justification is simply discharged as propaganda. This is despite the actuality that not usually is the ONS eccentric as it has been demonstrating but so are the alternative providers of liberation evidence.

This is not remotely political. Though a small similar to to delight in gloom, we should be gratified the economy is recovering. But we are in that minefield of dodgy statistics and half-truths well well known as a British choosing campaign. Did each job combined in Britain in the past decade or so go to immigrants?

The work marketplace is in a state of permanent flux. Every month, hundreds of thousands of people get new jobs, whilst others retire or are done redundant. Since 1997, when central total for UK-born and non-UK innate practice started, millions of people in both categories have found jobs.

It is the box that in net terms, some-more new jobs have left to non-UK people than those innate here, as has been well well known for a small time. UK-born practice is up by 1m compared with 1997, from 24.3m to 25.3m, whilst non-UK innate employment has risen by 1.8m, from 1.9m to 3.7m. So about two-thirds of net new jobs have left to non-UK innate people.

A integrate of caveats are, however, essential. The initial is that, even after the recession, the working-age practice rate for people innate in the UK, 73.5%, is both higher than it was when the array began in 1997, 73.1%, but additionally higher than the 67% rate for people innate outward the UK.

The alternative is that an necessary reflection to foreigners operative in Britain is the actuality that millions innate in the UK work in alternative countries. There are no official total for this but we know that of the hundreds of thousands who emigrate each year, a high suit do so for work reasons. This is not to repudiate that a small people have bona fide concerns about the gait of immigration in new years. But lets have the full picture.

PS: A in accord with order of ride for round-robin letters is that the some-more signatories there are, the some-more it is expected to be wrong. Though economists are still arguing about it, the dad of them all was the Mar 1981 missive from 364 of them (including the benefaction administrator of the Bank of England) warning the Thatcher governments policies would lower the recession. As things incited out, Mar 1981 noted the begin of the recovery.

The series of commercial operation people endorsing the Tory oath not to deliver majority of the programmed National Insurance climb has not nonetheless reached 364 but give it time. Hard-headed businessmen, assumingly unaffected about slicing the bill deficit, incited to preserve when offering the blandishment of avoiding a taxation hike. The larger item on potency assets assumingly supposing on Friday by Sir Peter Gershon, right away advising the Tories, unsuccessful to finalise any of my doubts.

Let me not connect everybody with the same brush. The Engineering Employers Federation, that represents manufacturers, gave a indication response. Some employers will be relieved at the Conservative plans to retreat to some extent the climb in National Insurance, pronounced Steve Radley, the executive of policy. But until they see some-more item on how the necessity will be reduced, they will be endangered at what this competence meant for destiny taxation rises and intensity cuts in vicious spending to urge the infrastructure.

They additionally sojourn undone that they have listened small or zero from the main parties about how they will plunge into the obligatory tasks of shortening the deficit and rebalancing the economy.

That is what commercial operation should be saying, rather than jumping on this precarious bandwagon. But there is a china lining. The subsequent time commercial operation leaders siren up about drastically slicing the deficit, it would be wiser to omit them. Ill attend to what Sir Stuart Rose says about underpants but not open borrowing.

david.smith@sunday-times.co.uk

Manchester Uniteds Sir Alex Ferguson laughs off thought of Wales lapse for Ryan Giggs

By Steve Wilson and agencies 1051AM GMT twenty-six March 2010

Link to this video

Giggs pronounced he would cruise a lapse if he was asked to fill in for the immature Arsenal midfielder who suffered a damaged leg progressing this year, but Ferguson was discerning to boot the idea.

Asked about the probability of Giggs personification for Wales again, Ferguson pronounced "Ryan? You contingency be joking. I cant see it, it contingency have been a diseased impulse for Ryan. I cant see that happening."

Rooney fighting fit for Bolton trip Nani signs new contract Bolton v Man United preview Bulgaria up initial for England in Euro 2012 Hargreaves rejoins United first-team training Hargreaves fears suffering might impede full recovery

Giggs, 36, enjoying a excellent run of form this deteriorate for Manchester United, has not played for his nation given the summer of 2007, but with the Euro 2012 subordinate debate appearing and Wales but Ramsey he hinted that a lapse was possible.

It is something that I would have to speak about with John [Toshack, the Wales manager] and Sir Alex Ferguson," pronounced Giggs.

But, at this stage, I wouldnt boot the idea.

If I had that call from John I would have to think tough about it.

I would scrupulously cruise the idea. I wouldnt order it out.

Wales open their subordinate debate afar to Montenegro on Sep 3 prior to confronting Bulgaria, Switzerland and England.

Starting off well in a uninformed debate is vital, Giggs added.

Those initial dual or 3 games are so critical to get the total nation entirely at the back of the team.

Feds Hoenig supports Volcker order boundary on banks

Pedro Nicolaci da Costa WASHINGTON Wed March 24, 2010 1:03pm EDT

Kansas City Federal Reserve President Thomas Hoenig speaks at the American Economic Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in this Jan 5, 2010 record photo.

Credit: Reuters/Tami Chappell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. monetary remodel should embody a little form of the "Volcker rule," that would extent large monetary firms" capability to rivet in suppositional trading, Thomas Hoenig, boss of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank pronounced on Wednesday.

Hoenig, between a small minority of Fed officials to plainly call for banks deemed as well big to destroy to be damaged up, argued the country"s huge investment conglomerates had not served the broader economy well.

"Adopting a version of the due Volcker order would be full of health for long-term stability," Hoenig told a discussion sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "We have seen the arrangement of a absolute organisation of monetary firms."

Hoenig pronounced a little of the pull toward deregulation during the 1990s had been unpropitious to monetary stability, and indispensable to be reversed.

In particular, he pronounced big monetary holding companies should not be authorised to traffic for their own accounts, supposed exclusive trading. He pronounced they should be banned from investing in or sponsoring their own sidestep funds.

He additionally stressed the need for larger clarity in derivatives markets, that most censure for bringing the tellurian monetary complement to the margin of fall in late 2008.

Hoenig upheld efforts to give regulators the management to breeze down big monetary companies in an nurse fashion, but pronounced stream proposals left as well most at the option of the domestic process. There is "considerable room for difference in the hands of the Treasury," he said. "This needs some-more attention."

He combined that the substantial pledge by supervision of the widespread promissory note interests gave them an astray value in the market, together with cheaper borrowing costs and higher credit ratings.

GUARDING FED TERRITORY

Hoenig additionally used the forum to have the Fed"s box that, notwithstanding a little disaster in law in the run-up to the crisis, the executive bank should keep the supervisory powers over both large and small monetary institutions.

Some of the proposals from Washington target to slight the Fed"s purpose to concentration some-more to one side on the bigger banks.

Such a magnitude would "reconfigure the executive bank of the United States in to the executive bank of Wall Street. I think that would be intensely harmful," Hoenig said.

The central pronounced he would additionally similar to the Fed to fool around a big purpose in consumer protection. Analysts censure regulators, together with the Fed, for bad slip of credit label and debt sectors that aggravated the monetary crisis.

(For some-more stories on Fed process go to <FED/AHEAD>)

(Editing by Andrew Hay)

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Builder buys golf properties

National homebuilder Toll Brothers has purchased a infancy of the Hasentree oppulance golf village in northern Wake County for $23.46 million, or twenty-seven percent less than SunTrust Banks paid to buy the skill out of foreclosure eleven months ago.

Toll Brothers purchased a package of underdeveloped portions of the 934-acre plan as well as a little unsold parcels that have been developed, according to Wake County skill records. The understanding encompasses 576 acres and includes open space and amenities, a Tom Fazio-designed golf course, tennis courts, wake up centers and on foot trails.

Tom Anhut, a multiplication boss in Raleigh for Horsham, Pa.-based Toll Brothers, declined to criticism on the purchase.

The understanding is the ultimate pointer that inhabitant builders, after multiform years of lying low, are re-entering the Triangle market. Just this month Hanley Wood Market Intelligence, a California investigate firm, ranked Raleigh-Cary initial on the list of the healthiest markets between the tip 100 U.S. housing markets.

Raleigh developer Creedmoor Partners borrowed $39 million from SunTrust to rise Hasentree, an desirous plan that was emblematic of the housing boom.

The plan called for 650 lots -- majority indifferent for law homes labelled from $1 million to $5 million -- surrounding a golf march that facilities the same silt used at Augusta.

The plan ran in to difficulty when the housing marketplace began to mellow and lenders tightened standards, creation it harder for most consumers to squeeze homes. The luxury-home marketplace has been strike quite tough during the stream downturn.

david.bracken or 919-829-4548

Age-associated defects in schizophrenia Gene network-based research reveals astonishing results

Researchers are actively operative to brand the proceed means of schizophrenia, approaching secure in interactions in in in in between genes and the sourroundings ensuing in divergent gene countenance in the executive shaken system. Scientists have been investigate countenance changes in schizophrenia on an sold gene basis, nonetheless this plan has explained usually a apportionment of the genetic risk.

In the new work, a organisation of researchers led by Associate Professor Elizabeth Thomas of The Scripps Research Institute has taken a novel proceed to this problem, behaving a gene network-based research that referred to startling discernment in to schizophrenia development.

The organisation analyzed gene countenance interpretation from the prefrontal cortex, a segment of the brain compared with schizophrenia, sampled autopsy from normal people and schizophrenia patients trimming from nineteen to 81 years old. However, instead of only seeking at genes individually, Thomas and colleagues at the Scripps Translational Science Institute, Nicholas Schork and Ali Torkamani, deliberate interactions in in in in between genes, as well as groups of genes that showed identical patterns of expression, to brand dysfunctional cellular pathways in schizophrenia.

Once gene co-expression networks are identified, pronounced Thomas, we can afterwards ask how they are influenced by factors such as age or drug treatment, or if they are compared with sold cell sorts in the brain.

The gene network research referred to that normal people and schizophrenia patients have an suddenly identical connectivity in in in in between genes, but the majority startling anticipating was a poignant couple in in in in between aging and gene countenance patterns in schizophrenia. The organisation identified multiform groups of co-expressed genes that behaved otherwise in schizophrenia patients compared to normal subjects when age was considered.

A quite distinguished age-related disproportion in co-expression was found in a organisation of thirty genes associated to developmental processes of the shaken system. Normally these genes are incited off as a chairman ages, but in schizophrenia patients the genes sojourn active. This vicious anticipating strongly suggests that age-related divergent law of genes vicious for growth can insist at slightest piece of the phenomenon of schizophrenia.

Thomas explained that these commentary assistance to labour the developmental supposition of schizophrenia, that states that one or some-more pathogenic triggers start during vicious durations of growth to enlarge risk of the disease. Specifically, this work indicates that divergent gene countenance in developmentally associated genes competence be a poignant pathogenic trigger, occurring over a broader time-scale than expected.

Rather than a pathological trigger occurring at a vicious developmental time point, pronounced Thomas, the trigger is ongoing via growth and aging.

Furthermore, Thomas remarkable that the new investigate supports early involvement and diagnosis of schizophrenia. Treatment approaches directed at averting gene countenance changes and altering the march of the disease could be privately tailored to the age of the patient.

Men Take More Risks When Pretty Women Are Around

Being around a flattering lady can have men take some-more risks, anew investigate finds.

Researchers looked at the risk-taking behaviors of 96 youngadult men, with an normal age of scarcely 22, by asking them to do both easy anddifficult tricks on skateboards.

First, the immature men achieved the tricks in front ofanother man, afterwards in front of a young, tasteful female. (The attractivenessof the lady was exclusively assessed by twenty masculine raters.)

The testosteronelevels of the skateboarders were totalled after each trick. Testosterone is amale sex hormone that fuels passionate interest, arousal and activity, and is alsoassociated with increasing foe and risk-taking.

When skateboarders try tricks, they have a split-seconddecision about either to cancel the pretence or try to land it, formed on a mid-airevaluation of the odds of success and on the earthy costs that failuremight move such as descending prosaic on their face.

It was that impulse the researchers sought to examine,because it resembles the sort of unsure decisions that immature men have whenbehind the steering circle of a car or when in earthy confrontations with eachother. As a group, immature males are at the top risk of early genocide of anygroup in industrialized countries in piece since they are the greatest risk-takers.

As the researchers expected, the skateboarders took greaterrisks in the participation of the tasteful female, even when they knew there was agreater possibility they could crash. Along with this increasing risk-taking, theyoung men had higher testosterone levels when they achieved in front of thefemale than when they did their jumps in front of an additional guy.

"This examination provides justification for an outcome thathas existed in art, mythology, and novel for thousands of years: Beautifulwomen lead men to throw counsel to the wind," wrote the authors of thestudy, Richard Ronay and William von Hippel, of the University of Queensland inAustralia.

"These commentary indicate that, for men, the adaptivebenefits gained by interesting matesand intimidating rivals might have resulted in developed hormonal and neurologicalmechanisms that facilitated larger risk-taking in the participation of attractivewomen," they added.

The formula of the investigate are minute in the initial issueof the biography Social Psychological and Personality Science.

10 Surprising Sex Statistics The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos, and Bizarre Facts Top 10 Aphrodisiacs

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Q+A-Does Russia need to rein in rouble and if so how?

Fri Mar 12, 2010 5:23am EST

By Toni Vorobyova

Currencies

MOSCOW, March 12 (Reuters) - The Russian rouble is settingfresh 14-month peaks versus a euro-dollar basket on an almostdaily basis, increasing speculation the central bank could putthe brakes on the rally in order to protect economic growth.

Rate cuts, reserve requirement hikes and bigger currencymarket interventions are all among the possible tools -- ifauthorities decide they actually want to stop the rally.

Following are some questions and answers on the issue:

WHY IS THE ROUBLE RALLYING?

1. Oil. The price of Russia"s key export, has surged over 10percent in the past month, boosting prospects for the economy.

2. Rates. The central bank has cut the benchmark refi rateby 450 basis points since April 2009 to a record low. But at8.50 percent compared to rates of 1.00 percent or less in theother G8 economies, Russia still offers very attractive yields.

3. Taxes. To meet domestic tax payments, exporters need tochange their earnings into roubles. As the global economy andcommodity prices recover, this amount rises. The next round ofpayments is about to start, with bank Trust estimating that upto 200 billion roubles is due on Monday alone.

4. Europe"s woes. Concerns about the health of some Europeaneconomies has raised the appeal of emerging markets. Flows intoRussia Equity Funds hit a 20-week high of $411 million in thelatest week, according to EPFR data. [ID:nN11229971]

WHAT CAN THE CENTRAL BANK DO?

1. STEP UP INTERVENTIONS

The central bank lets the rouble"s floating trading bandshift by 5 kopecks for each $700 million of interventions at itsboundary. It has already done this 15 times since February,taking the band to 34.25-37.25 roubles per basket, dealers say.

The interventions at each step could be increased to $1billion or more. Aside from the risk of stoking inflation, thereis virtually no limit on how much foreign currency it can buy.This is likely to be the most effective tool against the rally.

But it would mean a step back on Russia"s path towards afree-float and goes against the central bank"s assertion thatrouble"s volatility will only increase in the future. Thirdly,inflation is finally on a downward trend after years ofovershooting targets and the central bank may be reluctant torisk this by flooding the market with too many roubles.

2. CUT RATES

Russia"s central bank had been expected to cut the refi rateby a further 75 basis points by end-September as inflation iseasing and the economic recovery remains fragile. [ECILT/RU]

The rouble"s rally has fanned expectations that the cutscould be bigger or faster -- ING and VTB Capital have both saidthe chances of a 50 basis point move this month have increased.

But cuts are unlikely to be deep enough to fully eraseRussia"s yield advantage at a time of rising risk appetite. Thecurrency has shown little reaction to past rate moves.

3. HIKE RESERVE REQUIREMENTS

This will limit the spare cash the banks have forspeculating on the currency market. The resulting reduction ofliquidity in the market will also help counterbalance the inflowof roubles from central bank interventions.

The central bank has signalled that reserve requirementhikes are likely in the future, but -- as with rate cuts --analysts doubt they can be substantial to have an big impact.

CAN IT DO NOTHING?

Politicians, who have in the past lamented the rouble"sstrength as a threat to economic growth, have stayed silent thistime, as have central bank officials.

The rouble is still 15 percent below the peak of 29.25against the basket set before the crisis hit in summer 2008.

Its gains of 2.5 percent in the past month are less thanhalf those seen in September, when the central bank did notswerve from the current interventions policy.

The rouble"s gains have been more pronounced against theeuro -- a potential boon for the struggling retail sector, ascheaper European imports could encourage consumers to buy more.

Against the dollar, the rouble"s move has been more modest,thus limiting the impact on the earnings of influential energyand commodity exporters and on the taxes they pay.

Letting the rally run its course would also prove Russia"sresolve to move towards a free-float by 2012.RISK OF CORRECTION?

Some analysts, such as those at BNP Paribas, are starting towarn that the rouble could be getting into overbought territory.

A correction could be caused by central bank actions, aretreat in oil, or an external event which hits risk appetite.But, with over $400 billion of reserves, Russia"s centralbank has the capacity to protect the rouble against an excessivesell off if necessary.

(Editing by Toby Chopra)

Currencies

Danisco backs Novozymes 2nd-gen biofuel cost perspective

COPENHAGEN Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:19am EDT Related News UPDATE 3-Danisco ups guidance after Q3 profits riseThu, Mar 18 2010Danisco backs Novozymes" 2nd-gen biofuel cost viewThu, Mar 18 2010Danisco turns to snakes, spiders for potent enzymesWed, Mar 10 2010

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish food ingredients and enzymes maker Danisco "agrees fundamentally" with rival enzymes producer Novozymes" view of the costs of producing second-generation bioethanol, Danisco"s chief executive said.

Novozymes and Danisco last month launched new enzymes for producing second-generation biofuels -- fuels made from plant waste rather than food crops -- and Novozymes said then that fuel production costs could be less than $2 per gallon.

Novozymes also said in mid-February that enzyme costs for cellulosic ethanol are now down to $0.50 per gallon.

"We are talking about the $2 range -- 50 cents on enzymes costs," Danisco Chief Executive Tom Knutzen told analysts in a conference call on the group"s third-quarter results.

"We are basically saying what another big industry player is also saying, and we fundamentally agree," he said in response to a question about what he thought of Novozymes" view of second-generation bioethanol production costs.

Knutzen said that Danisco enjoyed a competitive advantage in the business through its joint venture with Dupont in helping keep down capital costs of building plants for second-generation biofuels.

"So at least we have the feeling that we are certainly on par and with a likelihood that we are ahead to come up with the best commercial offering to the market before too long," he said.

(Reporting by John Acher)

Zain approves African item sale to Indias Bharti

Eman Goma and Victoria Howley KUWAIT/LONDON Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:48pm EDT Related News UPDATE 2-Zain board approves asset sale to Bharti-sourcesWed, Mar 24 2010Zain board approves asset sale to Bharti - sourcesWed, Mar 24 2010

KUWAIT/LONDON (Reuters) - Kuwaiti telecom Zain is about to sell most of its African assets to Bharti Airtel for $9 billion, finally giving the Indian buyer its much sought-after foothold in Africa"s fast-growing market.

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Zain said on Wednesday it will sign the deal in the next few days, confirming what sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier.

Due diligence for the deal, the second-biggest overseas acquisition by an Indian buyer after Tata Steel"s $13 billion purchase of Corus in 2007, has been completed successfully, Zain said.

Billionaire Sunil Mittal"s Bharti wants to establish a meaningful presence in Africa after two failed bids to buy South Africa"s MTN, the continent"s biggest mobile operator.

Exclusive negotiations for Zain"s African assets expire on Thursday.

"It"s good for Africa, it"s good for African mobile, it"s good for African consumers, and it"s good for Bharti"s shareholders also," said Michael Kovacocy, a London-based telecoms analyst at Daiwa Securities.

"Bharti"s way of operating is perfect for Africa. Many African countries have low GDP per capita. The ability to run an operation on a shoestring is a valued commodity," he said.

Bharti declined to comment.

Indian markets were closed on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Bharti shares closed 3 percent down in a slightly positive Mumbai market. Zain stock rose 1.4 percent on Wednesday to a new 23 week high.

Bharti is desperate to expand in new markets as cut-rate competition in its home market -- the world"s fastest growing -- squeezes margins and clouds its growth outlook.

Zain"s African businesses was considered a natural target for Bharti, which has thrived in an Indian market with low incomes and tariffs and a heavily rural population -- characteristics shared by African nations.

Zain was keen to lock in what many regard as a high price offered by Bharti and will concentrate after the sale on the Gulf and Middle East, Chief Executive Nabil bin Salama said last month.

The Kuwaiti group pulled back from an expansion spree last year and rejected an offer from France"s Vivendi for its African assets.

"I think Zain could still be quite an attractive company focused on a tighter geographic area," Martin Mabbutt, a Nomura telecom analyst, told Reuters.

Daiwa"s Kovacocy said Bharti had paid a premium, but said it could be argued that the company could extract much more value from the African business than Zain.

BHARTI READY WITH FINANCING

Bharti, 32-percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications, would pay a total of $9 billion in cash to Zain, including $700 million to be paid one year after the deal closes. The Indian firm will also assume $1.7 billion debt on the target firm"s books.

Bharti said on Sunday it had secured $8.3 billion in loans from a clutch of lenders, led by Standard Chartered, Barclays

and State Bank of India.

Analysts have said the huge loan to finance the deal would be a drag on Bharti"s earnings and no immediate return is expected from the target African assets, which are currently loss-making.

Another potential stumbling block is a dispute over the ownership of Zain"s Nigeria operations, of which it owns 65 percent.

Standard Chartered and Barclays were advising Bharti on the deal, while Zain was being advised by UBS.

(Additional reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee, Georgina Prodhan and Diana Elias; writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by David Cowell and Erica Billingham)

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