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Emotional Wiring Different in Men and Women

LiveScience.com - Men and women are actually from the same planet, but scientists now have the first strong evidence that the emotional wiring of the sexes is fundamentally different.

An almond-shaped cluster of neurons that processes experiences such as fear and aggression hooks up to contrasting brain functions in men and women at rest, the new research shows.

For men, the cluster "talks with" brain regions that help them respond to sensors for what's going on outside the body, such as the visual cortex and an area that coordinates motor actions.

For women, the cluster communicates with brain regions that help them respond to sensors inside the body, such as the insular cortex and hypothalamus. These areas tune in to and regulate women's hormones, heart rate, blood pressure, digestion and respiration.

"Throughout evolution, women have had to deal with a number of internal stressors, such as childbirth, that men haven't had to experience," said study co-author Larry Cahill of the University of California Irvine. "What is fascinating about this is the brain seems to have evolved to be in tune with those different stressors."

The finding, published in the recent issue of the journal NeuroImage, could help researchers learn more about sex-related differences in anxiety, autism, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The new study focused on activity in the amygdala, a cluster of neurons found on both sides of the brain and involved for both sexes in hormone and other involuntary functions, as well as emotions and perception. Cahill already knew that the sexes use different sides of their brains to process and store long-term memories, based on his earlier work. He also has shown that a particular drug, Propranolol, can block memory differently in men and women.

Cahill and his co-author Lisa Kilpatrick, scanned the brains of 36 healthy men and 36 healthy women. The subjects were told to relax with their eyes closed during the scan, so that differences between the sexes could be studied at rest rather than during heavy lifting like accessing memories.

The scans also showed that men's and women's amygdalas are polar opposites in terms of connections with other parts of the brain. In men, the right amygdala is more active and shows more connections with other brain regions. In women, the same is true of the left amygdala.

Pornography is any image or wording specifically designed to elicit a sexual response from an individual.

Gay families at Easter egg roll

WASHINGTON, April 16 (UPI) -- Scores of gay and lesbian parents planned to be on the South Lawn of the White House Monday so their children can take part in the annual Easter Egg Roll.

The group, wearing colorful leis and glowing bracelets, joined the egg roll regulars in an all-night vigil for tickets to the annual event, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

In a line that stretched from the White House to the Washington Monument, the gay and lesbian group encouraged the audience of thousands to evaluate them as families. Some even passed out rainbow-sprinkled doughnuts.

"As long as they keep it about the families, it's OK that they're here, I don't have a problem with it," said Sean Harrell, who sat in line all night with his military buddies to get tickets for his children.

The overnight wait is a 128-year-old Washington tradition that looks like a giant slumber party. Gay and lesbian parents say until a movement began a few months ago, they never thought of bringing their kids to a White House event.

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Calif. Residents: No Sign of Terror Cell

LODI, Calif., Associated Press - Ten months ago, FBI agents arrested a father and son and detained two Muslim clerics, suggesting the men were participants in activities linked to terrorism.

Residents feared a terrorist cell connected to the area's 2,500-member Pakistani community was operating in the agricultural city of 62,000. Even President Bush said the arrests were part of the government's effort to "bust up these terrorist networks."

Nadia Bartlam said her relatives started calling her after the arrests last June, "acting like we were all going to be blown up."

Today, however, as jurors deliberate in the trial of the father and son, who are charged with lying about whether the son attended an al-Qaida training camp in Pakistan, residents said that what they saw in the nine-week trial assured them that their fears were unfounded.

"I think people have gone 'Oh, it turned out not to be a big deal. It turned out not to be a terrorist cell,'" Mayor Susan Hitchcock said. "I think as people have learned more about it, they've figured it's not another 9-11 here in our midst."

The two Islamic clerics and a son of one of the imams were deported to Pakistan last year on immigration violations.

The other two, Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, Umer, a 48-year-old ice cream truck driver, both U.S. citizens, were put on trial facing nine weeks of testimony. Their cases went to their separate jurors last week.

Bartlam and others say the government's case appears weaker than they initially thought. Many of them said the turning point was the testimony of the government's informant, a 32-year-old convenience store clerk from rural Oregon.

The informant testified that he told FBI agents he had seen Osama bin Laden's physician and two other terrorists living in Lodi during the late 1990s. At the time, the men were wanted for attacks in the Middle East and Africa.

Defense attorneys and terrorism experts said it was highly unlikely they would have been in the United States, a point prosecutors conceded later in the trial.

That hurt the informant's credibility and their case, said Katherine Johnson of Woodbridge, a town just outside Lodi.

"It just makes you wonder if they jumped the gun," she said.

Prosecutors also presented videotapes of interrogations showing the defendants confessing to FBI agents, but defense attorneys said their clients had been worn down by hours of questioning and merely told investigators what they thought the agents wanted to hear.

"Very probably this was an idealistic youth who took things too far," resident Steve James said of Hamid Hayat, who was employed in a cherry-packing shed when he was arrested and has only an elementary-school education.

"I think the government has been over-enthusiastic about stretching a little evidence as far as they can," he said.

The investigation of Lodi's Pakistani community was started to see if Muslim-owned businesses were illegally sending money to terrorism groups abroad. That part of the four-year investigation ultimately fizzled, and the Hayats were the only people charged.

FBI witnesses acknowledged that many of their early suspicions never panned out.

The government said Hamid Hayat attended the al-Qaida training camp in 2003 during a two-year visit to Pakistan and returned to the U.S. to await orders. He faces up to 39 years in prison if convicted of providing material support to terrorists and three counts of lying to the FBI. His father faces 16 years if he is convicted of lying about the camps to protect his son.

According to the videotaped confessions that the defense disputes, Hamid Hayat told investigators that hospitals, banks and grocery stores were possible targets of a terrorist plot.

In closing arguments last week, prosecutor David Deitch defended the case and the government's pursuit of people who might pose a danger.

"How would you view the FBI if they had that information in their possession and ignored it?" said Deitch, from the U.S. Justice Department's counterterrorism section in Washington, D.C.

"This is not a case where a building has been blown up," Deitch told jurors. The FBI's goal, he said, is to stop terrorists "long before the building is blown up, long before anybody is hurt."

Lodi's Muslim community is divided over a number of internal issues that arose before the arrests, but is united in the belief that it does not harbor terrorists, said Taj Khan, a leader at the Lodi Muslim Mosque.

"Nothing, nothing," Khan said of the government's case. "The imams were innocent; they didn't have any violations — we're convinced of that. There has never been any money-laundering at all."

While Lodi Muslims grew fearful of the FBI, Khan said they had faced little backlash from their neighbors since the arrests.

Iran leaves U.S. - and itself - with troubling choices

USA Today - There are moments in history when everything suddenly changes. Examples include the discovery that the Soviet Union was placing missiles in Cuba, or Adolf Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia that started World War II.

On Thursday, another such moment - one in which fundamentalist Iran develops nuclear weapons and menaces the oil-rich Middle East - seemed increasingly possible. The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, the

International Atomic Energy Agency, was given the equivalent of the middle-finger brushoff in Tehran, where he had been sent to back up a Security Council demand that Iran stop enriching uranium, the raw material for both nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

"We won't hold talks with anyone about the right of the Iranian nation (to enrich uranium)," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said. Anyone who objected could, he added, "be angry at us and die of this anger." Earlier in the week, Ahmadinejad, at a news conference punctuated by chants of "Death to America," announced the "good news" that Iran had succeeded in enriching uranium and therefore, in his opinion, joined the "nuclear club." Five countries officially have nuclear weapons: the United States, Russia, China, France and Great Britain. Four have them covertly: India, Pakistan, Israel and, probably, North Korea.

What is to be done?

Quite clearly, the prospect of Iran with nuclear weapons is horrifying. It could use them against Israel. Iran itself would be annihilated in a retaliatory strike, but Ahmadinejad nevertheless says Israel should be wiped off the map. Iran could also threaten neighbors in ways that could disrupt oil supplies, enforce fundamentalism and set off a regional nuclear arms race as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others rush to get their own nuclear weapons. Any or all would imperil U.S. interests and limit U.S. actions.

But how, when and whether to stop Iran? Intelligence estimates on when it could move from the low level of enrichment it claims to nuclear weapons vary from an Israeli assessment of a few months to 15 or more years. Most guesstimate about five years - hardly a comfort because experts have been taken by surprise by other countries.

For all the present sense of crisis, though, the moment of real urgency - one where Iran is churning out nuclear weapons - has not arrived. This can, and ought, to be turned into a time for a concerted and public debate about the reality of the situation and options. The unilateral rush to war in

Iraq on faulty intelligence has underscored the dangers of acting precipitously and alone.

The United States is taking a more sensible path on Iran - insisting on diplomacy and recognizing the need to act with allies. That requires patience. Russia and China, both Security Council members, are reluctant to impose sanctions. Russia has economic ties in Iran and wants to reassert its influence in the Middle East; China gets much of its oil and gas from Iran. If diplomacy is to have a chance, they'll need to be brought around.

In the interim, the United States, or Israel, would be foolish to act militarily alone or any time soon. Some of Iran's nuclear facilities are deep underground. The military estimates that removing them - if even possible - might require 1,000 sorties against strong defenses, assuring significant losses and captured pilots, even if ground action weren't undertaken. Iran could stir trouble in neighboring Iraq and through its proxies, Hezbollah terrorists, on Israel or elsewhere.

Of even greater importance, an attack would further coalesce anti-U.S. anger in the Muslim world. Already, anti-Americanism is radical Islam's greatest ally, submerging animosities between the religion's two combative strains, Sunnis and Shiites; between Arabs and Persians (Iranians); and in Iran itself between radical religious rulers and reformers who prefer the comforts that peace with the West might bring. The prospect that the United States might use a nuclear weapon to keep Iran from getting one - an appalling option - would amplify those effects.

Fetus Cannot Feel Pain, Expert Says

FRIDAY, April 14 (HealthDay News) -- Fetuses cannot feel pain, therefore U.S. legislation requiring doctors to tell women that the fetus will feel pain, or to provide pain relief during abortions, has no scientific basis and may harm the women involved, a leading expert contends.

"This is an unwarranted piece of legislation because there is good evidence that the fetus cannot feel pain at any stage of gestation," said Stuart Derbyshire, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Birmingham, U.K.

He authored an review of the available data on the subject in the April 15 issue of the British Medical Journal.

"I don't think the question of pain resolves the argument about abortion," said Derbyshire, who said abortion remains a social, moral and political question. However, he said that, based on the evidence, "it's illegitimate to use the possibility of pain as a way of trying to prevent abortion from occurring, because the possibility of pain doesn't exist."

Some other experts agreed.

"No one wants to inflict pain in fetuses unnecessarily, nor do physicians want to put the mother at risk by the unnecessary administration of analgesics to treat her fetus, not her," said Dr. Henry J. Ralston, a professor of anatomy and neuroscience at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco. "I agree with Dr. Derbyshire's primary conclusion, that 'Legal or clinical mandates to prevent pain in fetuses are based on limited evidence and may put women seeking abortion at unnecessary risk.'"

Pro-life representatives took issue with Derbyshire's findings.

"This is a bit more propaganda than science," said David Christensen, director of congressional affairs for the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.

Specifically, Christensen faults the author for being selective in the research he chose to include and for presenting a "circular argument."

"He redefines pain such that not even a newborn could experience pain in the way he defines it, and then concludes that fetuses can't experience pain and that's absurd," Christensen said.

"The purpose behind the legislation is to make sure women are informed about the possibility that an unborn child from 20 to 25 weeks on could experience pain," Christensen said. "This author wants to maintain the choice of abortion but not allow women to make an informed choice and I think that's pretty telling."

The U.S. government is presently considering legislation that would require doctors to inform women seeking abortions that "there is substantial evidence that the process of being killed in an abortion will cause the unborn child pain."

The legislation would additionally require that a fetus of more than 22 weeks' gestational age receive anesthesia before the abortion procedure. Doctors who refuse to comply could be fined $100,000 while also losing their license and their Medicaid funding.

More than a dozen state legislatures -- including those in New York and California -- have debated such bills. Several states have already passed laws.

Congress is also considering whether to require doctors to provide anesthesia to fetuses in all cases of abortion after 22 weeks of gestational age.

But is there enough evidence to conclude that fetuses actually experience pain?

After examining the available neurological and psychological literature, Derbyshire says "no."

The neural circuitry needed to process pain is complete, if not mature, by 26 weeks' gestation, he said. "From about 26 weeks you can talk about there being a complete system in terms of biology, a link from the skin to the spinal cord to the brain, and we know that set-up is reasonably functional," Derbyshire explained.

But to properly experience pain, the mind must also be developed, something which cannot happen until after birth. The mind permits the subjectivity of pain, said the U.K. expert, who has previously served as an unpaid consultant to

Planned Parenthood of Virginia and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, as well as the U.K.-based Pro-Choice Forum.

"The key thing is representational memory," Derbyshire explained. "If you want to discriminate pain from hunger, from vision, or from any other sensational experience, you need to be able to label it in some way, and that will come from interactions with the primary caregiver," -- in other words, after birth.

"I agree that pain is a complex sensory experience that requires activation of many regions of the cerebral cortex and that 'Without consciousness there can be nociception [response to noxious events] but there cannot be pain,'" Ralston said. "I do not know when that necessary neural circuitry is fully developed and functional, but it certainly is not established by 20 weeks gestational age, as encoded in legislation in several states in laws penalizing physicians for not informing mothers about pain in their fetuses."

The problem with the actions encoded in the legislation is that it could put the mother at risk, according to Derbyshire.

Budget deficit $85.47 bln, record for March

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government posted an $85.47 billion federal budget deficit in March -- its highest in history for that month, the U.S. Treasury Department reported on Wednesday.

The March shortfall between government income and spending was up from a $71.21 billion deficit in March 2005. While it was a record for any March, it was less than the February 2006 monthly deficit that was a record for any one-month period at $119.20 billion.

The March deficit figure easily outstripped Wall Street economists' forecasts for a $73 billion shortfall.

Department officials said March spending was exceptionally large because some benefit payments that normally would occur in April were made in March.

"Half of the growth in outlays is attributable to a $15 billion calendar shift in the timing of certain monthly recurring benefit payments (for example, Medicare) that accelerated April 2006 payments into March 2006," a department official said in an email.

March outlays jumped to a record $250.03 billion from $219.97 billion in March 2005, while receipts were $164.56 billion, up from $148.76 billion in March a year ago.

The cumulative deficit for fiscal 2006, which began October 1, was $302.99 billion so far, above the $294.63 billion deficit in the first six months of fiscal 2005.

On March 3, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the U.S. budget deficit for the full fiscal 2006 year, which ends on September 30, will hit $371 billion.

Quarter of Species Gone by 2050

LiveScience - Using several models that project habitat changes, migration capabilities of various species, and related extinctions in 25 "hotspots," scientists predict that a quarter of the world's plant and vertebrate animal species would face extinction by 2050.

A report detailing the projections was released today.

Biodiversity hotspots are some of the richest and most threatened biological pools on Earth. They contain 44 percent of plant and 35 percent of the Earth's vertebrate species on only 1.4 percent of the Earth's land. Each hotspot contains its own set of unique species.

"Climate change is rapidly becoming the most serious threats to the planet's biodiversity," said Jay Malcolm, an assistant forestry professor at the University of Toronto. "This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet."

In the most dramatic of the scenarios, for which carbon dioxide levels grow to double that of today's levels, the models forecasted a potential loss of 56,000 plant species and 3,700 vertebrate species in the hotspots.

Such a climate scenario could become a reality in only 50 years, the study estimates.

"These species lose their last options if we allow climate change to continue unchecked," said Lara Hansen, chief climate scientist at the global conservation group World Wildlife Fund. "Keeping the natural wealth of this planet means we must avoid dangerous climate change—and that means we have got to reduce carbon dioxide emissions."

The study found that certain hotspots were especially sensitive to climate change with extinctions sometimes exceeding 2,000 plant species per hotspot. These include the Caribbean, the Tropical Andes, Cape Floristic region of South Africa, Southwest Australia, the Atlantic forests of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina.

New Fossil Links Up Human Evolution

WASHINGTON, Associated Press - Fossils have long provided snapshots of the human family tree, but a new find in Africa gives scientists a kind of mini home movie showing man's primal development.

Because the 4.2-million-year-old fossil is from the same human ancestral hot spot in Ethiopia as remains from seven other human-like species, scientists can now fill in the gaps for the most complete evolutionary chain so far.

"We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time," said Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw, co-author of the study being reported Thursday in the journal Nature. "One form evolved to another. This is evidence of evolution in one place through time."

The species, Australopithecus anamensis is not new, but its location is what helps explain the giant leap from one early phase of human-like development to the next, scientists say. All eight species were found in a region called the Middle Awash.

"It's like 12 frames of a home movie, but a home movie covering 6 million years," said study lead author Tim White, co-director of Human Evolution Research Center at University of California at Berkeley. Fossils in the region cover three major phases of human development.

"The key here is the sequences," White said. "It's about a mile thickness of rocks in the Middle Awash and in it we can see all three phases of human evolution."

Modern man belongs to the genus Homo, which is a subgroup in the family of hominids. What evolved into Homo was likely the genus Australopithecus (once called "man-ape"), which includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old "Lucy" fossil found three decades ago.

A key candidate for the genus that evolved into Australopithecus is called Ardipithecus. And Thursday's finding is important in bridging — but not completely — the gap between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus.

In 1994, a 4.4 million-year-old partial skeleton of the species Ardipithecus ramidus — the most recent Ardipithecus species — was found about six miles from the latest discovery.

"This appears to be the link between Australopithecus and Ardipithecus as two different species," White said. The major noticeable difference between the phases of man can be seen in Australopithecus' bigger chewing teeth to eat harder food, he said.

While it's looking more likely, it is not a sure thing that Ardipithecus evolved into Australopithecus, he said. The finding does not completely rule out Ardipithecus dying off as a genus and Australopithecus developing independently.

The connections between Ardipithecus and Australopithecus have been theorized since an anamensis fossil was first found in Kenya 11 years ago. This draws the lines better, said Alan Walker of Penn State University, who found the first anamensis and is not part of White's team.

Rick Potts, director of the

June Pointer of the Pointer Sisters Dies

Anita, June, and Ruth Pointer

LOS ANGELES, Associated Press - June Pointer, the youngest of the singing Pointer Sisters known for the 1970s and 1980s hits "I'm So Excited," "Fire," and "Slow Hand," has died, her family said Wednesday. She was 52.

Pointer died of cancer Tuesday at Santa Monica University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center, the family said in a statement. She had been hospitalized since late February and the type of cancer wasn't disclosed.

She died "in the arms of her sisters, Ruth and Anita and her brothers, Aaron and Fritz, by her side," the family statement read. "Although her sister, Bonnie, was unable to be present, she was with her in spirit."

The Pointer Sisters began as a quartet in the early 1970s with sisters Ruth, Anita, Bonnie and June. The group became a trio when Bonnie embarked on a solo career.

The group's hits also included "He's So Shy," "Automatic" and "Jump (For My Love)."

The sisters, along with their two older brothers, grew up singing in the choir of an Oakland church where their parents were ministers.

Bonnie and June formed a singing duo and began performing in clubs around the San Francisco Bay area. Anita and Ruth later joined the group and together, they sang backup for Taj Mahal, Boz Scaggs and Elvin Bishop, among others.

Their first, self-titled album, "The Pointer Sisters," debuted in 1973 and the song "Yes We Can Can" became their first hit. They followed up with the album "That's A Plenty," which featured an eclectic mix of musical styles ranging from jazz to country and pop. They won the first of their three Grammy awards in 1974 for best country vocal performance by a group for the song "Fairytale."

Bonnie left the group in 1977, and the sisters recorded several more albums, scoring several hit songs that became identified as the soundtrack of the 1980s.

The successful 1984 album "Break Out" earned two Grammy awards for the songs "Automatic" and "Jump (For My Love)." The album's other hit song, "Neutron Dance," was prominently featured in the movie "Beverly Hills Cop."

June recorded two solo albums, and later left the trio.

Anita and Ruth still perform under the group's name. Ruth's daughter, Issa Pointer, is the trio's newest member.

Two years ago, June Pointer was charged with felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor possession of a smoking device. She was ordered to a rehabilitation facility.

IRS Privacy Nightmare

by Peter Rothberg, The Nation

The Nation -- The IRS has quietly proposed astounding new rules which would allow tax preparers to sell the contents of their client's tax returns to third-party businesses, as long as a requisite form is signed. Historically, tax returns were a strictly private affair, with both tax preparers and IRS agents forbidden to share the info with anyone for any reason. But this could all change if the IRS's blatant corporate giveaway is passed. That's great news for "data-brokers" like ChoicePoint that make tens of millions of dollars selling personal information to corporate marketers.

Here's how the new rules would work: when you visit your accountant or a tax-preparation firm like H&R Block, your tax preparer would ask you to sign a form authorizing them to release your information at their discretion. Once you sign that form, your tax preparer has permission to sell or share the information contained in your tax filings. You have no control over how that data will be used, who will get it, or whether it'll be adequately safeguarded from identity thieves.

The proposed rule would require express written permission from the consumer to allow the information to be sold, but as Beth McConnell of PennPIRG argued before the IRS on April 4, that's not good enough for a number of reasons: nothing in the IRS rules would prohibit tax preparers from offering incentives in exchange for privacy--say, a ten percent discount on accountant fees and a free clock in return for a signature could sound very appealing. There's also nothing to prevent unscrupulous preparers from adding another in a long series of forms for their clients to sign at tax time without amply detailing the consequences of the signature.

In any case, there's absolutely no good reason for the new rule--and lots of good reasons to oppose it, including the arguments of law-enforcement officials who are warning that this rule would be a boon to identity theft, and are urging the IRS to drop the proposal. ("The IRS would allow tax preparers to sell a consumer's return to companies that have a terrible track record of safeguarding information from identity thieves," testified Beth McConnell.)

This issue should cross ideology. Bob Barr has already spoken out about it. And, as Stephen Lilienthal wrote in the smart, conservative online magazine Enter Stage Right, "Conservatives have good reason to express displeasure with this IRS initiative....The "consent signatures" are too likely to be signed by taxpayers based upon trust in their tax-preparer. Conservatives have qualms about mandated collection of information by government; that a government rule might serve to encourage the selling of that information to third parties, such as data brokers, should give conservatives pause."

The best way to help fight what the IRS and corporate lobbyists are trying to do is simply to tell people about it. It's happening very quietly--though thanks to the good work of the state PIRGs, not nearly as quietly as the IRS and business interests had planned--so click here to find contact info for local newspaper editors and talk-radio hosts and then write and ask them to look into and take a stand on the issue. You can also contact the Bush Administration through the PennPIRG site and demand that it direct the IRS to abandon this proposal and keep taxpayers' returns private. Finally, and perhaps more fruitfully, click here to get contact info for your own local elected reps and then ask them to support Barack Obama and Maria Cantwell's Protecting Taxpayer Privacy Act, which would prohibit tax preparers from disclosing taxpayer information to third parties.

Woman, 82, Gets Ticket for Slow Crossing

LOS ANGELES, LA Daily News - An 82-year-old woman received a $114 ticket for taking too long to cross a street. Mayvis Coyle said she began shuffling with her cane across Foothill Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley when the light was green, but was unable to make it to the other side before it turned red.

She said the motorcycle officer who ticketed her on Feb. 15 told her she was obstructing traffic.

"I think it's completely outrageous," said Coyle, who described herself as a Cherokee medicine woman. "He treated me like a 6-year-old, like I don't know what I'm doing."

Los Angeles police Sgt. Mike Zaboski of the Valley Traffic Division said police are cracking down on people who improperly cross streets because pedestrian accidents are above normal. He said he could not comment on Coyle's ticket other than to say that it is her word against that of the citing officer, identified only as Officer Kelly.

"I'd rather not have angry pedestrians," Zaboski said. "But I'd rather have them be alive."

Others, however, supported Coyle's contention that the light in question doesn't give people enough time to cross the busy, five-lane boulevard.

"I can go halfway, then the light changes," said Edith Krause, 78, who uses an electric cart because she has difficulty walking.

On Friday, the light changed too quickly even for high school students to make it across without running. It went from green to red in 20 seconds.

Councilwoman Wendy Greuel said she has asked transportation officials to figure out how to accommodate elderly people.

"We should look at those areas with predominantly seniors and accommodate their needs in intersections" she said.

___

ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE DON'T WANT IMMIGRATION TO BE FIXED

By Cynthia Tucker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

If they really wanted to, your representatives in Washington could dry up illegal immigration almost before you could say, "Tom Tancredo is a tiresome demagogue." All they would have to do is require U.S. employers to check the legal status of all employees and impose stiff sanctions -- including multimillion-dollar fines and prison time -- on employers who flout the law.

After a few executives had done the perp walk, others would get the message. Illegal hiring would drop precipitously. Since the vast majority of illegal immigrants come to this country to work, many of them would leave if they couldn't get hired. And they'd take the message back home to La Paz and Villa Juarez and San Gerardo: Without legal papers, you can't get a job in the United States.

So why haven't Congress and the White House fixed a broken immigration system? Because it works for so many -- illegal workers, business interests and middle-class Americans alike. Industries such as construction and agriculture get a cheap and docile work force, poorly educated men and women who'll work Sundays and holidays and never report their employers for labor violations. Middle-class Americans get the benefit of cheaper products and services, everything from lawn care and domestic work to homegrown fruits and vegetables. And houses. Since home sales are keeping the economy afloat, politicians don't want to do anything to interfere with the massive housing-construction-and-sales complex.

Fringe politicians benefit from the presence of illegal workers, too. Without them, would you ever have heard of a minor-league congressman named Tancredo? A Republican from Colorado, he is now considering a run for the White House, fueled by the name recognition he's won with his nativist rants against the undocumented workers pouring in across our southern borders.

That's not to say illegal immigration is without its costs. In towns and cities that have seen a rapid influx, there is rising frustration over schools having to accommodate non-English speakers, hospitals overwhelmed by uninsured patients, and higher rates of gang-related crime. (But those taxpayers benefit, too, from lower prices for ditches dug and chickens filleted.) An even higher cost is borne by Americans at the bottom of the wage scale, especially poorly educated black men, who lose out when forced to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs.

But poorly educated black men don't have oily platoons of lobbyists looking after their interests. Big Business does, and it wants to keep those borders open. Overwhelmed taxpayers, meanwhile, are easily placated by election-year rhetoric promising higher walls, stouter fences and more border guards than rattlesnakes along the Rio Grande. Let's call this campaign-season spectacle "Wag the Mexican."

Indeed, the steady flow of workers across our borders became a tsunami in the 1990s because of pressure from business interests. After agents from the old Immigration and Naturalization Service raided one of Georgia's Vidalia onion fields in 1998, members of Georgia's congressional delegation -- Republicans and Democrats alike -- denounced the raid. In response, the INS practically shut down workplace enforcement. By 2000, according to INS figures, the estimated number of illegal immigrants had risen to 7 million, from 3.5 million in 1990.

To understand the inherent and willful contradictions in the laws that govern workers and their legal status, consider this: The Social Security Administration is able to identify companies that routinely employ large numbers of workers using fake numbers. But, by law, Social Security is forbidden from forwarding the names of those companies to Homeland Security. That law could be changed in a heartbeat, but Congress hasn't done it.

Congress could also appropriate money for a nationwide computer system that would allow all employers to get instant verification of a worker's Social Security number and then require all employers to use it. If Bloomingdale's can give me approval for a credit card in three minutes -- while I'm still trying samples at the perfume counter -- then the feds can create a system for instantaneous verification. Congress hasn't set aside money for that, either.

That's because it doesn't want to solve the problem. Your political leaders like to rant about the broken immigration system, but they have no intention of fixing it.

Report on Iraq offers bleak assessment

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An internal US embassy report on Iraq's provinces and obtained by the New York Times concluded in January that the stability of the strategic Baghdad region is a serious concern.

The 10-page report, dated January 31, three weeks before the insurgent bombing of a Shi'ite shrine pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war, says the governorate is plagued by intimidation and assassinations of public officials, Iraqi security forces and civilians.

The report rates the stability of each of Iraq's 18 provinces according to their governance, security and economy.

It finds six provinces, mainly in Sunni-populated northwestern Iraq, have a "serious" security situation, with the rebellious desert province of Anbar suffering from "critical" economic and security problems.

Those areas are the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency gripping central Iraq.

Security in Iraq's nine southern Shi'ite provinces was seen as "stable," or "moderate," with the exception of oil-rich Basra governorate, home to Iraq's second largest city.

"A high level of militia activity including infiltration of local security forces. Smuggling and criminal activity continues unabated," the report said of the predominantly Shi'ite city.

The report finds the relatively calm semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north as stable in governance, security and economy.

In the holy southern Shi'ite cities of Kerbala and Najaf, the report says the local government is stable but warns of increasing Iranian influence.

"Government is functioning and improving. However, there appears to be increasing association with the Iranian government. The local population ... are concerned about their growing influence."

The report also warns of "strong and growing influence of the SCIRI party" on Baghdad's provincial council.

SCIRI is one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite Islamist parties and is accused of having close links to the anti-US regime in Tehran. Sunni Arabs accuse SCIRI of sanctioning militia death squads, a charge it denies.

But despite the high level of violence, Baghdad, whose stability is crucial for the progress of the whole country, has "an economy that is developing slowly" and a "government that functions, but has areas of concerns," according to the report.

Leak-Hating President As Leaker-In-Chief?

Dude, I can totally tell a lie!

WASHINGTON, Associated Press - President Bush insists a president "better mean what he says." Those words could return to haunt him.

After long denouncing leaks of all kinds, Bush is confronted with a statement — unchallenged by his aides — that he authorized a leak of classified material to undermine an Iraq war critic.

The allegation in the CIA leak case threatens the credibility of a president already falling in the polls, and it gives Democrats fresh material to accuse him of hypocrisy.

"In politics, what gets bad gets worse," said GOP strategist Ed Rogers. "And we've been on a a bad roll for quite some time. We're in an environment now where every mistake is a metaphor."

Critics were quick to portray the Bush-leak report as a fresh sign of a failed Iraq policy, manipulated intelligence and a lack of presidential veracity. Honesty was once seen by Americans as one of Bush's strongest character traits, but polls show that perception has waned in Bush's second term.

Causing the furor is a court filing that revealed that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, told a federal grand jury that Bush authorized him to leak classified information on Iraq to reporters in mid-2003.

Libby is charged with lying and obstructing an investigation into whether the administration intentionally revealed the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, to undermine her husband's public criticism of the Iraq war.

As president, Bush has wide latitude to declassify material. And there was nothing in the legal papers filed by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to suggest Bush or Cheney did anything illegal, or had specifically authorized Libby to identify Plame.

Still, the report put Bush and Cheney at the center of the alleged administration effort to leak classified material to bolster its case for invading Iraq and to discredit war critics.

Bush often has denounced leaks and pledged to punish the leakers. He has expressed pride in a disciplined White House where leaks are infrequent.

"It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war," he told a news conference last Dec. 19, speaking of the leaking of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program.

The latest flap comes as things seemed as if they could hardly get worse for the president and his Republican allies: Iraq, continued fallout over the botched Katrina response, the Dubai ports debacle, shortcomings in the new Medicare prescription drug program, the resignation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the collapse of a proposed immigration overhaul.

A new AP-Ipsos poll showed just 36 percent of the public approve of Bush's job performance, a low-water mark for his presidency.

Another AP-Ipsos poll showed that, while 53 percent of those surveyed said they considered Bush to be "honest" in October 2004, that number had dropped to just 44 percent last month.

The disclosure that Bush might be the White House leaker-in-chief isn't going to help matters.

"He's suffering enough now and this is certainly more fuel for the fire," said Wayne Fields, a specialist in presidential rhetoric at Washington University in St. Louis.

Fields said Bush has a record of "making blanket statements, sometimes self-righteous ones" that can later be turned against him when "replayed and quoted over and over."

Just Thursday, Bush emphasized the importance of straight talk. "When the president says something, he better mean what he says," he told a North Carolina audience. "In order to be effective, in order to maintain credibility, words have got to mean something. You just can't say things in the job I'm in and not mean what you say."

In September 2003, Bush said he was distressed by the CIA leak case. "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action," he said.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at the time: "If anyone in this administration was involved in it (the CIA leak), they would no longer be in this administration."

Democrats mocked those earlier statements in light of the new allegations.

"The president all the time was looking for himself," Sen. John Kerry, Bush's vanquished 2004 presidential challenger, said on the "Imus in the Morning" radio and television show.

Republican consultant Rich Galen said the controversy was "just another in a list of issues that have come up, emotional issues, that the White House has had a hard time getting in front of."

The White House scrambled to assert the president's right to selectively declassify information, with McClellan insisting there's a difference between leaks that can compromise national security and a president's decision to declassify information "when it is in the public interest."

Democrats who fail to recognize that distinction are "engaging in crass politics," he suggested.

White House Reaction to CIA Leak Probe

The Associated Press - What President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have said about the CIA leak investigation:

"I want to know the truth. I want to see to it that the truth prevails." _ Bush to reporters, Oct. 7, 2003, on determining the identity of the leaker. He also said his staff was cooperating in the investigation.

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"The president was glad to do his part to cooperate with the investigation. The president was pleased to share whatever information he had with the officials in charge and answer their questions." _ White House press secretary Scott McClellan, June 25, 2004, when asked by reporters if Bush had answered every question in his meeting the previous day with prosecutors.

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"I would like this to end as quickly as possible. If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration." _ Bush, July 18, 2005.

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"(Libby) has worked tirelessly on behalf of the American people and sacrificed much in the service to this country. He served the vice president and me through extraordinary times in our nation's history." _ Bush, Oct. 28, 2005, the day of Libby's indictment and resignation.

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"I have accepted his decision with deep regret." _ Cheney, in accepting Libby's resignation, Oct. 28, 2005.

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"You're trying to get me to comment on the investigation, which I'm not going to do." _ Bush to reporters on a November 2005 trip to Latin America.

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"I will not say any more about it. There will be a time when I can discuss it, but not now." _ Cheney, Dec. 18, 2005, during an interview on ABC news, responding to a reporter asking if he directed anyone to disclose or cover up disclosure of CIA agent's identity.

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Smoke Exposure Increases Risk of Diabetes, U.S. Study Shows

April 7 (Bloomberg) -- People who breathe second-hand smoke face a greater risk of developing diabetes, a new study said, the first time the disease has been linked to passive smoking.

About 17 percent of passive smokers in the study developed glucose intolerance compared with less than 12 percent of people who had no exposure to second-hand smoke, according to research published in tomorrow's issue of the British Medical Journal. As many as 22 percent of smokers had raised glucose intolerance, researcher Thomas Houston found.

``We identified passive tobacco exposure in never smokers as a new risk factor for glucose intolerance,'' wrote Houston, an associate professor of medicine at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Alabama, adding that policy makers may use the research as additional justification to reduce exposure to cigarette smoke.

The findings provide further evidence that second-hand smoke may affect health beyond the known risks of contributing to cancer and heart disease. Ireland, Norway, Italy and Sweden have banned smoking in enclosed public places such as bars and restaurants in recent years to cut exposure to second-hand smoke.

Houston studied the smoking habits of 4,572 men and women aged 18 years to 30 years and their glucose intolerance, a condition where the body can no longer produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar, 15 years later. Both active and passive smoking have an effect on glucose intolerance, Houston found.

The chemical reactions that produce second-hand smoke mean that passive smokers may breathe in more toxins than actual smokers. These toxins may affect the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin, Houston said.

Second-hand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including 69 known carcinogens such as formaldehyde, lead, arsenic, benzene, and radioactive polonium 210. Passive smoking has been linked to lung cancer, heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome, bronchitis and asthma.

About 20.8 million people, or 7 percent of the population, had diabetes in 2005 in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health.

Libby Says Bush OK'd Leaks, Filing Alleges

WASHINGTON, Associated Press - I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby apparently had serious qualms about leaking classified intelligence to the press, but he was quickly persuaded to drop them. There was pressure from his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, who advised him that the president had authorized Libby to do so. End of discussion.

That's the picture that emerges from court papers filed by the prosecutor in the CIA leak case against Libby, who is depicted as doing the bidding of President Bush and Cheney in striking back at administration critic Joseph Wilson.

On Thursday, disclosure of official authorization for Libby's leaks to reporters brought strong criticism from administration political foes, but little likelihood that their demands for explanations will be met.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., citing Bush's call two years ago to find the person who leaked the CIA identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, said the latest disclosures means the president needs to go no further than a mirror.

In his court filing, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald asserted that "the president was unaware of the role" that Libby "had in fact played in disclosing" Plame's CIA status. The prosecutor gave no such assurance, though, regarding Cheney.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said that "in light of today's shocking revelation, President Bush must fully disclose his participation in the selective leaking of classified information. The American people must know the truth."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the president has the "inherent authority to decide who should have classified information." The White House declined to comment, citing the ongoing criminal probe into the leak of Plame's identity.

In July 2003, Wilson's accusation that the Bush administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat "was viewed in the office of vice president as a direct attack on the credibility of the vice president, and the president," Fitzgerald's court papers stated.

Part of the counterattack was a July 8, 2003, meeting with New York Times reporter Judith Miller at which Libby discussed the contents of a then-classified CIA report that seemed to undercut what Wilson was saying in public.

Separately, Libby said he understood he also was to tell Miller that prewar intelligence assessments had been that

Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure" uranium, the prosecutor stated. In the run-up to the war, Cheney had insisted Iraq was trying to build a nuclear bomb.

The conclusion on uranium was contained in a National Intelligence Estimate, a consensus document of the U.S. intelligence community. Libby's statements came in grand jury testimony before he was charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame probe.

Libby at first told the vice president that he could not have the July 8, 2003, conversation with Miller because of the classified nature of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, Fitzgerald said. Libby testified to the grand jury "that the vice president later advised him that the president had authorized defendant to disclose the relevant portions" of the NIE.

Libby testified that he also spoke to David Addington, then counsel to the vice president, "whom defendant considered to be an expert in national security law, and Mr. Addington opined that presidential authorization to publicly disclose a document amounted to a declassification of the document."

Libby testified that he was specifically authorized to disclose the key judgments of the classified intelligence document because it was thought that its conclusions were "fairly definitive" against what Wilson had said and the vice president thought that it was "very important" for those key judgments to come out, the court papers stated.

After Wilson began attacking the administration, Cheney had a conversation with Libby, expressing concerns on whether a CIA-sponsored trip to the African nation of Niger by Wilson "was legitimate or whether it was in effect a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife," Fitzgerald wrote. The suggestion that Plame sent her husband on the Africa trip has gotten widespread circulation among White House loyalists.

Wilson said he had concluded on his trip that it was highly doubtful Niger had sold uranium yellowcake to Iraq.

The prosecutor's court papers offer a glimpse inside the White House when the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation of the Plame leak in September 2003. Libby "implored White House officials" to issue a statement saying he had not been involved in revealing Plame's identity, and that when his initial efforts met with no success, he "sought the assistance of the vice president in having his name cleared," the prosecutor stated.

The White House eventually said neither Libby nor Karl Rove had been involved in the leak. Rove remains under criminal investigation.

Greenpeace: McDonald's Harming the Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, Associated Press - Greenpeace on Thursday said McDonald's was fueling Amazon rainforest destruction by using soybeans grown in the region as feed for chickens that end up served in the fast-food chain's European restaurants.

In a reported entitled, "Eating up the Amazon," the environmental group said it has traced soy beans grown in illegally desforested areas of the rainforest to McDonald's Corp. restaurants, as well as other restaurant chains and supermarkets across Europe.

"Fast Food giants like McDonald's are trashing the Amazon for cheap meat. Every time you buy a Chicken McNugget you could be taking a bite out of the Amazon," Greenpeace forests campaign coordinator Gavin Edwards said by telephone from London.

Keith Kenny, senior director of quality assurance for McDonald's Europe, said in an e-mail the company was launching an investigation into Greenpeace's claims and would study the report.

"The claims in the Greenpeace report published in the U.K. today are directed at more than 30 supermarket chains and quick service restaurant companies in Europe," Kenny said. "McDonald's Europe takes these concerns very seriously, as we do all of our environmental and purchasing responsibilities. We believe in open dialogue, and we have collaborated with Greenpeace on many issues over many years."

Soybean production in the Amazon has skyrocketed in recent years thanks to growing international demand and the development, by Brazilian-government labs, of a type of soybean that can grow in the region's poor soil and punishing sun.

Environmentalists say that soybeans' success has driven up the value of cleared jungle, leading to a cycle in which cattle ranchers sell off pasture land to soybean farmers and then clear new areas, selling the wood to loggers.

Greenpeace argues that much of the soybean production in the Amazon is illegal because strict environmental regulations requiring landowners in the region to keep 80 percent of their forested areas standing, but these regulations are often ignored.

The southern Amazon region, where soybean production is growing most quickly, is also notorious for using so-called "debt slaves" to clear away jungle brush to prepare land for pasture and planting.

Debt slavery involves ranchers employing poorly paid workers and then forcing them to pay exorbitant prices for basic goods and transportation, ensnaring them in ever-deepening debt.

Greenpeace said its report is the result of a yearlong investigation using satellite images, aerial surveillance, previously unreleased government documents and on-the-ground monitoring to track Amazon soybeans.

"We've tracked shipments from farms that break the law to various silos and various ships into Liverpool and then followed the trucks to companies that produce chickens for McDonald's," Edwards said.

Edwards said that while American corporations like Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Cargill Inc. were responsible for distributing the soybeans, most of the soy from the Amazon goes to Europe and China, because the U.S. is largely self-sufficient in terms of soy production.

To call attention to the report's finding, Greenpeace plastered many McDonald's restaurants in the United Kingdom with posters of Ronald McDonald wielding a chain saw. The group also had dozens of people in chicken costumes invade McDonald's restaurants, chaining themselves to the chairs, Edwards said.

Scientists say the deforestation reduces the area's rich biodiversity and contributes to global warming. Burning in the Brazilian Amazon releases about 370 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, about 5.4 percent of the world total.

Whoa nelly - smoking gun!

Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak

WASHINGTON, Associated Press - Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide told prosecutors President Bush authorized the leak of sensitive intelligence information about Iraq, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in the CIA leak case.

Before his indictment, I. Lewis Libby testified to the grand jury investigating the CIA leak that Cheney told him to pass on information and that it was Bush who authorized the disclosure, the court papers say. According to the documents, the authorization led to the July 8, 2003, conversation between Libby and New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

There was no indication in the filing that either Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Valerie Plame's CIA identity.

But the disclosure in documents filed Wednesday means that the president and the vice president put Libby in play as a secret provider of information to reporters about prewar intelligence on Iraq.

The authorization came as the Bush administration faced mounting criticism about its failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main reason the president and his aides had given for going to war.

Libby's participation in a critical conversation with Miller on July 8, 2003 "occurred only after the vice president advised defendant that the president specifically had authorized defendant to disclose certain information in the National Intelligence Estimate," the papers by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stated. The filing did not specify the "certain information."

"Defendant testified that the circumstances of his conversation with reporter Miller — getting approval from the president through the vice president to discuss material that would be classified but for that approval — were unique in his recollection," the papers added.

Libby is asking for voluminous amounts of classified information from the government in order to defend himself against five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI in the Plame affair.

He is accused of making false statements about how he learned of Plame's CIA employment and what he told reporters about it.

Her CIA status was publicly disclosed eight days after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the Bush administration of twisting prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat from weapons of mass destruction.

In 2002, Wilson had been dispatched to Africa by the CIA to check out intelligence that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium yellowcake from Niger, and Wilson had concluded that there was no such arrangement.

Libby says he needs extensive classified files from the government to demonstrate that Plame's CIA connection was a peripheral matter that he never focused on, and that the role of Wilson's wife was a small piece in a building public controversy over the failure to find WMD in Iraq.

Fitzgerald said in the new court filing that Libby's requests for information go too far and the prosecutor cited Libby's own statements to investigators in an attempt to limit the amount of information the government must turn over to Cheney's former chief of staff for his criminal defense.

According to Miller's grand jury testimony, Libby told her about Plame's CIA status in the July 8, 2003 conversation that took place shortly after the White House aide — according to the new court filing — was authorized by Bush through Cheney to disclose sensitive intelligence about Iraq and WMD contained in a National Intelligence Estimate.

Federal Study Rejects Aspartame Risks

WASHINGTON, Associated Press - A huge federal study in people — not rats — takes the fizz out of arguments that the diet soda sweetener aspartame might raise the risk of cancer.

No increased risk was seen even among people who gulped down many artificially sweetened drinks a day, said researchers who studied the diets of more than half a million older Americans.

A consumer group praised the study, done by reputable researchers independent of any funding or ties to industry groups.

"It goes a fair way toward allaying concerns about aspartame," said Michael Jacobson, head of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which had urged the government to review the sweetener's safety after a troubling rat study last year.

Findings were reported Tuesday at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Aspartame came on the market 25 years ago and is found in thousands of products — sodas, chewing gum, dairy products and even many medicines. NutraSweet and Equal are popular brands.

Research in the 1970s linked a different sweetener, saccharin, to bladder cancer in lab rats. Although the mechanism by which this occurred does not apply to people and no human risk was ever documented, worries about sugar substitutes in general have persisted.

They worsened after Italian researchers last year reported results of the largest animal study ever done on aspartame, involving 1,800 lab rats. Females developed more lymphomas and leukemias on aspartame than those not fed the sweetener.

The new study, by scientists at the National Cancer Institute, involved 340,045 men and 226,945 women, ages 50 to 69, participating in a research project by the National Insitutes of Health and AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons.

From surveys they filled out in 1995 and 1996 detailing food and beverage consumption, researchers calculated how much aspartame they consumed, especially from sodas or from adding the sweetener to coffee or tea.

Over the next five years, 2,106 developed blood-related cancers such as lymphoma or leukemia, and 376 developed brain tumors. No link was found to aspartame consumption for these cancers in general or for specific types, said Unhee Lim, who reported the study's findings.

The dietary information was collected before the cancers developed, removing the possibility of "memory bias" — faulty recollection influenced by knowing you have a disease.

"It's very reassuring. It's a large study with a lot of power," said Richard Adamson, a senior science consultant to the American Beverage Association, the leading industry group.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest still warns about one potential hazard of aspartame use: thinking that calories "saved" from using a sugar substitute justify "spending" more on unhealthy foods.

"Drinking a diet soda at lunch does not mean it's okay to have a larger dessert at dinner," the group's Web site warns.

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On the Net:

Aspartame fact sheet: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/artificial-sweeteners

Jesus Could Have Walked on Ice, Scientist Says

LiveScience.com - Rare conditions could have conspired to create hard-to-see ice on the Sea of Galilee that a person could have walked on back when Jesus is said to have walked on water, a scientist said today.

The study, which examines a combination of favorable water and environmental conditions, proposes that Jesus could have walked on an isolated patch of floating ice on what is now known as Lake Kinneret in northern Israel.

Looking at temperature records of the Mediterranean Sea surface and using analytical ice and statistical models, scientists considered a small section of the cold freshwater surface of the lake. The area studied, about 10,000 square feet, was near salty springs that empty into it.

The results suggest temperatures dropped to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius) during one of the two cold periods 2,500 –1,500 years ago for up to two days, the same decades during which Jesus lived.

With such conditions, a floating patch of ice could develop above the plumes resulting from the salty springs along the lake's western shore in Tabgha. Tabgha is the town where many archeological findings related to Jesus have been found.

"We simply explain that unique freezing processes probably happened in that region only a handful of times during the last 12,000 years," said Doron Nof, a Florida State University Professor of Oceanography. "We leave to others the question of whether or not our research explains the biblical account."

Nof figures that in the last 120 centuries, the odds of such conditions on the low latitude Lake Kinneret are most likely 1-in-1,000. But during the time period when Jesus lived, such “spring ice” may have formed once every 30 to 60 years.

Such floating ice in the unfrozen waters of the lake would be hard to spot, especially if rain had smoothed its surface.

"In today's climate, the chance of springs ice forming in northern Israel is effectively zero, or about once in more than 10,000 years," Nof said.

Heart disease not helped by prayer: study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Prayers organized for patients undergoing heart bypass surgery did not help their recovery, according to a study by the American Heart Journal.

The study of 1,802 patients also showed that some patients who knew of the organized prayers actually did worse than those who were not sure that they were the subject of others' prayers, the American Heart Journal said in its April 4 edition.

The study was conducted January 1998 to November 2000 in six US hospitals. Patients were divided into three groups. Patients in the first group were the subjects of prayers and patients in a second group were not. However, patients in neither group were told whether they had been prayed for or not. Patients in a third group were prayed for and were told so.

Three religious congregations, two of them Roman Catholic and one Protestant, were tasked with praying for the outcomes of the operations and quick recoveries without complications for patients whose first names and and last initials were given to the congregations.

The authors of the study found no differences in outcomes in the 30-day post-operational study between the first two groups.

However, the patients who were prayed for and knew so, did slightly worse. Their complications were at 59 percent, against 51 percent in the other groups. And 18 percent suffered serious complications such as a new heart attack or stroke, against 13 percent among those who did not receive the prayers, according to the study.

The authors said the results could result from stress of not knowing if they were in such bad shape that they needed to be prayed for.