Twin explosions strike southern Syrian city

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria‘s state-run news agency says two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, causing multiple casualties and heavy material damage.

SANA did not immediately give further information or say what the target of Saturday’s explosions was.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the blasts went off near a branch of the country’s Military Intelligence in Daraa.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, says the explosions were followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

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“Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence will not diet for role

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “The Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence will not be dieting for a role any time soon.

Lawrence, 22, who plays the famished Katniss Everdeen in the life-or-death thriller series, told Elle magazine in an interview to be published on November 13 that dropping a few pounds will not be part of her script.

“I’m never going to starve myself for a part,” Lawrence said, a view out of step with many in diet-obsessed Hollywood.

Lawrence’s figure in “The Hunger Games” raised eyebrows of some critics, who believed the actress looked a little too healthy for a character struggling to eat.

“I don’t want little girls to be like, ‘Oh, I want to look like Katniss, so I’m going to skip dinner,” Lawrence said. “That’s something I was really conscious of during training…I was trying to get my body to look fit and strong – not thin and underfed.”

Suffering for a role by rapidly losing or gaining weight is part of Hollywood lore.

Natalie Portman was applauded for dropping some 20 pounds for her Oscar-winning role as a ballerina in 2010′s “Black Swan”. Likewise Robert De Niro nabbed an Oscar after packing on 60 extra pounds in 1980 boxing film “Raging Bull”.

Lawrence’s figure did not hurt the first installment of the “The Hunger Games” series, which was released in March and has grossed some $ 670 million worldwide. The actress has signed on for three sequels.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Vatican vows to fight gay marriage after gains in U.S., Europe

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The Vatican, reacting to strong gains for gay marriage in the United States and Europe, on Saturday pledged never to stop fighting attempts to “erase” the privileged role of heterosexual marriage, which it called it “an achievement of civilization”.

For the second consecutive day, Vatican media weighed in with forceful editorials restating the Roman Catholic Church‘s unequivocal opposition.

“It is clear that in Western countries there is a widespread tendency to modify the classic vision of marriage between a man and woman, or rather to try to give it up, erasing its specific and privileged legal recognition compared to other forms of union,” Father Federico Lombardi, said in a tough editorial on Vatican Radio.

Voters in the U.S. states of Maryland, Maine and Washington state approved same-sex marriage on Tuesday, marking the first time marriage rights have been extended to same-sex couples by popular vote.

Same-sex unions have been legalized in six states and the District of Columbia by lawmakers or courts.

Lombardi’s editorial on Vatican Radio, which is broadcast around the world in some 30 languages, called the votes myopic, saying “the logic of it cannot have a far-sighted outlook for the common good”.

Lombardi, who is also the Vatican’s chief spokesman as well as director of Vatican Radio and Vatican Television, said there was “public acknowledgement” that “monogamous marriage between a man and woman is an achievement of civilization”.

WHY NOT POLYGAMY?

“If not, why not contemplate also freely chosen polygamy and, of course, not to discriminate, polyandry?” he said.

Polyandry is when a woman has more than one husband.

The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is not a sin but homosexual acts are. It says the rights of homosexuals should be guaranteed but that their unions should not be recognized as equal to heterosexuals and they should not be allowed to adopt children.

The constitutionality of restricting marriage to unions between a man and a woman is widely expected to be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court soon.

The powerful U.S. Catholic Bishops conference, which is already at odds with the administration of President Barack Obama because its health care law obliges most employers to cover contraception, is expected to take a lead in trying to influence the court’s decision.

Earlier this week, Spain’s highest court upheld a gay marriage law, and in France the socialist government has unveiled a draft law that would allow gay marriage.

An editorial in Friday’s edition of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, said local Catholic Churches in many countries around the world were “the sentinels of religious freedom” for opposing gay marriage.

It called support for gay marriage “an ideology founded on political correctness which is invading every culture of the world”.

“The Church is the only institution to say that, while persecuting homosexuals in undoubtedly unjust, opposing marriage between people of the same sex is a point of view that must be respected,” the Vatican newspaper editorial said.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Sophie Hares)

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Four days later, Obama wins Florida

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - President Barack Obama was declared the winner of Florida's 29 electoral votes Saturday, ending a four-day count with a razor-thin margin that narrowly avoided an automatic recount that would have brought back memories of 2000.

No matter the outcome, Obama had already clinched re-election and now has 332 electoral votes to Romney's 206.

The Florida Secretary of State's Office said that with almost 100 per cent of the vote counted, Obama led Republican challenger Mitt Romney 50 per cent to 49.1 per cent, a difference of about 74,000 votes. That was over the half-per cent margin where a computer recount would have been automatically ordered unless Romney had waived it.

There is a Nov. 16 deadline for overseas and military ballots, but under Florida law, recounts are based on Saturday's results. Only a handful of overseas and military ballots are believed to remain outstanding.

It's normal for election supervisors in Florida and other states to spend days after any election counting absentee, provisional, military and overseas ballots. Usually, though, the election has already been called on election night or soon after because the winner's margin is beyond reach.

But on election night this year, it was difficult for officials — and the media — to call the presidential race here, in part because the margin was so close and the voting stretched into the evening.

In Miami-Dade, for instance, so many people were in line at 7 p.m. in certain precincts that some people didn't vote until after midnight.

The hours-long wait at the polls in some areas, a lengthy ballot and the fact that Gov. Rick Scott refused to extend early voting hours has led some to criticize Florida's voting process. Some officials have vowed to investigate why there were problems at the polls and how that led to a lengthy vote count.

If there had been a recount, it would not be as difficult as the lengthy one in 2000. The state no longer uses punch-card ballots, which became known for their hanging chads. All 67 counties now use optical scan ballots where voters mark their selections manually.

Republican George W. Bush won the 2000 contest after the Supreme Court declared him the winner over Democrat Al Gore by a scant 537 votes.

The win gave Obama victories in eight of the nine swing states, losing only North Carolina. In addition to Florida, he won Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Virginia, Colorado and Nevada.

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Syria opposition bloc elects Christian as leader

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Syria‘s main opposition group in exile has elected a Christian Paris-based former geography teacher as its new president.

George Sabra said Friday that his election as head of the Syrian National Council is a sign that the opposition is not plagued by sectarian divisions.

Sabra says the SNC‘s main demand is to receive weapons from the international community. The U.S. and some other foreign backers of rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar Assad have so far refused to send weapons for fear they can fall into the wrong hands.

Middle East News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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U.S. author Philip Roth says he’s done with writing

(Reuters) – Seminal American novelist Philip Roth, one of the world’s most revered authors, is retiring from writing, his publisher Houghton Mifflin said on Friday.

The “American Pastoral” author slipped his retirement announcement under the radar in an interview with French magazine Les Inrocks last month.

“To tell you the truth, I’m done,” Roth was quoted as telling the magazine. ” ‘Nemesis’ will be my last book,” he said of his 2010 short novel.

“He told me it was true,” Lori Glazer, Houghton Mifflin’s vice president and executive director of publicity, told Reuters on Friday.

Roth, 79, whose most famous works include “Goodbye, Columbus” and the sexually-explicit “Portnoy’s Complaint,” has never won the Nobel Prize for Literature despite his name often coming up as a leading contender for the award.

He is the author of more than 25 novels in a career spanning more than 50 years. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1997 novel “American Pastoral” and two National Book Awards.

But Roth told Les Inrocks that he had always found writing difficult and wanted nothing more to do with reading, writing or talking about books.

He said that at the age of 74, he started re-reading all his favorite novels by authors including Ernest Hemingway, Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and then re-read all his own novels

“I wanted to see whether I had wasted my time writing,” he explained.

“After that, I decided that I was done with fiction. I no longer want to read, to write, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore,” he was quoted as saying.

“I have dedicated my life to the novel: I studied, I taught, I wrote, I read – to the exclusion of almost everything else. Enough is enough! I no longer feel this fanaticism to write that I have experienced all my life. The idea of trying to write again is impossible,” Roth told the French magazine.

The New Jersey-born novelist is best known for his semi-autobiographical and unreliable narrator Nathan Zuckerman.

The novella “Goodbye, Columbus” catapulted Roth onto the American literary scene in 1959 with its satirical depiction of class and religion in American life.

Published along with five other short stories, “Goodbye, Columbus” won the National Book Award in 1960 – an award he would go on to win again in 1995 with the novel “Sabbath’s Theater.”

(Reporting By Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles, Editing by Jill Serjeant, Jan Paschal and Claudia Parsons)

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So You Think Obamacare is Radical? Take a Look at China

While the United States was wringing its hands over passage of the Affordable Care Act during President Barack Obama’s first term, the Chinese government was plowing ahead with health reform measures of its own. Now the world’s largest society is on the cusp of delivering on its promise to ensure that all of its citizens have some level of health insurance coverage and decent care, according to a new report published in the November issue of Health Affairs.

The majority of China‘s 1.34 billion people now have some healthcare insurance coverage, delivered through one of three major public programs. The biggest gains have been made in the country’s once-neglected rural areas. Moreover, the government has invested heavily in expanding its capacity to deliver care by establishing new clinics, training healthcare personnel and investing in medical technology, says the author of the report, Tsung-Mei Cheng, a health policy research analyst at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Chen conducted an in-depth interview with Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu — a follow-up of a 2008 meeting that took place when Chen was the newly named health minister and had just begun to draw up plans for healthcare reform.

The accomplishments overseen by Chen, a hematologist with a doctorate in systems biology, are notable, Cheng told Take Part.

MORE: China’s Booming Ghost Towns

“I am really impressed by what they have been able to achieve,” she says. “The government, once they put their minds to it, can do it. This, to me personally, is one of the biggest takeaway messages from watching what the Chinese did: Government can actually play a critical role in creating welfare.”

Healthcare reform emerged in China as a result of the country’s economic reform and growth over the last four decades. The shift to a market-based system led to a collapse in government funding of healthcare facilities and hospitals and the loss of health insurance for many Chinese. Only 10 years ago, hundreds of millions of people had forsaken health insurance and could not afford care, Cheng says.

“The market approach to healthcare got them this wholly unintended consequence,” she says. “The government told hospitals to basically fend for themselves. Find your own revenue. Use market mechanisms.”

But that led to soaring expenses for often unnecessary care and priced poorer people out of the system, she says. “It hurt the quality of healthcare and made it unaffordable.”

The first stab at reform came with the 2002 founding of a public-sector health insurance program for rural families. But healthcare reform grew exponentially beginning in 2009 when the government launched a three-year program to revamp the entire healthcare system and modernize medical care. The effort, Cheng writes, reflected the government’s desire to “recommit to the ethical principle of social solidarity, and deliver on principles of ‘equalization of access to public services’ so that all Chinese would have basic health care.”

Cheng cites the leadership of the 17th Communist Party Congress from five years ago as the driving force behind the change. “The congress said government will focus on building a harmonious society, which includes taking care of the public’s basic healthcare needs. That provided the ideological underpinning.”

MORE: China Goes High and Deep: Will Scientific Successes Aid Military and Mining?

The changes have been eye-popping. Today, 89 percent of urban residents and 97 percent of rural residents have health insurance compared to 55 percent and 21 percent, respectively, in 2003.

Access to care has been greatly expanded. There is now  one community health services center for every street in every one of China’s cities. Some residents of rural areas are accessing primary healthcare services for the first time.

“There is now much greater utilization of basic primary health care services,” Chen told Cheng in the interview.

The government issues each person a resident health card that can be used to access electronic records and immunization records, make medical appointments and pay bills. Chen predicts that by 2015,  80 percent of population will possess a card, which is good for one’s lifetime.

China’s health system is a far different system compared to the United States, to be sure.

The benefit packages offered to Chinese citizens  ”are not as fully comprehensive yet as health insurance coverage in many high-income industrialized nations. But we are steadily expanding them,” Chen said in the interview.

For example, the government in 2010 began providing heavily subsidized insurance coverage for selected diseases, such as pediatric congenital heart disease and leukemia, for residents in poorer, rural areas — who generally have less coverage and access to care than urban residents — because those conditions have well-established treatments that can prevent a huge cost burden.

Last year, the government started pilot programs to cover breast and cervical cancer, psychotic disorders, end-stage kidney disease, drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. And coverage of 20 more cancers went into effect this year.

“The benefits are expanding and the rate of expansion is rapid,” Cheng says. “Rural residents before had limited or no insurance.”

The government also established a “National Essential Drug List” of 205 Western drugs, 102 Chinese medicine drugs and some herbal medicine that are covered by insurance. Retailers are restrained by a zero-markup law for drugs on this list.

Despite the progress, many problems remain, Chen said. The country still lacks adequate resources to care for all of its people. There is an unequal distribution of health care resources and uneven quality among clinics and healthcare professionals in various regions. Rural areas remain in the most need of improvements.

“The major challenge we will face in public health policy is meeting the rising expectations that come with rapid economic growth,” Chen said in the interview. “There is still a gap between people’s expectations and what health reform has been able to deliver. . .Realizing the vision of a unified national health system easily accessible to all citizens is still some time off.”

Still, other countries that struggle with healthcare reform can learn from China’s rapid progress, Cheng suggests. It’s clear, she says, that having a unified, coordinated effort aimed at  a well-defined goal is critical to success — something China’s one-party system can embrace easier than democratic governments.

But, she adds, it’s also clear that government coverage of the poor is unavoidable.

“People need to understand that when you don’t have the money, you just don’t have the money,” Cheng says.

A mandate to force consumers to buy insurance may not be necessary, she adds. In China, rural residents are not required to buy coverage but most do because the plans are so heavily subsidized.

Finally, she says, China’s experience over the past 45 years provides a lesson on the delivery of healthcare through free markets.

“The market cannot take the place of government when it comes to providing citizens with equitable access and affordable healthcare,” she says. “This is not something the market can do. Nor is it reasonable for us to expect our private health insurance system to do it. That is why you need the government to step in.”

Question: Can U.S. leaders learn anything from healthcare reform in China? Tell us what you think in the comments.

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Shari Roan is an award-winning health writer based in Southern California. She is the author of three books on health and science subjects.

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CIA chief admits affair, resigns

CIA Director David Petraeus resigned his post on Friday, confessing to having shown "extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair." The former Army general rocketed to global prominence as the man in charge of the "surge" in Iraq and later the commander of American forces in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama said Petraeus had led the Central Intelligence Agency "with characteristic intellectual rigor, dedication and patriotism."

"I am completely confident that the CIA will continue to thrive and carry out its essential mission, and I have the utmost confidence in Acting Director Michael Morell and the men and women of the CIA who work every day to keep our nation safe," the president said in a written statement.

"Going forward, my thoughts and prayers are with Dave and Holly Petraeus, who has done so much to help military families through her own work. I wish them the very best at this difficult time," Obama continued.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a statement that did not specify a reason for Petraeus' departure but praised his colleague extensively.

"From his long, illustrious Army career to his leadership at the helm of CIA, Dave has redefined what it means to serve and sacrifice for one's country," said Clapper.

Petraeus went to work as CIA chief in September 2011 after heading up the war in Afghanistan. He had drawn fire in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya. His departure comes barely a week before he was scheduled to testify about the assault in closed-door sessions with the intelligence committees of the Senate and House of Representatives. Morell was expected to take his place, congressional aides said.

Petraeus' resignation letter, quoted by several news outlets, centered on his personal behavior.

"Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the President to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as D/CIA. After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours," he said. "This afternoon, the President graciously accepted my resignation."

Petraeus, 60, has been described as the father of the military's counterinsurgency doctrine. The charismatic officer had been cited as a possible future presidential or vice presidential prospect.

His wife, Holly, has worked inside the Obama administration, serving at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of Petraeus' most outspoken admirers, said the general "will stand in the ranks of America's greatest military heroes."

"His inspirational leadership and his genius were directly responsible—after years of failure—for the success of the surge in Iraq," McCain said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family."

In a statement, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said, "I very much regret the resignation of David Petraeus. This is an enormous loss for our nation's intelligence community and for our country.

"I wish President Obama had not accepted this resignation, but I understand and respect the decision," Feinstein added.

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Myanmar says Obama to visit later this month

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — President Barack Obama will make a groundbreaking visit later this month to Myanmar, an official said Thursday, following through with his policy of rapprochement to encourage democracy in the Southeast Asian nation.

The Myanmar official speaking from the capital, Naypyitaw, said Thursday that security for a visit on Nov. 18 or 19 had been prepared, but the schedule was not final. He asked not to be named because he was not authorized to give information to the media.

The official said Obama would meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as well as government officials including reformist President Thein Sein.

It would be the first-ever visit to Myanmar by an American president. U.S. officials have not yet announced any plans for a visit, which would come less than two weeks after Obama’s election to a second term.

Obama’s administration has sought to encourage the recent democratic progress under Thein Sein by easing sanctions applied against Myanmar’s previous military regime.

Officials in nearby Thailand and Cambodia have already informally announced plans for visits by Obama that same week. Cambodia is hosting a summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and Thailand is a longtime close U.S. ally.

The visit to Myanmar, also known as Burma, would be the culmination of a dramatic turnaround in relations with Washington as the country has shifted from five decades of ruinous military rule and shaken off the pariah status it had earned through its bloody suppression of democracy.

Obama’s ending of the long-standing U.S. isolation of Myanmar’s generals has played a part in coaxing them into political reforms that have unfolded with surprising speed in the past year. The U.S. has appointed a full ambassador and suspended sanctions to reward Myanmar for political prisoner releases and the election of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi to parliament.

From Myanmar’s point of view, the lifting of sanctions is essential for boosting a lagging economy that was hurt not only by sanctions that curbed exports and foreign investment, but also by what had been a protectionist, centralized approach. Thein Sein’s government has initiated major economic reforms in addition to political ones.

A procession of senior diplomats and world leaders have traveled to Myanmar, stopping both in the remote, opulent capital city, which was built by the former ruling junta, and at Suu Kyi’s dilapidated lakeside villa in the main city of Yangon, where she spent 15 years under house arrest. New Zealand announced Thursday that Prime Minister John Key would visit Myanmar after attending the regional meetings in Cambodia.

The most senior U.S. official to visit was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last December became the first U.S. secretary of state to travel to Myanmar in 56 years.

The Obama administration regards the political changes in Myanmar as a marquee achievement in its foreign policy, and one that could dilute the influence of China in a country that has a strategic location between South and Southeast Asia, regions of growing economic importance.

But exiled Myanmar activists and human rights groups are likely to criticize an Obama visit as premature, rewarding Thein Sein before his political and economic reforms have truly taken root. The military — still dominant and implicated in rights abuses — has failed to prevent vicious outbreaks of communal violence in the west of the country that have left scores dead.

Asia News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Exclusive: Google Ventures beefs up fund size to $300 million a year

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google will increase the cash it allocates to its venture-capital arm to up to $300 million a year from $200 million, catapulting Google Ventures into the top echelon of corporate venture-capital funds.

Access to that sizeable checkbook means Google Ventures will be able to invest in more later-stage financing rounds, which tend to be in the tens of millions of dollars or more per investor.

It puts the firm on the same footing as more established corporate venture funds such as Intel's Intel Capital, which typically invests $300-$500 million a year.

"It puts a lot more wood behind the arrow if we need it," said Bill Maris, managing partner of Google Ventures.

Part of the rationale behind the increase is that Google Ventures is a relatively young firm, founded in 2009. Some of the companies it backed two or three years ago are now at later stages, potentially requiring larger cash infusions to grow further.

Google Ventures has taken an eclectic approach, investing in a broad spectrum of companies ranging from medicine to clean power to coupon companies.

Every year, it typically funds 40-50 "seed-stage" deals where it invests $250,000 or less in a company, and perhaps around 15 deals where it invests up to $10 million, Maris said. It aims to complete one or two deals annually in the $20-$50 million range, Maris said.

LACKING SUPERSTARS

Some of its investments include Nest, a smart-thermostat company; Foundation Medicine, which applies genomic analysis to cancer care; Relay Rides, a carsharing service; and smart-grid company Silver Spring Networks. Last year, its portfolio company HomeAway raised $216 million in an initial public offering.

Still, Google Ventures lacks superstar companies such as microblogging service Twitter or online bulletin-board company Pinterest. The firm's recent hiring of high-profile entrepreneur Kevin Rose as a partner could help attract higher-profile deals.

Soon it could have even more cash to play around with. "Larry has repeatedly asked me: 'What do you think you could do with a billion a year?'" said Maris, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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James Bond returns: 007 things to know before seeing “Skyfall’

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – Fifty years after Sean Connery traveled to Jamaica in “Dr. No,” James Bond is back for the 23rd time in “Skyfall,” an instant classic in the Bond canon and a breath of fresh air for the franchise.

Bond has been on hiatus for close to four years, leaving some with the sour taste of “Quantum of Solace” – a bloated, action-heavy film many would rather forget. Daniel Craig as Bond seemed so promising in “Casino Royale,” his first film as the trigger-happy secret agent, where we found him playing cards, swilling martinis and bedding Eva Green.

Now Bond returns Thursday in Sam Mendes‘ “Skyfall,” joining forces with some old allies (Judi Dench as M) and new friends (Ben Whishaw as Q and Ralph Fiennes as a government official).

For a franchise celebrating its golden anniversary, it’s hard to imagine 007 could still surprise, but Mendes has issued a full-blown reboot, and TheWrap is here to help you catch up with seven things even the biggest Bond fan should know before seeing “Skyfall.”

Who got rid of the Bond girls?

When you think of Bond, you think of scantily clad women and passionate sex scenes – Ursula Andress traipsing out of the water in her bikini. Denise Richards in a midriff-baring tank top. Green and Craig in a hotel in Montenegro.

This time around, Bond girls are left on the sidelines. Berenice Marlohe appears briefly for instant salivation. But aside from Naomie Harris, the Bond girls play smaller roles, and, to everyone’s surprise, are mostly clothed – no bikinis, no lingerie. Just one shower scene in the shadows.

Craig spends more time with his shirt off than all of the women put together. Eat your heart out ladies.

Where are the exploding pens?

Every Bond fan alive has gadget-envy. From the jet pack in “Thunderball” to the stun-gun cell phone in “Tomorrow Never Dies,” 007 always has an array of toys at his disposal.

No more. The more modern society gets, the less Bond has to work with. Facing the most dangerous cyber terrorist in the world, Q outfits the secret agent with little more than a gun (indeed, a special gun) and a radio.

Radio? Yes, radio.

Is James Bond too old for the job?

When we first see 007, he seems the same chiseled, debonair exemplar of British fortitude. Yet we soon discover much has changed in the world of the 00s. It appears Bond dies a few minutes into the movie, but he resurfaces as a scruffy drunk, taking shots of booze at a bar on a tropical island. This Bond would rather fall asleep drunk at a bar than go home to his gorgeous mate.

When Bond is subjected to a full physical and mental evaluation, his fitness is failing, his aim askew and his mental state muddled.

The government questions his return as a 00, leaving his future up in the air.

When did the villains stop caring about money?

MI6, the legendary British intelligence outfit, appears in even worse shape. It has long been home to some of the world’s best agents, willing to go undercover at a moment’s notice in service to queen and country.

Yet on Bond’s 50th anniversary, its strategies are antiquated, and its field agents, ready as ever to engage in fire fights, appear defeated. Long gone are villains like Goldfinger (“Goldfinger”) and crime syndicates like Janus (“Goldeneye”). Cyber-crime is the new danger, and its perpetrators don’t want money, they want chaos.

What’s a secret agent to do when nerds rule the world?

Is this a Bond villain to remember?

How is it that only the Coen Brothers and Mendes recognize Javier Bardem’s talent as a villain? After his chilling portrayal of Anton Chiguhr in “No Country for Old Men,” the Coen Brother’s Oscar-winning Western, Bardem returns to his evil ways as Raoul Silva, a former MI6 agent hell bent on revenge.

His hair is blonde, his accent is spine-tingling and his plan pure evil. He doesn’t fit the typical Bond stereotype. He’s not Russian, he’s not wealthy and he’s not affiliated with a larger organization. He’s a lone wolf.

He’s also the best Bond villain in years, leaving us to wonder: who will they recruit next?

Does the song remain the same?

For those living under a rock, Adele sings the “Skyfall” theme song, bringing a little extra cultural cache and British bluster to the film. It’s been years since a Bond movie used the classic opening, replete with fake blood, gunshots and a roving spotlight, but “Skyfall” takes us into new territory – underwater.

While plenty of Bond openings have featured fire and sexy silhouettes, Mendes chooses aquatic optics and a submerged graveyard. Though the scene will divide critics, the song itself shows off Adele’s powerful voice. Considering some of the recent entries – remember Madonna’s “Die Another Day”? – this is progress.

Did Christopher Nolan inspire Mendes?

James Bond is one of the most famous characters in film history, but “Skyfall” appears heavily influenced by Nolan’s Batman films. In keeping with the Craig-led Bonds (which began one year after “Batman Begins”), “Skyfall” is darker than earlier films, both literally (a night scene in Shanghai) and thematically (the constant fear of an attack at home).

When M makes a speech to Parliament, she proclaims the world scarier than ever because our enemies are now in the shadows – a choice Nolanism. The villains’ yearning for chaos rather than financial reward echoes Liam Neeson’s League of Shadows, Heath Ledger’s Joker and Tom Hardy’s Bane.

The new Bond also resembles the new Batman, a man struggling with his role in a changed world, an outcast who only wants to serve his country.

Believed dead, he only returns to England because of an attack on British soil.

Upon his return, Bond is now a lone vigilante a la the caped crusader, standing on a roof waiting for his next move – or perhaps the bat signal.

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Pfizer expects generic competition in Canada after Viagra ruling

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Drug firm Pfizer Inc said on Thursday it expects generic drug companies to start producing their own versions of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra after Canada‘s Supreme Court ruled the patent was invalid.

The top court upheld an argument by Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, which said Pfizer’s patent application had not provided enough information about the active ingredient in Viagra.

“Pfizer expects to face generic competition in Canada shortly. The company stated that it is disappointed with the Court’s ruling,” Pfizer said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters. The firm’s Canadian patent had been due to expire in 2014. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Loughner gets life for deadly Ariz. rampage

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, partially blind, her right arm paralyzed and limp, came face to face Thursday with the man who tried to kill her last year, standing beside her husband as he spoke of her struggles to recover from being shot in the head.

"Her life has been forever changed. Plans she had for our family and her career have been immeasurably altered," said astronaut Mark Kelly, both he and his wife staring at the shooter inside a packed courtroom. "Every day is a continuous struggle to do those things she once was so good at."

Jared Lee Loughner, 24, was then ordered to serve seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years in federal prison for the January 2011 shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Giffords, outside a grocery store in Tucson, Ariz.

Loughner pleaded guilty under an agreement that guarantees he will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. He avoids a federal death sentence, and local prosecutors said Thursday they would not seek state charges.

One by one, survivors of the attack at a Giffords political event approached the courtroom podium to address Loughner, each turning toward him where he sat stoic and emotionless at a table with his attorneys.

"You took away my life, my love and my reason for living," said Mavanell Stoddard, who was shot three times and cradled her dying husband in her arms as he lay bleeding on the sidewalk after shielding her from the spray of bullets.

Susan Hileman, who was shot, spoke to him, at times visibly shaking.

"We've been told about your demons, about the illness that skewed your thinking," she said. "Your parents, your schools, your community, they all failed you.

"It's all true," Hileman said. "It's not enough."

"You pointed a weapon and shot me three times," she said, staring directly at Loughner. He looked back at her. "And now I will walk out of this courtroom and into the rest of my life and I won't think of you again."

Loughner's parents sat nearby, his mother sobbing.

Some victims, including Giffords, welcomed the plea deal as a way to move on. It spared them and their families from having to go through a potentially lengthy and traumatic trial and locks up the defendant for life.

Giffords didn't speak, but stood by Kelly and kissed her husband when he was done. He grabbed her hand and they walked away, her limping.

Earlier, Loughner told Burns that he would not speak at the hearing.

Both sides reached the deal after a judge declared that Loughner was able to understand the charges against him. After the shooting, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and underwent forcible psychotropic drug treatments.

Christina Pietz, the court-appointed psychologist who treated Loughner, had warned that although Loughner was competent to plead guilty, he remained severely mentally ill and his condition could deteriorate under the stress of a trial.

When Loughner first arrived at a Missouri prison facility for treatment, he was convinced Giffords was dead, even though he was shown a video of the shooting. He eventually realized she was alive after he was forcibly medicated.

Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall said she reached out to family members, victims and survivors and decided against filing charges and seeking the death penalty.

It's unclear where Loughner will be sent to serve his federal sentence. He could return to a prison medical facility like the one in Springfield, Mo., where he's been treated for more than a year. Or he could end up in a prison such as the federal lockup in Florence, Colo., which houses some of the country's most notorious criminals, including Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols and "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski.

Read More..

Merkel says Germany, Britain must work together on EU

LONDON (Reuters) – Germany and Britain must cooperate to work round their differences on the European Union‘s long-term spending plans, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

“Despite differences that we have it is very important for me that the UK and Germany work together,” Merkel said through a translator before a meeting in London with Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss the EU‘s 2014-2020 budget.

“We always have to do something that will stand up to public opinion back home. Not all of the expenditure that has been earmarked has been used with great efficiency … We need to address that,” she said.

EU leaders meet in Brussels on November 22-23 to try to secure a seven-year budget for the 27-nation bloc amid signs of differences of opinion over what action should be taken.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Apple slides to five-month low, uncertainty grows

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Read More..

War Widow’s Lawsuit Says Nat Geo, Fox Depicted Dead Husband’s Body, Aired Family Photo

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) – An Army staff sergeant‘s widow says in a lawsuit against National Geographic and Fox that a documentary from the companies depicted her husband’s dead body and showed a private family photo she believes was taken from his laptop after he died.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and to ban Nat Geo and Fox from using military family members’ images, names or likenesses for commercial purposes without their permission.

Nat Geo declined to comment.

Donnice Roberts, of Carthage, Texas, has two children with Staff Sergeant Kevin Casey Roberts. He was killed by an IED in 2008 during what was to be his last mission in Afghanistan, after two tours in Iraq. He enlisted two months after the September 11 2001 attacks, and received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

A year after he died, according to the lawsuit, she learned from another service member that he had seen a documentary called “Inside: Afghan ER” on the Armed Forces Network, broadcast in German, that depicted her husband’s dead body. It also featured a family photo from a trip to Disney World that she believes was taken from his laptop.

“Mrs. Roberts was very disturbed that her image, and more importantly, her children’s image would be broadcast around the world without their knowledge or permission,” the lawsuit said. “This is particularly true given the fanaticism associated with jihadist determined to kill Americans, including American women and children.”

“Moreover, Mrs. Roberts has fears and concerns that her minor children are depicted as the children of a warrior in the war on terror, which is fought by fanatic, radical individuals who have shown a propensity and desire to kill Americans, including women and children,” the lawsuit adds.

The lawsuit said the lawsuit was produced and distributed by the National Geographic Society and further promoted and distributed by Fox Cable Networks, Inc. and Fox Entertainment Group, Inc. through the cable network NatGeo and affiliated websites. The suit said it aired worldwide.

Roberts said when she contacted National Geographic Society seeking a copy of the photo, she was told she would need to sign a waiver. She refused.

(Pamela Chelin contributed to this story)

TV News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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LA County voters mandate condom use on porn sets

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County voters have approved a measure requiring porn performers to wear condoms while filming sex scenes, prompting a pledge by the adult entertainment industry to sue to overturn the measure.

With 100 percent of the county’s precincts reporting, Measure B passed 56 percent to 44 percent in Tuesday’s election.

The measure requires adult film producers to apply for a permit from the county Department of Public Health to shoot sex scenes. Permit fees will finance periodic inspections of film sets to enforce compliance.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which sponsored the initiative, says the measure will help safeguard the public, as well as porn workers, from sexually transmitted infections.

But the adult film industry, which is largely centered in the San Fernando Valley in suburban Los Angeles, says the requirement is unnecessary since the industry already polices itself by requiring performers to undergo monthly tests for HIV and other infections.

The industry also says porn viewers will not watch sex scenes with condoms, forcing adult film producers to relocate to where they can make movies that will sell.

On Wednesday, the Free Speech Coalition, a trade group representing the adult entertainment industry, said it plans to file a lawsuit to overturn the condom requirement on constitutional grounds.

“We believe in the calm, serious deliberations of the legal system, we will find that Measure B is in fact unconstitutional,” Diane Duke, the coalition’s executive director, said in a statement. “The adult film industry will not just stand by and let it destroy our business.”

In a letter sent to the county Board of Supervisors, the industry also requested that it be involved in discussions as to how the county will implement the requirements. It will also explore moves to neighboring states as soon as possible, the coalition said.

“While the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has tried to portray any move of jobs outside of L.A. County as unrealistic, the hard truth of the matter is that is exactly what this industry plans on doing now,” said James Lee, communications director for the No on Government Waste Committee, which opposed the measure.

Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said he is not fazed by threats of a lawsuit or of relocation. The issue is one of public health and safety for workers who run a high risk for sexually transmitted illnesses, he said.

The industry argument did not convince voters, he said. “There was a very high degree of awareness about this proposition,” he said. “Voters were educated about it.”

About 200 companies produce adult films in Los Angeles. A two-year health permit would cost about $ 11,000, comparable to permits for tattoo and massage parlors, Weinstein said.

“We don’t want one more person to get HIV,” he said.

___

Contact the reporter at http://twitter.com/ChristinaHoag .

Sexual Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Boehner: House GOP will work with Obama

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Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym of FRCI. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army and U.N. officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice-mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained because they had not yet been properly exhumed.

“People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,” Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. U.N. officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg confirmed that U.N. forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells “similar to the one in which six bodies were found,” and that “some of those wells are suspected mass graves.”

She stressed that Ivorian authorities were leading the investigation but that the U.N. was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the U.N.-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on the morning of July 20 after the perpetrators of the shootings reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office despite losing the election to Ouattara sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top U.N. envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that U.N. security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the U.N. forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid “a massacre.”

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights, known by its French acronym of FIDH, said it had information — including the preliminary results of autopsies — confirming that the six bodies found in October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

“The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,” said the organization, which counts Ivorian civil society groups among its members.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The U.N. has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town, including during a notorious March 2011 massacre that claimed hundreds of lives and was allegedly carried out by fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Duekoue residents belonging to ethnic groups that supported Gbagbo have long complained about abuses carried out by the FRCI, with some pointing to the direct involvement of the local commander, Kone Daouda. FIDH said in its statement that Daouda had been transferred following the discovery of the grave in October, and called for him to be interrogated over the matter.

The group also said two FRCI members were being “actively sought” after failing to return to their barracks on Oct. 16, noting that they are believed to have fled to neighboring Burkina Faso.

Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Exclusive - Amazon to win EU e-book pricing tussle with Apple

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union regulators are to end an antitrust probe into e-book prices by accepting an offer by Apple and four publishers to ease price restrictions on Amazon, two sources said on Tuesday.

That decision would hand online retailer Amazon a victory in its attempt to sell e-books cheaper than rivals in the fast-growing market publishers hope will boost revenue and increase customer numbers.

"Faced with years of court battles and uncertainty I can understand why some of these guys decided to fold their cards and take the whipping," said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, an ebook publisher and distributor that works with Apple.

"It's certainly another win for Amazon," he added. "I have not seen the terms of the final settlement, but my initial reaction is that it places restrictions on what publishers can do, slowing them down just when they need to be more nimble."

A spokesman at the EU Commission said its investigation was not yet finished. Amazon and Apple declined to comment.

In September, Apple and the publishers offered to let retailers set prices or discounts for a period of two years, and also to suspend "most-favored nation" contracts for five years.

Such clauses bar Simon & Schuster, News Corp. unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, from making deals with rival retailers to sell e-books more cheaply than Apple.

The agreements, which critics say prevent Amazon and other retailers from undercutting Apple's charges, sparked an investigation by the European Commission in December last year.

Pearson Plc's Penguin group, which is also under investigation, did not take part in the offer.

The EU antitrust authority, which in September asked for feedback from rivals and consumers about the proposal, has not asked for more concessions, said one of sources.

"The Commission is likely to accept the offer and announce its decision next month," the source said on Tuesday.

Antoine Colombani, spokesman for competition policy at the European Commission, said: "We have launched a market test in September and our investigation is still ongoing."

Amazon declined to comment, while Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Companies found guilty of breaching EU rules could be fined up to 10 percent of their global sales, which in Apple's case could reach $15.6 billion, based on its 2012 fiscal year.

AGGREGATE PRICING

UBS analysts estimate that e-books account for about 30 percent of the U.S. book market and 20 percent of sales in Britain but are minuscule elsewhere. When Amazon launched its Kindle e-reader, it charged $9.99 per book.

Apple's agency model let publishers set prices in return for a 30 percent cut to the maker of iPhone and iPad.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating e-book prices. HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette have settled, but Apple, Pengin Group and Macmillan have not.

The DOJ settlement required that retailers must at least break even selling all ebooks from a publisher's available list, according to Coker and Joe Wikert, general manager and publisher at O'Reilly Media Inc.

It was not clear if EU regulators will include a similar requirement, which would prohibit Amazon from pricing all ebooks at a loss, said Wikert, a former publishing executive.

In the United States, Amazon will likely price popular titles at a loss and try to make up the difference on a publisher's other ebooks, he said.

Coker said any such rule could be dangerous in Europe, which still has distinct markets.

"It could allow a single retailer to charge full price in a large market like the U.K., and then sell below cost or for free in multiple smaller markets as a strategy to kill regional ebook retailing upstarts before they take root," Coker said.

FROWNING ON ONLINE TRADE CURBS

Antitrust regulators tend to frown on restrictions on online trade and the case is a good example, said Mark Tricker, a partner at Brussels-based law firm Norton Rose.

"This case shows the online world continues to be a major focus for the Commission," he said.

"These markets change very quickly and if you don't stamp down on potential infringements of competition rules, you can have significant consequences."

(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Rex Merrifield, David Goodman and David Gregorio)

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Broadway takes a big hit from Superstorm Sandy

NEW YORK (AP) — Superstorm Sandy, which darkened Broadway for four days, predictably ravaged the box offices around Times Square, with shows losing more than $ 8.5 million from the previous week.

The Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway industry, released data Tuesday that showed, as expected, all shows took a hit. One of the hardest hurt was the Matthew Broderick musical “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” which lost $ 538,853.

Since the storm actually affected two weeks of data, the League estimates that grosses managed just $ 33.66 million for that period, a drastic fall from the same time frame last year, where the box offices earned $ 42.2 million. Attendance also plunged 19 percent from the 10-year average.

The storm, which struck last Monday, forced all 40 Broadway theaters to shutter the night before. All shows were up and running by Thursday night, but the damage had been done, though few expect the pain to last.

“It will come back to its former life, there’s no question about it. Broadway is New York and everyone celebrates the theater in this city,” said Barry Weissler, who has been producing work on Broadway since 1982. “It’s catch-up time.”

Most shows on Broadway have eight performances a week, but Sandy forced many, including “The Phantom of the Opera,” ”The Heiress,” ”Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “Chicago” to put on just six shows. “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “Evita” only managed five shows. Altogether, 48 individual performances were canceled.

Other shows that took a beating include “Wicked,” which lost $ 490,996, though it still managed to pull in $ 1,166,275. The least hurt was “Rock of Ages,” which lost just $ 59,209.

Sandy joins other recent shocks to have rocked Broadway finances, including the Sept. 11 attacks, which shuttered theaters for two days, and Hurricane Irene in 2011 that wiped away a weekend’s revenue.

“Storms will not stop us, the terrible tragedy of 9/11 will not stop us. Theater will continue. It’s one of the oldest art forms known to man and it will continue,” said Weissler, who together with his wife, Fran, has produced such shows as “Grease,” ”Chicago” and “Annie Get Your Gun.”

The League said that the losses from Hurricane Irene were actually larger than for Sandy. Not only were 66 individual performances scrapped for Irene, but the storm struck during the busy summer, not the slower fall.

But Sandy may have hurt off-Broadway theaters more. The SoHo Rep and The Bank Street Theater lost power and had some flooding, while many other downtown theaters lost power, including the MCC Theatre and SoHo Playhouse. The Canal Park Playhouse canceled all November and December performances.

The infectious drumming show “Blue Man Group” was quieted, the immersive, genre-bending show “Sleep No More” was stilled, and The Public Theater was shut down for almost a week. The lobby at its home at Astor Place is now a collection site for post-Sandy supplies.

Entertainment News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Looking Old May Signal Heart Trouble

Have you seen the Internet ads for the 53-year-old mom who looks 27? Not only does she look better than people who actually show their age, a new Danish study has found there’s a good chance she’ll live longer, too.

The older you look, the worse shape your heart is in, the authors of the ongoing Copenhagen Heart Study concluded.

The study, which began in 1976, followed 11,000 men and women for 35 years to find the connection between physical appearance and heart health.

Originally, the investigators paid attention to seven telltale signs of aging. They eventually found that wrinkles, gray hair and cholesterol deposits on the cornea of the eye were all part of the inevitable wear and tear on the body rather than predictors of bad health.

“These are signs of physical aging, not necessarily biological aging,” said the study’s lead investigator, Dr. Anne Tybaerg-Hansen.

That left four physical traits – a receding hairline, baldness on top of the head, earlobe creases and yellow, fatty deposits around the eyelid – as visible evidence of heart disease. People with at least three of these markers for aging had a 57 percent increased risk for heart attack and a 39 percent increased risk for heart disease.

When the researchers considered gender separately, they found that hair loss in women was not linked with an increased risk of heart disease. However, the men with receding hairlines showed a 40 percent higher risk in men with hair loss than those without.

Overall, the group for whom the new results raises a red flag was men between ages 70 and 79. In this group, 45 percent of those with all four aging signs developed heart disease, compared to 31 percent of those with none of the four.

The markers used in the study are often cited as predictors of heart disease. Scientists have long speculated that male-pattern baldness may be linked to high levels of testosterone, which, in turn, seem to be associated with a higher incidence of heart disease.

Experts have suspected for decades that earlobe creases and cholesterol buildup on the eye are signs of heart trouble.

Wrinkles, which weren’t associated with heart health in the study, have been tied to poor bone health. Last year, a Yale study found women with deeply furrowed brows in early menopause may also have weak bones.

Tabaerg-Hansen said her research gave no clear answers as to why the four physical traits were so closely associated with the risk of heart disease. The next step would be to try to find out why they’re connected and to see if they might also predict other diseases of aging, such as cancer.

Tabaerg-Hansen added that there’s no reason physicians can’t look out for these signs right now as they assess which of their patients are in poor cardiovascular health.

“This new study should give clinicians greater incentive to treat patients who show these physical signs,” she said. “They could suggest lifestyle changes and therapies for those who have the appearance of higher risk.”

The study results were presented at this week’s American Heart Association scientific meeting in Los Angeles. They have not yet been published.

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