When it comes to romance, women prefer someone who tickles their funny bone while men opt for those who catch their eye, according to an international survey released on Wednesday.
The survey, conducted in 16 countries by Canadian romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises, asked men and women on six continents about traits they liked or disliked and how they went about trying to meet Mr. or Ms. Right.
The poll revealed differences between countries in the way people tried to impress the opposite sex.
Australians and British men frequently admitted drinking too much, while about half of German and Italian men said they had lied about their finances. Spaniards were the most likely to use sex to catch someone's attention.
Eighty percent of Brazilian and Mexican men said they had lied about their marital or relationship status, as did 70 percent of German women, the survey said.
When it came to meeting that special someone, a majority of respondents preferred to rely on friends for introductions. The Internet was not a popular hunting ground except in Portugal, where about half the surveyed men and women opted to find people online.
Both Spain and France suffered a gender gap. Thirty percent of Spanish men, but no Spanish women, looked for love online. In France, 40 percent of men but only 10 percent of women attended parties, bars and clubs to meet someone, but they did have one thing in common: both sexes rated looks as more important than their counterparts in other countries.
When it came to that first meeting, a majority of men polled said beauty was more important than brains, while women put a sense of humor at the top of their list.
Physical attraction was the top priority for men in France, Brazil, Greece, Japan and Britain. And while 40 percent of Portuguese men rated intelligence over looks in a first encounter, no Australian men did so.
In the United States and Canada, humor was considered the most important trait by both men and women, getting 63 and 73 percent of the vote respectively.
20060127
Man with 11-woman commune
Police found a stun gun and tear gas Friday at the Tokyo home of a man who said he persuaded 11 younger women to live with him by chanting a spell, media reports said.
Police suspect he used the weapons to prevent the women, mainly in their 20s, from leaving, the reports said.
Hirohito Shibuya, 57, was arrested Thursday for allegedly threatening a 20-year-old woman who was reluctant to join the commune by telling her that if she left she would be turned to mincemeat, they said.
He denied threatening the woman, Kyodo news agency said, adding that he also allegedly told her he was a former senior officer in Japan's military with secret agents around him.
Shibuya, a bald, rotund man with bags under his eyes, has attracted heavy media attention this week after claiming he chanted a spell to attract the women.
He had married and divorced several of the women, who continued to live with him, the reports said.
Asked what the incantation was, he told a newspaper: "When you say it, even unattractive men become attractive. But I won't say it because if I do, I'll die."
Police confiscated several books on hypnosis from his home, Kyodo said.
Police suspect he used the weapons to prevent the women, mainly in their 20s, from leaving, the reports said.
Hirohito Shibuya, 57, was arrested Thursday for allegedly threatening a 20-year-old woman who was reluctant to join the commune by telling her that if she left she would be turned to mincemeat, they said.
He denied threatening the woman, Kyodo news agency said, adding that he also allegedly told her he was a former senior officer in Japan's military with secret agents around him.
Shibuya, a bald, rotund man with bags under his eyes, has attracted heavy media attention this week after claiming he chanted a spell to attract the women.
He had married and divorced several of the women, who continued to live with him, the reports said.
Asked what the incantation was, he told a newspaper: "When you say it, even unattractive men become attractive. But I won't say it because if I do, I'll die."
Police confiscated several books on hypnosis from his home, Kyodo said.
20060125
Government support for mail-order brides
A rural province in South Korea plans to give financial aid to help lonely male farmers pay for mail-order brides from overseas.
South Kyongsang province plans to start a trial program in which it will give 6 million won ($6,113) to male farmers who marry foreign women, an official said Tuesday.
South Korean farmers have been turning to brides from other parts of Asia in recent years after struggling to woo local women, who are often less than enthralled with the prospect of rural life.
"Young men in the countryside have a hard time finding brides and they started to look elsewhere," said Ryu Kum-ju, an agricultural policy official for the province, located in the southern part of the country.
"We decided to give financial support to those men for a trial period," Ryu said by telephone.
The province also plans to increase courses for foreign brides to help them adjust to life in South Korea.
The local government estimates it costs about 12 million won for a farmer to pay all the fees and travel required to find a bride overseas.
The number of South Korean men who have married foreign women has rocketed in recent years. It hit 25,594 in 2004, more than double the 11,017 in 2002, according to data from the Korea National Statistical Office.
China provides most of the brides, while Vietnam is second on the list.
South Kyongsang province plans to start a trial program in which it will give 6 million won ($6,113) to male farmers who marry foreign women, an official said Tuesday.
South Korean farmers have been turning to brides from other parts of Asia in recent years after struggling to woo local women, who are often less than enthralled with the prospect of rural life.
"Young men in the countryside have a hard time finding brides and they started to look elsewhere," said Ryu Kum-ju, an agricultural policy official for the province, located in the southern part of the country.
"We decided to give financial support to those men for a trial period," Ryu said by telephone.
The province also plans to increase courses for foreign brides to help them adjust to life in South Korea.
The local government estimates it costs about 12 million won for a farmer to pay all the fees and travel required to find a bride overseas.
The number of South Korean men who have married foreign women has rocketed in recent years. It hit 25,594 in 2004, more than double the 11,017 in 2002, according to data from the Korea National Statistical Office.
China provides most of the brides, while Vietnam is second on the list.
20060121
Marriage builds wealth more than being single?
Staying married has its benefits, especially financial, as a new U.S.-wide study shows the wealth of a married person is almost double that of somebody who is single.
Divorce among U.S. baby boomers reduced personal wealth by about 77 percent compared to that of a single person, while the financial standing among those who remained married almost doubled, according to a nationwide study released this week.
"If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married. On the other hand, divorce can devastate your wealth," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio Sate University's Center for Human Resource Research.
Married people will see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people, according to the study that was published in the Journal of Sociology.
Those who remained together saw a 93 percent gain in wealth compared to that of a single person, while individuals facing divorce saw their financial situation deteriorate long before the decree became final, according to Zagorsky.
The study used data from surveys taken over a 15-year period involving 9,055 Americans who were between 21 and 28 years old in 1985.
Those respondents who remained single had a steady, but slow growth in wealth, from less than $2,000 at the start of the surveys up to an average of about $11,000 after 15 years.
However, those who married and stayed that way showed a sharp increase in wealth accumulation after marriage, growing to an average $43,000 by the 10th year of marriage or by about 16 percent a year.
For people who married and then divorced, there was a slow build-up of wealth during the early years of marriage and then a steady decline about four years prior to divorce.
"Many of these people may have separated before the divorce became official, which would help explain why wealth starts falling so early," Zagorsky said. "Divorce is often a long and messy process, and you can see this in the four-year decline in wealth."
The study also cast doubt on a common assumption that divorce is much harder financially on women than on men. In fact, it showed that women suffered financially only slightly more than men.
Divorce among U.S. baby boomers reduced personal wealth by about 77 percent compared to that of a single person, while the financial standing among those who remained married almost doubled, according to a nationwide study released this week.
"If you really want to increase your wealth, get married and stay married. On the other hand, divorce can devastate your wealth," said Jay Zagorsky, author of the study and a research scientist at Ohio Sate University's Center for Human Resource Research.
Married people will see an increase in wealth that is more than just adding the assets of two single people, according to the study that was published in the Journal of Sociology.
Those who remained together saw a 93 percent gain in wealth compared to that of a single person, while individuals facing divorce saw their financial situation deteriorate long before the decree became final, according to Zagorsky.
The study used data from surveys taken over a 15-year period involving 9,055 Americans who were between 21 and 28 years old in 1985.
Those respondents who remained single had a steady, but slow growth in wealth, from less than $2,000 at the start of the surveys up to an average of about $11,000 after 15 years.
However, those who married and stayed that way showed a sharp increase in wealth accumulation after marriage, growing to an average $43,000 by the 10th year of marriage or by about 16 percent a year.
For people who married and then divorced, there was a slow build-up of wealth during the early years of marriage and then a steady decline about four years prior to divorce.
"Many of these people may have separated before the divorce became official, which would help explain why wealth starts falling so early," Zagorsky said. "Divorce is often a long and messy process, and you can see this in the four-year decline in wealth."
The study also cast doubt on a common assumption that divorce is much harder financially on women than on men. In fact, it showed that women suffered financially only slightly more than men.
Woman arrested in 'kill for a job' case
Brazilian police have arrested a woman they believe ordered the killing of a female former co-worker and an attempt on the life of another to get a permanent job next to a man she loved.
A duty police officer in Cubatao, an industrial city next to Sao Paulo, said Carolina Farias Santos, 22, confessed that she had hired friends for about $1,300 to kill Monica Tamer, a full-time employee at an oil processing company where Santos had worked temporarily.
Santos told police she wanted to work next to a man she had fallen in love with during her stint at the company. She had been hired to temporarily replace another woman, Renata Boreli, who was filling in while Tamer was on maternity leave.
In November, Boreli was wounded as two assailants fired shots at her car, and then started to receive telephone threats warning her not return to work. The following month, Tamer, a mother of two, was killed.
Police traced phone calls to Boreli's house, which led them to Santos and four friends. Two were arrested along with Santos on Wednesday and two remained at large.
A duty police officer in Cubatao, an industrial city next to Sao Paulo, said Carolina Farias Santos, 22, confessed that she had hired friends for about $1,300 to kill Monica Tamer, a full-time employee at an oil processing company where Santos had worked temporarily.
Santos told police she wanted to work next to a man she had fallen in love with during her stint at the company. She had been hired to temporarily replace another woman, Renata Boreli, who was filling in while Tamer was on maternity leave.
In November, Boreli was wounded as two assailants fired shots at her car, and then started to receive telephone threats warning her not return to work. The following month, Tamer, a mother of two, was killed.
Police traced phone calls to Boreli's house, which led them to Santos and four friends. Two were arrested along with Santos on Wednesday and two remained at large.
20060119
An idea whose time hasn't come..
After five months of hearings and 6,000 public comments, the U.S. Department of Transportation declared on Wednesday what time it is in Indiana.
Turns out it will still depend on where you are.
Eight Indiana counties will move to the central time zone, joining 10 others clustered in the northwest and southwest corners of the state.
The remaining 74 counties will remain one hour ahead in the eastern time zone.
The switch takes place on April 2, when Indiana along with most of the rest of the United States advances its clocks forward one hour to observe daylight savings time.
Previously, much of the state -- excepting five southeastern counties and the 10 central time zone counties -- ignored daylight savings time.
But Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels made a promise to change the status quo, arguing the jumble of clock settings was confusing and posed a hindrance to businesses and residents.
Each Indiana county was offered the opportunity to request a time zone and 17 asked to move to central time from eastern time.
In the end, the federal agency chose eight counties to make the switch, based on factors including where the bulk of business was transacted, where radio and television signals came from, the location of the nearest transit hubs, and where most people worked.
"This rule reflects careful consideration of every public comment we received," said Transportation Secretary
Norman Mineta.
Turns out it will still depend on where you are.
Eight Indiana counties will move to the central time zone, joining 10 others clustered in the northwest and southwest corners of the state.
The remaining 74 counties will remain one hour ahead in the eastern time zone.
The switch takes place on April 2, when Indiana along with most of the rest of the United States advances its clocks forward one hour to observe daylight savings time.
Previously, much of the state -- excepting five southeastern counties and the 10 central time zone counties -- ignored daylight savings time.
But Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels made a promise to change the status quo, arguing the jumble of clock settings was confusing and posed a hindrance to businesses and residents.
Each Indiana county was offered the opportunity to request a time zone and 17 asked to move to central time from eastern time.
In the end, the federal agency chose eight counties to make the switch, based on factors including where the bulk of business was transacted, where radio and television signals came from, the location of the nearest transit hubs, and where most people worked.
"This rule reflects careful consideration of every public comment we received," said Transportation Secretary
Norman Mineta.
Naked woman on a muscle car
Detroit officials are looking into how a woman sneaked into the North American International Auto Show after closing hours early on Tuesday to pose naked on Chrysler's Dodge Challenger muscle car.
Security guards at the Cobo Center where the show is being held this week found the woman standing on the new Challenger, with some people -- mostly men -- taking pictures at about 2 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday.
"Some people told us there were real cameras there, and some said there were only cellphone cameras," Jason Vines, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group, said, adding he did not know how many people were there.
Chrysler had brought in "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria on Sunday to pose with Chrysler Chief Executive Tom LaSorda next to the new Imperial luxury concept car. Longoria was fully-clothed.
Chief of security for the show, Carl Berry, said the incident was being investigated.
Security guards at the Cobo Center where the show is being held this week found the woman standing on the new Challenger, with some people -- mostly men -- taking pictures at about 2 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday.
"Some people told us there were real cameras there, and some said there were only cellphone cameras," Jason Vines, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group, said, adding he did not know how many people were there.
Chrysler had brought in "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria on Sunday to pose with Chrysler Chief Executive Tom LaSorda next to the new Imperial luxury concept car. Longoria was fully-clothed.
Chief of security for the show, Carl Berry, said the incident was being investigated.
A difference between men and women
Germans have a word for it -- schadenfreude -- and when it comes to getting pleasure from someone else's misfortune, men seem to enjoy it more than women.
Such is the conclusion reached by scientists at University College London in what they say is the first neuroscientific evidence of schadenfreude.
Using brain-imaging techniques, they compared how men and women reacted when watching other people suffer pain.
If the sufferer was someone they liked, areas of the brain linked to empathy and pain were activated in both sexes.
Women had a similar response if they disliked the person experiencing the pain but men showed a surge in the reward areas of the brain.
"The women had a diminished empathic response," said Dr Klaas Enoo Stephan, a co-author of the report. "But it was still there, whereas in the men it was completely absent," he added in an interview.
The scientists, who reported their findings in the journal Nature, said the research shows that empathic responses in men are shaped by the perceived fairness of others.
"Empathic responses to other people are not automatic, as has been assumed in the past, but depend on the emotional link to the person who is observed suffering," Stephan said.
In the two-part study, 32 men and women volunteers played a game in which they exchanged money with four other people who were actors playing a part.
The actors were either fair characters, who returned equal amounts of cash that have been given to them, or unfair people who gave little or no money back to the volunteers.
In the second part of the experiment, the volunteers were placed in magnetic imaging brain scanners as they watched the actors receiving a mild electric shock, similar to a bee sting.
The scientists measured reactions of the volunteers in areas of the brain associated with pain and empathy and reward while the actors experienced pain.
The responses shown in the brain images were backed up with questionnaires filled in by the volunteers. Men admitted to having a much higher desire for revenge than women and derived satisfaction from seeing the unfair person being punished.
"We will need to confirm these gender differences in larger studies because it is possible the experimental design favored men as there was a physical rather than psychological or financial threat involved," said Dr Tania Singer, who led the study.
Such is the conclusion reached by scientists at University College London in what they say is the first neuroscientific evidence of schadenfreude.
Using brain-imaging techniques, they compared how men and women reacted when watching other people suffer pain.
If the sufferer was someone they liked, areas of the brain linked to empathy and pain were activated in both sexes.
Women had a similar response if they disliked the person experiencing the pain but men showed a surge in the reward areas of the brain.
"The women had a diminished empathic response," said Dr Klaas Enoo Stephan, a co-author of the report. "But it was still there, whereas in the men it was completely absent," he added in an interview.
The scientists, who reported their findings in the journal Nature, said the research shows that empathic responses in men are shaped by the perceived fairness of others.
"Empathic responses to other people are not automatic, as has been assumed in the past, but depend on the emotional link to the person who is observed suffering," Stephan said.
In the two-part study, 32 men and women volunteers played a game in which they exchanged money with four other people who were actors playing a part.
The actors were either fair characters, who returned equal amounts of cash that have been given to them, or unfair people who gave little or no money back to the volunteers.
In the second part of the experiment, the volunteers were placed in magnetic imaging brain scanners as they watched the actors receiving a mild electric shock, similar to a bee sting.
The scientists measured reactions of the volunteers in areas of the brain associated with pain and empathy and reward while the actors experienced pain.
The responses shown in the brain images were backed up with questionnaires filled in by the volunteers. Men admitted to having a much higher desire for revenge than women and derived satisfaction from seeing the unfair person being punished.
"We will need to confirm these gender differences in larger studies because it is possible the experimental design favored men as there was a physical rather than psychological or financial threat involved," said Dr Tania Singer, who led the study.
Ex-EPA Chiefs Blame Bush in Global Warming
Six former heads of the Environmental Protection Agency — five Republicans and one Democrat — accused the Bush administration Wednesday of neglecting global warming and other environmental problems.
"I don't think there's a commitment in this administration," said Bill Ruckelshaus, who was EPA's first administrator when the agency opened its doors in 1970 under President Nixon and headed it again under President Reagan in the 1980s.
Russell Train, who succeeded Ruckelshaus in the Nixon and Ford administrations, said slowing the growth of "greenhouse" gases isn't enough.
"We need leadership, and I don't think we're getting it," he said at an EPA-sponsored symposium centered around the agency's 35th anniversary. "To sit back and just push it away and say we'll deal with it sometime down the road is dishonest to the people and self-destructive."
All of the former administrators raised their hands when EPA's current chief, Stephen Johnson, asked whether they believe global warming is a real problem, and again when he asked if humans bear significant blame.
Agency heads during five Republican administrations, including the current one, criticized the Bush White House for what they described as a failure of leadership.
Defending his boss, Johnson said the current administration has spent $20 billion on research and technology to combat climate change after President Bush rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the chief gas blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
Bush also kept the United States out of the Kyoto international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases globally, saying it would harm the U.S. economy, after many of the accord's terms were negotiated by the Clinton administration.
"I know from the president on down, he is committed," Johnson said. "And certainly his charge to me was, and certainly our team has heard it: 'I want you to accelerate the pace of environmental protection. I want you to maintain our economic competitiveness.' And I think that's really what it's all about."
His predecessors disagreed. Lee Thomas, Ruckelshaus's successor in the Reagan administration, said that "if the United States doesn't deal with those kinds of issues in a leadership role, they're not going to get dealt with. So I'm very concerned about this country and this agency."
Bill Reilly, the EPA administrator under the first President Bush, echoed that assessment.
"The time will come when we will address seriously the problem of climate change, and this is the agency that's best equipped to anticipate it," he said.
Christie Whitman, the first of three EPA administrators in the current Bush administration, said people obviously are having "an enormous impact" on the earth's warming.
"You'd need to be in a hole somewhere to think that the amount of change that we have imposed on land, and the way we've handled deforestation, farming practices, development, and what we're putting into the air, isn't exacerbating what is probably a natural trend," she said. "But this is worse, and it's getting worse."
Carol Browner, who was President Clinton's EPA administrator, said the White House and the Congress should push legislation to establish a carbon trading program based on a 1990 pollution trading program that helped reduce acid rain.
"If we wait for every single scientist who has a thought on the issue of climate change to agree, we will never do anything," she said. "If this agency had waited to completely understand the impacts of DDT, the impacts of lead in our gasoline, there would probably still be DDT sprayed and lead in our gasoline."
Three former administrators did not attend Wednesday's ceremony: Mike Leavitt, now secretary of health and human services; Doug Costle, who was in the Carter administration, and Anne Burford, a Reagan appointee who died last year.
"I don't think there's a commitment in this administration," said Bill Ruckelshaus, who was EPA's first administrator when the agency opened its doors in 1970 under President Nixon and headed it again under President Reagan in the 1980s.
Russell Train, who succeeded Ruckelshaus in the Nixon and Ford administrations, said slowing the growth of "greenhouse" gases isn't enough.
"We need leadership, and I don't think we're getting it," he said at an EPA-sponsored symposium centered around the agency's 35th anniversary. "To sit back and just push it away and say we'll deal with it sometime down the road is dishonest to the people and self-destructive."
All of the former administrators raised their hands when EPA's current chief, Stephen Johnson, asked whether they believe global warming is a real problem, and again when he asked if humans bear significant blame.
Agency heads during five Republican administrations, including the current one, criticized the Bush White House for what they described as a failure of leadership.
Defending his boss, Johnson said the current administration has spent $20 billion on research and technology to combat climate change after President Bush rejected mandatory controls on carbon dioxide, the chief gas blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
Bush also kept the United States out of the Kyoto international treaty to reduce greenhouse gases globally, saying it would harm the U.S. economy, after many of the accord's terms were negotiated by the Clinton administration.
"I know from the president on down, he is committed," Johnson said. "And certainly his charge to me was, and certainly our team has heard it: 'I want you to accelerate the pace of environmental protection. I want you to maintain our economic competitiveness.' And I think that's really what it's all about."
His predecessors disagreed. Lee Thomas, Ruckelshaus's successor in the Reagan administration, said that "if the United States doesn't deal with those kinds of issues in a leadership role, they're not going to get dealt with. So I'm very concerned about this country and this agency."
Bill Reilly, the EPA administrator under the first President Bush, echoed that assessment.
"The time will come when we will address seriously the problem of climate change, and this is the agency that's best equipped to anticipate it," he said.
Christie Whitman, the first of three EPA administrators in the current Bush administration, said people obviously are having "an enormous impact" on the earth's warming.
"You'd need to be in a hole somewhere to think that the amount of change that we have imposed on land, and the way we've handled deforestation, farming practices, development, and what we're putting into the air, isn't exacerbating what is probably a natural trend," she said. "But this is worse, and it's getting worse."
Carol Browner, who was President Clinton's EPA administrator, said the White House and the Congress should push legislation to establish a carbon trading program based on a 1990 pollution trading program that helped reduce acid rain.
"If we wait for every single scientist who has a thought on the issue of climate change to agree, we will never do anything," she said. "If this agency had waited to completely understand the impacts of DDT, the impacts of lead in our gasoline, there would probably still be DDT sprayed and lead in our gasoline."
Three former administrators did not attend Wednesday's ceremony: Mike Leavitt, now secretary of health and human services; Doug Costle, who was in the Carter administration, and Anne Burford, a Reagan appointee who died last year.
Face Transplant Patient Smokes Again
The world's first face transplant recipient is using her new lips to take up smoking again, which doctors fear could interfere with her healing and raise the risk of tissue rejection.
"It is a problem", Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard, who led the team that performed the pioneering transplant in France on Nov. 27, acknowledged on Wednesday.
The woman's French surgeons made their first scientific presentation on the partial face transplant at a medical conference here this week.
The news about her smoking came even as American surgeons said that they were growing more comfortable with the French doctors' decision to try the operation and that they hoped to offer such transplants to more patients.
The 38-year-old Frenchwoman received a new nose, chin and lips from a brain-dead donor after being mauled by her dog last spring. The woman has been identified only as Isabelle because of French privacy laws.
The woman suffered a tissue-rejection episode last month but is now doing well, her doctors said. However, they said she has resumed smoking, which besides being bad in general for health is especially a problem after surgery because it impairs circulation to tissues and could raise the risk of rejection.
Some doctors have questioned the woman's psychological fitness for the operation because of reports that she had taken sleeping pills in a possible suicide attempt when the dog attack occurred — an allegation Dubernard repeatedly has denied.
He said she received extensive psychiatric evaluation and counseling before the operation.
Some American doctors at the conference said it is time to stop debating whether the French operation was ethical or wise and focus now on making such transplants as safe and widely available as possible.
"Face transplants can be done and should be done," said Dr. Warren Breidenbach, the surgeon who did the first hand transplant in the United States, at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, in 1999.
Another Louisville transplant expert, Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, said: "A number of us here are interested in making this a widespread procedure available to the public. It's the future, and could benefit millions of people."
Problems with other novel types of transplants surfaced at the medical conference.
Doctors have been encouraged that success rates were roughly 90 percent among the 24 hand transplants performed to date, but a Chinese surgeon surprised the conference by reporting that up to half of the nine or so patients in his country have since rejected the new organs because they couldn't afford immune-suppressing drugs.
One patient even asked to have the new hand amputated after the one-year period during which the hospital provided free medication ended, said Dr. Guoxian Pei, chief of orthopedics at Nanfang Hospital at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China.
Dr. Frederic Schuind, a surgeon at Erasme Hospital in Brussels, Belgium, revealed that a hand transplant recipient in his country had made "a mild suicide attempt." The patient had been deemed psychologically stable enough to undergo the operation even though he had attempted suicide as a teenager.
The incidents prompted several surgeons to say that no such transplants should be done unless surgeons first make sure patients are psychologically healthy and prepared to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives.
"We need to alter the risk-benefit balance" before hand or face transplants are done more commonly, said Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, chief of plastic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.
"It is a problem", Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard, who led the team that performed the pioneering transplant in France on Nov. 27, acknowledged on Wednesday.
The woman's French surgeons made their first scientific presentation on the partial face transplant at a medical conference here this week.
The news about her smoking came even as American surgeons said that they were growing more comfortable with the French doctors' decision to try the operation and that they hoped to offer such transplants to more patients.
The 38-year-old Frenchwoman received a new nose, chin and lips from a brain-dead donor after being mauled by her dog last spring. The woman has been identified only as Isabelle because of French privacy laws.
The woman suffered a tissue-rejection episode last month but is now doing well, her doctors said. However, they said she has resumed smoking, which besides being bad in general for health is especially a problem after surgery because it impairs circulation to tissues and could raise the risk of rejection.
Some doctors have questioned the woman's psychological fitness for the operation because of reports that she had taken sleeping pills in a possible suicide attempt when the dog attack occurred — an allegation Dubernard repeatedly has denied.
He said she received extensive psychiatric evaluation and counseling before the operation.
Some American doctors at the conference said it is time to stop debating whether the French operation was ethical or wise and focus now on making such transplants as safe and widely available as possible.
"Face transplants can be done and should be done," said Dr. Warren Breidenbach, the surgeon who did the first hand transplant in the United States, at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, in 1999.
Another Louisville transplant expert, Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, said: "A number of us here are interested in making this a widespread procedure available to the public. It's the future, and could benefit millions of people."
Problems with other novel types of transplants surfaced at the medical conference.
Doctors have been encouraged that success rates were roughly 90 percent among the 24 hand transplants performed to date, but a Chinese surgeon surprised the conference by reporting that up to half of the nine or so patients in his country have since rejected the new organs because they couldn't afford immune-suppressing drugs.
One patient even asked to have the new hand amputated after the one-year period during which the hospital provided free medication ended, said Dr. Guoxian Pei, chief of orthopedics at Nanfang Hospital at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China.
Dr. Frederic Schuind, a surgeon at Erasme Hospital in Brussels, Belgium, revealed that a hand transplant recipient in his country had made "a mild suicide attempt." The patient had been deemed psychologically stable enough to undergo the operation even though he had attempted suicide as a teenager.
The incidents prompted several surgeons to say that no such transplants should be done unless surgeons first make sure patients are psychologically healthy and prepared to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives.
"We need to alter the risk-benefit balance" before hand or face transplants are done more commonly, said Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, chief of plastic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.
20060117
I'm no dentist, but my girlfriend is -- open wide
A British dentist has been banned from working after allowing her unqualified boyfriend to carry out dental work on patients in her surgery, the profession's UK regulatory body said Tuesday.
Mojgan Azari was found guilty of serious professional misconduct for letting boyfriend Omid Amidi-Mazaheri work at her practices in south London between 2002 and 2003, the General Dental Council (GDC) said.
The boyfriend worked on more than 600 people, drilling out cavities without local anesthetic and installing expensive fillings that crumbled within days, often leaving patients in agony, the BBC said.
The GDC said Azari had allowed him to carry on working in her surgeries for seven months after she had been warned that he was unregistered.
"The direct result of your actions was that a recall exercise involving several hundred patients had to be mounted, to establish whether they required further dental remedial action," the GDC said in its ruling.
"This caused the patients considerable distress and inconvenience, and cost the National Health Service (NHS) approximately 180,000 pounds ($317,000)."
The GDC said Azari had pleaded guilty in February 2005 to four counts of obtaining money by deception from the NHS in relation to the case and had been jailed for 12 months.
The BBC said Amidi-Mazaheri, an Iranian national, had received a two-year sentence for similar offences.
Consequently the GDC said its conduct committee had decided to strike Azari's name from the register.
"In view of the gravity of the offences and their effect in undermining public confidence and the damage to the reputation of the profession, the committee is satisfied that the only appropriate sanction in this case is erasure," it said.
Mojgan Azari was found guilty of serious professional misconduct for letting boyfriend Omid Amidi-Mazaheri work at her practices in south London between 2002 and 2003, the General Dental Council (GDC) said.
The boyfriend worked on more than 600 people, drilling out cavities without local anesthetic and installing expensive fillings that crumbled within days, often leaving patients in agony, the BBC said.
The GDC said Azari had allowed him to carry on working in her surgeries for seven months after she had been warned that he was unregistered.
"The direct result of your actions was that a recall exercise involving several hundred patients had to be mounted, to establish whether they required further dental remedial action," the GDC said in its ruling.
"This caused the patients considerable distress and inconvenience, and cost the National Health Service (NHS) approximately 180,000 pounds ($317,000)."
The GDC said Azari had pleaded guilty in February 2005 to four counts of obtaining money by deception from the NHS in relation to the case and had been jailed for 12 months.
The BBC said Amidi-Mazaheri, an Iranian national, had received a two-year sentence for similar offences.
Consequently the GDC said its conduct committee had decided to strike Azari's name from the register.
"In view of the gravity of the offences and their effect in undermining public confidence and the damage to the reputation of the profession, the committee is satisfied that the only appropriate sanction in this case is erasure," it said.
Quick! Move that TV into the den!
Thinking of buying a TV for the bedroom? Think again -- it could ruin your sex life.
A study by an Italian sexologist has found that couples who have a TV set in their bedroom have sex half as often as those who don't.
"If there's no television in the bedroom, the frequency (of sexual intercourse) doubles," said Serenella Salomoni whose team of psychologists questioned 523 Italian couples to see what effect television had on their sex lives.
On average, Italians who live without TV in the bedroom have sex twice a week, or eight times a month. This drops to an average of four times a month for those with a TV, the study found.
For the over-50s the effect is even more marked, with the average of seven couplings a month falling to just 1.5 times.
The study found certain programs are far more likely to impede passion than others. Violent films will put a stop to sexual relations for half of all couples, while reality shows stem passion for a third of couples.
A study by an Italian sexologist has found that couples who have a TV set in their bedroom have sex half as often as those who don't.
"If there's no television in the bedroom, the frequency (of sexual intercourse) doubles," said Serenella Salomoni whose team of psychologists questioned 523 Italian couples to see what effect television had on their sex lives.
On average, Italians who live without TV in the bedroom have sex twice a week, or eight times a month. This drops to an average of four times a month for those with a TV, the study found.
For the over-50s the effect is even more marked, with the average of seven couplings a month falling to just 1.5 times.
The study found certain programs are far more likely to impede passion than others. Violent films will put a stop to sexual relations for half of all couples, while reality shows stem passion for a third of couples.
20060115
Sober driver flees police drink check, crashes
A Japanese driver, afraid of having to take a breath-test, fled a police drink-driving checkpoint even though he was well under the legal alcohol limit, but ended up crashing his car.
The 44-year-old man drove through the checkpoint on a road in the western Japanese city of Ikeda late Wednesday. Pursuing police officers found the car about half a mile away, upside down in a dry riverbed below the road.
The driver, who suffered light injuries to his legs, was sitting beside the vehicle.
"I'd been drinking, so I fled," the Mainichi newspaper quoted the man as telling police.
A spokesman for the Osaka prefectural police said the man was not in breach of drunk-driving laws and they were treating the case as a simple traffic accident.
The 44-year-old man drove through the checkpoint on a road in the western Japanese city of Ikeda late Wednesday. Pursuing police officers found the car about half a mile away, upside down in a dry riverbed below the road.
The driver, who suffered light injuries to his legs, was sitting beside the vehicle.
"I'd been drinking, so I fled," the Mainichi newspaper quoted the man as telling police.
A spokesman for the Osaka prefectural police said the man was not in breach of drunk-driving laws and they were treating the case as a simple traffic accident.
Youthful audience finds new play is kids' stuff
The audience for a new play at Stockholm's City Theater was getting restive only half an hour into the dress rehearsal. One had crawled stage left. Two others were being discreetly breast fed.
Not that the actors were fazed by the audience's antics. The play is aimed at babies 6 to 12 months old.
"Baby Drama," which opened this week and is already sold out, was written by psychoanalyst Ann-Sofie Barany and directed by Suzanne Osten, renowned for her work in children's theater.
"Babies are the perfect audience", said Barany after the dress rehearsal. "You can't find a more open, unconventional, and honest spectator."
The hour-long play shows the cycle of parenthood, birth and early life with the help of props such as red velvet curtains representing the womb and baby-bouncers that drop down from the ceiling, in which members of the audience are invited to sit.
Barany and Osten said the intention was to encourage tots to develop a new understanding of their existence and make parents rethink how they relate to their children.
Responding to criticism that the babies are too young to understand, Osten and Barany say that part of the message is that we underestimate the intelligence of the new born.
"If you can speak to a three-month-old baby and get laughter from them, you must be able to write an interesting play for them," said Osten.
The 12 babies certainly seemed to enjoy it. The mother of 11-month-old Febe said her daughter was "very happy," adding: "The babies are obviously having fun the whole time they are in the theater".
Not that the actors were fazed by the audience's antics. The play is aimed at babies 6 to 12 months old.
"Baby Drama," which opened this week and is already sold out, was written by psychoanalyst Ann-Sofie Barany and directed by Suzanne Osten, renowned for her work in children's theater.
"Babies are the perfect audience", said Barany after the dress rehearsal. "You can't find a more open, unconventional, and honest spectator."
The hour-long play shows the cycle of parenthood, birth and early life with the help of props such as red velvet curtains representing the womb and baby-bouncers that drop down from the ceiling, in which members of the audience are invited to sit.
Barany and Osten said the intention was to encourage tots to develop a new understanding of their existence and make parents rethink how they relate to their children.
Responding to criticism that the babies are too young to understand, Osten and Barany say that part of the message is that we underestimate the intelligence of the new born.
"If you can speak to a three-month-old baby and get laughter from them, you must be able to write an interesting play for them," said Osten.
The 12 babies certainly seemed to enjoy it. The mother of 11-month-old Febe said her daughter was "very happy," adding: "The babies are obviously having fun the whole time they are in the theater".
20060114
Rather be famous than brainy?
Dazzled by the attractions of fame, more than one in 10 young Britons would quit school to become tomorrow's tabloid star, a survey showed Friday.
In a country obsessed by celebrities, a growing number of children are more interested in becoming rich and famous than getting a good education, according to research from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).
Around nine percent thought fame was a great way to earn money without skills or qualifications.
"Young people realize that you don't need skills for being famous and believe it is easy, which it is not," Max Clifford, Britain's best known publicist, told Reuters.
Britain's tabloids are littered with "revelations" about C-list celebrities and the country's most famous couple, David and Victoria Beckham, have made millions of pounds from gracing the front pages.
But the LSC pointed out that the chances of being picked for a Big Brother-style TV show and being popular afterwards were around one in 30 million, longer odds than winning the lottery.
Clifford, who has acted as agent for many fleeting celebrities, agreed.
"I would say to star-wannabes: See it as the lottery, try it but don't count on it, don't rely on it.
"Get yourself educated, get yourself a job, get yourself a situation."
In a country obsessed by celebrities, a growing number of children are more interested in becoming rich and famous than getting a good education, according to research from the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).
Around nine percent thought fame was a great way to earn money without skills or qualifications.
"Young people realize that you don't need skills for being famous and believe it is easy, which it is not," Max Clifford, Britain's best known publicist, told Reuters.
Britain's tabloids are littered with "revelations" about C-list celebrities and the country's most famous couple, David and Victoria Beckham, have made millions of pounds from gracing the front pages.
But the LSC pointed out that the chances of being picked for a Big Brother-style TV show and being popular afterwards were around one in 30 million, longer odds than winning the lottery.
Clifford, who has acted as agent for many fleeting celebrities, agreed.
"I would say to star-wannabes: See it as the lottery, try it but don't count on it, don't rely on it.
"Get yourself educated, get yourself a job, get yourself a situation."
20060113
Thief on horseback steals cell phone
Brazilian police have arrested a teenager who rode a horse into a busy district of Rio de Janeiro and, brandishing a toy gun, forced a man to hand over his cell phone.
Police told Reuters on Thursday the 15-year-old had confessed he borrowed the horse from a neighbor in the Rio slum where he lives and committed the crime after being promised $20 for a phone with a camera by members of a local criminal gang.
He rode into the courtyard of a hospital in Rio's Meier neighborhood and snatched the phone from a man waiting in line there. When police caught up with him a few blocks away, he was on foot and the horse was nowhere to be seen.
"I've been robbed four times in this area, but this time I was totally flabbergasted seeing a boy on horseback ordering me to give up my phone. I've seen robbers on bikes or on foot, but this is crazy," Extra newspaper quoted the victim as saying.
Horses are not a common sight on Rio streets but they can sometimes be seen in the slums on the outskirts.
Police told Reuters on Thursday the 15-year-old had confessed he borrowed the horse from a neighbor in the Rio slum where he lives and committed the crime after being promised $20 for a phone with a camera by members of a local criminal gang.
He rode into the courtyard of a hospital in Rio's Meier neighborhood and snatched the phone from a man waiting in line there. When police caught up with him a few blocks away, he was on foot and the horse was nowhere to be seen.
"I've been robbed four times in this area, but this time I was totally flabbergasted seeing a boy on horseback ordering me to give up my phone. I've seen robbers on bikes or on foot, but this is crazy," Extra newspaper quoted the victim as saying.
Horses are not a common sight on Rio streets but they can sometimes be seen in the slums on the outskirts.
20060107
Is it too late to change to a different army?
Dutch troops helping earthquake survivors in Pakistan have complained that while they are subject to an alcohol ban, Spanish and British soldiers laugh at their austerity and turn up drunk at their campfire.
"We were told before we arrived that alcohol was banned in this country or else very difficult to get hold of and we accepted this," one soldier told the Dutch daily De Telegraaf.
"The Spanish drive around with cars full of Heineken ... and the English laugh at us when they show up at our campfire drunk," another Dutch soldier said.
A Dutch defense ministry spokesman said it was standard policy to ban alcohol in Muslim countries in line with local custom and Dutch troops were being well looked after.
"Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in the earthquake and hundreds of thousands lost everything they had," he said. "Going without alcohol is a small sacrifice toward a very good cause."
"We were told before we arrived that alcohol was banned in this country or else very difficult to get hold of and we accepted this," one soldier told the Dutch daily De Telegraaf.
"The Spanish drive around with cars full of Heineken ... and the English laugh at us when they show up at our campfire drunk," another Dutch soldier said.
A Dutch defense ministry spokesman said it was standard policy to ban alcohol in Muslim countries in line with local custom and Dutch troops were being well looked after.
"Tens of thousands of people lost their lives in the earthquake and hundreds of thousands lost everything they had," he said. "Going without alcohol is a small sacrifice toward a very good cause."
20060106
Man allegedly torches Christmas tree
Police arrested a man who allegedly torched the city's 30-foot-tall Christmas tree in retaliation for a parking ticket.
Bruce Morrison, 52, was arrested Wednesday at his Glendale home and was booked for investigation of arson, Sgt. Oscar Rodriguez said. He was released after posting $50,000 bail.
The tree at the Civic Center's Parcher Plaza was reduced to charcoal last Friday night. Witnesses told police that they saw a gray-haired man leaving the scene in a blue pickup truck shortly before the fire started.
Sgt. Ernie Garcia of the department's arson unit said the city will seek restitution of the tree's $2,500 cost and another $5,000 in decorations and fencing that were destroyed in the fire.
Bruce Morrison, 52, was arrested Wednesday at his Glendale home and was booked for investigation of arson, Sgt. Oscar Rodriguez said. He was released after posting $50,000 bail.
The tree at the Civic Center's Parcher Plaza was reduced to charcoal last Friday night. Witnesses told police that they saw a gray-haired man leaving the scene in a blue pickup truck shortly before the fire started.
Sgt. Ernie Garcia of the department's arson unit said the city will seek restitution of the tree's $2,500 cost and another $5,000 in decorations and fencing that were destroyed in the fire.
20060103
Student recants story of stolen $175,000 violin
A music student who told police a $175,000 violin was stolen from her car has recanted her story and the rare instrument has been recovered, police said on Friday.
A music shop had loaned a violin made by 18th-century Italian craftsman Nicolo Gagliano to Sabina Nakajima, 24, while she said she was considering whether to buy it. Nakajima told police it disappeared from the trunk of her car, which was towed away after she illegally parked it.
After looking crestfallen in local television interviews on Thursday, Nakajima recanted the story, a police official who did not want to be named said, and the instrument was recovered on Friday in good condition on the steps of a Catholic church 15 miles south of San Francisco.
"San Francisco police have determined that the original report of theft ... was false and the violin was never stolen," police said in a press release. "Investigators will complete their investigation and refer the case to the San Francisco District Attorney's office."
Nash Mondragon, owner of the Cremona violin shop that lent Nakajima the instrument on behalf of the seller, said he did not want to deal with the item any more.
"That's terrible," he said of the false theft report. "The violin is being returned to the owner. I don't want to handle the violin anymore."
Asked what collateral he had taken before lending out the instrument, he replied: "You have to trust them. That's the way the business has always worked."
Nakajima did not return calls for comment.
A music shop had loaned a violin made by 18th-century Italian craftsman Nicolo Gagliano to Sabina Nakajima, 24, while she said she was considering whether to buy it. Nakajima told police it disappeared from the trunk of her car, which was towed away after she illegally parked it.
After looking crestfallen in local television interviews on Thursday, Nakajima recanted the story, a police official who did not want to be named said, and the instrument was recovered on Friday in good condition on the steps of a Catholic church 15 miles south of San Francisco.
"San Francisco police have determined that the original report of theft ... was false and the violin was never stolen," police said in a press release. "Investigators will complete their investigation and refer the case to the San Francisco District Attorney's office."
Nash Mondragon, owner of the Cremona violin shop that lent Nakajima the instrument on behalf of the seller, said he did not want to deal with the item any more.
"That's terrible," he said of the false theft report. "The violin is being returned to the owner. I don't want to handle the violin anymore."
Asked what collateral he had taken before lending out the instrument, he replied: "You have to trust them. That's the way the business has always worked."
Nakajima did not return calls for comment.
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