Pancreatic Cancer News Blog

blog：SEC, BofA plead for Merrill bonus settlement

Bank of America Corp and the top U.S. securities regulator sought to persuade a judge to approve their $33 million settlement of a civil lawsuit over the lack of disclosure of billions of dollars of bonuses at Merrill Lynch & Co.

A settlement would address part of what has become one of the hottest controversies of the global credit crisis.

In a filing on Monday, Bank of America told Judge Jed Rakoff of Manhattan federal court that it did not mislead shareholders about its approval of up to $5.8 billion of bonuses, saying it was “widely understood” that Merrill would pay out billions.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that the largest U.S. bank was wrong not to tell shareholders about the payouts, but that a settlement strikes a fair balance between deterrence and not punishing shareholders further.

“Reasonable people can debate whether the penalty should be higher or lower, but it is squarely within an acceptable range,” the SEC said.

Rakoff rejected the settlement on Aug 10, demanding many more details about who knew what and when about the bonuses, including the decision not to reveal what would become $3.6 billion of bonus awards. The merger closed on Jan 1.

blog：Why is the African continent poor?

The desolate, dusty town of Pibor on South Sudan’s border with Ethiopia has no running water, no electricity and little but mud huts for the population to live in.

You would be hard put to find a poorer place anywhere on earth.

I went there as part of a journey across Africa to ask the question “Why is Africa poor?” for a BBC radio documentary series.

I was asked to investigate why it is that the vast majority of African countries are clustered at or near the bottom of the United Nations Human Development Index - in other words they have a pretty appalling standard of living.

In Pibor, the answer to why the place is poor seems fairly obvious.

The people - most of whom are from the Murle ethnic group - are crippled by tribal conflicts related to disputes over cattle, the traditional store of wealth in South Sudan.

The Murle have recently had fights with the Lol Nuer group to the north of Pibor and with ethnic Bor Dinkas to the west.

blog：Ex-Beatle McCartney recalls 1960s death rumors

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has described rumors that he had died, which surfaced more than 40 years ago, as “ridiculous” and an “occupational hazard” for a member of one of the world’s biggest bands.

The conspiracy theory began in October, 1969, when a Detroit-based DJ claimed that the three other Beatles — Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison — had recruited a lookalike replacement for McCartney after he died in 1966.

He argued that because the man “posing” as McCartney on the cover of the Beatles’ 1969 album “Abbey Road” had bare feet meant it represented a corpse, and that the number plate on a car in the photograph was LMW 28IF — denoting McCartney’s age, if he had lived.

“It was funny, really,” McCartney, 67, told MOJO music magazine in an interview. “But ridiculous. It’s an occupational hazard: people make up a story and then you find yourself having to deal with this fictitious stuff.

“I think the worst thing that happened was that I could see people sort of looking at me more closely: ‘Were his ears always like that?

blog：Blast kills top Afghan official

Afghanistan’s deputy chief of intelligence has been killed in a suicide attack on a mosque in Laghman province, the provincial governor says.

Abdullah Laghmani and at least 21 other people were killed in the attack in the town of Mehtar Lam.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, told AP news agency a suicide bomber had targeted Mr Laghmani.

The attack came after the UN released a report saying opium cultivation had dropped significantly in Afghanistan.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said poppy cultivation had dropped by 22% in a year and opium production by 10%.

Meanwhile, European and US officials are meeting in Paris to discuss a new strategy in Afghanistan.

blog:“Whip It” remarkable directing debut for Barrymore

With “Whip It,” her remarkable debut as a director, Drew Barrymore proves that she is just as perky, quirky and talented behind the camera as in front of it.

Set in the exciting but less-familiar world of women’s roller-derby racing, the film, which also stars the ever-delightful Ellen Page in her first role since “Juno,” should perform exceptionally well for Fox Searchlight domestically and perhaps do even better overseas, given its exotic setting.

The fact that “Whip It” clicks on so many levels — heartwarming family story, rough-and-tumble display of grrl power and a secondary but tender and convincing romance — also can’t hurt. The film, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, opens October 2.

Page is Bliss Cavendar, a pretty, intelligent girl from small-town Texas who longs for the freedom that beckons from the hip big city of Austin. Her mail-carrier mother (Marcia Gay Harden) entertains dreams of her carrying off huge trophies in local beauty pageants, and her Milquetoast father hides out watching football games to avoid his wife’s wrath. One day, Bliss happens upon some fliers advertising an all-girl roller derby, and she’s hooked. Knowing that her loving but strait-laced parents would never allow her to involve herself in such a dangerous, working-class and dead-end activity, she begins leading a double life that, after lots of complications, finally catches up with her. It probably won’t be much of a spoiler if it’s revealed that everything turns out well in the end.

Blog:’It’s a pirate’s life for me’

A 25-year-old Somali pirate has told the BBC’s Mohamed Olad Hassan by telephone from the notorious den of Harardhere in central Somalia why he became a sea bandit. Dahir Mohamed Hayeysi says he and his big-spending accomplices are seen by many as heroes.
I used to be a fisherman with a poor family that depended only on fishing.
The first day joining the pirates came into my mind was in 2006.
A group of our villagers, mainly fishermen I knew, were arming themselves.

Blog: Effect unclear

Dr Gonsalkorale said it was unclear what caused IBS, and why hypnotherapy should help.
However, she said the condition was possibly linked to problems with muscle movement, or to increased sensitivity of the gut lining.
She said hypnotherapy may help the patient to gain better control over the way their gut works by influencing the release of hormones, or the nerve links between the gut and the brain.
It may also alter the way that the brain responds to incoming pain messages.
“For some patients, psychological factors and stresses may play a role in triggering or at least exacerbating symptoms.
“Whether or not they are the primary cause is still very debatable. Hypnosis can be used as a form of relaxation, to reduce stress.
“But it is not the whole story by any means. We know also that the therapy alters the way patients think about their symptoms

Blog:Other therapies

IBS is a common and painful medical condition that has a wide range of symptoms, including regular abdominal pain, diarrhoea and constipation.
Conventional medicines prescribed for IBS often ease symptoms partially, or not at all.
Many scientists now believe that the cause in many cases is a combination of mental and physical factors, and that the drugs commonly used to tackle it may be aiming at the wrong target.
Patients with IBS are more likely to be diagnosed with depression.
Dr Ian Forgacs, a consultant gastroenterologist from Kings College, says that doctors are often reluctant to prescribe anti-depressants, especially in patients who, apart from their IBS, show no outward signs of being depressed.
He urged them to consider other forms of psychological therapy, including hypnotherapy, as an alternative in some cases

Blog:Symptom severity

At the end of the study, those on psyllium, a naturally occurring vegetable fibre, reported symptom severity had been reduced by 90 points using a standard scale of rating problems.
For bran it was 58 points and for the placebo group, 49.
The report also showed that patients seemed less tolerant of bran, with more than half of the group dropping out during the trial, mostly because their symptoms worsened.
Soluble fibre can also be found in fruit such as apples and strawberries, as well as barley and oats.
But Dr Niek de Wit, one of the researchers, said: “It is unlikely that people with IBS would get enough from fruit and other foods to help them.
“I think adding psyllium to the diet is the best treatment option to start with. In the study, people did this by adding it to things such as yoghurt and it had a real effect.”

Blog:Unsustainable recovery

While this is a huge relief for many Singaporeans, the government remains cautious.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry says the economic growth seen between April and June “may not be sustained”.
“The real economic indicators are still plunging,” says Roman Scott of Calamander Group.
Retail sales suffered their biggest drop since 1999 in April. They fell at an annual rate of 11.7%, after dropping 7.3% in March and 5.5% in February.
This is not surprising, as people are worried about losing their jobs.
The government revised up its first quarter unemployment rate to 3.3%. That is a jump from 2.5% in December.