Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction


BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.


It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.


The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Science, add to the mounting evidence that minuscule amounts of medicines in rivers and streams can alter the biology and behavior of fish and other marine animals.


"I think people are starting to understand that pharmaceuticals are environmental contaminants," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey who is familiar with the study.


Calling their results alarming, the Swedish researchers who did the study suspect the little drugged fish could become easier targets for bigger fish because they are more likely to venture alone into unfamiliar places.


"We know that in a predator-prey relation, increased boldness and activity combined with decreased sociality ... means you're going to be somebody's lunch quite soon," said Gregory Moller, a toxicologist at the University of Idaho and Washington State University. "It removes the natural balance."


Researchers around the world have been taking a close look at the effects of pharmaceuticals in extremely low concentrations, measured in parts per billion. Such drugs have turned up in waterways in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere over the past decade.


They come mostly from humans and farm animals; the drugs pass through their bodies in unmetabolized form. These drug traces are then piped to water treatment plants, which are not designed to remove them from the cleaned water that flows back into streams and rivers.


The Associated Press first reported in 2008 that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans carries low concentrations of many common drugs. The findings were based on questionnaires sent to water utilities, which reported the presence of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones and other drugs.


The news reports led to congressional hearings and legislation, more water testing and more public disclosure. To this day, though, there are no mandatory U.S. limits on pharmaceuticals in waterways.


The research team at Sweden's Umea University used minute concentrations of 2 parts per billion of the anti-anxiety drug oxazepam, similar to concentrations found in real waters. The drug belongs to a widely used class of medicines known as benzodiazepines that includes Valium and Librium.


The team put young wild European perch into an aquarium, exposed them to these highly diluted drugs and then carefully measured feeding, schooling, movement and hiding behavior. They found that drug-exposed fish moved more, fed more aggressively, hid less and tended to school less than unexposed fish. On average, the drugged fish were more than twice as active as the others, researcher Micael Jonsson said. The effects were more pronounced at higher drug concentrations.


"Our first thought is, this is like a person diagnosed with ADHD," said Jonsson, referring to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. "They become asocial and more active than they should be."


Tomas Brodin, another member of the research team, called the drug's environmental impact a global problem. "We find these concentrations or close to them all over the world, and it's quite possible or even probable that these behavioral effects are taking place as we speak," he said Thursday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


Most previous research on trace drugs and marine life has focused on biological changes, such as male fish that take on female characteristics. However, a 2009 study found that tiny concentrations of antidepressants made fathead minnows more vulnerable to predators.


It is not clear exactly how long-term drug exposure, beyond the seven days in this study, would affect real fish in real rivers and streams. The Swedish researchers argue that the drug-induced changes could jeopardize populations of this sport and commercial fish, which lives in both fresh and brackish water.


Water toxins specialist Anne McElroy of Stony Brook University in New York agreed: "These lower chronic exposures that may alter things like animals' mating behavior or its ability to catch food or its ability to avoid being eaten — over time, that could really affect a population."


Another possibility, the researchers said, is that more aggressive feeding by the perch on zooplankton could reduce the numbers of these tiny creatures. Since zooplankton feed on algae, a drop in their numbers could allow algae to grow unchecked. That, in turn, could choke other marine life.


The Swedish team said it is highly unlikely people would be harmed by eating such drug-exposed fish. Jonsson said a person would have to eat 4 tons of perch to consume the equivalent of a single pill.


Researchers said more work is needed to develop better ways of removing drugs from water at treatment plants. They also said unused drugs should be brought to take-back programs where they exist, instead of being flushed down the toilet. And they called on pharmaceutical companies to work on "greener" drugs that degrade more easily.


Sandoz, one of three companies approved to sell oxazepam in the U.S., "shares society's desire to protect the environment and takes steps to minimize the environmental impact of its products over their life cycle," spokeswoman Julie Masow said in an emailed statement. She provided no details.


___


Online:


Overview of the drug: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682050.html


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Buffett, Brazil's 3G team up for $23 billion Heinz buyout


(Reuters) - Warren Buffett and Brazilian financier Jorge Paulo Lemann are teaming up to buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $23.2 billion, in what could be the first step of a wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.


Analysts and people close to the deal said Heinz could be a good starting point to consolidate similar staple food companies, particularly given the larger ambitions of Lemann's private equity firm 3G Capital.


Including debt assumption, Heinz valued the transaction, which it called the largest in its industry's history, at $28 billion. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G will pay $72.50 per share, a 19 percent premium to the stock's previous all-time high.


Heinz shares initially rose slightly above the offer price, although Buffett cautioned he had no intention of raising his bid and the stock fell back below that mark by midday. The stock has been on a tear, almost doubling over the last four years, though analysts said the price seemed fair.


They also said the deal could be the first step in a broader wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.


"Maybe for the consumer staples group in general this may start some talk about consolidation. Even corporate entities are flush with cash, interest rates are low, it would seemingly make sense," Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.


Companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup - itself long seen as a potential Heinz merge partner - rose on the news.


Any acquisition could help Heinz further diversify and broaden its international profile. It already dominates the ketchup business, with a nearly 26 percent share of the global market and a 59 percent share domestically, according to Euromonitor International.


The company actually generates the largest portion of its sales in Europe, though its traditional North American consumer products business is the most profitable.


But its real growth engine has been the Asia/Pacific region, where sales increased nearly 11 percent in the last fiscal year, in part on demand for sauces and infant foods in China.


BUFFETT HUNTING GROWTH


The surprise purchase satisfies, at least in part, Buffett's hunt for growth through acquisition. He was frustrated in 2012 by the collapse of at least two unnamed deals in excess of $20 billion and said he might have to do a $30 billion deal this year to help fuel Berkshire's growth engine.


In a regulatory filing late on Thursday, Berkshire said it was providing $12.12 billion in equity, including common stock, warrants and preferred shares with a liquidation preference of $8 billion and a 9 percent dividend.


Barclays Capital's Jay Gelb the deal's valuation appeared high at 19 times Heinz's expected 2014 earnings per share, but that it would enhance Berkshire's consumer portfolio.


Berkshire Hathaway already has a variety of food assets, including Dairy Queen ice cream chain, chocolatier See's Candies and food distributor McLane. Buffett, famed for a love of cheeseburgers, joked he was well acquainted with Heinz's products already and that this was "my kind of deal."


It does represent an unusual teaming of Berkshire with private equity, though; historically, Buffett's purchases have been outright his own. He and 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann have known each other for years, and Buffett said Lemann approached him with the Heinz idea in December.


One Berkshire investor said he had mixed feelings about the deal because of the limited growth prospects domestically.


"We're a little hesitant on the staple companies because they don't have any leverage in the United States," said Bill Smead, chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. But at the same time, he said, Buffett was likely willing to accept a bond-like steady return even if it was not necessarily a "home run."


A second investor, Michael Yoshikami of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said he liked the purchase because it provided cash flow for other deals.


"This is a better use of cash than current money market instruments," said Yoshikami, the firm's CEO and chairman of its investment committee.


3G EXPANDS


For 3G, a little-known firm with Brazilian roots, the purchase is something of a natural complement to its investment in fast-food chain Burger King, which it acquired in late 2010 and in which it still holds a major stake.


Historically, 3G was more of an investor than an acquirer. Its biggest shareholdings include Delphi Automotive, Newell Rubbermaid and Anadarko Petroleum.


Lemann, a globe-trotting financier with Swiss roots, made his money in banking and gained notoriety for helping to pull together the deals that ultimately formed the beer brewing giant AB InBev. Forbes ranks him as the world's 69th-richest billionaire, with a fortune of $12 billion.


3G's Alex Behring runs the fund out of New York. He appeared at a Pittsburgh news conference on Thursday with Heinz management to discuss the deal - and to reassure anxious local crowds that the company will remain based there and will continue to support local philanthropy.


But at the same time, Behring said it was too soon to talk about cost cuts at the company. Unlike Berkshire, which is a hands-off operator, 3G is known for aggressively controlling costs at its operations.


PITTSBURGH ROOTS


Also to be determined is whether CEO Bill Johnson would stay on. Only the fifth chairman in the company's history, Johnson is widely credited with Heinz's recent strong growth.


"I am way too young to retire," he told the news conference, adding that discussions had not yet started with 3G over the details of Heinz's future management.


The company, known for its iconic ketchup bottles, Heinz 57 sauces as well as other brands including Ore-Ida frozen potatoes, has increased net sales for the last eight fiscal years in a row.


Heinz said the transaction would be financed with cash from Berkshire and 3G, debt rollover and debt financing from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire and 3G would be equal equity partners.


That would imply roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of new debt needs to be raised.


Heinz shares soared 19.9 percent, or $12.02, to $72.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.


A week ago the stock hit a long-term high of $61 a share - near records it set in 1998 - having risen almost 5 percent this year and nearly 12 percent since the beginning of 2012.


The Heinz Endowments, a pillar in Pennsylvania philanthropy, said the sale of the company would have virtually no impact on their work. Heinz shares represent just over 1 percent of the endowment's $1.4 billion in holdings.


The deal is also a potential boon for new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, whose wife, Teresa, is the widow of H.J. Heinz Co heir John Heinz. Kerry's most recent financial disclosures from his time in the U.S. Senate show a position in Heinz shares of more than $1 million, although the precise size is unclear.


Centerview Partners and BofA Merrill Lynch were financial advisers to Heinz, with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP the legal adviser. Moelis & Company was financial adviser to the transaction committee of Heinz's board and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as its legal adviser.


Lazard served as lead financial adviser. J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo also served as financial advisers to the investment consortium. Kirkland & Ellis LLP was legal adviser to 3G Capital, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP was legal adviser to Berkshire Hathaway.


(Additional reporting by Olivia Oran and IFR's Stephen Carter in New York and Drew Singer in Pittsburgh; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Gevirtz)



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IHT Rendezvous: Glimpses of Jean Arp's World

CLAMART, France—The street is typical French suburbia, gray and peaceful, a far stretch from the narrow sidewalks, rooftops and, in early 20th century, artists’ studios of Montmartre, but only a few kilometers from Paris. Yet, in the 1930s, up this steep and curvy stretch, lived two members of the avant-garde — Jean Arp and Sophie Taueber. Joan Miro, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and James Joyce were among their visitors.

Arp (1886-1966) was a pioneer of surrealism and a member of the Dada movement, the branch of surrealism that called for a return to childhood spirit and the destruction of all established rules. After working in Zurich and then in Paris in Montmartre, he and Taueber, another free thinker (they eventually married), bought a piece of land in Clamart and built a house at the edge of a forest. Taueber designed it, influenced by the Bauhaus, Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand.

More than 80 years later, the three-story “maison-atelier” still stands, and a decade-long renovation has just been completed.

“It’s a house imbued with the serenity and simplicity of both artists,” said Claude Weil-Seigeot, the president of the Arp Foundation in France. “When I saw all of this might disappear if no one acted, I decided to give battle,” she said.

Keeping the building “modest and intimate” was a prerequisite for Ms. Weil-Seigeot when work began on the house in 2003. The renovations, including the construction of a little bookstore that opens onto the garden, were all done using the typical “meulière” stone of the Paris suburbs that Taueber had used in the ’30s. Ten years later, the work, done little by little so the house would not have to close to visitors, is finally finished, simultaneously with the publication of “Atelier Jean Arp et Sophie Taueber,” an art book, with text by Renaud Ego, on the history of the house and its occupants.

There are three Arp foundations in Europe: The one in Clamart, which preserves the atelier where Arp lived and worked for most of his life; one in Locarno, Switzerland, founded by Arp’s second wife, Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach, and the Stiftung Arp eV, a German organization, which holds the rights of reproduction of Arp’s work and owns most of the artist’s sculptures.

Relationships among the three foundations were problematic in the past, according to the German foundation’s curator, Maike Steinkamp.

“Now the aim is that we cooperate; when there are problems with authenticity, we talk,” she said. A publication released last year, “Hans Arp. Sculptures— A Critical Survey,” by Kai Fischer and Arie Hartog, took note of all known sculptural objects related to Arp including posthumous and unauthorized casts, causing some controversy with its revelations.

Its aim was to create transparency in Arp’s work, said Ms. Steinkamp. “We are happy with that objective and will now not be casting any new sculptures because of all the problems the survey revealed about the past.”

The German and French foundations wrangled over some of Arp’s work; some of it had been moved to Germany. Once it had been established that it was Arp’s wish that they remain in his atelier, they were returned. Most of the sculptures are now back on view in Clamart. “When I’m asked who picked the sculptures to be on show here, I like to joke and say ‘it was all work of the bailiff.’” Ms. Weil-Seigeot said, smiling. “It’s the bailiff’s collection.”

Only about 2,000 visitors tour the house each year, she said, by necessity. “It’s so intimate, when there are more than 30 people in the house at once, it’s panic!”

Through the windows, up the stairs, you can peer into the artists’ workspace. There you see drawings, collages, words and sculptures. Even in deep winter, Arp’s sculptures reflect the garden’s afternoon light.

“He was very attached to the dialogue between nature and his art,” Ms. Weil-Seigeot said.

Trees tower above the studio with only natural light filtering in. In his definition of Dada, Arp introduces nature:

“Dada is direct like nature and tries to give essential room to every thing. Dada is for infinite meaning and definite media,” he wrote.

His sculptures have the shapes of curvaceous bodies, old sinuous trees or seashells that stayed underwater so long that their surfaces have eroded.

“We try to let visitors approach the artwork freely, we don’t want to impose any cultural filter on them,” Ms. Weil-Seigeot explains, following the artist’s desire to let art speak to the senses.

“One has to create like nature,” Arp once said.

When schoolchildren come for group visits, they are given gloves and are allowed to touch the sculptures in the garden to feel their smooth surface. No words are needed.

“They are the ones who understand it the best,” says Ms. Weil-Seigeot. “Because they have no filter yet.”

The Fondation Arp is at 21 rue des Chataigniers in Clamart. Visiting hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. by appointment. More information at www.fondationarp.org

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'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius Charged with Girlfriend's Murder






Breaking News








UPDATED
02/14/2013 at 06:45 AM EST

Originally published 02/14/2013 at 06:30 AM EST



Oscar Pistorius – the "Blade Runner" who made history last year as the first Paralympian to compete in the able-bodied Olympics – was charged with murder Thursday after his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, was found shot dead inside his home in South Africa.

CNN reports that neighbors reported an incident at the house and a pistol was recovered at the scene, according to police. Early news reports said Steenkamp was planning a Valentine's surprise for Pistorius, 26, but that it went horribly wrong.

Police spokeswoman Denise Beukes said, "There is no other suspect involved" and that there had been "previous incidents" at Pistorius's home.

The suspect (who initially was not named, per South African law) was being cooperative and undergoing blood alcohol and forensic tests, said Beukes, adding that he requested to be brought to court immediately and that an application for bail would be refused.

A spokeswoman for Pistorius declined to comment, said CNN. The athlete's father, Henke, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that his son was "sad at the moment."

Henke Pistorius added, "It will be extremely obnoxious and rude to speculate. I don't know the facts."

Check back: story developing ...

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Morning-after pill use up to 1 in 9 younger women


NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 9 younger women have used the morning-after pill after sex, according to the first government report to focus on emergency contraception since its approval 15 years ago.


The results come from a survey of females ages 15 to 44. Eleven percent of those who'd had sex reported using a morning-after pill. That's up from 4 percent in 2002, only a few years after the pills went on the market and adults still needed a prescription.


The increased popularity is probably because it is easier to get now and because of media coverage of controversial efforts to lift the age limit for over-the-counter sales, experts said. A prescription is still required for those younger than 17 so it is still sold from behind pharmacy counters.


In the study, half the women who used the pills said they did it because they'd had unprotected sex. Most of the rest cited a broken condom or worries that the birth control method they used had failed.


White women and more educated women use it the most, the research showed. That's not surprising, said James Trussell, a Princeton University researcher who's studied the subject.


"I don't think you can go to college in the United States and not know about emergency contraception," said Trussell, who has promoted its use and started a hot line.


One Pennsylvania college even has a vending machine dispensing the pills.


The morning-after pill is basically a high-dose version of birth control pills. It prevents ovulation and needs to be taken within a few days after sex. The morning-after pill is different from the so-called abortion pill, which is designed to terminate a pregnancy.


At least five versions of the morning-after pills are sold in the United States. They cost around $35 to $60 a dose at a pharmacy, depending on the brand.


Since it is sold over-the-counter, insurers generally only pay for it with a doctor's prescription. The new Affordable Care Act promises to cover morning-after pills, meaning no co-pays, but again only with a prescription.


The results of the study were released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's based on in-person interviews of more than 12,000 women in 2006 through 2010. It was the agency's first in-depth report on that issue, said Kimberly Daniels, the study's lead author.


The study also found:


—Among different age groups, women in their early 20s were more likely to have taken a morning-after pill. About 1 in 4 did.


—About 1 in 5 never-married women had taken a morning-after pill, compared to just 1 in 20 married women.


—Of the women who used the pill, 59 percent said they had done it only once, 24 percent said twice, and 17 percent said three or more times.


A woman who uses emergency contraception multiple times "needs to be thinking about a more regular form" of birth control, noted Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that does research on reproductive health.


Also on Thursday, the CDC released a report on overall contraception use. Among its many findings, 99 percent of women who've had sex used some sort of birth control. That includes 82 percent who used birth control pills and 93 percent whose partner had used a condom.


___


Online:


CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/


Emergency contraception info: http://ec.princeton.edu/index.html


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Euro, shares fall as euro zone recession deepens

LONDON (Reuters) - The euro and shares fell on Thursday after data showed the euro zone's two biggest economies shrank even more than expected late last year, throwing a first quarter recovery into doubt.


The German economy contracted 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2012, marking its worst performance since the global financial crisis was raging in 2009. Exports, normally the motor of its economy, did most of the damage.


Overall the euro zone's 17-country economy shrank 0.6 percent, with France's 0.3 percent fall slightly worse than forecast.


Germany is expected to rebound but the figures suggest the bloc overall could remain in recession in the first quarter of this year, despite a jump in market sentiment this year as fears that the currency bloc could fall apart faded.


The data pushed the euro down more than 0.9 percent to a session low $1.3328 by 5:30 a.m. ET.


"It is kind of disappointing that Germany, which had shown so much resilience, is now showing signs of suffering from the debt crisis," said Anita Paluch, sales trader at Gekko Capital Markets.


Stock markets had managed to turn around initial falls but were back down by mid-morning. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.fteu3> was down 0.4 percent at 1162.58. Frankfurt's DAX <.gdaxi> and Milan's <.ftmib> fell 0.9 percent while Paris's CAC-40 <.fchi> and London's FTSE <.ftse> were 0.4 percent lower.


German bonds rose as demand for traditional safe-haven assets returned. Bund futures were 45 ticks higher on the day at 142.51, having extended gains after Italian GDP figures also came in weak.


Italy, which holds parliamentary elections in just over a week, suffered its sixth successive quarterly fall in GDP - this time a sharp 0.9 percent - putting it into a longer recession than it suffered during the crisis of 2008/2009.


YEN STEADIES


Data from the European Central Bank also weighed on confidence as one of its quarterly surveys showed professional forecasters now see no growth in the euro zone this year, having last quarter expected a modest 0.3 percent rise.


The pain is not just in Europe. Japan - under pressure over its aggressive monetary and fiscal policies which are driving down the yen - reported earlier on Thursday that its GDP shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, leaving it in recession and crushing expectations of a modest return to growth.


The yen steadied after swinging wildly this week following a muddled warning on currencies from the G7 nations on Tuesday. It slipped against the dollar but gained on the euro after the Bank of Japan announced, as expected, that it would keep the pace of asset purchases and interest rates unchanged.


The dollar traded at 93.51 yen, up 0.1 percent and off its recent lows of 92.83 yen but still well below a 33-month high of 94.46 set on Monday. The euro was down 0.8 percent at 124.60 yen.


The yen's recent rapid depreciation, after years of sharp appreciation, has drawn some criticism from overseas, with rhetoric heating up before a Group of 20 nations meeting on Friday and Saturday in Moscow.


"Usually the BOJ doing nothing causes a bit of disappointment, but since there are concerns about the flak Japan might get at the G20 this weekend for the weakening yen, standing pat will actually be a relief to the market," said Masayuki Doshida, senior market analyst at Rakuten Securities.


IRAN TENSIONS


Oil prices rose as fresh tensions over Iran's nuclear program revived global supply concerns and offset the GDP data from the euro zone.


Crude futures prices had dropped after the German and French data but changed direction shortly afterwards when the United Nations nuclear watchdog said it had again failed to clinch a deal in talks with Iran on investigating its nuclear program.


Brent crude was up 28 cents to $118.17 by 5:10 a.m. ET, U.S. crude was up 27 cents at $97.28.


"News that the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and Iran failed to reach a deal created a rebound in prices after an initial drop following the GDP data that was weaker than expected," Olivier Jakob, an analyst at Petromatrix, said.


Markets in China and Taiwan remain shut for the Lunar New Year holiday but Hong Kong resumed trading on Thursday.


Metals markets were quieter as a result of the thin Asian trading. Copper hit a 4-month high of $8,346 a tonne on February 4, but has since struggled to find momentum with the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed this week.


Gold regained some strength, steadying at $1,642.50 an ounce as recent losses started to draw buying interest.


(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by David Stamp)



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Letter from India: Executions as a Matter of Opinion







NEW DELHI — When Indian cops take defendants to court, they walk holding hands, as if they were grim lovers. In photographs and video footage of Muhammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, he can be seen being led in this manner by a man in uniform. But the state had no affection for Mr. Afzal.




He was found guilty of helping terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament in 2001, and thus of “waging war against India,” among other serious charges. His was a long and complicated case, with gaping holes in the police investigation; even the Supreme Court, the highest in India, found that he was implicated not by direct evidence, but by a clutch of circumstances that pointed to his involvement.


Though the courts found Mr. Afzal to be complicit in the attack on Parliament, it remains unclear just how significant his role in the plot was.


Last Saturday morning, he was hanged in secrecy in the Tihar jail in New Delhi. According to the newspaper The Hindu, the 43-year-old was informed of his fate on the morning of the hanging, and after regaining his composure he wrote a letter to his wife and son, which he handed to a jail official as he emerged from his cell for the short walk to the gallows.


The hanging of Mr. Afzal, which surprised the nation and shocked his family, led to expressions of joy from politicians of various parties, as well as ordinary citizens. The world that Mr. Afzal was found unfit to live in was also a world that had the capacity to celebrate a human death. But there were also many who were disgusted, and who protested — and not merely in the Kashmir Valley, Mr. Afzal’s birthplace, where a curfew was imposed — because the execution has raised a number of deep concerns. Taken together, they point to a disturbing question: Is the Indian justice system competent, consistent and fair enough to grant the state the moral authority to terminate a human life?


On Dec. 13, 2001, five armed men in a car drove into the outer fringes of the Parliament compound and opened fire, killing eight security personnel and a civilian. All five attackers, about whom no substantial information has been made public, were soon killed.


According to the police, a trail led from the dead militants to Mr. Afzal and three others — two of whom were also sentenced to death by lower courts, before the Supreme Court, insufficiently impressed by the evidence, overturned one conviction and commuted the other man’s sentence to 10 years.


But the Supreme Court upheld Mr. Afzal’s death sentence, making an observation that would be extraordinary in any mature democracy: “The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation, and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.”


The question is not whether the esteemed court is competent to gauge the “collective conscience of the society” but whether that conscience, whatever it might be, should influence the court’s judgment in the first place. And if it should, then it is hard to overlook a huge body of educated, patriotic and law-abiding Indians who have been saying through all available channels that their “conscience” will be satisfied only if their nation ends the practice of executing people.


Also, there is the matter of inconsistency. There are people who have been sentenced to death for assassinations or for waging war against the state who have yet to be hanged, even though they were sentenced long before Mr. Afzal was. There is no logic that explains why one man in India must hang before another man. The state can, through the sheer force of technicalities, prolong the life of a person on death row, while in a less fortunate person’s case using its discretion to rush through the formalities. In this way, political calculations have been allowed to seep into what should be a purely judicial process.


Indian courts are supposed to impose the death penalty only in the “rarest of rare” cases. But this qualifier has proved to be highly subjective. Recently, the Supreme Court spared the life of a man who had killed his wife and daughter while out on parole; he had been in prison for raping that daughter when she was a minor. The court believed he could be reformed. A few days later, another Supreme Court bench sentenced a man to death for the murder of a 7-year-old boy, having taken into account the fact that the boy was his parents’ “only male child.”


There is outrage, of course, over the implication that those parents’ anguish would have been less, and therefore the crime less heinous, if the child had been a girl.


But there are times, it appears, when the Indian justice system does not wish to satisfy “the collective conscience of the society.”


Manu Joseph is editor of the Indian newsweekly Open and author of the novel “The Illicit Happiness of Other People.”


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Study questions kidney cancer treatment in elderly


In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.


Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk of developing heart problems or dying of other causes, doctors found.


After five years, 24 percent of those who had surgery had died, compared to only 13 percent of those who chose monitoring. Just 3 percent of people in each group died of kidney cancer.


The study only involved people 66 and older, but half of all kidney cancers occur in this age group. Younger people with longer life expectancies should still be offered surgery, doctors stressed.


The study also was observational — not an experiment where some people were given surgery and others were monitored, so it cannot prove which approach is best. Yet it offers a real-world look at how more than 7,000 Medicare patients with kidney tumors fared. Surgery is the standard treatment now.


"I think it should change care" and that older patients should be told "that they don't necessarily need to have the kidney tumor removed," said Dr. William Huang of New York University Langone Medical Center. "If the treatment doesn't improve cancer outcomes, then we should consider leaving them alone."


He led the study and will give results at a medical meeting in Orlando, Fla., later this week. The research was discussed Tuesday in a telephone news conference sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and two other cancer groups.


In the United States, about 65,000 new cases of kidney cancer and 13,700 deaths from the disease are expected this year. Two-thirds of cases are diagnosed at the local stage, when five-year survival is more than 90 percent.


However, most kidney tumors these days are found not because they cause symptoms, but are spotted by accident when people are having an X-ray or other imaging test for something else, like back trouble or chest pain.


Cancer experts increasingly question the need to treat certain slow-growing cancers that are not causing symptoms — prostate cancer in particular. Researchers wanted to know how life-threatening small kidney tumors were, especially in older people most likely to suffer complications from surgery.


They used federal cancer registries and Medicare records from 2000 to 2007 to find 8,317 people 66 and older with kidney tumors less than 1.5 inches wide.


Cancer was confirmed in 7,148 of them. About three-quarters of them had surgery and the rest chose to be monitored with periodic imaging tests.


After five years, 1,536 had died, including 191 of kidney cancer. For every 100 patients who chose monitoring, 11 more were alive at the five-year mark compared to the surgery group. Only 6 percent of those who chose monitoring eventually had surgery.


Furthermore, 27 percent of the surgery group but only 13 percent of the monitoring group developed a cardiovascular problem such as a heart attack, heart disease or stroke. These problems were more likely if doctors removed the entire kidney instead of just a part of it.


The results may help doctors persuade more patients to give monitoring a chance, said a cancer specialist with no role in the research, Dr. Bruce Roth of Washington University in St. Louis.


Some patients with any abnormality "can't sleep at night until something's done about it," he said. Doctors need to say, "We're not sticking our head in the sand, we're going to follow this" and can operate if it gets worse.


One of Huang's patients — 81-year-old Rhona Landorf, who lives in New York City — needed little persuasion.


"I was very happy not to have to be operated on," she said. "He said it's very slow growing and that having an operation would be worse for me than the cancer."


Landorf said her father had been a doctor, and she trusts her doctors' advice. Does she think about her tumor? "Not at all," she said.


___


Online:


Kidney cancer info: http://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/kidney-cancer


and http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/kidney


Study: http://gucasym.org


___


Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


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Stock futures edge higher, Deere jumps after outlook


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday, suggesting the market would continue a recent advance that lifted benchmark indexes to multi-year highs.


While the long-term trend in markets should remain positive, some investors may take profit at current levels, analysts said, with the S&P near its highest since November 2007. Recent daily moves have been small and trading volume light as investors search for fresh impetus to drive stocks higher.


Equities have been strong performers of late, buoyed largely by healthy growth in corporate earnings, with the S&P 500 gaining 6.5 percent so far this year. The Dow is about 1 percent from an all-time intraday high, reached in October 2007.


"This is a market that refuses to go down, and the trend suggests that we'll not only hit a new high on the Dow, but move well beyond it," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.


Sarhan noted that the S&P 500 was well over its 50-day moving average of 1,460.92, which he said was a sign the market was overbought.


"A light-volume pullback should be expected and embraced at these levels," he said.


Industrial and construction shares will be in focus a day after President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, during which he called for a $50 billion spending plan to create jobs by rebuilding degraded roads and bridges. He also backed higher taxes for the wealthy.


Retail sales data for January is scheduled for release at 8:30 a.m. ET and are seen up 0.1 percent as consumer paychecks shrank following a recent tax increase. Sales rose 0.5 percent in December.


Investors have cheered strength in recent company results, even as economic data, including recent reads on gross domestic product, have indicated some weakness.


Deere & Co jumped 2.1 percent to $95.99 in premarket trading after the farm equipment maker reported results and raised its full-year profit outlook.


S&P 500 futures rose 2.9 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 19 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 7.25 points.


Comcast Corp agreed late Tuesday to buy General Electric Co's remaining 49 percent stake in NBC Universal for $16.7 billion. Comcast jumped 8 percent to $42.10 in premarket trading while Dow component GE was up 3.2 percent to $23.31.


Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said Tuesday the company's search partnership with Microsoft Corp was not delivering the market share gains or the revenue boost that it should.


Companies scheduled to report quarterly results on Wednesday include MetLife Inc , Applied Materials and Whole Foods Market .


According to the latest Thomson Reuters data, of 353 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results, 70.3 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters.


Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are estimated to have risen 5.3 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.


Also in economic news, business inventories are seen rising 0.3 percent in December, a repeat of the November increase. The data is due at 10:00 a.m. ET


Stocks closed modestly higher Tuesday as investors awaited President Barack Obama's State of the Union address.


(Editing by Bernadette Baum)



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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 12

NEWS North Korea appeared to conduct its third, and probably largest, nuclear test on Tuesday, according to American and Asian officials, posing a new challenge for the Obama administration in its effort to keep the country from becoming a full-fledged nuclear power. David E. Sanger reports from Washington, and Choe Sang-hun from Seoul.

Pope Benedict XVI’s surprise announcement on Monday that he will resign on Feb. 28 sets the stage for a succession battle that is likely to determine the future course of a church troubled by scandal and declining faith in its traditional strongholds around the world. Rachel Donadio and Elisabetta Povoledo report from Vatican City.

Flying is becoming safer: It will be four years on Tuesday since the last fatal crash in the United States, a record unmatched since propeller planes gave way to the jet more than half a century ago. Jad Mouawad and Christopher Drew report.

Thousands of Afghans have built homes and careers on an influx of foreign money and are fearful that their lives could implode as Western forces disappear. Graham Bowley reports from Kabul.

There are many ways of striking it rich in Brazil, but one strategy may come as a particular surprise in today’s economic climate: securing a government job. Simon Romero reports from São Paulo.

Critics in France say a proposal to add school classes on Wednesdays fails to address concerns that French students are trailing those of other European countries. Nicola Clark reports from Paris.

Concern over the euro moved to the forefront Monday as finance ministers of the countries using the currency held their monthly meeting. But this time, with the European Union’s recession continuing, the topic was the strength of the euro rather than its many weaknesses. James Kanter reports from Brussels.

The troubled Olkiluoto 3 nuclear plant in Finland will probably not start operating before 2016, the power utility behind the plant said Monday, another delay to a project that is already four years overdue. David Jolly reports.

FASHION As the Metropolitan Museum of Art announces “Punk: Chaos to Couture,” the story fits neatly with the winter 2013 season. Suzy Menkes writes from New York.

ARTS “No,” the Chilean entry in this year’s foreign-film race of the Academy Awards, has received praise but also criticism in its home nation. Larry Rohter reports.

SPORTS Women tennis players, with a few exceptions, have not transitioned successfully from the top of the college game to the top levels of the WTA Tour. Ben Rothenberg reports from Charlottesville, Virginia.

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