Sleeping pills linked to almost fourfold increase in death risk

Sleeping pills prescribed by your physician are supposed to ward off the myriad health problems that come with lack of sleep.

But adults who take sleeping pills in even small numbers over their lifetimes may be nearly four times more likely to die earlier compared to those who are not prescribed sleeping pills, according to new findings published Monday in the British Medical Journal. And those prescribed sleeping pills may also be more likely to be diagnosed with cancer, the study found.

Researchers looked at electronic medical records of nearly 35,000 patients, fewer than half of whom took such FDA-approved sleep medications as Ambien, Restoril, Lunesta, and Sonata. They found that even those who look fewer than 18 sleeping pills a year were at greater risk of death, compared to those who were not prescribed sleeping aids.

An estimated 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from insomnia and other sleep disorders, which can keep them from functioning normally during the day. Untreated sleep disorders can lead to conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

For more information on sleep,visit the ABC News OnCall+ Sleep Center, where top experts answer your questions on sleep.

Such consequences from sleep disorders leave many doctors asking whether the findings from this study really suggest that sleeping pills are to blame, or whether those who take sleeping pills are at higher risk because of health conditions that potentially brought on the sleeping problems.

The study did not say why the patients were prescribed the sleeping medications, whether the patients were evaluated by a sleep specialist, or whether they were also undergoing other types of treatment for any underlying health conditions -- all important factors when weighing an increased risk of death, said Dr. Steven Scharf, professor of medicine at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

"Most chronic conditions, including cancer, are associated with insomnia and mortality," said Scharf. "Who knows what the cause here was?"

Six to 10 percent of Americans were prescribed sleeping pills in 2010, according to the study.

Sleep disorders can also be considered symptoms of underlying mental and physical conditions.

In fact, those in the study who were prescribed sleeping medications had higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and other conditions which may contribute to sleeplessness.

"I think the underlying conditions which may require sedative-hypnotics are the culprits, not the medicines themselves," said Dr. Scott Nelson, a family practice physician at Cleveland Family Medicine.

Many experts said these findings should not prompt patients to stop taking their medications.

"I think sleeping pills are helpful when there are short term stressors," said Dr. Richard Colgan, associate professor in the department of family and community medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Sleeping pills can be helpful for those who work unusual shifts, and for those who travel across time zones, said Colgan.

But the medications are not without side effects -- including drowsiness, impaired judgment, depression and heart problems. Misuse can be fatal. And, according to Dr. Lee Green, a professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Michigan, the risks outweigh the benefits.

Medication to treat sleeplessness is not as important as treating the underlying condition, he said.

"Sedation worsens sleep apnea, for example, and we know sleep apnea is associated with risk of death," said Green. "We tend to think that a sleeping pill once in a while is harmless, but there's no such thing as a medication free of risk."

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Goldman, Wells Fargo May Face Charges Over Bonds

Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo may face federal enforcement action related to mortgage-backed securities deals leading into the financial crisis, the banks said in regulatory filings on Tuesday. 

The disclosures are the latest sign government officials are stepping up action against banks that packaged home loans into bonds during the housing boom. The underlying mortgages later soured, spurring billions in losses for investors. 

Goldman [GS  Loading...      ()   ] and Wells Fargo [WFC  Loading...      ()   ] both said they received so-called "Wells notices" from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A Wells notice indicates SEC staff plan to recommend that the agency take legal action and gives a recipient a chance to mount a defense. 

Goldman received its Wells notice on Feb. 24, relating to a $1.3 billion subprime mortgage-backed securities deal in late 2006 that the bank underwrote. Goldman said it will be making a submission to the SEC related to the case and communicating with SEC staff to address their concerns. 

The bank has also received inquiries from governmental, regulatory bodies and self-regulatory entities concerning certain transactions Goldman entered with MF Global prior to the brokerage firm's bankruptcy filing. Goldman said it is cooperating with all such inquiries. 

Reuters earlier reported that Goldman purchased $1.3 billion worth of commercial paper from MF Global days before its bankruptcy on Oct. 31.  

Wells Fargo said its Wells notice related to its disclosures in offering documents for mortgage-backed securities. The bank said it is providing information requested by various regulatory agencies in connection with their investigations. 

Representatives of Goldman, Wells Fargo and the SEC declined further comment. 

The U.S. government is under intense pressure to show that it can hold Wall Street accountable for its contribution to the subprime housing meltdown that began in 2007. 

Last month, the Obama administration set up a special task force to investigate practices related to mortgage-backed securities. A settlement this month with five major banks, including Wells Fargo, over foreclosure-related abuses allows probes of mortgage bonds to go forward. 

Several banks, including Goldman and Wells Fargo, have already reached multi-million-dollar settlements with the SEC over crisis-era derivatives deals tied to subprime mortgages. The Wells notices detailed on Tuesday indicate the SEC is pursuing cases related to securitization of the underlying bonds as well.

In January, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department issued civil subpoenas focusing on mortgage-backed securities to 11 different financial institutions. He said the department had discussed the subpoenas with the SEC and added these subpoenas did not duplicate earlier requests from that agency. 

Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, said it is also facing investigations related to home loan origination practices. San Francisco-based Wells is the largest originator of mortgages in the United States. 

Last week, Citigroup [C  Loading...      ()   ] said it received a subpoena from federal and state regulators seeking information about the bank's "issuing, sponsoring, or underwriting" of mortgage-backed securities. 

The inquiries included a subpoena from the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice, which Citigroup received on Jan. 27, it said in its annual report. That same day Attorney General Eric Holder said the department issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions as part of a new effort to investigate misconduct in the packaging and sale of home loans to investors. 

In its annual report filing last week, Bank of America [BAC  Loading...      ()   ] said it has "received a number of subpoenas" from regulators and other authorities about the bank's underwriting and issuance of mortgage-backed securities.  

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

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U.S. health officials say new flu virus found in bats

A new strain of influenza A has been found in fruit bats, indicating for the first time that bats, like birds, can be carriers of the virus, though it is not believed risky to humans, according to US health authorities.

"This is the first time an influenza virus has been identified in bats, but in its current form the virus is not a human health issue," said Suxiang Tong, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's pathogen discovery program.

"The study is important because the research has identified a new animal species that may act as a source of flu viruses."

The influenza A virus was detected in a sample of three of 316 live little yellow-shouldered bats captured at two different sites in Guatemala.

That type of bat is not known to bite humans but feeds on fruit, and is native to Central and South America.

Previous flu pandemics, such as the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, which came to the public's attention as "swine flu," have been known to originate in animals and eventually transform so that they gain the ability to infect people.

"Fortunately, initial laboratory testing suggests the new virus would need to undergo significant changes to become capable of infecting and spreading easily among humans," said Ruben Donis, chief of the Molecular Virology and Vaccines Branch in CDC's Influenza Division.

"A different animal -- such as a pig, horse or dog -- would need to be capable of being infected with both this new bat influenza virus and human influenza viruses for reassortment to occur."

More details about the findings are published in the US journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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India Olympic berth win applauded

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
27 February 2012 Last updated at 05:07 GMT Penalty-corner specialist Sandeep Singh scored five of the eight goals The Indian media have applauded the performance of the country's field hockey team, which gained a berth in the London Olympics with an 8-1 victory over France on Sunday.

Penalty-corner specialist Sandeep Singh scored five of the eight goals.

The India team, eight-time Olympic gold medallists, failed to clinch a place at the Beijing Games four years ago.

Over the years, the game has lost its popularity in India which is primarily obsessed with cricket.

Birendra Lakra, SV Sunil and VR Raghunath also scored for India while Simon Martin-Brisac got France's only goal in Sunday's game in the final of a men's qualifying tournament.

"What was also heartening was they won by playing an attacking brand of hockey that had traditionally been India's forte, but was lost somewhere in the last decade during a musical chair of foreign coaches," The Indian Express newspaper wrote.

"Indian teams of the past would have gone into a shell after the initial impasse or crumbled. On Sunday, there was no giving up."

The Times of India newspaper said Sunday's win could "mark a turnaround for India's national game".

"The stage could not have been set better for India, who came to the tournament as favourites and dominated it completely," the newspaper said.

London, Here We Come! headlined The Asian Age.

'Methodical approach'

The Hindu said India's "Olympic dream" had been "rekindled" after the victory.

The newspaper attributed the win to a "methodical approach and the rock solid self-belief" of the team, being coached by Australian-born Michael Nobbs.

The win had "healed the wounds" of the team after India failed to qualify for the Olympics in 2004 - the first time in 80 years.

"It is nice that we have made it to London. If not, hockey would have died in London," Mohammed Shahid, an India veteran, told The Hindu.

The Hindustan Times described the victory as a "new beginning".

But the paper added that the emphatic win in the qualifiers "don't ensure a cakewalk in the London Games".

"In the recent past, India haven't won against top teams, including Australia... With over four months to go for the mega event, coach Michael Nobbs will have some work to do."

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Calling Chicken Little: Clouds Getting Lower

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK

Chicken Licken was right, the sky really is falling. NASA satellite data has shown that the Earth’s cloud tops have been lowering over the last decade.

Cloud-top height fell 1 percent on average between March 2000 and February 2010, according to measurements from the multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer mounted on NASA’s Terra satellite. That 1 percent means a reduction of 30 to 40 meters in the average maximum height of clouds, during the 00s.

While the short record means it’s difficult to draw any strong conclusions from the data, it does hint towards a longer-term trend. Roger Davies, the lead researcher on the project, warns that it’s something that should be monitored in the coming decades to determine how significant it is for global temperatures.

If there is indeed a consistent reduction in cloud height, and this isn’t just natural variability, then Earth would begin cooling to space more efficiently, reducing the surface temperatures and slowing the effects of climate change. “We don’t know exactly what causes the cloud heights to lower,” Davies said in a press release. “But it must be due to a change in the circulation patterns that give rise to cloud formation at high altitude.”

The Terra spacecraft, which launched in 1999 and records three-dimensional images of clouds around the globe, will continue gathering data in the coming years.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech [high-resolution]

Source: Wired.co.uk

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Michael Douglas films anti-insider trading video for FBI

Actor Michael Douglas has filmed a new public service announcement for the FBI that plays on his character Gordon Gekko from the film "Wall Street."

In 1987, Douglas won an Oscar for his portrayal of the fictional Gekko. Douglas and writer-director Oliver Stone constructed the villainous Gekko character as a cautionary tale of the excesses of corporate greed. But in the quarter century since the film's release, Gekko's infamous "greed is good" speech has become a rallying cry of many working on Wall Street.

But now, Douglas is playing on the character's fame to warn about the dangers of insider trading. The PSA begins with a clip from "Wall Street" before transitioning to a present-day Douglas, who says:

"Hello, I'm Michael Douglas. In the movie 'Wall Street,' I played Gordon Gekko, a greedy corporate executive who cheated to profit while innocent investors lost their savings.

"The movie was fiction, but the problem is real. Our economy is increasingly dependent on the success and the integrity of the financial markets. If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is."

FBI Special Agent David Chaves tells Bloomberg News that Douglas wanted to do something to help combat what he sees as a misguided culture on Wall Street. Chaves says Douglas told him people working on Wall Street often approach him, offering a "high-five" for his portrayal of Gekko.

"We thought one of the most revered actors of our time would be a great voice for combating crime on Wall Street," Chaves said.

An often-overlooked fact from "Wall Street" is that the Gekko character never says the phrase, "greed is good." While passionately arguing for a business structure in which corporations are operated by the actual shareholders who have a direct stake in the company, Gekko declares, "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

This is also not the first time Douglas has revisited the Gekko character. In 2010, Douglas and Stone reunited for a "Wall Street" sequel. While critics praised Douglas' performance (he was nominated for a Golden Globe for best supporting actor), the film was largely considered a critical and commercial disappointment.

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Detroit automakers race to keep up with sales

DETROIT (AP) -- Auto sales are growing so fast that Detroit can barely keep up.

Three years after the U.S. auto industry nearly collapsed, sales of cars and trucks are surging. Sales could exceed 14 million this year, above last year's 12.8 million.

The result: Carmakers are adding shifts and hiring thousands of workers around the country. Carmakers and parts companies added more than 38,000 jobs last year, with industry employment averaging 717,000 for 2011. And automakers have announced plans to add another 13,000 this year, mostly on night shifts.

But there's a downside. The newfound success is straining the factory network of the Detroit automakers, as well as the companies that make the thousands of parts that go into each vehicle. This could lead to shortages that drive up prices.

And it also has auto executives in a quandary. They got into trouble in the first place largely because their costs were too high. Now, they fear adding too many workers.

Ford, for instance, is "squeezing every last component, transmission, engine out of the existing brick and mortar," says Jim Tetreault, vice president of North America manufacturing.

Still, the hiring surge bolsters the argument of those who supported the federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009. The bailout has been a major issue in the days leading up to Tuesday's Michigan Republican primary.

And the hiring is good news for communities around the country that saw hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs disappear. Starting in 2005, GM, Ford and Chrysler closed 28 factories and eliminated 88,000 jobs. Parts companies cut another 234,000.

Now, if sales hit 15 million by 2015, as some experts predict, the three Detroit automakers could hire another 20,000 people, predicts Sean McAlinden, chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"You can only squeeze so much out of the same amount of people," says Itay Michaeli, an auto analyst at Citi Investment Research.

Laurie Schmald Moncrieff, president of a small parts-manufacturing company near Flint, Mich., says when demand for auto parts collapsed, she shifted production to parts for companies in green energy, aerospace and defense.

Now, automakers and other parts suppliers have her on speed dial, trying to line up everything from fuel pump parts to tools that make hoses. She just added six workers and may hire another five. "I see tremendous growth coming in the near-term," she says.

Like many parts suppliers, she's having trouble finding people with the skills to run machinery in her plant.

The hiring binge couldn't have happened at a better time for Michigan. Many of the new auto jobs came around the Great Lakes where the Detroit Three have most of their factories.

The bailout that helped bring the jobs could be a deciding factor in who wins the Republican presidential nomination. Both front-runners, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, opposed the bailout, and Tuesday's Michigan primary will show whether Romney damaged his chances in his native state.

Romney stuck to his stance on Monday, saying in an appearance on Fox News that President Obama favored the United Auto Workers union in the bailout. The president "was paying off the people that supported him and that, by the way, are trying to get him re-elected," Romney said.

But in a state where unemployment was above 14 percent just three years ago, any jobs are welcome. And Michigan is not the only region to benefit. Ford is adding positions in Louisville, Ky., Chicago and near Kansas City, Mo. Chrysler is adding jobs in Belvidere, Ill., and General Motors is hiring at plants in Tennessee, Kentucky, Texas and New York.

New jobs with auto companies don't pay as well as the old ones. Under union contracts, companies can pay new hires around $16 per hour, a little more than half the pay of longtime workers.

Foreign carmakers are also shifting production to the U.S. because of higher sales and the weak dollar, which cuts the profits they get from selling vehicles exported to America. Nissan is adding workers in Tennessee. Toyota just hired staff at a new plant in Blue Springs, Miss. Honda is hiring in Alabama and Ohio. Hyundai and Kia plants in Alabama and Georgia are running flat-out but can't meet demand for some models such as the Hyundai Sonata and Elantra.

The sales rebound comes with risks that are familiar to Detroit. Crank up production too much and carmakers have to sell vehicles at deep discounts. Boost production too little, and companies could run short of vehicles such as pickup trucks. And even if they find the right balance now, automakers are leery of raising long-term costs by adding plants and workers.

Six years ago, Detroit's automakers were losing billions, in part because they had too many plants and workers. And union contracts forced them to pay workers even if plants were shut down. So automakers kept the factories running regardless of whether vehicles would sell in order to cover expenses. They built too many cars and trucks and sold them cheap, sometimes at a loss.

Now, they're doing everything they can to keep costs under control.

Growth is putting the squeeze on Hyundai and Kia factories. But the affiliated companies will build as many vehicles as possible at two U.S. plants before constructing a new factory. John Krafcik, Hyundai's U.S. CEO, says the first choice is to find areas inside the plants that are slowing the assembly lines and fix them, "because plants are expensive."

GM also will try to handle growth by stretching factories, says North American President Mark Reuss. But he thinks the company will have to hire more workers if sales this year reach 13.5 million or beyond.

Auto factories in North America will reach 90 percent of their capacity if sales hit 14 million, says Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive Consulting, which forecasts auto production.

The lack of factories, though, could cause automakers to run short of pickup trucks this year, says McAlinden.

Detroit automakers, which dominate truck sales, had far too many pickup factories just seven years ago. They have closed eight truck plants since 2005, removing the ability to build 2.25 million pickups a year. With only nine North American pickup plants left, they may have cut too much, McAlinden says.

Last year Americans bought 1.8 million pickups, an 11 percent increase over 2010, as the economy improved and small and large businesses began replacing their aging vehicles. Pent-up demand is fueling the sales. The average age of a truck on U.S. roads has reached a record 11 years.

If sales increase as projected, companies also could run short of compact cars and small SUVs.

It adds up to what could be a challenging but profitable year for the industry, says Schmald Moncrieff, who runs the Michigan parts factory.

"A lot of things are going to start breaking loose all at once," she says.

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